Politicians Category
Politicans and world leaders making news and in the news, and spouting hot air
Julia Gillard’s creepy good luck message to tabloid The Sydney Morning Herald
CREEPING, much? The relationship between the powerful and the media them is tight in Australia. The country’s PM Julia Gillard has a few words to say on the new tabloid-sized The Sydney Morning Herald:
For generations, for the people of Sydney and beyond, the thud of The Sydney Morning Herald on the doorstep has been a welcome sound.
The Herald, first published in 1831, now stands as the longest continuously published newspaper in the southern hemisphere. So old and trusted is this newspaper that it is affectionately known as ”Granny”, an old insult that became a lasting badge of honour and the name of the paper’s most loved column: Column 8.
The Herald’s remarkable pioneer John Fairfax declared he would publish his newspaper ”upon principles of candour, honesty and honour” with ”no wish to mislead; no interest to gratify by unsparing abuse or indiscriminate approbation”.
This is a lofty aim and a continuing ambition for the new Herald.
As a free society we must always value a free press, and that goes for politicians, too. I’ve received my fair share of criticism from the Herald, as has my party. But I have never doubted that the value of the debates the Herald starts and the debates it reports on…
With this new compact format, the delicate task of unfolding those huge broadsheet pages and the occasional wrestle with them will become a memory. But the Herald will endure.
It is my sincere hope that whatever its format, The Sydney Morning Herald will remain a great newspaper of record, which repays the faith of its readers with quality, integrity and a recognition that with great power also comes great responsibility.
I warmly wish the Herald every success in its new compact edition.
Julia Gillard is the Prime Minister of Australia.
Talking truth to power.
Posted: 11th, March 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
Senator Chuck Schumer and Paris Hilton are stuck in a lift
IF it works for Paris Hilton and Premier League footballers (although they’ve moved on to massive headphones), it’ll do for Senator Chuck Schumer, who has taken to holding imaginary conversations to dodge the media:
Politico says Schumer (D-N.Y.) “is well known for pulling a flip phone out of his pocket and pretending to hold a conversation.”
“I try to teach my colleagues this excellent technique. I say, ‘You want to avoid these pesky reporters, talk on your cellphone.’”
Talks softly and carry a big mobile. Or make talking to yourself your own:
Posted: 10th, March 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
Hugo Chavez funeral photos: a charismatic bigot who knew his crowd
HUGO Chávez has been lying in state in an open casket in Caracas. The poor looked on and in. Many wept. Elsewhere many wondered what next for the Axis of Diesel, the bond that links Venezuela to Iran, Cuba and Syria. Chavez expressed solidarity with Robert Mugabe, Colonel Gaddafi and President Assad. If you don’t like America – and America is not keen on you – Chavez was an ally-in-waiting. And he had charisma. In 2005, officials from Venezuela signed a deal to send cheap heating oil to the poor of Massachusetts. Local congressman William Delahunt called the deal “an expression of humanitarianism at its very best”. We thought America would get the oil, spin it on the money markets and sell it on at massive profit. It didn’t. Sure, Chavez was a bigot, a racist and violent, but he knew himself and he knew his crowd…
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Venezuela's Vice President Nicolas Maduro, center, raises his fist next to Bolivia's President Evo Morales, center left, as they walk along the coffin containing the remains of President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Maduro will continue to run Venezuela as interim president and be the governing socialists' candidate in an election to be called within 30 days. Seven days of mourning were declared, all schools were suspended for the week and friendly heads of state were expected for an elaborate funeral Friday.(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Posted: 9th, March 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
Gun drawn in Jordan’s parliament (Video)
SCRAPS in overseas parliaments are much, much better than the ones we have in England. You see politicians knocking each other out, jumping on desks and shouting ’til their veins burst. In the Commons, you just get a bunch of posh blokes posing at each other and seeing who can piss the highest.
Over in Jordan, parliament had to be stopped when a ruckus broke out MPs yesterday.
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Posted: 8th, March 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
Paul Rand drones on for 13 hours to stop King Obama
THE homepage of the BBC website has no mention of Republican US senator Paul Rand’s momentous filibuster. It’s buried on the Us section. Rand spoke for 13 hours to delay the nomination of White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan to the top job at the CIA. Questions abound about the possible use of drones against Americans. Using drones to fire on Americans would go against the sixth amendment – an American citizen’s right to a fair trial.
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Posted: 7th, March 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
Sock puppets: How the European Union spends your money
A GREAT little report out from the IEA today. No, I’m not saying so because I wrote it: I didn’t. But it shows quite how the EU spends some of that vast river of cash we send it each year.
- Citizens have not been consulted directly, however. Instead they have been ventriloquised through ‘sock puppet’ charities, think tanks and other ‘civil society’ groups which have been hand-picked and financed by the European Commission (EC). These organisations typically lobby for closer European integration, bigger EU budgets and more EU regulation.
- The composition of ‘civil society’ at the EU level is largely dictated by which groups the Commission chooses to fund. There has been a bias towards centre-left organisations, with a particular emphasis on those promoting policies that are unpopular with the public, such as increasing foreign aid, restricting lifestyle freedoms and further centralising power within EU institutions.
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Posted: 7th, March 2013 | In: Money, Politicians | Comment
King Barack Obama would stomp on the 6th amendment
IS Barack Obama a dictator? No, of course he isn’t. But would he like to be one? As he said:
“I’m the president of the United States, I’m not the emperor of the United States.”
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Posted: 6th, March 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
Rest In Power, Comandante! Thoughts on the death of Hugo Chavez
CANCER gave Venezuela a bloodless coup when it claimed the life of Hugo Chavez, the country’s President.
Sean Penn liked him:
“Today the people of the United States lost a friend it never knew it had. And poor people around the world lost a champion. I lost a friend I was blessed to have. My thoughts are with the family of President Chavez and the people of Venezuela. Venezuela and its revolution will endure under the proven leadership of Vice President Maduro.”
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Posted: 6th, March 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment (1)
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has died, presumed poisoned by parrot
VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chávez has died. He had cancer. Or as Vice President Nicolas Maduro put it, he had poison, administered by “enemies of the fatherland”. He’s waiting for “scientific proof” that Mr Chávez was poisoned.
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Posted: 5th, March 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
North Korea welcomes a little Un: Ri Sol Ju gives birth to future despot
REJOICE! North Korea has new future leader for its hereditary Communist dictatorship. Kim Jong Un’s wife, Ri Sol Ju, has given birth to a baby. Yep, he is the little un.
Reports are that the child has already been seen banging his fists on table, screaming, demanding and being utterly unreasonble. Says one insider: “He has the makings of a top notch despot.”
Posted: 5th, March 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
Julia Gillard’s jet-powered glasses
AUSTRALIA’s carbon tax forces companies to pay a (£15; $24) levy for every tonne of greenhouse gases they produce. Julia Gillard’s government is keen to create a clean energy economy. The tax will hit airlines. But, thankfully, Gillard is here to help them, too. Her glasses are travelling at speed:
Albert Park optical stylist Sue Feldy has been inundated with phone calls after she was exposed as the woman behind Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s new glasses …
Mrs Feldy was sworn to secrecy over her role in shaping Ms Gillard’s new look, but gained official permission to speak after being contacted by a radio station.
“I think I knew it would cause a bit of a stir,” Mrs Feldy said. “We have to keep getting them in, the stockist can’t keep up!”
Mrs Feldy flew to Canberra with 100 pairs for Ms Gillard to browse.
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Posted: 27th, February 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
Prime Minister gets a good look at presenter’s vagina (video)
WHAT is a person supposed to do when someone is flashing their genitals around eh? Do you politely look away, or do you shriek and point? What most of us would do is have a little peak and try and be as dignified as possible when faced with someone’s nether-regions.
And that is exactly what Serbia’s prime minister did when he was faced with a TV interview, in which the host wasn’t wearing any knickers.
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Posted: 26th, February 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
The real problem after the Italian election: tell all those creditors to go screw
WELL, you can call it a problem if you like, personally I’d call it a godsend. But there are two things which should be making the European Union federast types very nervous right now. The first is that while neither of them actually won the election the winners in terms of doing really well were Berlusconi and Beppe Grillo. One’s a comedian and the other isn’t a billionaire on trial for under-aged whoring. But between the two of them this is true:
The projected results showed more than half of Italians had voted for the anti-euro platforms of Berlusconi and Grillo.
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Posted: 26th, February 2013 | In: Money, Politicians | Comment
Margaret Thatcher’s battle bus sells for £17,000 (photos)
MARGARET Thatcher’s 28-tonne ‘battle bus’ used for her Northern Ireland tour has sold for £16,940 at auction. The bus weighs 38 tons, seats 32 passengers and can survice a 7.62 bullet / handbag-encased brick.
Posted: 23rd, February 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
Mayor balanced strawberry on manhood in unwelcome photo
TO South Africa, where Jonas White, mayor of Cederberg municipality, is accused of sending unseemly photographs to his deputy, Lorna Scheepers. The pick of the bunch is an alleged shot of his erect penis coasted in cream and decorated with a strawberry.
Impressive.
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Posted: 22nd, February 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
George Galloway wasn’t misled into speaking to Eylon Aslan-Levy: he just never did his research
THEY’RE laughing at your, George Galloway. They’re laughing at you.
At Christ Church College’s Blue Boar lecture theatre at Oxford University, the Respect party MP tells 21-year-old student Eylon Aslan-Levy: “I don’t debate with Israelis.”
Mr Galloway had already given his speech. For ten minutes he gave his viewpoint.
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Posted: 21st, February 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment (1)
Joe Biden fail: ‘Fire a shotgun twice into the air to save yourself from attack’
GUNS in America: Joe Biden seems confused. At an event hosted by Parents Magazine,Biden was asked if banning assault guns would not just mean villains had the advantage, after all if they’re breaking the law they might have an illegal weapons. He answered:
“If you want to protect yourself, get a double barrel shotgun. You don’t need an AR-15.”
Guns are good, says Joe. But he’ll choose which ones you can use.
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Posted: 20th, February 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
Man jailed for commenting on Robert Mugabe’s genitals
TO Zimbabwe, where Clemence Zikhali has been convicted of making derogatory remarks about Mugabe’s private parts.
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Posted: 15th, February 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
How Ted Nugent dodged the draft: he ‘bleeds red, white, blue and liberty’ because others do the fighting
TED Nugent is neither dead nor jailed. He makes the pledge then he break the pledge. The self-styled black Jew is a big fan of the National Rifle Association. He is all for protecting hard-won American freedoms. Nugent is a board member of the NRA. The 64-year-old rocker who once told the president to “suck on my machine gun”. Nugent went along to Obama’s State of the Unions address on Tuesday evening.
In a commercial for his Discovery Channel television show, Ted Nugent’s Gun Country, the man of liberty declared:
“I bleed red, white, blue and liberty. And nothing says liberty more than the right to bear arms. Guns built this country and good men with guns made it the American dream. This is a look into the world of guns and America’s obsession with guns through the eyes of the biggest gun nut of all: me.”
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Posted: 13th, February 2013 | In: Celebrities, Politicians | Comment (1)
Bribes and gifts to China’s officials account for 50% of luxury watch sales
WHO buys those luxury goods in China. No, not the knock off tut. The real deals. Osnos at the New Yorker
[T]he luxury watch business enjoyed a banner year in 2011, growing forty per cent. But then China’s anti-corruption campaign began, and by September, Bo Xilai was in handcuffs, and watch exports to China suffered a devastating blow—down 27.5 per cent compared to a year earlier, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. ChinaDaily quoted an industry consultant saying the anti-corruption drive “hurts the luxury watch business a lot.”
It’s not just watches. In 2009, the industry experts estimated that gifts to government officials made up nearly fifty per cent of all of China’s luxury sales.
Posted: 12th, February 2013 | In: Politicians, The Consumer | Comment
Labour and LibDem peers gang up to amend the Defamation Bill: Psmith Journalist shines light on our hideous libel laws
LIBEL laws in the UK are ridiculous. They’ve been so for eons. In is work Psmith Journalist, P. G. Wodehouse has Comrade Psmith note:
In the first place, we know that there must be some one at the bottom of the business. Secondly, as there appears to be no law of libel whatsoever in this great and free country, we shall be enabled to haul up our slacks with a considerable absence of restraint…
“You may leave it to me, Comrade Windsor. I am no hardened old journalist, I fear, but I have certain qualifications for the post. A young man once called at the office of a certain newspaper, and asked for a job. ‘Have you any special line?’ asked the editor. ‘Yes,’ said the bright lad, ‘I am rather good at invective.’ ‘Any special kind of invective?’ queried the man up top. ‘No,’ replied our hero, ‘just general invective.’ Such is my own case, Comrade Windsor. I am a very fair purveyor of good, general invective… Taking full advantage of the benevolent laws of this country governing libel, I fancy I will produce a screed which will make this anonymous lessee feel as if he had inadvertently seated himself upon a tin-tack…”
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Posted: 9th, February 2013 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment
Mike Freer is a hero of the free
MIKE Freer is Conservative member for Finchley and Golders Green. He gets it. He understands that debating gay marriage and gay rights is an ugly business. The suits debate your freedoms, what is it you are allowed to do with your life. Who gave them the right? Who put them in charge of right and wrong?
Who would chose to be gay – and some still call it a lifestyle choice – and have your life become a matter of public debate? Who would want to be set apart as a special case, something different and questionable?
Vote now for equality. The idea that you have to even vote for it is abhorrent:
Posted: 8th, February 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
Those Chris Huhne-Vicky Pryce Tapes – a reality TV show beckons
CHRIS Huhne and Vicky Pryce are on the phone. The text messages with his son are over here. The Huhne family need to regroup and agree to do a reality TV show:
Posted: 7th, February 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
David Beckham, Jimmy Savile, Ronnie Irani, Maggie Thatcher and Jeffrey Archer: the five biggest charity boasters
THEY do a lot of work for charity, and they DO like to mention it!
When it comes to self-promotion you have to hand it to him. Transfer deadline day arrives and instead of talking about a 22-year-old Brazilian or Portuguese hotshot on his way to Chelsea or Manchester to City, the media is frothing with excitement over a 37-year-old former international whose main purpose these days is to sell merchandise with his name on.
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Posted: 7th, February 2013 | In: Celebrities, Flashback, Key Posts, Politicians, Sports | Comment
