Agriculture Minister Tony Burke flunks Media Presentation 101

Like a lemming over the proverbial cliff, Federal Agricultural Minister Tony Burke went to the defence of his leader Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on the weekend.

"VOTERS don't want Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to slow down, a senior minister says.
Mr Rudd has been urged to ease his workaholic ways or face a political backlash from exhausted public servants.
Medical experts have also warned that Mr Rudd could be putting his own health and that of his staff at risk by expecting them to work long and demanding hours."

Poor Tony is flunking tips on media presentation and aligning himself with a the very un-Labor position that 'bosses' can ask for an unreasonable level of work hours per day or an unreasonable range of hours (with or without overtime) simply because they are the boss.

The Agriculture Minister would do well to remember that Australia's disgust with the arrogant and unreasonable expectations of employers under WorkChoices was a large factor in last year's 'regime change'.
He should be very careful when treading on voter toes in this way. Especially when his leader has taken to publicly preening himself for being a hard boss.

"The Northern Rivers Echo": Rudi Maxwell editorial that speaks to the female experience

The Northern Rivers Echo latest editorial giving a good example of why North Coast women don't admire the monosyllabic. Congratulations to its author.

Poetic justice for colourful language

Poets are brave.
To bare your emotions and stories in a poem is to take a real risk.
I went to the Live Poets at the Rous Hotel last week, headlined by Echo reviewer Geraldine Bigelow and former Echo reviewer Christine Strelan.
What brave and amazing women.
Performing your poetry in front of an audience of your peers takes guts. Telling a personal story in verse takes creativity, imagination, precise timing, thought and hard work.
And these women do it with humour too.
Poetry can inspire and, at its best, it makes you think.
I’m a great admirer of language and its many different forms of expression. And I’m totally in awe of anyone fearless enough to put their personal stories up for discussion and criticism.
In stark contrast to the poetry readings of the night, prior to entering I was standing outside the pub with a female colleague when a ute full of young men drove past.
One of them leaned out the window and yelled “sl*t”, to which my response obviously should have been, “why thank you, young man, that’s the most flattering comment I’ve ever heard, would you please pull your car over to the side of the road so my associate and I can jump in the back of your charming vehicle and take it in turns to have s*x with all of you?”
Why do young men, particularly in groups, think it is acceptable to behave aggressively to strangers?
Apart from the basic rudeness, it’s the lack of imagination that’s so extraordinary. Don’t these children watch South Park or read Paul Keating’s opinion pieces in The Sydney Morning Herald? Haven’t they been following Stuart Littlemore QC’s defence of Mercedes Corby and attack on Jodie Power?
Even ridiculous radio shock jocks manage to be originally insulting occasionally (mainly when they mix up their cliches and mangle their metaphors into clumsy combinations that not only insult their intended subject but are also an affront to language itself) so it can’t be beyond even the most ill-informed, bundy-and-coke-in-a-can swilling, roo-r**ting misogynist. What these boys need is to hear some original language. They should go and listen to some poets and find some inspiration.
And the next time I hear a voice yelling out of a car window I hope it has more to express than a single word denigrating women.
Ignorant, small-appendaged, loud-mouthed, pack-minded, devolved, prisoner-or-alcohol-abuse-problem-in-waiting bores who wouldn’t know how to hold up their end of a conversation with a Shakespearian monologue. D**kheads. [edited to placate the filters]

Penny Wong earns her salary in the face of boys club opposition

With so much Federal Labor promise threatening to turn into ashes, it is heartening to see The Australian report the following last Friday:

TENSIONS are emerging between major greenhouse emitters and Climate Minister Penny Wong after a number of hostile meetings before the release of the Government's green paper on emissions trading in July.
Senator Wong has told small groups of chief executives from major power and other energy-intensive companies that the Rudd Government's election promise of a renewable energy target was "not negotiable".
One of these meetings in Melbourne last Tuesday completely broke down, with Senator Wong reportedly furious at the way she was being treated by the eight business leaders present, telling them "you wouldn't treat (former Treasurer) Peter Costello the way you are treating me".
Those present at the meetings, described by a spokesman for Senator Wong as "frank and robust," included Rio Tinto Australia managing director Stephen Creese, International Power executive director Tony Concannon, Alumina Limited chief executive John Marlay and senior executives from Exxon Mobil, CSR and BHP Billiton.
Big business and economists are growing concerned about the Government's refusal to budge on its 20 per cent renewable energy target by 2020 on top of an emissions trading scheme.

Senator Wong appears to have the spine her leader sometimes fails to publicly show when faced with those multinational bully boys.
If it's any consolation for the senator; these captains of industry would have treated her with even more contempt if she had knuckled under and won't ever respect her for any stand she takes (even if it favours them) because she is after all, shock and horror, a female.

A couple of tips for Federal Labor MPs on media presentation

Whenever I take a guernsey at newspaper photos or watch a doorstop interview on the teev, it's not just the human subject of the column or news clip I notice.
I always look carefully at those others behind or beside who have been captured by the digital moment.
In the case of the interviewed pollie, these 'extras' are often there to show support.

Now the gloss is well and truly coming off the Prime Minister's image, it might be wise for Labor MPs to pick their media exposure with some care lest they find themselves tarnished by Kev's inability to hide his increasingly self-righteous and self-satisfied stance.
So here's a rough guideline.

• If Rudders is expressing his nation's condolences for a natural disaster or death of a respected statesman - stand steadfastly beside him. Likewise if he is making a commitment to a UN treaty or donating a large sum to international relief efforts.
• If he is talking about 2020 summit outcomes, clean coal, fuel or privatisation of state assets - try to be busy somewhere else in the building or discover an urgent message on your mobile and move out of camera range.
• If Rudders is giving his opinion on photographic art, troop entertainers, binge drinking teenagers or what long hours he works - run like hell and hope that you make it back into your electorate before anyone notices that you have gone.
• If he makes any statement about a possible change to the Constitution - quietly retire to your parliamentary office and 'confidentially' leak a dissenting view.

Otherwise voters may begin to think that you too are turning into a smug smart ar**e and decide that you need to be taken down a peg or two.

Best blog pic found this week

A truly frightening pictorial comment on John McCain as a future US president.
Displayed by Club Troppo in its regular Missing Links feature.

You vs George W. Bush

Yesterday Barack Obama tried to make his e-mail money drive personal with this subject title:
You vs George W. Bush.

Right now you have a unique opportunity to go head-to-head with George W. Bush.
This week, John McCain and George Bush gathered behind closed doors, away from the cameras, to raise money for McCain's campaign.
McCain used Bush to raise a reported $3.5 million from a group of about 500 Republican contributors.
That's a lot of money that will undoubtedly be used to attack us and make the case to continue George Bush's failed policies.
But I have an idea about how we can match it. And we don't need George Bush.
Right now, someone who has already given once to the campaign is ready to give again -- but only if you make your first donation right now.
If you take the next step and decide to own a piece of this campaign, that supporter will double your gift.
You'll see the name and hometown of the person who matched your donation. And you can even choose to exchange a personal note about why you've decided to support a different kind of politics.
Double your impact -- your donation of $25 will equal $50 for our cause.
Now is the perfect time to make your first donation:
https://donate.barackobama.com/match
As the presumptive nominee of his party, John McCain has had a three-month head start to build his campaign. In that time, he's made his fundraising strategy clear.
In the words of one reporter, the gala fundraiser with Bush was "part of McCain's delicate effort to find the balance between embracing an unpopular president and taking advantage of his huge continuing draw with well-heeled Republicans."
We'll see more of this dance in the weeks and months ahead, but we already know the steps.
As we prepare to take on John McCain, now is our first chance to show that a grassroots movement of people giving only what they can afford can go toe-to-toe with the Bush-McCain fundraising machine.
And with the last three contests of the Democratic primary coming up in the next five days, the resources we're building right now are an urgent necessity.
Help build our movement by making a matching donation today:
https://donate.barackobama.com/match
John McCain can run from the cameras, but he can't hide from the fact that he's aiming to continue George Bush's policies for a disastrous third term.
Let's show that we're ready to take him on.
Thank you,
Barack

Exxon runs but it can't hide from DeSmogBlog

DeSmogBlog lays bare Exxon's claim that it no longer funds climate change denialist groups.

Exxon Mobil Corp. has cut funding to groups raising questions about climate change from human-generated carbon dioxide, a move taken on the eve of its annual meeting in the face of criticism that the oil giant isn't as green as some of its rivals.
Spokesman Gantt Walton confirmed Tuesday that in 2008, Exxon Mobil (XOM) scrapped funding for the Capital Research Center, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, the Frontiers of Freedom Institute, the George C. Marshall Institute and the Institute for Energy Research.
"We discontinued contributions to several public-policy research groups whose position on climate change could divert attention from the important discussion about how the world will secure the energy required for economic growth in an environmentally responsible manner," Walton said.

On the surface, this looks somewhat promising, especially considering that Exxon cut funding to the notorious climate change skeptics at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) last year.
But a healthy dose of skepticism on our side is important. Let's dig below that glossy corporate surface and follow the money.
Last year, Greenpeace pointed out that although Exxon stopped its handouts to the CEI, it was still up to no good:
ExxonSecrets has obtained the company's Exxon Foundation 2005 report to the IRS. Exxon told the IRS that that it funded 14 groups specifically for their climate change work. But somehow the company didn’t mention this in public.
[Emphasis added.]
In addition to those 14 groups, Exxon was also still giving millions to other front groups that faithfully pump out global warming denier propaganda (pdf , pp. 10-15).

Full article here.