Widow Given Shit Deal !

The 'little paper' lives up to it's reputation, by publishing this report on page 11 , June 28th, 07 .

By way of a 'not really' apology.... it is all in the 3rd person. Considering that the paper had run reports of a surburban lawyers' death on, the front page, with suggestions of underworld connections.

You will need to click on the 'cut out' to make it readable.

The Australian Press Council, yesterday, made a ruling against, "The Paper of the Year 2005-6."

See adjudication 1361 and you would have to say that self regulation of the media is not working.

Howard's National Emergency.

John Howard's National Emergency call , on the plight of aboriginal communities is most concerning. I involved myself in a little bit of discussion at Anonymous Lefty and later at Lavatus Prodeo on the subject. Personally, I have little doubt that our PM has shamelessly run, with a report commissioned by the Northern Territory Government, for a purely political purpose.
I do not believe his motives are pure, but more about latching onto a motherhood issue, to wedge Labor , as we move closer to an election. Who would not be appalled by paedophile activity in any community, regardless of race, colour or religion? Howard has had well over ten years to improve the situation for indigenous people. He has systematically destroyed whatever leadership mechanisms they had, and actually withdrawn funds for basic services and infrastructure, over that time.
It is a big ask to believe that he has finally seen the error of his ways, as even now, he merely talks of symptoms, that need to be eradicated rather than the basic causes of problems. He found his ammunition and has declared another war.... now that a war on drugs , war on terrorism, war on asylum seekers lack quite the emotional bite.

As I responded to a Megami' request, in my comments, at L.P. “Can someone please elaborate on the Army claim in this?” Megami, when you declare Teh “National Emergency”, you need soldiers. Hell, you just “need them”. This is the new “War on Black Paedophile Rings”. Navy would be involved but some uncertainty as to the depth of Todd River. Brough, busy checking. Howard has his target audience in mind and knows how to bullshit them.
Other comments I made at L.P......
I am quite concerned about intentions. Given that the plans seem to have the potential to make the situation worse for all, NT, aboriginals. All families are to be treated, the same, whether they are involved in what is considered 'bad behaviour' or not. There are no rewards, but punishment in the form of suspended welfare payments and various other increased living expenses. No funding for improved education or health. Just the threat of medical examinations for all youngsters regardless of their parents wishes.
To top it off, they lose control over who may enter their lands. Can you imagine how pastoralists and miners would like their rights of control prohibited? The intention I believe is less about allowing “transparency” but more about providing a good excuse to open up areas for tourism and mining development for white carpetbaggers.

UPDATE Mutitjulu community leaders: please listen to us
I just caught up with this plea from Mutitjulu leaders Dorothea and Bob Randall , that Crikey published. This is the first community to be seized under Howard's National Emergency, probably, because it is closest to suitable accommodation for politicians, embedded journalists and bureacrats, before the army sets up 'on site', digs.

libs lurch further to the right

Liberal preselection, for the blue ribbon federal Sydney seat of Mitchell, has been completed , with the election of Alex Hawke. He is a 30 year old, Anglican with strong Hillsong affiliations, defeating David Elliot, a hotels industry lobbyist , securing 81 of 107 votes.

“This process of labelling people just because they’re Christian and because they’re socially conservative as extreme is something that I regard as unfair and particularly nasty,” he said in response to earlier comments made by Anthony Albanese, who branded him as an "extremist".

Hawke is a former staffer for the most prominent Christian right-wing NSW Liberal MP, David Clarke, and has previously worked for federal right-wingers Ross Cameron and Helen Coonan. They had worked together to build a conservative religious network within the party and end the small 'l', long held control.

In his maiden speech in 2003, his mentor, Clarke, promised to “uphold and advocate the conservative, mainstream and Christian-based truths and values that I believe our nation is based upon … with missionary zeal”. As Chloe Hooper, in a 2005 issue of Monthly, wrote and then continued... "this has included hot-housing young religious conservatives. The NSW Young Liberals were long considered the jewel in the moderate Liberal crown but, as one young New South Welshman tells me, Clarke “kind of got people together to take over”. With Clarke’s support, recruiting from organisations such as the secretive catholic Opus Dei movement, the NSW Young Liberals now have the largest membership base of all the states."

Mr Brogden, former leader of the NSW liberal leader, claimed his downfall was partly related to the behind the scenes work of conservative forces, particularly Hawke. He was regarded as too socially liberal, on issues such as republicanism, abortion, heroin injecting rooms and homosexuality.

Hawkes' precocious rise to power may well consign the Liberal Party to many years in the wilderness or, Australia, permanently, to the style of the religous right , that the libs are becoming infamous for. A sought of merger between church and state that will gladden the hearts of George Pell, et al.

Intelligent Design Proof 11

Just in case there is still a little smear of doubt , amongst the few sinners left, put this on your toast and eat it. Chuck Missler is very convincing on the subject. Hit peanut butter and praise the lord.

Intelligent Design Proof.

Today we present conclusive proof of intelligent design at EAT AT JOES.

With the help of a clever little Kiwi evangelist , now residing stateside, the aim is to stick it to atheists and agnostics who need to allow themselves the opportunity of catching up with a few of the facts about their creation. The lesson requires following this prompt to the utube link and then accepting the simple and obvious logic of the preachers doin' the teachin'. Praise the Lord.

Spot on, St Paul.

PAUL KEATING: "Basically keep unions, look, any Labor Party that turns its back on a collective group of people is no Labor Party at all.

But that doesn't mean to say they have to become apologists for lolling about.

I mean you take the instance, the liquor allied entertainment restaurants, entertainment industry in this country since the '80s.

It's been massive.

Unionisation hasn't happened.

There's some of it there, basically hasn't happened.

Why?

Incompetence."

From here .......

Could have Fooled Me.

Before

And After.........................

Tony, we hardly knew ya.

That Zorba the Crook look is perfect. "Oh look , not suspicious at all, another tubby bastard with a bad wig".

Right is Right.

I know this is already a popular piccie around the blogs, but I could not resist it, either. For a start, it makes me laugh. Apart from the obvious joke about the slogan ....you couldn't disagree that Howard and co are right wing and plan to take it further. Ha ha. Look at that facial expression. No sign of arrogance there. Guess who just swallowed the latest Galaxy Poll?
Let's start with last Fridays Roy Morgan Poll.
"A recent telephone Morgan Poll finds that 57% of Australian electors think Australia is “heading in the right direction”, while 32% think Australia is “heading in the wrong direction” (11% can’t say).
Eighty-four per cent of those who intend to vote for the Coalition Government at the upcoming election think Australia is heading the right direction, compared to just 43% of ALP supporters. Forty-six per cent of ALP supporters think Australia is heading in the wrong direction compared to just 7% of Coalition supporters."
How's that for coincidence? Rodent appears behind a slogan based largely on a poll question.

The Galaxy poll result is the most encouraging sign that the Liberals have had for ages. It's a big jump in popularity and helped rouse the troops at the weekend Liberal Party National Council. If you wish to see the way the questions are framed, for this poll, see here. I'ts worth remembering who commissioned this work. There is no independent motive. In fact it reeks of a tool to help swing things back in the right direction.

The great photo is by Peter Morris. For other blogs with this picture or on this topic see.....Bilegrip, Anonymous Lefty and Broken Left Leg.

Cluster Bombs for Australian Defense Forces.

The ADF has clearly a mind of its own. It should not worry that both sides of parliament are opposed to cluster bombs.

Mind you, this is a brilliant new device, that if dropped here or anywhere, will be able to discriminate between the the good blokes and the bad blokes.

We are looking at New Clean Cluster Bombs.

We are going to have them, whether we like it or not.

The Missing Employment Figures Scam Post.

I thought i would republish a post, made recently, that fell into the blogger black hole. It is edited.

An interesting by-product of The Victorian Auditor Generals (State Investment in Major Events) report into the 'real value', to the state, of the Grand Prix, is an incidental challenge by the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research (NIEIR), headed by Dr Peter Brain.
In particular, he drops a big bucket on the employment figures that the Federal and State governments gloat about. The following are the best bits from Attachment B2 , buried well into this report.

"The core problem for those wishing to use the actual unemployment rate as an indicator of full employment is that the actual unemployment rate cannot be used for this purpose. As any competent economist would know, the official unemployment rate is corrupted and under-estimates the actual unemployment rate, as NIEIR has highlighted over and over again. The reasons are straight forward.

The first is the tactic adopted by the then government in the face of the 1991 recession to shift as many people as possible from the unemployment rolls to other forms of working age social security support, namely disability pensions, training allowances, etc. This tactic has been maintained though with reducing vigour to this day.

The second strategy to reduce the measured unemployment rate is to encourage working age social security beneficiaries to seek a few hours of work a week. This has been the tactic favoured by the current administration. This reduces the unemployment rate because to be counted as employed in the labour force statistics a person has only to have worked for one hour or more a week, in some cases as unpaid employment.

The actual unemployment rate, therefore, cannot be used as an indicator of full employment because under the current circumstances the actual unemployment rate could indicate zero unemployment, while the actual effective unemployment rate was 100 per cent, simply because everybody was working one hour. Under the current circumstances, the only way of obtaining a correct estimate of the actual unemployment rate is to use social security working age beneficiary data and construct an unemployment series from these sources".

Wouldn't it be terrific to be living in Broadmeadows, on the dole, looking for work, when Costello comes on the tv, congratulating himself on the latest fab, employment figures? These are some of the closer to real current unemployment rate numbers, based on social security figures rather than from phone polls run by ABS . They have been grabbed from the provided contrary NIEIR report table, for some Melbourne suburbs.

Port Phillip (C) – West 8.9
Stonnington (C) – Prahran 6.5
Yarra (C) – North 13.5
Yarra (C) – Richmond 11.3
Brimbank (C) – Keilor 13.8
Brimbank (C) - Sunshine 21.7
Hobsons Bay (C) - Altona 13.3
Hobsons Bay (C) - Williamstown 10.5
Maribyrnong (C) 17.6
Moonee Valley (C) - Essendon 10.5
Moonee Valley (C) - West 9.6
Melton (S) – East 8.0
Melton (S) Bal 10.7
Wyndham (C) – North 9.6
Wyndham (C) - South 9.8
Wyndham (C) – West 10.4
Moreland (C) - Brunswick 12.5
Moreland (C) - Coburg 13.5
Moreland (C) – North 16.5
Banyule (C) - Heidelberg 10.2
Banyule (C) – North 7.7
Darebin (C) - Northcote 11.8
Darebin (C) – Preston 17.3
Hume (C) - Broadmeadows 18.4
Hume (C) - Craigieburn 13.1

Mother Therese Revisited.

On the 22nd of March, this year, I wrote about this now topical subject. My opinion hasn't changed. Though, this time, with a picture of the parent chosen patron saint of this strong women.

I hope she will soon be running, more than The Lodge.

"Conflict of interest is the subject on many a mind as Santo Santoro most likely moves to a small room in an outer leafy suburb of Brisbane to continue his obvious skill as a day/night share trader. Business involvements of the spouse of a possible future P.M. are worthy of consideration as well.

Therese Rein who, according to a most unreliable sensationalist weekly,..." is the shrewd entrepreneur who has weathered fraud investigations into her $175m business and made a fortune on the back of the Howard government's employment policies, and also found time to raise three children".

No prob with a god fearing women making money from government contracts. What if there is a bit of opinion about, that the Howard governments privatised employment policy stinks? That it might be appropriate for the opposition ,in developing new policy, to redirect a lot more of the funds towards the people that the system was set up to help.

You do not have to look too far in most communities to see that the job getting business is pretty lucrative, if you know how to swing things correctly. Part of the work is standing over poor Newstart sods and demanding that they struggle harder for job opportunities, that for many, only exist on paper. There are some fine fleets of new cars that carry employment providers who have no qualms about doing the dirty work of a government hellbent on demonising the powerless.

Kevin Rudd has talked about placing his family interests into a blind trust. The countries interest might involve the dismantling of a large trough that he and his wife should not be seen to be dipping into, even from a distance", said Joe2.

Osama Bird Laden Bombs Bush.

Reports are coming in that a sparrow has breached Whitehouse security by unloading on the President during a rose garden press conference.

A video of this shock attack is provided on this link but you will need to watch an ad first.

Howard Rules by Decree.

Andrew Bartlett on his blog points out that the current, very expensive, actual Workchoices Campaign is not yet based on legislation. It has neither been properly formed, or passed by parliament. Remember that the Murray Darling national water plan was similarly, cobbled together, beyond normal process; not even considered by treasury, or cabinet.

John Howard looks like a leader moving towards the corruption of absolute power that he, correctly castigates Robert Mugabe. Please look in the mirror, sir. Why worry about the middle man, when you can rule by decree? The bucks you are spending, in this wild, vote buying spree, are at the citizens' expense.

Not Governing for All Australians.

Click on the following image to enlarge this table.
Sourced from here and for the story see.

Weekend Goodies and Funnys.

This cartoonist is an artist , with extraordinary drawing skills and a penchant for cutting through the crap. Jump into the net and see more here. Do not miss the Pope or farewells to Jerry Falwell, that may be considered "funny but harsh" by the compassionate Arthur Vandelay but to me incredibly insightful, as well. Incidentally, the great 5 public opinions has a link to Christopher Hitchens' Falwell obit that should not be missed.

And for a great video laff, with a slight bite of Apple and big hit of ," i had no responsibilty for that", go to this ........

..........and a thankyou to veni vidi blogi for that tip.

WorkTurds New ™

WorkTurds New is to be the campaign name that, ‘The Hock’, is currently polishing up.

Fully approved by every employer lobby group. Guaranteed to scare the shit out of socialist underpants. With none of that exploitation aroma that surrounded a previous, unnamed product.

See....

Leaving this Plain.

All the indications are that Pete the Spiv, will jump early , rather than endure the pain of time in opposition. A golden parachute will be provided, after he has left the plane , for sure , from Saint Alchemist Mal…… who knows better, how to turn bullshit into gold, than The Abbot knows how to turn religion into fuel.

“Comfortable and relaxed, he urged his hosts to call him “Pete”. Pressed to ponder a hypothetical in which he was on a plane about to crash, and told he could offer a sole spare parachute to either Mr Rudd or Labor’s deputy leader Julia Gillard, he was asked to choose.
“So it is me, Julia and Kevin,” he clarified slowly.“You know what I would do? I would jump out!”

See this...

Pete the Spiv.

Pete believes that bribery will work. A couple of months and the punters will get a few extra bucks and the dumb bastards will take the bait. His arrogance and disrespect for the electorate is palpable.

"You generally find it takes, well even a month or two, and then by 30th of June the pensioners receive a bonus and they say: 'Gee I wonder where that came from'. Tax cuts come into effect in July and people say: Well that's nice, a little bit more money to help with the bills".

cartoon...Don Lindsay.

Who has the biggest Poll?

My alternative take on the latest Galaxy poll is thus……

Rudd is actually getting more ‘bounce’ from his ‘delayed honeymoon end’, than expected, despite being ‘tired’.

Howard, while ‘working harder’, after each bad poll result, ‘is looking fitter, cleverer and more Prime Ministerial’, but ‘may well lose his seat’, if he doesn’t sit down soon.

Got that?

Aunty Kidnapped !

I still can’t believe the degree of editorialising, even ABC radio/tv news, is ingaging in.
Today, was the perfect example. All day, radio ran a story, every hour, about the mining industry concern on awa’s and Rudds discussions.

All framed under the not said, but obvious opinion, that a cave in, is imminent. It was likely, given his misunderstanding of the need for “flexibilty”. And yes, a later report, Rod Cameron had ‘come out’, suggesting time for a Rudd, policy change.

This is pravda style aggenda setting . Nothing to do with fearlessly, reporting, the news.
Possibly so unproud of their manipulation, they do not even mention this ‘big newstory’ on their website, so far.