It just had to happen! Barking for the ballot in 2008

Dan from Dog Reflections tells us that a Washington woman registered her dog as a voter ahead of the forthcoming US presidential election, as a protest against lax voter registration rules.

Australian Shepherd-terrier mix had a utility bill in “his name” - “Duncan M. MacDonald” as the identification needed to register......
When Duncan did receive his absentee ballots Balogh returned them with his paw print on the signature line, and the word “void” written through the ballot.

Meanwhile canine supporters of Obama in all their finery are coming out of the woodwork at Dog Reflections and Obama Dog.

Photo from Dog Reflections.

So you think you can run a council.....(6)

Well, what can one say about Clarence Valley local government election candidate and caravan park manager, Karen Toms?
The only thing which comes to mind is the fact that (according to certain Iluka residents) this woman would happily wreck fragile foreshore and beaches with constant 4-wheel drive traffic if allowed, just to further the supposed desire of caravan park guests to have picnic lunches by the sea.
Ms. Toms obviously has a hard time thinking through all the environmental ramifications of her own wants.

Not a characteristic which would sit well on Clarence Valley Council.

At the Yamba Meet the Candidates event Ms. Toms offered no discernable platform or ideas for consideration.

Definitely a 1 out of 10 on my ballot meter.

Oi Garrett! Time to give it a rest sport

There is a joke doing the rounds that every appearance by former Midnight Oils rock star, Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett, is a sell-out.

I'm not sure whether Garrett sells the environment down the river each time as the joke suggests, but by gawd, when it comes to Gunns proposed pulp mill he comes pretty close.
It must be doing his back in to so regularly bend his considerable height over to take it in the rear from this company.
This is Garrett's latest:

Peter Garrett 'grants further favours' over pulp mill

Stop Hillsong's foray into NSW public schools NOW!

Hillsong, the Pentecostal Christian church mob that has ties with the Assemblies of God gang, has embarked on a mission to recruit new members in NSW public schools. Its mode of operation is to conduct free lunchtime concerts and barbecues in schools - these days are called "Exo days".

The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

Exo or Excellent days are free events run by Christian students under the direction of Youth Alive, an arm of the Australian Christian Churches - formerly the Assemblies of God - of which Hillsong is the largest member.

A teacher at one public school said students had returned to class after an Exo day concert complaining about attempts to convert them, while the Federation of Parents and Citizens' Associations says it is an attempt to sneak evangelism into schools and reveals the need for new laws.

Previously the Herald reported that Hillsong was running its Shine program - aimed at young women - in at least 20 NSW public schools.

The NSW Education Act says that "instruction" at public schools must be non-sectarian and secular except in designated religious education classes.

A spokeswoman for the Federation of Parents and Citizens' Association said religious recruitment in schools was inappropriate. "We need to ensure that children when they go to school aren't exposed to discreet evangelism," she said.

The NSW upper house Greens MP, John Kaye, said Exo days went against the spirit of the act, but that there was a need for new laws specifying "clearly and precisely who is allowed on school campuses and who is not".

"Parents send their children to public schools in the anticipation that they will not be indoctrinated," Mr Kaye said.

Clarrie says: "The NSW Government should stop this mob conducting these 'events' NOW!!!"

Is it beat up on pensioners week?

* First we had Today's Apathetic Youth making a case that pensioners are whingers who caused some of their own financial problems by allegedly voting for John Howard.

While older voters have traditionally been thought to vote for conservative parties, this tendency has been somewhat overstated across time (largely because available data can only indicate tendencies for age populations) and just like other age groups voting intentions can vary markedly across election years.

Newspoll data on stated voter intentions from 1987-2007 show that over all election years a combined total of 38.9% of those 60 years+ intended to vote ALP, 51.2% intended to vote Coalition and 9.9% to vote for other parties/independents.

In the same period the data showed that a combined total of only 45.7% of 18-24 year olds intended to vote Labor.

* Then we had the mainstream media writing about the gambling habits of pensioners and suggesting limiting elderly access to poker machines, based on a 2007 survey of 414 people over 60 years of age conducted by the University of Queensland Social Research Centre and published online last January.

What the media articles failed to understand is found in the following survey report observation:

The analysis undertaken suggests that certain age-related circumstances of older people—such as being without a partner, having a disability that impacts on everyday activities, having a low annual income, and no longer participating in the workforce—are associated with higher overall levels of motivation for playing EGMs and greater reliance on EGMs to meet social, recreational and mental health needs.

Some significant factors associated with clinical depression are contained in that sentence, but all the newspapers could say was ban pokie specials on pension days and Poll: Do older people need pre-set limits on poker machine use? Vote below.

All ran with an unproven possibility:
"Compared with younger segments of the population, older people are more commonly retired and thus have more limited opportunities to replenish savings once they are used," the report said. "It is thus conceivable that long-term regular electronic gaming machine use may gradually whittle away older people's financial security."

One has to wonder whether this media response was a targeted beat up coming from Senator Fielding and the Family First stable.

It reeks of blame and punish the pensioners, instead of wondering why a large sector of Australian society is so socially isolated and inadequately supported that some individuals turn to gambling to make themselves feel better.

It also ignores the fact that a great many pensioners have no assets, savings or investments and couldn't afford to enter a social or gambling venue even if they wanted to.

Snakes alive! It's the start of that season again

With the nights getting warmer and the days sunnier, it's time to take care when out walking through scrub or long grass on the NSW North Coast.
The start of Spring will see snakes begin to move about more often and some may cross our paths or that of our pets.

A snake's body temperature - and so its level of activity - is controlled by the temperature of the air and the ground. It will try to maximise body heat, by basking in the sun or lying on or near warm surfaces such as night-time roads or even, on occasion, household water heaters.
In the more temperate climate along the coast they shelter in rock crevices and logs during cold weather and come out on warm days to soak up the heat of the sun.

All native snakes in NSW are protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974.

Photograph of Eastern (Common) Brown Snake found at Sydney University website.

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap

I can't say that I follow American politics all that closely, but it is not hard to recall the Bush-Gore presidential race of 2000 and the debacle surrounding electronic voting and flawed vote counts.
With the November 2008 polling day coming ever closer, the first concerns are surfacing about irregular purging of voter registration rolls in at least three US states.

"The purge issue is only going to rise in profile in the coming weeks. Several voting rights groups are studying the process in a number of swing states and hope to issue reports later this summer. Among the issues being studied is the accuracy of the database matches used to purge voters. When California first implemented a data-matching program in 2006, some counties had error rates as high as 40 percent, meaning a registered voter who appeared to have moved would have been incorrectly purged without further efforts to confirm their residency and voter registration status."

It has been reported that last month in Colorado a Bush appointee purged one in every five voters registered in that state.

There is no uniform eligibility requirements for voluntary voter registration across America and the mishmash of conflicting state and federal legislation may make the run up to November quite interesting for the rest of us watching from afar.

What is evident is the fact that it would be relatively easy under current rules for a US state apparatus to disenfranchise groups thought to be unsympathetic to the candidate favoured by its governor and it wouldn't cost real money to do so - just stationery and postal costs.
While even the dead may be turned to advantage in other instances.

Both Democratic and Republican voter registration drives are frequently problematic also and prospective voters can become very confused.

"Late last month, as a voter-registration drive by supporters of Senator Barack Obama was signing up thousands of students at Virginia Tech, the local registrar of elections issued two releases incorrectly suggesting a range of dire possibilities for students who registered to vote at their college.
The releases warned that such students could no longer be claimed as dependents on their parents’ tax returns, a statement the Internal Revenue Service says is incorrect, and could lose scholarships or coverage under their parents’ car and health insurance."

It's times like this that I'm thankful to be living in Australia - our voting system seems eminently sane compared with this American brand of political insanity.