Billy the kid was just a little shit who shot his first victim when aged 18... He was not at university, but fist fights were his trademark... One of his so call friend, a sheriff named Garrett (or was it Turnbull?) eventually shot him dead, after Billy the kid — the left-handed gunslinger — did one too many bad things, including shooting himself in the foot...

By contrast, Calamity Jane was a hero who, despite her propensity to embellish her exploits beyond reality, was generous to a fault... The name "Calamity" came from the fate suffered by people crossing her path...

BILL SHORTEN will assure Labor's true believers that the embattled Gillard Government is in with a fighting chance at the next election, when he delivers the annual "light on the hill" speech in Bathurst tonight.
"We're competitive, and we can win," Mr Shorten will say when he pays tribute to Labor statesman and former Prime Minister Ben Chifley. Buoyed by a surge in approval for Prime Minister Gillard in a Fairfax/Nielsen poll this week, the Minister for Workplace Relations will urge voters to maintain faith in Labor's reform agenda.
"Have the courage of your convictions and let the political cards fall as they may."

In a rousing speech laden with historical references to Chifley's famous "light on the hill" oration from 1949, Mr Shorten will insist the party's future will be decided "entirely, as it always has done, on the people who work".

"Australia needs a healthy, highly educated, creative workforce. If Australia can create that kind of workforce, we shall prevail beyond the commodities boom.
"All the challenges Australia faces - whether its globalisation, the skills race, empowerment of people - all of them come back to the brains and ability of our people," Mr Shorten will say tonight.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/we-can-win-shorten-eyes-election-resurrection-20120922-26d6u.html#ixzz27ALnHrJU

FOR ABOUT eight days now, Tony Abbott has been in worsening trouble, and he has no hope any more of being Prime Minister.

Not all of it is his fault, some of it was coincidence, but the overall effect has been a perfect storm whose hail and lightning is beating him senseless and consuming him.

Some of it, unexpectedly, is the issue of gay marriage and the momentum it has gained across the world. Some of it is things happening in America.

A week ago, it was revealed Mitt Romney said he disdained that 47 percent of Americans who did not pay income tax. These, apparently, included war veterans, the old, the disabled and single supporting mothers. Most may not have paid income tax, but paid, each week, various forms of salary tax, and, in some states, taxes like the GST. The secret video of this utterance not only ended Romney for good, it smashed the Tea Party, who will not now retain enough seats to hold up financial reforms, including more taxes on the rich.

When Wayne Swan attacked the Tea Party as economic vandals, it would have been wise for Abbott’s Liberals to stay silent. But they did not, execrating Swanny for commenting on a foreign election and not concentrating on his own patch, and on the economy here.

This aligned them with the Tea Party Republicans, an already discredited bunch of loons, and with Romney, a loser, and, by any measure, a stupid man. Abbott should have repudiated his ’47 percent’ nonsense, but he did not.

Read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/bob-ellis-tony-abbott-is-finished/

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Tony Abbott wants to reheat his cold sausages and froth up his flat beer with "Sinodinos' and Jamie Briggs' expertise"... Tony wants to restart his barbie with petrol, alla Homer Simpson, who blows up half of Springfield while doing so...

Let's just let sleeping lurks lie

...

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/lets-just-let-sleeping-lurks-lie-20120922-26dja.html#ixzz27Mv7gjp1

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Yes Annabel... But not quite... I was too old to go to Sydney Uni and you're too young to understand the feelings of the place then (I had some younger friends there in the mist of the fracas... I wonder if Bob Ellis was a tutor there?)... But the whole shebang came from the Whitlam concept of free education that created a lot of brilliant minds and a few doozies... I place Abbott amongst the doozies.

Apart from creating a new wave of politicians this free education created engineers, doctors, mathematicians — all of world class.  Of course, this brilliant system that opened education to all, had been resisted by Menzies and his ilk, for many years, to favour the rich kids and the conservative side of politics... Following this education that we took for granted, John Howard and his crappy monk team worked hard to make sure the plebs could not afford university education anymore... So whatever you say, what happened then is VERY important now...

The future is bobbing along reasonably for Australia now... Let Tony place his Santamaria mitts on the levers and the whole thing will crash to become an exclusive club for the rich... and a hub for slavery...

There have been allegations, with no evidence, that she benefited financially from the operation. But one of the more intriguing aspects is that Gillard has recently appointed her mentor at the time, Bernard Murphy, to be a High Court judge. Go to a website that specializes in old mates appointments by all political parties and seach Bernard Murphy. kangaroocourtofaustralia.com 

There have been comments that Abbott has been very quiet over the slush fund affair. Well, Abbott has a similar fund in his past.

In 1988 he was a trustee, together with  Peter Coleman, a Liberal Party elder and Peter Costello's father-in-law, of a trust fund called Australians for Honest Politics (AHP), a title as misleading as Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association, and almost leads one to believe that Abbott has a sense of irony. The names of other members and who donated $100,000 have never been revealed.

The only actions of AHP were to support Barbara Hazelton in her action against Pauline Hanson with legal costs and promise to pay Mr Sharples' legal costs against One Nation. The AHP didn’t feel obliged to pay anything after a falling out with Sharples, despite his requests.

TONY Abbott has swung one political punch too many, and yesterday floored himself.
As Julia Gillard arrived in the United States for a last-ditch effort to garner support for Australia's Security Council bid, Mr Abbott insisted she should be elsewhere.
With boat arrivals continuing apace, he said rather than ''swanning around in New York talking to Africans,'' spruiking for votes, she should be in Indonesia ''because that is where Australia's national interest is most at stake right now.''
Unfortunately for Abbott, President Yudhoyono wasn't in Jakarta but just where Gillard was - in New York.
Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan quickly jumped on the gaffe, attacking the opposition leader for not knowing what was ''a clear matter of public record''. ''Mr Abbott ought to retract his statements immediately - he ought to apologise for them. He ought to give an undertaking that he's going to give up this reckless negativity which is always in complete defiance of the facts.'' He also pointed out that when Abbott had met Yudhoyono in Australia he ''did not have the courage'' to raise his tow-back policy.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/tonys-latest-knockout-punch-20120924-26hbk.html#ixzz27RnwEXcN