As Lincoln said, you don’t change horses in midstream.
Lines For Obama (10)
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Table Talk: Bob Ellis on Film and Theatre
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Lincoln was a Republican
So … ?
So … he went back to running a pub maybe?
(albeit a phrase/jingle co-opted by Hawke’s ad campaign in … late ’84?)
(sorry, it was a line in the 1987 ‘Let’s Stick together’ campaign… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biA7ikU8Mm0 )
Bob, as you touched on in an earlier post, Obama is attending to responsibilities beyond the election at present. (Did I read that 2 billion bucks has been spent by the 2 candidates? There’s going to be a few storm victims who could’ve used some of that money!)
And, when he does go back on the hustings, it will be as the first black president going up against the Tea Party’s great white hope – (Sarah Palin recently urged Romney and Ryan to “go Rogue” and said America needs a “come to Jesus” moment over government and the national debt.)
So, while he might appreciate the line you offer here, I think the last person he’d want to quote is a president who got assassinated by a famous actor. Contrary to rumour, he didn’t own slaves though, so Barack might accept your offering after all.
I hope ‘come to Jesus’ and ‘go to God’ are two different things.
It disturbs me beyond words that anyone is peddling the story that Lincoln owned slaves. Washington yes, though I understand he eventually freed them. Jefferson, yes, and he did not free them.
Lincoln was a practical politician and his attitude to dealing with the fact of slavery was more nuanced, inevitably, than the abolitionist movement liked or the modern myth implies.
But he was always against it, and it is a gross libel to call him a slave-owner.
@ Jeremy Dixon:
I don’t want to extinguish a libel by peddling one, but I believe that the allegation about Lincoln owning slaves, which would have made him a hypocrite, began surfacing soon after his death and was largely promulgated by the newly formed secret society of white supremacists calling themselves the Knights of the White Camelia.
I’m not sure why it still has currency, but it’s time to lay it to rest.
By the way, there is a parallel libel which should be laid to rest.
Generations of schoolchildren will be able to recite this quote by heart:
“There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead” Google it, and YouTube Twitter and Facebook (YouTwitFace) will spew out this quote in every imaginable form.
What is almost impossible to tack down is the footage of the full quote:
“There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead, but lets be absolutely clear. I am determined to price carbon”
You might argue that the omitted portion doesn’t change anything, but think about this: if it doesn’t affect her stated intention, why then is it never, never mentioned?
So,keep believing that Gillard is a liar, and that Lincoln is a slave owner. The age of accuracy has been lynched. Strange fruit indeed.
It just doesn’t suit their propaganda, Dali.
The supine media repeat the partial quote; 11 words is manageable for the goldfish, but 22 words is a big ask.
@ Doug:
I never realised that ‘the quote’ is precisely half of the actual statement Julia Gillard made. Kind of reminds me of King Solomon ordering the dividing the baby in half to see who was telling the truth. Aah the good old days.
Speaking of the good old days, I remember in court you don’t swear to tell the truth – you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The twenty-two, not the eleven.
So, anytime anyone trots out the eleven, and says ‘liar’, drag them in front of a mirror, and tell them to point.
Well spotted. I’m slightly goldfish with Arithmetic.
As I am with Bingo, but I am told authoritatively that:
11 = Legs Eleven (a cryptic tribute to the gams in the Lodge); and
22 = Two Ducks (an unreleased text message from Ashby to Pyne – meaning not yet clear)
@ Dali
Do you have a link to the full video clip of Gillard qualifying her response that “there will be no Carbon Tax under the government I lead.”
I’d like to see her full transcript.
I also notice this comment from Wayne Swan around the same time saying:
“Certainly what we rejected is this hysterical allegation that somehow we are moving towards a Carbon Tax from the Liberal and their advertising. We certainly reject that.”
Are you saying he didn’t say those remarks?
Watch the clip. I presume that is his voice and its not doctored or falsified in any way.
@Frank:
as i said “What is almost impossible to tack down is the footage of the full quote:”
what i found was this:
http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/why-abbott-has-won-carbon-tax-debate
The Truth Hurts
Submitted by Damien Phillips on Fri, 2012-05-18 14:13.
The full Quote is;
“There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead, but lets be absolutely clear. I am determined to price carbon”
No lie, and a Price on Carbon is exactly what we are getting and exactly what the majority of Australians voted for at both the 2007 and 2011 Elections.
Thanks for that, Dali, I didn’t know the full quote. And although I follow the news less than some, I am averagely well-informed at least.
Disturbing that the ALP hasn’t been able to get the extra 11 words out into common currency. Lack of branch structure I guess, and lack of fighting spirit.
And a fucked media.
”
And it is as disappointing to me as it is to millions of Australians that we do not have a price on carbon… But first we will need to establish a community consensus for action. If elected as Prime Minister I will re-prosecute the case for a carbon price at home and abroad.”
From her first speech as PM. She forgot to add “unless I have to promise Bob Brown a Carbon DIOXIDE tax in order for his support to form government”.
And here’s another classic from the same speech:
“On the question of asylum seekers can I say this; I can understand that Australians are disturbed when they see boats arrive on our shores unannounced…. I am full of understanding of the perspective of the Australian people that they want strong management of our borders and I will provide it.”
Status: broken. Boat people arrivals now at record levels, at 2000 a month.
@Dude
Howard in 2007, announcing the Liberal ETS plan:
“Australia will continue to lead internationally on climate change, globally and in the Asia-Pacific region…This will be a world-class emissions trading system more comprehensive, more rigorously grounded in economics, and with better governance than anything in Europe.”
In an address to the Melbourne Press Club a month later, Mr Howard said:
“In the years to come it will provide a model for other nations to follow. ..Being among the first movers on carbon trading in this region will bring new opportunities and we intend to grasp them.”
Howard in the run up to the 2007 election:
Journalist: ”Haven’t you locked Australia into an emissions trading scheme in the next term?”
Howard: ”Yes, I have.”
Journalist: ”Regardless of what our trading competitors do?”
Howard: ”Yes, but that is precisely the sort of contribution we should make.”
Abbott in 2009 – “If you want to put a price on carbon, why not just do it with a simple tax?”
That was the year he reneged on his support for an emissions trading scheme, in order to execute the coup which ousted his predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull.
“Why not ask electricity consumers to pay more, then at the end of the year you can take your invoices to the Tax Office and get a rebate?”
If you want to get somewhere, get off the dead horses.
Howard was wrong – just following a trend, which he now agrees was wrong. Similarly to how Julia Gillard told Rudd to drop his ETS. The Cat was well and truly out of the Ponzi bag by that stage.
Abbott was musing about how it could be achieved, of course we are all wiser and know that GlobalWarminClimateChangeExtremeWeatherTM is the biggest con job in the history of humanity.
@dudemeister:
“GlobalWarminClimateChangeExtremeWeatherTM is the biggest con job in the history of humanity.”
Yes, yes, I know what you mean. And the people behind it are the New Word Order and the international Jewish banking conspiracy. But Howard was wise to that, and so is Abbott, and Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones and the wisest of them all Viscount Monckton of Brenchley.
Nope, Maurice Strong and Fat Albert Jetabout Gore.
Oh, now I get it. The 82 year old Strong and 66 y.o. Al Gore summoned up Frankenstorm to further their demonic plan – I wish I knew what their motivation is for the “biggest con job in human history”.
But I guess you’ll tell me shortly.
“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him participate in synchronized diving.”
― Cuthbert Soup, Another Whole Nother Story
“I’d call him a sadistic, hippophilic necrophile, but that would be beating a dead horse.”
Woody Allen
Cuthbert Soup reminds me of Samuel Hoffenstein, who penned works like –
Poems to Break the Tedium of Riding a Bicycle, Seeing One’s Friends, or Heartbreak Verses Demonstrating That No Man Can Be Unhappy amid the Infinite Variety of this World, and Giving the Reader Choice of Several Titles, the Author’s Favorite Being, “Some Play Golf and Some Do Not”
Poems Intended to Incite the Utmost Depression
Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing
Surely Lincoln would have thought again about changing horses if his horse turned out to be the opposite of what he’d been promised?
The opposite in what way?
Be specific.
Perhaps he changed them in mid stream?