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It’s curious that we might get a referendum on this, but people don’t get a say on whether or not they want their local government authority amalgamated with other ones.
Andrew Bartlett draws attention to the re-born Daylight Saving issue in Queensland.
Noticeable on this morning’s Insiders was a clearly expressed opinion from Malcolm Farr and Glenn Milne that Howard’s Northern Territory intervention into aboriginal communities is not in any way influenced by the 2007 electoral cycle. Indeed, both commentators rubbished the claim from Karen Middleton that the election cycle had anything at all to do with the Howardian actions.
Superbugs entrenched in Aust hospitals
Staphylococcus and other related so-called super-bugs are easy to beat, yet Australia's hospital system doesn't seem to place a lot of priority on the battle.
Tim Dunlop recommends better disclosure under Freedom of Information legislation, and less of the 'national interest' folderoll.
President Bush’s decision to commute the sentence of I. Lewis Libby Jr.was the act of a liberated man — a leader who knows that, with 18 months left in the Oval Office and only a dwindling band of conservatives still behind him, he might as well do what he wants.Never a truer word written. I wondered, as I listened to Bruce Shapiro give his weekly commentary on this case on LNL over past months, just how long Bush would wait until pardoning Libby. I’d have punted for a little longer, but that would have risked running into the Presidential Primary season. The upshot being that he’s done the unthinkable anyway. Cronyism? Every day of the week. As the NYT article states, Bush has nothing at all to lose, so he might as well look after his mates. I’d claim this as a travesty of justice, but the U.S. judicial system doesn’t seem to have any sway, so how can there have been any justice to have bee debased?
I realise this snippet of news will be treated by some as "suitable only for particularly credulous, uncritical pubescent boy computer gamers" but seeing as there are a legion of fans for the BBC sixties sci-fi hero re-born, I thought I’d post it regardless.
Anger as warship clears streets
If 250 or more vehicles get carted off Sydney streets because a friendly ally's navy comes to town, what penance will Sydney-siders have to suffer when APEC comes to town?
I’ve just had a read through the Defence Update 2007. I have some questions.
Aussie terrorism victim fronts anti-war campaign
Well timed deliberately or not, Louise Barry's video support of the GetUp campaign to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq must surely have an impact on the government in this election year.
Iraq like historic US war, says Bush
Complete and utter balderdash!
Insiders - ABC
I don’t know about anyone else out in blogland, but I’m growing rather bored with Insiders.
This man today launched his 2007 Senate re-election campaign. He’s already marked out his principal opponent as this........err ...... woman. 
Early this morning, Australian Eastern Standard Time, American aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, officially launched it’s long-awaited new generation commercial aircraft, the Boeing 787 series Dreamliner.
Tim Dunlop re-opened......if indeed it was ever really closed......that old and smelly can of worms, "Why did Australia go to war in Iraq?" in today's blog. He certainly attracted a selection of government apologists as well.
First there was Information teleported between atoms, followed I note by an article in today's news_dot_com touting Australian physicists Simon Haine, Murray Olsen and Ashton Bradley as having succeeded in 'real' teleportation on the atomic level.
Continue reading "Meatasaurus, Thin Base, Cheesy Crust Thanks" »
Professor Ian Lowe, emeritus professor of science at Griffith University has stated...I defend the right of Martin Durkin to believe human activity is not changing the global climate.
The Labor push on groceries follows campaigns on a range of hip-pocket themes, including the high costs of fuel and childcare.
Populism? Yes, probably, but consider this. Wages demands are just around the corner especially with cost of living increases escalating as they are currently doing.
The so-called Housing ’Crisis’. It’s a terrific word, isn’t it? "Crisis" Invokes all manner of dread and despair. But is it a crisis in reality?
"We can expect that part of the debate to get rather heated over the rest of the day, and well into the weekend and this will inevitably distract a lot of people from the poll results themselves..." Gummo Trotsky
It’s a silly name, but some might say the same about ’Bannerman’. To each their own. What is truly silly, and gives an appearance of getting sillier because it makes good blog-fodder, is some supposed ’stoush’ between a mainstream media conglomerate with a decidedly conservative and pro-government bent, and some bloggers in the Ozsphere intent on calling out said conservative conglomerate because said conglomerate dared call a non-conservative(?), non-government leaning(?) blogger names.
Seriously folks.... bloggers, non-blogging readers and just general internet high-tide mark surfers....who gives a shit what Dennis Shanahan or whatsisface Sheridan think about any particular issue. If you think they’re wrong, then say so, but don’t go getting all antsy when they use the power of the media, which they have instant access to, for their own benefit simply because you don’t think that’s fair play. Wake up, Ozsphere! Blogging, much like MSM, means you’re exposed in the desert of apathy to the elements of discontent. Free expression and any sense of fair play you perceive are simply mirages on the horizon of your expectations.
Now hear this! I'm getting folks telling me their comments are vanishing into the ether. Some first time, others long after the fact. I've experienced some weirdness myself so have decided to - as I stated on a comment thread - apply the mirror theory and look into it.
Bear with the Bannerman, you all. He's not all that clever when it comes to MoveableType, but he does have some excellent backup.
The political report card for politicians looking to appear as if they're a part of the 'now' generation, by putting a picture & a few bland words on MySpace, can only read 'Could Do Better'.
"I am satisfied the (visa) cancellation is in the national interest," ...Kevin Andrews, Federal Minister for Immigration
Let’s be clear about this. Andrews takes his orders from Howard, and in this case, also from the slowly decaying corpse of Phillip Ruddock. How that man still manages to present to television cameras escapes me, however, as George Megalogenis suggested on the weekend, he is showing signs of wear & tear. For a corpse that is.
A crusading conservative lawyer with deeply held religious views........ Dr Phillip Nitschke on Kevin Andrews
(via ABC Online)
Yes indeed, it seems that to be a member of the Howardian cabal means also that you’re a God-fearing christian by default. A cabinet made up of Captain Catholics and those who speak out wind up like Warren Entsch. Back-benched for the duration.
The law as it stands allows for a person to be detained for questioning in relation to acts of terrorism. A person can be questioned for a maximum of 24 hours. However, the legislation does not state the maximum number of hours a person may be held before questioning begins. - Mr Peter Russo, partner in the law firm Ryan and Bosscher Lawyers, and Mohamed Haneef’s lawyer.
I believe this aspect of the governments anti-terrorism legislation to be the major failing of it, and is also the thrust of Peter Russo’s opinion piece in today’s Fairfax press.
Yonks ago I struck up an acquaintance with the fellow who wrote the email you'll find over the fold. He wanted to promote urban monorail as a mass transit system, and I saw benefit in helping him. I provided some HTML authoring and scrubbed up his dowdy website, but soon found the man to be not just obsessed with his pursuit, but dangerously one-eyed ideologically as well as just a little disingenuous of his promotion of a specific manufacturer for said urban mass transit system.
Mr McFarlane does not believe regulation is needed in Australia, saying competition will bring the fees down.
(via ABC Online)
I’ve just spent the last three hours going through the Haneef Record of Interview so generously leaked to the Murdoch media by some kind soul close to the legalities of the matter.
I almost felt sorry for John Winston this evening, as Kerry O’Brien pecked away at that stubborn exterior. Ever the politician, Howard flatly refused to engage on the issue of the Wayne Errington’s and Peter van Onselen’s biography "John Winston Howard - The Biography". I say ’almost’ because at the end of the day, any discomfiture JWH must surely be feeling this close to the most crucial election of his political career, is entirely of his own creation. I’m not referring to his relationship with Costello. That was always a non-event. Both are highly competitive and both are politicians. ’Nuff said. "Such is the hatred of John Howard and his government, that the Left would prefer to support alleged terrorists against their own democratically elected government."This from an ABC opinion piece by that vaunted protector of basic humanity, Peter Faris....QC. Why does Faris continue to hide behind his qualification when spouting this hate-filled drivel targeted at ethnicities he doesn’t understand and is clearly afraid of? I suppose I’ve just answered my own question. As for his tired ’left -v- right’ dogma, apart from being the retreat of the argumentally challenged, it does nothing to support his claims against muslims/terrorist (the two appear interchangeable to Faris) serving only to exacerbate an ever-growing gallimaufry of mindless, directionless, anti-social feedback to those sectors of society which the rest of Australia ought to be supporting, rather than shunning.
Continue reading "V8 Supercar Championship - Round Seven - Queensland Raceway" »
The denial utterances coming from Phillip ‘Cadaver’ Ruddock just don’t ring true to me.
"Let the court decide on these things, let's not have the media trying to hear the whole case before the court does - that's the job of the court," - 'Dolly' Downer on the Haneef case. - ABC news Online
I'm actually aghast at this hypocracy by the Foreign Minister. He's quite often come out with the most outrageous of statements in the political sphere, especially when the government's scrambling for cover as it is with this Haneef affair.
There's something which has been niggling at me for some time now and that's our language.
"Can I say, we’re going to consult the people again. We haven’t fixed a time frame for doing that, and I think the time will come before too much longer when we do have an Australian as our head of state." - Kevin Rudd
(via NEWS.com.au)
Now this is much more interesting that Kevin Rudd chasing populist butterflies. Mamdouh Habib in court for ’offensive behaviour’ and ’offensive language’ whatever that might mean. Actually, I’m left to wonder just how many non-muslim, white caucasian Australians conduct themselves ’offensively’ in McDonalds restaurants on a daily basis? I’ve seen a few. As for calling a copper a ’piece of shit’, I hardly think it’s a court offence. You’d have to wonder as well, if the police were in the Maccas to investigate an unrelated matter, what were they doing ordering coffee’s?
Habib demands apology for ’insult’
(via Sydney Morning Herald )
"Certainly, given the events, I’ve asked the police to assure me that the evidence and the information they gave to me is still correct"Stuff-ups Incorporated, alias the Howard Government, in company with the Keystone Cops, otherwise known as the Australian Federal Police must be feeling very uncomfortable, a la Bazza MacKenzie*. With all the back-peddling now underway, it’s a wonder Andrews, Ruddock and crew have the gonads available to even face the press, let alone make statements.
Andrews asks police to review Haneef visa info - ABC News
(via ABC Online)
PM raises death-row Aussies | NEWS.com.au
How does one spell 'populist'?
And all the main-stream media really have to offer is commentary on whether today's pollies are eitgher working too hard at what they do, or don't have the stamina of the statesmen and women of the past.
I'm still wondering why I chose to spend the last few minutes of my Friday at Chez Blair. I never go there, yet something directed my address bar in that direction.
I'd noticed this entry, a typical Blairistic turd shat out into the ether for no better reason than to incite the howler monkeys which inhabit his comment box. I noted that not one commenter realised the difference grammatically between the words 'note' and 'notice'. At least I attempted to note that inconsistency, but couldn't because of this advice from the content management software:
Notice New membership accounts are not accepted at this time.Tim Blair
So, it seems that in Blairville, it's SOP to slag off your ideological anti-thesis, but not allow them - Tim Dunlop in this case - any right of reply. In fact, no-one, it seems, who isn't already a member of the troop can have a say.
Wasn't Tim Blair the man who reckoned that locking out a comment box was bad form?
I dunno about the terminology ’cutting edge’ being the right way to describe this mix of technologies. I dare say it will put a whole new meaning on woman telling a man that she loves the sound of his voice.
"Gone are the days of subtle satire and spot on spoofing of pop culture and we are left with crude jokes, sledge hammer political commentary and a very silly story."
Credit privacy set to be tested
The forerunner of many impending alterations to the way borrowers and lenders will be conducting their business in the near future.
IN Washington, where professional women’s style statements are pointedly conservative, Hillary Clinton’s cleavage has suddenly burst into one of the hottest topics of the Democratic presidential race.
To quote Nino Culotta, they're a weird mob those Yanks.
"Not a huge turnout, but perhaps that was partly the midweek thing and partly the lack of an ongoing Brissie grogblogging culture. But we could certainly do with more!"And we could probably manage it too, Mark. If only these shindigs weren’t habitually held in Fortitude Valley so that you can walk home afterwards, while others need to suffer the vagaries and dangers of public transport by night, or pay exorbitant parking fees at the risk of returning to find the parked vehicle no longer parked!
