And now the further doings of POTUS, Bronwyn Bishop, the world of Rosewarne and the world of chairman Rupert ...

Typically it was POTUS (that's OPTUS to you know nothing anti-Murdochians) who set the tone for the week with this message last night.

While the news about cyberlockers has fallen off the front pages, the fall-out from the Megaupload affair has been a virtual massacre of sites (Cyberlocker Ecosystem Shocked As Big Players Take Drastic Action).

The funniest thing? All this happened without the help of SOPA or other draconian legislation. Turns out that the authorities had ways of tackling the issue all along ...

Of course there's already been some kicking back (Anonyupload: faceless group steps in after Kim Dotcom's arrest) but the point is, there are already plenty of laws available in relation to breaches of intellectual property rights, and contrary to talk of the intertubes being the wild west, what users get up to is easily trackable. And if you get to a certain size, you become noticeable ... and steps can be taken.

Somedays the pond feels like making wildly defamatory statements about certain politicians to prove the point, but then again, even a minnow can cop a Meryl Tankard Reist, so maybe not ...

Meanwhile, what else is new in the world of the digerati? Well yesterday they had the splendid chance to see Bronwyn "Kerosene bath" Bishop shedding crocodile tears and maintaining the rage in Labor's mean-spirited attack on our most vulnerable.

Now think what you will of the proposal to remove high income earners of the 30 per cent rebate in relation to private health insurance - parliament has already rejected it twice, so it will be a tough sell third time around - but the proposal relates to ending the right to claim for individuals earning more than $80,000 a year and families earning more than $160,000 a year (New push to means test the private health rebate).

In relation to these figures, Bishop manages to produce some splendid statistical gobbledegook:

Peter Slipper had good reason to vote down this mean-spirited means test because 58 per cent of his voters are over 50 years old, 32,000 of those being over 60 years. 70 per cent of his electorate earn less than $50,000.

Oh the beauty of data. But wait there's more, a further frumious, furious, flurry of floozy figures:

The Government’s own figures show that of the 10.3 million people with private health insurance, more than half live in households with incomes of less than $50,000 a year and of these 3.4 million live in households with incomes of less than $35,000 a year.
These people will bear the worst of the pain.

And how will that happen? Seeing as these figures have actually nothing to do with the means test target?

Well there'll be a demise of regional private hospitals and the disappearance of visiting specialists, and the whole private system will collapse and we'll all be rooned.

And then the wild and woolly rhetoric disappears into the world of the north shore and shrieking privilege:

The private health insurance rebate is a moral issue. The Medicare system is a universal system. It only works because the private health system is an integral part of it and must also remain universal and therefore means test free.

The rebate was a policy introduced by the Howard Government to rebuild private health insurance participation after it was decimated by the Hawke and Keating Governments.

A moral issue! Would Bronwyn Bishop know a moral issue if it bit her on the Riverside nursing home bum?

Well can anyone punching on at the punch-drunk Punch out punch Bronnie?

Sure can. Come on down Lauren Rosewarne scribbling Sex scandals should not render a leader impotent.

Bizarrely she tries to give Newt Gingrinch a 'get out of jail' card in relation to his behaviour:

I’m not advocating Newt’s behaviour. Quite clearly he’s a scumbag.

Uh huh. He's a scumbag, but on the principle that everyone should be able to have their cake and eat it too, his scumbaggery should be completely ignored:

My position however, is that provided he is not committing any crimes, his personal life is entirely his own. Instead, I am suggesting that the obsession with moral character needs to be put on the backburner. That arbitrarily plucking a single personal indiscretion out and expecting it to function as a predictor of performance in office is insanity and that doing so has resulted in some very good politicians being ousted.

Well it's a noble ideal, and to break Godwin's law just briefly, it would have worked a treat for Adolf Hitler, who was inclined to vegetarianism, and a relatively discreet private life, mixing marriage (to set things right) and suicide (to set things right).

If only Newt himself had lived up to Ms. Rosewarne's lofty ideals, no doubt all would be well in the United States. But readers only had to reach the second comment to see Rosewarne's bit of trolling laid to rest:

The problem is these people run on themes of family values and moral judgement against others. These two things underpin their entire political outlook. If they can’t abide by the foundation of their political philosophy, it is correct to question their ability to lead.

Indeed. Glass houses and all that. Now hop into your time machine Ms. Rosewarne and go back in time to suggest to Newt that maybe, just maybe, leading the charge to impeach Bill Clinton over an intern blow job, while fucking around on the side, was a tad problematic for a politician wanting to live in a Rosewarney world.

Of course Gingrinch dressed up his Clinton campaign as protecting the sanctity of depositions, with never a no mind for the sanctity of depositions to partners, along the lines of "oh no honey, of course I'm not fucking around". (Gingrich impeached Clinton to preserve sanctity of depositions).

There's plenty of fun at Wonkette about Newt, about him getting non-wife blowjobs during Bill Clinton's blowjob hearings (here), and how Newt Gingrinch committed adultery because American made him horny, and how in another place his infidelities helped him to understand how to impeach Clinton.

Of all the candidates to try to get off the hook in relation to personal lives ...

Of course private lives should be private lives, but when you run around celebrating traditional marriage while fucking around like a rabbit in untraditional ways, even blind Freddy (no disrespect to the blind or Freddy intended) might realise that questions will be raised ...

Take it away Doonesbury and click to enlarge:


And finally, since the pond asked the question of what was happening with The Australian, at last some news from the Murdoch front line in Whittaker in the firing line at News Limited.

Oh it's juicy, and it's not just the Daily Terror and the wretched Whittaker likely to see changes, it seems that the HUN still intends to roll out a subscriber paywall in March.

Bring it on. Oh frabjous day, callooh callay, the pond chortled in its joy.

Could this mean that Andrew Bolt is a Dickhead awareness week will now have to be re-titled Andrew Bolt is a dickhead locked behind a paywall awareness week?

Probably not, but hope, how it springs eternal ...

And now a reminder of your June awareness duties, provided you don't have to breach a paywall to pay your respects ... take it away First Dog ...