Daily Examiner's policy on letter writers' names?

Was Grafton's Daily Examiner pulling its readers' legs last Wednesday?

The Examiner kicked off with a photo on its front page that featured youngsters who shared the same given name and then referred its readers to a piece on page 7 about baby's names. (See below)

Then. lo and behold, it printed a letter to the editor that displayed only the writer's given name.

C'mon DEX, lift your game!

Coal seam gas survey for Yamba

Letter to the Editor in the Clarence Valley Review on 12 February 2014:

Quote of the Week

Farmers are not destroying this country, they are being destroyed by policies put in place by successive governments. This current government is among the worst, if not the worst, I have seen. When the farmers go, it won’t just mean cheap food imports, it will be a disaster for this country, except for maybe the big miners and multinationals. In the meantime, farmers are not the enemy, we fight for many of the same things you do. [Alison Parkes in No Fibs, 7 February 2014]

March In March: Vote of No Confidence In The Abbott Government being held in Byron Bay, Lismore and Coffs Harbour, 15-16 March 2014

Byron Bay

16 March 2014

Proposed March: 10:30am: Meeting Parklands Main Beach – Byron Bay (Opposite the Beach Hotel) 11.15am: Proceed down Bay street, right down Fletcher street, right down Byron street and finishing at the Railway Park on Jonson St.

We will have a guest MC for the day, as well as a selection of local performers.

We are promoting a peaceful, family friendly protest. This is of utmost importance.

Coffs Harbour

Sunday 16 Match 2014 10.30am

Meet at the Foreshores

Assemble at Cavanbah Hall Park then proceed to do a lap or two around Brelsford Park, coming to rest under the shady trees next to the playground.

Lismore

Saturday, 15th March 2014, 12pm, at Spinks Park.

February 2014 delivers a small mercy

Insiders to drop Akerman on review

DARREN DAVIDSON

THE AUSTRALIAN

FEBRUARY 10, 2014 12:00AM

THE ABC has struck off one of its longest-serving political commentators on the Insiders program following a review of remarks made during the federal election about former prime minister Julia Gillard’s partner...

News Corp Australia commentator Piers Akerman was not informed of the review or given a right of reply.

He has appeared on the program just once since the Mathieson incident despite having contributed to Insiders for more than a decade.

It has emerged in an email sent to a member of the public by the ABC that the public broadcaster undertook a review of the broadcast on Sunday, June 16, 2013, which concluded that the comments made by Akerman were “inappropriate”.

“ABC News will be reviewing when and under what circumstances any future invitations for Mr Akerman to appear on Insiders might be issued,” the email said.

.

That vote and the Hansard record

Twitter had it first as it happened on 12 February 2014:

Then the mainstream media picked it up in articles such as this in The Sydney Morning Herald the next day:

It's a brave thing for a politician to abandon his party and vote with the other side. But last night it was confusion, not bravery, that led the new Liberal member for Barton, Nickolas Varvaris, to unwittingly "cross the floor" and vote with Labor.

The Sydney MP walked into the chamber, took his usual seat and drifted off into his own world.

''He had just walked into the chamber so he couldn't have been asleep, even though I am told he had his eyes closed,'' Mr Perrett said.

While Mr Varvaris' state of wakefulness is a matter of dispute – and he has not yet returned Fairfax Media's calls to clarify – one thing is certain: he was sitting on the wrong side of the House when it switched over for the vote.

And as the Labor opposition MPs began filling the seats around him all declined to alert the Liberal MP to his mistake.

The doors closed and Mr Varvaris was counted as a Labor vote.

Liberal MP Craig Laundy, who like Mr Varvaris is a new member of Parliament, said he ''felt sorry'' for his colleague.

''We're new to it,'' Mr Laundy said. ''There but for the grace of God go I.''

Mr. Varvaris was recorded as being in the Chamber and voting at 5.10pm. He was also recorded as present for the 5.18pm vote.

However, don’t look for Nickolas Varvaris’ embarrassing vote during the 6.16pm division in question – it had been removed from the 12 February 2014 Hansard record by the next day.

UPDATE

Video found at realities of the world:

http://youtu.be/zbWt7ODMVxA

Tony Abbott gets kitten-ed

Stoptonymeow.com has arrived:

Are you someone who likes to keep up to date with the latest news, but can't stand the sight of Tony Abbott's weird looking face? This is the browser extension for you.

Stop Tony Meow does what it says on the box: Replaces any image it can identify as Tony Abbott with a cute kitten.

A bit of fun by @taybenlor, @dannolan & @mattro.

Here are some of the images being generated by this app.

The Liberal Party is rumoured to be have altered their website configuration in order to avoid this in the future.

Sadly, there is nothing cute of cuddly about the real Tony Abbott - once a junkyard dog always a junkyard dog.