Give A Man A Newspaper, and he can Overthrow Governments – by Penny Carter

We have all seen this quote:

But now, there is this:

text of images: Give a man a gun, he can rob a bank.
Give a man a bank, he can rob the world.

Give a man a newspaper and he can overthrow governments.

While the rest of us wait 4 years to cast our ballots, to choose governments, to have our say in democracy; the rich and powerful play by different rules.

They print front page headlines and entire governments can change. One person – One vote is meaningless when a headline in a neo-conservative newspaper can have more influence over the way the government runs, than every single voter who casts their ballot on election day.

Right now, Murdoch wants Labor and the Greens out of power, and their grubby headlines and their grubby puppets (for example Abbott’s homophobic innuendo against Slipper based on nothing more concrete than allegations) will say anything to make that happen.

News Limited will not stop until Tony Abbott is Prime Minister. News Ltd writers say that democracy is not sustainable, and they prove that every day, when a foreign billionaire (R Murdoch) has more power than every voting Australian.

 

Further reading: Rupert Murdoch’s war on Democracy… it is ‘not sustainable’ and interferes with his ability to make money

Ah, is that what left-wing bias on the ABC means?

Is it no surprise that Latika Bourkes’ nickname is LIBtika. Harsh or not depends on your perspective.

Imagine the dynamics within caucus if Julia Gillard hasn’t flushed out Kevin Rudd in March (and then carpet bombed him c/o Roxon+Swan et al)

And there we have it, ABC’s raison d’être, it is all about the dynamics, carpet-bombing, fireworks – the media is pushing leadership challenges because it gives lazy political journalists something to do. Speculation and opinion have replaced research and facts.

At least, it wasn’t Tony Abbott says

 

They rewrite history, and there is no one to stop them. Apparently Stalin was pretty good at rewriting history, to remove enemies or add himself. Maybe that is what critics mean by ABC has a left-wing bias, the Stalinisation of the news.

Did I just hear ABC news refer to @PeterSlipperMP as a ‘Labor MP’?

Did they? Who knows, probably, that kind of fact-checking is beyond the reach of most ABC reporters these days.
By the way, ABC, Slipper is NOT a Labor MP, no matter how hard you hope and wish it to be so.

 

These people are playing games with our future – because when you have a 24-hour news cycle something has to fill the airwaves.

When they don’t have actual news to report, or rumours to speculate on, or opinions to bore us to death with, they just simple sit around talking to each other.

ABC news. ABC reporters interviewing ABC reporters is not news. Nor is it cutting edge, groovy or interesting. Please stop it.

There you have it, ABC, you are not groovy. A sentiment that many former ABC viewers would whole-heartedly agree with.

 

But have no fear, all that left-wing bias is more than balanced by the Murdoch media.

The Daily Telegraph’s an unapologetic liar that creates ‘news’ yet we allow it to try manipulate regime change by publication? #auspol

Murdoch, and his near saturation levels of ownership, does not seem to affect politics any, because if there is one that Murdoch media is, it’s fair and balance. You will only get truth, justice and the American way if you read one his publications.

 

All this surveying people about trusting leaders, how about asking about trusting media commentary, so-called analysis & “reporting”

Many people don’t know their local politicians any more, so they only way they know them or their parties is through the media. When all the media in this country is pushing a Liberal-party, Election-now, Abbott-for-PM agenda, it is presenting a distorted view of reality. Of course, right-wing voters are happy with that distortion, it reflects their biases, makes them feel comfortable that they are right, but it is not a healthy democracy.

Tony Abbott Must Go – and here is why

Edited to add: 2 May 2012, clearly those people making death threats against the author of this post and owners of this blog are following a link. And not reading any other post. If you did, you would see that all the claims made in this post are backed up with links in other post, so before you start threatening people, I would suggest you click on a few other posts or search for “Abbott” and there you would will see more than enough references for all claims.
And for the genius who said Speedos are a good Aussie company, I don’t believe Speedos are mentioned in this post, and anyway, they are owned by UK’s Pentland Group plc.

There is one theory that Tony Abbott is so unlikeable, even among Right-wing voters, that the longer he stays around the more damage he does to the Liberal-National brand.

There is another theory that Tony Abbott is being used as an attack dog, he might not end up Prime Minister, but he is doing enough damage that with his every attack (with a lot of help from the Murdoch media and #TheirABC), that one day he will achieve his wish of another election.

However, it is now becoming clear that Tony Abbott and his doom-and-gloom, scare mongering is damaging not just the Labor party, but the Australian economy and Australian society.

 

Abbott is a bully, a misogynist who demeans women at every opportunity and has done so since he was a child, he is xenophobic and prays on peoples fears to incite even more xenophobia and racism in the community.

Abbott uses violent language and vaguely implied threats of violence then says he was only joking or apologises if the media reacts, he is economically incompetent, ethically and morally bankrupt, shows little or no empathy towards anyone, acts like every Australian voter was put on this earth to support him, his lifestyle and career desires.

He has no understanding about the lives of ordinary Australians and anyone who isn’t a white, christian, North Shore Liberal is beneath his contempt. He has a callous disregard for the lives and deaths of the people who sacrifice everything, the death of a soldier in Afghanistan, and according to Tony, well shit happens.

Abbott treats democracy like it is a joke, has little understanding of the Westminster system, cannot balance a budget, does not care about the law, especially when it comes to presumption of innocence, is a Murdoch lackey who will not govern in the best interest of all-Australians, but instead will govern in the best interests of Mining Magnates, faceless billionaires, his mates, the IPA, and Rupert Murdoch, in other words he (appears to act like he) is a puppet, and does not care whose life he ruins as long as the person pulling the strings makes more money, by sucking dry ordinary, hard-working, taxpayers.

This man is dangerous. This man must never be allowed near the Lodge. This man must never be given the chance to be Prime Minister.

 

 

responsibility for this post is @redglitterx
and allegedly, if it is in any way libellous, well, I was only joking, it was a turn of phrase, taken out of context

Political Debate in Australia: Advocating More Breivik and Less Unions

Last nights 4corners, on the ABC was an emotional story about the families destroyed by Anders Behring Breivik, a rich, white, right-wing, christian, John Howard quoting mass-murdering terrorist. A man who killed 77 people, most of the children, many of them of the left.

What is the right-wing response to something like that: Great Shame it didn’t happen here.

No matter what you think of the Left, or unions, or children, or Labor voters – expressing regret that 69 children weren’t slaughtered by a John Howard, Cardinal Pell quoting terrorist, shows that this country has a long way to go before we can say we have grown up.

Paul Howes, National Secretary of the A.W.Union tweeted:
Thinking back to Young Labor camps my wife, friends & I used to go to and how easily something like this could happen here #4corners

Ross, husband and father responded:
@howespaul Great shame that it didn’t.

The classy response from Paul Howes, was not anger or insults:
This is the most offensive tweet I’ve ever had. Thanks @ross_at_home for reminding us of the evil that lurks here too.

 

Also, with an Opposition Leader in this country that talks about targets on the forehead of the Prime Minister (The voters of Queensland, they won’t miss… this Prime Minister [Gillard] and this Leader of the House [Albanese] have got targets on their foreheads., there is a great possibility that one day, something like this could happen here.

If you don’t like the election result, you wait and let the voters decide, you do not advocate or condone mass murder, like Tony Abbott and Ross seem to be doing.

Nicola Roxon calling it like it is: Tony Abbott is leading a lynch mob

Paul Bongiorno, a reporter for Channel 10, yesterday gave us Nicola Roxon’s response to what is happening with the Peter Slipper allegations:

text of image: @PaulBongiorno Nicola Roxon says Tony Abbott is leading a lynch mob not the Liberal party.

The demands from Tony Abbott to bring on the election when he has neither policies or costings, show the true reason for the attacks on Peter Slipper.

This is about bringing down the democratically elected government, and Slipper is collateral damage.

Expect the attacks, the nastiness, the spite to get more vicious, and ramped up as the weeks go on, because this current Opposition are so desperate for an election, they won’t stop until they get one.

The Attack On Slipper is Not About Justice, It is An Attempt at Regime Change

For Tony Abbott the next 10 weeks are the most important 10 weeks of his career.

It will be all our war on our nation, via a compliant media, on anyone who stands between him and an early election.

All one has to do is see how many times Abbott bleats bring on the election to see what he is trying to do. After July, when the carbon pricing kicks in, and the average voter realises that it is not the scary monster that Abbott has made it out to be, there goes his ammunition against a competition, achieving, nation-building government.

Abbott’s party lost to a Rudd-led Labor party in 2007, his party lost in 2010, when Labor with Greens and Independent-support formed government, which Abbott claims makes it illegitimate.

Sure, let’s agree any party that can’t govern in its own right is illegitimate, go for it Liberals, no, you can have National support. Oh, that’s okay is it? Then let’s end with the illegitimate talk, because this is how the Westminster system works, and if you get to your age Tony and not understand that, you’re either a liar or an idiot.

Getting back to the attack on Slipper, was this a set-up? Consider the age of the alleged incident, this would suggest that Tony had this tucked away in his dirt file waiting for the right moment.

Dirt files are standard operating procedure for the Liberal Party – Pauline Hanson knows what it is like to be on the wrong end of an Abbott vendetta. Hanson went to prison on charges that were later quashed.

media criticism was directed at political interference by leading federal Liberal politician Tony Abbott, who had arranged for the lawyers who instituted the earlier, Sharples action to act on a largely pro bono basis. Investigations by the ABC’s Four Corners programme showed that Abbott had financed this action in an effort to derail the One Nation party.
source: Fraud conviction and acquittal

So, when the media start parroting Tony Abbott that this move against Slipper is about getting justice, people in the media should ask: why the Liberal Party waited nearly a decade before doing anything?

After 20 years and 7 LNP preselections why is Slipper’s character an issue only when he is no longer a member of the LNP?

Tony Abbott is demanding the Labor party act on rumours, yet, says that the Liberal party kept endorsing Slipper as a Liberal candidate because they were only rumours.

If you think this is about justice, think again, this is one more attempt by Tony Abbott to subvert democracy by forcing an election.

Slipper himself knew something was coming, and said so on 20 March: Sources say Steve Lewis/News Ltd plan 2 run story based on untruths from certain LNP members&volunteers who worked on my last LNP campaign Source: @PeterSlipperMP

Steve Lewis, who was behind the Slipper story, says the claims are untested, clearly News Limited gave up on the check with two sources thing a long time ago.

Do we know what really happened? Do we need to know? Isn’t this why we have courts in this country, they haven’t yet been replaced by Murdoch media, so let’s use them while we still have them.

In the meantime, accusations, homophobia, innuendo, leaks, suspicion, rumours, senior sources… sound familiar? Yes, because this is how the Rudd versus Gillard non-event evolved. So many unnamed anonymous sources it is almost like they are being mass produced in a factory some place.

Did anyone really think the political reporters in this country would be bored when the Labor leadership manufactured-crisis ended? They simply changed targets.

Yet, the spin-cycle continues: Allegations in Murdoch media; government forced to defend itself; Abbott, with increasing shrillness each time, says Labor in crisis, bring on the election. It is becoming so predictable, it is boring.

If, and when, these allegations turn out to be false, whether against Slipper, or whoever the Liberals next have in their sights, who will remember the findings of innocence. Throw enough mud and some of it sticks, and the impressions created in the media will last long after the original stories fade.

Until July rolls around, we can expect more of the same in a relentless barrage to force an election. If that happens, we can all mourn democracy, because a foreign billionaire would have bought it and killed it.

We voted, Tony, you lost, get over it.

 

For further reading on this topic:

James Ashby Sues; The Implications

Guilty Till Proven Innocent

Are We On A Slippery Slope, by Tracey Spicer for the Hoopla

Never Over-Estimate the Intelligence of An Abbott-supporter (NSFW)

I have spray painted out the name of the very famous person referred to in this tweet, but that should be worthy of a libel case.

Stay Classy, Right Wing Trolls, your intelligence is underwhelming.

Tony Abbott charged with Indecent Assault – He Must Step Down

With the Liberal Party, and their puppet masters at News Limited baying for the blood of Peter Slipper, it is time to take a second look at the past of the man calling for Slipper to step down – Tony Abbott and his not so innocent past.

The allegations against Slipper – and that is all they are at this stage, allegations – are 9 years old. This is not on the head of PM Gillard. If there was a crime, it happened while Peter Slipper was a member of the Liberal Party, and while he continued to get endorsement election after election.

If News Limited can bring up allegations that are 9 years old, in an attempt to bring down the government, let us look at an incident that is more recent than that.

This story from Michelle Grattan in the Sun-Herald in 2004 Abbott: I was charged with indecent assault, shows that these allegations against Slipper are not about Justice, it is a political witch hunt, by the Murdoch media in a last ditch attempt to force an election before the carbon pricing comes in, in July.

Does anyone think that these allegations would have seen the light of day if Slipper was still a voting member of the Liberal Party?

In his past, Tony Abbott was charged with indecent assault after groping a female activist on the upper part of her leg, and between her legs, while she was on stage in front of an audience of over 200 people debating student unions.

Was this an attempt to humiliate a woman who dared to stand up for something she believed in?

In 2004 Abbott dismissed this as a long time ago… It’s part of the Abbott story – it is not part of the Abbott present – well so what? Allegations against Slipper are also a long time ago, and were covered up by the Liberal party – which surely equals accessory after the fact (or whatever the crime is, I am not a lawyer).

What reason did Abbott give for this shockingly indecent assault on a woman in public? She spoke of him, as Tony Abbott says in a highly critical way, calling me… right wing. So someone speaks badly of Tony Abbott and he thinks a justified response is public indecent assault?

Yes, this may be an old incident, but so are the allegations against Slipper, something the Liberal Party may have suspected, and did nothing for 9 years, so clearly they never thought that they were serious enough. After all, they are simply rumours at this stage.

Abbott here is Not denying the incident took place, he is just saying that it took place in his past. So why does he not apply the same criteria to the allegations against Peter Slipper?

Why is the Liberal Party cover up of any allegations against Slipper while he was a member of the Liberal Party, under both John hoWARd and now Tony Abbott, glossed over by the media?

At what point do we abandoned the premise of presumption of innocence and replace it with Trial By Murdoch Media?

This was not the only criminal incident that has blighted Tony Abbott’s ability to cast stones. He also destroyed public property by damaging a street sign, but fortunately for him, not the street sign, no conviction recorded.

(If you think, so what? this is old, my response is twofold – one, it gives an indication of how Tony Abbott treats people who challenge him; and two, if Slipper is going to be targeted by News Limited, and Abbott for allegations that are almost a decade old, why stop there, why not go a little further and drag up every incident of someone’s past.)

This man is a menace to women, public property, decency. He must stand down.

It is time someone else in the Liberal Party step up.

image from The Age

direct quotes: Abbott: I was charged with indecent assault, Michelle Grattan, 2004, Sun Herald
responsibility for this comment, is redglitterx
use of the logo for Law & Order is not intended to infringe on their copyright or imply that they have any connection with Liberal National parties, or would in anyway endorse the contents of this post or blog

 

What we missed when the Australian media was distracted by The Logies

A series of coordinated attacks were launched across Kabul, Afghanistan.
‘A Taliban spokesman said fighters were attacking embassies in the diplomatic enclave, Nato’s HQ and the parliament building in the west of the capital’ (BBC news Asia)

 

From the network that wants to be Number 1 in news is this gem:

text of image: @channel9: One Direction is in the house! #Logies

 

text of image: @boredjessica: So @theage has a live blog of the #Logies but nothing on their front page on what’s happening in Kabul. Great priorities guys.

 

text of image: @SummersAnne: So no #abcnews24 coverage of what’s happening in Kabul @abcmarkscott where do we go to find out abt carnage?

 

text of image: @hailants: If you don’t follow her, you hate freedom. RT @JLLLOW: Follow @Asher_Wolf for sterling coverage of current Taliban offensive in #Afghanistan

We don’t follow her on Twitter, but she doesn’t follow us. I guess she loves freedom more than we do. Oops.

Oh, and one more thing, someone in Melbourne Australia is not bring you coverage of Kabul, they are tweeting and retweeting.

 

 

Is it time to get the Australian troops and other personnel out of Afghanistan?
Can we hear what Tony Abbott says?

Best Picture Of Tony Abbott Ever

image: Fairfax
Tony Abbott’s press conference, the same time Bob Brown announced his retirement on Fri 13 apr 2012

And we will all finally answer that big philosophical question that has plague philosophers for generations…

If Tony Abbott calls a press conference and nobody is there, does Tony Abbott still say stuff?