Coming or going? Turnbull does the headline splits

Sometimes it is hard to decide if pollies actually lose track of the fine detail in their interviews or if they are merely cynical media pleasers of the moment.

Malcolm Turnbull provided a wry grin with these recent articles about teh economy, both published on the same day. 

Don't be scrooge-like. Don't spend up.

Because our economy will not really be affected by the American slowdown. Because the American slowdown affects the Australian economy.

Talk about having a bob each way!

 

Govt does need to cut spending: Turnbull
Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney,New South Wales,Australia
Opposition treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said the government will be able to achieve that figure without really trying. "I think that is baked-in, ...

 

Turnbull warns on 'overdoing' Budget cuts
ABC Online - Australia
Treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull says any cuts may have a more dramatic effect than intended, because they could compound the effect of a slowdown in the ...

Views on the Iraq War five years on

It seems forever since I stood with hundreds of others on a NSW North Coast beach and spelt out the message "NO WAR!", before a crusading Howard Government launched Australia into the war against Iraq.

Despite claims to the contrary, the Rudd Government is not completely withdrawing Australian defence forces from that country, so the nation is still exposed to the vagaries and ramifications of this continuing conflict. 

 

On Sunday 20 April The New York Times reminded us all on what dubious grounds the Coalition of the Willing attacked Iraq and maintains its presence there to date.

 

In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded "the gulag of our times" by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure.

The administration's communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo.

To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as "military analysts" whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration's wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

 

Yesterday San Antonio's Express News defended one of its journalists outed in The Times article.

 

Yesterday also the Labor View From Broome said:

 

I often wondered what credence we could give to the independence and objectivity of the regular war experts used by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and other Australian media during the Iraq invasion. Former SAS commanding officer Jim Wallace was frequently used by the 7.30 Report.

His interview with Four Corners just before the invasion could have been scripted by Rumsfeld. Wallace is the Managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby. I wonder if he agreed with George W. Bush's initial metaphor for the war on terror as a "crusade". I do not recall any occasions on which Wallace's militant christianity was mentioned when explaining his credentials as an expert commentator on the war.

 

Theology Web contained a blog defending the Bush-Blair-Howard war on the principal ground that it is not a failure because it is not as bad as some wars in the past.

 

The Guardian ran this opinion piece on Nicolson Baker's book to dissect the myths surrounding going to war.

Rudders steps in steaming meadow cocktail

Well, we were all just waiting for it weren't we?
You can't cobble together a summit born out of a media sound byte without quickly throwing around money to smooth the way.
* $60,000 to the wife of a ministerial staffer for the family company to handle summit media relations
* $284,5000 to Melbourne University for the loan of Professor Glyn Davis as summit convenor
* $71,000 for Australia 2020 website design and development
Rudders is walking around Canberra with a load of manure adhering to his heels.
Good one, mate. Really let's us know that the economy is in good hands, and that transparency and accountability are still the order of the day.

And Ernie Bennett demonstrates why NSW Nationals should not gain government in the next decade

The Tweed Daily News shows that Nationals Ernie Bennett is on his pet hobby horse again - the abolition of the states and the creation of 20 NSW super councils, with his favorite scenario being one fiefdom which stretches from Clarence to the Tweed containing advisory boards mirroring existing local government boundries.
Enrie obviously hasn't done the maths on any annual revenue required to support a super council.
With all the pressing issues that face the coast it is a pity that he is wasting his time as president of the Northern Rivers Regional Organisation of Councils in this way.

Window on a Gillard/McClelland/Conroy IT daydream?

One possible scenario envisioned by Labor ministers supporting corporate spying on email content.
Cartoon found at http://xkcd.com/208/

Fully-wired catfish on the loose!

In an effort to conserve the Freshwater (eel-tailed) Catfish in the wild, the NSW Dept. of Primary Industries (Fisheries) will be releasing a number of radio-tagged catfish into the Clarence River system at Jackadgery.
If you are dropping a line in the water over the next 12 months and catch one of these fish, please carefully return it to the river, creek or stream in which you found it.
Do your bit for declining coastal fish stocks.

Morris Iemma demonstrates why NSW Labor will not gain government again in the next decade

Morris Iemma turned Sydney CBD into a concrete gulag for the 2007 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, lost his sense of humour when The Chaser team showed that all that expensive and intrusive so-called conference security meant nothing, went against party policy to push for the unpopular privatisation of state electricity supplies, rolled back planning laws protecting home-owners from being swamped by rapacious developers, ignored holes in the political donations policy until predictable scandal surfaced, is underwriting World Youth Day's pinch penny pilgrims to the tune of tens of millions while the public hospital system haemorrhages, and yesterday had the hide to ban the general public from dedication of the statue of a New Zealand soldier on Anzac Bridge during the Anzac Day weekend.

Little Morrie Iemma is clearly as out-of-touch with the average voter as John Howard was in his latter years.

I see the same fate awaiting him and Labor, as neither are passing the pub test and Bluey is not happy.

Morrie may be content to take his super and run when the time comes, but if he continues in this high-handed strain until the next election he is creating a gold-plated guarantee that NSW Labor will rot in the wilderness for at least the next decade after.

Babbo!

Laurie Oakes and Clarencegirl have a little something in common

In The Daily Telegraph last Thursday.

"Laurie Oakes (1942- ) is a broadcast and print journalist known for achieving political scoops," his on-screen profile reads.

"She started at the Sydney Daily Mirror and then moved to the Melbourne Sun's Canberra bureau before moving to television."

Oakes told Sydney Confidential it was a common mistake made by Americans.

"In fact, I once received an email from a strange web company congratulating me on my inclusion in an American encyclopedia of prominent women," he said, laughing.

"I guess it just goes to show I'm in touch with my feminine side. Still it's a wonderful honour."

 

Laurie Oakes obviously experiences some benign gender mistakes because of the spelling of his first name.

I may live in obscurity when compared with Mr. Oakes, but there should be no confusion as to my gender with a blogger name like clarencegirl.

 

I have long been accustomed to the northern NSW attitude that females are always supposed to be seen but not heard, however last week I was amused to see a humorous idea floated in the wider Australian blogosphere that clarencegirl might possibly be a middle-aged man in drag.

Shift along the bench Laurie, I'll join you in bemusement - but I'm d*amned if I'll get in touch with my 'masculine' side!