Of Flags and T-shirts.........

Andrew Robb may well be feeling the effects of wedgie burn as he gallantly unfurled the flag for the govenments next election bid. Faced with the decision by the organisers of The Big Day Out to limit the carrying of the Australian flag because "in recent times, there has been an increased incidence of flags brandished aggressively and this has led to increased tension. Our only intention in discouraging this activity at the Big Day Out is to ensure that our patrons are not subjected to this aggressive behaviour"* and his belief that the ban should be halted or the event cancelled , he was forced to inadvertently defend the right of an expatriate Australians' wish to wear a t-shirt carrying the pictured message.

On todays Jon Faine show he was caught with no room to wriggle as Allen Jasson had just drawn attention to his bid to return to England with garb, considered so offensive by Qantas and Virgin security, that they had previously refused to let him on board their aeroplanes. The right to wear or carry the flag can hardly be restricted but so also the individuals wish to carry whatever message they like on their t-shirt. God damn it, if you are in the slightest bit logical you just can't have it both ways. Unless of course you are John Howard.

A Pox on Air Conditioners.

This is the comment I left on the esteemed John Quiggin blog concerning one of my great summer dreads.

"Air Conditioners……Another great curse of our time. Not only are they the great spoiler of the suburban quiet they are risking the fair distribution of electicity to us all.No probs with their use for the old and infirm but cannot see for the life of me why these big guzzlers are given greater priority than my right to have a few lights and a critical fridge running.I was without power for 4 hours recently and I am not so stupid to believe it was the bushfires but the overwhelming demand of these unnecessary status symbols.

I would love to see air conditioner become both quieter and with enough complimentary and compulsory solar panels to cover their use. So the rest of us, who still know how to open a window, do not have to pay for more coal burning generators or peak load, rip offs."

I have added a picture of a house designed by architect Beni Burnett in Darwin from 1939. A little more can be found out about him here. Makes you wonder how much we have learned about designing for the weather conditions we live with, doesn't it?

Johnny Want a Cracker?

The Australian Prime Parrot has had a primer from George W. about what to say on release of the brave new plan, cooked up over several weeks, to save the day in Iraq.

Things that make you go hmmm..

Two matters over the the last few days have brought me to, yet again, wonder about the so called 'upcoming talent' in the Liberal Government. Sen Ian Campbell , Federal Environment Minister/birdy saver, made a guest visit to Auntys A.M. to be quoted thus .........

"There are huge benefits to WA and the Australian economy from mining uranium, the world is hungry for it. The Princeton University have developed a study that shows that nuclear power will contribute or can contribute around about a billion tonnes of greenhouse gas abatement per year towards the seven billion tonnes of greenhouse gas abatement we need to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions and save the planet. And so it is really quite obscene for a government to be sitting on a resource that can make a substantial contribution to that climate change challenge".

Oh just fine and dandy Sir, but wasn't it the policy of the government that global warming was not necessarily happening and if it was, it would be very questionable that greenhouse gas emissions had anything to do with it. You know, it's all just Al Gores' personal opinion.

Upcoming talent and ministerial sidekick Greg Hunt has also used the silly season to jump up and enlighten A.M.s listeners. It has sunk in to him - and boy what a surprise - that if you provide important and most necessary employment opportunities for people, their health and society improves. Wow, this guy is a fast learner.

"We weren't expecting a social impact, but what we're finding is, where people are doing meaningful work in remote Indigenous communities, there's been a decrease in domestic violence, a decrease in drug and alcohol and other substance abuse and an increase in social cohesion".

Job creation for work that needs to be done and not 'work for the dole' is about giving back an individuals dignity.

That Holiday in Glorious Sidney!

Your spelling can cost you a lot of money if you are not careful as told by The Register. When English is not your native language it is a little bit more understandable that you might mistake Sidney, U.S.A. with Sydney, Australia. The views of Montana like this statue of one Governor Nutter in Central Park are impressive but nothing quite manages to match the scenic Bondi beach or Sydney harbour bridge.

Twenty one year old German tourist Tobi Gutt made the slight mistake of placing an 'i' instead of a 'y' on the form when booking his online holiday. Assuming, quite reasonably, that his trip to Australia was via America he only began to realize he had taken a wrong turn when things slowed down a lot with his boarding of a local commuter plane.

Whoops and thanks to family and friends who bailed him out by sending the cash he needed to get on a service that was a lot closer to his holidaying needs.

Unpublished Nicholson.

and thanks for the memories.........
and another memory of Donald Rumsfeld, with the tyrant ,
16 months after the crime in Dujail for which Saddam was hung..........

New Years Resolution.

The guy has completely lost it.

The President says the American troops safety is always on his mind and that their welfare is a top priority. That is most reassuring.

"The troops, as we head into 2007, people always ask me about a new year's resolution, my resolution is that they'll be safe." His quote from here.

No George, that is not a resolution. It may be a 'wish' or a 'hope' but not a resolution. If you were to resolve not to say something dumb in '07 that would be a resolution but sadly an impossibility. A resolution could be made to bring the troops home before next Christmas. You could even work on simple sentence construction in the New Year, instead of making matters worse in Iraq.

Woof Woof and merry merry.........

Slipped through in the Silly Season.

It's official.............'bribes' are a 'tax deduction'.
Here's how it works.

1) Create a law."There should be no tax deduction for a bribe -thats my view ,and thats what we put into the law", Mr Costello said.

2) Set up an inquiry, like The Cole Report into AWB, that deems a bribe is actually a kickback.

3)Rely on Tax Department.
In a statement to the Stock Exchange yesterday, AWB said the Tax Office "accepts that for the reasons set out in the Cole inquiry report, payments made by AWB under the ... oil-for-food program do not constitute bribes to foreign public officials for the purposes of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997".

4)Pretend matters are out of your hands. (Sorry Pete, Mr Cole or the tax department are not the lawmakers, that's the role of the parliament.)
"Now I'm sorry, if a court finds or a royal commissioner finds something, whatever my personal view, that's the law." says Mr Costello.

"Take that Bob Brown", says Eric.

The Federal Forestry Minister, Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz, says it's "ironic" that the Wielangta forests that have been the focus of 33 day legal case have been burnt by recent fires.

This follows a decision by The Federal Court in Tasmania which "formed the view that the relevant operations will be, and have been ,carried out otherwise than in accordance with the RFA."

The operations being those by Foresty Tasmania that even flouted the very limited safeguards in the present laws and declared open season on old growth forests.

Eric is saying that the court's findings - that Tasmania's Regional Forest Agreement is valid - is a win for the Government. That's true. It was part of Justice Marshalls' decision. The law is the law.

Senator Abetz says an appeal to the decision is being considered, but he can't see how it would affect other Australian logging regions. Why would you appeal a decision that has caught out a group that has broken the law that you created? Unless you didn't give a damn about the environment , enjoyed the fact that Wielangta had been damaged and were more interested in the Forestry industry above everything else. Maybe we are looking at schadenfreude rather than irony.

Shark Attack at Winkie Pop!

For more, do not miss going here, wait a bit and here.









Update: That pathetic Premier Bracks has ruled out reprisal raids on all sharks in Victoria. The Shadow Minister for Sharks and Shockjocks has yet to respond to such an obvious lack of concern for the swimming public.

Mr Fish says it All.

For Catch of the Day see.

Greens New Upper House Power.

Labor 19 seats
Libs 15 seats
Nats 2 seats
Greens 3 seats
DLP 1 seat

Final and complete results for Victorian 2006 election. An excellent result for Greens despite typical misleading bi-partisan attacks. Labor loses control of Upper House. Victoria may yet get an end to logging in water catchment areas.

And just in case you were wondering, the lone DLP member looks like this. Will Labor call upon him to pass legislation and incur the wrath of the older party faithful who see the DLP as "sectarian snakes"?

Steve Bracks deserves a pat on the back for introducing these real reforms to the Legislative Council that have finally come to fruition. Maybe there is a little bit of refineing to do around the edges but Victoria now has a far more democratic house. "The biggest changes in its 150 years history" is a fair boast and introduced by politicians knowing it would reduce their power. A minor miracle, you would have to say.

The Saga continued...........

This link to a thread on Club Troppo (scroll to top to read 'A blogger the culprit' by Ken Parish) fills in a few details that some may have missed in the second and third episode of Maynelining Poison Dwarf. Two new characters have been introduced to the plot........ Kerr the younger and caustic bloghead who makes a guest appearance in comments.

While we are at it, I wish to mention the good foot work of the floor manager, seen in the picture, who was the real hero in episode one. His 'dance with the inebriated' was something to behold. If another individual deserves an apology/bravery award he does. Wrestling with aggressive drunks is always a brave call.

A Walkley , Two Murdoch 'journalists' and the role model Himself.

This is the brilliant photo that won a Walkley*.
Titled "A Windy Oakes Day" it was taken by Angela Wylie and was successful in the category of 'best daily life photography for 2006'. Reminds me of birds holding tight to a power line in a gale.

Not such a good look for two of Rupert Murdochs' employees after a tired and emotional moment by Glenn Milne in his ongoing feud with Stephen Mayne and matters in the ol' dart where Clive Goodman ended up in the courts.

Milne has apologised for his well known 'gaffe' * "Please accept this release as an apology to my esteemed colleagues, friends and family for the hurt and embarrassment caused by my actions at the Walkley Awards in Melbourne.I lamentably mixed alcohol and migraine medication with shocking consequences. I apologise too to Stephen Mayne and the organisers of the awards.There is no excuse for my behaviour." He has also inadvertently allowed a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the previously secret newspaper empire. Crikey reports today that his local boss said he "will not be patted on the back for what he did last night". Instead, he will be "disciplined internally which is a matter between myself and him" It has often been a bone of contention how writers and editors have been brought into the line by senior management. 'Boneing' is indeed believed to be the technique favoured by the competitive Packer apparachiks.

Found guilty of breaching the privacy of royalty ex-'News of the World Royal Editor', Clive Goodman, who has been suspended by the paper, apologised in court to the three members of the royal household staff concerned and their principals, princes William, Harry and Charles *. Andy Coulson, the paper's editor, said: "The News of the World will ... be making a substantial donation to charities of the Princes' choice."

A question ..... do common celebrity types get similarly well looked after by the legal system? Not so, police have no plans to press further charges. Despite the counter-terrorism group of Scotland Yard finding "that among those targeted were David Blunkett, while he was home secretary, the government minister David Miliband, the England and Portsmouth defender Sol Campbell, the editor of the Sun, Rebekah Wade, the Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes, the supermodel Elle Macpherson, and the publicist Max Clifford". Most interesting is that great excuse in "The Australian" ; everyone ("Voicemail snooping rife on Fleet Street") is hiring detectives these days and doing this sought of stuff.

Not to be outdone Mr Murdoch himself was out personally apologising "I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project. We are very sorry for any pain that his has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson." * Its not flash to pay good ol' O.J.Simpson nearly two million pounds while going for what many saw as a tacky little rateings grabber. No doubt there.

Sorting the Chaff from the AWB Scandal.

I came across these words from Gandhi who was commenting over at Road to Surfdom. Hope he doesn't mind me reproducing them because they cover matters very well, on the publication of the weighty Cole Report. Mr Cole is seen passing his work over to the Governor-General.

"Yet another shameful day for Australia. How many is that, folks? How many more must we endure? How many more CAN we endure, before we surrender whatever vision of “Australia” we ever held to?

Howard has found our nation’s weak point and he is exploiting it.

The Australian nation is in a dysfunctional relationship with a cheating partner. He promises her security and prosperity, but he cheats on her repeatedly and then he lies about it.

“Where were you last night, darling?”
“I was in bed with the AWB, but don’t worry - nothing happened. I promise…”

She knows he is lying, but she doesn’t dare to challenge him, not wholeheartedly. She is scared of confronting the horrible truth, and she dreads the consequences that must inevitably follow.

If our government knowingly breached the UN sanctions program against Iraq, even while millions of innocent Iraqi children were dying as a result of it; if our government then knowingly participated in a pre-planned war, in defiance of international law and the UN, to seize control of Iraq’s oil fields; if our government lied through its collective teeth to hide these facts and then, under international pressure, set up an anodyne enquiry to absolve itself of any guilt; if, with half a million or more Iraqis now dead and their entire country teetering on the precipice of bloody chaos, our Government continues to put its own survival ahead of any moral consideration; if all this and more is true, then we as a nation have lost our way, we are in the hands of mobsters, we are ruled by War Criminals in shiny suits, we are worse than a laughing stock because we have voted for these people again and again and again, even while we watched other people suffer the consequences of our poor judgement.

The desperate refugee children fished from our heaving seas, the suicidal children locked behind razor wires in desert detention centres, the charred corpses of bombed children with blackened, burned out bubbles where their eyes should be… These are the victims of our terrible misjudgement.

For the record, AWB shares went up following the report’s release."

We used to have Westminster principles of ministerial responsibilty and cabinet collective responsibility*. They have been trashed by he who claims to head a conservative government. Andrew Peacock proposed to resign in the 70's because his wife posed for Sheridan Sheets advertisements. Now we have ......"A Guide on Key Elements of Ministerial Responsibility" that gives the PM's cabinet "a convenient get-out-of-jail when it comes to carrying the can for departmental stuff-ups.On the matter of accountability in ministerial relations with departments, the code hangs out the public servant to dry, not the minister." Terms of reference of the Cole Report provide a nice little extra buffer, as even the public servants have an escape clause from scrutiny and criminal investigation.

We used to have a media that would have tracked down these, at the very least, incompetent ministers. Instead we get headlines like "Cole report clears Govt"* . When clearly Mr Cole was not employed to investigate them. To find the truth we may well need American help or local litigation. Those AWB employees who are eventually charged may yet spill the beans, probably after ministers are beyond the electorates scrutiny. Still, they are showing immediate signs of being a bit testy. Beware Howard,Downer and Vaile you may not be off the hook yet.

Election Day Fever Pitch.

Victoria goes to the polls this sad day.
And for our choice we'll pay and we'll pay.

Is it big ted who owns the stock market, or bracksy the commie who'l make us his target?

No matter what,
our hearts will soon tremble.
Specially coz, the greenies dissemble.
A good show from them, will lead us to roon.
Our kiddies gay, pot, and 'darkside of the moon'.

No dams, no dams, how callous and cruel,
compulsory tofu , confiscated ute......
Attempts at a pee,
at you local comf ' station?
"Promise ya Mongrel,
will end in a root".

Who eva stands,
'fore this once mighty state,
and saying that he "will rule for us all",
proud and brimming and "thank you me mate"......

Just remember you bastard
close the front gate!



Exclusive EAJ poem.

" I'm a poet and I voet."

The Cock Crows Once?

We interrupt this blog for a party political message to Victorian voters from Bob Brown, the Australian Greens Leader and take the opportunity of wishing Justin Walker all the best in his bid for the seat of Prahran after a predictable smear campaign by Ruppys gutter press.

"Dear Voter

During the twenty years I knew him, Peter Garrett opposed uranium mining, the Pine Gap spy facility, logging of native forests and nuclear powered ships being allowed into Australian ports.

Not any more. He is now part of the Labor machine. This week in Melbourne Labor rolled out Peter to attack the Greens. That's because in this age of climate change the Greens' environment policies are rapidly attracting Labor and Liberal voters.

The Greens remain strong on the principles Peter once sang about.

In Victoria the Greens have preferenced Labor in 60 seats and the Liberals in none. In the others we are leaving it to the voters by having split tickets favouring neither Labor nor Liberal.

But now Labor's Peter Garrett has written to voters in key Melbourne seats falsely indicating that the Greens' pro Labor preference decision is in fact pro Liberal. This is brutal, Labor machine politics. Don't fall for it.

Labor's Peter Garrett is not Midnight Oil's Peter Garrett or the Australian Conservation Foundation's Peter Garrett. He is now an anti Greens campaigner.

Ignore him. Vote Green."

Bob Brown
Australian Greens Leader


For more information and comment please contact:
Ebony Bennett 0409 164 603
or
Dave Lane on (mob) 0419 156 213
Justin Walker | Homepage | 11.24.06 - 8:51 am | #

Vale Big Bird.

For a little bit of the history of this most important event on the American calendar see this recent report in The Queens Gazette.