On the 347th day since he was sworn in as Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott has this country participating in someone else's civil war

 Abbott announcing he is taking Australia to war - again

Prime Minister Tony Abbott was a minister in the Howard federal government when Australia formed part of the unlawful invasion force in Iraq 2003.

This invasion created the circumstances which led to the current Iraq civil war.

Now Tony Abbott has abandoned any pretence of reluctance and on 31 August 2014 has committed this country to entering this civil war as a military participant delivering weapons to one side in the sectarian armed conflict.

Hypocritically calling this entry into the war a humanitarian mission.

All because he and his government are increasingly unpopular with the majority of voters at home and he hopes to deflect them with jingoism, fifes and drums.

Is fast food giant McDonald's finally paying the price for its arrogance?

There were probably many Yamba residents muttering “I told you so” under their breaths after reading this in The Sydney Morning Herald on 10 August 2014:

Sales at McDonald's have recorded their worst results in over 10 years.

Global sales at the fast food giant dropped 2.5 per cent in June and July.

Not since March 2003, when global sales plunged 3.7 per cent in consecutive months, has the world's biggest restaurant chain suffered such losses.

Australia is part of McDonald's Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa operation, which was the worst performing sector in the second quarter of 2014. Its sales declined 7.3 per cent.  

After similarly disappointing first quarter results, Australia was singled out as a poor performing market in April…..

One aspect of the Australian psyche the multinational fast food chain, McDonald’s, never grasped – if you force yourselves on our communities we tend not to buy your product.

In particular I suspect that the amount of national publicity the Telcoma protestors managed to garner is beginning to impact on many household fast food choices around the country.

Which makes one wonder if the fast food giant’s McDelivery trial will also fall flat on its face in Australia.

Background

http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/search?q=mcdonalds+yamba

The Abbott Family spin cycle continues - this time about the clothes they wear

 Second-hand rose: Margie Abbott in the Salvation Army store in Manly after launching National Op Shop Week on Saturday. 

Photo: Daniel Munoz/Getty Images. The Sydney Morning Herald 23 August 014.

"Op shopping is something that the Abbott family has enjoyed for many years, and may I say, we do it very well” states Margie Abbott, member of a privileged Australian family.

If Margie Abbott regularly purchased clothing at op shops it was a long, long time ago.

This is an image of the Abbott family on federal election night in September 2013; in garb which had come straight from dress designers and probably a bespoke tailor.

Margie Abbott is wearing a custom made Veronica Al Khoury dress, the daughters apparently wearing outfits from Toni Maticevsk and, the man in the centre of this photograph has of course been receiving tailored suits and high quality shirts and ties as ‘gifts’ from one of his supporters, Les Taylor, for a number of years.

All one has to do is trawl though Google Images to find multiple examples of the fact that op shops are alien to the Abbott family.

Quote of the Week

Tony Abbott has obviously learnt nothing from last year's travel rort scandals. He and his Team Australia bombard us with brainwashing messages like the age of entitlement is over, budget emergency and that the country can't afford leaners. He then attends at private function in Melbourne and  arranges a quick "work" visit and press conference to conveniently justify claiming entitlements rather than paying his own way. It's a shameful, brazen abuse of his position and a contemptible waste of hard-earned taxpayers' money. 

[Glen op den Brouw of Liverpool in a letter to the editor, The Sydney Morning Herald 28 August 2014]

The ugly face of Abbott's Team Australia

Letter to the editor in The Daily Examiner on 26 August 2014:

Aussie Islamists

Given the unhappy world situation at this time and the present exposure of the unholy and bestial practices that Australian Islamists, amongst others, are pursuing in Arabia, a whole rethink of where we stand in world affairs is overdue.

At this stage the United States of Australasia, incorporating our Christian neighbours, is worthy of serious consideration.

Thomas Macindoe

Yamba

The Great Coastal Emu Hunt 6-7 September 2014 Clarence Valley & Bungawlbin

Abbott Government's latest list of 'metadata' about you it wants stored in order to spy on your Internet & mobile phone activity

According to the Australian Parliamentary Library on 24 October 2012 there were 29.28 million active mobile services (voice and data)in Australia, 10.54 million fixed-line telephone services, 3.8 million home VoIP users, 10.9 million Internet service subscribers. With 57 per cent of people using three communication technologies (fixed-line telephone, mobile phone and Internet), 26 per cent using four communication technologies (fixed-line telephone, mobile phone, Internet and VoIP) and 21 per cent of people (aged 14 and over) accessing the Internet via a mobile phone.

With the exception of fixed-line services, it is probable that numbers in all these communication categories will have increased by now.

The Abbott Government intends to create legislation requiring internet and telephone providers to store all subscribers' metadata for a period of up to two years in order that certain government agencies can access this information without a warrant.

Warrentless searches of subscribers' metadata have apparently been surreptitiously occurring for years, as indicated in The Canberra Times on 20 August 2014:

The federal government has been left red-faced following revelations that law-enforcement agencies have been accessing Australians' web browsing histories without a warrant.

Access to phone and internet data held by telecommunications companies has been the subject of much debate recently, as the government seeks to extend the power of intelligence and law-enforcement agencies to fight terrorism and crime. It has proposed telcos retain customers' metadata for up to two years for investigation.

However, spy agency ASIO and federal police have given assurances that data on what websites Australians visit - know as web history - could only be obtained with warrants.

Now a paper published by the parliamentary library on Monday has revealed an industry practice of providing website addresses (URLs) to law enforcement without warrants.

Telstra confirmed on Tuesday evening it had provided URLs to agencies without a warrant "in rare cases". It did not name the agencies or how many times it provided information.

IT News on 26 August 2014 reports the latest list of ‘metadata’ the Abbott Government has told the telecommunications industry it wants stored by Internet/phone service providers in order to conduct warrantless mass surveillance of the populace:

* names, addresses, birthdates, financial and billing information of internet and phone account holders;

* traffic data such as numbers called and texted, as well as times and dates of communications; 
* when and where online communications services start and end; 
* a user’s IP address; 
* type and location of communication equipment; and
* upload and download volumes, among others.

One rather suspects that with this definition of retained metadata the Federal Government and its agencies can do a lot more than keep alert to any alleged domestic terrorist threat.
There is room for 'function creep' to become established. 

Previously in an August 2012 submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security the Human Rights Law Centre expressed concern that:

Everyone’s communication data is kept, not just those suspected of a crime. Large repositories of private data tempt ‘fishing expeditions’ – trawling though private data in search of suspicion, not on the basis of it. A nation of citizens thus becomes a nation of suspects.25

On 27 August 2014 The Canberra Times published the confidential data retention industry consultation document.

Australian Federal Government Data Retention Consultation August 2014

UPDATE

The 2010 version of consultation concerning the proposed data retention policy also clearly outlines an intention to monitor the daily habits and social networks of ever Australian resident via their Internet and telephone use.