CLUELESS: Lindsay Lohan praises Obama with racist derogatory term

Hollywood lefty lesbian Lindsay Lohan has “used a derogatory term for African Americans most commonly used by racist character Archie Bunker in the 1970s sitcom ‘All In the Family.'” “It’s an amazing feeling. It’s our first, you know, colored president,” the 22-year-old actress said when asked about President-Elect Barack Obama’s recent election win.

NAILED: NSW Government hammered

In Sydney, today’s Daily Telegraph leader dripped in vitriol. Naturally, we loved the tone, although it’s difficult to agree the NSW government and its Treasurer Eric Roozendaal ought not be doing whatever it takes to protect the state’s AAA credit rating.

Even words like gimcrack got a run, brain-dead hillbilly cousins, Callous irresponsible deceit, Rees was called a “nice bloke” while others were described variously as “a human hologram”, “the most hated man in state politics” etc. Tim Blair’s fingerprints are surely on the piece.

As much fun as a good takedown can be, the lesson in politics for those governing in tough time is make tough decisions now or be crucified later, even if just in Opposition years later.

As Labor in Victoria discovered under Cain/Kirner, that credit rating is a pretty important political symbol, aside from the implications for the costs of borrowing, losing it can have a devastating impact. Kennett was able to trade on that for many years, and justifiably so.

Interesting that Piers Akerman was in Melbourne for the demolition of the Labor government in the early 90s. He’ll be in Sydney for the demolition ball job on these blokes too. He must be loving it.

Any doubt how much of an open season has been declared on the government was removed by the usually very Labor friendly Ray Hadley on 2GB who went troppo today, even calling NSW Premier Rees “absolutely corrupt – because you haven’t got a clue” and other bon mots.

We don’t think much of Rees but his self-control was commendable.

It’s going to a tough few years.

“Would they be better off handing the keys to Bernie O’Farrell and letting John Robertson take over from Opposition?” one Sussex Street operative mused this evening.

STOP THIEF: Socialist Leftist Gaetano Greco nervously awaits probe

 

Recently three young girls letterboxing for popular local medico Stanley Chiang in the bitterly fought contest for LaTrobe ward in Darebin’s council elections discovered El Greco aka Gaetano Greco following them pulling their pamphlets out of the boxes.

Legal experts tell VEXNEWS this is a breach of Victorian criminal provisions and of the laws governing elections. “He could end up in jail over this. Not sure what the other prisoners would make of him,” a leading barrister said this afternoon.

In the theft incident, a slightly-built young woman confronted the Alien-headed Greco, and said she had photographic evidence, and brandished her camera in defence of justice and freedom.

The cowardly Greco covered his face with the stolen pamphlets (what a picture it has made!), and fled.

In the absence of the real picture, which cannot be published for legal reasons as it could be evidence in a criminal prosecution, we provide some more showing the Council aspirant’s amazing resemblance to the aliens in Mars Attacks.

PATRIOTS ALL: Bush and Rudd remain partners in freedom

It is the policy of this website to thank America. To thank her for underwriting our national security in case we faced invasion or serious threat. To thank her for fighting for freedom on some of its most treacherous frontiers, in Iraq and elsewhere. To thank her for her example of enterprise, innovation and liberty which all countries would do well to emulate.

But the fuss about nothing over Prime Minister Rudd’s alleged assertion (most probably a joke) that President Bush didn’t know what the G20 was seems more than a little overblown. It must have been meant humorously given the phone call they had was about the G20 itself.

So the question of whether there was a “leak” of the phone call doesn’t arise.

He was merely “taking the piss”, not “leaking”, in the smarmy, superior way that many at DFAT affect. As it happens Rudd isn’t usually that uppity, at least by the standards of that snooty, effete and left-wing Arabist department.

Unlike many we regard President Bush as a good man, who faced America’s greatest challenges in recent times with quiet grace and decency.

Sometimes he made mistakes (this being the most recent of them) but liberating Iraq was not one of them. Indeed, with the “surge” working and al-Qaeda on the run, history may well vindicate him on Iraq, an issue that essentially ultimately crippled him politically.

But insulting him, in jest and with some affection, about not always seeming to be the sharpest tool in the shed, seems perfectly OK. We doubt W cares. Being “misunderestimated” (as he once put it) was part of his shtick, like President Reagan before him. Both managed to do reasonably well in life, being Governor of their state and two-term Presidents.

And both Rudd and Bush remain in firm agreement about the big issues of our time.

Whether our Prime Minister did say anything mildly disparaging about the President in front of the editor of The Australian or whoever or not strikes us as totally irrelevant. The “cut-through” of this issue beyond Canberra is just about nil. Malcolm Turnbull has been blessed with the chance of opposing a new- and often maladroit – administration that faces a global financial crisis. The opportunity for him to win in 2010 is there but he won’t do it with non-issues.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH: Mayoral candidate admits skipping 50% of council meetings

Lord Mayoral wannabe Catherine Ng has scandalously admitted today that she missed as many as 50% of Council meetings in her seven long lazy years as Melbourne councillor.

She was asked:

Q: On a blog yesterday, one of the readers said you’d only been to 50% of council meetings. is that true? how do you justify that?

A: Hi there Worker. That is untrue. Over seven years my attendance record  for council meetings exceeds 50 per cent. I stand by my record. Currently I am a full-time employee of William Angliss Institute. If I can’t come to a meeting, I have a very good reason but not an excuse. I will be a full-time lord mayor that would avoid conflicts with other business commitments.   I am committed to be the most progressive lord mayor of Melbourne.

Despite missing half the meetings, the public servant at one of Victoria’s TAFEs and 50% effort councillor Ng has been no slacker in going to Council-paid lavish black-tie dinners of the kind photographed above. She is often the first to RSVP, according to her council colleagues and is often the last to leave a function, relying on her dutiful consort Douglas to drive her home lest she breach the ban on drunk driving.

RESIDENTS ANGRY AT NG’S BAD RECORD

And while her attendance record is the worst of any councillor she’s been collecting the $35,000 annual or $700 per week council allowance in full and has refused calls from ratepayers to return the money she hasn’t earned.

One residents association activist told VEXNEWS this afternoon “Council meetings rarely exceed seven hours a week. So she’s being paid $100 per hour by ratepayers and still won’t turn up. It stinks. Over seven years, it adds up to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ill-gotten gain. If she had any decency she’d return the money.”

In a startling online forum conducted by our friends at the Herald Sun online, the chair of Melbourne’s planning committee responsible for the rising tide of booze-fuelled violence in the city:

â–  LIED when she claimed there were only two A4 posters in the city that had been displayed and that she had removed them. VEXNEWS obtained photographic proof of what must be A2 concert promo sized ego posters which are still being displayed. A source within Catherine Ng’s campaign has already confirmed with us that Ng paid for the posters to be distributed;

â–  DENIED fudging her political affiliations;

â–  FALSELY DENIED that the City of Melbourne is the biggest taxing and spending municipality in Victoria, when it clearly is the largest by revenue and spend, according to Victoria’s Local Government department.

Even worse she appeared not to understand the question:

Q: On your watch the City of Melbourne has become the biggest taxing and spending municipality in Victoria. Will you cut rates if elected as Lord Mayor?

NG: Money, what you claim is untrue. The auditor-general has conducted an independent audit of the council. We have maintained a strong budget, lowest rates in Australia and a Triple A rating.

â–  PROPOSED a major upgrade of the Lord Mayoral limousine to a luxury Lexus hybrid sedan which costs over $200,000.

â–  PLEDGED to lead by example, despite failing to attend 50% of council meetings by her own admission.

â–  GAVE a confused answer about her plan to cut lighting in the city which could endanger the public.

â–  STRUGGLED to defend her bizarre plan to create the Council’s own vigilante posse of “City Safe Ambassadors” who would enjoy no Police powers and could be sitting ducks to the drunken violent thugs her planning regime have allowed to roam the City’s streets late at night.

â–  DEFENDED her lengthy service as Councillor over seven years, saying it gave her the experience she needed. Perhaps she’s still feeling fresh because she missed half the meetings.

â–  EXPLAINED her name Ng is actually Wu but is pronounced NG. Some locals are saying this stands for No Go or No Good or Not Going unless there’s champagne on ice.

It was easily the most interesting of the Hun’s online forums so far. Click here to see the whole thing.

PEDO: The Age makes light of Gary Glitter child rape crimes

The Age Online has been criticised by child protection groups following its disgusting ad placement on a story about child rapist Gary Glitter.

On a wire story about concerns over the use of Gary Glitter’s music on a Hewlett Packard advertisement, The Age has repeatedly displayed a Pfizer ad for erectile dysfunction, of the kind frequently used by drug abusing elderly baby boomers, and most probably used by Glitter prior to his molesting of young children in South-East Asia.

The singer was recently released from jail after serving a lengthy sentence for pedophile offences.

FIRESTORM: Baillieu and Singer's international race row explodes in Macedonia and Melbourne's press

The leader of the Victorian Opposition, Mr Ted Baillieu, and the flamboyant Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Gary Singer, have by their attendance at a controversial Greek rally created an international diplomatic incident, with the media in The Republic of Macedonia in the Balkans of Europe seizing on the issue.

VEXNEWS coverage of the debacle has itself attracted the attention of Macedonian television. An effort our sources should be well pleased with, matching our predecessor publication – The Other Cheek – which was featured on MSNBC for outing an fundamentalist Christian political candidate and his crimes of exhibitionism during the federal election.

Concerns are now that the neighbouring media in Greece will also jump on the controversy but in defence of Ted Baillieu and Gary Singer’s attendance at the Greek rally in Melbourne. Greek community insiders say they are hoping to downplay the issue, to avoid further embarrassment to their guests.

SITEL television station in The Republic of Macedonia ran with a report on the nightly news with the heading:

SKANDALOT NA PLOSHTADOT VO MELBOURNE

SCANDAL IN MELBOURNE CITY CENTRE

GRCITE SKANDIRAA MAKEDONIJA E GRCKA, A AVSTRALISKI FUNKTSIONERI – APLAUDIRAA

GREEKS CHANT ‘MACEDONIA IS GREECE’ AND AUSTRALIAN POLITICIANS APPLAUD

While the story is in Macedonian obviously, viewers will be able to see the video clip down the bottom of the page with a scene of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Ted Baillieu pictures and screengrabs from VEXNEWS.

The Herald Sun has also picked up the story which we reproduce below

NG: Mayoral candidate faces prosecution over posters

Catherine Ng’s campaign has been embroiled in scandal following Herald Sun revelations she will be prosecuted by the City of Melbourne for illegal election campaign posters.

As the Chair of the Council’s planning committee for the past seven years, she is responsible for the by-laws that govern where posters may be displayed.

The council can impose fines for each poster, which appear to have been put up by a professional poster distributor, paid for by Catherine Ng’s campaign.

According to the Herald Sun, the posters appear near a City of Melbourne sign that warns “bill posters will be prosecuted.

A council spokesperson told the Hun that such posters are illegal and are a “form of visual pollution.”

Ng bizarrely declared she did not know who put the posters up, despite paying someone to put them up, and promised yesterday to remove them.

VEXNEWS obtained a photograph of some of the posters displayed near Little Bourke and Russell Streets at 11AM, so clearly she’s not intended to honour that promise. Nothing new there, given she was elected seven years ago on a promise to scrap the Lord Mayor’s limousine. That never happened either.