And we think that politics can get dirty in Australia...

From the Los Angeles Times on the weekend:

Casual Web surfers who click on Obama-Biden.org or Obama-Biden.com might assume they'd find information about the Democratic presidential ticket.They'd be wrong.
Both addresses divert people to a website that is harshly anti-Obama, the website of the American Issues Project.That's the newly formed nonprofit group that flooded cable television in the battleground states of Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania with ads decrying the relationship between Barack Obama and William Ayers, a founder of the radical Weather Underground who is now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.It wasn't clear who is behind the trick. Christian Pinkston, spokesman for the American Issues Project, said his group had nothing to do with it.

Now American Issues Project may not have arranged this, but I do wonder about >bt: Brain-Terminal which carries this rather roughly made stationery in a pdf which purports to contain a legal letter on behalf of Barack Obama.

That letter is rather at odds with another on the American Issues Project website here.

The whole matter appears to be destined for the courts if The Wall Street Journal article is any indication:

The Obama campaign has run a response ad linking the charges to Sen. McCain and has mounted a campaign to combat the advertisement by encouraging supporters to make phone calls and write emails to TV stations airing the commercial, alleging it is both false and illegal. The campaign says its supporters have sent about 93,000 emails to the Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., which owns many of the stations running the spot.
The Obama campaign's general counsel, Bob Bauer, has sent two letters to the Justice Department asking for an investigation of the group and the $3 million contribution by Mr. Simmons, the only funder who has been disclosed.

Australian GMO crop sites: Bayer joins Monsanto while DuPont gears up

First map: GMO Canola.
Second map: GMO Canola & Indian Mustard.
Third map: GMO Wheat.
Possible that CSIRO wheat research is indirectly funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

All maps found at the Australian Office of Gene Technology Regulator.
Sites depicted by yellow dot are post harvest. Red dots denote current trial plots.

DuPont has recently announced a partnership with Hexima to undertake trials of GMO Corn, Soya Bean and other crops in Australia.

Iemma & Costa: Here're your hats, what's your hurry...

So NSW Treasurer Michael Costa is threatening to quit within 10 weeks if he doesn't get his way over the partial sale of the state's electricity assets and other as yet unnamed measures.
And little Morrie Iemma is bleating about the fact that not undertaking complete power privatisation has wrecked the NSW credit rating.

Ignoring the fact that it would take more than the loss of a projected $10 billion in sale funds to bring down a credit rating which Standard & Poors had at AAA less than a year ago.
The fact of the matter is that these two political drongoes had continued on where Bob Carr left off and run the state's infrastructure into the ground before facing harsh realities.

And now Iemma has the hide to sool his nasty little Pomeranian, Health Minister Reba Meagher, onto the NSW North Coast and threaten to withhold future hospital infrastructure upgrades at Lismore Base Hospital because he didn't get his own way over electricity.

Well, the answer to that from many on the North Coast would be the same as the one from Maud up the street:

Sit on it and rotate, fellas!

Pic from Jupiter Images

So you think you can run a council.....(4)

Oh dear, the 2008 Clarence Valley local government election is shaping up to be wall-to-wall heartburn for North Coast Voices.

In a field of predominately first-time or previously unsuccessful candidates, Liza Bloomer of Grafton stands out as almost as bad as it gets with a 2 out of 10 on my ballot meter.

Not only did she burble out nothing but buzz words during the Yamba Chamber of Commerce Meet the Candidates night last week - now I discover two linked election campaign websites maintained by Ms. Bloomer which have the hide to not only contain very limited contact details, but also attempt to prohibit contact if we were to have our own telephone numbers (silent or otherwise) legitimately withheld.

Here is what Liza says:
Contact Liza via email: liza.bloomer@gmail.com or call her on: 0407 29 77 64 (withheld numbers will not be answered).

As Ms. Bloomer has seen fit to give out the mobile number attached to her business, here is the address published on her business website: 6 Queen St, Grafton, NSW, 2460, Australia.

Now if anyone has concerns about any printed election material derived from the two campaign websites and feel that this breaches the advertising rules (clauses 5 & 10 ) set out at by the NSW Electoral Commission, they will at least have one physical address to which they can refer.

It's all about political accountability, Elizabeth Anne.

Hold on a mo, Joe!

According to ABC News last week, Joe Ludwig was talking up a digital welfare debit card:
"The federal Human Services Minister says almost all of welfare recipients in prescribed areas of the Northern Territory are now having half of their payments quarantined."

He also went on to say that "about 500 Northern Territory businesses have expressed an interest in accepting the new welfare debit card." and "there is wide support for the new welfare debit card".

Widespread support from which group, Senator?
The indigenous communities, the 400 people who have so far managed to avoid having their welfare payments quarantined?

Oh, you meant the 500 Northern Territory business owners and the big supermarket chains!
Joe, a dingo has more honour than the Labor Right these days.

McCain's VP is an anthropomorphic climate change sceptic?

Greenpeace is less than impressed by Republican presidential candidate John McCain choosing the very conservative Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, as his vice-presidential running mate.
It has produced a brief environmental history for this candidate.

Along with a link to the history DeSmogBlog sent out an email alerting everyone to the fact that Sarah said:

"A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made. "

Given that women are generally considered to be more aware and concerned about global warming issues, this bid for the female vote may not have the bounce that the McCain camp obviously hopes for among some groups of American voters.

Monatge from DeSmogBlog

US 08: Denver Sermon on the Mount

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has released the transcript of his acceptance speech.

Like most of his major speeches this much anticipated delivery was essentially more of an optimistic sermon and less of a comprehensive and firm commitment to specific policy.

What Obama does promise Americans is tax cuts, heavier reliance on nuclear power, more gas exploration, investment in clean technology, federal budget cuts and a hawkish foreign policy.

All the rest is a clever use of wordy smoke and mirrors, because the measures broadly mentioned could not deliver a universal benefit to the target groups within the American established political and social systems.

The speech very cleverly contained a number of colourful sound bites and predictably attacked McCain.

As we all saw on television, Obama's rhetoric sent Democratic convention delegates wild in Denver.
Will they survive the inevitable disappointment if Obama gains the presidency?

One has to wish Barack Obama well in his bid for the U.S. presidency, because this bid signals a positive change for the status of African-Americans.

However, from an outsider's perspective, Obama appears to be the usual political fantasist in a two-man race between political hucksters.