Maggie's Farm

Habu's History Corner...on this day.

1896 : Gold discovered in the Yukon
1923 : Carnegie establishes eight-hour day
1948 : Babe Ruth dies
1977 : Elvis Presley dies

The Bambino and the King, same day..hmm

yep, I think we need to call in Karl Rove for questioning.

I am offended by your T-shirt..WOW

Would some of these people have trouble with me. I'm not a t-shirt freak but they happen to be #1 what we wear in our leisure and #2 make great workout clothes..well not perfect since they don't wick away the sweat ..I digress.

When the French were giving us grief in the UN I bought the T-shirt de jour "F the French" with the oval and tricolor on it.

I like my new "Give War a Chance T-shirt" and the standard "Don't Tread on Me" alternating red and white stripes with the snake and the motto. On May 22, 2002 all U.S. Navy ship were ordered to fly this flag.

I ahve a Boston braves T-shirt plus many many more , mostly political.

No one, so far has refused me service because I am wearing a certain shirt...my next is goining to have INFIDEL in big letters...we'll see.

Could it be as a power lifter at 6'2"...6'3" with shoes or almost 6'4"with cowboy boots and 275lb tonnage that most folks just decide to let it pass? I've often wondered.

Anyway wear what ya want, if they don't like it, screw 'em.

John Howard in trouble down under ..bad news...


Here's how things were handled by the people I worked with in 1975 Downunder when Gough Whitlam became a problem.


The Australian constitutional crisis of 1975, commonly called "the Dismissal", was precipitated by politically motivated obstruction of government supply bills and culminated in the removal by Governor-General Sir John Kerr of Australia's then prime minister, Gough Whitlam, and appointment of the opposition leader, Malcolm Fraser, as caretaker prime minister. It has been described as the greatest political and constitutional crisis in Australia's history.[1]

The crisis began in the upper house of the Federal Parliament, the Senate, where the opposition Liberal-National Country Party coalition had a majority. The Senate deferred voting on the annual budget bills that appropriated funds for government expenditure, attempting to force the prime minister to call an election. The action remains unique in Australian history. The Whitlam government simultaneously dismissed calls for an election and attempted to pressure Liberal senators to support the bills while also exploring alternative means to fund government expenditure. The impasse extended into weeks, with an ever-present threat that the government would fail to meet its financial obligations.

On 11 November 1975, the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, in line with chief justice Sir Garfield Barwick's advice, dismissed Whitlam as prime minister and appointed Malcolm Fraser to head a short-term interim government. Coalition senators then approved the delayed appropriation bills. Writs were issued for a 13 December election at which the conservative coalition led by Fraser won a 55-seat majority in the House of Representatives. The crisis was thus technically resolved but has never ceased to be an issue of contentious public debate


A minority of commentators believe the United States was involved

Following the end of the Second World War, the influence of British institutions on Australian public institutions weakened, while the influence of United States public institutions increased.

The actions taken by the Whitlam government were generally left-wing policies relative to those desired by government and business in the United States, and relations between Gough Whitlam and the United States became tense during 1975, especially after Whitlam publicly declared that Richard L. Stallings was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative and that he had been in charge of the Pine Gap satellite tracking and communication base near Alice Springs. According to Tony Douglas[3],

A cable from a senior CIA official and Task Force 157 member, Ted Shackley, on November 10 accused Whitlam of being a security risk and asked ASIO to do something about it. The Head of the Defence Department, [Sir] Arthur Tange, described him as "the greatest risk to our nation's security that there has ever been."

I often ran into Ted Shackley in different situations around the world ..I rather thought he was a good fellow who knew his tradecraft ..

The CIA has definitely been neutered since my days but I spent three months in Australia in 1975 helping things move along ... great days. Please pardon an aging man his reflections of his youth.

Yes, back in '75 there were even caravans of leftests, commies, and other assorted rabble that would try to drive all the way to Pine Gap to "assault", with guns etc. the facility.

We'd lock and load and wait. I'd ride one of the many Yamaha cycles out fifty clicks or so and wait for an easy one but usually the drive would deter them about half way to Alice Springs and they'd turn back...Australia is a big place.

Here's a question for all MF readers ,lurkers etc..

The Constitution aapoints the Vice President also as President of the Senate. Many times in our history he has provided a tie breaking vote BUT that is not a defined power. NOR is his power as President of the Senate restricted by the Constitution to simply showing up to break ties...HE IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE, THE RANKING MEMBER OF THE SENATE..
So why couldn't Dick Cheney assume his lawful chair every day as Preisdent of the Senate and conduct business in the manner he felt like?
The head of the Senate is a powerful position and by law belongs to the Vice President...so what's topping the VP from doing that? It would not violate the Constitution, in fact it would be lawfully carrying out the responsibilities delegated to the Vice President.

Can you imagine the howl the Dems would put up?

Any thoughts out there?