Boozing away...

Did you know that 1.8 million Aussies (11% of the adult population) account for 51% of all alcohol consumed in this country?

That's a hellva lot of booze over a lifetime!

2010 Election Campaign Day 1: And they're off!

If ABC News is correct Oz Prime Minister Julia Gillard is presently in the car on her way to meet with the Governor-General and once she exits Yarralumla the 'official' campaign period of the 2010 federal election will be underway, with formal writs to be issued later.
Media conference at noon today.
Keep up with the tweeted news at #ausvotes, #aus2010 and ABC News.
ABC election news site Australia Votes now live.
Media speculating on the motives of the two protestors outside Yarralumba as I write in this pic below - Rudd supporters or Lib subversives?

















Here's the AEC guide Federal Election Timetable.
Here's a wise word from Gillard last night on Twitter:
JuliaGillard Don’t miss out on your chance to have a say in our future. Go to www.aec.gov.au JG via web

Proven attempt to ordain a woman - excommunication. Proven child abuse - er, non farlo di nuovo

Sometimes one has to wonder which century the Catholic Church thinks it is living in when media reports such as this are published:

The new rules issued by the Vatican puts attempts at ordaining women among the “most serious crimes” alongside paedophilia and will be handled by investigators from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), considered the successor to the Inquisition.
Women attempting to be priests, and those who try to ordain them, already faced automatic excommunication but the new decree goes further and enshrines the action as “a crime against sacraments”.....
Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, underscored how the ordination of women is “a crime against sacraments,” while paedophilia should be considered a “crime against morals” and both would fall under the jurisdiction of the CDF.
The organisation, which was once known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition, was previously headed by the current Pope when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

Under the term Substantive Norms the Vatican apparently ranks the ordination of women ahead of child abuse as it lists mandatory major excommunication as punishment:

Art. 5
The more grave delict of the attempted sacred ordination of a woman is also reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:
1° With due regard for can. 1378 of the Code of Canon Law, both the one who attempts to confer sacred ordination on a woman, and she who attempts to receive sacred ordination, incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.
2° If the one attempting to confer sacred ordination, or the woman who attempts to receive sacred ordination, is a member of the Christian faithful subject to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, with due regard for can. 1443 of that Code, he or she is to be punished by major excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.
3° If the guilty party is a cleric he may be punished by dismissal or deposition[31].

Art. 6
§ 1. The more grave delicts against morals which are reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are:
1° the delict against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue committed by a cleric with a minor below the age of eighteen years; in this case, a person who habitually lacks the use of reason is to be considered equivalent to a minor.
2° the acquisition, possession, or distribution by a cleric of pornographic images of minors under the age of fourteen, for purposes of sexual gratification, by whatever means or using whatever technology;
§ 2. A cleric who commits the delicts mentioned above in § 1 is to be punished according to the gravity of his crime, not excluding dismissal or deposition.

Guide to Understanding Basic CDF Procedures concerning Sexual Abuse Allegations:

B3 Disciplinary Measures
In cases where the accused priest has admitted to his crimes and has accepted to live a life of prayer and penance, the CDF authorizes the local bishop to issue a decree prohibiting or restricting the public ministry of such a priest. Such decrees are imposed through a penal precept which would entail a canonical penalty for a violation of the conditions of the decree, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state. Administrative recourse to the CDF is possible against such decrees. The decision of the CDF is final.

A marked feature of the Vatican's stance on admitted child abuse is that there is still no instruction that such abuse should be reported to state secular agencies such as the police or any child welfare authority.

"Expose the cow" - it isn't only their fearless leader who acts like a misogynist!

Leader of the Coalition Opposition Tony Abbott is well known for snarling "That's bullsh*t" at Nicola Roxon when he thought the microphones wouldn't pick up his temper tantrum and this week NSW Opposition Leader BarryO'Farrell was caught using a derogatory term for Prime Minister Julia Gillard, but it seems they are not alone in expressing a very masculine distain.

Electioneering behind a password protected Facebook account the Nationals candidate for the Labor-held seat of Page, Kevin Hogan, obviously allows insulting and sexist terms free rein when he thinks he is hidden from the view of average NSW North Coast voters.

This is an exchange on Hogan's webpage with a comment by Murray Lees, another National Party member and sometime campaign manager:

Kevin Hogan

Saffin stretching truth on roads to save her hide.

Saffin stretching truth on roads to save her hide, Nat candidate claims Page Nationals candidate Kevin Hogan has responded to a political challenge from sitting Labor MP Janelle MP by accusing the incumbent of being less than honest with the electorate now that she can no longer rely on Kevin...

June 13 at 3:30pm · View Feedback (2) Hide Feedback (2) · Share

Murray Lees likes this.

Murray Lees

nice work Kev, expose the cow [my bolding]

June 14 at 11:58am

True face of 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill

People may suffer financially from British Petroleum's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - now in its 60th day with the damaged well only temporarily capped - but the true face of this environmental disaster is found in images of the affected wildlife.....

Seal and seabird overwhelmed by oil June 2010

More photographs here.

How the betting is running for NSW North Coast electorates in July 2010

The bets are starting to be laid down on individual seats in the Australian federal election and Page on the NSW North Coast featured in Possum's probability calculations based on where the money was going last week.
Page was calculated on a two party preferred basis at 52.36%, with a win implied probability according to Sportingbet at 53% and Sportsbet at 49% - combining all comes in with an overall implied probability of a Labor win at 51% for Janelle Saffin.
It seemed that local money mebbe riding almost neck and neck as the horses approach the barrier.
This week Possum has the money running this way across five markets:












Political tragics can find the Betfair current odds for all federal electorates listed so far in the lefthand sidebar here.
This is how a sixth player Betchoice saw the NSW North Coast race on Friday 16th July 2010:

Cowper Win Only - NSW seat
1.60
NAT - Luke Hartsuyker
2.25
ALP - Paul Sefky
15.00
GRN - Dominic King
26.00
Any Other Party

Page Win Only - NSW seat
1.75
ALP - Janelle Saffin
2.00
LIB - Kevin Hogan
26.00
Any Other Party

Lyne Win Only - NSW seat
1.02
IND - Rob Oakeshott
13.00
ALP - Frederick Lips
15.00
NAT - David Gillespie

Richmond
No details yet

When it comes to the North Coast, only in Cowper are Betchoice odds favouring the Coalition.

The Silver Bodgie & The Lover versus The Versace-Clad Clock Collector

One has to hand it to the Australian Labor Party - it certainly knows how to destabilise its own political agenda in an election year.

First it ditched many of the policies which saw it garner strong electorate support in 2007, then it changed leaders in a somewhat spectacular fashion.

Now we have former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke and his second wife the author Blanche d'Alpuget shamelessly grubbing for more money by publishing yet another biography of teh great man and going on the book promotion trail just in time to cash in on heightened political awareness this near to what will probably be a closely contested federal election.

The utterly tasteless characterization of Hazel Hawke by this pair is beneath contempt and so unnecessary to their central aim of improving the bank balance.

While Hawke's inviting himself into the current political debate by opining on the recently deposed Kevin Rudd will have some party members wishing he had as much sense as he has hair.

Given the incredibly self-serving contents of this book as displayed in extracts currently online, it is no wonder that hyper-sensitive former Labor prime minister Paul Keating should immediately send a copy of his letter to Hawke to the media.

The letter ends thus:

This letter is written now, not simply to express my disappointment but to let you know that enough is enough. That yours and Blanche's rewriting of history is not only unreasonable and unfair, more than that, it is grasping. It is as if, Narcissus-like, you cannot find enough praise to heap upon yourself. In hindsight, it is obvious yours and Blanche's expressions of friendship towards me over the last few years have been completely insincere. I can only promise you this: if I get around to writing a book, and I might, I will be telling the truth; the whole truth. And that truth will record the great structural changes that occurred during our years and my own as prime minister, but it will also record without favour, how lucky you were to have me drive the government during your down years, leaving you with the credit for much of the success.

After watching the recent ABC TV 7.30 Report interviews with Hawke and d'Alpuget I have to say I am somewhat sympathetic to the Keating position. However, the timing of all three bitter snipers is unfortunate to say the least.

Already selling at three-quarters of its ticketed price, I'm betting that Hawke, Prime Minister will quickly find itself in the discount bin at major bookstores.

UPDATE:

LET'S get one thing clear at the outset: I am fond of my stepmother, Blanche, and feel genuine pleasure at the happiness my father now shares with her.
Current publicity stimulated by her new biography covering dad's years as prime minister, and the forthcoming telemovie about those years, has, however, generated a fair bit of noise and heat and has, sadly, dragged into the limelight matters that are essentially personal.
Having declined previous opportunities to provide a "family" perspective, or represent my mother Hazel's, for the very reason that I think there are such things as a right to privacy, I am now persuaded that it is timely to say something.
The reason for this is that things have been said, and people portrayed, in a manner that fundamentally misrepresents their character. I have observed what I believe are fair and respectful boundaries about commenting publicly on the personalities and complex relationships of my family life or anyone else's. I am loyal to both my parents. But a line has been crossed, a legacy hijacked, and a lot of people are seriously unimpressed. The part I take particularly personally is a suite of comments and insinuations about my mother Hazel. Their effect is to invite a rewriting of history on the basis of a series of inaccurate premises. Forbearance extends only so far before it becomes a complicit silence, and I think it's time that, as someone who has known her well for 53 years and spoken previously on her behalf, I set a few things straight.
My mother is entitled, on the basis of the life she has lived and the way she has lived it, to be recognised as a person of deep conviction and principled choices. She was consistently motivated by far more noble concerns than money, where she lived, or the "reputation du jour" of her ex-husband.

More from Sue Pieters-Hawke writing in The Age on 17 July 2010 here.