There's one thing you can always rely on a Aussie pollie for - a good laugh.
Liberal Party leader Brendan Nelson raised a laugh on Monday for calling the values police out on the Labor candidate in the Gippsland by-election because he was a Water Water cultural festival director when Beautiful Losers was performed.
The laugh arose because Nelson himself had so recently endorsed the anti-social behaviour, chair sniffing.
Yesterday we all found out that Nelson had forgotten to look into the history of this risque musical.
It seems that another festival director and a Liberal Party state leader to boot, was in the chair when the same musical was performed much earlier at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
So if Wee Brennie were to try to hold to his twisted logic, then 'Red' Ted Baillieu would also be displaying behaviour inconsistent with expected standards.
Can't have it both ways, mate.
The second guffaw of the week came when the Prime Minister was caught out in a very similar way.
Rudders has spent much of his air time since Budget night hammering the Opposition for its behind the scenes disunity over fuel policy, only to have one of his ministers outed as opposing his own pet petrol scheme, Fuel Watch.
The PM's mouth did the cat quince thing during Question Time everytime this was pointed out.
What's sauce for the goose....
Their hypocrisy appears to be plastered on so thickly, that I imagine before either Rudd or Nelson lay their heads on the pillow each night, their wives have to breakout a chisel and hammer to find the man underneath.
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
You make the rules: Appsie sends a letter to Rudd and Swan
Prime Minister and Treasurer,
We elected you to make the decisions and frame the legislation for the good running of this great country.
You have been in government now for six months so take the "bit in your teeth" and start telling the Banks not to put extra on their rates just because they want to.
Stop letting the likes of Woolworths and Coles have a mark up percentage of up to 1000%.
We as your constituents have to manage our money to make ends meet, these big companies just do what they like to please their share holders.
It is time for you and your government to tell them what to do and that failure to do so will incur huge fines. Eliminate the "loop holes" and the "shades of grey."
In the 50's and 60's shops were only able to have a mark-up percentage of 33 1/3 % with perishables being able to be sold with a mark up of 100%.
My late father had a small shop in the little town of Maclean, he employed two men to help out with the running of the business.
One of these men had three children and a wife and the other had seven children and a wife.
Dad met all of his commitments and supported a wife and two children and in many cases gave stuff away to help the less fortunate survive.
If the country could survive with such small percentage mark ups in those years I can't see why the country can't manage now on the same margins.
Forget what the economists say, as in most cases they are looking after their own interests and probably getting a "sling" for doing so. The mere threat of introducing such a form of price fixing would send a shudder right through the business world.
Many people in the electorate would applaud such action, particulary if it was like old "true Labor practices."
We are depending upon your Government to set the ship on a true course and eradicate the practices of the Howard Government.
It is you and "The New Broom" that we depend upon to get this country, (and if you will allow me to use the good old Australian term) "out of the sh*t." We must stop "greed" or control it if we are to receive the benefits of what our Soldiers fought for to make it a better place for all.
You probably won't agree with what I have written but may I tell you, at the age of 68 years , I and my peers have seen the best of this country and would greatly appreciate it if our children and grand children were able to enjoy the same.
The "Ball is in your Court", you don't need a miracle all you need is common sense and a will to look after those who put you in the position that you now have.
For Authentication Purposes :-
[redacted for privacy reasons]
Clarence Valley NSW
* Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical guest comment from Northern Rivers residents.
We elected you to make the decisions and frame the legislation for the good running of this great country.
You have been in government now for six months so take the "bit in your teeth" and start telling the Banks not to put extra on their rates just because they want to.
Stop letting the likes of Woolworths and Coles have a mark up percentage of up to 1000%.
We as your constituents have to manage our money to make ends meet, these big companies just do what they like to please their share holders.
It is time for you and your government to tell them what to do and that failure to do so will incur huge fines. Eliminate the "loop holes" and the "shades of grey."
In the 50's and 60's shops were only able to have a mark-up percentage of 33 1/3 % with perishables being able to be sold with a mark up of 100%.
My late father had a small shop in the little town of Maclean, he employed two men to help out with the running of the business.
One of these men had three children and a wife and the other had seven children and a wife.
Dad met all of his commitments and supported a wife and two children and in many cases gave stuff away to help the less fortunate survive.
If the country could survive with such small percentage mark ups in those years I can't see why the country can't manage now on the same margins.
Forget what the economists say, as in most cases they are looking after their own interests and probably getting a "sling" for doing so. The mere threat of introducing such a form of price fixing would send a shudder right through the business world.
Many people in the electorate would applaud such action, particulary if it was like old "true Labor practices."
We are depending upon your Government to set the ship on a true course and eradicate the practices of the Howard Government.
It is you and "The New Broom" that we depend upon to get this country, (and if you will allow me to use the good old Australian term) "out of the sh*t." We must stop "greed" or control it if we are to receive the benefits of what our Soldiers fought for to make it a better place for all.
You probably won't agree with what I have written but may I tell you, at the age of 68 years , I and my peers have seen the best of this country and would greatly appreciate it if our children and grand children were able to enjoy the same.
The "Ball is in your Court", you don't need a miracle all you need is common sense and a will to look after those who put you in the position that you now have.
For Authentication Purposes :-
[redacted for privacy reasons]
Clarence Valley NSW
* Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical guest comment from Northern Rivers residents.
British academic freedom definitely in WTF territory, as allegedly 'illegal' al Qaeda documents found absolutely everywhere
On Saturday 24 May The Guardian reported that a UK uni student was held for six days, then released without charge, because he had downloaded information from a US Government site concerning the training practices of al Qaeda.
The post-graduate student was held under the Terrorism Act 2006 and could have been held for up to 28 days.
He was reported to authorities by a staff member at Nottingham University.
The student, his supervisors and tutor say that he was researching for legitimate study purposes in order to complete his masters degree and appears to have downloaded the edited version.
From the newspaper's description this downloaded information is very similar to information which has been freely available for years from a number of sites, including the US Dept.of Justice.
In fact a 28 page excerpt from the so-called al Qaeda training manual were released in 2001 for PR purposes and can still be found on the world wide web here.
In 2003 the blog Smoking Gun published around 160 gif images of the manual pages here.
The Federation of American Scientists has a 140 page version complete with cover gif here.
As this manual is almost always found on the Internet in alleged translation, the blogosphere is still unsure of its provenance and it may be that it is part of a government propaganda exercise.
An allegedly third edition of this document around 5,000 pages long is supposedly found at Yahoo Geocities here.
This is what Global Security says about the document.
The legend that ricin can be made from a recipe on the Internet using only household chemicals will probably never die. A big reason for this is its regular vetting by authority figures and government agencies.
The best example of this can be seen in how the "al Qaeda training manual" is regarded. Discovered in a search of an al Qaeda member's home in England and entered into the public record in the January 2001 trial of the embassy bombings in Africa, the manual includes a page devoted to explaining how to purify ricin from castor beans. With minor changes, it is the discredited formula that was common in "anarchy files" uploaded to private bulletin boards and the web over the past decade. In other words, it's the same useless lye and acetone procedure that has long been in residence on the Temple of the Screaming Electron web site. (See National Security Notes 02/20/2004.)
The al Qaeda training manual was translated in its entirety and made into an Adobe Acrobat file prior to September 11. With some searching copies can still be found on the Internet.
However, on September 11, America was seized by fear. The manual's section on poisoning and ricin concoction was expurgated by government authorities and subsequently republished on the Department of Justice's web site. The surgical removal of this section granted it gravity, effectively validating what was actually a procedure of no worth.
The validation was echoed in other places, notably the popular Smoking Gun web site, which displayed a fragment of the item.
"The manual ... instructs [al Qaeda] members on how to produce poisons from readily available materials," read an article in the National Journal on December 3, 2001. "For example, dimethyl sulfoxide, which is used as a topical analgesic by veterinarians, can be mixed with herbal poisons such as ricin, which is obtained from castor beans."
Even simple common sense broke down when considering the al Qaeda training manual and its supposed recipe for ricin. The expurgated portion also contains a passage which suggests that the consumption of three cigarettes could be used in assassinations. While this might be inspirational to those searching for a reason to give up smoking, normally it would raise doubts in even the most disinterested reader on the knowledgeability of the author of the section of the manual in question.
But the war on terror is not a normal time and often clear thinking and sophisticated analysis goes right out the window when evaluating potentials for mayhem.
Literally thousands of people world-wide have viewed one or all of these 'training' documents.
In fact this particular 10 minute search appears to indicate that a credit card will get me a complete copy of the manual.
Given that all this information is out there and freely available in hyperspace, why was this student detained under British anti-terrorism laws and why is the person who printed out the document for him to be deported?
One has to suspect that ethnicity and religion played a big part in the minds of Nottingham police.
In response to the wrongful detentions, academics from the University of Nottingham will be doing a public reading of the research material that led to arrests under the Terrorism Act on campus, outside the Hallward library, University Park Campus, at 2:00pm, on May 28. The reading will be followed by a silent protest where students and academics will symbolically gag themselves to object to the attack on academic freedom.
This establishment stupidity is a salutary lesson for us all. Reading material on the Internet, downloading and emailing it, is dangerous for your health and safety in our topsy-turvey world.
The Australian Federal Police also tend to lose their commonsense whenever the word 'terrorist' is mentioned.
I wouldn't be going anywhere near His Holiness when he visits in case either Sydney or Commonwealth police decide to look at me sideways.
After all I clicked the links to that manual - ooh aaah.
The Beeston Quakers on the subject of arbitrary arrest and censorship here.
The post-graduate student was held under the Terrorism Act 2006 and could have been held for up to 28 days.
He was reported to authorities by a staff member at Nottingham University.
The student, his supervisors and tutor say that he was researching for legitimate study purposes in order to complete his masters degree and appears to have downloaded the edited version.
From the newspaper's description this downloaded information is very similar to information which has been freely available for years from a number of sites, including the US Dept.of Justice.
In fact a 28 page excerpt from the so-called al Qaeda training manual were released in 2001 for PR purposes and can still be found on the world wide web here.
In 2003 the blog Smoking Gun published around 160 gif images of the manual pages here.
The Federation of American Scientists has a 140 page version complete with cover gif here.
As this manual is almost always found on the Internet in alleged translation, the blogosphere is still unsure of its provenance and it may be that it is part of a government propaganda exercise.
An allegedly third edition of this document around 5,000 pages long is supposedly found at Yahoo Geocities here.
This is what Global Security says about the document.
The legend that ricin can be made from a recipe on the Internet using only household chemicals will probably never die. A big reason for this is its regular vetting by authority figures and government agencies.
The best example of this can be seen in how the "al Qaeda training manual" is regarded. Discovered in a search of an al Qaeda member's home in England and entered into the public record in the January 2001 trial of the embassy bombings in Africa, the manual includes a page devoted to explaining how to purify ricin from castor beans. With minor changes, it is the discredited formula that was common in "anarchy files" uploaded to private bulletin boards and the web over the past decade. In other words, it's the same useless lye and acetone procedure that has long been in residence on the Temple of the Screaming Electron web site. (See National Security Notes 02/20/2004.)
The al Qaeda training manual was translated in its entirety and made into an Adobe Acrobat file prior to September 11. With some searching copies can still be found on the Internet.
However, on September 11, America was seized by fear. The manual's section on poisoning and ricin concoction was expurgated by government authorities and subsequently republished on the Department of Justice's web site. The surgical removal of this section granted it gravity, effectively validating what was actually a procedure of no worth.
The validation was echoed in other places, notably the popular Smoking Gun web site, which displayed a fragment of the item.
"The manual ... instructs [al Qaeda] members on how to produce poisons from readily available materials," read an article in the National Journal on December 3, 2001. "For example, dimethyl sulfoxide, which is used as a topical analgesic by veterinarians, can be mixed with herbal poisons such as ricin, which is obtained from castor beans."
Even simple common sense broke down when considering the al Qaeda training manual and its supposed recipe for ricin. The expurgated portion also contains a passage which suggests that the consumption of three cigarettes could be used in assassinations. While this might be inspirational to those searching for a reason to give up smoking, normally it would raise doubts in even the most disinterested reader on the knowledgeability of the author of the section of the manual in question.
But the war on terror is not a normal time and often clear thinking and sophisticated analysis goes right out the window when evaluating potentials for mayhem.
Literally thousands of people world-wide have viewed one or all of these 'training' documents.
In fact this particular 10 minute search appears to indicate that a credit card will get me a complete copy of the manual.
Given that all this information is out there and freely available in hyperspace, why was this student detained under British anti-terrorism laws and why is the person who printed out the document for him to be deported?
One has to suspect that ethnicity and religion played a big part in the minds of Nottingham police.
In response to the wrongful detentions, academics from the University of Nottingham will be doing a public reading of the research material that led to arrests under the Terrorism Act on campus, outside the Hallward library, University Park Campus, at 2:00pm, on May 28. The reading will be followed by a silent protest where students and academics will symbolically gag themselves to object to the attack on academic freedom.
This establishment stupidity is a salutary lesson for us all. Reading material on the Internet, downloading and emailing it, is dangerous for your health and safety in our topsy-turvey world.
The Australian Federal Police also tend to lose their commonsense whenever the word 'terrorist' is mentioned.
I wouldn't be going anywhere near His Holiness when he visits in case either Sydney or Commonwealth police decide to look at me sideways.
After all I clicked the links to that manual - ooh aaah.
The Beeston Quakers on the subject of arbitrary arrest and censorship here.
Little Brennie unleashes the values police, but gets nabbed himself for supporting snedgers
Everytime I switch on the radio or open a newspaper these days, it seems that the thought and values police are setting the dogs on someone.
Yesterday was Little Brennie Nelson's turn, as he suddenly decided that Labor's candidate for the Gippsland by-election (caused by a former Howard Government minister deciding that the money we pay isn't good enough for him to hang around and do the job for which he was elected) was a B-A-D man when he promoted a musical as director of a Gippsland cultural festival.
Fer gawd's sake Brendan, mate. Fancy saying stuff like; "(Mr McCubbin) has been promoting a show which is sexually explicit, would offend the vast majority of Australians and is inconsistent with the sort of values we would want to see represented in a candidate for the federal parliament.", when you personally support strange snedgers in your own party.
Need I remind you, that you went on the record less than a month ago.
"FEDERAL Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says the chair-sniffing Western Australian Liberal Leader has his "full support and confidence".
Troy Buswell, WA's Opposition Leader, yesterday admitted to sniffing a female Liberal staffer's chair in 2005.
He broke down at a press conference yesterday as he confirmed the woman's account but said he would not be standing down.
Dr Nelson said Mr Buswell was apologetic and still had his backing."
Know whose character I would be backing here and it wouldn't be the snedger over the musical featuring a blowup doll.
And Glen Milne loses it because he thinks he IS the values police
Glen Milne in The Australian yesterday.
"And just as Rudd's failings are beginning to make an impression nationally, along comes Darren McCubbin, the ALP candidate for Gippsland. McCubbin, you'll remember, was shoehorned into Gippsland by Labor's Melbourne head office over the local branch's preferred candidate, David Wilson, a veteran party member.
McCubbin, a local mayor, only joined up as a true believer on the day of his preselection. It was apparently enough to satisfy the moral conscience of a once great movement.
Labor's Victorian headquarters is in West Melbourne, spitting distance from the inner-city theatre district. Which might explain McCubbin's tastes. And his enthusiastic party endorsement. He is, you see, among other things, a director of the local Gippsland cultural festival, Water, Water, whatever that means.
In fact, we do know what it means, in part because McCubbin, as a director of the festival last year, chose to include and promote a lovely little act called the Beautiful Losers in his local show in the regional city of Sale, slap in the middle of the conservative rural electorate.
Listen up. According to a laudatory review in Melbourne's InPress magazine the Beautiful Losers consists "of three men, a piano and a guitar, not to mention some very wrong and rather amusing lyrics about all manner of depravity".
Yesterday was Little Brennie Nelson's turn, as he suddenly decided that Labor's candidate for the Gippsland by-election (caused by a former Howard Government minister deciding that the money we pay isn't good enough for him to hang around and do the job for which he was elected) was a B-A-D man when he promoted a musical as director of a Gippsland cultural festival.
Fer gawd's sake Brendan, mate. Fancy saying stuff like; "(Mr McCubbin) has been promoting a show which is sexually explicit, would offend the vast majority of Australians and is inconsistent with the sort of values we would want to see represented in a candidate for the federal parliament.", when you personally support strange snedgers in your own party.
Need I remind you, that you went on the record less than a month ago.
"FEDERAL Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says the chair-sniffing Western Australian Liberal Leader has his "full support and confidence".
Troy Buswell, WA's Opposition Leader, yesterday admitted to sniffing a female Liberal staffer's chair in 2005.
He broke down at a press conference yesterday as he confirmed the woman's account but said he would not be standing down.
Dr Nelson said Mr Buswell was apologetic and still had his backing."
Know whose character I would be backing here and it wouldn't be the snedger over the musical featuring a blowup doll.
And Glen Milne loses it because he thinks he IS the values police
Glen Milne in The Australian yesterday.
"And just as Rudd's failings are beginning to make an impression nationally, along comes Darren McCubbin, the ALP candidate for Gippsland. McCubbin, you'll remember, was shoehorned into Gippsland by Labor's Melbourne head office over the local branch's preferred candidate, David Wilson, a veteran party member.
McCubbin, a local mayor, only joined up as a true believer on the day of his preselection. It was apparently enough to satisfy the moral conscience of a once great movement.
Labor's Victorian headquarters is in West Melbourne, spitting distance from the inner-city theatre district. Which might explain McCubbin's tastes. And his enthusiastic party endorsement. He is, you see, among other things, a director of the local Gippsland cultural festival, Water, Water, whatever that means.
In fact, we do know what it means, in part because McCubbin, as a director of the festival last year, chose to include and promote a lovely little act called the Beautiful Losers in his local show in the regional city of Sale, slap in the middle of the conservative rural electorate.
Listen up. According to a laudatory review in Melbourne's InPress magazine the Beautiful Losers consists "of three men, a piano and a guitar, not to mention some very wrong and rather amusing lyrics about all manner of depravity".
Monday, 26 May 2008
American politics have always seemed strange, but Obama has just made the whole scene weirder
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?
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?
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.
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