Feverish Footy Finals Friday, And Would You Like Fries A Raffle With That?

Fiona Uncategorized

I’m not sure where Joe6pack is, and there’s no draft Friday thread so … this is going up as a work-in-progress. Witticisms, pictures, etc., will be added as (and if) they occur to moi.

Meanwhile, start kicking back, or forward, or whichever way you want the ball to go.

How-to-have-fun-advice-from-the-social-skills-self-help-blog-tipping-back

Have fun.


(Credit: Fox Sports)

Yeah, yeah, moi knows – sooooooo last week.

Alright then, for all you NRL fans, who’s gunna win?

These guys?


(Credit: NRL)

Or these?

(Credit: NRL)

Though you’ll end up with a flock of bird-brains either way …

Meanwhile, for non-Victorians (and, indeed, Victorians) who may have missed this:

In time to avoid the grand final frenzy he famously deplored, Australia loses one of its great journalists, writers and voices — the inestimable Keith Dunstan. Contributing editor-at-large Tess Lawrence provides a touching tribute.

KEITH DUNSTAN, as befitting the quiet man with the bow tie who co-founded the Anti-Football League, surely timed his departure from this mortal coil to avoid non-attendance at today’s Grand Final, considered a defiant act of notorious calumny and civic treachery in this State of Victoria.


(Credit: ABC)

A gentleman in every respect.

Now, Joe6pack’s story is …

images (20)

Hello Pubsters. Running a little late. Stuck in traffic. Really truly I was.

Of course we believe you, Boss – wouldn’t dare do anything else!

Joe also mentioned a long weekend – I feel very jealous of all you lucky people in the ACT, NSW, Queensland, and South Australia. However, whatever the length of your weekend, I hope everyone has a delightful one.

And may the best bunch of bird-brains win.

427 thoughts on “Feverish Footy Finals Friday, And Would You Like Fries A Raffle With That?”

  1. Apparantly there is a longer interview with Robbo in the paper edition (maybe in the magazine)

    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/michael-mcgurk-offered-alp-leader-john-robertson-3-million-bribe-when-he-was-nsw-union-boss/story-fni0cx12-1226733254290#

    Michael McGurk offered ALP leader John Robertson $3 million bribe when he was NSW union boss
    Andrew Clennell State Political Editor
    The Daily Telegraph
    October 05, 2013 12:00AM

    MURDERED standover man Michael McGurk offered a $3 million bribe to Labor leader John Robertson when he was head of Unions NSW in an to attempt to buy the Currawong site off the unions.

    Mr Robertson did not take the alleged attempted bribe to police, saying he was satisfied he had “shut it down” by making clear to Mr McGurk that such a payment was not on and told him to put any money he was offering in the “formal bid”.

    In an interview with The Daily Telegraph to mark 18 months before the next election, the Opposition Leader addressed controversy over Currawong – the northern beaches site sold by the unions to developer Allen Linz for $11 million and controversially bought back by the Labor government just before the last election for $12.2 million.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-05/vietnam-independence-hero-general-giap-dies/5000566

    Legendary Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap dies aged 102
    Updated 2 hours 20 minutes ago
    Legendary Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap, whose guerrilla tactics defeated the French and American armies, has died aged 102.

  2. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/coalition-never-had-a-policy-of-towing-boats-back-says-scott-morrison

    Coalition ‘never had a policy of towing boats back’, says Scott Morrison
    Immigration minister accuses media of ‘misrepresentation over a long period of time’
    Oliver Laughland
    theguardian.com, Friday 4 October 2013 17.38 AEST

    …………………

    Morrison said the Coalition had “never had a policy of towing boats back to Indonesia” and blamed “misrepresentation over a long period of time” in the media for that impression.

    In 2011 Abbott, then opposition leader, gave a number of interviews suggesting he would bring the policy back. In an interview in October 2011 with MTR Radio in Melbourne, Abbott said of towing boats back: “it’s been done in the past, successfully done in the past and what was done in the past can be done again in the future.”

    On 16 July, 2013, Abbott told 4BC Radio in Brisbane that “our policy is turn-around, not strictly speaking towbacks. It’s turn-around. But we’ve done it before, we can do it again. These boats are Indonesian-flagged, Indonesian-crewed, Indonesian-home ported. They have a right to proceed to an Indonesian port.”

  3. http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/what-happens-with-rio-tinto-stays-with-rio-tinto/704/

    What Happens With Rio Tinto, Stays With Rio Tinto
    By Bernard Lagan
    October 2, 2013

    After Rio Tinto had its approval to expand a mine in the Hunter Valley overturned by a court, it entered into a flurry of correspondence with the NSW Government. The government joined with Rio to appeal the decision and now wants to change planning laws to favour mining companies. The Global Mail applied under FoI to have the correspondence released — we got a big no.

  5. Quote..: “Sri Lankan navy rescues boatload of asylum seekers…” …Aussie MSM. reports..: “Tony turns back another boat!…onya Tones!”

  7. Cliff,
    Great set of pictures. The sad thing is, we know PM Blood Oaf is more than capable of such crass behaviour.

  8. And good morning, all.

    I only slept in a little bit, but I’ve been busy for the past hour or so putting yesterday’s three loads of washing away, and contemplating the ironing basket.

  10. http://andrewelder.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/left-right-out.html
    05 October 2013
    Left right out

    In Shakespeare’s Henry V, an immature and destructive young man unaccountably destined for high office hangs out with riff-raff who encourage him in his immaturity. Upon assuming leadership he sobers up and wins a famous victory against a larger but disorganised enemy. In the course of that he leaves behind his old mates, who end up wretched and dead in the hour of his triumph.

    Something similar is happening to the far right of the NSW Liberals. The ascent of Tony Abbott represents everything they hoped and worked for over a generation, but he owes them nothing. They are bitter because they put all their eggs in his basket, and now he’s taken that basket and shared the spoils with everyone but them.

  12. Conservatives …being conservative

    The vacancy arose after Nigel Evans, the former Deputy Speaker, resigned from the role after being charged with sex offences against seven men. Mr Evans, who was told in court yesterday that he will be tried on 10 March next year, was previously a Tory MP and by convention the job is expected to go to another Conservative.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/stupid-sanctimonious-dwarf-exminister-simon-burns-who-abused-commons-speaker-john-bercow-could-be-his-deputy-8859859.html

  20. For those of you who may not have caught it (and I was one) a Late Night Live segment with Margo Kingston and Mungo McCallum giving their takes on the election. Pretty intelligent reviews:
    [audio src="http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2013/09/lnl_20130930.mp3" /]

  21. Why is it necessary for Abbott to not only survive his encounter with SBY in Jakarta, but to outdo all previous Prime Ministers in achieving this?

    Why must Abbott – a diplomacy neophyte, who’s never made any bones about his devotion to domestic policy interests – be elevated by Mark Kenny into some kind of Foreign Affairs savant, the out-doer of anyone else who’s tried, after a visit lasting 24 hours?

    He went to Jakarta because he boxed himself into a corner. He went with a swag of promised anti-boat policies, and came back with most of the specifics gone, and only the vague, generalized “Stop The Boats” left. He went telling his supporters that Australian policy could be (and would be) decided in Canberra not Jakarta or Bali. Yet he allowed SBY to blithely redirect the energy on this to the old standby: “ministerial talks”.

    He achieved nothing he claimed to have set out to achieve.

    He did nothing but survive being thrown out on his ear, with his tail between his legs and his head up his own arse.

    Yet Kenny is trying to sell him as not only competent on diplomatic relations, but better than anyone before him… the man who finally settled the “Jakarta Problem” and organized the whole Boats issue into a streamlined, focused project, equally and enthusiastically welcomed by both sides.

    Kenny sells Foreign Affairs as a process capable of providing instant solutions. You only need the right man, in the right place, at the right time, and serious, complicated international dilemmas and situations can be swept aside with some one-on-one blokemanship, a firm handshake and a bit of apologizing for past sins (as long as they are the past sins of others).

    Kenny’s diplomatic world is like an episode of The West Wing, where seemingly insurmountable knots are untied neatly in 60 minutes (minus ad time) of television, and a few clever words.

    It’s not like that. So why does Kenny persist in selling it as such?

    Why must Abbott be the best at everything, a genius who’s simply been waiting for his chance to shine in every field of human endeavour he touches.

    It’s only going to inflate Abbott’s ego and set him up for disaster in the future. And set us up, too.

    http://www.theage.com.au/comment/from-tyranny-of-distance-to-advantage-of-adjacency-20131004-2uzr1.html

  28. Thanks for the Summers link, Fiona….It’s amazing how the lowest LNP. sink-holes cannot help continuing the miserable commentry. They gotta feel as one with their psychotic leader!

  29. Abbott breaks promise to Barack Obama:

    According to the spokesman for Abbott, the prime minister elect told Obama during their conversation that “America remains Australia’s greatest friend”.

    Abbott said he was looking forward to catching up with the president at the upcoming APEC and East Asia Summit leaders’ meetings next month. The two leaders also discussed the Trans-Pacific Partnership – an agreement intended to be a regional building block for economic integration. Abbott told the president “he looked forward to working co-operatively on it with the region”.

    The US secretary of state, John Kerry, also telephoned the incoming foreign minister, Julie Bishop, this morning.

    “It was a productive discussion on Syria and the Asia-Pacific. They agreed to meet during leaders’ week at the United Nations in mid-September,” Abbott’s spokesman said.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/12/tony-abbott-offers-us-support

  30. Jack Waterford, after cheering loudly for the Coalition before the election, now decides to complain about Abbott… or does he?

    He tells his readers that Abbott was an egregious opportunist, a wrecker and a destroyer, with little concern for mandates, the good of the nation or the dignity of Parliament… gee, I don’t remember him writing any of this before the election.

    So why [should Labor] listen to appeals about principle? Or reason? Or the interests of good government? Or of the economy? Or even of Australia’s standing in the world? That’s Abbott’s problem now. These considerations never troubled him in opposition; why should not the shit happen to him now?

    There are Labor people whose personal hatred of Abbott is so visceral, or whose bitterness about the delegitimisation of Labor so great, that for them any act of revenge, no matter how petty, is justified. Some will argue that Labor can construct its own ”narrative”, program, policies and appeal to the people without the supposed disciplines of parliamentary debates it cannot win.

    Ah ha! … and then he comes out with the tired old line that Labor – and only Labor – should play The Good Guy in all this and behave decently.

    In my opinion, this would be a disastrous path for a party whose appeal, when there is one, must always depend on an emotional and moral, as well as intellectual, honesty with the voter.

    Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/labor-may-force-an-abbott-shutdown-20131004-2v00s.html#ixzz2goPxF8og

    There’s a lot of this about: one set of values for the Coalition, and another, opposite set for Labor.

    There’s also a lot of revisionism about too, from journalists who before the election wholeheartedly supported the groupthink line that all that mattered was politics, and appearing to be above the fray by protesting indifference to the evils of Abbottism.

    Either that or, when chancing their arms on an opinion, they reported outrageous Coalition tactics as clever, indeed essential qualifications for government because they were playing the media’s game, by the media’s rules and under the media’s watchful (and approving) eye.

    “Inside Canberra”, that incestuous bunch of amoral thugs who write for newspapers and preen themselves before television cameras on the nightly news and current affairs programs, didn’t give a toss about Right or Wrong before September 7th, but now seek to apply a stringent set of ethical rules to Labor’s behaviour, all the better for the nation to recover from the scourge of Abbottism, one they not only helped spread, but celebrated.

  31. Scott Morrison is now the Minister for MiniTru.

    His busy little bees are busy deleting all records of the past that shouldn’t be there.

    Come on down, Eric Blair!

  32. TLBD
    Wouldn’t they be archived at Pandora?

    Fiona
    Thanks for that Anne Summers piece, I unfortunately read some of the comments…….

  34. “Wouldn’t they be archived at Pandora?’

    And who is in charge of our National Library?

  37. One of the problems for the ALP government is they played a gentlemen/gentleladie’s game of cricket, while the Opposition played guerilla warfare. Tell that journalist to get stuffed. Let Abbott reap as he has sown. That is one reason I hope albo wins.

  38. Paul Keating will be giving the commemorative address at the Australian War Memorial this year. His Eulogy is going to be inscribed and installed there. I have Brendan Nelson on NPC on ABC24 in the background and I just heard this.

  43. Jack Waterford was scathing re ALP of late – his advice should be treated with contempt – hypocrite. I remember he wrote when his mother was dying that she indicated she was glad that she wouldn’t live to see PMTA. JW is probably one of those left leaning purists for whom nothing is quite good enough and he is above it all…….. Even to the point of barracking for the other team under the guise of “may the best man win”. For someone who bemoans the lack of progress for indigenous Australians – how could he think this government will do anything to assist!

  44. Mark Kenny is a snivelling gutless little wimp and coward. He is nothing but a pathetic Liberal lickspittle who is only at Fairfax to write LNP propaganda, no more no less. Jack Waterford is just another pretend journalist spruiking LNP bullshit. I really hope Labor are unashamedly brutal in their dealings with Abbott. Abbott deserves not a shred of cooperation, only brutal examination of him and his extreme right wing Tea Party nutjobs.

  45. I don’t read anything Mark Kenny writes. Life is too short to waste time on drivel.
    And who the hell is Jack Waterford?

  48. Worth cross-posting from Over The Road…

    William’s gotten rather upset about something.

    William Bowe
    Posted Saturday, October 5, 2013 at 1:50 pm
    The notion that the Coalition would be “towing back” boats was all over the news in June, including from the most Coalition-friendly outlets going. Christopher Pyne point-blank confirmed on Lateline that this was an accurate reading of his party’s policy. Nobody from the Coalition gave the slightest intimation that this was wrong at the time, despite having every opportunity in the world to do so. It is crystal clear that the Coalition, having encountered the difficulty of Labor bending over backwards to match it on asylum seeker policy, deliberately sought to communicate the idea that when in office they would do to boats what Labor still lacked the cojones to do – physically drag them back to Indonesia.

    Now they’re in government though, where it’s not enough to be all talk, they are forced to confront the actual reality that they and everybody with any insight at all into the subject knew all along – that the policy is a load of nonsense. So what do they do? Simple. Lie. Pretend that what happened, and which any moron could see happening, actually didn’t happen at all. They can at least be confident that sections of the media will be on their side. Andrew Bolt, who had every opportunity to say the notion was wrong at the time, suddenly discovers on the day Morrison declares it to be so that it was simply a lie being peddled by “leftist journalists”. And obviously, many in blog-land are dopey enough to follow wherever he and the Coalition lead them.

  49. Even in The Guardian, it gets invaded by Liberal trolls, gravel. So don’t take the Comments too seriously. I occasionally get annoyed myself, albeit it is usually with the Ruddites, who refuse to contemplate the slightest thing bad about Rudd, or the slightest thing good about Gillard.

    On Facebook I managed to get myself banned from their Comments at True Believers (rather ironic title in relation to Labor History) because I challenged the veracity of their latest claims that Gillard is destroying chances of Labor unity. I threw in that they held grievances longer than 9/11 victims’ families. It seems as if their hatred runs as deep as Kevin’s.

    I should be grateful that this place is a sanctuary from them. And I am.

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