"Expose the cow" - it isn't only their fearless leader who acts like a misogynist!

Leader of the Coalition Opposition Tony Abbott is well known for snarling "That's bullsh*t" at Nicola Roxon when he thought the microphones wouldn't pick up his temper tantrum and this week NSW Opposition Leader BarryO'Farrell was caught using a derogatory term for Prime Minister Julia Gillard, but it seems they are not alone in expressing a very masculine distain.

Electioneering behind a password protected Facebook account the Nationals candidate for the Labor-held seat of Page, Kevin Hogan, obviously allows insulting and sexist terms free rein when he thinks he is hidden from the view of average NSW North Coast voters.

This is an exchange on Hogan's webpage with a comment by Murray Lees, another National Party member and sometime campaign manager:

Kevin Hogan

Saffin stretching truth on roads to save her hide.

Saffin stretching truth on roads to save her hide, Nat candidate claims Page Nationals candidate Kevin Hogan has responded to a political challenge from sitting Labor MP Janelle MP by accusing the incumbent of being less than honest with the electorate now that she can no longer rely on Kevin...

June 13 at 3:30pm · View Feedback (2) Hide Feedback (2) · Share

Murray Lees likes this.

Murray Lees

nice work Kev, expose the cow [my bolding]

June 14 at 11:58am

True face of 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill

People may suffer financially from British Petroleum's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - now in its 60th day with the damaged well only temporarily capped - but the true face of this environmental disaster is found in images of the affected wildlife.....

Seal and seabird overwhelmed by oil June 2010

More photographs here.

How the betting is running for NSW North Coast electorates in July 2010

The bets are starting to be laid down on individual seats in the Australian federal election and Page on the NSW North Coast featured in Possum's probability calculations based on where the money was going last week.
Page was calculated on a two party preferred basis at 52.36%, with a win implied probability according to Sportingbet at 53% and Sportsbet at 49% - combining all comes in with an overall implied probability of a Labor win at 51% for Janelle Saffin.
It seemed that local money mebbe riding almost neck and neck as the horses approach the barrier.
This week Possum has the money running this way across five markets:












Political tragics can find the Betfair current odds for all federal electorates listed so far in the lefthand sidebar here.
This is how a sixth player Betchoice saw the NSW North Coast race on Friday 16th July 2010:

Cowper Win Only - NSW seat
1.60
NAT - Luke Hartsuyker
2.25
ALP - Paul Sefky
15.00
GRN - Dominic King
26.00
Any Other Party

Page Win Only - NSW seat
1.75
ALP - Janelle Saffin
2.00
LIB - Kevin Hogan
26.00
Any Other Party

Lyne Win Only - NSW seat
1.02
IND - Rob Oakeshott
13.00
ALP - Frederick Lips
15.00
NAT - David Gillespie

Richmond
No details yet

When it comes to the North Coast, only in Cowper are Betchoice odds favouring the Coalition.

The Silver Bodgie & The Lover versus The Versace-Clad Clock Collector

One has to hand it to the Australian Labor Party - it certainly knows how to destabilise its own political agenda in an election year.

First it ditched many of the policies which saw it garner strong electorate support in 2007, then it changed leaders in a somewhat spectacular fashion.

Now we have former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke and his second wife the author Blanche d'Alpuget shamelessly grubbing for more money by publishing yet another biography of teh great man and going on the book promotion trail just in time to cash in on heightened political awareness this near to what will probably be a closely contested federal election.

The utterly tasteless characterization of Hazel Hawke by this pair is beneath contempt and so unnecessary to their central aim of improving the bank balance.

While Hawke's inviting himself into the current political debate by opining on the recently deposed Kevin Rudd will have some party members wishing he had as much sense as he has hair.

Given the incredibly self-serving contents of this book as displayed in extracts currently online, it is no wonder that hyper-sensitive former Labor prime minister Paul Keating should immediately send a copy of his letter to Hawke to the media.

The letter ends thus:

This letter is written now, not simply to express my disappointment but to let you know that enough is enough. That yours and Blanche's rewriting of history is not only unreasonable and unfair, more than that, it is grasping. It is as if, Narcissus-like, you cannot find enough praise to heap upon yourself. In hindsight, it is obvious yours and Blanche's expressions of friendship towards me over the last few years have been completely insincere. I can only promise you this: if I get around to writing a book, and I might, I will be telling the truth; the whole truth. And that truth will record the great structural changes that occurred during our years and my own as prime minister, but it will also record without favour, how lucky you were to have me drive the government during your down years, leaving you with the credit for much of the success.

After watching the recent ABC TV 7.30 Report interviews with Hawke and d'Alpuget I have to say I am somewhat sympathetic to the Keating position. However, the timing of all three bitter snipers is unfortunate to say the least.

Already selling at three-quarters of its ticketed price, I'm betting that Hawke, Prime Minister will quickly find itself in the discount bin at major bookstores.

UPDATE:

LET'S get one thing clear at the outset: I am fond of my stepmother, Blanche, and feel genuine pleasure at the happiness my father now shares with her.
Current publicity stimulated by her new biography covering dad's years as prime minister, and the forthcoming telemovie about those years, has, however, generated a fair bit of noise and heat and has, sadly, dragged into the limelight matters that are essentially personal.
Having declined previous opportunities to provide a "family" perspective, or represent my mother Hazel's, for the very reason that I think there are such things as a right to privacy, I am now persuaded that it is timely to say something.
The reason for this is that things have been said, and people portrayed, in a manner that fundamentally misrepresents their character. I have observed what I believe are fair and respectful boundaries about commenting publicly on the personalities and complex relationships of my family life or anyone else's. I am loyal to both my parents. But a line has been crossed, a legacy hijacked, and a lot of people are seriously unimpressed. The part I take particularly personally is a suite of comments and insinuations about my mother Hazel. Their effect is to invite a rewriting of history on the basis of a series of inaccurate premises. Forbearance extends only so far before it becomes a complicit silence, and I think it's time that, as someone who has known her well for 53 years and spoken previously on her behalf, I set a few things straight.
My mother is entitled, on the basis of the life she has lived and the way she has lived it, to be recognised as a person of deep conviction and principled choices. She was consistently motivated by far more noble concerns than money, where she lived, or the "reputation du jour" of her ex-husband.

More from Sue Pieters-Hawke writing in The Age on 17 July 2010 here.

On the media, readers and political misconceptions

One perspective.........

From the pen of xkcd

Yet another...........

.......people typically receive corrective information within “objective” news reports pitting two sides of an argument against each other, which is significantly more ambiguous than receiving a correct answer from an omniscient source. In such cases, citizens are likely to resist or reject arguments and evidence contradicting their opinions – a view that is consistent with a wide array of research.... [When Corrections Fail: The persistence of political misperceptions]

And another again.......

A large majority of Australians believe that most forms of media in Australia are ‘often biased’, a special Roy Morgan telephone survey finds.
The survey also finds a majority of Australians believe newspaper and TV journalists and talk-back radio announcers ‘often get their facts wrong’. Large majorities believe that newspaper and TV journalists ‘invade people’s privacy unnecessarily’. However, they are divided on whether the media are ‘too left-wing leaning’ or ‘too right-wing leaning’. [Roy Morgan Research 2007]

Where I decide to go fishing and almost miss Barry O'Farrell making a right twit of himself...

Looked at the sky early yesterday morning and decided it mightn't be a bad day to wet a line.
Imagine my surprise on returning to shore to discover it wasn't only the fish that had been taking the bait - NSW Lib leader Barry O'Farrell had also been swiftly reeled in by the Twitterverse.

benraue: Did @barryofarrell just accidentally tweet a 'deeply off the record' comment to @latikambourke? http://twitpic.com/25b9bk
via Twitpic 20+ recent retweets

stilgherrian: Is "Rangatweetgate" a word? Well it is now. #rangatweetgate #rtg via TweetDeck Retweeted by benraue and 2 others

Bazza's loose lips explain why Coalition candidates on the NSW North Coast are so lacklustre - only second stringers are applying!

The concept of a dysfunctional life and the national e-health database

Ever since medical doctors such as John D'Arcy first began to appear on television screens, be heard on radio and be quoted in print commenting on social, economic and political aspects of Australian life it became apparent that medicalisation of the media and everyday life was well underway in Australia.

All behaviour commonly thought of as unacceptable (and even some behaviours previously falling within 'normal' ranges) quickly became defined as some form of deviance, psychopathology or physical illness. Nevermore so than when applied to those without a large measure of social or political power ie., children and the poor, which had previously only suffered under moral labels such as "lazy" and "bad".

If you are under voting age or come from a socio-economic band found at the bottom of the pecking order then it is highly likely that many aspects of your life are now considered to be so dysfunctional that the state must step in to regulate your behaviour - as instanced by the Australian Government's staged national roll out of a scheme quarantining at least half of the fortnightly cash transfer amount received by certain welfare recipients.

That Australia was not alone in experiencing this domination by the world view of health professionals was obvious when one noticed that internationally this phenomena was being debated, including such issues as the cross-over between moral and medical explanations of criminal behaviour, the medicalisation of sleep and fads in diagnosis which saw some previously rare diagnoses cluster in ways that surprised many epidemiologists.

One only has to look at the increased incidence of multiple personality diagnoses (an estimated 10 per cent of the 1991 North American adult population had a DSM-III-R dissociative disorder of some kind) in the years since The Three Faces of Eve was first picked up by the world-wide media to realise that something may be amiss.

Much of this past discussion was confined to the halls of academia and often only broke free of those constraints via humour, instanced in the late 1980's by an early version of The Etiology and Treatment of Childhood which can now found on the Internet and, more recently by George Monbiot's A Modest Proposal for Tackling Youth.

In the current century this medicalisation of the human condition is so entrenched that some in the principal offending professions became a mite uncomfortable and now posit the theory that we are all to blame for this state of affairs:
Originally, the concept of medicalisation was strongly associated with medical dominance, involving the extension of medicine's jurisdiction over erstwhile 'normal' life events and experiences. More recently, however, this view of a docile lay populace, in thrall to expansionist medicine, has been challenged. Thus, as we enter a post-modern era, with increased concerns over risk and a decline in the trust of expert authority, many sociologists argue that the modern day 'consumer' of healthcare plays an active role in bringing about or resisting medicalisation.
However, this concern has not halted the inexorable march forward of this universal redefinition of life.

In 2010 it seems that children are being further defined by the concept of criminal behaviour and in June this impressively titled study was released by the British Home Office; Experimental statistics on victimisation of children aged 10 to 15: Findings from the British Crime Survey for the year ending December 2009, England and Wales.

This study seeks to define the following scenario as a crime in law:
At home, two siblings are playing and one of them deliberately smashes the other's toy.

Now before you start shaking your head or roaring with laughter (because after all everything is so normal and sane in your particular corner of the national garden) think about the ramifications of this penchant for defining so much of the human condition as deviance, dysfunction, congenital defect or criminal activity.

Think about what the Gillard Labor Government's e-health national database of all Australian citizens (privately endorsed by the Federal Coalition Opposition ) may actually permanently contain by way of label or opinion concerning your own health, lifestyle decisions and family dynamics.

These digital records will not only affect how you are viewed today and tomorrow by officialdom in all its many guises, they might also affect how competent the state deems you to be as you enter frail old-age and whether control of your assets/financial affairs are assumed by another.

Scared yet?

Ratio of national leader's pay to their country's GDP per person

When you don't get what you pay for?

The Economist on 5th July 2010

Clarence Valley Council: when does a précis turn into an attempt to censor and distort?

In response to "So What": the face of not-so-good governance on the NSW North Coast.

The Clarence Valley community is entitled to be concerned in regard to the process adopted by the Clarence Valley Council to reduce public budget submissions to a précis form, then respond to the précis.

It is not unreasonable for our elected council representatives to be pressed for time, so one can understand the beneficial logic behind such process. Unfortunately it has not taken long for Council's unelected bureaucrats to exploit the foibles of this process.

It had been pointed out in previous budget submissions that Grafton came into amalgamation carrying a $1.2m deficit while Maclean came in with a surplus. But I could not find any evidence that Council had ever reconciled that deficit.

It is on public record that Council's rates and service expenditures are calculated on the percentage levels that existed at time of amalgamation. Consequently an unreconciled $1.2m deficit more than likely still exists, undetected and negatively influencing council finances.
Naturally I raised this query in my budget submission.

In its infinite wisdom, administration responded that the deficit had been offset by:-

a) Purchase of sections of Stage 2 Yamba Bypass (est. $1m)
b) Purchase of open space at Townsend (est $216k)

I pointed out in my subsequent budget submission that a) and b) are debts and when paid appreciate in value generating direct/indirect revenues for Council. Therefore a debt cannot reconcile/offset a deficit which is an imbalance in council ledgers and continues until reconciled.

Embarrassed by its faux pas, administration reduced my submission to précis form, to read:-

"Concern that the issue of the GCC bringing a $1.2m deficit into amalgamation while the MSC brought in a surplus has not been adequately answered."

Administration then boldly answered its (misinterpreted) précis:-

"Amalgamation occurred on 25-2-04. This response is written on 21 June 2010 and it is "so what".

These are public monies administration are mismanaging. To properly reconcile this deficit, Grafton rates should have been increased in line with its service expenditures or, its service expenditures should have been reduced in line with its income.
As neither was done, Grafton has continued to live beyond its means at the expense of the rest of the shire.

If these self-serving unelected bureaucrats can be indicted for their inept administration, then they must also stand indicted for their self-indulgent and less than totally frank integrity, ethics and moral values.

Their contemptuous disregard for the community consultation process undermines public confidence and erodes public trust as energetically as it mutilates democracy.

Ray Hunt
Yamba

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents.Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.

Putting Australia's external population pressures into perspective

This is what you are anxious about?
Hat tip to Venessa Paech for first finding and then tweeting this graph displayed on Robert Corr's weblog:

















The graph in another form at Overland:

Click on images to enlarge

One local battle in the 2010 Australian federal election is underway on the Internet

The battle for Page on the NSW North Coast is well and truly joined and Saffin gets a shot out of the locker at Hogan:

Saffin says Federal Nationals disenfranchising young voters

Friday, 09 July 2010 16:25

Page MP Janelle Saffin MP says the Nationals and Liberals have blocked moves to help more young people exercise their right to vote in the next Federal election.

Ms Saffin said there are an estimated 1.4 million people missing from the electoral rolls, and 70 per cent of these are young people.

"The Liberals and Nationals voted against the Australian Government's legislation that would have given people one week after an election is called, to enrol to vote.

"The seven day close of rolls period is an important safeguard to make sure eligible voters have time to enrol.

"Under the Howard Government, this safeguard was abolished, leaving tens of thousands of young people without a vote at the 2007 Federal election.

"And now the Nationals and Liberals have blocked the Government's legislation to reintroduce the seven day period.

"Australians can enrol to vote as soon as they turn 18, but in reality many don't think about voting until there is an election campaign.

"Because of the actions of the Nationals and Liberals, when the Federal election is called this year new voters will only have until the end of that day to enrol (or the next business day if the election is called on a weekend).

"I challenge Nationals candidate Kevin Hogan to tell young people why he stopping more young people from voting.

"And I urge all eligible voters to make sure they are on the electoral roll so they can exercise their democratic right to vote on Election Day.

"If young Australians wait, they could lose their opportunity to vote, thanks to the Kevin Hogan's Federal colleagues in the National Party and the Liberals," Ms Saffin said.

Pics from The Nationals website and The Daily Examiner - Hogan on the left & Saffin on the right

Yamba's drunk golf buggy driver has his day in court

A Yamba man’s adventure in his golf buggy whilst intoxicated on a Friday night last month had its sequel in the Maclean Local Court on Tuesday, July 13.

The man, who recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.135, was convicted on charges of driving the golf buggy whilst intoxicated and using an unregistered vehicle on a public road. In addition to fines of $500 and $250, respectively, the man was disqualified from driving for 6 months.

The man’s legal representative proposed to the court that the level of criminality was lessened by the man driving his buggy rather than the car parked in his garage.

However, the magistrate would not have any of that argument and said that it would have made no difference had the defendant been riding a push bike. By his actions the defendant had put others, along with himself, in danger.

Garrett needs to intervene on the NSW North Coast

Forests NSW is once more in the news - this time over allegations that it is improperly harvesting trees within endangered ecological communities in Doubleduke State Forest. Including areas containing koala, sugar glider and giant barred frog habitat.

Doubleduke, Grange, Yabbra; the list of forest habitat under threat from mismanagement by the very agency designed to protect old growth and threatened species in these working forests is growing.

Federal Minister for Environment Protection Peter Garrett, along with his department, needs to intervene on the NSW North Coast.

It is patently clear that the Keneally Government in New South Wales cannot effectively manage the conduct of its own agencies and NSW Minister for Mineral and Forestry Resources, Paul McLeay, is failing in his portfolio.

While it is obvious that timber cutters working within state forests have little respect for the one year-old NSW Department of Climate Change, Environment and Water which appears to be directly responsible for policing aspects of forestry management.

Along with poorly implemented state environmental policy (where it even exists), sustained population growth along the NSW coastal corridor is placing so much pressure on what remains of the natural landscape that increased local species extinction is inevitable and future fresh water quality compromised in some areas if the present approach to environmental issues is allowed to continue unchecked.

The Sydney Morning Herald on 30 June 2010:

Forests NSW is already under investigation for breaches of licence conditions at a separate logging site about 30 kilometres from Doubleduke state forest, the scene of the latest logging.
It was fined $1200 by the department in May for a separate series of licence breaches in the same district, but the relatively small sum angered environment groups campaigning for more oversight.

ABC North Coast on 1 July 2010:

The North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) says State Forests has committed 20 breaches of environmental safeguards in the Doubleduke State Forest south of Ballina. This follows similar breaches in the Yabbra State Forest for which State Forests was prosecuted.
Sue Higginson from the Environmental Defender's Office says NEFA is looking at what legal action it can take over the Doubleduke issues.
"The proper course of action is for the State regulatory agency to be the regulator in relation to the compliance and enforcement of the environmental laws," she said.

Brisbane Times on 9 July 2010:

Evidence of systematic damage to rainforests in northern NSW as a result of government-supervised logging has forced the environment department to again investigate its state-run counterpart, Forests NSW.
The alleged logging of old-growth rainforest, inaccurate surveys and damage to endangered species habitat in Grange State Forest, near Grafton, amounts to the third time in three months that the forestry agency has been accused of breaching its own guidelines in northern NSW.
''It's really a disaster, and very, very depressing to see country that has never been logged before destroyed in this way,'' said a spokesman for the Clarence Environment Centre, John Edwards, who helped document the damage. ''It does appear that the guidelines are being breached in a routine way. And if Forests NSW is just fined it is the public that ends up paying anyway. People inside the organisation should be held personally accountable.''

Update:

Felled tree might have been 1000yo The Daily Examiner 14 July 2010

Julia has a big...........WTF?!

Like some other political tragics that I know (and quite a few pollies' staffers that I don't) - as we inexorably creep ever nearer to a federal election I have created a small handful of Google Alerts to keep abreast of the debate.
Imagine my surprise when (instead of news of the doings in Canberra) down the digital highway comes a post about the new Australian Prime Minister's genitalia.
More than a little taken aback I did a quick Google and found that I was not alone:
"Who in God's name is searching for pictures of 'julia gillard's tits', 'julia gillard upskirt', 'dirty pictures of juilia (sic) gillard' and 'julia gillard porn' in general? Seriously!
For the record, there are no sordid images of Julia Gillard on this site. There never have been and there never will be….even if she is a Barry Island girl." complains Gobbledegeek 2.20.
And very briefly there was a pic out there in cyberspace.............

Whither now, Fortress Australia?

Apart from the indigenous peoples of Australia, all those living here in 2010 could be considered the descendants of migrants or migrants themselves.

From those whose forebears were either convicts forced to migrate by the Crown or Irish and Scots landless poor who were among our earliest economic migrants, right though to World War II refugees and others seeking a better life in the years since that tumultuous era.

It can't have been an easy decision to leave one's roots and journey so far, sometimes with no hope of return. Surely a trace memory of this lingers in many families, so why is it that as a community we seem to swiftly run into Fortress Australia anytime the nation's immigration policy is debated?

Are we so xenophobic that any population change (even sustainable growth) is automatically considered bad and any subsequent shift in cultural nuances thought to be intrinsically harmful?

Right now as I write, approximately 45 per cent of the population was either born overseas or had one or both parents born overseas.

As well as people coming into this country to live many also leave within the first ten years of residency. In 2008-09 there were 39,769 permanent departures of those born overseas.

Australian-born citizens also permanently leave our shores - around 117,275 of them left between 2006-07 and 2008-09. Compared with the 158,021 of overseas-born people who came to settle in this country in those same years (48 per cent of which had a profession or trade), one can see that net population growth through immigration is not that high a figure.

As one of the many migrants who came to settle in Australia as a subsidized 'Ten Pound Pom' perhaps Prime Minster Gillard would do well to temper her language in the current election year debate. "People like my parents, who have worked hard all their lives, can't abide the idea that others might get an inside track to special privileges." Inside track to special privileges? What on earth does she think subsidized migration from Great Britain was, if not an inside track?

When it comes to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on the subject of immigration - his dog whistling is utterly shameless couched as it is in terms of border protection and 'restoring' sovereignty.

If Fortress Australia ever really existed then it has been an abject failure and, as someone whose forebears stepped off those first uninvited boats in 1788 I for one am eternally grateful.

Population Flows: Immigration Aspects 2008-09 Edition

Immigration update 2008-2009

Tony Abbot cartoon from Laberal

Australian Federal Election 2010: Jeremy gives us all something to mull over before we vote

From "Isn't a vote for the Greens a wasted vote?" over at An Onymous Lefty on the 5th July:
"Several of my friends are Labor voters, despite disagreeing with 90% of what the party actually does in office. "Why waste my vote by voting for the Greens?" they ask. "They'll never be in power!"
For progressive ALP voters there's a very simple answer to this question: because voting Greens will make the ALP a more compassionate, humanitarian party.
If you vote ALP regardless of how far to the right they lunge, then they know they can ignore you while they chase conservative votes. If you vote Greens and preference ALP, then you tell them that they need to represent progressive views or risk losing seats to the Greens. They'll {have} precisely two choices then: either adapt by paying attention to what you want and stopping emulating Tony Abbott – or you, along with other progressive voters, will eventually end up electing Greens MPs. (And they'll hold the ALP accountable to your views in Parliament.)"
Read the rest here.

Catch the Fire Ministries: Is this the beginning of the end for Australia?

Catch the Fire Ministries - oh so predictable on 6 July 2010:

As you all know by now I tell people, 'what they need to hear and not what they like to hear.' Let's give credit where it is due. Unlike Kevin Rudd, at least PM Gillard has been honest in telling the people that she DOES NOT BELIEVE IN GOD. However, is this the beginning of the end for Australia ?? This will depend on how you vote at the next election which could be anytime between now and November 2010......

In October 2009 we at CTFM carried out a spiritual warfare prayer assignment.....we stretched our hands over federal parliament and prayed for ungodly leaders in parliament to be removed and righteousness to be restored........

Now I wish to take you back to Federal election in 2007 when God gave me a clear prophetic word that Kevin Rudd was not God's man for Australia. If we Christians had PRAYED & ACTED IN UNITY, we would had been given a coalition government once again with John Howard & Peter Costello as our leaders.....

A few months after he was elected I had a vision at one of our weekly intercessory prayer meetings, that Julia Gillard came behind Rudd and stuck a knife in his back and Rudd fell to the ground, then she took over the government. Immediately I shared the vision with my team and we prayed about it.....
Tony Abbott is a Godly man with good moral values. I have spent time with him personally and I know that this man produces good fruits as he is very keen on protecting Australia's Judeo-Christian heritage.....
I believe if the church Prays & Act's wisely, the way God removed Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd, He will also remove Julia Gillard. For if we have Julia Gillard elected as PM the church for sure should get ready for PRISON TIME....

While we are sleeping a total eclipse of the sun is occurring in the South Pacific on 11-12 July 2010

Animated map from NASA
While the NSW North Coast and the rest of Australia sleeps the Sun will be giving a spectacular light show for those lucky enough to live elsewhere in the Pacific Ocean on 11 July 2010 according to ABC News:

The Moon's umbral shadow will cross the South Pacific Ocean making landfall on the Cook Islands at 8:22am local time on Sunday morning (4:22 am Monday AEST). It will then travel over Easter Island and end soon after reaching Patagonia in southern Chile and Argentina.

The next partial eclipse which we will possibly be able to see here on the east coast will be on 14 November 2010 but the next total eclipse won't be until 22 July 2028.

First, the Moon's cool shadow will sweep across the landscape, bringing a breeze of its own to compete with the sea's. Attentive observers might notice shadow bands (a well-known but mysterious corrugation of the Moon's outermost shadow) rippling across the beach as the temperature and direction of the wind shifts. The ensuing darkness will have an alien quality, not as black as genuine night, but dark enough to convince seabirds to fly to their island roosts. As their cries subside, the sounds of night creatures come to the fore, a noontime symphony of crickets and frogs.
Next comes the moment that obsesses eclipse chasers: The corona pops into view. When the Moon is dead-center in front of the sun, mesmerizing tendrils of gas spread across the sky. It is the sun's outer atmosphere on full display to the human eye.

Solar eclipse over Cook Islandson 22 July 2009 from NASA files

A couple of words on that blankety blank internet filter in response to Gillard & Conroy

Sometimes a tweet or two will say it all......


From David L. Morris: @JuliaGillard "Conroy will get the filter into shape"? We recognise that shape. So does the ACL. It is a crucifix. #openinternet via web

From Kristen Obaid: Senator Conroy: "I'm not into opting in to child porn." -- Neither are we, you obtuse ignorant excuse for a Communications Minister. via web Retweeted by 51 others

Has Stephen Conroy just guaranteed that Labor will lose seats to The Greens in 2010?

Sometimes it's hard to believe just how far the ALP will go in order to lose seats in this year's election unless you track Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's chatter about plans to censor the internet.

Having slipped this scheme under the radar in 2007 he is now afraid to introduce it into law before the election in case votes walk, but intends to run yet another rigged investigation and then erect the Great Firewall by 2012 secure in the knowledge that he won't have to face the voters himself for another six years as a senator.

This consummate ministerial liar changed his tune in the space of 48 hours, because on Wednesday he was telling the press that "I expect it (the legislation) to be this year. I expect that we will table the legislation this year sooner rather than later."

In the meantime he's muscled some ISPs into introducing the filter by stealth as a supposedly voluntary feature and has the hide to say that this net will only catch baddies like child abuse, bestiality, crime, terrorism. Well last year we all saw his blacklist when it was leaked and it certainly blocked inoffensive websites.

So stuff you Conroy - even your Dad thinks you're a rightwing twit. I'm voting Green all the way!

Kellie
Grafton

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.

North Coast Voices looking for enthusiastic blogger interested in arts & entertainment

North Coast Voices is looking for a person living on the NSW North Coast who is interested in arts & entertainment and, who would enjoy blogging about our local artists/musicians/events etc., with an eye to a little gentle promotion of the Northern Rivers region.

This offer is open to those living in the following shires:
Coffs Harbour, Bellingen, Clarence Valley, Richmond, Tweed and Kyogle.

There is no wage, expenses or compensation attached to this offer - it would be done just for the love of blogging.

All our current contributors are enthusiastic amateurs so inexperience is not a bar to acceptance.

Contact NCV Admin at northcoastvoices at gmail dot com to apply to join the team.
Please use a legitimate return email address so that you can be reached easily to discuss details.

Cultural dimension to glimpsing infinity

Looking unnervingly like Dr. Who's crack in the universe, this composite picture of nearly 14 billion year-old remnant light from that big bang thought to have created us all. Produced by the Planck telescope.

Click on image to enlarge

The space telescope was launched in May last year on a mission to survey the "cosmic microwave background" – ancient light left over from the big bang.
The bright streak across the middle of the picture is our own galaxy, the Milky Way, viewed edge-on. The intense light comes not from stars but from the radiation released by the dust and gas clouds that stretch between them. [The Guardian U.K. 4 July 2010 text and photograph]

Moggy Musings [Archived material from Boy The Wonder Cat]

A thumbnail dipped in tar musing: Dear Boy, I found this in today's SMH. Woof, Rex the German Shepherd SHE IS intelligent, friendly and one of Kevin Rudd's closest confidants, but would rather chase tennis balls than talk politics. Rudd's golden retriever Abby - featured in today's Dog's Life magazine (unfortunately tagged ''Celebrity Dogs - Therese Rein'') - is probably also the only one of his team ever genuinely happy to see him. ''Ten minutes before the phone rings to signal he's on his way, she will go and wait at the door for him,'' Rein tells the magazine. ''She is gentle, undemanding and great company.'' More driven is the family cat Jasper, evidently an even bigger control freak than Rudd - beating him to his ultimate ambition. "Jasper disciplines us," says Rein. "He's the boss of the whole world.'' Listening to Rein, it is nice to imagine Parliament as a place where our leaders don't fight like cats and dogs, with Jasper as his master and Abby the Opposition Leader. ''They touch noses all the time,'' Rein says. ''They also, when they think no one else is listening, take turns chasing each other from one end of the house to the other.'' The Rudds are patrons of a charity that finds homes for abandoned golden retrievers, the mag reveals. Shame the PM isn't as dedicated to abandoned policies, some of which have proved to be dogs, too.

A Killer musing: I've received a deff threat!

A liddle birdie tol' me musing: Rumour sez that the creator of the Facebook page YES to McDonalds in YAMBA complained in his submission to Clarence Valley Council that a local newspaper was biased and refused to publish his material. The paper is rather puzzled by this so the story goes, because it never received any additional stuff from him.

A strange but true musing: Commencing in May 2010 dogs in Danvers, Massachusetts, can now pray to Ceiling Cat during Sunday services at Calvary Episcopal Church.

Just Married musing: Cecilia, a 15 year-old German cat just got married to her owner. The happy couple dressed up for the occasion - Mitzscherlich in a wedding suit and top hat and 15-year-old Cecilia, who loudly meowed her way through the exchanging of vows, in a white dress. Wonder where they're honeymooning?

A that's some cat musing: Oscar the Siamese lives in Noosa Waters and every morning he hops on his Dad's paddleboard and goes for a ride down the canals if you please.

A She's in luurve! musing: My little canine friend Veronica Lake is going around with stars in her eyes. The object of her affection is a dashing white and tan fellow living on a corner of her street. One Milo by name. She is wrapt in the fact that he is "such a gentleman".

A cherished member of the family musing: More than 50 per cent of pet owners are willing to put their life on the line for their four-legged friends, a new study has found. The New Zealand-based poll found that 58 per cent of people would return to a danger zone rather than allow their pets to perish, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Add your opinion to the poll here. Furry kidz rule!

A super pooch musing: Bravo to the male bull terrier cross who was plucked from rough seas on Saturday afternoon by two men who were on a day trip to High Island, about 6km off the coast of Fishery Falls, south of Cairns, according to Cairns Local News. The brave fella's name must be Digger!



Boy

And this is the multinational corporation Crs. Comben, McKenna, Dinham, Simmons & Howe say will benefit Yamba

The West Australian on 5 July 2010 reports on McDonald's Australia in 2010 - the same multinational championed by a majority of Clarence Valley shire councillors in the face of significant opposition from residents in the small NSW North Coast town of Yamba:

A major union wants maternity leave for migrant workers, labelling allegations that a McDonald's assistant manager was sacked after refusing an abortion a "disgusting abuse of human rights".

The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association said 457 visa workers should get the same entitlements as local residents, which included the right to up to 12 months' unpaid maternity leave.

National secretary Joe de Bruyn said migrants should be allowed to remain in Australia during the leave, with the guaranteed right to return to their jobs.

He also called for migrant workers to get 18 weeks paid maternity leave under the Federal Government scheme when it was implemented next year. Mr de Bruyn rejected claims the move would undermine the spirit of the work visa, which was to fill skilled job vacancies where there are no locals available.

"Every worker should get the same entitlements, otherwise it is discrimination," Mr de Bruyn said.

It follows claims that Rechilda Moll-Sequitin, a Filipina who was brought to WA on a 457 visa to work at the McDonald's Mindarie restaurant, was forced to have an abortion before being eventually sacked because she refused to abort a second pregnancy.

Court documents show the woman alleges that she was told she would lose her job and be sent back to the Philippines if she did not have an abortion, so she terminated the pregnancy in September 2008.

"If these allegations are true, it is an absolutely disgusting abuse of human rights," Mr de Bruyn said.

ISA Group migration agency has recruited up to 60 workers for McDonald's restaurants in WA and about 150 nationally.

A minister of religion outranks a politician who outranks a used car salesman in 2010

Roy Morgan Research has its annual Image of Professions Survey out for 2010.
Here is a basic ranking given professions by 672 Aussies over 14 years of age showing who we might be likely to consider to be on the side of angels:

1 Nurses
2 Pharmacists
3 Doctors
4 School teachers
5 Engineers
6 Dentists
7 State Supreme Court Judges
8 High Court Judges
9 Police
10 University lecturers
11 Accountants
12 Ministers of Religion
13 Bank managers
14 Lawyers
15 Public servants
****halfway mark****
16 Public opinion pollsters
17 Financial planners
18 Talk-back radio announcers
19 Directors of public companies
20 TV reporters
21 Business executives
22 State MPs
23 Federal MPs
24 Union leaders
25 Insurance brokers
26 Stock brokers
27 Newspaper journalists
28 Estate agents
29 Advertising people
30 Car salesmen

South Australia still leading the way on greenhouse gas emission reductions

According to The Climate Group's weekly assessment of greenhouse gas emission levels in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, the latter state is still streets ahead in its response to the need to reduce these emissions.

In comparison over seven days (25 June to 1 July): Queensland's Indicator is 95% above the average equivalent 1990 weekly emissions and 26% above the equivalent 2000 weekly average; NSW's Indicator is 29% above the average equivalent 1990 weekly emissions and 10% above the equivalent 2000 weekly average; and Victoria's Indicator is 41% above the average equivalent 1990 weekly emissions and 9.5% above the equivalent 2000 weekly average.
While South Australia's Indicator is 11% below the average equivalent 1990 weekly emissions and 16% below the equivalent 2000 weekly average.

South Australia

Stuffin' letterboxes

Maud Up The Street is hopping mad - this week she found her letter box stuffed with advertising even though a "No Junk Mail" sign was clearly displayed.
What makes her even more annoyed is that of the 5 separate bits of bumpf lobbed at her by Woolworths, Aldi, The Reject Shop, Crazy Clarks and Cellarbrations - only one of these stores is in her local area. The rest are over 50 klms away.

Well that's telling her! Those flying monkeys take to the air in pursuit of Julia Gillard

Female, redheaded, unmarried, childless, self-declared non-believer and a former students union leader - one knew it wouldn't be long before the seriously strange inhabitants of Wingnut Land came out against new Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

This is the opening salvo on a Facebook group Julia Gillard Is A Communist, A Traitor And A Threat started by one Paulus in 2007 and now assisted by 236 followers as of last Monday:

Julia Gillard is a traitor, a communist and a threat to Australia if Rudd gets into power.

Barren, heartless, no clue about family and no sense of god. Just read the article below about her time during the 80's to get some idea about her beliefs. .....Don't kid yourself people don't change, she's playing the wolf in sheeps clothing.........

Like all communists, she is evil, souless, godless and corrupt.

She and her union run left-wing labour cronies must be stopped at all costs.

While this group Julia Gillard - Charged for Treason (created by Australian Constitution, Aaron and Greg with 353 followers) which popped up around 27 June 2010 goes even further, by rendering a rather unique interpretation of certain laws and blaming then fairly new federal MP Gillard for state legislation introduced in West Australia in 2003 and Victoria in 2000:

Julia Gillard - Charged for treason - concealing the following offenses from the people of Australia as the then Deputy Prime Minister.

Sections 121 through to 130 of the Acts Amendments Repeal Courts and Legal Practice Act, state the removal of the Crown from Western Australia.

Provided reference here:
http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/bills.nsf/
0D8EB9389A615AC448256C5B000CE87F/$File/Bill+153-3.pdf
(Please note this now an Act)

... Also the Oath of Allegiance was removed in Victoria by the Courts and Tribunals Legislation (Further Amendment) Act 2000

Provided reference here: http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/
PubStatbook.nsf/f932b66241ecf1b7ca256e92000e23be/
d94a7f6fe0d89422ca256e5b00213e6d/$FILE/00-051a.pdf

None of which have had the required referendum.
We have not had a referendum since 1999.

In case you hadn't noticed - the Kiwis have beaten us to the post again

They beat us to the post on universal suffrage in 1893, their All Blacks regularly give Oz a pasting on the sports field, they successfully invaded Bondi without using an army, navy or airforce and now New Zealand has beaten us to the punch by passing a national emissions trading scheme into law on the 1st July 2010.

C'mon Prime Minister Gillard - are you really going to let those demmed Kiwis get the better of us again?

Portrait of a Kiwi found here.