Notice that despite all that frothing at the mouth Abbott is merely running on the spot when it comes to personal approval ratings?

{TheGhostWhoVotes with survey results 10-12th March 2011}

Men favour Julia Gillard over Tony Abbott 42%/37% and women 46%/29%.
{ Essential Report of 14^th March 2011}

Bourke sprung touting Clarence River water raid

A Clarence Valley Protest blog post on Monday 14 March 2011:

From the Hansard transcript of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Australia’s Inquiry into the impact of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan on regional Australia - Bourke hearing on Tuesday, 15 February 2011:

Cr. John Holmes, Bourke Shire Council

There are other ways to rectify this river system than to starve out your little towns, which is going to happen. There has been mention of diverting water from the Clarence. Not only would you get water to shore up some of these rivers; you would also get another 28 meg of power.

Wayne O’Malley, former mayor of Bourke Shire Council

When talking about some sort of solution for the future, we need a fundamentally different approach. We need the conservation of more water to deal with the boom and bust nature of our climate. I put on the table again the diversion of the Clarence needs to be reconsidered, or at least some other major water infrastructure project not only for this part of the state but also for Australia. As a nation we have to be more mindful of our ever-increasing population, and we have to do more planning to provide water for them for the future.

Bourke Council was not alone in putting the case of the water raiders from over the Great Divide. During the hearing held at Gunnedah, the Citizen’s Electoral Council took this line with the Committee - rather strangely asserting that NSW flooding was confined to Grafton in 2010 and more oddly admitting that Bradfield was "not very bright":

Mr Witten

There are things such as the Clarence River scheme, which was mooted some 70 or 80 years ago by some idiot called Bradfield—and of course you know he was not very bright or did not have much ability. Nevertheless, he dreamt up a massive scheme to develop this nation…… The use of the Clarence River scheme, we believe, would inject around a thousand gigalitres into the system, plus provide electricity for our dying power supply.

Mr Stringer

We desperately need some of the eastern fall water up and down the New South Wales coast—and the Clarence is but one of these rivers; you have the rivers heading down towards Macleay. That water could come across to the Namoi, no problem. It is all going to waste. How many floods have we had in Grafton in 2009? How many floods in 2010? They are all in Grafton, and all the water goes to the sea, wasted.

Intelligent Design lobby motto: If at first you don't succeed - try, try again

The teaching of some scientific subjects, including, but not limited to, biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning, can cause controversy;
{From the bill AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49,
Chapter 6, Part 10, relative to teaching scientific
subjects in elementary schools.}

Given how swiftly the Australian far-right of both religion and politics follow each new quirk in America’s regressive march back towards the primeval ooze; if this bill (sponsored by very Catholic, pro-life, anti-gay marriage, intelligent design supporter Republican State Representative Bill Dunn) gets recommended by a Tennessee General Assembly sub-committee vote today around 3pm US Central Time, it will probably create a media opportunity for the anti-science brigade here:

*HB0368 by *Dunn, *White. (SB0893 by *Watson.)
Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As introduced, protects a teacher from discipline for teaching scientific subjects in an objective manner. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 6, Part 10.
Summary for *HB0368

“Bill Summary

This bill prohibits the state board of education and any public elementary or secondary school governing authority, director of schools, school system administrator, or principal or administrator from prohibiting any teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught, such as evolution and global warning.”

Representative Dunn also has another bill before the House which says it part:

“Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, no public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality.”

Biological evolution controversial, homosexuality unmentionable? Music to the tin ears of Abbott & Co in Australia and bound to turn up on the nightly news sometime soon.

Enough with the carbon already!

I’m sick and tired of that stupid tax scare campaign - it’s time that the Gillard Government ploughed ahead and rammed the damn carbon price through parliament.

Jen

Byron

* GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak AT gmail.com.au for consideration.

I can't believe it's a serious survey

 

Still laughing at this extrapolation of online answers given to "Teach Hunch About You" questions by Hunch blog readers, which News Ltd morphed into articles such as Ladies, your email address is a clue to your weight.

SNAPSHOT OF HUNCH ‘SURVEY’ FINDINGS

• AOL users are most likely to be overweight women ages 35-64 who have a high school diploma and are spiritual, but not religious. They tend to be politically middle of the road, in a relationship of 10+ years, and have children. AOL users live in the suburbs and haven’t traveled outside their own country. Family is their first priority. AOL users mostly read magazines, have a desktop computer, listen to the radio, and watch TV on 1-3 DVRs in their home. At home, they lounge around in sweats. AOL users are optimistic extroverts who prefer sweet snacks and like working on a team.
• Gmail users are most likely to be thin young men ages 18-34 who are college-educated and not religious. Like other young Hunch users, they tend to be politically liberal, single (and ready to mingle), and childless. Gmail users live in cities and have traveled to five or more countries. They’re career-focused and plugged in — they mostly read blogs, have an iPhone and laptop, and listen to music via MP3s and computers (but they don’t have a DVR). At home, they lounge around in a t-shirt and jeans. Gmail users prefer salty snacks and are introverted and entrepreneurial. They are optimistic or pessimistic, depending on the situation.
• Hotmail users are most likely to be young women of average build ages 18-34 (and younger) who have a high school diploma and are not religious. They tend to be politically middle of the road, single, and childless. Hotmail users live in the suburbs, perhaps still with their parents, and have traveled to up to five countries. They mostly read magazines and contemporary fiction, have a laptop, and listen to music via MP3s and computers (but they don’t have a DVR). At home, Hotmail users lounge around in a t-shirt and jeans. They’re introverts who prefer sweet snacks and like working on a team. They consider themselves more pessimistic, but sometimes it depends on the situation.
• Yahoo! users are most likely to be overweight women ages 18-49 who have a high school diploma and are spiritual, but not religious. They tend to be politically middle of the road, in a relationship of 1-5 years, and have children. Yahoo! users live in the suburbs or in rural areas and haven’t traveled outside their own country. Family is their first priority. They mostly read magazines, are almost equally likely to have a laptop or desktop computer, listen to the radio and cds, and watch TV on 1-2 DVRs in their home. At home, Yahoo! users lounge around in pajamas. They’re extroverts who prefer sweet snacks and like working on a team. Yahoo! users are optimistic or pessimistic, depending on the situation.

Boltas of the Month

Clever clogs pseudo-journalist Andrew Bolt baldly said on ABC TV’s “Insiders” program last Sunday that there were between 400-500 people at the anti-carbon tax rally and 800 at the pro-carbon price rally held last Saturday.
On his own blog post on Saturday night he seems to agree with the higher pro-price rally figure of more than 8,000 reported in the MSM and in Sunday update apologizes for his so-called misremembering on the aired program.
Not good enough Bolta! Even you had seen the 12^th March pics by the time you settled your backside into that studio chair early the next day and it's hard to avoid the tag great big fib to get the last word in an argument.

Teh Four Hundred going its hapless 'half a league onwards'

Teh Eight Thousand filling the wide lens and then some

Wait. There's more.......
On the very same day Bolt was playing fast and loose with rally numbers he also had a go at Grog's Gamut in his Daily Tele post "Exit, laughing".
To which Grog replied:
"But here’s the thing, while I can understand Bolt wanting to label me as a public servant, and also a third generation one, and also a third generation Canberran one (laziest of the lot they are!) there’s just one slight problem:
It is not true.
You see the statement that I am a third-generation Canberra public servant is an untruth, a falsehood, a fiction, a furphy. In short, a lie."
So within a space of hours Teh Bolta is on record as fibbing about rallies, Chenobyl and a public servant.
Here's laughing at you, Andrew.

Citizen's Electoral Council tells HoR Regional Australia Committee that it's OK to take Clarence water

Members of the the arch-conspiracy theorizing fringe political party the Citizen’s Electoral Council give formal evidence at the House Standing Committee Inquiry into the impact of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan on regional Australia at its Gunnedah hearing on 14 Feb 2011 (the highlighting is mine):

Mr Witten—I am also an irrigator and a patriotic Australian. We have some key issues here. Australia’s climate has, as Dorothea Mackellar wrote, ‘droughts and flooding rains’. I do not care how many dams you have, especially the current amount of dams, as an old bloke once said to me, ‘If the head of the Condamine is not running, how do you expect to have water at Echuca?’ It is a pretty fair comment. That is just a common-sense approach. I do not believe in the Darwin theory. I believe that man was born in the image of God and the difference between man and an animal is the fact that a man has the power to create change. He can change for good or he can change for bad. In this particular instance he has the option of either shutting down the Murray-Darling Basin, which is the agenda set by the Ramsar convention—which was not even an Australian founded argument—or he can put more water into the system. I believe that all politicians and all governments should do what is right for the nation and I believe that the growing of a nation is very important. Anyone in the farming game knows that if you are not going forward you are going back. We have this power to create a situation where instead of destroying the Murray Darling system, and the people along it, we can actually make it flourish. There are things such as the Clarence River scheme, which was mooted some 70 or 80 years ago by some idiot called Bradfield—and of course you know he was not very bright or did not have much ability. Nevertheless, he dreamt up a massive scheme to develop this nation. It seems to me that as we have gone along signing all these damned agreements, going along with all these international agreements, we are actually driving this nation backwards. To me, that is not the moral standard that any government that loves its nation and believes in the sovereignty of the nation should play with. It is as immoral as trying to mine the Liverpool Plains. These sorts of things cannot be tolerated. If they are, then I am very sorry but the government of the day are not patriotic Australians. The use of the Clarence River scheme, we believe, would inject around a thousand gigalitres into the system, plus provide electricity for our dying power supply. We used to have a ministry for decentralisation once. Everyone is leaving the bush because of these damned erratic agreements that we signed with people that have no intention of ever seeing a nation grow. If we do not grow we die. It is as simple as that. Therefore, I think the government has a moral duty to revisit the 2007 Water Act. I believe it is totally unworkable and not in the interests of the nation.

Mr Stringer—Thank you, Mr Chairman. I am a farmer from Rocky Glen near Coonabarabran. I am a member of the Citizens Electoral Council and have been for many years. I have been a candidate for the Parkes electorate. In this time I have got a clearer understanding of what is needed to make a society and a community not only function but prosper. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan itself is flawed because the act that it was spawned from, the 2007 Water Act, is also immoral and flawed because it came from the Ramsar agreement, the Ramsar agreement came from the founders of this process, and that was the World Wildlife Fund. The founding members of that fund were Prince Philip, the Queen’s consort, the Queen’s cousin, and Prince Bernhard. This was the founding of these environmental movements that have come up across the planet. Their agenda was the continuation of eugenics, and eugenics was the management and control of population. It is where Nazism was spawned. So you can see this whole thing is an agenda of shutting down Australia’s productivity, its ability to feed itself and numerous millions of others across the world. To shut this basin down, reduce its capacity to produce food, is nothing else other than genocide. You may not see the person you are not feeding, but they are on the other side of the planet. The capability of this nation to produce food and to support a much larger population is there, and it will take a strong willed government to actually make this happen. Unfortunately today we have too many people that are more interested in self-interest and are complying with intense, I must admit, pressure from overseas interests. These overseas interests come out of the banking and money power of the world, mainly London and Wall Street. Their agenda is to control the cartels in the food chain and also resources. Reducing food production only makes them stronger; it only makes them more powerful because there is less food in the system and the price can be forced up very rapidly. We are seeing that happen right now. Right now you are seeing across the world inflation running with food because food is becoming short. It is vital that the Murray-Darling Basin be preserved and developed, and to do this development we need further technology on water usage. We desperately need some of the eastern fall water up and down the New South Wales coast—and the Clarence is but one of these rivers; you have the rivers heading down towards Macleay. That water could come across to the Namoi, no problem. It is all going to waste. How many floods have we had in Grafton in 2009? How many floods in 2010? They are all in Grafton, and all the water goes to the sea, wasted. I hope these areas can be addressed and that the committee can see its way clear to being morally responsible in looking at them.

Wake me when the election is over

The March 2011 New South Wales state election seems to have been greeted with a massive yawn from voters on the North Coast and even the candidates are going through the motions absent of any real political verve.
One candidate for the seat of Clarence took ennui to its outer limit by nominating and then promptly disappearing from sight so successfully that even the local meeja can’t winkled her out – take a bow Family First’s Kristen Bromell.
In Ballina it was the Labor candidate who didn’t front a meet-the-candidates event according to The Northern Star on 9^th March – take your bow Toby Warnes.
Meanwhile in Coffs Harbour a general lack of enthusiasm on the part of The Greens produced a no-show at the ballot draw – face the audience bend forward at the waist Rodney Degens.
Even letter writing voters can’t raise much ire against particular candidates and online comments don’t sparkle – although this one raised a grin because The Daily Examiner online moderator let an accusation stand which invites readers to suspect one Independent candidate of improper conduct:

Click image to enlarge

In an election campaign conspicuously devoid of humour the most amusing incident so far was to read of one Nationals candidate for re-election likening himself to an alien character in a Hollywood movie, John Smith from the planet Lorien - come down to earth Steve Cansdell!
With the penalty for not voting in a state election standing at a measly $55, I think that the number of no-shows amongst voters could fast outstrip totals in past elections.

Australian Opposition all set to do the Gish Gallop*?

Having set the scene by treating the proposed carbon price mechanism guideline as a settled direct tax on Australian citizens (rather than a cost paid by polluting industries) the Australian Coalition Opposition, led by the Hon. Tony Abbott, now appears ready to reprise its attack on climate science underpinning the need for setting such a price:

I think there are increasing doubts about the proposition that anthropogenic emissions of C02 are causing global warming…….

Quoting a blog from an atmospheric scientist from the University of Alabama - who he did not name - Senator Minchin said: "It's clear that the models, and we're dealing with models, have grossly overestimated the sensitivity of temperature to increases in CO2.

"I think what's occurred is that there was a warming period from about '75 to the year 2000. It was part of a natural cycle of warming that comes in 25, 30-year cycles. The world has basically stabilised in terms of temperature since about 2000.

"There are many, many scientists who actually think we could be entering a cooling phase, and I for one think that is more than likely.

"We have stabilised in terms of world temperatures. There is a very powerful natural cycle at work, and if anything we're more likely to see a tendency down in global temperatures, rather than up."

Now the only atmospheric scientist I am familiar with at Alabama University is Professor John Christy and, as far as I can tell this academic (often characterized as a climate change sceptic) in his most recent evidence before a US House of Representatives sub-committee on 8 March 2011 does not actually say that the earth has entered a cooling period. Rather he holds that warming is occurring at a much lower rate than previously predicted and recent disastrous weather events cannot be attributed directly to global warming.

This appears to represent a small step back from his earlier evidence in 2000 based on dubious research co-authored with climate change contrarian and intelligent design believer Roy Spenser also from Alabama University. Nevertheless, Christy is still very much in the contrarian camp.

Interestingly, it is the more notorious Spencer who appears to have an identifiable blog.

*Gish Gallop