The prophets of gloom, H G Wells and George Orwell got it right but rather than be obviously submissive to a Big Brother government, we are now submissive to a big brother government that tells us to be comfortable and relaxed — while the MMMM pre-munches the news and the NSA spies on what we say in our communication... Meanwhile there are drugs designed to stimulate a "man's" imagination but most of them are illegal. The BIG Brother government does not want you to be over-stimulated or have any imagination...

The Abbott Government is becoming more and more widely ridiculed, writes Clint Howitt, who says this is the litmus test of a failed government.

from Crikey …..

Arise, sons of privilege.

A report by the Senate Intelligence Committee concludes that the CIA misled the government and the public about aspects of its brutal interrogation program for years - concealing details about the severity of its methods, overstating the significance of plots and prisoners, and taking credit for critical pieces of intelligence that detainees had in fact surrendered before they were subjected to harsh techniques.

Last December, Xanana Gusmão, the prime minister of Timor-Leste, was on an official visit to the world’s newest nation of South Sudan when he received an urgent call from Dili. Officers from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Federal Police had just taken files and computers from the Canberra office of Bernard Collaery, one of the lawyers advising Timor-Leste in a dispute with Australia over a treaty that divided the spoils of the $40 billion Greater Sunrise oil and gas field.

The Abbott government might as well end the pretence and shut up the accountability shop.

When Robert Menzies won elections, he would reassure voters that he would govern not just on behalf of those who voted for him but also on behalf of those who didn’t. It was a promise to put the national interest above partisan interests and a recognition that almost half of the electorate always votes for the other side.

from john passant …..

Good old ‘lying rodent’ George Brandis, our esteemed Attorney-General. Evidently everyone has the right to be bigoted.

In assuming the highest office in the land, our new Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, has promised to observe ‘values that respect & uphold equity, compassion, generosity, tolerance & energetic ambition’.

Of course one has to decipher the words of the day... The Australian Natives' Association had and has nothing to do with Aboriginal people, who in 1959 were still invisible in the Australian population... This ANA was apolitical till it became affiliated with the Liberal (CONservative) party as it was an association of people BORN of WHITE people in this fair country... :

I have mentioned on this site before the cartoons of Molnar... Molnar was an expert at simple lines and as time went the lines even became simpler. And the mediocre mass media de mierda of the west still gets it wrong. Mind you the media from the east was not much better either...