The Obama for America team, US Democratic candidate Barak Obama's official campaigner, has recently sent out an invitation for supporters to take part in a survey which supposedly will assist him in planning further strategy.
Quite an innocuous exercise, except.....
On the first of three pages is this little question.
How often do you attend religious services?:
More than once a week
Once a week
Less than once a week
On important holidays
Never
It seems in Obama-style politics, your churchgoing is just as important (or even more important) as which political or social issues concern you most.
Does Barak Obama think he is running for presidential nomination in a democracy or a theocracy?
Monday, 26 May 2008
National Reconciliation Week 27 May - 3 June 2008
National Reconciliation Week (NRW) was initiated in 1996 to provide a special focus for nationwide reconciliation activities. It’s a time to reflect on achievements so far and on what is still to be done to achieve reconciliation.NRW coincides with two significant dates in Australia's history which provide strong symbols of our hopes and aims for reconciliation.May 27 marks the anniversary of the 1967 Referendum in which more than 90 per cent of Australians voted to remove clauses from the Australian Constitution which discriminated against Indigenous Australians. The referendum also gave the Commonwealth Government the power to make laws on behalf of Aboriginal people.June 3 marks the anniversary of the High Court of Australia's judgment in 1992 in the Mabo case. The decision recognised the Native Title rights of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the original inhabitants of the continent, and overturned the myth of terra nullius - that the continent was empty, unowned land before the arrival of Europeans in 1788.The theme for National Reconciliation Week 2008 is: Reconciliation: it’s all our story.
Online Events Calendar here.
In the Clarence Valley:
Free bus tour of Lower Clarence significant sites - May 28 10am pickup The Boulevard, Maclean
Clarence Valley Council free BBQ breakfast - May 29 7.30am-11.30am Market Square, Grafton
Official opening of ceramic art exhibition, Grafton Regional Gallery - May 30 5pm
Mal Borough's messianic delusions of granduer
The Libs and Nats as teh Coalition do not hold government anywhere in Australia.
Not in Canberra, not in the states and territories, and not in any little bush shire.
Yet still we have this Coalition disrupting Parliament whenever it chooses to dummy spit and in the last fortnight we see it threatening to block budget measures.
Now former Howard Government minister, Mal Brough (thrown out on his ear at the last federal election) has the hide to call the Labor Prime Minister "un-Australian" because he won't appoint Brough to a commission covering indigenous affairs.
It seems that Mal (B)rough is away with the fairies along with his more electorally successful compatriots Nelson, Turnbull, Downer and Abbott.
You lost the election, mate - the country had jack of you.
And, it wasn't just high interest rates, the leadership issue, or the fact that your government had been in power for over a decade.
You were all heartily disliked, chum. Especially when one of you cried that it was un-Australian not to think like you. Then you stank like seven day-old fish left out in the sun.
Just last week the Australian Election Study 2007 was released and was reported here.
It shows that the Coalition mob had virtually lost the election before the writs were issued.
So try to be a man, Mal - accept that you're in civvy street now and your opinions and desires don't matter more than the next bloke's.
In fact, because you made a bit of a dog's breakfast of your ministerial portfolio, they probably matter a lot less.
Not in Canberra, not in the states and territories, and not in any little bush shire.
Yet still we have this Coalition disrupting Parliament whenever it chooses to dummy spit and in the last fortnight we see it threatening to block budget measures.
Now former Howard Government minister, Mal Brough (thrown out on his ear at the last federal election) has the hide to call the Labor Prime Minister "un-Australian" because he won't appoint Brough to a commission covering indigenous affairs.
It seems that Mal (B)rough is away with the fairies along with his more electorally successful compatriots Nelson, Turnbull, Downer and Abbott.
You lost the election, mate - the country had jack of you.
And, it wasn't just high interest rates, the leadership issue, or the fact that your government had been in power for over a decade.
You were all heartily disliked, chum. Especially when one of you cried that it was un-Australian not to think like you. Then you stank like seven day-old fish left out in the sun.
Just last week the Australian Election Study 2007 was released and was reported here.
It shows that the Coalition mob had virtually lost the election before the writs were issued.
So try to be a man, Mal - accept that you're in civvy street now and your opinions and desires don't matter more than the next bloke's.
In fact, because you made a bit of a dog's breakfast of your ministerial portfolio, they probably matter a lot less.
Sunday, 25 May 2008
Obama seeks campaign feedback
Yesterday's Obama for America email.This is a pivotal moment in the election, and right now your feedback will shape the next phase of this campaign.
We have three more contests to go, and we're going to fight for every delegate to secure the Democratic nomination.
But we've also been through more than four-dozen contests in the states and territories, and your experience so far is an important factor as we plan for a 50-state campaign to take on John McCain.
Your feedback is crucial. Whether you've been involved heavily or just a bit, been a supporter since the beginning or are new to this movement, your feedback will inform the planning for the next phase of this extraordinary campaign:
http://my.barackobama.com/feedback
Millions of people across the country have been engaged in this campaign at the grassroots level.
Your work, your passion, and your stories have defined this movement and have been instrumental in our success -- and as we move into the next stage of this race, your input is more valuable than ever.
What was successful? What wasn't? How can our campaign organization improve moving forward?
Share your feedback now -- it's essential to moving our campaign forward:
http://my.barackobama.com/feedback
Thanks to you, Barack Obama is within reach of the Democratic nomination.
We've learned a lot together over the past 16 months, but we're preparing for a journey more demanding than any challenge we've faced.
Yet in this challenge we also have an opportunity to run the broadest, most effective grassroots presidential campaign in American history.
Thank you in advance for your participation in this important survey. You and people like you in communities across the country are the heart of this campaign.
Thank you,
Jon
Jon Carson
Voter Contact
Director
Obama for America
A Sunday stroll through Northern Rivers art....
Jan Pilgrim Blue Fairy Orchid
Digby Moran Blackfish
Louise Mann Pink Delight
Guy Gilmore Railway Sunset
Ruth Rich Dancer 1
What's younger than John McCain? Almost everything according to blogosphere pundits
Now that the heat is going out of the Clinton-Obama contest, here's a little something on the U.S. Republican presidential candidate.
It seems almost everything is considered younger than John McCain, including:
the state of Alaska, jet engines, Daffy Duck, polystyrene, the bikini, credit cards, microwavable food, Tupper Ware, hulahoops, the CIA, atom bombs, air bags, duct tape and velcro.
Of course a quick flick around Google shows it's not hard to find things greener than this Republican candidate.
If the world's population is around 6.6-6.8 billion and the median age is about 28 years of age, then John McCain is definitely older than at least half the people in the known world.
As the US population is now thought to stand at over 304 million and its overall median age is around 35 years; then John McCain is, without fear of contradiction, older than 152 million of his fellow Americans and counting.
And with one birth occur every 7 seconds or so in the U.S., McAncient is getting older than more people by the minute.
With my age being nearer this candidate's than further away, I should have some sympathy for him with regard to this ageist attack led by the Democrats.
But even though an old man gum is a venerable sight in the bush, an old pollie is simply an old pollie, and a U.S. president in his seventies is a good few years too old for comfort in a world where America rides roughshod over us all.
There's even a song on the subject found at a Democrat-leaning blog Younger than John McCain and video at a number of sites.
Here's another little offering at:
http://www.capsteps.com/sounds/mccain-84.mp3
It seems almost everything is considered younger than John McCain, including:
the state of Alaska, jet engines, Daffy Duck, polystyrene, the bikini, credit cards, microwavable food, Tupper Ware, hulahoops, the CIA, atom bombs, air bags, duct tape and velcro.
Of course a quick flick around Google shows it's not hard to find things greener than this Republican candidate.
If the world's population is around 6.6-6.8 billion and the median age is about 28 years of age, then John McCain is definitely older than at least half the people in the known world.
As the US population is now thought to stand at over 304 million and its overall median age is around 35 years; then John McCain is, without fear of contradiction, older than 152 million of his fellow Americans and counting.
And with one birth occur every 7 seconds or so in the U.S., McAncient is getting older than more people by the minute.
With my age being nearer this candidate's than further away, I should have some sympathy for him with regard to this ageist attack led by the Democrats.
But even though an old man gum is a venerable sight in the bush, an old pollie is simply an old pollie, and a U.S. president in his seventies is a good few years too old for comfort in a world where America rides roughshod over us all.
There's even a song on the subject found at a Democrat-leaning blog Younger than John McCain and video at a number of sites.
Here's another little offering at:
http://www.capsteps.com/sounds/mccain-84.mp3
Saturday, 24 May 2008
Warning, warning! Google Health may be injurious to your privacy
Now I'm sure that the good people at Google have no intention of harming a soul with their brand new product Google Health, a free online medical record storage facility.
However, before you plunge into another commitment to supply or store personal details on the world wide web, think of the implications of storing your most personal details out there in hyperspace.
Robert Merkl commenting at Core Economics last Tuesday gave us one scenario:
I’d have to strongly disagree with your statement that there’s no extra privacy implications.
If your doctor gets broken into, maybe a few hundred medical records get stolen. If Google Health gets hacked, millions of health records get stolen.
Furthermore, because it’s all electronic, it’s in a much more easily searchable form.
Here’s a for-instance. Say you’re an intelligence agency, looking for somebody in a large organization to blackmail. With the old system, there’s no way in the world you could burgle every doctor every member in that organization has visited.
Now, let’s rerun our hypothetical with everybody’s medical records on Google Health. Your crack team of hackers breaks in and gets you full access. You do a search for STDs, abortions, mental illnesses, etc. etc. etc on the entire organization, until you find somebody to blackmail.
And, yes, in this case it is entirely plausible to imagine such a technically-adept attacker as an intelligence agency.
Back when I was in the CS department at Melbourne, there were some people doing work on computer security. You might want to consider having a chat to some of them at some point. You may never use internet banking again…
Google Health's own privacy policy also gives pause for thought as it does not completely rule out selling-on some medical data from the site and handing personal data on to law enforcement agencies or third-parties etc:
Google will not sell, rent, or share your information (identified or de-identified) without your explicit consent, except in the limited situations described in the Google Privacy Policy, such as when Google believes it is required to do so by law.
The current Google Health medical advisory board has some interesting CVs on it as well.
I'm not sure that having a history with RAND or Wal-mart, or indeed being a super accountant, is going to make me feel confident in this product.
One of the first entities to 'utilise' this new site will probably be that digital superspy, Server in the Sky.
However, before you plunge into another commitment to supply or store personal details on the world wide web, think of the implications of storing your most personal details out there in hyperspace.
Robert Merkl commenting at Core Economics last Tuesday gave us one scenario:
I’d have to strongly disagree with your statement that there’s no extra privacy implications.
If your doctor gets broken into, maybe a few hundred medical records get stolen. If Google Health gets hacked, millions of health records get stolen.
Furthermore, because it’s all electronic, it’s in a much more easily searchable form.
Here’s a for-instance. Say you’re an intelligence agency, looking for somebody in a large organization to blackmail. With the old system, there’s no way in the world you could burgle every doctor every member in that organization has visited.
Now, let’s rerun our hypothetical with everybody’s medical records on Google Health. Your crack team of hackers breaks in and gets you full access. You do a search for STDs, abortions, mental illnesses, etc. etc. etc on the entire organization, until you find somebody to blackmail.
And, yes, in this case it is entirely plausible to imagine such a technically-adept attacker as an intelligence agency.
Back when I was in the CS department at Melbourne, there were some people doing work on computer security. You might want to consider having a chat to some of them at some point. You may never use internet banking again…
Google Health's own privacy policy also gives pause for thought as it does not completely rule out selling-on some medical data from the site and handing personal data on to law enforcement agencies or third-parties etc:
Google will not sell, rent, or share your information (identified or de-identified) without your explicit consent, except in the limited situations described in the Google Privacy Policy, such as when Google believes it is required to do so by law.
The current Google Health medical advisory board has some interesting CVs on it as well.
I'm not sure that having a history with RAND or Wal-mart, or indeed being a super accountant, is going to make me feel confident in this product.
One of the first entities to 'utilise' this new site will probably be that digital superspy, Server in the Sky.
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