So....

I once read that the last year of office for a US president is spent ensuring their legacy. So exactly what is Georgie Dubblyah's legacy for posterity? Here's a few things to ponder.

1. Taking his country and others, including my own, to war in Iraq on what was eventually proven to be a lie.

2. Gradually dismantling practically every welfare initiative put in place by the Clinton administration.

3. Proving the most inept response to national disaster in the Western world in the wake of Hurricane Katrina yet refusing the offer of assistance from other agencies around the world (the cartoon, Family Guy, showed Georgie hiding in a treehouse after Katrina - it's as good an explanation as anything else).

4. Electoral practices widely believed to be dubious at best although I doubt we will ever learn the full story of that first election win.

5. Flatly refusing to acknowledge the threat of global warming, even forcing government scientists to rewrite reports playing this down (did you really think pretending it didn't exist that this would just go away Georgie boy?)

And now...

6. In the wake of a string of major financial collapses, Georgie Dubblyah has admitted that the entire US economy is about to go into meltdown.

In an global environment where energy commodity prices have driven enormous revenue potential all around the world, how is that the USA has managed to avoid being a recipient? How is it that such a massive economy has been allowed to descend into such chaos? Just what role has the hideous expense of the Bush vendetta in the Middle East played in this by robbing the US economy of obviously badly needed funding?

President Trueman famously kept a sign on his desk: 'the buck stops here'. So where is the buck going to stop now? At a time when hundreds of Americans are reportedly loosing their homes every week, you can be sure that Georgie Dubblyah and has buddies won't be losing anything. Instead, Mr Dubblyah will be spending the remainder of his life in protected luxury, significantly funded by the US public purse. And you can be pretty sure that when the inevitable book comes out, although you can be equally assured that the infamously inarticulate Georgie Dubblyah will have someone else write it for him, it will all be somebody else's fault.

And many Australians thought we had it bad with Johnny Howard.

An update on the hunt for the kangaroo abusers

The RSPCA inform me that there has not been any luck as yet in tracking down the clowns who bravely attacked an injured kangaroo - see my last post. However due to the collected wisdom of these [expletive] first videoing their stunt and then posting it to the Internet, they are being tracked down courtesy of the marvels of our Internet age. I would award them one of my Popsicle Awards except that there definitely is more than an icy pole stick keeping their ears apart - their heads are stuffed full of idiocy and sadistic cruelty.

Let us hope that justice is meted out soon and severely.

Again I ask, if you can help, please contact the RSPCA.

I shall continue to track this story and post more news on it as it comes to hand.

Can you help?

It has taken me some days to write this entry but each time I started to type it up, I became too angry and upset to finish it.

I recently saw an item on the news that both angered and sickened me. The news program broadcast video footage of a young man, kicking and punching a kangaroo until it lay on the ground, at best senseless, at worst, dead. For those who are not particularly familiar with kangaroos, they can move pretty darn quickly. If cornered and are forced to, they can cause some serious damage with massive toes claws on the ends of their massive feet although the first instinct is too run (or rather, to hop). The kangaroo in this footage was clearly unable to get away, suggesting that it was injured in some way.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24329940-2,00.html

This brave bloke was dashing in, punching and kicking and then backing away again out of reach, laughing hysterically the whole time. The clown operating the camera thought it was all great fun.

Sickening.

The video was allegedly posted to a service hosted by an ISP in Western Australia and was brought to the attention of the RSPCA. The RSPCA allege that they contacted the ISP trying to get the item removed but the provider refused for a week. I found that to be almost equally as sickening - that a hosting service can be made aware that it is being used to house and presumably to disseminate material like that and do nothing for a week.

The RSPCA are asking for public assistance in tracking the perpetrators down. Surely they could start by having the police sequester the service provider's records and track down who posted it?

Everyone involved in this sickening matter needs to be tracked down and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for this cruel and cowardly act.

An argument can be made for things like hunting - I used to be a hunter myself until I obtained a different perspective on things - but this was sheer wanton cruelty.

If you are able to help track these bastards down, please contact the Australian RSPCA immediately: http://www.rspca.com.au/contact.asp.

Popsicle Award for a postie

The postal services around the world seem collect some strange types. For example, a small post office in my home town had a postie who was actually illiterate - truly! But this latest news out of Germany takes the cake.

According to www.news.com.au, a young Scotsman was employed by the postal authorities in Frankfurt, Germany, as a postie. This bright spark decided that he was too busy to actually deliver his allocated mail, so for a year he threw out and hoarded at least 20,000 letters. A neighbour spotted him tossing a heap of it out into the rubbish and dobbed him in. When police arrived to check things out, apparently they found mail hidden away in a wardrobe, under his mattress and in other places inside his flat. The postie then took the police down to the building's storage cellar where he had hidden away even more.

When police checked things out, they even found mail addressed to this bloke in among the hoarded stuff.

His excuse? Because he was attending night school to earn his secondary school diploma, allegedly found it too overwhelming to carry the mail as well.

This bright spark wins the latest awarding of my Popsicle Stick Award for only having a popsicle stick keeping his ears apart.

You want ... more?

cried the beadle. So he reluctantly handed over another blog - The Broken Nib.

Another hurricane is about to hit New Orleans. President George Dubbleya has cancelled his appearance at the Republican convention (no doubt to the relief of many in the Republican party). A White House spokesman has announced that Georgie Dubbleya cancelled the appearance in order to ensure that his entire attention is focused on the New Orleans situation.

What a relief that must be to the citizens of New Orleans and thereabouts. But does this mean that Georgie Dubbleya's attention was somewhere else during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? That would at least explain why US authorities were so incredibly slow to send in relief. Yet they refused help from other agencies that volunteered assistance on the ground there. Of course, just how much good is Georgie Dubbleya's 'entire attention' going to be. Like, is the attention of a mentally deranged amoeba really worth that much to anyone?

Georgie Dubbleya would be receiving my Popsicle Award for having a Popsicle stick keeping his ears apart, except I doubt he has even that much in there and is in danger of imminent cranial collapse.

South Park and Britney - not a good combination

I love South Park. Such a clever and bloody funny show along with its social and political commentary. But Matt Stone and Trey Parker have just managed to make me feel distinctly uncomfortable for the first time.

As I type, an episode is playing that makes fun of both Britney Spears and the way people obsess with her etc. Early in the show, the South Park kids trick their way into Britney's motel room, pretending to be her children. An upset Britney was on the telephone but on hearing that her kids were there, really brightened up. On realising that it wasn't her kids, the cartoon Britney put a shotgun in her mouth and blew most of her head away.

No, I didn't think it was funny.

From there, the program focussed on the inappropriate media attention so often turned on her.

I have to admit to having quite a soft spot for Ms Spears. In some pictures, she reminds me almost painfully of the great love of my life who passed away several years back. While her music doesn't do a lot for me as a rule, having watched some of her performances on television, it is obvious even to this old fart that the girl is a knock out performer when on the top of her game.

Just what is this obsession with Britney Spears? The poor girl can't move without media crawling all over. I recall watching an episode of E! one evening, when I was too lazy to even bother changing the channel, only to see them airing footage of Britney visiting a petrol station for cigarettes at something like 4am. She can't even slip out to the all night servo for a pack of smokes without it becoming 'entertainment news'.

My God but I feel sorry for this girl. She was a young teen when she ended up in the entertainment 'business'. She didn't have a normal childhood. She didn't have a family around her as she grew up in that insanity. All that anybody around her seems to want is what they can get out of her. The poor girl was little more than a gibbering, mental wreck yet her recording company pushed her back into the studio, putting out another album, even giving her an Executive Producer credit on it. Maybe Britney wanted to be back in the studio, but was she ready for it? I doubt it. The rest of us would have most likely have been in psychiatric care.

There is so much garbage written about Britney Spears. On one occassion, I walked into a newsagents and was assaulted by headline after headline about Britney. One magazine after another was making wild claims. Britney's engaged! Britney's pregnant! Will Britney ever find true love again? How can one person generate so much rubbish attention? I spend much more time around waiting rooms at the doctor's and at hospital than I would like to. What else is there to do but read the old magazines and get updated on the gossip. Go on, ask me. Ask me for some details about Britney's relationship with Kevin Federline as reported by magazines like Gossip or OK! Or what about Jessica Simpson's breasts (apparently they are real, but that is another article for another time).

A more recent report alleges Ms Spears spending a lot of time at Marilyn Monroe's graveside, obsessing over how much pain Monroe was in when she took her life (or was assassinated, depending on who you believe). Take it from me, that is not healthy behaviour.

Perhaps it is time that everyone began to take a more mature approach to this attention to Britney Spears. Is it really necessary to follow her every single tiny movement? To follow her up stairs, shoving the camera beneath her skirt to take happy snaps of her butt? Hoping that she has another bad episode, going without panties in company of media whores like Paris Hilton? Maybe if the consumers send the message through to the gossip media that we want the girl left alone, then she will be able to try to regain her life. Otherwise, next time it may not be just a cartoon that is blowing its head off.