Thursday, 4 August 2011

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:


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.
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

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".

Buses or water wings for Yamba?


Yamba is a small coastal town at the mouth of the Clarence River estuary at the end of a wide flood plain.
There is only one road and one bridge leading out of this town which can take motorists towards the rest of the Clarence Valley and the wider world beyond.
It is regularly cut in at least three places by water during medium and large scale flooding.
According to the ABS Census 2011 promotional material there are around 6,465 souls currently living in the town and it would take 120 buses to move this population.
Sort of places Clarence Valley Council’s airy-fairy flood evacuation policy in a new light doesn’t it?
Hope everyone there is up to the very long swim to higher ground.

# Pic from The Daily Examiner showing an Yamba cut-off by flooding in 2009

Wednesday, 3 August 2011

Is the Member for Clarence a ning-nong, or what?


Steve Cansdell, the Member for Clarence, has shown yet again that he knows less than nothing.
Today's Daily Examiner reports:

Member for Clarence Steve Cansdell has revealed the NSW government can't appeal the ruling by Magistrate John Andrews to acquit 10 Adults over their part in the Yamba Riot.
Mr Cansdell said as part of the judicial process the government has to remain separate from the police, who prosecuted the case.

Revealed???
Truly, what does the bloke know about anything?

More on identity theft - a warning about a so-called ATO website

A scam email doing the rounds again purports to be from the Australian Tax Office.

The email states:

"Subject: Please submit your tax refund
After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund . Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 3-6 days in order to process it.
See your refund status by downloading attachment."

The email's attachment leads to a webpage that looks very much like an official ATO page, but it's not! The page seeks tax file numbers, date of birth and other personal details.

Details about the sender of the email are linked to the e address info@stout-associates.com

Who's been stealing my name?


Google Earth snapshot of the fictitious residence of the creator of the suspicious domain names

 Who's been stealing my name?

That will probably be the question on the lips of NSW Police Commissioner Andrew P. Scipione and two North Coast police officers when they find that their given names have been used to create web addresses and/or they are the nominal owners of not one but at least ten Internet domain names.

One of which spectacularly leads to a male escort website homepage graphically displaying photographs of nude torsos and erect genitalia.

These domain names were registered in 2011 and some are now being offered for sale by the 'owners'.

It seems that one particular New South Wales resident has experienced a burst of dubious creative flair at the expense of the state police force.

No wonder Tony Abbott can't lie straight in bed...

Look at the stable Australian Leader of the Opposition trained in. According to his own biographical notes at www.tonyabbott.com.au Tones teh Terrible Abbott admits:
"His previous career was in journalism, where he wrote as a feature writer for 'The Bulletin' and 'The Australian'."
The Bulletin may have been a xenophobic and openly racist Packer publication, but The Australian is of course a News Ltd newspaper and I have to wonder if it was at the feet of Rupert Murdoch that Tones honed his ability to tell political whoppers.
Abbott still writes for News Ltd today under its Daily Telegraph masthead and has been doing so since at least 2008.
In the last few days Tones has been fronting the cameras peddling one of his many proven falsehoods ie ''This is a draconian new police force chasing an invisible, odourless, weightless, tasteless substance''
It seems that, like Murdoch, the Opposition Leader still believes we love to eat manure at breakfast time.

Tuesday, 2 August 2011

Climate Change and YouTube


Some successful and not so successful YouTube user video lobbying on both sides of the Great Anthropomorphic Global Warming Divide*.......


http://youtu.be/yKUPUznJZoE


http://youtu.be/-zeGY8zbzc8


http://youtu.be/sSTLDel-G9k


http://youtu.be/eLs73KJI36w


http://youtu.be/S9ob9WdbXx0


http://youtu.be/CdvXWZxAAKQ


http://youtu.be/TQlHaGhYoF0

* Australian Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency,
Debunking The Myths

Monday, 1 August 2011

U.S. Election Cycle 2012: Retirees think Obama's best - by a slim margin


When it comes to placing money where confidence or hope lies, then U.S. retirees appear to think a re-elected Barack Obama is worth betting on, according to the Center for Responsive Politics:


†These numbers show how the industry ranks in total campaign giving as compared to more than 80 other industries. Rankings are shown only for industries (such as the Automotive industry) -- not for widely encompassing "sectors" (such as Transportation) or more detailed "categories" (like car dealers).

METHODOLOGY: The numbers on this page are based on contributions of $200 or more from PACs and individuals to federal candidates and from PACs, soft money (including directly from corporate and union treasuries) and individual donors to political parties and outside spending groups, as reported to the Federal Election Commission. "Donations to Democrats," "Donations to Republicans," and the associated percentages are based solely on contributions to candidates and parties. Independent expenditures and electioneering communications are not reflected in the breakdown by party." While election cycles are shown in charts as 1996, 1998, 2000 etc. they actually represent two-year periods. For example, the 2002 election cycle runs from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2002.

Data for the current election cycle were released by the Federal Election Commission on Saturday, July 16, 2011.

NOTE: Soft money contributions to the national parties were not publicly disclosed until the 1991-92 election cycle, and were banned by the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act following the 2002 elections. Contributions to Outside Spending groups legalized by the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court decision are listed in the "Soft/Outside Money" column as are donations of "Levin" funds to state and local party committees. Levin funds were created by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.

According to Open Secrets on 28 July 2011:

People listing their occupation on campaign finance filings as retired have given Romney at least $1.6 million. Pawlenty, meanwhile, has raised at least $577,000 from retirees. And retired people have contributed at least $324,600 to Paul's presidential campaign and $160,300 to Bachmann's.
Obama, meanwhile, has reported raising at least $3.1 million from retirees.

Mr. Denmore: Shock revelation! Tony Abbott is really a Marxist


Has the ever alert tweeter Mr. Denmore, of The Failed Estate, found an earlier mainfestation of the Arch-Denier himself?

MrDenmore
Shock revelation! Tony Abbott is really a Marxist. http://t.co/CiOox2X #auspol




http://youtu.be/DtMV44yoXZ0

Sunday, 31 July 2011

After fifteen months surely The Herald-Sun & The Telegraph could get their disability pension facts straight


On 28 April 2010 the Federal Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs issued a joint media release (with the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) announcing a modified approach to assessment of impairment in relation to all new applicants applying for a Disability Support Pension after 1 January 2012.

On 10 May 2011 the Minister (along with the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations, Minister for Employment Participation and the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers)
announced welfare measures included in the 2011-12 Federal Budget and made it clear that new work capacity/participation requirements applied to new pension applicants and to those existing pension recipients under 35 years of age who have some capacity to work. At the same time Budget documents made clear that some of those changes affecting new applicants were now expected to start in September 2011.

In a 12 May 2011
news interview the Minister made it clear that the new work participation rules would affect up to 90,000 pensioners under 35 over the next two years.

On 1 June 2011 the Minister issued
another joint media release (this time with the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers) in which new reforms were again announced. This release also made it clear that eligibility changes applied to new applicants, not to all 815,000 individuals already receiving a full or part Disability Support Pension.

Centrelink’s website also made mention of these changes to the Disability Support Pension.

These welfare reforms were widely reported at the time and remain on the public record. Yet on 30 July 2011 The Herald-Sun ran this line:

DISABILITY support pension applicants will no longer be able to claim they are too fat to work or are unable due to other ailments that would previously have led them to claim benefits. Instead, 815,000 people will be assessed using new impairment tables on what work they could potentially do based on their disability.(See snapshot above)

While The Telegraph made an identical statement of ‘fact’ via the pen of the same journalist:

APPLICANTS for the disability support pension will no longer be able to claim they are too fat to work or are unable due to other ailments that would previously have led them to claim benefits.
Instead, 815,000 people on the pension will be assessed using new impairment tables on what work they could potentially do based on their disability.

At best this is sloppy reporting by News Ltd newspapers and at worst it could be seen as an attempt to produce distress within a vulnerable group and create yet more political mischief for the Gillard Government to deal with.

Unfortunately on the morning of 30 July ABC News Radio quoted News Ltd and helped spread the canard that all existing Disability Support pensioners were to be re-assessed for eligibility.

It wasn't until much later that the national broadcaster began to correct the record, followed by The Telegraph quietly emending that offending paragraph. As of 9pm on 30 July neither News Ltd nor the political reporter who wrote both articles had corrected The Herald-Sun version.

The Banana Mortgage Belt


As we leave July and enter August 2011, buying a banana is still a luxury for many on the NSW North Coast at around $14-$16 a kilo in some of the larger supermarkets.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics kindly places the pain in our wallets into perspective.

ABS CPI June quarter 2011 up 0.9%

The ABS Consumer Price Index rose 0.9% in the June quarter 2011, compared with a rise of 1.6% in the March quarter 2011.

The most significant price rises this quarter were for fruit (+26.9%), automotive fuel (+4.0%), hospital and medical services (+3.4%), furniture (+6.0%) and deposit and loan facilities (+2.1%). The most significant offsetting price falls were for vegetables (–10.3%), audio, visual and computing equipment (–6.3%), electricity (–1.5%), domestic holiday travel and accommodation (–1.5%) and milk (–4.6%).

Fruit prices increased by 26.9% in the June quarter 2011 mainly due to an increase of approximately 138% in the price of bananas due to shortages created by Cyclone Yasi. Banana prices increased 470% over the six months to the June quarter 2011.

The ABS Consumer Price Index rose 3.6% through the year to the June quarter 2011, compared with a rise of 3.3% through the year to March quarter 2011.

When is a Christian not a Christian? When he embarrasses the flock of course!


The disconnected Labelling Debate score stands at
Breivik 'the Christian': 1 O'Reilly 'the Christian': 0.


This is Breivik writing in his manifesto:

Q: Do I have to believe in God or Jesus in order to become a Justiciar Knight?
A: As this is a cultural war, our definition of being a Christian does not necessarily constitute that you are required to have a personal relationship with God or Jesus. Being a Christian can mean many things;
- That you believe in and want to protect Europe’s Christian cultural heritage.
The European cultural heritage, our norms (moral codes and social structures included), our traditions and our modern political systems are based on Christianity - Protestantism, Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity and the legacy of the European enlightenment (reason is the primary source and legitimacy for authority).
It is not required that you have a personal relationship with God or Jesus in order to fight for our Christian cultural heritage and the European way. In many ways, our modern societies and European secularism is a result of European Christendom and the
enlightenment. It is therefore essential to understand the difference between a “Christian fundamentalist theocracy” (everything we do not want) and a secular European society based on our Christian cultural heritage (what we do want).
So no, you don’t need to have a personal relationship with God or Jesus to fight for our Christian cultural heritage. It is enough that you are a Christian-agnostic or a Christian-atheist(an atheist who wants to preserve at least the basics of the European Christian cultural legacy (Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter)).
The PCCTS, Knights Templar is therefore not a religious organisation but rather a Christian “culturalist” military order.

Religion: Christian, Protestant but I support a reformation of Protestantism leading to it being absorbed by Catholisism. The typical “Protestant Labour Church” has to be deconstructed as its creation was an attempt to abolish the Church Religious: I went from moderately to agnostic to moderately religious

My parents, being rather secular wanted to give me the choice in regards to religion.
At the age of 15 I chose to be baptised and confirmed in the Norwegian State Church. I consider myself to be 100% Christian.

Regarding my personal relationship with God, I guess I’m not an excessively religious man. I am first and foremost a man of logic. However, I am a supporter of a monocultural Christian Europe.


This is FoxNews Impact host Bill O’Reilly in runaway denial:


Now, on Sunday, the "New York Times" headlined "As Horrors Emerged, Norway Charges Christian extremist". A number of other news organizations like the "LA Times" and Reuters also played up the Christian angle. But Breivik is not a Christian. That's impossible. No one believing in Jesus commits mass murder. The man might have called himself a Christian on the net, but he is certainly not of that faith.

Also Breivik is not attached to any church, and in fact has criticized the Protestant belief system in general. The Christian angle came from a Norwegian policeman not from any fact finding. Once again, we can find no evidence, none, that this killer practiced Christianity in any way.
So why is the angle being played up? Two reasons: First, the liberal media wants to make an equivalency between the actions of Breivik and the Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh and al Qaeda. The left wants you to believe that fundamentalists Christians are a threat just like crazy jihadists are.


http://youtu.be/Z3_DEp--J8c

Extended YouTube compilation of O'Reilly commentary:

http://youtu.be/mAxf3aL1WmU

The Young Turks response to O'Reilly:

http://youtu.be/dl6lOP_BfLg

Saturday, 30 July 2011

A thought for News Ltd journalists to ponder


Journalists (or most of them) wish to report what they see as the truth. If there are opposing views about some political or artistic issue, they may seek a balance by presenting an account that lies somewhere between the two extremes. This is not the same as impartiality, which involves a refusal to favour one point of view, particularly where politics is involved. In science reporting, though, balance and impartiality seem often to be conflated. When faced with strongly opposed views in a scientific discussion a journalist may not be certain of the facts presented by each side and may apply balance while describing it as impartiality – but if one proponent is presenting dubious evidence that claim is not justified.

As some within the world of broadcasting perhaps fail to realise, impartiality checks are built in to the scientific enterprise. The objectivity of researchers is judged as they undergo a series of painful processes from the successful grant application, to endless discussion within a group as to the validity of a result, to a journal’s peer review before a piece of work becomes public and then, quite often, to the presentation of contrary views in the scientific literature. Many of those put up in opposition to a scientist on the broadcast media have had, in contrast, no scrutiny at all of the claims they put forward. A certain amount of emphasis might be placed on the differential examination that the ideas of each party have undergone when considering the need for due impartiality.
[BBC Trust review of impartiality and accuracy of the BBC’s coverage of science,July 2011]