Bush Still A Moron After All These Years

Although we are talking about George Bush, you'd think or hope that after eight years as the leader of the (less) free world he'd know more about his job than when he came in. Despite his failures as President (and there are many) it might be possible that he was aware of the world institutions that he screwed over on an usual basis. Though not surprisingly, he still is oblivious to groups like the G20 and acts like a petulant child when confronted about his ignorance.

From ThinkProgress:

During a telephone call last month, President Bush told Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that he thought the global financial crisis ought to be handled within the G7 framework. But Rudd advised that the plan was “out of touch” and that it “made no sense…to take action on the crisis without engaging China.”

Instead, Rudd insisted that the best response should involve the broader G20 — which includes China — in order to harness China’s role as an emerging economic power and “to prevent the Chinese using the global crisis to make political points about the failure of Western capitalism.” But according to The Australian newspaper, Bush had no idea what the G20 was.[...]

Well the G20 met this past weekend in Washington and the President showed his pettiness in rare form:

First there was the cool personal reception — now Kevin Rudd has been left out of the official White House photograph album.

Snaps on the White House website show George W Bush greeting 17 world leaders at the weekend G20 summit.

But his photo with Mr Rudd, who received a visibly frosty reception from the President, has somehow gone missing. The move appears to confirm a presidential snub of Mr Rudd over the leaking of a phone conversation he had with Mr Bush.

I know I've said it a million times already since Bush was re-elected, but I seriously wish it were January 20, 2009 so we as a nation can act like adults with the world again. I'm almost positive Kevin Rudd was thinking the same thing when talking to George. Well Prime Minister Rudd, only sixty-three days and change to go!

Politicians Can Keep Their Promises

Not just little promises, but big ones too, like promising to get out of Iraq. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made it happen for Australia and it can happen here too (just not this year):

Aussies Prefer Bums To Bush

This is what Australians think of our President. If you don't like seeing bare Aussie arses, you may not want to click play:

George Bush: Still A Bumbling Idiot

We are now in our seventh torturous year of George Bush's presidency and yet he still manages to make a fool of himself wherever he goes. Today was another shining example of what a buffoon he truly is.

From The Huffington Post:

He'd only reached the third sentence of Friday's speech to business leaders, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, when he committed his first gaffe.

"Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit," Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Oops. That would be APEC, the annual meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim nations, not OPEC, the cartel of 12 major oil producers.

Bush quickly corrected himself. "APEC summit," he said forcefully, joking that Howard had invited him to the OPEC summit next year (for the record, an impossibility, since neither Australia nor the U.S. are OPEC members).

The president's next goof went uncorrected _ by him anyway. Talking about Howard's visit to Iraq last year to thank his country's soldiers serving there, Bush called them "Austrian troops."

His grand finale at APEC was to walk off stage the wrong way. Thankfully his pal Australian PM John Howard steered him towards the stairs instead of a precipitous drop off the platform. Not only does Bush fail in his policies and general "Presidentin." He can't talk, walk or see straight. The only thing I'm wondering is whether this had something to do with Jack Daniels or something more local to the event like Fosters?

Sydney On Lockdown For Georgie

Looking at the streets of Sydney, you would think they were preparing for a full-scale invasion in the city. No, Tasmanians are not declaring war on the mainland, it is just that George Bush is planning to come to town. See, Australians hate him so much (except for their soon to be departed PM John Howard) they are going to protest him on an unprecedented scale. Apparently the riot police chief is shaking in his boots. Not that anyone wants to do him harm, they just want him the hell out of their country...and to end the occupation of Iraq. Authorities are going ape-shit anyways.

From RawStory:

Many of the city's usually bustling streets were almost deserted amid the security operation involving 5,000 police and troops, with just a few onlookers hoping to catch a glimpse of the US leader through the security fence.

Some retailers, particularly high-end fashion and jewellery stores, were closed -- with signs in their windows saying they would reopen after APEC.

Pavement garbage bins were sealed off with plastic covers while private security guards stood on duty outside office towers.

Some city centre businesses have reported a 50 percent fall in takings, although bicycle courier Rangi Smith said he had not been too badly affected.

"I can get around pretty easy on the bike but it's the pedestrians I'm worried about," he said, gesturing to onlookers near the security fence.

"They look like they're in a cage -- it's like they're imprisoned in their own city."

Sounds more like a raging case of paranoia and nothing that resembles sanity. The police seem to be creating something out of nothing. Protesting against a tyrant should be perfectly legal. The police do not want to give that impression for the media though, instead of showing Bush as the barbarian, they'll do anything to put the protesters in a bad light. Shame on the Aussie cops for this.

Evacuating Australia

Climate change is affecting the entire planet, from severe snowstorms in Colorado, the melting Alps and Arctic Sea, excessive heat in Europe this spring and now the massive drought in Australia. The land down under is being hit particularly hard because of the severe lack of water across the continent. In fact, things are getting so bad, that entire towns are now being considered for evacuation.

From The Courier Mail:

TWO towns on Queensland's Darling Downs face evacuation because they have almost run out of water and cannot afford to indefinitely cart supplies.

Senior state bureaucrats have discussed the possibility of moving residents from Leyburn, population 200, and Killarney, home to 1500 people.

One of Leyburn's two bores has run dry and there are fears the other could follow.

It is costing $8000 a week to cart water to Killarney, which is at the source of the Murray Darling river system.

These are just two small towns in the eastern Australian state of course. Yet the drought is affecting the entire country. Imagine what would happen if the situation got so dire that major international cities like Brisbane or Sydney would have to be evacuated. Would you move the population nearby to Eastern Asia? Or to cold and rainy Canada? Things are getting so crazy down there over water that weathermen are turning to the aborigines for predictions and dirty car owners are finding nude car washes.

People, climate change is serious business. This is just one example of the many changes forced upon human life that is the result of human life and waste. We must change our way of life and live more in harmony with the planet. If we don't, there will be bigger evacuations, as the seas rise and swallow islands, eventually many more places will be submerged. Eventually, there will be no place to turn.

Lights Out In Sydney

For an hour earlier this evening, most of Sydney, Australia was shrouded in an unusual cloak of darkness. The problem was not a lack of electricity but the effects of a campaign to increase awareness for reducing energy consumption. It was a city-wide effort where the world-famous opera house, businesses and ordinary Sydneysiders (as they are called down under) took the time to shut their lights and remember that we need to conserve our natural resources.

Of course the one hour event will not do much in the overall scheme of things. Instead the organizers of the event were looking for people to realize their impact on the world and the reality of climate change. Australia may not consume oil and other natural resources like the U.S does, but they do keep the lights on like most countries in the Western world.

From the BBC:

Greg Bourne of environmental group WWF, one of the driving forces behind Earth Hour, said the big switch off took months to plan.

"The logistics is really quite amazing in the sense every tower block is owned by one company, maybe leased by another company, have 10 tenants in and a manager and working through all of these people has been fantastic."

Many restaurants signed up and planned to serve diners by candlelight.

The owner of the Newtown Hotel, which says it is Australia's oldest gay bar, told the BBC before the blackout that they would have fun while trying to send a serious message.

"Sometimes drag queens [female impersonators] do look better in the dark anyway," said Roger Zee.

"It's up to the patrons. They'll actually have their own torches so they'll be able to light up the drag queens on the stage themselves."

If the queens of drag can get involved so can the rest of us. No offense to drag queens of course. In all, climate change is serious business and we all need to do our part to sustain the planet that we live on. Conserving energy is the least we can do.