Taylor makes yet another mark after Twenty20 Final

Mark (Tubby) Taylor, former Australian XI captain and now Cricket Australia board member made a proper goose of himself at the awards presentation after the Twenty20 Big Bash Final at Sydney's ANZ stadium on Saturday night.

NSW won the match by one one run, thanks to a bye from the last ball of the match.

Victoria batted first and scored 4/166. Opener Rob Quiney scoring a fantastic 91 off 56 balls while recent Test debutant Andrew McDonald hit 30 runs off 29 balls.

NSW's best bowler was Aaron Bird who finished with 3/21 off his 4 overs.

The NSW side incuded the Kiwi ring-in Brendon McCullum who managed to score just 10 off 11 balls.

Although it was a pyjama cricket match, this game produced the goods for players and spectators - it went down to the last ball.

However, the lowlight of the day/evening was Taylor's "gem".

Taylor, whose public speaking skills are not his greatest asset, took to the microphone and announced that the player who made a fantastic contribution for Victoria (Quiney) was not the recipient of the award.

The TV audience sitting comfortably in their lounges at home heard Taylor's words quite clearly, but poor unfortunate Quiney and his Victorian team mates didn't.

Quiney, thinking he'd been announced as the winner of the award, headed off in the direction of Taylor but then Taylor announced that NSW player Ben Rohrer, who hit 44 off 20 balls and steered NSW to victory was the player of the match.

It makes one wonder how often Channel 9 has to hit the idiot button to ensure that idiotic remarks made by Taylor don't go to air. This writer reckons the controller/s of the idiot button must work overtime.

See the match scoreboard here.

Acknowledgement: Thanks to Bill Leak for his pic of Tubby (above) ... www.portrait.gov.au

Has President Obama given an undertaking that his new administration will discourage any move against the architects of the Iraq War?

The US Department of Justice website lists all presidential pardons and commutations granted by George W. Bush up to March 2008.

Since then it has released media notification of the granting of least 34 other pardons - 14 in November 2008, 19 in December 2008 and 2 in January 2009.

Now it would be hard to word any pardon for the human rights violations and alleged war crimes committed by the former president, members of the Bush Administration and/or their agents, because George Bush appears to have quashed or suspended many of the US federal legal provisions which recognised or protected against such violations.

However, this does not make the former Bush Administration fire proof and so one is left to wonder if the new US President, Barack Obama, has given the past president an undertaking that neither he or his administration would assist in any international or domestic investigation of these individuals and would resist calls for their prosecution.

I would like to know the answer to that query as would a number of others.

Young Liberals - marching backwards towards the future

After the debacle last year when the Young Liberals were so publicly humiliated by the Senate as it quietly pricked their 'all teachers and uni lecturers are biased lefties' balloon, you might have thought that this brush with the real world would've led to something productive - like a more balanced view of the world.
You'd be dead wrong.
They are holding their annual conference this weekend and the Young Liberals mouthpiece, Noel McCoy, has announced that they want to bring back compulsory national service for those between 17 and 24 years of age.
Though what they think 9 months of conscripted service would do for a fella's country I'm d*mned if I know.
But then most of these young wannabe pollies would be expecting exemptions, wouldn't they?
Liberal Party Federal MPs Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott, Eric Abetz, and Bronwyn Bishop will attend the conference and are perhaps hoping that the media do not notice their attendance at the annual party for young wingnuts who still believe Little Jonnnie Howard was the Second Coming.

Pic from Flickr

'No Drama' Obama now 'Back-up' Barack?

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Seems hard to believe that one simple 35-word sentence could be so publicly scrambled doesn't it?
But what is really hard to believe is that Barack Obama had to take the presidential oath again just so that the rumours would not start flying that he was actually not the US 44th President and Commander-in-Chief.

Obama is not the first president to have to repeat the oath however - Calvin Coolidge and Chester Arthur also mangled the original swearing in and had to repeat the process behind closed doors according to The Washington Post last Wednesday.

What I did notice particularly was that there was no Obama stumble over the additional phrase "So help me God".
That should upset the great number of atheists and agnostics around the globe.

It also gives me pause for thought - if the wording of the oath is mandated by the US Constitution why is it not thought to be an improper oath if additional words are added?

Obama starts his presidency with a blog

On 20 January 2009 the WhiteHouse website was up and running under new management by midday and the first Obama era blog entry was posted.

It was followed a couple of hours later by President Obama's first proclamation which had a disturbingly evangelical tone that does not bode well for a supposedly secular government and society.

The official breakdown of the new faces in the White House and administration:

• President Barack Obama


• Vice President Joe Biden


• First Lady Michelle Obama


• Dr. Jill Biden


• The Cabinet


• White House Staff


• Executive Office of the President


• Nominations and Appointments

Australian workers get 22 per cent less severance pay than rest of world, but Clarence Valley beats that record hands down

According to the Business Spectator last Friday:

Employees laid off in Australia took home close to the least amount of severance pay in the world, according to a global study by Right Management.
The release of the survey came as official figures showed a sharp drop in the number of full-time jobs in Australia in December, as the unemployment rate rose to 4.5 per cent.
Out of 28 countries surveyed by Right Management, Australia came 21st in terms of severance pay and conditions. The survey looked at 1,500 human resource professionals and senior managers, including 101 from Australia.
In cases where employees lost their job involuntarily because of a company restructure or down-sizing, they pocket on average 22 per cent less than their global counterparts, with 2.79 weeks' severance pay per year of service, compared to a worldwide average of 3.6 weeks per year of service.

If the average Australian worker gets less severance pay than his international counterpart, then Grafton abattoir workers in the Clarence Valley must hold the individual world record.
For they frequently find that they are let go with no payout entitlements being paid due to a Byzantine business model involving at various times Ramsey Wholesale Meats, Ramsey Holdings, Ramsey Food Packaging 1 and 2, Tempus Holdings, Paul Allen Contracting Service, Mortimer Administration Service and others.

Here is a brief history.

Sacked meatworkers fear entitlements lost [2006]

Workers 'boned [2006]

Merry Christmas...you're boned [2008]

New Twist as workers fight for lost money [2009]

Sacked meatworkers remain on the hook [2009]

The Member for Page, Janelle Saffin, speaking in The Daily Examiner expressed concerned about the plight of these sacked workers:

"I encourage the sacked workers who have not already done so to contact me or my office individually so that I can advocate on their behalf."

I doubt whether it has slipped Ms. Saffin's notice that some of the same individuals found as directors of Ramsey companies are also spending literally millions in total on bloodstock and race horses.

After two runs in Sydney at this year's autumn carnival, Zizou was acquired from his owners, a Coolmore syndicate, as a foundation sire for one of the best quality breeding operations in the Hunter region, Stuart Ramsey's Turangga Stud at the entrance to the historic Segenhoe Valley, a short drive away from Scone. Owner of a major meatworks on the NSW north coast, Stuart Ramsey has become involved in racing and breeding in a big way in recent years. His breeding operation includes an 80-strong high quality broodmare band, many of which will give Zizou every chance to be another brilliant Golden Slipper performer make it as a first class sire. His base in the Hunter Valley, the Turangga Stud, has a history of horse breeding stretching back more than a half a century.

Perhaps it's time the Deputy-Prime Minister Julia Gillard stirred herself (as the minister responsible for industrial relations legislation) and ensured that any pea-and-shell corporate structuring that has a potential use which would see workers being denied their rights is made illegal under Australian law once and for all.
Rather than listening to the likes of Heather Ridout of the Australian Industry Group who would obviously like the status quo to continue for her members.