Obamba and Romney quipping away at the 2012 Alfed E. Smith Memorial Dinner in New York as betting odds firm

 

 

http://youtu.be/NIHbe-aO6oI

 

http://youtu.be/S6g2YkTAYQ4

 

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner is an annual white tie charity fundraiser for Catholic charities, held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York on the third Thursday of October (Smith died on October 4). It is organized by the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation in honor of former New York Governor Al Smith, the first Catholic presidential candidate. The first dinner was in 1945, the year after Al Smith's death.

How the world rates this contest between two privileged men.

Paddy Power betting odds:

Centrebet betting odds:

Sportsbet betting odds:

 

Thanks to the reader who pointed me towards these bets.

"Suffer the little children" takes on a new meaning this month

 

What Victoria Police told the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations concerning the manner in which the Catholic Church deals with allegations of the sexual abuse of minors by those in religious orders: 
 

 

That the Catholic Church is seen as the principal offender against the rights of child victims is made clear:

 

http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/fcdc/inquiries/57th/Child_Abuse_Inquiry/Submissions/Victoria_Police.pdf

 

Brisbane Times 19 October 2012:

Following up the explosive police submission to the state inquiry into the churches' handling of sex abuse, the deputy commissioner unloaded more broadsides attacking the Catholic Church's obstruction of police investigations into paedophile clergy going back six decades.

He unleashed his shocking litany in calm, measured tones, seated at a venerable table opposite the six committee members, watched by framed dignitaries on the wall and a packed chamber of visitors.

He said the police had for the first time aggregated their sexual offence statistics by clergy and church workers since January 1956: 2110 offences against 519 victims, overwhelmingly perpetrated by Catholic priests and mostly against boys aged 11 or 12. Yet the church had not reported a single crime to police.

The Church's submissions to this inquiry insist that there has been an emerging awareness of the problem, it has been recognised and the bishops are now handling allegations of sexual abuse in an appropriate manner.

However, this assertion denies fact. The Catholic Church has long known about sexual abuse by clergy and others. It has been codifying responses since its early years:

Child sexual abuse has always been a scourge in our society and in our Church.
[Rev. Msgr. Stephen J. Rossetti PhD DMin, undated]

The Council of Elvira, circa 306 AD - Canon Law

18. Bishops, presbyters, and deacons, once they have taken their place in the ministry, shall not be given communion even at the time of death if they are guilty of sexual immorality. Such scandal is a serious offense.

71. Those who sexually abuse boys may not commune even when death approaches.

[Catholic University of America]

While it was only the day before the Victorian inquiry began its public hearings that NSW Police arrested, charged with twenty-five offences and brought before the court a former priest who had allegedly abused children over a twenty year period before formally leaving the priesthood in 2005. A priest who had made certain admissions to the Church in 1992, but remained under its active protection for years until exposed in an ABC Four Corners program aired on 2 July 2012.

NASA livestreams the 2012 Orionid meteor shower

Streaming live video by Ustream

http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/orionids2012.html

The law makes an ass of itself over Father F.

 

This was published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 18 October 2012:

 

A former NSW priest who allegedly told three senior Catholic clergy a decade ago that he had repeatedly sexually abused children has been charged with 25 child-sex offences relating to three girls.

The 59-year-old was arrested at a home in Armidale this morning, and is expected to face court this afternoon in relation to the charges dating back to the 1970s and '80s.

Following his arrest, police urged anyone with information about an alleged cover-up by the Catholic Church to come forward…….

Father F, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was removed from public ministry after a meeting with three clergy in 1992, following continued allegations of abuse after he was moved from the Armidale diocese to Parramatta.

Readers will notice that for legal reasons the former Catholic priest cannot be named by the media.

 

However, on the very same day, the NSW court system only offered the pretence of a fig leaf to conceal his name in its online lists.

 

I received an email pointing this out to me and I’m sure that it was common knowledge elsewhere by the end of that day as I would not have been the only recipient.

 

Unfortunately, the unthinking court system also listed some other matters associated with these charges in such a way that the three girls (now women) were easily identified.

ACT Election 20 October 2012 - Virtual Tally Room live updates

 

Link to live results as they come in:

 

http://www.electionresults.act.gov.au/

Click on table to enlarge

 

Last Updated:21/10/2012 5:35:28 PM

The approaching storm about to engulf the NSW North Coast

 

When NSW Labor was swept from power 18 months ago, no issue symbolised the community’s frustration more than a notorious law known as Part 3A.

Part 3A gave the state government the power to remove decision-making on "significant" proposals from local councils and hand it to the minister, who could either make a decision or appoint an expert panels. Around NSW, community groups found that controversial developments were removed from their local councils……

Eventually, the NSW Minister for Planning Brad Hazzard appointed Tim Moore — an ex-minister for planning in a former Liberal government and former judge of the Land and Environment Court — and lawyer Ron Dyer to conduct a review.

Their review was expected to be the basis for a green paper, which was subsequently published in June. After a further consultation period, a white paper and draft legislation will be released later this year. When passed, this bill is expected to become the new planning legal framework, replacing the 1979 act, which was passed after the Green Ban period but has been constantly amended since.

The Moore/Dyer review found the key objective of planning reform should be to "provide an ecologically, economically and socially sustainable framework". But when the green paper appeared, this and many other recommendations had disappeared. Now the first objective was "economic development and competitiveness". The underlying philosophy was now pro-growth and pro-developer.

Community groups which had welcomed the solid consultation process of the review now found that the paper proposed less rights for community consultation than now exist. Under the new regime, communites would be engaged in forming broad regional plans, but once guidelines were in place they would not be consulted on developments in their local neighbourhoods.

Developers, on the other hand, could apply for rezonings, even if these did not fit with regional guidelines. If council decisions went against developers they could appeal to non-elected Regional Planning Boards that may include developer representatives. There would also be more opportunity in the new system for checking off proposals against a list of criteria, using certificates supplied by developer consultants.  [New Matilda 19 October 2012]

 

Rapacious land developers and real estate agents are about to be given carte blanche by the O’Farrell Government and, it is hard to see the situation ending well for coastal communities in particular when this pivitol recommendation set out below is apparently being rejected.

 

The Hon Tim Moore and The Hon Ron Dyer (May 2012) Recommendations of the Independent Review of the NSW Planning System:

 

A new legislative framework

The reforms need to be set out in a new legislative framework – one founded on three new

Acts of Parliament:

• a Sustainable Planning Act – to establish the framework for a reformed

planning system

• a Planning Commission Act – to establish the composition, powers and functions of

an independent Planning Commission

• a Spatial Information Act – to facilitate a ‘whole of government’ approach to

the application of information technology to spatial data (and not confined to

planning information).

The principal new legislation – the Sustainable Planning Act – will contain the major

elements of the reformed framework. It will be in a plain English, narrative form. Technical

aspects will be in schedules to the Act or in regulations (separate ones for different topics).

Although foreshadowed in this Volume, the discussion of and detailed recommendations for the proposed Planning Commission Act and proposed Spatial Information Act will be set out in Volume 2.

The Sustainable Planning Act will have a single overarching object:

The object of this Act is to provide an ecologically, economically and socially sustainable

framework for land use planning and for development proposal assessment and

determination together with the necessary ancillary legislative provisions to support

this framework.

The Act is structured to set out the elements necessary for this broad object and to

provide more detailed objects relevant to the planning processes.

• Independent Review Paper - Volume 1 - Major Issues (2.8mb)
• Independent Review Paper - Volume 2 - Other Issues (1.47mb)

The current O’Farrell-Stoner-Hazzard plan encapsulated:

individuals and markets are best placed to deliver diverse choices, vibrant communities and strong and sustainable economies

• A New Planning System for NSW - Green Paper (4.4mb)  

It should be noted that at least one of the NSW National Party MPs representing the North Coast, Chris Gualptis, is a former land developer.

Yamba developer grows wordy

 

Not content with having his West Yamba subdivision passed by Clarence Valley Council on a vote of 8 to 1 at the 16 October 2012 ordinary monthly meeting, Yamba land and property developer David Mitchell quickly fired off a letter to the editor accusing Cr. McKenna of having flipped flopped and asserting; The question needs to be answered as to what or who changed Cr McKenna's mind over the last week?

The Daily Examiner published his needless rant on 18 October.

Is the rather arrogant Mr. Mitchell signaling that he will only accept an unconditional 100 per cent vote from councillors in future?
 

Update:

Apparently David Mitchell may have to look in the mirror when asking what or who changed Cr McKenna's mind.

A letter in reply from Cr. Margaret McKenna, published on 20 October, reveals that an email he sent her before the committee meeting caused her to later ask for staff comment on its contents and she; took their answer into my further deliberations for the council meeting.

The words hoist and petard come to mind.