Repco Rally - Grimditch objects and promises boycott!

We can have democracy or we can have the Repco Rally.

It has been interesting watching the posturing surrounding this event. It seems like an ideological battle, with those wishing to exploit winning the day.

The Rudd Government won the last election on a platform of addressing climate change as a mater of urgency. Much as we are still waiting for some leadership on this, the ideological link to this is clear. Much of the electorate expects a responsible leadership to perhaps do things like mandate sustainable development in regard to climate change, slowdown use of fossil fuels and be pro-active in the development sustainable alternatives. Naturally the electorate could easily expect State Labour Governments to identify with these worthy ideals. The big problem here is obvious. Governments don't get re-elected by promising and delivering less. It is not the nature of capitalist democracy.

The Repco (WRC) Rally came to the Northern Rivers after the Western Australian Government decided that it was not good value in regard to employment, tourism and their economic returns. It seems the "planet's not dying quick enough for us" lobby would have to find another sucker to host the Australian leg of the tour. Apart from the planet, what can you lose from economic activity.

Fortunately there was Mike Rayner the general manager of Tweed Shire was also the director of World Rally Australia, the body responsible for staging the Australian leg of the event. Before anyone could get to excited about conflict of interest or will of the people, the State Government deemed it a special event and legislated away any obstacles to it not occurring. The meaning we can take from this is , It's not corruption if you don't have to explain anything. The big claim of increased tourism is unlikely to be enough to match the tax payer contribution. The electorate is saddled with a planet killing ideology and the electorate can not even question if we can afford it and expect an answer.

There is not a petrol driven competition anywhere that is designed to encourage people to use cars less. I have not done a survey, I just look at the companies that think they will profit from sponsoring such events. From an environmental point of view there is no future in such events. The industry should get over it and think of something that helps. This is where climate change denial is at it's strongest and the state government has teamed up with this lobby. There is much information about the impacts of the rally at Can Do Better . It is a good compilation of stories surrounding the event.

The north coast region is a destination for people who want to live a non mainstream lifestyle . They have gone to a lot of trouble to make sure their lifestyle choices do not affect the general population. Indeed Lismore highlights alternative lifestyles as a tourist feature of the district. To have their lifestyles threatened in their own back yards and not give them a say, is asking for trouble. Lismore knows how to increase tourism. Just open a hemp bar in Nimbin and call it alternative. Despite being far off the beaten track Nimbin has become the premier tour bus destination for backpackers in the country. It is a staple of the Byron Bay and Lismore economy. All on the back of hemp and freedom. Tweed Shire would see more economic benefit from opening a couple of Hemp cafés than a car race.

Hemp tourism happens all year around and does not require fossil fuel sponsorship to occur. It does not threaten the environment. In fact the state government spends lots of our money on stopping this happening and it still happens anyway. This is at the heart of the ideological battle. The conservative imagination would like the district to be internationally renown for something apart from hemp. Anything really, even climate change denial.

The race organisers will be very lucky if a few rocks is the only trouble they get. It is only a matter of time before the sponsors of the event are targeted. Like the race protests anybody interfering with Repco's right to exploit, will be victimized. Repco has the freedom to have a race and exploit the market, the only freedom I have in this is to bitch about it here and to let Repco know I will not support them in the market, probably about once a week for the duration of the sponsorship. Ah, freedom and democracy there is nothing like it and I hope this is nothing like it.

So what are the advantages to the area for having this event, that the Western Australian Government could not see? It is a bit hard to tell as the special events legislation shrouds any possibility of accountability. However it can not shroud the stench of unaccountable snouts hiding their troughs for as long as they can and how ineffectual our system is in meeting our needs for the future.

The lack of accountability confines this government to an unelectable future. They do however have the credibility derived from John Della Bosca doing his fly up.

Grimditch

Tweed Region

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents.Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.

Lower Clarence man competes in ITU 2009 Triathlon World Championships

Credit: The Daily Examiner 27 July 2009

Ray Hunt of Yamba is pictured above demonstrating that retirement can be healthy, productive and just plain fun.

Ray will be competing between 9 -13 September 2009 on the Gold Coast, Queensland and the Lower Clarence Valley is barracking for their man as he swims, bikes and runs in the ITU Triathlon World Championships in both aquathlon and triathlon events.

Event schedule here.

Results of races will be posted after 7pm on the day at http://www.triathlon.org/

Update:

Full Aquathlon results

Ray finished the Aquathlon event on 9 September in 0:44.51 (with his first run coming in at 0:11:15, his swim at 0:20:30 and his second run at 0:13:05).

A mere 0:11.41 behind the elite athlete who took out first place.
Well done, Ray.

Further update:

Ray came fifth in his age group in the ITU 2009 Age Group Triathlon World Championships on 12 September, with an unofficial time of 2:30:56.

Just 0:9:31 behind the age group winner David Roadhouse (USA).

A sterling effort.

"Please sir, will you pay for this anti-ALP brochure". Now which MPs said that?

This week the Commonwealth Auditor General released a report on the Administration of Parliamentarians' Entitlements by the Department of Finance and Deregulation.

What this reveals is one long rort of the $100,000 MP printing allowance by the major political parties for campaign purposes and a very lackadaisical federal department which did not adequately police invoicing for this allowance.

Happy little pigs in mud abounded in the run up to the last federal election - what with at least $125,000 each to play with at the time.

A little snippet in the report reveals that four unnamed Liberal pollies put in invoices for printing brochures called "Labor can't manage money. You Pay for it", which failed to mention either their names or electorates and seem to have originally been labelled by these MPs as "anti ALP" material.

The report rated these as a real risk of being outside the printing guidelines.

Now Google shows there's a long list of possible suspects ranging from big players like Nick Minchin and Christopher Pyne through to tiddlers such as Michael Ferguson and perhaps Jamie Briggs.

An enjoyable hunt the pollie game for the truly bored and tired of life.

Forget genetic manipulation as the ultimate in useless innovation - look at food shape changing

Some orchardists in far-flung places obviously think that fruit needs a new look.
These pears have been shaped on the tree using plastic moulds during the growing period, while the watermelon became square by unknown means.
What on earth is happening to quality produce au naturel?
And as jaded appetites and ennui are obviously being catered for here - did anyone create a new shape for the 9th day of the 9th month of the 9th year of the 21st century?




Pics from U.K. Telegraph

Climate change largely irreversible for 1,000 years after excessive greenhouse emissions stop?

One of the distressing abstracts found online at the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America:

The severity of damaging human-induced climate change depends not only on the magnitude of the change but also on the potential for irreversibility. This paper shows that the climate change that takes place due to increases in carbon dioxide concentration is largely irreversible for 1,000 years after emissions stop. Following cessation of emissions, removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide decreases radiative forcing, but is largely compensated by slower loss of heat to the ocean, so that atmospheric temperatures do not drop significantly for at least 1,000 years. Among illustrative irreversible impacts that should be expected if atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increase from current levels near 385 parts per million by volume (ppmv) to a peak of 450–600 ppmv over the coming century are irreversible dry-season rainfall reductions in several regions comparable to those of the “dust bowl” era and inexorable sea level rise. Thermal expansion of the warming ocean provides a conservative lower limit to irreversible global average sea level rise of at least 0.4–1.0 m if 21st century CO2 concentrations exceed 600 ppmv and 0.6–1.9 m for peak CO2 concentrations exceeding ≈1,000 ppmv. Additional contributions from glaciers and ice sheet contributions to future sea level rise are uncertain but may equal or exceed several meters over the next millennium or longer.

Full 2009 paper in PDF form here.

Political evolution NSW-style

I don't think anyone has missed the metamorphosis undergone in the media recently by one murder victim - from wealthy "property developer" to "loan shark and standover man" and worse.
But how many people have noticed that the person or persons allegedly named on that rumoured tape recording have now gone from the very vague "persons connected to NSW Labor" or somewhat vague "state government MPs" to the more specific "senior NSW politicians" or "NSW ministers"?
By yesterday the chatter mill had developed belt and braces, with bribed "senior NSW bureaucrat", "federal Labor politicians" and "police officer" thrown into the mix for good measure.
Seemingly without any print, radio or television journalists (or the NSW Opposition for that matter) having ever listened to this audio tape.
And I thought the local bowlo was good at gossip - the Aussie meeja leaves it for dead! One gossipy whiff and they're off like a Bondi tram.
Given the collective histories and conflicting stories of those non-journalists who have actually said that they heard the tape or knew details of the alleged recorded conversation; is it any wonder that I keep hearing the words 'hysterical beat-up' echoing in my head?

U.S. citizen and Islam convert Abdullah al-Kidd gets his day in court

U.S. President Barack Obama may wish it otherwise, but where government is slow or unwilling to address the former Bush administration's constitutional abuses then the courts are obviously prepared take on this challenge if people are willing to apply.
The quotes below are from a U.S. Court of Appeals opinion in Abdullah al-Kidd v John Ashcroft (former US Attorney General), filed 4th September 2009.

MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judge:

According to the allegations of his first amended complaint, Plaintiff-Appellee Abdullah al-Kidd (al-Kidd), a United States citizen and a married man with two children, was arrested at a Dulles International Airport ticket counter. He was handcuffed, taken to the airport's police substation, and interrogated. Over the next sixteen days, he was confined in high security cells lit twenty-four hours a day in Virginia, Oklahoma, and then Idaho, during which he was strip searched on multiple occasions. Each time he was transferred to a different facility, al-Kidd was handcuffed and shackled about his wrists, legs, and waist. He was eventually released from custody by court order, on the conditions that he live with his wife and in-laws in Nevada, limit his travel to Nevada and three other states, surrender his travel documents, regularly report to a probation officer, and consent to home visits throughout the period of supervision. By the time al-Kidd's confinement and supervision ended, fifteen months after his arrest, al-Kidd had been fired from his job as an employee of a government contractor because he was denied a security clearance due to his arrest, and had separated from his wife. He has been unable to obtain steady employment since his arrest. Al-Kidd was not arrested and detained because he had allegedly committed a crime. He alleges that he was arrested and confined because former United States Attorney General John Ashcroft (Ashcroft), subordinates operating under policies promulgated by Ashcroft, and others within the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), unlawfully used the federal material witness statute, 18 U.S.C. § 3144, to investigate or preemptively detain him. Ashcroft asserts that he is entitled to absolute and qualified immunity against al-Kidd's claims. We hold that on the facts pled Ashcroft is not protected by either form of immunity, and we affirm in part and reverse in part the decision of the district court. (my emphasis)

In its conclusion the court quoted Blackstone:

"To bereave a man of life, or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole kingdom. But confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to gaol, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten; is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government."

WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND 131-32 (1765)