US political donation transparency literally streets ahead of Australian system

In Australia not only do we cast our ballots at federal, state and local government elections without knowing how big each candidate's campaign fund was or from whom they received donations; we often have no chance of finding out until long after election day has past.

In America it is a somewhat different story as many government web sites and blogs demonstrate (although the level of transparency appears to be a might uncomfortable in its comprehensive disclosure of personal details relating to individual donors).

The Huffington Post has turned reporting on campaign donations into an art form in 2008 with a search facility which allows anyone to type in a name and address and come up with an answer or a search can simply be conducted on a town, city or occupation.

Welcome to FundRace 2008.

Want to know if a celebrity is playing both sides of the fence? Whether that new guy you're seeing is actually a Republican or just dresses like one?

FundRace makes it easy to search by name or address to see which presidential candidates your friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors are contributing to. Or you can se if your favorite celebrity is putting money where their mouth is.

By Occupation

• Actor
• Attorney
• Teacher
• CEO
• CFO
• Programmer
• Producer
• Musician
• Analyst

By Cities

• New York
• Los Angeles
• Miami
• Chicago
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Dallas
• Washington DC
• Salt Lake City

When you click on locations such as Salt Lake City a side box shows the names, addresses, occupations and amounts donated by everyone who identified themselves as living in that city.

Jacaranda Queen 2008

Photograph from The Daily Examiner, Grafton

It's congratulations to the Verginia Nairn the 2008 Jacaranda Festival Queen, Gemma Buckley the Princess, Alisha Beaman the Holiday Princess, Chloe Hackett the Junior Queen and Tahlia Goodwin the Junior Princess.

Enjoy your year.

Now Julie, spell after me - p.l.a.g.i.a.r.i.s.m.

I see that the Deputy-Leader of the Opposition, one Julie Bishop, has been done again for plagiarism; and not only that, was exposed as submitting for publication under her name an essay (destined to be a book chapter) which was written entirely by her staff.
Deary, deary me as Gran would say - this lazy gal is obviously beyond being taught.

However, the neo-libs as a whole and many other political types are not above this form of petty fraud, so I expect that there's more than one or two fellow travellers hastily reviewing their own speeches and media articles.
Tony Abbott would be a prime candidate - after all it wasn't all that long ago he prematurely ran to the media and falsely claimed a 'son'.

It's be kind to ethically-challenged politicians week, with exceptions

I do try to be as tolerant as possible with that class of persons known as politicians and with behaviour which illustrates that many are ethically challenged.

However, some like Deputy-Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Treasurer, Hon. Julie Bishop M.P., make it so hard to remain even nominally balanced in outlook.

It boggles the mind that someone who would have once acted as an officer of the Court should so consistently and knowingly misrepresent the facts.

This was Ms. Bishop last Thursday according to Hansard:

The Treasurer has not resiled from that. The Prime

Minister took 10 minutes to answer a question and not

once did he say that this tax was not compulsory, nor

did he say that it would not apply from 2.23 pm yesterday.

So the Australian public must assume that they

will be subject to this new tax on their deposits. They

were told that the guarantee was going to be free of

charge; they now find that their savings will be subject

to a new tax. I ask the Prime Minister: does this mean

that the savings of ordinary Australians will now be

diluted by the fact that they must pay this tax?

(Time expired)

Now Ms. Bishop would be well aware that the only event that occurred at 2.23pm on Wednesday 22 October 2008 was that she asked a short question of the Federal Treasurer to which he gave an even shorter reply.

Ms JULIE BISHOP (2.23 pm)—My question is to

the Treasurer. Treasurer, in the interests of giving depositors

and banks clear information on the proposal

being canvassed by the government to now charge a

fee for guaranteeing deposits over $1 million, I ask:

will this fee be compulsory? Will a depositor with, say,

the Commonwealth Bank, who has no concern about

the safety of their deposit, be obliged to pay the fee, or

will a bank that does not wish to have its deposits over

$1 million guaranteed by the government be obliged to

pay this fee?

Mr SWAN—The very simple answer is that the fee

will be paid by all depositors in the deposit-taking institutions

that are regulated by APRA, and the fee will

be paid either by the depositor or by the bank.

So-called taxes (or for that matter new fees and charges) are not brought into legal being on such a basis and her feigned indignation is so patently false that one has to wonder if this statement was not also an attempt to support Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull's efforts to spook retirees and other small time investors and, encourage a further run on financial institutions holding managed funds.

As for the "fee" - I'm sure that I am not the only one who remembers that fees was mentioned from the start in a prime ministerial media release on 12 October 2008.

Aw Ma - tell me it ain't so? (Osama runs in US election)

Pic from Times Union

I'm still shaking my head over this from TimesUnion.com:

"TROY — Rensselaer County elections officials are blaming a computer spell-checking program for the error in hundreds of mailed absentee ballots that spelled Barack Obama's surname Osama.

A county legislator said Tuesday that a Democratic Board of Elections worker initially accepted responsibility for the error.

"We heard that she immediately put in her resignation, but it was turned down," said District 2 Legislator Keith A. Hammond, a Democrat. "Whether it was done in jest or in error, it is still an embarrassing mistake, but we now need to move on to more important issues."

The story broke Oct. 10 when a Sand Lake voter called the Times Union saying he received an absentee ballot in the mail on which Row 1A had Barack Obama's name as Barack Osama.

"The immediate problem when this first surfaced was that everyone thought the Republicans or Conservatives were to blame," said District 1 Legislator and Conservative Bob Mirch. "The people who work for the board are honest, and we are pleased a Democrat admitted the mistake."

It's hard not to believe that the Yanks really deserve any government they get.

Turf out the daily prayers in Australia's parliament

Well, wouldn't you know it?

A number of Aussie pollies are jumping up and down over a proposal to have a public debate about whether or not the daily prayer that precedes events in the Australian federal parliament should be rewritten or replaced.

And, guess what? Yes, Immigration Minister Chris Evans is right up there at the front of the group of protesters.

smh.com.au reports that Evans has poured cold water on a suggestion that the Lord's Prayer be replaced by an acknowledgment of the traditional owners of the land at the daily opening of parliament in Canberra.

That comes as no surprise to those who are aware of Evans's background. Prior to entering federal parliament in 1993 Evans was the State Secretary of the WA Fire Brigade Union, so he has form when it comes to pouring cold water on things that have any potential to spark things up.

The Speaker in the House of Representatives, Harry Jenkins, said the prayer was the most controversial aspect of parliamentary procedures and had been raised with him by MPs and members of the public.

Not unexpectedly, church groups (have) reacted angrily to any suggestion of replacing the Lord's Prayer.

But, get this. Senator Evans said he did not think it was uncomfortable for MPs who were not Christians to have to recite the prayer at the beginning of each sitting day.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said it was the responsibility of the parliament's presiding officers to decide whether the Lord's Prayer needs replacing.

Earlier this year the Australian parliament had a formal Welcome to Country and then the Apology, but still the parliament opens with the reading of prayers.

Truly, the time has arrived for daily prayers to be dispensed with and proceedings to commence with the Speaker in the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate beginning the sittings of the houses with an Acknowledgement of Country.

Saffin announces new deal over Centrelink employment benefit compliance

The Far North Coaster reported last Wednesday:

Member for Page Janelle Saffin says the Rudd Government's new welfare compliance system will be good news for job seekers in Page.

The Government has introduced legislation to give effect to measures announced in this year's Budget, to introduce a fairer job seeker compliance system from July 1, 2009.

Ms Saffin said the current penalty system, introduced by the previous Coalition Government, often hurts the most vulnerable job seekers.

"Figures show that 15 per cent of those who have payments cuts for eight weeks have a mental illness, and another five per cent have unstable housing," she said.

"These are the ones we know of for sure, but my local experience tells me that the figures would be higher.

"In the last financial year a total of 321 people in Page had their payments cut for eight weeks, an increase of 92 per cent on the previous year.

"But the Howard Government's punitive system didn't work because there was no improvement in attendance at job network interviews, job search training or Customised Assistance."

"The primary goal should not be about punishment, but about helping people secure work."

How well this new policy will work in practice depends in large measure on the attitude of Centrelink staff.
It is hoped that the somewhat punitive culture which has developed within this agency on the NSW North Coast will now fade from existence and a more realistic approach take its place.

Nevertheless, well done to those Labor federal ministers and MPs involved in bringing this change about.

Perhaps the Labor Party could now turn its attention to the woeful state of mental health services in regional areas like the NSW Northern Rivers, where badly underfunded and under resourced health systems can't even afford to pay their postage bills and local GPs frequently close their books due to pressure of work and where getting an appointment with a doctor can sometimes take between two weeks to a month.

Last week a Murwillumbah Hospital staff member went to the local Post Office to drop off the mail only to be told that the letters would not be accepted until the hospital paid its postage account.
The hospital on the NSW far north coast is so cash-stretched that it can no longer afford to pay its running expenses.
In State Parliament yesterday, MP for Tweed Geoff Provest said Murwillumbah’s sister hospital at Tweed Heads could close its doors in two weeks because of its financial crisis. [Crikey.com.au, 23 October 2008]

The latest ABS data indicates that many of the socio-economic factors prevalent on the NSW North Coast are factors in forms of mental illness.

An ABC Local radio interview also highlighted this:

PAULA KRUGER: It isn't only young people that aren't getting access to mental health services. Despite a $1.8-billion package from the Howard government in 2006 and many other cash injections most of the people who need help aren't getting it.
The Mental Health Council of Australia says the most startling find of the report is that more than two-million Australians, that is 60 per cent of people who experienced a mental health disorder, did not use a mental health service.