Orams at it again on the front page of The Daily Examiner

If ever a journo is going to gloriously balls up the front page of one
of the local newspapers, it would be Graham teh meeja is me
second choice career Orams.
According to him on the 10th September; “Vote counts were not
updated during the day yesterday after a flying start to the
counting on Saturday night”. WRONG!
In fact when I looked at the NSW Electoral Commission website I
could see there had been a minor correction and one major update
over the course of Sunday the 9th.
And every single candidate placing in the race for a seat on council 
he mentioned after the leading three, plus all their percentages,
were also wrong when the newspaper went to print.
Fair dinkum, the bloke's a menace.
Just for the record this is what the running total looked like
yesterday in the am and pm:

Summary of First Preference Votes
Candidate	Party/IND	FP Votes	Quota Ratio	% Formal Votes
MORRISON Rod	IND	656	0.30	2.99%
SCOTT Margot	IND	410	0.19	1.87%
PARKINSON Paul		483	0.22	2.20%
HOWE Craig	IND	1,154	0.53	5.26%
BAKER Andrew	IND	2,326	1.06	10.59%
TUNKS Ursula	IND	416	0.19	1.89%
DE ROOS Joy		408	0.19	1.86%
SIMMONS Jim	IND	1,336	0.61	6.08%
CLANCY Greg	IND	1,078	0.49	4.91%
BEEBY Jane	IND	419	0.19	1.91%
HUGHES Sue	IND	1,381	0.63	6.29%
TOMS Karen		1,028	0.47	4.68%
McIVOR Micheal	IND	298	0.14	1.36%
CHALLACOMBE Jeremy	IND	1,027	0.47	4.68%
WILLIAMSON Richie		6,975	3.18	31.77%
McKENNA Margaret	IND	877	0.40	3.99%
KINGSLEY Jason	IND	1,685	0.77	7.67%
Total Formal Votes Counted		21,957
Total Informal Votes		1,875
Progressive Total Ordinary Votes		23,832

Summary of First Preference Votes
Candidate	Party/IND	FP Votes	Quota Ratio	% Formal Votes
MORRISON Rod	IND	734	0.29	2.87%
SCOTT Margot	IND	443	0.17	1.73%
PARKINSON Paul		536	0.21	2.10%
HOWE Craig	IND	1,500	0.59	5.87%
BAKER Andrew	IND	2,478	0.97	9.70%
TUNKS Ursula	IND	499	0.20	1.95%
DE ROOS Joy		432	0.17	1.69%
SIMMONS Jim	IND	1,396	0.55	5.47%
CLANCY Greg	IND	1,188	0.47	4.65%
BEEBY Jane	IND	444	0.17	1.74%
HUGHES Sue	IND	1,504	0.59	5.89%
TOMS Karen		1,095	0.43	4.29%
McIVOR Micheal	IND	335	0.13	1.31%
CHALLACOMBE Jeremy	IND	1,295	0.51	5.07%
WILLIAMSON Richie		8,463	3.31	33.14%
McKENNA Margaret	IND	1,163	0.46	4.55%
KINGSLEY Jason	IND	2,033	0.80	7.96%
Total Formal Votes Counted		25,538
Total Informal Votes		2,168
Progressive Total Ordinary Votes		27,706

Surprise, surprise! Those water raiders are back in 2012 and wanting a bite of the Clarence River Catchment Area

The second submission publicly listed by the NSW Legislative Council Standing Committee on Economic Development’s Inquiry into the Adequacy of Water Storages in NSW is rather predictably a re-submission of a 1984 plan to divert up to twenty-two
per cent, or over one million megalitres annually, of freshwater from the Clarence River catchment and send it into the Murray-Darling Basin river system.

Submission number three urges consideration of additional water storage on NSW coastal rivers, identifying the Clarence River by name.

While the NSW Farmers Association mentioned in its submission a supposed ability
to recapture water from east coast rivers and, many other submissions made ambit
claims for increasing the number of dams and augmentation of existing dams.

Just as predictably, at least one accepted submission opposing water diversion from the Clarence River catchment is not publicly listed by an inquiry committee dominated by political parties not known to be sympathetic to the Clarence Valley in a ratio of four to two.

Which makes one wonder just how many other submissions saying no to Clarence River water diversion have been received, but not published, by this standing committee.

US Presidential Election Campaign 2012: Barack goes trawling for the campaign dollar

On the face of it Barack Obama is reduced to asking for peanut-sized contributions from the party faithful as he battles to retain the US presidency.
Barack Obama‏@BarackObama

If you're on Team Obama-Biden, pitch in $5 now:
http://OFA.BO/T36fzu #Forward2012
And hawking stickers for 5 bucks a piece to top up the war chest.

A strategy which seems to be working looking at this campaign funding breakdown over at Open Secrets.

No terminal at Straddie - Save the Spit

Queensland Premier "Thick Soup" Campbell and gung-ho developers associated with a proposed cruise ship terminal on the Gold Coast are very much out of tune with the views of the comunity.

The Save Our Spit Alliance (SOSA), a not-for profit community alliance of Gold Coasters committed to preserving the Gold Coast Spit & the Broadwater both now and for future generations, is campaigning strongly in opposition to the red-necks who are following in the foot steps of a white shoe brigade of an earlier generation. SOSA is 100% run by volunteers for thhe community. See videos about saving the spit on SOSA's Youtube channel here.

EMAIL the Premier, the local LNP MPs, Mayor Tate and Gold Coast City Councillors to let them know what you think. Here are their e addresses, which can be copied and pasted.

thepremier@premiers.qld.gov.au; southport@parliament.qld.gov.au; broadwater@parliament.qld.gov.au; surfers.paradise@parliament.qld.gov.au; mayor@goldcoast.qld.gov.au; division1@goldcoast.qld.gov.au; division2@goldcoast.qld.gov.au; division3@goldcoast.qld.gov.au; division4@goldcoast.qld.gov.au; division5@goldcoast.qld.gov.au; gbrown@goldcoast.qld.gov.au; division7@goldcoast.qld.gov.au; division8@goldcoast.qld.gov.au; division9@goldcoast.qld.gov.au; division10@goldcoast.qld.gov.au; division11@goldcoast.qld.gov.au; division12@goldcoast.qld.gov.au; division13@goldcoast.qld.gov.au; division14@goldcoast.qld.gov.au;

The main "colourful characters" in this sad and sordid tale are named below. Click on them and email them directly:

Premier Campbell Newman (LNP)

Southport MP Rob Molhoek (LNP)

Broadwater Verity Barton (LNP)

Surfers Paradise John-Paul Langbroek (LNP)

Mayor Councillor Tom Tate and Deputy Mayor Councillor Donna Gates

The other Gold Coast City Councillors are:
William Owen-Jones,
Cameron Caldwell, 
Margaret Grummitt,
Tracey Gilmore,
Dawn Crichlow OAM,
A. J. D. (Lex) Bell OAM, LLM,
Robert La Castra,
Glenn Tozer,
Paul Taylor,
Jan Grew GAICD, MFT (Bond),
Greg Betts,
Daphne McDonald
Chris Robbins.

Update: