Juxtaposition - who said it was a lost art?

The Tweed Daily News website provided a wonderful example of how not to advertise a product in its reporting.

Tweed Daily News, along with other APN publications, is conducting a competition for its readers with 26 BlackBerry Smart Phones to be won. The phones have a recommended retail price $649.

Someone should have told TDN that running an item about security fears over the smartphones on the same page as the competition isn't a good look.

All is revealed: Grafton's Red Herring is a closet socialist

A correspondent in the letters column of The Daily Examiner deserves an award for outing a serial pest who makes far too many appearances on the paper's letters page.

The serial pest, known in some circles as Red Herring, should be given his marching orders by the paper's editor - in the courts such a person is deemed to be a vexatious litigant and, like scamsters associated with horse racing, is warned off and not allowed to expose themselves and their false and fraudulent activities.

A few coping strategies in the event Tony Abbott becomes prime minister

For your consideration. A few coping strategies in the event Tony Abbott becomes Australia's next prime minister on 21 August and you find yourself in the unhappy position of not being a White, Anglo-Saxon Christian Male with a profession or independent income:

1. Unilaterally declare civil war
2. Buy advanced survival gear and head for the hills until 2013
3. Empty your bank account and bribe your way onto the first small boat heading to New Zealand
4. Apply for refugee status with the United Nations
5. Join a protest movement and live underground until the Liberal Party decapitates Abbott or the next election comes around (whichever comes first)
6. Wear RM Williams from top to toe, stuff a pair of footy socks down your pants and loudly thump a bible in order to pass yourself off as a White Anglo-Saxon Christian Male

7. Go on a three-year bender

8. If you are female throw way your shoes and stay pregnant, or if you are a male start bullying your significant other, to show that you're with the Agnus Dei New Order
9. Revert to the superstitious and boil wax effigies of The Great Leader, set fire to his image and generally call upon the dark forces to take their spawn back from whence it came
10. Pretend to be invisible and watch silently from a barricaded house as the country marches backwards into the Middle Ages..........

Cartoon from Google Images

2010 Election Campaign Day 23 - I declare National Mark Latham Day!

The Australian : Shades of that aggressive Latham-Howard handshake

I always knew Mark Latham was a rabbit and this piece in Saturday's Granny Herald only confirms it:

"Mr Latham, who is producing a segment for the Nine Network's 60 Minutes program, approached Ms Gillard and asked why Labor had complained to the network about his presence.

A smiling Ms Gillard responded: "I don't know anything about that, Mark.

"If you want to work for Channel Nine, that's a matter for you."

Mr Latham then suggested his one-time Labor ally speak out against former prime minister Kevin Rudd for trying to sabotage her campaign.

"Have a dig at him," he told her.

But Ms Gillard merely laughed and wished him well with his journalistic endeavours.

An ALP spokesman later denied the party had made any complaint to the Nine Network.

The Nine Network had not responded to inquiries as to whether a complaint was made."

And like the bunny that he is, Latham (whose real beef was that Gillard had refused his interview request) deserves to find himself in the nation's stewpot garnished with onions and a fistful of parsley.

A few steel traps along the campaign trail should do the trick!

Wondering if you may now be able to vote on 21 August? See this Statement from the Australian Electoral Commission on High Court Decision

Wondering if yesterday's High Court of Australia judgment means that you can now vote even if you missed the 19 July close of rolls deadline?

This 6 August 2010 AEC media release explains the position:

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) acknowledges today's High Court decision that allows additional eligible voters to now be entitled to vote in the 2010 federal election. Voters affected are those who submitted correctly completed claims for enrolment after 8pm on Monday 19 July but before 8pm on Monday 26 July.
The AEC will process these additional enrolment claims in coming days and attempt to contact all electors concerned to advise they are entitled to vote and how to obtain further assistance if needed.
The voter lists, used in polling places to mark off those who have voted, for the 2010 election have already been printed and distributed, so it is too late to include these voters on these lists.
This means that voters affected by today's decision who attend a polling place on election day (or early voting centre) will have to cast a declaration vote and provide an accepted form of evidence of identity. The AEC therefore urges those electors to carry their driver's licence or other accepted form of identity with them when voting to easily meet these requirements (list below).
The AEC will provide further advice once it has studied the full detail of the High Court's decision.

Acceptable documents
01 Australian driver licence
02 Birth Certificate, or an extract (must be Australian and issued at least 5 years ago)
03 Certificate of Australian citizenship
04 Concession Card from Centrelink (must be current)
05 Concession Card from the Department of Veterans' Affairs (must be current)
06 Credit or bank account card (must be current)
07 Defence force, Australian discharge document
08 Divorce documents from the Family Court of Australia
09 Employee identification card (must be current with a photograph and signature)
10 Firearm's licence (must be current with a photograph and signature)
11 Justice of the Peace appointment document (must be Australian)
12 Marriage Certificate (must be registered in Australia)
13 Medicare card
14 Passport (must be Australian and current)
15 Proof of age card issued by, or under the authority of, a state or territory government
16 Security guard/crowd control licence (must be current)
17 Student identification card (must be current with a photograph)
Note: Provisional New Citizens must provide their Certificate of Australian citizenship.

Media contact
Phil Diak
Director, Media and Communication Strategy
Canberra
02 6271 4415 0413 452 539

Moggy Musings [Archived material from Boy the Wonder Cat]

A terrible cruelty musing: Snowy, a 19-month-old domestic longhair from Bankstown NSW was restrained with tape and set alight in July 2010 by a person or persons unknown. The RSPCA is calling for anyone with information to come forward - contact the RSPCA on 02 9770-7555 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

A tartan musing: Congrats to Super Sally the Blue Heeler for winning the best dressed dog competition at Maclean's International Tartan Day celebrations on 3 July 2010. Only a brave mutt can wear that much tartan!

A Bananabending Moggies musing: While handsome felines like myself can get lifetime registration in this state for a standard fee ($15 if your hoomin slave is a pensioner), my poor cousins living in Queensland are at the mercy of each local council and no-one's mentioning a lifetime rego fee - just incredible annual charges which come into effect by the end of 2010. Queensland moggies unite - picket your council office until lifetime registration is the norm!

A Rex's pleased musing: Rex's rebarked that although he knows most of Yamba's walls, telegraph posts and similar spots he is (for different reasons) tickled pink about this new site: iGo2 Yamba which gave him a mention.

A Rexie Rulz! musing: Rex the German Shepherd is till beating his hoomins when it comes to Bill's clues about who's hitting the shebert instead of the ball at Yamba Golf Club. Rex reckons Bill only gets one 'starr' for his latest effort.

A not so cryptic musing: Bill was trying a little Poirot-style clue when he laid this down in a local golfing gossip column in early June 2010 - "Let's be frank, if you try to outfox the fuzz it could well be all over for you." Sorry Bill. Rex the German Shepherd had nailed the buggy driver before his master had even finished reading Putts & Pars. Even if he suffers from the disadvantage of not being a moggy, Rex is a very smart dog!

A Margaret McKenna musing: My little canine friend Veronica Lake tells me that one of the furry kids she plays with was looking over her papa's shoulder and read this bit of a letter from the Grafton accountant currently passing herself off as a shire councillor - I represent US and am insulted you think I may represent McDonalds. (and that is US not U.S.) Still laffing....

A Million Paws musing: The 16th Annual RSPCA Million Paws Walk is being held across Australia today Sunday 16 May 2010 and is THE big day out for animal lovers. Well done to my many furry friends as they try for a new Australian record!

A way too much information musing: Word round the catsnip patch is that a certain NSW North Coast councillor used a local government committee meeting to not-so-subtly brag about his sexual prowess - eeewww!

2010 Election Campaign Day 22 - A Nobel Laureate trumps a Rhodes Scholar

 

Nobel Laureate and respected economist Joseph Stiglitz reckons the Rudd Labor Government got it right with its fast-acting economic stimulus policy during the Global Financial Crisis according to Aunty ABC:

 

"One of the world's top economists says the fiscal stimulus package delivered in Australia during the global financial crisis was among the best designed in the world.

A report today found there are some valid concerns about the poor value for money on the school spending part of the package.

However, Nobel Prize laureate and Professor at New York's Columbia University Joseph Stiglitz says there will always be some waste with such programs.

He says that is preferable to the waste of human and capital resources that would have resulted if there was no stimulus.

"You were lucky to have, probably, the best designed stimulus package of any of the countries, advanced industrial countries, both in size and in design, timing and how it was spent - and I think it served Australia well," he said."

A hand which definitely beats a Rhodes Scholar who probably hasn't opened a book on economics in half a lifetime.