Get Real

Remember all those amazing polls that showed that many Americans had no idea about the facts of 9/11 and Iraq? It turns out that people who watch Fox News were (surprise!) more inclined to believe those things. But John Ray has discovered why this is: it turns out that all these people were actually right!

As ChuDogg points out, however, the supposedly ?false? beliefs are true! Fox viewers have got it right!

Yep, Chudogg apparently lays down a rock solid argument. Let’s check it out:

33% of Fox News viewers said that the US had found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq since the war finished. Chudogg says that they were correct, because of the Kay report. The justification here is those vials of toxins they found in some guy’s fridge, which by themselves aren’t remotely a WMD. The Kay report turned up plenty of evidence that the Baath regime had a weapons PROGRAM, which is fine for arguing in support of the Iraq invasion, but not for this argument.

All of which is moot anyway, because those polls? Conducted June to September. The Kay report? Released October 2nd. Enough said.

Chudogg’s defence of the proposition that Hussein and Al-Qaeda were best buddies is a bit limp. Providing evidence of a few meetings between the two outfits doesn’t demonstrate anything. When this poll data is combined with the poll conducted earlier, that showed that 50% of Americans believed there was at least one Iraqi amongst the 9/11 hijackers, it is obvious that respondents had a rather more direct connection in mind. The third poll question, that “People in foreign countries generally either backed the U.S.-led war or were evenly split between supporting and opposing it” is so obviously wrong that he simply spits out a piece of venomous rhetoric rather than attempt to defend it.

This blog sure has taken a turn to the Left since Yobbo has been away. He won’t be happy when he gets back to find Blair has de-linked us and I’m linking entirely to Chomsky articles and Indymedia rants. I’ll do my best to make my next rant anti-Left.

See?

I posted a few days ago about the tendency of right wing blogs to accuse lefties of hypocrisy because of selective protesting. In that article I quoted Bob Brown saying he was intending to protest against Hu (in the end, of course, he was barred from parliament). That hasnt stopped Steve Edwards, Alan Anderson and probably others having a go at the Left for the lack of protests against Hu. If you protest against the leader of a democratic nation allied with Australia, but not against human rights violations by some corrupt regime in Sierra Leone, you must be a hypocrite. It makes perfect sense!

As was made clear in the comments thread in my original post, if the Left had engaged in widespread protests against Hu, it would have been regarded as useless or counterproductive by the Right.

Is It Their Own Fault?

The International Red Cross is considering leaving Baghdad after being targeted by a bomb yesterday.

The neutral Swiss-run agency said it would decide within days whether to reduce its presence in the country following the suicide car bombing that killed two Iraqi Red Cross employees and as many as 10 other people outside the compound.

The question they need to be asking themselves is, of course: Why do they hate us?

Where in the world is Yobbo Sandiego?

OK folks, Yobbo is away but he cryptically did not mention where on earth we went, which I, for one, thought was very odd. Therefore we have no option left but to guess where he went.

Comment on your thoughts as to where Yobbo has gone, who he’s gone with, or what on earth he’s up to. Bonus points are available if anyone offers up grainy, doctored photos of Yobbo on any French beaches.

Yoboliday

I’m going away for the week. Posting will resume sometime next Sunday.

Hopefully ChrisV can take up the slack in my absence.

In case of emergency, press here.

Hu Makes History

Hu Jintao wasn’t stuffing around today when he addressed parliament. With good reason, it seems. Buried in the Hansard comes this latest shot in the history wars:

Back in the 1420’s the expeditionary fleets of China’s Ming dynasty reached Australian shores. For centuries, the Chinese sailed across vast seas and settled down in what was called the “Southern Land”, or today’s Australia.

I’m not sure how many centuries we are talking here. I was under the impression that it was about 1 and a half, but Hu seems to think it’s a fair bit longer than that.

Certainly gives a new meaning to “making history”. The Chinese Communist Party have obviously been taking in more than the safe yearly level of Lyndall Ryan lectures.

The other question that keeps nagging me is: What happened to all those ancient Chinese sailors? All the experts seem to agree that there were only Aborigines here when Cook landed.

Was it…Genocide?

Case Rested

Anyone planning on launching a class action suit against McDonalds in the near future would be well served by using Matt the House Husband as a witness:

Any one who has a dog knows that they will eat just about anything. They are constantly scrounging for things to eat and always hanging around the kids waiting for them to drop some morsel of food on the floor. One thing they will not eat though is a pickle from McDonalds. They will however happily lick their own ass for hours on end.

I prefer pickles to assholes, myself. Guess that’s why I’m not a dog.

Bye George

UK Saddam-loving pollie George Galloway has been expelled from the Labour Party:

Galloway, member of parliament for Glasgow Kelvin in Scotland, confirmed his expulsion as he emerged from a party hearing in London on Thursday and angrily condemned the tribunal as a “kangaroo court”.

Here’s an obvious example of a man who doesn’t know when to shut his mouth. No matter how unfair his treatment at the hands of his own party, it’s a hell of a lot better than the court he deserved to face: The High Court, on charges of treason.

Good riddance dickhead.

More CALM Madness

Why would anyone want to deal with the Department of Conservation and Land Management, ever?

Take for example the case of the Heinrichs, who were pleased to find a rare Wattle tree on their farm in 1982. Like most farmers, they had a conservationist bent, and so rang CALM to let them know of the find.

CALM’s response? They banned the Heinrichs from farming an 810ha section of their own land, in the interests of protecting a supposedly rare tree.

The plant was taken off the endangered list in 1992, about 8 years after CALM worked out they weren’t endangered at all. They never bothered to tell the Heinrichs, though.

The lesson here? If you find a rare or endangered plant or animal on YOUR property, don’t ring CALM. Kill it, and hide the body. After his ordeal, costing him about $1.5 million over 10 years, Merv laments:

“I should have ploughed the Wattles into the ground”.

If only we could do the same to CALM officers.

Tuckey Tradition Lives On

Wilson Tuckey is gone, but there are still heroes out there if you look hard enough:

Their attempts to present a letter and photograph to Mr Bush were stymied by Government MPs who stood between the senators and the President.

Senator Nettle says she was shocked and disturbed by their conduct and comments allegedly made by Senator Ross Lightfoot.

“To the effect of ‘you should go off and die’,” she said.

Change “Go” to “Fuck” and it’s probably the same thing I would have said. Extra points for the shepherd as well. There should be more physical contact in Parliament.