I am sitting in my dingy little office (only figuratively)

I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan years ago;
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just on spec, addressed as follows, "Clancy, of The Overflow."

And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected
(And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar);
'Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
"Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are."

In my wild erratic fancy, visions come to me of Clancy
Gone a-droving "down the Cooper" where the Western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.

And the bush has friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars.

I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city,
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.

And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street;
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.

And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.

And I somehow rather fancy that I'd like to change with Clancy,
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal
But I doubt he's suit the office, Clancy, of The Overflow.

A. B. Paterson
(Text credit: the-rathouse/Clancy)

s**t, c**p & corruption (lies and propaganda)

.. was a popular expression ...

  .. oh, so long ago now, in what ...

    .. quite literally were - the 'good old days'

-=*=-

The 'good old days,' that is, *before* the realisation dawned on me (but only due to diligent digging into the recent past ('45+), provoked by a few filthy, criminal villains active in the 'here and now') - just how deeply our world has been and still is drowning in:

Ta ra! - Shit, crap & corruption!

The shit and crap are the lies and propaganda (when separate) that they drown is in, and the corruption is in the 'news services' who a) conduit the foul BS and b) (worse!) actively augment it.

I should not need to give examples (always assuming an informed readership), but just to be 'more safe & less sorry:'

1. The illegal (mainly US plus UK poodle & Aus dag) invasion of Iraq, now morphed into a brutal occupation: Murder for oil. They just don't stop; Afghanistan was 1st to have its sand rearranged - and drenched in overwhelmingly natives' blood - and after the 7-year Iraq 'excursion,' they're *still* killing in Afghanistan & Iraq, now extending to 'AfPak.'

The main lies: "Saddam has WMD!" "We will disarm him!"

2. All ditto by Zs in Palestine (47+) including more natives' blood: murder for Lebensraum. Note that the Zs came from far and near: *All* the Zs already had some place to live; it makes the Zs indisputably Nuremberg-class invaders.

The main lies: "Some g*d promised it to us!" "David vs. Goliath!"

Both these and many more grave crimes against humanity have been 'hidden' behind a screen of lies and propaganda - or were largely hidden (there have been good people who have seen behind the deceptions - but those good people have always been kept marginalised) - I write 'hidden' in quotes because such extreme and hideaous crimes can neither be truly hidden nor obscured for too long - but nevertheless, the smoke-and-lie screen was/is pushed through and *actively by* the MSM - main-stream media, including to our great shame and absolute outrage, 'our' AusBC.

Boo! Hiss!

-=*=-

Lies and propaganda; what good are they? Think: a) most sheople are totally dumbed-down (it can hardly be much of an achievement: To fool deliberately weakened sheople - I mean no disrespect but simply note the facts), then b) even if properly informed, the sheople have no effective choice (no matter who we vote for, we get *bipartisan* warmongers), then c) what ever it is that the sheople might want, they'll as good as never get it - because our so-called representatives do *not* represent us, we the sheople, so much as 'the big end of town' – whenever that big end of town wants something different - they get it - to our, we the sheople's, cost. Bah!

The warmongers will have their murder-for-spoil wars; we can't stop them, nor ever so slightly hinder them even. With high- going higher unemployment, the cannon-fodder queues will only get longer - so why lie to us? It just makes the murderers look *vastly worse*. It's as if they have guilty consciences? Just how utterly bizarre is that?

-=*end*=-

PS It has come to my attention (again!) that a certain search-engine (SE) is 'available,' shall we say, to manipulation. Specifically here, selective and targeted non-indexing and cache-clearing. Grim; it means:

a) The SE simply *cannot* be trusted, and of course,

b) The SE is in the Z's pocket and probably others' and

c) (worst!) when one does a search, one can never know if the results are 'the best,' i.e. optimal. On critical themes (Zs again? No, still. Grrr!) - one can almost guarantee not.

Another boo! Hiss!

This SE is a 'public service,' even if totally privatised. As such, it should deliver:

"The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

Tested - and found defective.

get lost! (neoliberal policies punishing us, we the sheople)

.. actually ...

  .. money never gets lost ...

    .. it always end up in *somebody's* pocket

Q: Exactly who are the crooks here?

-=*=-

Trigger article:

Iceland votes against deal to repay debt
Updated March 7, 2010 13:34:00
  «While polls show Icelandic people believe the debts should be repaid, residents bitterly resent being stuck with a bill for the mistakes of a handful of bankers under the watch of foreign governments.
...
What makes the impasse all the more problematic is that the International Monetary Fund is waiting for the affair to be resolved before resuming financial aid, money which is crucial if Reykjavik is to rebuild a shattered economy.» 
[AusBC/justin]

Q: IF $s don't just 'get lost' THEN where have they gone?

Q: Why can't they simply reverse the process and recover the dough?

Q: OR, IF the bankers are sooo bloody stupid THEN why not (a) close the banks and (b) put the bankers in gaol?

-=*=-

Driving governments broke is happening all over the world; the filthy neoliberal policies of tax cuts and privatisation (Cui bono?) - followed by layoffs and service cuts mean increasing unemployment and necessary services getting scarcer and/or dearer - if not outright disappearing, then forcing governments into debt - this last forcing the next round of 'more of the same.'

Take the example of Sweden; electricity was privatised then rose in price by about 600% (heard on the radio). The spokesperson said "Much dearer? Well yes, but the consumers have more choice.") Really? Now the sheople can choose which electricity supplier can cut off their "arm and a leg?" One result: some sheople cannot afford to heat their houses properly. Parts of Sweden are in the Arctic. Cui bono?

Add that to out-sourcing and off-shoring etc. and sheople in the attacked countries are forced into ever deeper misery.

Then the IMF comes along forcing Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) to add the next round of 'more of the same' and the spiral goes ever lower. This has been going on around the world since the early 1950s... Why? Is this progress? Cui bono?

Supporting article:

International Monetary Fund
  «Argentina, which had been considered by the IMF to be a model country in its compliance to policy proposals by the Bretton Woods institutions, experienced a catastrophic economic crisis in 2001,[26] which some believe to have been caused by IMF-induced budget restrictions — which undercut the government's ability to sustain national infrastructure even in crucial areas such as health, education, and security — and privatization of strategically vital national resources.» 
[wiki]

A similar thing is happening to Greece (add Portugal, Ireland and Spain = PIGS), and most of the 'newly liberated' East-Bloc countries. The NSW and QLD governments - both Labor (supposedly the sheople's friends) - are continuing with utterly stupid privatisations. NSW Lotteries to be sold for about $1bio - but allegedly throwing away about $400mio revenue a year. Why? Worse, AusBC adds insult to injury with its headline: "NSW set for $1b lotteries sale windfall." Windfall? How is impoverishing the state a windfall? AusBC video: "NSW hits jackpot in lottery sale" - sheer idiocy, from the government and AusBC alike.

Who allows this sort of shit?

In whose interest?

i.e. Cui bono?
 

AusBC and propaganda (again? No, still.)

.. sins of commission (aka reporting lies) ...

  .. sins of omission (*not* reporting the truth) ...

    .. traitorous; 'merely' undemocratic and/or outright criminal?

Preamble: What entity (other than an Israeli-based one, i.e. Mossad, say) - would have the means, motive, and opportunity to forge and *passably* alter Israeli dual-citizen residents' passports?

-=*=-

Trigger article:

'No help' for Australian caught up in Dubai hit
By Middle East correspondent Anne Barker and wires
Updated February 27, 2010 10:14:00
  «An Australian woman whose identity was used in the assassination of a top Hamas official says the Federal Government has not yet offered her any help.» 
[AusBC/world]

Comment; Q: Why should the Aus govt. 'help' this person? She has chosen to live in and amongst possibly the most criminal (both per capita and absolute) country and people in the world. Caveat emptor, I'd say. And the husband sounds like a real charmer:

  «Yesterday, the husband of Nicole McCabe lashed out at Australian reporters when he and his wife returned home to find a media pack waiting outside.
Mr Look told reporters to leave.
"If anyone asks to come in, I will kill you," he said.» 
[ibid.]

Comment: Very typical, of that 'sort?'

Prior article:

Mossad linked to Hamas chief's killing
By Middle East correspondent Anne Barker and staff
Posted February 1, 2010 08:17:00
  «Israeli officials say a senior Hamas commander who was murdered in Dubai played a central role in smuggling weapons from Iran to Gaza.
They have refused to say, however, whether Israel was behind his death.» 
[AusBC/world]

Comment: Well, of course Israeli officials would deny it. But note something here: Barker seems never to miss an opportunity to malign Iran. As far as I know, there's little (if indeed *any*) evidence that Iran smuggles weapons to Gaza. And if they did as Israel continuously *alleges*, what of the US supplying Israel (the illegal aggressor), with vast amounts of fantastically advanced 'killing equipment?'

Next article:

Threat to arrest Netanyahu over murder of Hamas man
By Middle East correspondent Anne Barker
Posted February 5, 2010 09:13:00

  «Israeli media are reporting Dubai's police chief as saying that the arrest warrant for Mr Netanyahu will be issued if Israeli intelligence is found to be to blame for the death.
He says in such circumstances the Israeli leader would have been the one who signed off on the assassination.
Israel has refused to comment.» 
[AusBC/justin]

Comment: Well, of course they'd refuse to comment. But it's not 'just' Netanyahu who's responsible (actually of course, totally *irresponsible*), but every J on the planet who doesn't do their utmost to halt the filthy Z-depredations.

Censored article:

Baptism of fire in Gaza
Anne Barker reported this story on Sunday,
April 19, 2009 08:20:00
  «*EDITOR'S NOTE: On April 19, 2009, the ABC broadcast a first-hand account of a reporter’s experiences in Gaza after the recent hostilities. The ABC acknowledges that the report did not meet the ABC’s editorial standards in terms of balance and the story unduly favoured one perspective over another. The report has been removed from the program website.» 
[AusBC/Correspondents Report]

Comment; Q: One might wonder why?

Perhaps A; Because of this sort of snigger article:

  «An AIJAC complaint to the ABC has been upheld, resulting in a correction and apology from the national broadcaster. A complaint highlighted an incorrect statement by Middle East correspondent Anne Barker, filed April 25, about Israel's security barr...» 
[who cares where?]

Comment 1: The snigger article refers to more and different Z-depredations - but we can 'join some dots...'

Comment 2: Israel's security barrier is not just illegal (International law), it is also disgustingly immoral - as is Israel itself - i.e. illegal and disgustingly immoral.

Comment 3; Q: Why does the world tolerate the illegal and disgustingly immoral 'state' of Israel?

-=*=-

Fazit: Our democracy depends on a few crucial components, one of which being full and free information flows - the sheople simply cannot vote in any rational way if misinformed. Israel's criminality is arguably one of, if not *the* worst problem on the planet. Some people/entities may be deceived by Israeli propaganda, but the AusBC should *not* be amongst such deceived. IF Barker is deceived THEN she should be sacked - otherwise, she should start telling us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; namely that Israel is continually (61+years now) murdering Palestinians to steal ever more Palestinian land.

-=*end*=-

PS Anyone wishing to hear Barker's censored report could try this, <r-click> this URL and choose 'Save Target As...' to store it on your PC, then you may listen to it at your own leisure.

Comment: Going on the .mp3, Barker does not sound too bad at all - i.e. her content. Possible conclusion: when she does, she is *forced* to retail Israeli (and vis-à-vis Iran, US) lies.

Thanks, but "No, thanks!" to (corrupt & venal) Aunty.

Boo! Hiss!

-=*=-

PPS So-called 'extra-judicial' killing is nothing other than murder. The US and Israel now do such murdering as routine, 'justified' so they say by 9/11. BUT: There is no excuse for such crime, ever; and since 9/11 *must* have been partly if not wholly an 'inside job' (by 'agents' from the US or Zs or both), then one only now cynically enquires "Cui bono?"

two-faced partisan AusBC (again? - No, still)

.. two versions ...

  .. the *same* URL ...

    .. but: totally conflicting content

-=*=-

I've seen this happening over time (mostly saying nothing except grumbling to myself), but here is a nice, neat little proof of their utterly crass perfidy/partisanship:

Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Exhibit C:
-=*=-

Comment 1: The two extracts imply diametrically opposite meanings.

Comment 2: Even if we assume that the AusBC are merely 'stenographers' who quote their sources accurately, the indisputably selective editing here displayed *proves* that the AusBC manipulates the apparent meaning of what they 'report' and (worse!) are demonstrably partisan.

Comment 3: This amounts to nothing less than lying by the AusBC.

This prompts a few questions:

1. Why don't they strive for (honest!) accuracy?

2. Why do they favour one 'side,' most often the Liberals?

3. How dare they take our tax-$s under such wickedly false pretences?

-=*end*=-

PS 1: The AusBC has the choice as to what they broadcast; by choosing to report this, they encourage salacious interest and promote the alleged story, further muddying the waters. IF what someone does in the privacy their bedroom (or even in an office or car) is *none* of anyone else's business THEN leave the parties in peace. This also goes for Ms Chantelois; "Kiss and Tell" is not too ethical and especially not when for $s.

PS 2: The same propaganda techniques are employed here, i.e. the AusBC harping on 'what people say,' when that 'what' may be an unproven allegation. Typical of this is Barker's repetitions of scurrilous allegations vis-à-vis Iran.

PS 3: The AusBC propagandising by telling us, we the sheople lies corrupts our democracy.

Boo! Hiss!
 

Drawn curtains for some, fiction for others.

Whatever its limitations the UK is at least having an official inquiry into the Iraq war. The US is not but are implored to "look forward". Glenn Greenwald on the issue.

British political news has been consumed for the last several weeks by a formal inquiry into the illegality and deceit behind Tony Blair's decision to join the U.S. in invading Iraq. Today, Blair himself is publicly testifying before the investigative commission and is being grilled about numerous false claims he made in the run-up to the war, not only about Iraqi weapons programs (his taxi-cab-derived "45-minutes-to-launch!!" warning) and Saddam's ties to Al Qaeda, but also about secret commitments he made to join the U.S. at a time when he and Bush were still pretending that they were undecided and awaiting the outcome of the U.N. negotiations and the inspection process.

A major focus of the investigation is the illegality of the war. Some of the most embarrassing details that have emerged concern the conclusions by the British Government's own legal advisers that the invasion of Iraq would be illegal without U.N. approval. The top British legal officer had concluded that the war would be illegal, only to change his mind under substantial pressure shortly before the invasion. Several weeks ago, a formal investigation in the Netherlands -- whose government had supported the invasion -- produced the first official adjudication of the legality of the war, and found it illegal, with "no basis in international law."

Lots of links in the article to follow.

Tony Blair has appeared at the inquiry. A response from Craig Murray.

Blair just said "You would be hard pressed to find anyone who in September 2002 doubted that Saddam had WMD".

It wouldn't have been that hard. If he had asked members of the Near East and North Africa Department of the FCO, the Middle East experts in the FCO's Research Analysts, or in the Defence Intelligence Service, he would have found absolutely no shortage of people who doubted it, whatever position No 10 was forcing on their institutions.

One of the many failures of this Inquiry has been a failure to ask individual witnesses before it whether they personally had believed in the existence of any significant Iraqi WMD programme. I know for certain that would have drawn some extremely enlightening answers from among the FCO and probably MOD participants.

Blair seems to have preferred the opinions of taxi drivers.

Jack Straw warned Blair:

A “SECRET and personal” letter from Jack Straw, the then foreign secretary, to Tony Blair reveals damning doubts at the heart of government about Blair’s plans for Iraq a year before war started.

The letter, a copy of which is published for the first time today, warned the prime minister that the case for military action in Iraq was of dubious legality and would be no guarantee of a better future for Iraq even if Saddam Hussein were removed.

It was sent 10 days before Blair met George Bush, then the US president, in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002. The document clearly implies that Blair was already planning for military action even though he continued to insist to the British public for almost another year that no decision had been made.

Lord Goldsmith has given evidence on why he changed his mind about the legality of the war:

The inquiry heard that Lord Goldsmith sent a draft of his legal advice on the war to Mr Blair on 14 January 2003. It revealed that he still believed that military action would be illegal without further UN authorisation, despite the agreement of resolution 1441, which put further pressure on Saddam Hussein. "The Prime Minister accepted that it was for me to reach a judgment and that he had to accept it," he said.

However, the five-page draft caused consternation inside No 10 and was immediately sent to Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary at the time, and Sir Jeremy Greenstock, then Britain's ambassador to the UN, who began to convince the peer to change his mind. Sir Jeremy told Lord Goldsmith that the signing of resolution 1441 meant that no further UN clearance was needed. Lord Goldsmith was also lobbied by Mr Straw, who wrote him a long memo on 6 February in which he told the Attorney General that he had failed to understand "both the negotiating history and the wording" of resolution 1441.

However, Lord Goldsmith said that the "most powerful" influence on his thinking was a secret meeting in Washington on 10 February with senior US government lawyers and George Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. During the briefing, he was persuaded that French negotiators, the main opponents of the invasion, had admitted privately that military action could go ahead without further UN intervention. He also said that US negotiators had been ordered to ensure that a second UN resolution would not be necessary before invading Iraq.

"Sir Jeremy on his own had some good points. He moved me in my mind, but he didn't quite get me there," he said. "It was a combination of Jeremy Greenstock, Jack Straw and what happened in Washington." Lord Goldsmith admitted that the US team could not present much evidence that their French counterparts had conceded that military action could go ahead. "I wish they had presented me with more," he said. "At the end of the day, we were dependent on their view." He said it would have been impossible to ask the French directly what they thought the resolution had meant. "You cannot have the British Attorney General being seen to go to the French and ask them 'What do you think?' The message that would have given to Saddam Hussein about the degree of your commitment would have been huge," he said.

Influenced by Condi "Mushroom Cloud" Rice???!!! Perhaps he really wanted to believe.

Self delusion was rampant in the corridors of power.

Peering beneath the covers ...

Several detainees die at Gitmo and the official story is that the choked themselves with rags .... sorry, make that they hanged themselves ... or perhaps ...

Scott Horton investigates a very murky situation.

Follow ups from Glenn Greenwald and Chris Floyd.

From GG:

The single biggest lie in War on Terror revisionist history is that our torture was confined only to a handful of "high-value" prisoners. New credible reports of torture continuously emerge. That's because America implemented and maintained a systematic torture regime spread throughout our worldwide, due-process-free detention system. There have been at least 100 deaths of detainees in American custody who died during or as the result of interrogation. Gen. Barry McCaffrey said: "We tortured people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens of them during the course of that, both the armed forces and the C.I.A." Gen. Antonio Taguba said after investigating the Abu Ghraib abuses and finding they were part and parcel of official policy sanctioned at the highest levels of the U.S. Government, and not the acts of a few "rogue" agents: "there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

Move along folks, nothing to see, look ahead. But at the illusion the powers-that-be create, not the reality.


"They hate us for ..."