"North Coast Voices" Turns 11 Today!

On Tuesday 9 October 2007 North Coast Voices published its first blog post titled "A genuine Howard hugger".

Eleven years and over 10,102 posts later it is another Tuesday and this blog is still publishing.

For that, heartfelt thanks are due to all our readers.

North Coast Voices looks back on this day for the last three years......

On this day last year North Coast Voices was commenting on…….

*  the fact that the Liberal Party rank and file were beginning to detest Tony Abbott:

Letter to the Editor in The Sydney Morning Herald on 24 December 2014:

Tony Abbott will never learn. His harsh and inhumane policies on refugees, young people, the unemployed and so on have already (and deservedly) earned him acute unpopularity. Now he appoints his henchman Morrison to apply his blowtorch to all social welfare recipients.

One thing he can be sure of – he heads a one-term government. The untrustworthy Bill Shorten, of all people, is destined to become our next prime minister by absolute default.

Having once been NSW and federal president of the Liberal  Party I have to say shame on you Abbott, Morrison and Hockey. You three may get your just desserts. But in the process you will have dumped on the entire Liberal Party community.

John Valder 

Bayview

* assertions that there was a greatest area of need for people with a disability left unmet by Australian Minister for Social Services Scott Morrision:

Greatest area of need for people with disability left unmet by Government’ said Matthew Wright, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO) and spokesperson for the disability peaks.

Responding to claims in The Australian newspaper by Minister for Social Services, Scott Morrison that the new peaks funding ‘supports the area of greatest need’, Matthew Wright said “The department has cut or not provided funding to the highest population groups of people with disability in Australia’.

Both the NDIS quarterly report and Disability Support Pension (DSP) statistics show consistently that intellectual disability, autism (also the fastest growing disability), mental illness and physical disability are the four most prevalent types of disability.

‘All of these groups including the National Council on Intellectual Disability, Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia (A4), and Physical Disability Australia have not been funded as part of this process’…..

This day two years ago the comments were about…….

* Senator Bernardi's book reviews:

It seems the masses are not exactly queueing up to purchase Senator Bernadi's book. 

Perhaps reviews like those below explain why.

Dorothy Parker wrote:
This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force. Will be a welcome addition to any bookstore's remainder bin. 

The thoughts of Joshua MacLennan:
 From the front bench to the back bench, they're funny, they're thick, they are the Liberals! One man's lonely fight against everything since the Enlightenment. Lurching from one piece of buffoonery to another, Corey proves yet again he is not fit for the 21st century. So shrill you can hear the lump of coal in his butt being converted to a diamond…..

* Tony Abbott’s sense of entitlement & taste in rugs:

On 8 January 2014 News Ltd informed the world that the Prime Minister’s official Sydney residence Kirribilli House was getting a taxpayer-funded $12,915 family room rug from Milgate interior designs.

Now the only floor coverings carried by Milgate appear to be of either English or French design, materials and manufacture.

If the Abbott family’s taste in carpets matches its political sense of entitlement, one wonders what the family room will look like.

Perhaps something to match his plans for a $250 million VIP jet?

This day three years ago when…….

* Margot Kingston went three rounds with The Government Gazette

Margot Kingston 8 January 2013:

* Coal seam gas explorer Metgasco Limited’s shares were in free fall:

Coal seam gas exploration and production company Metgasco Limited’s unwanted intrusion into the NSW Northern Rivers region sees its ordinary share price, as traded on the Australian Stock Exchange, continue its decline…..

Most intriguing opening line in a blog post this week

As I explained in the Inforrm article that prompted Sir Alan Moses to invite me for a brief visit to his office before his terse invitation to depart it, the touchstone both of whether IPSO has any independence from the press industry and whether it will therefore be an effective regulator is on the issue of prominence. [Inforrm’s Blog, 1 May 2015]

A message for Lyn

“Thanks for the tweets, Lyn!”

North Coast Voices appreciate your efforts to let everyone know what Australian bloggers are saying.

Kind Regards,

Clarrie Rivers

North Coast Voices now available in perpetuity at the PANDORA Archive

Excerpt from an email received by North Coast Voices on 17 June 2013:

We would like to include the North Coast Voices blog in the PANDORA Archive and are seeking permission from you to grant us a licence under the Copyright Act 1968, to copy your website into the Archive and to provide public online access to it via the Internet. This means that you would grant the Library permission to retain your website in the Archive and to provide public access to it in perpetuity. If you are not the person with authority to give permission, please advise us who is or forward this communication to them.

The State Library of NSW is committed to preserving selected websites of lasting cultural value for long-term access by the Australian community. Only a relatively small number of websites are assessed as being significant enough for PANDORA and we would be grateful if you would allow us to include yours.....

On 31 October 2013 our regional blog was entered into the PANDORA public online archive and can be found at http://pandora.nla.gov.au/tep/114367.

Everyone at North Coast Voices would like to thank all the hardworking library staff involved in what would have been a monumental task, given that our blog has been regularly posting daily for at least 359 days of the year since 9 October 2007.

Deadly Bloggers begins a 52 week blogging challenge

 

Deadlybloggers.blogspot.com.au has issued a challenge for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander  bloggers – 52 subjects in 52 weeks.

 

Good one, Ebs! Look forward to reading each week.

 

Poor ol' cocky

 

A Black Cockatoo

Find out more about the impacts of coal seam gas mining at A Black Cockatoo.

http://ablackcockatoo.blogspot.com.au/

Sez Alan Jones over at 2GB

A toxic kiss if ever there was one

What this blog is not

There has been some discussion in the Northern Rivers recently about blogs versus mainstream media and, it is obvious that many people have contradictory expectations of regional blogs.

So this is what North Coast Voices both is and is not.

It is not a newspaper or a news aggregate website.

It is a group site which offers local opinion on issues usually relating to government, international affairs, society or the environment.

Its authors are all older residents of the NSW North Coast and they openly lobby for causes which are dear to their hearts or are matters of  concern.

North Coast Voices also seeks to inform and that is why its posts frequently contain links to publicly available primary sources and documents.

It employs no-one, has no journalists on its contributor list and has no money in the kitty for expensive research. Since early October 2007 it has posted seven days a week without fail – except between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.  

This blog was created at a time when Australian regional blogs were rare and those commenting on society and politics were even rarer still. It was meant to fill a perceived need for local voices to be heard on the Internet.

We here at North Coast Voices believe we have succeeded in this aim.

The Daily Examiner insults bloggers everywhere

Hidden away on Page 9 of last Saturday’s edition of The Daily Examiner was yet another example of the mainstream media’s ignorance about blogs, blogging and bloggers.

I could feel the indignation burning up the email I received that same day, which pointed out this sentence from the pen of APN journalist Emma Pritchard and added red highlighting as emphasis:

Edible Bloomer's, an online suggestion through the Daily Examiner website from popular blogger "Yambaman".

Now a weblog aka blog is either an independent or hosted online publication created and controlled by the blogger or bloggers who write the regular posts thereon.

People whose only cyber presence is on Facebook, Twitter or similar sites are not bloggers.

Readers who comment on discussion boards, forums, under online newspaper articles or under blog posts are not bloggers.

To call “Yambaman” a blogger is to insult the entire blogosphere by attempting to stretch the genuine definition beyond all credibility.

Emma should have known better - so here is a 2007 link to a K.I.S.S. style video about blogs just for her.

Quote of the Week - Political Catchphrases

“with 'pro-life' perhaps the most offensive of all. Is anyone out there 'pro-death'? Can anyone be rustled up who is 'anti-life'?”

{The Loon Pond on 30th^th January 2012}

Battle of the Blogotariats

In the dying last quarter of 2011 that terrific Australian blog aggregate site, Blogotariat, decided to change its format and content and I’ve been groaning ever since.

Now before you rightly mutter than I’m a geriatric blogger who dislikes change which challenges my ability to read or negotiate a website easily, I have to say I’m not alone in my groaning – Maud up the Street is fair choleric over its metamorphosis into Punch & HuffPo Downunder (or any combination of the commercial media-owned ‘blogs’ you like to name) and she is not the only one.

But never fear, for those who liked the old Blogotariat (which actually promoted Aussie blogs) there is still hope of ol’ Bloggo goodness being read here.

Re-creating Australian websites

Fair dinkum, those Aussie webby blokes are clever! They often take a perfectly respectable website with a loyal following and ‘improve’ it beyond all recognition.

First they decide to give the website an ability to only function at optimum level via one browser. You know, one with only a small percentage of users across the country.

Then they remove some of the original functions they gave the website. Teeny weeny unimportant things like how to contact website administration.

Follow that up by reducing the number of posts on the home page to around a third of what was there before, removing the editor’s recommended read, ditching msm links, taking away the post rating function and sending the blog roll to a separate page - when it’s painfully obvious that most netizens don’t bother to turn the digital page or look for hidden features. Even a big mainstream media site like the ABC (Australia) has over half its readers not moving off the first page they light on, according to Alexa.

So if only about 11% of your home audience gets a really decent view of the new and improved website on their home or work PC monitor and around 80% of your total audience only stay for one page view anyway – just how long will a website’s followers stay loyal and not flitter off to a more attractive digital flower like wayward cyber-butterflies?

Even sturdy old bogong moths like me can feel an immediate urge to take flight once I catch sight of a 'rebuilt' boast.

Mr. Smith holds forth on bloggers

Granny Herald reports on the attitude of NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith to all us crims and ratbags hanging out here on the internetz:

“Mr Smith said bloggers weren't subject to the same sanctions and responsibilities as journalists, who could be sacked for publishing "something that is inappropriate".

Bloggers, or those "who just want to have an opinion" didn't deserve the same protections, he said.

"I'm not going to cover bloggers who may represent terrorist organisations, or criminal organisation, or just be ratbags," Mr Smith said.

"It's not right that a fair publication of the news should be inhibited by fears of being sent to jail.

"But people that don't have that responsibility, who just want to have an opinion out there, to attract 200 or 300, or even two or three others, who'd like to read their blogs, I don't see why they're entitled to that sort of protection."

Citizen bloggers shouldn't panic just yet - no matter how far Teh Bolta throws his red herrings

This was Teh Bolta last Thursday; “You do realise that the Gillard Government may be thinking of laws to censor those of you who blog and tweet.“

And as usual you can find his faithful echoes out in the blogosphere trying to whip up a conspiracy.

However, nowhere do they explain how citizen blogs published on domains registered in other countries can be regulated or adjudicated by Australian Government agencies or the Press Council - outside of being placed on the mandatory ISP filter domain/website blacklist that Conroy has spectacularly failed to get off the ground. Google Inc (owner of one of the more popular hosting domains) for one was not impressed by Conroy's chilling policy.

Neither do they tell us on what their censorship fears are based when it comes to this new independent inquiry.

Despite the not-so-secret wish list of that notorious political anal retentive the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, it’s professional journalists and their ilk writing online newspaper articles/opinion ‘blogs’ (and perhaps even their broadcasting compatriots published in the online print version of radio or television programs and journalists with publisher-endorsed promotional Twitter accounts) whose pages will fall squarely within the terms of reference set out in the 14th September 2011 press release sent out by the Minister when he announced an independent inquiry into the Australian media:

Announcing the Terms of Reference for the Inquiry, Senator Conroy acknowledged the pressures brought about by the advent of digital technologies and the 24 hour news cycle were threatening the traditional business models that support the essential role of the media in our democratic society……

"The Media Inquiry I am announcing today will focus on print media regulation, including online publications, and the operation of the Press Council.

"The Government believes a separate and distinct examination of the pressures facing newspapers and their newsrooms, including online publications, will enhance our consideration of the policy and regulatory settings Australia needs to ensure that the news media continues to serve the public interest in the digital age," Senator Conroy said.

The Inquiry will be conducted independently of Government, led by Former Justice of the Federal Court of Australia, Ray Finkelstein QC, with the assistance of Dr Matthew Ricketson, Professor of Journalism at Canberra University and a former practising journalist.

"The Government is delighted that these eminently qualified Australians have agreed to undertake this important task on behalf of the Australian people," Senator Conroy said.

The Inquiry will provide its findings to the Convergence Review early next year, and the Government will take a considered approach to the recommendations of both.

Terms of Reference

An independent panel will be appointed to inquire into and report on the following issues, while noting that media regulation is currently being considered by the Convergence Review:

a) The effectiveness of the current media codes of practice in Australia, particularly in light of technological change that is leading to the migration of print media to digital and online platforms;

b) The impact of this technological change on the business model that has supported the investment by traditional media organisations in quality journalism and the production of news, and how such activities can be supported, and diversity enhanced, in the changed media environment;

c) Ways of substantially strengthening the independence and effectiveness of the Australian Press Council, including in relation to on-line publications, and with particular reference to the handling of complaints;

d) Any related issues pertaining to the ability of the media to operate according to regulations and codes of practice, and in the public interest.

The panel will be required to provide a report to Government by 28 February 2012, while working with the Convergence Review committee to ensure that findings are able to be incorporated into the ultimate report of the Convergence Review by end March 2012.

Godwin Alert!

Sinclair Davidson over at Catallaxy Files headed his short post on government as threat to free speech and media self-regulation with this little pictorial gem. Thereby demonstrating Godwin's Law lives on.

Teh Big Gra complains

“Graham Young is chief editor and the publisher of On Line Opinion. He is a writer, and a former vice-president and campaign chairman of the Queensland Liberal Party.”

Teh Big Gra is also listed prominently in Google’s search index:

Gra is also a regular writer for The Australian - a national newspaper with a circulation of 130,000 plus.

But he’s afraid, very afraid, that he is being shunned and silenced by two (I repeat, two) members of the blogotariat.

RORFL!

I wonder how many bloggers have hosted hate content from Norway?

Right-wing, occasional Fox News op-ed writer, Pamela Geller, uploads onto YouTube at atlasshrugs2000 and has a blog called Atlas Shrugs.

After self-censoring her own blog content (after the 22 July 2011 Norway terrorism attacks) by removing two sentences, We are stockpiling and caching weapons, ammunition and equipment. This is going to happen fast., guess who forgot to contact Google with a request to remove the cache for the original version of that Email from Norway post?

Ms. Geller definitely does not like the post-atrocities media attention she is attracting:

Skip to minute 3:35 -- it's all Geller and Spencer - one reference to me in a 1,518 page rant (and a couple of links to news stories at Atlas), and Cooper prostrates himself to the very ideology that would hang him in the public square for his "alternative" lifestyle. And notice they only focus on Spencer and me -- but never have us on. So afraid are they that people might be swayed by the truth.

The now censored email (which had been up on this personal blog unamended since Sunday 24 June 2007) ends with; Never fear, Pamela. God is with you too in this coming time.

Obviously a sentiment she may also find uncomfortable as the blogosphere continues to speculate on that email’s provenance and, speculates that the writer actually identified himself to her on the basis of this exchange in the post comments section:

turn said...

……….So...yes. A very nice letter to you, Pam, from a Norwegian Atlasite (Atlasonian?). Unfortunately, he or she could be prosecuted under hate-speech laws for writing or posting in Norway what you have passed on to us.

Reply Sunday, June 24, 2007 at 01:40 PM

Pamela Geller said...

yes turn, which is why I ran it anonymously

Rather strangely for an American blog, Atlas Shrugs has enough content pertaining to or sourced from Scandinavia/Norway by herself and Fjordman that there is even an achive tag called Norway.

Posts listed on The Fjordman Files as being hosted on Atlas Shrugs:

Atlas Shrugs

A History of the Indo-European Languages Book Review: A God Who Hates, by Wafa Sultan The Causes of Anti-Semitism Part 2 Fjordman reviews Spencer’s Stealth Jihad A History of Beer — Part 3 A History of European Music Part II A History of Geology and Planetary Science Part 3 A History of Mathematical Astronomy, Part 3 A History of Medicine, part II A History of Optics, Part 2 A History of Optics, Part 6 The History of the Calendar Ibn Warraq: Defending the West Mathematics and Religion On the Collapsing US Dollar Reparations From Muslims? Swedish Hypocrisy Regarding Israel and Muslims What was the First Novel? Why Islam Cannot Be Reformed

Perhaps Pamela should take to heart her own one-line bio; Evil is made possible by the sanction you give it. Withdraw your sanction.

On Saturday 30 July 2011 Ms. Geller posted on her blog; Breivik did not write the letter. Many Norwegians see their country imploding. However, as yet she offers nothing to support that statement. Although it is possible that the writer is Fjordman or a like individual, as it is apparent that she has had some form of correspondence with Scandinavian wingnuts generally. On 25 July 2011 Fjordman also denied any association with Breivik, but on 27 July admitted that under the pen name Year2183 Breivick had possibly posted comments on one of his blogs.

According to The Guardian on 30 July 2011:

The same month Breivik responded to Fjordman, he also surfaces on another hardline blog, Stormfront, a white supremacist forum run by a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and popular among neo-Nazis across the world. Britain, Breivik warns, will be among the first western countries to face a "civil war due to Muslim immigration".

Voluntarily filtering the Australian Internet - another reason to despise Stephen Conroy

Browsers which have attempted to access blocked sites will be directed to an Interpol page explaining why the site has been blocked [IIA 27 June 2011]

The Australian Internet Industry Association (IIA) on 25 June 2011:

The voluntary industry code of practice for ISPs in Australia would entail blocking child pornography sites which would otherwise be available to Australians. It would rely on a blacklist compiled and supplied by Interpol, in cooperation with the Australian Federal Police ('AFP').

Consistent with industry commitments made almost 12 months ago to develop a voluntary industry program to block child abuse materials, the IIA announced the final elements of the scheme were moving into place in preparation for a launch of the code in July.

IIA member ISPs in Australia have confirmed their intentions to support a code based approach.

"We anticipate that we will have ISPs representing between 80-90% of the Australian user base complying with the scheme this year," said IIA's chief executive Peter Coroneos.

Apparently this national filter will be based on the Interpol child abuse site blacklist, which as part of its inclusion criteria states that; The whole domain is deemed illegal if any part of it is found to contain sexual abuse material with children. One image of a child that fits the above criteria will be enough to classify the whole domain as illegal until the illegal material is removed.

As Interpol insists that there are no accidental domain name/web page errors in its black list and only it and the Australian Federal Police are envisaged as official arbitrators (ACMA seemingly having been reduced to a mere receiver of Australian complaints), one can almost see the problem rolling down the line for web hosts such as Blogger.com or Facebook and countless public forums.

Especially when the naturally malicious discover how easy it will be to bring a halt to online political debate, by taking a quick tutorial on YouTube, hacking a website and hiding a simple illegal image (or an image containing illegal content in an internal winrar file) on one of its pages and then making an anonymous complaint to the Australian Federal Police.

Many bloggers already find themselves spammed or linked to adult porn sites whenever they offend certain flying monkeys. At the very least I predict a large number of 'please explains' being swapped between bloggers and their ISPs as this so-called voluntary Internet filtering rolls out.

Bloggers now covered by shield laws in Australia?

From Senator Scott Ludlam on 3 March 2011:

The Australian Greens welcomed the passage of new shield laws for journalists and whistleblowers through the Senate today.

The Greens shadow spokesperson for Communications, Senator Scott Ludlam, successfully secured amendments to the bill to afford the protection of the shield laws to citizen-journalists, bloggers and independent media organisations as well as news professionals from the mainstream media.

"Effective shield laws for journalists and public service whistle-blowers act as an encouragement to vigilance and integrity," said Senator Ludlam. "If journalists cannot protect their sources, we will not have people coming forward to expose wrong-doing and abuses of power."

The amendments to the EVIDENCE AMENDMENT (JOURNALISTS' PRIVILEGE) BILL 2010 of which the senator speaks are as follows:

(2) Schedule 1, item 1, page 3 (lines 13 and 14), omit “in
the normal course of that person’s work”, substitute “is
engaged and active in the publication of news”.
(3) Schedule 1, item 1, page 3 (line 17), omit “a medium”,
substitute “any medium”.

One has to wonder if Scott Ludlum is being a trifle optimistic with regard to how the courts may view these clauses and just how far they may protect bloggers.

One of life's little mysteries........

One small cyberspace puzzle courtesy of Google's search engine on 25 February 2011:

The requested domain name is not configured for any web site: http://www.abbotttaxhike.com/
If you're an administrator of this site, you need to go to Site Manager -> Sites and use the following domain name either in the Site properties or add a new domain alias: www.abbotttaxhike.com