Poor, poor Malcolm has the leadership blues...

It has been a hard few days for the Leader of the Liberal Party and the Loyal Opposition, Malcolm Bligh Turnbull.

He now has Joe Hockey as Shadow-Treasurer and the gaffes have already begun:

"The market has made everyday Australians richer than they have ever been, even with this economic downturn,"

Cory Bernardi showed a stubborn streak and wouldn't publicly bend the knee to his leader.

Tony Abbot decided that single pensioners should continue to go without.

Confirming his view of a fortnight ago:

Of course, pensioners do it tough. And yes, I have never had to live on the pension and would need to change my life in order to do so. Still, is simply increasing the pension necessarily the best way to go given that pensioners in their own home are much better off, in practice, that those that aren’t. There is always a host of worthy causes that taxpayers’ money might be spent on. The question is what’s best at this time. I reckon that spending that improves the economy makes more sense right now, in the bad times, than spending which improves the social infrastructure.

Peter Costello is obviously enjoying the leadership speculation at Malcolm's expense.

Then John Winston Howard gave his leadership the kiss of death by endorsing it.

It must be remembered that Howard endorsed Brendan Nelson in much the same manner just before he lost the top job to Turnbull.

Still, Malcolm can always go home and hideout with his blogging dogs.

Afghan Metrics: how's the war going then?

Afghanistan October 2001 from Google Images

Found in Wikileaks:

This important, high-level document, from 14 Jan 2009, presents 12 slides of graphs, maps, statistics and text about the war in Afghanistan. It was prepared by the Pentagon (CENTCOM), under the imprimatur of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) for Afghanistan and written at the For Official Use Only level. The document is formally titled "Metrics Brief, 2007-2008".

The documents reveals, among other matters, that the yearly civilian death toll increased during 2008 by 40% to 46%, the number of attacks on the "Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan" (GIRoA), increased by 116%, surface to Air Fire by 67%, and that Improvised Explosive Device (IED) device casualties increased by 29%.

Download PDF here

Last week in the media:

KABUL (AFP) — US President Barack Obama has accepted Kabul's request to be part of a major review of US strategy in the "war on terror" in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai and a US envoy said Sunday.

KABUL, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Afghanistan condemned on Friday the killing of civilians in a raid by Australian soldiers in the south of the country which it says was not coordinated with Afghan forces. The Australian Defence Force said five children had been killed in a shootout between Taliban insurgents and Australian Special Forces in southern Uruzgan province on Thursday, where they were "clearing" a number of compounds. The Afghan Defence Ministry said one woman and two children were killed and eight other people wounded in the attack.

__________________________

While the dead in Iraq continue to mount:

Iraq Body Count (civilian deaths)

Faces of the Fallen (US defence forces)

FOUND: an virtual office assistant for Stephen Mayne

I have been watching Stephen Mayne's progress as a shareholder activist on and off for some time now and reading his Mayne report whenever I remember.
He certainly writes a mountain of letters and emails. I stand in awe at the sheer volume over the years. What a ripper!
I've been wondering how he is managing to keep up with his multi-tasking since he also became a Manningham city councillor and I think I have the perfect solution for those times when there aren't enough hours in the day to keep up with the correspondence.
Cranky Old Man Letters - an online automated letter-writing program for emails addressed to Fortune 500 companies. This could be just the ticket.
Here is a copy of one online letter generated for emailing to Monsanto:

Varian Louisa
4022 Socialite Blvd.
Kansas, IL 61933
February 18, 2009

Hugh Grant
Monsanto
800 N. Lindbergh Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63167

Good Evening:

The last time I was at Monsanto I decided that I was not going to take it anymore and I urinated on the immature floor in the lobby.
In the winter of 1953 below the 36th Parallel, I was with Company P and me and my buddy Daruka (also from Kansas) were freezing our GMOs off.
Charlie was everywhere.
All we had to eat was a can of turnips and only 36 bullets between us. I made it through that ordeal, but Daruka didn't.

I fought for our freedom and I am not going to take anymore from you guys over there in St. Louis. Trollop Monsanto!
I have to stop writing this shonky letter. I just misleading peed all over my hellish slacks because I am choking on my own anger while writing this letter.
Are you happy now. All of my problems in my life are because of Hugh Grant and his group of hot c*#ks over there at Monsanto.

Our economy is falling apart and you have the f@cking nerve to charge me for this damaged service! Eat A D#ck! If you think I am going to bail your multinationals out like the government, you better get bent.
I expect a apology from Monsanto before next Monday. I want it written on your official company letterhead and signed by Hugh Grant personally.
Do not send me some garbage written by an assistant. You will be hearing from my lawyer.

With My Compliments,

Varian Louisa

Neighbours Fear Mr Billabong Could Play Eye Spy

Billabong founder Gordon Merchant has, apparently, upset his neighbours in the northern NSW surfside village of Angourie.

Merchant's new home - oops! correction, that should read 'MANSION' - at Angourie, which is estimated to be worth $12 million, has a video camera installed on a two-metre tower. Apparently, the camera will be used to check out the nearby surf but some of Merchant's neighbours are not so sure about that.

The Gold Coast Bulletin reports that Merchant's mansion covers four house blocks at the Pacific Parade property, just south of Yamba.

A letter sent to The Gold Coast Bulletin outlined residents' concerns over the camera that will sit atop the roof of the three-storey beach house.

"We residents feel our privacy infringed, as this camera peers into our living and bedrooms 24 hours a day," said the local, who wished to remain anonymous.

Residents also believe the pole is above height restrictions for the area.

Clarence Valley Council Mayor Richie Williamson confirmed the council had received complaints.

"There will be a camera on top of his house but there have been investigations into that and it wasn't above any height limits," he said.

The man who founded the international clothing and accessories company Billabong on the Gold Coast in 1973 is worth an estimated $805 million and he has had a long association with Angourie and Yamba in northern NSW.

Mr Merchant has invested heavily in real estate in the towns and his helicopter is often seen flying into Yamba.

While most locals welcome his involvement and the building of the massive mansion, which has provided a good kick-along to local tradesmen, it seems not all have been won over.

Photo credit: Brendan Radke, The Gold Coast Bulletin, 19/2/09

Monsanto related environmental and health risks lead to court case - again

According to The Madison St Clair Record last week:

A group of Illinois residents who live in or near Sauget have filed a class-action lawsuit over the release of various hazardous substances that they claim has created a severe health risk and has contaminated their properties.

Lead class plaintiffs Vernon Lee Anderson Sr., Ernestine Lawrence, Katie Burnett-Smith, Martha Emily Young, Marcella Phillips and Bernice Laverne Collins argue that three release sites - a 90-acre landfill operated by Sauget and Co., a 314-acre W.G. Krummrich Plant and property owned by Cerro Flow Products - have released PCBs and other various substances, including dioxins and furans, into the atmosphere for more than 70 years.

Residents fear they will develop a deadly disease from the PCBs, which have been shown to result in toxic effects in the brain and nervous system and in low birth rates and birth defects.

"According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, a lifetime dose of one milligram of PCBs is sufficient to cause cancer and other serious and life-threatening diseases," the suit filed Feb. 10 in St. Clair County Circuit Court states. "According to the World Health Organization, there is not safe level of exposure to PCBs."

Dioxins and furans are also known to be dangerous and to create significant health problems through inhalation, ingestion, dermal absorption and ingestion of homegrown produce.

In addition to the health risk, the residents claim the PCBs have contaminated property within a two-mile radius of the release sites, waterways and groundwater, the suit states.

The releases began after the W.G. Krummrich Plant, which is also referred to as the Monsanto Facility in the complaint, began producing, storing and disposing of PCBs at its facility, the residents claim.

In fact, "more PCBs were produced at the Monsanto Facility than at any other site in the United States, and perhaps even the free world," the suit states.

This Sauget flood plain region is well-known to the US Environmental Protection Agency and Monsanto had previously entered a negotiated settlement with the State of illinois.

Fox River Watch has a history of PCB health problems in the US here.

And with a corporate history like that Monsanto (along with the other biotech multinationals now operating here) expects Australians to take its word that the genetically modified crop types it is pushing onto often unwilling communities will do no harm?
Show us the longitudinal studies which scientifically demonstrate this, Monsanto.

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Six Nervous Pollies or Where will NSW lose its next federal electorate in 2009?

In December 2008 Malcolm McKerras predicted that the NSW electorates of Gilmore and Throsby would possibly merge in any 2009 redistribution.
In February 2009 Antony Green is tipping; "Fowler and Macarthur are currently the NSW electorates with the lowest total enrolment and therefore subject to amalgamation, not Gilmore and Throsby. However, if the branch of Sydney Harbour known as Iron Cove is ignored and the boundary viewed as contigous, then any mini-redistribution on current numbers would see Lowe and Sydney amalgamated."
The Australian Electoral Commission has begun the lengthy redistribution process.
So which pollie will have to go?
And does this mean that we have avoided a politically expedient early federal election push by the government of the day or an opposition trying to scare us with the threat of one?

Bellingen flooding pictures

NSW North Coast flooding at Bellingen over the last two days. Photographs from The Bellingen Shire Courier Sun, ABC News and Pip Wilson posting at Flickr



Meanwhile Lord Howe Island which trades with the NSW North Coast is bracing itself for winds, strong seas and some flash flooding as Category 1 Tropical Cyclone Innis downgrades to an intense low.