British court gives Greenpeace activists a 'lawful excuse' get-out-of-gaol-free card

WASHINGTON — A British Court today acquitted six Greenpeace volunteers for attempting to shut down a coal-fired power plant in Kent on the grounds that they had a "lawful excuse" because the coal plant was causing so much property damage around the world due to global warming that it exceeded the property damage done through shutting operations of the coal plant.The Maidstone Crown Court heard testimony from NASA climate expert James Hansen, an Inuit leader from Greenland and the British Conservative Party's environment adviser. The jury was told that the Kingsnorth Power Plant emits 20,000 tons of CO2 every day - the same amount as the 30 least polluting countries in the world combined – and that the British Government had advanced plans to build a new coal-fired power station next to the existing site on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent.

Full Green Peace 11 September 2008 media release.

Should NSW Premier Nathan Rees be worried?

And now for something completely ridiculous

With a recent internal dispute over an academic reverend's pro-Creationism stance disturbing the harmony of the Royal Society, I decided to have a look at what religious websites were saying on the subject.

I didn't get past the first one (run by the United Church of God) because in defence of Creationism it actually quoted at length a deceased, former card-carry member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi), member of the Waffen SS and user of concerntration camp slave labour.

Now how can a bloke take seriously any argument that holds up Werner von Braun as a pattern card of ethical and reasoned debate?

Here is Reverend Prof Michael Reiss' article of September 11, which certainly upset the National Secular Society as well.

Before we all start to hoot at the folly of others Over There, remember this article from The Age in 2005?

"The controversial theory of "intelligent design" has won the qualified backing of Education Minister Brendan Nelson, who says it should be taught in schools alongside evolution if that is the wish of parents.
Intelligent design, which is damned by critics as a front for biblical Creationism, argues that life on Earth is too complex to have evolved purely through Darwin's theory of natural selection. Dr Nelson said yesterday he had met Campus Crusade for Christ, the Australian advocates of intelligent design, or ID, and watched their DVD presentation, called Unlocking the Mystery of Life."

Barack shows his true colours during US presidential race

While the McCain campaign is equally shameless, Barack Obama is beginning to show that he is no novice when it comes to slinging political mud.

This quote in the Herald Sun caught my eye this week.

BARACK Obama has ripped into 72-year-old John McCain calling him an out-of-touch economic illiterate who has slept through the internet revolution, as the war of words resumed on the White House trail.

Peter Sheehan's cartoon found at New Matilda.

A little Sunday art on the NSW North Coast

First View from Border Ranges

Savira McDonald

Ceramic artist

Grafton Regional Gallery

R.I.P. Possum Pollytics

Possum Comitatus has moved from his own site Possum Pollytics and is now part of the Crikey stable at Pollytics.com.

It is sad to see yet another very successful independent blog being absorbed into what is essentially the mainstream digital media.

With the best of intentions, true independence can be diminished by the needs of the new parent. Something Possum will have to guard against.
Previous visitors and participants on Possum Pollytics comment pages will notice the registration requirements on the new blog which add yet another level of basic data sharing.

September 11, 2008 – 1:48 pm, by Possum Comitatus

Welcome to the new and improved Pollytics - now powered by Crikey.

The first thing you might notice is that this is actually a proper Wordpress system, so dont freak right out by thinking that this place is run off the Crikey site system - it's all new and spiffy and decked out for blogging.

The proper launch is next week, so that's when everything starts working fully.

Over on the right you might notice a few spiffy, charty type things. They're all clickable and will take you through to specific pages dealing with each topic. There's Pollytrack which we all know, the Chart Dump is where all the Federal polling data fit to print is available, the US election still deals with Intrade, the Long View is an interactive history of the two party preferred vote going back to 1985 and the State maps and data graphics take you through to where various State based polling data is available.

Make sure you read the moderation policy – it explains the natural order of things.

To comment, you first need to register, which requires nothing more than a working email address. It's free to do so and the password to enable you to comment will be sent through to your email. Once registered, it allows you to not only comment here, but on other Crikey blogs - which you'll be hearing more about soon.

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Independent news, blogs and commentary on politics, media and business.

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NSW Local Government Elections 2008: Live result update links on the night

For the first time NSW local government electors will be able to follow the vote count online after polls close at 6pm on Saturday 13 September 2008.

Electoral Commission NSW live update information:

Election results

View election results and result information
View the LGCC Counting schedule

ABC Elections website/Antony Green here

* However, it should be noted that due to the NSW Government's Sydney-centric view of all things rural and regional, counting for some electorates on the Northern Rivers may not show a result before Wednesday or Thursday of next week as Returning Officers are being asked to multitask at an unsustainable level and physical counting of ballots is often occurring away from the electorates involved.

Gloss comes off Democrat presidential candidate Obama - except among single women

Barack Obama might eventually try to pretend arms length from the Democratic Party September 2008 website The Next Cheney, however his Alaska Mythbusters group gives the game away.

Things are really getting down and dirty in the US presidential race as Gallup polling of registered voters place McCain five percentage points ahead of Obama and neither campaign camp is covering itself with glory.

FactCheck.org has been keeping track of the truthfulness or otherwise of some of the claims against the main players in the 2008 campaign:

Sliming Sarah Palin

Fact Checking Obama

Sliming Obama

Maverick Misleads

Hit the Brakes

Bikini-wearing, gun-toting Palin viral photo fake

The Obama for America team has a Fighting the Smears webpage which selectively lists smears for his campaigners to then knock down.

It has an interesting piece of editing posted:

Which sort of begs the question as to whether this team is actually trying to foster some of these wayout theories in order give him underdog status and the sympathy vote.

Because it seems that the only demographic that Obama consistently dominates is single American female registered voters where his personal support runs between 54-60% over the last three months.

Palin graphic found at The Next Cheney