"We have received the hardest and most tragic news that... comandante President Hugo Chavez died today at 4:25 pm," -(Maduro, VP).
Elections will be held in 30 days, and Vice President Nicolas Maduro will assume the presidency in the interim, Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said in an interview broadcast on state-run VTV.-

I find her repugnant and not because she's a woman...

A bit more info on the case:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/09/speaker-australia-parliament-resign-text-message

Gillard has consistently used personal attacks (some of the certainly accurate) against Abbott to deflect attention away from her governments ongoing snafu's.

The slipper case is just the latest gigantic fuck up in a long line with Gillard's name all over it. This wonderfully outraged woman has steadfastly refused to fire the speaker knowing it would deprive her of another vote in an already slim minority government. The same guy that would say things like:

"Look at a bottle of mussel meat! Salty Cunts in brine!" he continued in his text message to former staffer James Ashby. "Been to thw (sic) fish shop yet to buy the bottle of shell less mussells (sic)?"

I'll be the first to admit that Abbott is neither a likeable person or good prime minister material, but with no viable third alternative, I'll take him and his misogyny over Roxon's 1984-esque data retention scheme and continual attempts to increase the states right at the expense of the citizens, Conroy's 'see no evil' compulsory internet filtering and the extension of the confounding NT 'intervention' scheme that continues to pump money in to a bottomless pit but doesn't actually result in better lives for the Australian Aboriginals it's supposed to help...

Gillard's character is plainly on display. She ignores the blatant sexism of the man she, and her AG Nicola Roxon, defended and refuse to hang out to dry, but when he is revealed to be exactly what she despises, she invokes her dead father and plays the "they're picking on me cos I'm a woman" card to try and divert attention from the trainwreck that is her government. She's not even a toenail clipping from Maggie Thatcher who took to the game of politics as if men had never owned it, never hiding behind the fact she was a woman.

"Space Ass"
"I'll do it!" --Nicolas Cage

My winning picks:

1. Bruce Campbell
2. Nicolas Cage
3. Bruce Willis

>> ^Reefie:

>> ^Lethin:
1 min in, stopped. wish i could get the min back.
F you music industry. F you for ruining music.

Hahaha what would you rather be listening to?

Loaded question. but i'll play your game.
this.

tron legacy - the son of flynn
and
Deadmau5- Ghosts and stuff
and
GITS2 - INTRO
also
clean-the-fan-song
to
Samuel Barber: Agnus Dei (Adagio for strings)

but dont get me wrong. i have my guilty pleasures (also, i dont usually use HMTL coding, so im sorry if its broken links)

>> ^Lethin:
1 min in, stopped. wish i could get the min back.
F you music industry. F you for ruining music.


Hahaha what would you rather be listening to?

>> ^Crooksandliars:

Leading demands for a revised strategy, French Socialist Francois Hollande, a reader of Krugman, tops President Nicolas Sarkozy in the polls with the warning that putting debt-cutting over expansion is “bringing desperation to people.” Elsewhere, Greeks are turning to anti-austerity parties, recession-wracked Spain and Italy are relaxing deficit targets, the Dutch government is splintering and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is calling for a “growth compact.”
.


This attitude strikes me as totally bogus. We think the European voters are voting on macro-economic policy? They're throwing out governments because they're unhappy, and they're installing people who promise them higher spending because they like having the government that spends money on them. Italy and Spain aren't revising their deficit targets because of some new found economic enlightenment, they simply lack the willpower or competence to live within their means.

Maybe stimulative policies are better than austerity. I'm not an economist, so I don't know. What I do know is that voters and politicians haven't stopped being short-sighted.

>> ^kceaton1:

That was a great interview. Drive was a great movie and now that I have seen that these two are capable of such off-the-cuff witty banter (like @MilkmanDan says, random stuff and subject matter) it comes to no surprise as to why that was so.
The opening chase scene in Drive will forever be one of the best cop/robber chases on film. Pure gold on celluloid (or 1s and 0s)...


They DO make a really cute couple.

>> ^deathcow:

I liked the Prometheus trailer better than any 2011 films


I don't know if I necessarily agree with that, but 2012 is definitely going to kick 2011's ass, cinematically. You've got Prometheus, The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, Star Trek 2, John Carter, Skyfall, Cabin in the Woods, not to mention new films from people like Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Rian Johnson, Derek Cianfrance, Steven Soderbergh, Alfonso Cuaron, Nicolas Winding Refn, and a movie directed by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis. Plus: not one, but TWO NEW ARNIE MOVIES! 2012 -- best year ever? Possibly.

>> ^DerHasisttot:

>> ^ponceleon:
>> ^DerHasisttot:
Must... resist... Shatneresque... urge... to punch... these... "mothers"... in... the... face!

I'd say it is a Nicolas Cage in The Wicker Man urge actually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VuIShM5kAQ


LOL! Dude I forgot about that... still I think it probably has just a bit too much love for this woman.

>> ^ponceleon:

>> ^DerHasisttot:
Must... resist... Shatneresque... urge... to punch... these... "mothers"... in... the... face!

I'd say it is a Nicolas Cage in The Wicker Man urge actually.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VuIShM5kAQ

>> ^DerHasisttot:

Must... resist... Shatneresque... urge... to punch... these... "mothers"... in... the... face!


I'd say it is a Nicolas Cage in The Wicker Man urge actually.

You may be right, it does seem like every time "we" get involved it turns to shit faster - it could be that it's shit already and the media exposure makes it apparent to us. I dunno. I'm not a politician, general or intelligence officer, I can only work on the evidence in front of me.

It's basically one big shit storm either way.
>> ^radx:

Well, we are sitting and watching as civilians are butchered, aren't we? Jemen and Bahrain are right nextdoor, but those dictatorships are still backed up. Not to mention the Saudis, who sent troops to gun down the protest in Bahrain.
And who are "the people" in Lybia? I still haven't heard any clear information about the rebels in Libya. From where I'm standing, it still looks very much like a fight between different clans, a civil war. Egypt in particular can't be compared, almost the entire people were rebelling against Mubarak. That's clearly not the case in Libya.
We know jack shit about the domestic context of all the non-Gaddafi actors on the ground, so the kind of intervention currently taking place, an external intervention for mixed motivations, is likely to backfire. Mixed motivations, because I don't believe for a second that oil and particularly the refugee issue are not taken into account in any decision making process.
I'm not saying the UN resolution is right or wrong, I'm simply saying it's a fucking hypocrisy to start a "humanitarian intervention" while supporting the same behaviour next door. Not that I believe in any reasonable chance of success of such an intervention by NATO powers without strong support from at least Turkey and the Arab nations anyway. The Arab League already condemned the airstrikes, so their support is not as strong as it was claimed to be. And why would it, both the Arab League and the CCASG consist of oppressive regimes themselves. If the Arab nations were serious about ending Gaddafi's rule over his people, they would have to take the lead on this one. The track record of NATO/EU intervention is one catastrophe after another, so it has to be them.
There is an obligation to help the civilians currently being slaughtered, but the current plan appears to have risks for the Libyan people outweighing the humanitarian benefit. The best use of the UNSC Resolution seems to use it as little as possible. Any form of escalation will only make things worse. It's up to the opposition now to demonstrate that they have the backing of the people, then their political and popular weight could cause the regime to implode.
Still, it just feels like Kosovo all over again, UÇK and everything, but worse.
>> ^gwiz665:
The people are trying to stand up to him, and he's committing outright genocide. Of course, we must do what we can to help the people liberate themselves. Unlike Iraq, this is not just for the hell of it - we are helping the people free themselves, when they do not have the strength themselves, as opposed to Egypt, Tunesia and so on.
If we sit and watch as the civilians are butchered, we are no better (or at least very little better) than the butchers ourselves.

Sarkozy might have reasons of his own, domestic ones. And let's not forget that just last year, France backed Morocco against the civil uprise in Western Sahara by blocking the UN.
>> ^GeeSussFreeK:
even though I think it is France (lol?) leading the charge on this one.

Well, we are sitting and watching as civilians are butchered, aren't we? Jemen and Bahrain are right nextdoor, but those dictatorships are still backed up. Not to mention the Saudis, who sent troops to gun down the protest in Bahrain.

And who are "the people" in Lybia? I still haven't heard any clear information about the rebels in Libya. From where I'm standing, it still looks very much like a fight between different clans, a civil war. Egypt in particular can't be compared, almost the entire people were rebelling against Mubarak. That's clearly not the case in Libya.

We know jack shit about the domestic context of all the non-Gaddafi actors on the ground, so the kind of intervention currently taking place, an external intervention for mixed motivations, is likely to backfire. Mixed motivations, because I don't believe for a second that oil and particularly the refugee issue are not taken into account in any decision making process.

I'm not saying the UN resolution is right or wrong, I'm simply saying it's a fucking hypocrisy to start a "humanitarian intervention" while supporting the same behaviour next door. Not that I believe in any reasonable chance of success of such an intervention by NATO powers without strong support from at least Turkey and the Arab nations anyway. The Arab League already condemned the airstrikes, so their support is not as strong as it was claimed to be. And why would it, both the Arab League and the CCASG consist of oppressive regimes themselves. If the Arab nations were serious about ending Gaddafi's rule over his people, they would have to take the lead on this one. The track record of NATO/EU intervention is one catastrophe after another, so it has to be them.

There is an obligation to help the civilians currently being slaughtered, but the current plan appears to have risks for the Libyan people outweighing the humanitarian benefit. The best use of the UNSC Resolution seems to use it as little as possible. Any form of escalation will only make things worse. It's up to the opposition now to demonstrate that they have the backing of the people, then their political and popular weight could cause the regime to implode.

Still, it just feels like Kosovo all over again, UÇK and everything, but worse.
>> ^gwiz665:

The people are trying to stand up to him, and he's committing outright genocide. Of course, we must do what we can to help the people liberate themselves. Unlike Iraq, this is not just for the hell of it - we are helping the people free themselves, when they do not have the strength themselves, as opposed to Egypt, Tunesia and so on.
If we sit and watch as the civilians are butchered, we are no better (or at least very little better) than the butchers ourselves.


Sarkozy might have reasons of his own, domestic ones. And let's not forget that just last year, France backed Morocco against the civil uprise in Western Sahara by blocking the UN.
>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

even though I think it is France (lol?) leading the charge on this one.

>> ^dannym3141:

I think he's a fan-fucking-tastic actor when he picks the right films. Leaving Las Vegas really couldn't have been anyone else. And in Kick-Ass - quirky, interesting, engaging? And i thought he suited The Rock perfectly.
Sometimes amazing, sometimes terrible.


A friend and I were discussing actors the other day.

Some we like, some we hate (looking at you, Hayden Christensen), but we also got on to Nicholas Cage.

Basically, what we realized, was that his films are nuts. He's extreme, he either makes really GOOD movies (Con Air, Kick-ass, Lord of War etc.) or some really TERRIBLE movies (Bangkok Dangerous, etc.) With next to none falling into any form of middleground. The only one I can think of off-hand is really Next, which was entertaining, but only mind-numbingly so.