Mali Islamists launch ‘charm offensive’; people want freedom back

One of the weaknesses of Islam is its controlling nature, demanding as it does, total compliance with patriarchal social rules from fifteen hundred years in the past.  The new Egyptian democracy appears to be coming unstuck as Morsi attempts to seize totalitarian powers to enforce his will, turning the ‘Arab spring’ quickly to autumn with the winter of discontent fast approaching.

In Mali, where Islamists have taken control, a different tack is being tried with some success.  They seem to be using funds from outside to subsidise such things as water and electricity supply and provide free services: 

In Timbuktu, Amadou said, the Islamists provided free ambulances to the local hospital as well as a weekly shopping shuttle to bring women from outlying towns to market. "When people have a problem with their health, they bring a car and take them to the hospital for free," he said. 

"When it was our government, they were always asking for something. But (AQIM) don't want anything. They say they are doing it for God and they will wait as long as you need." He and Aboubakar gave only one name, to protect relatives from reprisals. 

During the Muslim festival of Eid, when it is traditional for families to sacrifice a sheep, the group capped the price of livestock to roughly $56 an animal, Amadou said, barring traders from charging inflated prices, which can reach up to 2 1/2 times as much. 

Basic staples such as rice are about 50 per cent cheaper in Timbuktu and Gao, 320km to the southeast, compared with Bamako, because the supplies arrive tax-free from neighbouring countries. 

Diplomats in Bamako suspect that the Islamists, who grew rich by kidnapping foreign tourists, are also subsidising food by deliberately overpaying. In Timbuktu, families pay just $US4 ($3.80) a month for water and six hours' electricity a day. In Gao, Ansar Dine spokesman Omar Hamaha said the price was $US3, compared with $US15-$US20 for an average family in Bamako.

While this seems to indicate that under Islam the people live in the equivalent of another socialist workers paradise, (at least while the money holds out) there is a downside in the loss of their accustomed freedoms:

More than 400,000 people have fled northern Mali this year as Islamist militants seized an area larger than France, instigating corporal and capital punishments for breaches of Islamic law. 

Amadou, a fellow tourist guide who fled Timbuktu because he had a child out of wedlock, said AQIM put an end to the looting and lawlessness that followed the rout of the government. … 

… "The problem is people still don't have any money," said Ali, a driver in Timbuktu. He said people were weary of the occupation, especially the women, who had been used to dressing and acting as they pleased. 

"Everything is cheap but we were not free," said Aboubakar. "We miss our freedom. For six months we weren't allowed to listen to music, we couldn't smoke. When you are young you want freedom, to go to the beach, to go to the nightclubs."

Meanwhile the kids are given floggings for the heinous offense of ‘comingling’: 

Timbuktu residents say that Islamist extremists controlling the city publicly whipped 6 young people, males and females aged between 16 to 22 years, who each received 100 lashes for having talked with each other on the city streets. 

Aboubacrine Yattara, who lives in Timbuktu and witnessed the whippings, told Associated Press over the phone that the young people were arrested last week by the Islamists controlling the city and were convicted Wednesday of comingling. He said they were flogged Thursday in Timbuktu’s small market.

Any regime that forbids young guys and chicks from chatting each other up, is doomed to failure.

Farage responds to anti UKIP foster child outrage

The recent removal of three children from the care of foster parents by a Yorkshire Labour council on the basis of a report that the couple were members of UKIP has some significance among libertarians here in Oz. UKIP Deputy Leader, Paul Nuttall will be a guest speaker at the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) National Conference in January.

The couple had their three foster children taken away by the council, which claimed that their membership of the UK Independence Party meant that they supported “racist” policies. Essentially the claim of racism is neatly spun for political purposes from the UKIP policy of getting back control of migration, a totally different concept.

Nigel Farage is outraged at this decision:
 
 The story is as follows:

The husband and wife, who have been fostering for nearly seven years, said they were made to feel like criminals when a social worker told them that their views on immigration made them unsuitable carers. The couple said they feared that there was a black mark against their name and they would not be able to foster again.  

Campaigners representing foster parents have described the decision as “ridiculous” and warned that it could deter other prospective foster parents from volunteering. Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, described the actions of Rotherham borough council as “a bloody outrage” and “political prejudice of the very worst kind”.  

Tim Loughton, the former children’s minister, said: “I will be very concerned if decisions have been made about the children’s future that were based on misguided political correctness around ethnic considerations. …  

… The husband was a Royal Navy reservist for more than 30 years and works with disabled people, while his wife is a qualified nursery nurse. Former Labour voters, they have been approved foster parents for nearly seven years and have looked after about a dozen different children, one of them in a placement lasting four years. …  

… They were told that the local safeguarding children team had received an anonymous tip-off that they were members of Ukip. The wife recalled: “I was dumbfounded. Then my question to both of them was, 'What has Ukip got to do with having the children removed?’  

“Then one of them said, 'Well, Ukip have got racist policies’. The implication was that we were racist. [The social worker] said Ukip does not like European people and wants them all out of the country to be returned to their own countries.  

“I’m sat there and I’m thinking, 'What the hell is going off here?’ because I wouldn’t have joined Ukip if they thought that. I’ve got mixed race in my family. I said, 'I am absolutely offended that you could come in my house and accuse me of being a member of a racist party’. 

 While some objections to immigration are made on racist grounds, there is no causal link between racism and disagreements with policy. Farage makes it quite clear that the problem for UKIP is the uncontrolled influx, combined with massive unemployment in the UK and the strain on social security and welfare agencies.

The Labour Party, along with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, do not believe the statements they are making on UKIP ‘racism’. These are nothing other than dishonestly glib, throwaway lines designed to give the party apparatchiks something to recite in arguments.

Landholders duded again

Rural landholders are a tenacious lot.  They regularly battle bushfires, floods, drought, and everything else that the idiosyncratic extremes that is the Australian climate can throw at them.  Despite this they manage to feed and clothe the nation while generating surplus production that enhances our balance of trade.

Apart from nature, they have a constant battle to deal with adverse government decisions in relation to land use, water rights, mineral and gas extraction, even the right to control weeds on their properties.  Constant vigilance is needed to head off the more extreme lobby groups, determined to create chaos such as the live cattle export ban, which crippled the northern cattle industry.

Now it has been announced that when they find themselves, on the wrong end of a government funded land rights claim they are on their own, rather than receiving assistance to deal with it: 

As part of budget cuts in a "tight fiscal environment", Ms Roxon will stop from January 1 the Native Title Respondent Funding Scheme, which provides lawyers and native title officers to three pastoral industry bodies. The government will continue funding indigenous claimants 

The NT Cattlemen's Association, the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA and AgForce Queensland have been desperately lobbying the Minister, saying the cessation of funding would mean native title claims will end up in protracted court cases instead of being settled by consent. 

The National Farmers Federation also argues the legal and court costs to the commonwealth will be "far greater than the current expenditure" on the scheme if it ends and its demise would be "legal chaos". 

"(Individual pastoralists) will have to decide whether to withdraw, seek other legal representation or, most likely, muddle through being self-represented," says NFF chief executive Matt Linnegar. … 

… But the Prime Minister defended the move, announced in the 2011 budget, saying it was the government's "anticipation" the funding cut would not "equate to respondents disengaging" from the native title process.  "We are talking about many respondents that are commercially viable entities . . . being able to deal with native title through their ordinary business costs," she said. 

Federal Court judge John Logan has made comments on the value of the legal aid for pastoralists, saying in an August judgment that it had done much to "dispel the tensions and anxiety (among pastoralists) . . . to result in the efficient progress and consensual resolution of a native title claim." … 

… Ms Roxon writes. "In accordance with the principles of the access to justice framework, we need to ensure that limited funds are directed to those most in need of assistance."

This is a highly questionable assertion given the degree to which Aborigines are assisted already: 

Every year, $100,000 of our taxes is spent for each remote indigenous Australian. In 2008-09 Australian government indigenous expenditure reached $22 billion. If these funds were ending the shameful dereliction of remote communities, they would be money well spent. But high spending has barely reduced extremes of dysfunction. On balance, it is perpetuating indigenous disadvantage. Trawling through government expenditures is not riveting, but if the festering sore of remote communities is not to go on and on, how public funding contributes to the culture of grog, ganja and gangs must be understood. 

The 2010 Indigenous Expenditure Report was prepared by the Productivity Commission for a Steering Committee of bureaucrats in charge of federal, state and territory indigenous policies. For the first time, we have an accounting of indigenous expenditure. In 2008-09 Australian governments spent $17 billion on indigenous persons accessing mainstream services and $5 billion on indigenous-only services. The report shows that every year this translates to an average of $40,000 for each indigenous Australian compared to $18,000 for each non-indigenous Australian. But these per capita figures conceal rather than reveal real indigenous expenditures. …

Regardless of the ability to pay, or whether one side is disadvantaged, it is nothing short of reprehensible to create a situation where one group is receiving taxpayer funding to launch legal proceedings against another which has to meet the costs of defending themselves.

Gillard’s question; so which one do we trust?

Cartoon: By Bill Leak 

Ralph Blewitt, who was Julia Gillard’s boyfriend’s sidekick in the establishment of an illegal slush fund has arrived back in Australia and been interviewed by police in relation to the matter.  At issue is the formation of the dodgy, AWU Workplace Reform Association, through which her then boyfriend Bruce Wilson scammed hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Gillard’s part in it.  Both Cabinet minister Bill Shorten and the former ACTU secretary Bill Kelty have described the association as “inappropriate.”

Her response was far from edifying.  She called a press conference, answered questions in the normal manner she uses, “this has been dealt with before” then went on to Question Time in parliament and insisted that she had answered all questions in the press conference.

For a person who claims an abhorrence of smearing opponents, she did a particularly good job of just that on Blewitt, claiming: 

… “Mr Blewitt is a man who has publicly said he was involved in fraud.  “Mr Blewitt is a man who has sought immunity from prosecution. Mr Blewitt is a man who has fled Indonesia to avoid a police interview in relation to land fraud, although he denies wrongdoing in the case. 

“Mr Blewitt says he owes money on another Asian land deal. Mr Blewitt admits to using the services of prostitutes in Asia. Mr Blewitt has published lewd and degrading comments and accompanying photographs on his Facebook page. 

“Mr Blewitt, according to people who know him, has been described as a complete imbecile, an idiot, a stooge, a sexist pig, a liar and his sister has said he's a crook, and rotten to the core.”

Upping the ante, she stated, “His word against mine; make your mind up.”

OK, lets look at Blewitt.  The fraud he has admitted to is the one in which Gillard may be implicated, and the immunity refers to the statements he is making to police.  There is a question mark on an Asian land deal.  He ‘owes money’ on another, - not a crime.

He has used prostitutes and published lewd and degrading comments and photos on his FB page, - Who knew the PM was such a prude?  Other than that, there seem to be a number of persons prepared to make derogatory remarks about him.  He has never claimed to be an angel; his claims are that Gillard and Wilson aren’t either.

Gillard on the other hand was involved in setting up an association which was claimed to be for workers safety, but which by her own admission, was a ‘slush fund’.  This was done for a guy she was in a relationship with, in the name of a union that was a major client of the law firm she worked for, which appears to be a clear conflict of interest.

While she states that she left the relationship after ‘discovering’ the scam, she did not report it despite her knowledge that a major fraud had been committed against one of her firm’s clients.

So, who are you going to trust?  Probably neither, but Blewitt seems to be making some effort to make amends while Gillard is using every semantic device to avoid coming clean.

It would probably be inadvisable in the event of having to choose one or the other, to select the one who claimed, “There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.”

Are They Fair Dinkum?

By Viv Forbes

The Carbon Sense Coalition 

Our green guards continually demand that we use less carbon fuel in order to reduce global warming. They say “the science is settled”.

If the science is settled, we do not need a costly climate-study industry of super-annuated bureaucrats and grant-addicted academics – give the staff some real work, stop the grants, switch off the computers and air conditioners, sell the coffee machines, and quietly close the doors.

If there is consensus on the dangers of man-made global warming, there should be nothing more to discuss. Why do we need to burn tanker-loads of carbon fuel sending regiments of officials, politicians and journalists to 5-star world climate conferences every few months?

If politicians were fair dinkum about reducing carbon emissions, surely they would set an example and ban all air travel by politicians and public servants. And they could reduce the consumption of transport fuels if they ceased promoting and attending circuses, games, expos and car rallies? And if livestock emissions are a real concern, surely they would replace beef and lamb on Parliamentary menus with hydroponic lettuce and bean sprouts? And to save the world, surely they would relocate to their electorates, conduct debates using tele-conferencing, sell the government limousines, hop on a bike and see first-hand the damage being done by their high-cost policies? 

While they ignore their own scare-mongering, we know they are not fair dinkum.

Government media gag opposed by New South Wales

Cartoon: By David Pope 

Freedom of speech is under sustained attack by the federal government in Australia.  Despite widespread public concern about section 18C of the racial discrimination act, under which columnist Andrew Bolt was prosecuted last year, the Attorney General has foreshadowed further legislation under which virtually any language including political discussion may be subject to legal action if it is deemed to cause offense.

Under this legislation, the burden of proof will be reversed so that it is up to the accused to prove innocence, rather than the plaintiff prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.  If despite the law being loaded against the accused, the case fails, then the plaintiff is not to be required to pay costs.  It seems that the government does not wish to discourage frivolous complaints.

Meanwhile, the ongoing war against freedom of speech in the media is being stepped up, with a plan to strip newspapers of privacy protections unless they submit to ‘self regulators’.  The NSW Premier, Barry O’Farrell has put the federal government on notice, that this will be resisted: 

Premier Barry O'Farrell has revealed proposals expected to go before the federal cabinet next week could be in conflict with current NSW laws, and would be scuttled by the state government if they were sought to be introduced. 

Mr O'Farrell, in a letter to News Limited CEO Kim Williams, said he would reject any attempts by the Commonwealth to water down existing NSW media shield laws, which among other things protect the identity of sources, claiming such a move would be an "insidious assault on the freedoms of Australians". 

"I am alarmed and disturbed that these freedoms, which I believe are fundamental to a strong liberal democracy and robust free market economy, are under threat from Commonwealth actions," Mr O'Farrell said. 

"Plans by senior Commonwealth ministers for regulators with 'more teeth' in association with the context of proposals by the Commonwealth government's reviews are, in my view, antithetic in a liberal democracy and an insidious assault on the freedoms of Australians. … 

… Shield laws provide newspapers certain privacy protections under the Evidence Act in the pursuit of news stories and news gathering. They allow journalists to protect the identity of sources, which is invaluable in news gathering and exposing, in particular, the activities of government. 

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's latest plan is believed to contain a threat to remove this protection unless newspapers subject themselves to a ministerial veto on who regulates their editorial complaint systems. …

With virtually all of the media giving coverage to the possibly illegal and corrupt, or potentially, reprehensible legal malpractice by the PM in the past, it is easy to see what this is really about.  It dovetails in nicely with Roxon’s attempts to control the internet and social media to help deal with those ‘internet nut jobs’ (the type of people who write blogs.)

Governments everywhere, would like to avoid any form of scrutiny, but the efforts that this one is making rival those of China, Russia, Iran, and most other dictatorial shitholes.

Effort to cut gun law red tape

Image: David Gibson inspects Ron Owen's gun vault, where guns bought up to two years ago are still waiting for police to complete licensing paperwork Source; Gympie Times

The State Member for Gympie has highlighted some of the stupidity of the current gun laws.  The paperwork and long drawn out registration process results in waits of up to two years from the time of purchase, to being able to pick up your new gun: 

LEGITIMATE gun owners and public safety were the victims of a dysfunctional gun licensing and registration system, Gympie MP David Gibson said.  He said Queensland's gun laws, introduced by the Beattie Labor Government, were "at best, inefficient" and were "misdirected at law abiding firearm owners". 

Mr Gibson said the cumbersome paperwork associated with legitimate gun ownership had very little public benefit, as criminal groups continued to trade in illegal firearms and used them with tragic consequences. 

He foreshadowed changes to the Weapons Act to reduce paperwork for legitimate gun owners and increase penalties for illegal firearms possession and use. 

Gympie gun dealer Ron Owen backed plans to make gun ownership more manageable for legitimate primary producers and sporting shooters. 

Mr Gibson visited Mr Owen's shop on Thursday, where he inspected a vault with guns (mostly sports rifles), which had been sold and paid for but awaited paperwork to be completed by police.  "Some of them have been waiting here for two years," Mr Owen said. 

"The police can't keep up with the paperwork either. They've got so many documents, they don't know what's going on.  "It's a failure of the system.  "Since it came in 15 years ago, we've generated 68,000 records; whereas, really, there should be just one in and one out. …

Some of these delays could also be due to police holding back and delaying the process.  Many of them have an obsession with the idea that guns in the hands of law abiding people will turn them into homicidal maniacs, determined to wipe out the police force.

Gun laws need to be eased off to the point where law-abiding shooters have no trouble getting hold of firearms for whatever purpose they want them.  Current laws have had little if any impact on crime statistics, and have failed to keep guns out of the hands of criminal elements.  The only people affected are the law-abiding elements of society who are not the problem anyway.

UN calls for Obama to overturn marijuana legalisation

Amid the celebrations for the victories for marijuana legalisation in Washington State and Colorado there were those of us who had doubts that the federal government would allow them to stand.  The current Administration has after all, been more extreme in its determination to stamp out even medical marijuana than any previous one.  The idea of legalising recreational usage was likely to convince the Feds that a jackboot on the throat was needed.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has asked for a response twice so far but with no joy.  Now the UN has asked for federal action to prevent the measures being implemented: 

The head of the U.N. drug watchdog agency is urging U.S. federal officials to challenge ballot measures in Colorado and Washington that decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana for adults 21 and over. 

Raymond Yans says the approvals send "a wrong message to the rest of the nation and it sends a wrong message abroad." 

Yans heads the International Narcotics Control Board. He told The Associated Press on Tuesday he hopes Attorney General Eric Holder "will take all the necessary measures" to ensure that marijuana possession and use remains illegal throughout the U.S. 

Both states are holding off on plans to regulate and tax the drug while waiting to see whether the Justice Department will assert federal authority over drug law. …

The claim by the UN to overturn the democratic will of voters in two states is questionable at best.  As far as any right to moral authority is concerned, the UN has none whatsoever, being composed of tin pot dictatorships, regimes of dubious moral authority, assorted nasties, interspersed with a sprinkling of legitimate governments.

The UN busybodies are claiming legitimacy over a treaty on narcotics that is more than fifty years old but which was signed by the US.  It is an absolute nonsense to suggest that what was considered a ‘good idea at the time’ that long ago should be frozen in time till today.  Drug policy is a classic area for a fifty state solution, where each has its own legislation (or not) with the best results gradually being adopted by others in a way that improves results nationwide. 

Song to help Israeli kids overcome trauma

Nobody copes well with constant danger, although some manage to control their fear better than others. In Israel there has been plenty to fear lately with constant rocket attacks aimed randomly at the civilian population. Most adults have through long experience, learned to cope, and through long practice, learned how to respond.

Children though, have to learn fast in order to survive despite a feeling of helplessness as the missiles fly around them. A song has been produced to assist them to overcome their fear and react as needed when they have to:
 

 Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best and most effective. It would require a psychologist to really assess the benefits of this approach, or in the case of a government assessment, several of them, along with representatives of several departments, child care and refugee advocates, and a couple of climate scientists just in case.

H/t Breitbart

Threat to blow up Gillard; fail

Cartoon: Larry Pickering 

When you burn toast and are too pissed or stupid to open the windows and let the smoke from the applience dissipate enough for the smoke alarm to stop, calling the emergency services is probably not he best option.  Abuse of the operator, and making threats, is only likely to land you in trouble.

When in trouble, most people like a bit of attention, but threatening to blow up the Prime Minister seems like overkill: 

A SUNDAY night snack went so wrong for one Gympie man last weekend that he will now have to face the magistrates court on a charge of improper use of a telephone.  The man allegedly yelled at a 000 operator after burnt toast set off his smoke alarm and he could not turn it off. 

Gympie police said the man twice phoned 000 and verbally abused the operator on the other end when she tried to put his call through to the fire station.  He also allegedly threatened to blow up the Prime Minister. 

The police eventually sent the firefighters around to sort out his alarm, and the next day visited the man themselves and issued him with a summons to appear in court.

It is doubtful whether a threat to ‘blow up’ Gillard would get people racing to oblige.  Her popularity is in the basement and going down the gurgler, so doing this might cause procrastination.

Cyclone Sandy – “never let a good disaster go to waste”.

By Viv Forbes

The Carbon Sense Coalition 

As usual, the climate alarmists have outdone themselves in describing Cyclone Sandy which recently hit the US coast and New York. Naturally they claim it is yet another example of the many climate disasters we will face if we do not repent of our deadly carbon sins and perform penance by paying our carbon tax penalty.

But it was not the world’s deadliest cyclone and probably broke no records. The main difference is that today many more people now live along the coasts in the cyclone alleys of the world, so there is more damage to humans and their infrastructure than ever before.

For some facts about cyclone records and climate lies see:

Wind Farms and Wind Bags


“Wind farms are like bad politicians:  


Make a lot of noise, cost a lot of money, 


A blight on the landscape, bloody inefficient, 


And there's far too many of 'em.

Feedback from JC, a reader of “Carbon Sense”.

Harnessing Wind Power and Wind Bags

Cartoon by permission: Steve Hunter

Carbon dioxide plant food? 


Those who don’t believe that carbon dioxide is a plant food should look at this experiment which anyone could reproduce.


The Last Word – by their words we shall know their agenda

Here is a small selection of quotes on “Climatism” from a great new resource of quotes, compiled by Steve Goreham:

The real agenda:

“If you ask me, it’d be little short of disastrous for us to discover a source of clean, cheap, abundant energy because of what we would do with it.”

- Amory Lovins, environmentalist, Mother Earth News, Nov.-Dec. 1977

“Giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun.”

- Dr. Paul Ehrlich, Anne Ehrlich, and Dr. John Holdren, Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment, 1970, p. 32

“The prospect of cheap fusion energy is the worst thing that could happen to the planet.”
- Jeremy Rifkin, environmentalist, Los Angeles Times, Apr. 19, 1989

Peak energy:

“Coal is a portable climate.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson, US author, 1860

“Oil production should peak out around the world in the early 1990s…”
- James Schlesinger, former US Energy Secretary, Time Magazine, Apr. 25, 1977

“We are not running out of oil and gas. We are running into oil and gas. Predictions of peak oil and gas are not only being made for the wrong year and decade, but also for the wrong century.”
- Dr. Robert Bradley, Institute for Energy Research web site, July 7, 2011

Follow the money:

“He [Al Gore] impressed us all at Deutsche Bank Asset Management. We invited him to an internal meeting in April 2007 during which we discussed the issue of climate change extensively. A few months later, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment. We then created a fund that invests in companies that position themselves as climate-neutral. Within two months almost 10 billion dollars flowed into this fund. Can you imagine? 10 billion! There has never been such an overwhelming success.”

- Kevin Parker, Director of Global Asset Management, Deutsche Bank, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Nov. 15, 2010

Misuse of science and manipulation of data:

“Al Gore likes to say that mankind puts 70 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every day. What he probably doesn’t know is that mother nature puts 24,000 times that amount of our main greenhouse gas—water vapor—into the atmosphere every day and removes about the same amount every day. While this does not ‘prove’ that global warming is not man-made, it shows that weather systems have by far the greatest control over the Earth’s greenhouse effect, which is dominated by water vapor and clouds.”


- Dr. Roy Spencer website, “Global Warming and Nature’s Thermostat,” January 28, 2008

“We have discovered that the warming in New Zealand over the past 156 years was indeed man-made, but it had nothing to do with emissions of CO2—it was created by man-made adjustments of the temperature.”

- New Zealand Climate Science Coalition web site, Nov. 25, 2009

Here is where to find this great collection of quotes on Climatism: 

Nationalise Twinkies petition

 For Twinkies fans, the news just got better. At a Bankruptcy Court hearing Monday where the company sought permission to start shutting down, the company and the Unions were told to consider mediation. Both agreed to try to make an attempt, possibly preserving more than 18,000 jobs.

The mediation effort starts on Tuesday, but the case is due before the court again on Wednesday if this fails to get an agreement.

Elsewhere in the article though, it was mentioned that an online petition had been launched urging the President to nationalize, possibly the whole of Hostess, but definitely the Twinkies part of the operation:

An online petition asking President Obama to nationalize the Twinkies operation and "prevent our nation from losing her creamy center" hopes to garner 25,000 signatures by mid-December. Fewer than 4,000 people have signed it. 

"Our heart is breaking," tweeted convenience store chain AM/PM, a major seller of Hostess snacks. "#LongLiveTheTwinkie!”

For all of you wanting government flavored Twinkies, the petition can be found here: 

While the auto bailout established some sort of precedent for such an action, Twinkies consumers should not get their hopes up too much.  Were the White House to oblige, it has to be remembered that the First Family is on a health kick, which will probably result in the sponge being replaced with rye bread and the cream with a less delicious broccoli filling.

 A quick glance around the White House’s hilariously named “We the People” section though, gives the impression that not all of these petitions are meant to be taken seriously.  One for example, calls for the Transfer funds from the drug war to fund the research and development of the genetic engineering of domestic cat girls.

First impressions are that the author is just taking the piss out on the site.  With deeper analysis though, there is a significant economic argument in favor of the proposal if the ‘Find out more’ button is clicked, which raises the possibility that Paul Krugman is the initiator:

We believe that the genetic engineering of cat girls could be potentially beneficial for the economy and an effective for use as domestic house servant. The money being used to fight the drug war is effectively pointless. We could be using this money to fund other much more important things such as the genetic engineering of cat girls for domestic use. The government could then sell these genetic household workers to boost the economy and try to further decrease the national debt. They could be used around the house so that the homeowners could pursue jobs to also boost the economy.