Yet again, Australia sabotages climate negotiations

It is now almost impossible to believe that the first official act of the Rudd Labor Government was to sign Kyoto. Barely a year after that act, now reduced to almost empty symbolism, Kevin Rudd and his climate change and environment ministers – Penny Wong and Peter Garrett – must own responsibility for a complete surrender on Australia’s  carbon reduction. Against all economic, scientific, and even best  political advice, Australia has announced a target of 5% carbon emission reductions by 2020, with the possibility of aiming for 15% reductions if other nations work harder.

aahh DeAnima, you've done it again.

With this 5% target, Australia has very deliberately given a gift to cloistered anti-action interests the world over. Up until 2007, the argument by opponents of climate action was that to move without commitments from China, India and America would be unproductive and disadvantageous. Now, forced into action globally, major corporations and lobby groups will certainly resist credible targets of 20% or more by pointing to Australia.

Professor Ross Garnaut has consistently described climate change as one of the most diabolical policy problems possible. Australia, however, even after clear warnings about disappearance of water sources, destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, and economic impacts on crops and ecosystems has just created a similarly diabolical problem for the world. We have not just waved a white flag on massive biodiversity loss and global suffering. We have ensured that those who think nothing of worsening the situation will be well-armed at post-Kyoto negotiations in Copenhagen next year.

The only reason to create the possibility of a 15% target barely makes any sense. It does mean that the Rudd Government can aim to come through the financial crisis and their first election as incumbents before doing something that will upset corporate lobbyists. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t have that long. The major climate talks ate the end of next year will certainly be distorted by this inept move. And to think that any developed economy will try to move toward a 25% target in order to get Australia to aim for far less than that is simply narcissistic.

Disgusted. And angry. And ashamed. The most energy-resource rich nation on Earth has just thrown the planet in the ‘too hard’ basket.

News of the announcement here. Rudd’s immediate comments here.

Amazingly, business groups are already complaining that the target is too high!!!

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Peter Anderson says reducing emissions by 5 per cent will be difficult for the business community when it is also dealing with a financial crisis.

“There are transition costs involved, there is a need for investment in technology and all of that involves costs, particularly at a time when the focus of the business community is on trying to get through the storm that we have around us,” he said.

These greedy sociopathic pigs don’t grasp the fact that chemistry and ecology don’t stop because their Christmas bonus is a bit light. To think, the Rudd Government has copped out on climate change to keep people like this happy is to wonder when democracy became the tool of the few rather than the servant of the many.

A real bloody disgrace.

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Stockbrokers don’t use the window anymore…

Not in Brazil, anyway. Reuter reports that a proactive trader brought activity to a halt last night, by dealing with his blues the old-fashioned way.

SAO PAULO, Nov 17 (Reuters) – A Brazilian trader shot himself on Monday in the open outcry pit of Sao Paulo’s commodities and futures exchange in an apparent suicide attempt, the exchange said.

Paulo Sergio Silva, 36, a trader for the brokerage arm of Brazilian banking giant Itau (ITAU4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(ITU.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), shot himself in the chest during the afternoon trading session, the exchange said, and hospital staff said he was in critical condition.

Silva was given first aid on the scene before being transported to the hospital, BM&F Bovespa SA (BVMF3.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which operates the exchange, said in a statement without providing further details.

Traders said the incident happened in the interest rate futures pit, a raucous circle where on average $21 billion worth of contracts exchange hands every day.

Reuters forgot to mention that the company motto at Itau trading house actually is ‘buy high, sell low, shoot yourself in the chest’.

Australian media link Obama to Crack

The Sydney Morning Herald has reached a desperate new low today, and it is anybody’s guess why. This paper is on one hand trying to promote itself as cool and edgy, with colourful stroboscopic TV ads soundtracked by a theme plagiaristically close to Rage Against the Machine’s ‘I won’t do whatcha tell me!’ On the other hand, it also frequently runs conservative snootiness masquerading as irony and continues to question and even deny the very actual reality of devastating climate change.

So when they try to associate Barack Obama with crack cocaine is it because they think destructive drug references are edgy and cool (which they aren’t), or because their increasingly conservative editorial agenda finds something satisfying in making a racist slur against the new US President-elect?

What? Crack cocaine use is much more common amongst lower income brackets in America. Blacks in America are still more likely than white Americans to be economically disadvantaged. And American courts treat crack much more harshly than cocaine, which is generally used by people with a much higher disposable income.

Odds are that if you’re in America and your problem is crack, you’re black, and you’re going to get a harsher sentence than Wall Street when he gets caught with uncut Peruvian coming back from his Obama inauguration party. Statistically speaking.

The New York Times has been running this story for the past couple of days: Lose the Blackberry? Yes he can, maybe. It’s a very interesting article about how the US President is, in a way, locked in the watchtower. When Obama takes office on Jan. 20, he may well be denied his mobile phone and even email access because of laws relating to communications from the President of the United States.

Today (timely, as always) the Sydney Morning Herald is running exactly the same story, and the are attributing it to The New York Times. Except that they have changed the title to

Obama might have to kick his CrackBerry habit

and inexplicably altered the line

For years, like legions of other professionals, Mr. Obama has been all but addicted to his BlackBerry.

to instead read

For years, like legions of other on-the-move professionals, Mr Obama has been all but addicted to his BlackBerry – or CrackBerrys as they are sometimes called for exactly that reason..

As you can see, the sloppy Herald insert is evident by the appearance of two fullstops.

Now – and I’m just guessing here – writers in New York have seen a lot of the social problems and devastation of crack addiction across poorer areas of their city. They have seen that many black communities have been deeply affected by it in an almost cancerous manner. And they have seen a number of other American media outlets repeatedly tie black skin to crack addiction and drug abuse generally in a pervasive and decidedly racebaiting manner. So it would never even occur to them to use the term “Crackberry” in writing about anybody, let alone their President-elect.

The Sydney Morning Herald, on the other hand – just what the f#$% are they trying to say?

Michael Duffy is a moron; why does Fairfax pay him?

It is strange that Fairfax, the publisher of Sydney Morning Herald, puts out a far better paper in Melbourne – The Age – than they do in Sydney. It could perhaps be because the Sydney editor is a nonce. But that doesn’t explain why the hell Fairfax employ a conservative editor in what continually tries to be a progressive society. Perhaps they would rather we resist that impulse.

Or they think we are idiots, which would explain why they keep on their stable of narcissistic pundits-of-no-merit. Like Miranda Devine. Like Gerard Henderson (could somebody pleeeease tell him that John Howard is gone already). Like Michael Duffy.

Duffy is like a tumour that masquerades as a boil. His bio is hilarious – he relaunched his image at the Herald lately by presenting himself as aged cool like a turd with chocolate sprinkles, making special efforts to emphasize that he has been on the dole, AND played in bands. I would bet Madonna’s left nut that they were horrible pieces of shit who largely played or ripped off other people’s songs that sucked way before they even lost all relevance.. Because this feels like the kind of guy that Duffy is, and it’s exactly the way that he manages information. He’s like some second rate Christopher Pyne trying to present as a first rate Shaun Micallef, thereby coming across quite a bit like a skid mark from Peter Costello’s underpants but without the charisma.

In the tradition of ripping off shit that need never have been exuded in the first place, skunkjunk has just run an op ed in the Herald Truly inconvenient truths about climate change being ignored. Wow! Genius! Who would have ever thought to use the title of an increasingly old movie ironically in pursuit of climate change denial? Never. Seen. That. Done. A. Million. Times. Already.

And what a piece of crap it is.

Someone else who’s looked closely at scientific journals (although not specifically those dealing with climate science) is epidemiologist John Ioannidis of the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. He reached the surprising conclusion that most published research findings are proved false within five years of their publication. (Lest he be dismissed as some eccentric, I note that the Economist recently said Ioannidis has made his case “quite convincingly”.)

So, one of Duffy’s convincing sources reads magazines that aren’t anything to do with climate science, and has found inconsistencies in those non-climate findings which a non-climate magazine has apparently once agreed add up to some kind of non-climate argument, and therefore climate change is bogus? I’m so convinced, I must read further.

Climate Change – we’re f@$%ed… and we’ve killed Santa

For the first time in recorded human history, the North Pole is an island - courtesy of climate change.

Quoting Auslan Cramb from article reposted here at Tassie Times

THE NORTH POLE has become an island for the first time in human history as climate change has made it possible to circumnavigate the Arctic ice cap. The historic development was revealed by satellite images taken last week showing that both the north-west and north-east passages have been opened by melting ice. Prof Mark Serreze, a sea ice specialist at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in the US said the images suggested the Arctic may have entered a “death spiral” caused by global warming.

Now, before you let some idiot journalist, politician, or economist screw this piece of understanding up for you, try this analogy  on for size: the planet is a track, the global climate is its engine, this amounts to a cracked engine block. So don’t expect the motor to explode right away, don’t feel calmed just because the world doesn’t end by Friday. But do expect some ugly noises, reductions in power, and increased bumpiness very soon. Pre-2010 soon.

Microsoft’s fraudathon: Screw charity, let’s self-promote!

Parker Whittle is so real. He shaves. He uses Flickr, where his name is P-Whit (too easy to make something else out of that, hey?). And with a heart of gold, he’s launching himself into a 30-day email and i.m.-a-thon to raise an unknowable amount of money at an undisclosed rate for a handful of mainstream charities.

And the best part? It’s not your money. It’s Microsoft’s money. It’s like you’re reaching into the Man’s pockets and taking cash and handing it to a hungry person, every time you hit “enter.” The i’m Initiative turns you into Robin Hood with a goofy screen name.

Every time Parker, the Parkster, the P Man, or Da P, as his close friends call him, uses Windows Messenger or any other similarly contorted piece of Windows communicationware over the next month, Microsoft – “the Man” – sweats “coin”.

Parker could have just said “money” but he’s so “shtreet” he says “coin”!!

Oh no he di’n’t!!

He better talk to the hand…gurrlfren’!!!

US Democrats – tactical genius!!

Yes indeed, the US Democrats could well have won the election with ease this year. Having recaptured the Congress and the Senate in 2006, not been the government responsible for the last 8 years of disastrous defence, foreign, domestic, economic, natural disaster, war, and social policies, and running against albino Republican candidate Elmer McFudd – nothing short of every single Democrat coming down with HIV after a massive gay orgy to celebrate Osama Bin Laden’s birthday should really be inverting their ascendancy.

But what can be said about a party pouring all its supporters’ time, effort, hopes, and dollars into an ever-widening chasm of self-loathing? Cheese-eating surrender monkeys? Spineless slaves to peecee guilt? Wimpy, wet, directionless intellectually-prostrate masturbatorial over-achievers thoroughly disconnected from the reality of daily life?

Absolutely.

Or, maybe…. tactical geniuses!!

In 2000, right up until he swallowed every drop squirted at him by the Supremely Loaded Court, Al Gore really tried to win the US election. Sure, in 2004 John Kerry didn’t go so far as to get a man’s haircut or even completely extricate that same haircut from his own ass, but you did at least get the sense that he was trying to win.

The Democrats have realized that this is a failed strategy, which immediately recommends them as the next government of America, given that the current brand of dictator wouldn’t recognize a failed strategy even if it turned his Vice President’s daughter gay.

Realizing that they can’t stop their candidate – whoever they end up grudgingly conceding that to be – trying to win, and therefore losing (as has happened twice now), the Dems have come up with a brilliant “Nothing or All” strategy. By doing their utter best to convince the US public and the world at large that they really, really, really don’t deserve to be in charge of a spit bucket, let alone the world’s largest nuclear arsenal/ economy/ etc., they will perhaps have leadership thrust upon them… in pretty much the same way that they haven’t lately.

The natural trajectory of this logic is for Hillary Rodham Clinton to run as Barack Obama’s deputy. Because then when Obama is elected (if the lose-at-all-costs-by-completely-wimping-out-whenever-possible strategy of the DNC works), it will only be a matter of weeks until one of her fanatical sore-loser supporters shoots him dead and raises her paygrade.

At which point her “team” will deny any involvement.

Genius.

Tassie Devils trapped in forestry Hell.

Kind of strange that the “Save the Tassie Devil” website is posted by the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries and Water, also known as the Department of Slime and Industrial Slaughter. Funny that the website tries to make the devil out to be cuddly and pitch it to Japanese tourists, like this

when the reality, the utterly malignant and horrid reality, is that more and more Tasmanian Devils are being delivered unto an even crueler and more painful fate like this:

Some are tipping the Devil for extinction within a matter of decades. Even though the so-called Devil Tumour Facial Disease (DTFD) was first classified in 1996, fuck all has been done until now by the Tasmanian government. Why? Because it’s just the environment. It’s just an animal. It’s just a low-grade tourism attraction. Let’s not do anything until it’s at absolute crisis point because all that will be left to do by then will be to watch the last bunch die and say some nice sad words, then get back to the business of turnng Tasmania into one big toxic splintery carpark.

Which happens to be something that the DPIW is well into, when they aren’t throwing up token websites telling tourists that it’s okay to come and spend your yen in Tassie because nobody marries their sister there anymore. Of course there has been kerfuffle lately around the notion that chemicals from abandoned fridges are the main catalyst for this horrific condition that is decimating the devil population, but scientists close to the problem aren’t yet buying into that position.

My bet is that once it’s too late, someone with qualifications will work out that it was the accumulation of Tassie government-subsidised 1080, atrazine, and other hardcore chemicals used in the clearfelling processes that continue to destroy devil habitat, somehow interacting into a spiky and horrible cancer cocktail which is causing such suffering and doom for the devils. Still, an American scientist thinks that there may be an$wer$ for human cancer in treating the devils, so they may have more than a hope in hell.

If this is something you would like to know more about, there is a very proper treatment of the situation with a detailed background here and here in parts I & II of David Obendorf’s ‘Poison Island’. Thoroughly worthy reading about one more possibly irreversible tragedy in the making.

Brendan Nelson: a sorry human being…

…but for the wrong reasons.

Like most of the lip service Liberal/National(ist) opposition, he still misses the point. By miles.

Puppy doused in petrol, left to die on 6-lane Freeway. Home needed.

MEDIA RELEASE
12 December 2007

GIVE WAGS A HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

Wags is a brave five month old scruffy terrier pup who was left to die on a six lane highway doused in petrol. Having seizures and unable to stand, heavens knows how he is still alive. A good samaritan took him to a nearby vet clinic (Elizabeth Drive Animal Hospital) where he was treated, but still remains without a home.

Wags was put on a drip and anti-seizure medication and his burnt skin was treated with topical ointments. Despite all that he has endured, he is a happy, bright boy who continues to wag his tail! The vet clinic contacted Doggie Rescue where Wags is now eagerly waiting for a home with a happy and caring environment.

Founder Monika Biernacki said DoggieRescue is currently over-run with puppies who have been dumped in council pounds in the lead up to Christmas.

“In all the years of rescue work, I have never seen so many puppies dumped at one time and we still have two weeks to go until Christmas. DoggieRescue will have its doors open throughout Christmas and is looking for volunteers to help man their Doggiewood shelter.”

DoggieRescue is a no-kill charity dedicated to saving dogs on death row from the council pounds. It currently has more than 20 puppies, all under 5 months of age, waiting for homes. DoggieRescue is in urgent need of puppy dry food, puppy milk, tick prevention products and toys. The Doggiewood shelter is located at Ingleside in the northern beaches.

For photos and details of all puppies, visit www.DoggieRescue.com or call DoggieRescue on (02) 9486 3133 / international 61-2-9486 3133

———————————————–

This is a media release I received from Monika’s Doggie Rescue. The work they do is quite amazing, especially given that they get by in a more or less self-funded/ donation-dependent manner. At the moment they are looking after at least sixty dogs from ages of about 7 weeks to 10 or more years. It’s quite a thing to see, especially as they’re such lovely animals and would all now be dead without Doggie Rescue’s intervention. Whether you’re an international or local reader, if there’s anything you can do to help, however big or small, it would make a difference and it would definitely be appreciated.

Please check out their website and donate just a little time, food, or payola if you can. 🙂

Prius drivers will kill the planet, but at least they look concerned.

So check this out – I’ve just gone for a long run. I’m walking it off. It’s the middle of the night and the street is empty. Then I see this Prius nearby, with its distinctive toy-car-for-grownups shape, and its lights come on as it readies to pull away from the kerb.

Focusing on this car, there’s some kind of endorphin-hit coming on from the run because I almost feel like clapping the dude driving it. Yeah, I know – twee. So the car has turned around, and it’s heading up the street. It slows slightly and there’s the sound of a door opening, then there’s a hollow plasticky rattling sound, the driver’s door closes again, and he speeds off into the night…

… having  first thrown his empty bottle of springwater out of the car onto the road. The road, of course, leads to the drain, which leads to the ocean, which leads to an island of plastic refuse and garbage with a surface area greater than that of Australia.

So what’s the thought process?

“Hmmm, I spent $36 000 so that I would produce half as much carbon dioxide as other drivers. Fuck it, I’m going to live a little.” *dump*

or maybe

“Oh no – a plastic bottle! I am an elven upper-middle class planet-saver, and I must get this petrochemical-based filth away from me right away!!” *chuck* 

Drunken thugs brutalize whale

Captain Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd has just posted this horrific recounting of a recent tortuous death inflicted by wannabe customary warriors:

(excerpt) The unsuspecting whale had no reason to fear the approach of the boat. After all, the whale had been in these waters for years without threat. People and boats were harmless. So when Parker drove the first harpoon into the whale’s back, the whale screamed in pained surprise and jerked on the line causing Wayne Johnson to drop the .50 caliber gun into the sea. In desperation the shocked amateur whalers sank three more harpoons into the whale and then they opened fire with a .460 Magnum rifle shooting 16 bullets into the whale’s body and failing to hit a vital organ.

It’s a tale that’s as disgusting and disturbing as it is aggravating and clarifying, but definitely worth taking the time to read.

The New Yorker, the prestigious journal known best to some through the fim Capote recently did a deeply dug profile on Watson & Sea Shepherd which you can check out here.

The Shepherds are in Australia at the moment preparing for this summer’s Operation Migaloo. Named after a white humpback whale (Migaloo is one tribe’s word for “white fella”) who seasonally travels the east coast of Australia, this Sea Shepherd operation has particular significance.

Under authority from… well…. from themselves, Japan have not only approved the slaughter of 950 minke and fin whales, but have added for the first time since their hunting was stopped 50 humpbacks. Still an endangered species, humpbacks have perhaps a greater emotional attachment and significance for mainstream Australians than any other whale. Furthermore, Migaloo follows on from last summer’s operation which saw Sea Shepherd prevent the deaths of around 500 whales by the Japanese, but also saw Greenpeace deliberately withold information about the whaling fleet from Sea Shepherd.

The Japanese whaling fleet was inconvenienced by fire and one human death aboard its all-important factory ship, the Nisshin Maru. More importantly, however, the pristine Antarctic ecosystem was threatened by the possibility of a massive industrial toxic spill.

This time around, Greenpeace are tracking the Japanese whalers with updates posted constantly – removing the p.r. need for them to block Sea Shepherd. Furthermore, before election the new Australian government made a commitment to use air and naval vessels to, at best, stop the slaughter. At lamest, they will monitor it.

Here’s hoping for a complete shutdown of the Maru crew this Summer. May their boats rust and their captains, owners and government minister f%&$ing starve.

deadly new video – Johnny Howard 101

time to go

time to go

praise the lord

it’s time to go.

great vid from bigbobfrombronte, belongs in the new Australian history syllabus for sure.

Sydney Morning Halftruth goes after Garrett some more…

Why is it that when Australia’s newspapers do actually go after Peter Garrett, it’s for all the wrong reasons? Somehow, for example, a semantic stumble over global negotiations in five years’ time is of far greater importance than his completely chicken-shit support for the rape of Tasmania and his total back down from the position that climate change has something to do with forests, people and carbon – leading to his current epiphany which is that global warming shall somehow be ‘fought’ without anybody having to do anything differently. Whatever.

Point is this, talkback radio host Steve Price is a dickhead. Period. But as this article in the Sydney Moaning Hairball would have you believe, Garrett for some reason decided to confess to Price during a brief airport encounter that once elected, the Rudd government will just back down on all its promises. Even from here, it sounds like a joke. Hell, even the wig that sports a meatsack (aka Richard Wilkins) has spoken out to say that Price read the whole encounter incorrectly.

But check this out – and this is just weird – The Age, like SMH, is owned by Fairfax, yet somehow it manages to consistently be a more informative and broadminded paper giving fewer pages to bullshit and more to a broadeningof issues and news for consideration.

Covering the same story, The Age thought it worth mentioning (and rightly so) that Price’s wife works for Sinister for Employment, Joe Hockey. Price would obviously have an interest in seeing Hockey (and therefore his wife) hold on to their current rates of pay and therefore, one would assume, their current jobs.

So why the hell is the Sydney Morning Herald going beyond dumbing down the news and weakening analysis and heading straight for the kind of censorship that sees stories misrepresented – seemingly with a consistent rightward tilt? Any ideas?

Australian Election 2007 – already primed for a USA 2000 outcome?

• 200 000 voters “missing”
• 143 000 voters “scrubbed” from the electoral roll
• 18% of young adults now blocked from voting
• public verification of rolls also now blocked.

On the day that Prime Minister John Howard finally called the election, political lobby group GetUp called foul. Check out Voting is the Best Revenge, but also consider this:

The Orwellian “Electoral Integrity Act” was pushed through by the Howardocracy last year, ensuring that an historically significant share of Aussies will miss out in 2007.

No new enrolments after 8 pm yesterday – Wednesday October 17^th – a full 7 days shorter than last time. Previously, close to half a million people enrolled in this period – almost 80 000 being new enrolments. While it seemed that a similar number would miss that chance this time, there has been an additional blowout.

GetUp also have figures showing that in the last few months, 143 000 Australians have been removed from the electoral rolls. If you are one of them, you’re only going to find out on election day – when you don’t get to vote.

But that’s your own fault, surely? Well, no. According to yesterday’s media release – 4 hours before the first closure of the rolls:

the AEC has revealed only hours before the roll closes that it has actually unenrolled 143,000 Australians in recent months, many of whom are not aware of it, despite many having made efforts to correct their enrolment.

In addition to this figure, and although there may be some overlap the lack of transparency now in effect makes it almost impossible to tell, the Bulletin reported on Monday that the rolls are at least 200 000 voters short of the numbers that would be expected in line with Australia’s growing population.

That’s a lot: about 1.5% of the current roll, or enough to generate over two typically sized electoral divisions (the average enrolment per electoral division was 90,246 as of September 30).

In August, credible polling found that over 80 per cent of Australians were still unaware of any of these electoral changes. The AEC’s (Australian Electoral Commission) own research has shown that 18 per cent of eligible 18 to 25-year-olds – still close to the 400 000 people admitted by Coalition Minister of State, Gary Nairn – aren’t enrolled to vote. It’s odd, given that their $12.5 million ad spend equated Aussie democracy with grabbing a sausage. What? This didn’t inspire you to register?

These major changes – including the newly snuck-in more frequent “scrubbing” of the roll – were considered by a Senate Committee a few years ago but vigorously opposed by the AEC’s leadership at the time. Since then a changing of the guard has seen a reversal of some previously key positions held by the electoral watchdog.

For example, this link is no longer active. Before it was removed it featured this statement:

Printed copies of the electoral roll for public inspection and public sale are printed at least once during the first two years of the life of the Parliament.

The relevant page on the new AEC website, however, now states that

The roll is not available for sale in any format.

This change was legislated by Howard in 2004. Based on trends in Australian politics, this new level of diminished transparency creates, at the absolute least, an… ‘enhanced possibility in the perception of procedural risk’.

Undeniably, the Howard leadership has modelled both Party politics and national policy on the model assembled under Ronald Reagan and turbo-charged under George W Bush. There are significant differences, obviously, but super-bureaucracy as a barrier between politicians and public, fear campaigns, nationalism, religion as a political mascot – these are significant and common elements of both national governments.

It’s often said that in a democracy you get the government you deserve. Without the benefit of an accountable Senate, many Aussies now look likely to miss out on the vote they deserve.

And it is a concern when any leader – but particularly an admirer of GWB’s – goes to an election where, by their very actions, transparency is diminished, independence of supervision has been questioned, and opportunities for enrolment are at their most restricted in Australian history.

More importantly, what can Australians now do to curtail the risk of major democratic disenfranchisement come election day?

 

Scoopit!

Australian racism, Al Jazeera, and Tatooine…

Scoopit!

I was writing this to draw attention to the fact that Australian Minister for Belittling Foreign Brown People has made the news on the other side of the world. Al Jazeera has just run this story which is more than fair – just like our refugees should be, eh, eh? ‘Fair’, get it? – as in Advance Australia Fair, fairly sure youse aren’t welcome and fair skinned.

Thankfully, the reporter points out for the rest of the world the little flaw in Andrews’ argument – the one about how cutting down on refugees from wars in Africa isn’t a racist thing, it’s just because black people are criminals. Anyway – surprise – it is racism.

Andrews claims there are higher crime rates in areas where African refugees are settled. But this is based on anecdotal evidence only. Crime statistics show there is no increase at all.

With an election due before the end of the year, some critics believe the Australian government is using this issue to win votes.

Paul Power from Refugee Council Australia says the government of John Howard is trying “to drive a wedge between Australians who are supportive of a refugee programme and Australians who either don’t understand or are against a refugee programme”.

The majority of people supportive of African refugees are likely to vote for the opposition Labor party.

“I’ll be voting for the opposition and all my boys will be voting for the opposition as well, Marin Dhuol, a Sudanese Australian, says.

Labor has admitted it agrees that the number of African refugees should be cut, but says it has been puzzled at “new rhetoric” from Andrews.

And again with the f#%$ing Labor Party pussing out (apart from the Queensland Premier who, thankfully, called a bigot a bigot)?! Funny that Labor women seem the only Party members with any real balls. What’s with the federal tactic? Is there a certainty that Australians are so stupid and immoral that we can’t possibly handle going to an election where we have to decide on any more issues than Industrial Relations and Whales? Gimme a break. . . Then again. . . . This is the country that kept voting for John Howard. Something about the government you deserve?

Oh yeah, the point of interest is the picture of Kevin Andrews accompanying the Al Jazeera piece. I finally realized what subliminal horrors Andrews triggers every time I see his head, and I’m sure it has to be several times worse for refugees seeking sanctuary from any of the wars that Australia has been supporting over the last 6 years.

Holy f&%$ it’s horrible!! Aaack!!. . . . . . . . . . . .Where have I seen a mouth like that before?

well that’s close… but I’m thinking “nasty“.

EEYEWW. Too nasty. Back it right up.

Yeah, that’s getting closer…. not quite there yet. What does Kevin Andrews remind me of?

That mouth…. it’s…… !! ….. Of Course!

 

Am I right or am I right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s like he’s standing next to a mirror. The main difference is that this conversation is never gonna happen:

“Excuse me Mr Andrews”

“Yes, ubergeek”

“Pleeease sell me some spit?”

Newsworthiness – Beyonce, racism, or World War?

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. . .

. . . like ‘excessive’, ‘hair product’, ‘Iron Cross’, ‘shloop’, and ‘sadist’.

This is Debra Cagan. She’s a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Coalition Affairs to US Secretary for Defence Robert Gates. There is a great little newsbreak here in the Daily Mail about how she told a group of visiting British MPs that “I hate all Iranians“. Strangely, this hasn’t received the coverage and twisting that might happen if, say, an Iranian official commented that the current regime in charge of Israel should be removed from the pages of history.

“She seemed more keen on saying she didn’t like Iranians than that the US had no plans to attack Iran,” said one MP. “She did say there were no plans for an attack but the tone did not fit the words.”

Another MP said: “I formed the impression that some in America are looking for an excuse to attack Iran. It was very alarming.”

Also amusing is the observation that

Tory Stuart Graham, who was on the ten-day trip, would not discuss Ms Cagan but said: “It was very sobering to hear from the horse’s mouth how the US sees the situation.”

I would suggest that he actually is discussing Ms Cagan, but he would have surely referred to ‘the horse’s ass’. . . and even then that would still be an insult to horses.

And although some people complain that mainstream media really have their priorities wrong, I’m glad that this time – in australia at least – that has not been the case.

Because it is far more important to damn Beyonce for ‘snubbing’ Malaysia by cancelling her concerts because of Islamic fundamentalists intent on regulating her clothing and choreography choices . . . than to report that US military operations on the Iranian border are being run by a sociopathic bigot.

And although I’ll obviously be one of squillions of Australians voting in almost any manner likely to eject our current Board of Detractors and install a government more closely resembling a group of people with souls, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has really done damage to his credibility today for anybody willing to really think about it.

The Oz reports that while campaigning in a heavily Jewish Sydney electorate, Rudd committed to trying to bring charges of incitement to genocide against the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad if Labor is elected at the next election.

This is the most outstandingly stupid thing that Rudd has yet committed to.

1. it’s obvious pandering to a boutique interest group

2. it displays a lazy attitude toward fact-gathering (maybe he should consider this reportage of what Ahmadinejad actually said about Israel, this Islamic discussion of what he said in Farsi, this detail of the use of bogus human rights groups to generate anti-Iranian propaganda, this detail of how America is gearing up for another slaughter, or even just Wiki it)

3. any serious legal action against Iran will undo much of the good work that Rudd could achieve through aggressive diplomacy with China because of the Iran – China oil relationship.

4. this legitimises rather than challenges the current US propaganda line which is in effect for no other reason than justifying another illegal attack that has already been planned.
5. it suggests that some important lessons made available by decades of globally disastrous Western policy on Middle Eastern affairs really haven’t been learnt.

6. and the idea of Australia pointing the genocide stick at anybody is a stretch, but at somebody who hasn’t actually committed or actively encouraged genocide is just tragic.

Perhaps the final wonderful words should go to Professor Gary Leupp in his clarifying discussion of US foreign policy, media, and political values.

If you hate all of them (and are grotesquely ignorant of their vast contribution to human civilization), why not nuke them, and their monuments and treasures, and destroy their 3000 year history, and “wipe them off the map”? Why not prepare public opinion for that shattering scenario, and grind those boot heels into the brains of any sympathizers of those you call “sand-niggers” as you try to spread Bush’s gospel of hate?

Thank the Lord for our free trade deal with Uncle Spam – we get ‘gospel of hate’ at 22% off!

Charcoal God, thy name is Mr. Fish

File under sad-but-true, needed-to-be-said, and US-democracy-in-general

Tassie Pulp Mill Video round up

Malcolm Turnbull(shit into action) was on Lateline tonight. Given that he received the independent report from chief scientist Jim Peacock today, Tony Jones asked him to dance the “what the report said” jig. Interesting. Very much so. Watch it here.

or stick around and check out this unbleached goodness…..

brief and to the point, and I reeeeeeally like the thought experiment at the end.

recently posted media exclusive featuring Paul Lennon and Gunns CEO John Gay speaking candidly with Tasmania’s youth. Features startling revelations about the Premier’s childhood and how it has effected his vision for Tasmania. Not to be missed.

new ad for Tasmania from Senator Christine Milne

one of many worthwhile mill-related addresses from he of huevos grandes, Greens Senator Bob Brown

a revealing interview with Paul Lennon. . . actually, it’s not that revealing. . . this just summarises what’s been in the papers all year – but does it bee-yoo-diffly.

wacky cute-weird Tasmanian pulp mill doco featuring Matt Damon…. seriously….. it’s Matt                  Damon.

Chomsky’s latest view around Iran.

Noam Chomsky’s latest writing on US foreign policy – Cold War II – is as eloquent, insightful, readable, and profoundly clarifying as ever. I actually got the urge to go info-seeking after reading this appalling new piece on Al Jazeera about how Mahmoud Ahmadinejadh is currently being denied permission to place a wreath at the WTC site in New York when he attends the UN next week. So Iran can help the US locate Al Qaeda operatives in the Middle East… but can’t lay flowers at a shrine? It’s as much about symbolic hypocrisy as the anti-abortionists who support war.
If you need a reason to take 20 minutes to properly digest the article, check out the following excerpt. If you really don’t have the time right now, please do yourself a favour and get clued up on this later. Either way – not to be missed, seriously.

Without irony, the Bush administration and the media charge that Iran is “meddling” in Iraq, otherwise presumably free from foreign interference. The evidence is partly technical. Do the serial numbers on the Improvised Explosive Devices really trace back to Iran? If so, does the leadership of Iran know about the IEDs, or only the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Settling the debate, the White House plans to brand the Revolutionary Guard as a “specially designated global terrorist” force, an unprecedented action against a national military branch, authorizing Washington to undertake a wide range of punitive actions. Watching in disbelief, much of the world asks whether the US military, invading and occupying Iran’s neighbors, might better merit this charge — or its Israeli client, now about to receive a huge increase in military aid to commemorate 40 years of harsh occupation and illegal settlement, and its fifth invasion of Lebanon a year ago.

It is instructive that Washington’s propaganda framework is reflexively accepted, apparently without notice, in US and other Western commentary and reporting, apart from the marginal fringe of what is called ‘the loony left.” What is considered “criticism” is skepticism as to whether all of Washington’s charges about Iranian aggression in Iraq are true. It might be an interesting research project to see how closely the propaganda of Russia, Nazi Germany, and other aggressors and occupiers matched the standards of today’s liberal press and commentators..

The comparisons are of course unfair. Unlike German and Russian occupiers, American forces are in Iraq by right, on the principle, too obvious even to enunciate, that the US owns the world. Therefore, as a matter of elementary logic, the US cannot invade and occupy another country. The US can only defend and liberate others. No other category exists. Predecessors, including the most monstrous, have commonly sworn by the same principle, but again there is an obvious difference: they were Wrong, and we are Right. QED.

Australian Senator calls for War on Islam

The Australian Christian Democratic Party (aka Senile Racist Homophobes for Jesus) have used this special day – the 6th anniversary of the World Trade Centre Attacks (as well as all other human tragedies associated with power imblances and this particular date) – to call for an all-out War on “Islamism”.

Their fundamental (deliberate choice of word, btw) concept of “Islamism” is that it’s a state of complete rejection of all non-Islamic values and beliefs – which does of course mean that it’s a murderous, woman-bashing, clitoris-removing, suicide-bombing, child-killing, murdering-of-the-innocents, defilement-of-God, racist, intolerant, baby-raping, self-aggrandizing and hateful way to live.

If this particularly offends you, you might want to email them via office@cdp.org.au or even phone them on (61 – 2) 9144 4568. There’s already been one bomb scare today, so maybe something less playful – like a direct spray of reasoned contempt – would be more appropriate.

The whole release follows. It’s almost too painfully fucktarded to ridicule in detail. Suffice to say, Reverend Fred Bile and his holy sidekick Pastor Paul Green think they’re being clever by calling for war on a faith held by around one-third of the world’s population because these are the ‘weapons’ they’re advocating:

Just don’t bite it….

Working out what the Hell is happening is half the fun so there’s just no explanation here for you. Click the Pic and feel real Sick! 😉

Taking advantage of child abuse – Howard Government takes it even further.

This story filed with Crikey by Henri Ivrey is incredible – not because it is any kind of exception to the rule, or because it is unlike Mal Brough to screw desperate people over, but because the practice has been thoroughly exposed in detail by a non indigenous paper that’s almost mainstream.

It is also amazing because the detail of the story is prescient – this is part of the next mega-grab by Howard et al. and therefore there is some hope if these actions are rejected by the broader national community. It’s an essential story which you’d probably be glad to read in full, but at the very least check out this excerpt:

The early targets appear to be urban-based Community Development Employment Programs (CDEP). In a letter to these CDEP projects in towns and cities up the Stuart Highway, IBA’s “national manager business funding”, Kim McIlveen is keen to introduce “new products and services that your CDEP organisation might qualify for”.

One of these “new products” is “establishing an Indigenous Economic Development Trust, through which assets will be leased to Aboriginal businesses”.

And he is cheerfully offering a helping hand.

“IBA staff and contracted service providers will be visiting each CDEP over the next few months to provide more information and invite you to discuss your business needs.”

The sheer effrontery of it is extraordinary. The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR), in at least one instance, will be “resuming” an asset from an Aboriginal business which is being offered back for commercial rental to the very Aboriginal business from which it was compulsorily taken.

What’s long, black and hard and makes you wet?

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Apec in Sydney, September 2-9: what a riot!

The New South Wales Government had this fully functioning all-squirting teargas-proofed fuck-truck imported in March so that the bad boys of the emo-stomping brigade could get practicing for their September shenanigans. And the price tag? $600 000. That price wouldn’t sound so completely stupid if Premier Wombats-Arse-Stuck-On-Shoulders hadn’t had this bit of brainspooge to fire off:

“I hope that we’ll never have to use a piece of equipment like this…But if the situation arises, if there are people who take the law into their own hands with riotous behaviour on our streets, then this is a good weapon to have to restore order and control.”

Why the Hell would you spend $600 000 on something you really hope not to use? Cost-benefit modelling suggests that paying protestors $200 000 to party on an island somewhere far away from the caviar-dripping regional love-fest would be a better idea. And what about ‘people who take the law into their own hands with riotous behaviour on our streets’?

The people who most often fit that description at protests are Channel 10-fuelled testostedrones, also known as the riot squad, stomping malnourished peaceniks half their size. Speaking of which – “Public Order & Riot Squad”? Mr. Orwell, please report to the garage. Your car is ready.

At least Alex Bainbridge, representing the Stop George Bush movement had the good sense to say:

“It’s not a comforting thought to think that they might be going to prepare to use a water cannon against us…But it’s even more worrying to think about the innocent people being killed in the war in Iraq, and the fate of humanity if global warming isn’t held in check.”

Long story short: water cannons at peaceful protests suck, but not as badly as GeorgeHoward’s global felch. Still, could be handy for cooling the crowds when RapMaster Curious GWB drops some beats.

Gunns Pulp Mill Conditionally Approved. Turnbull P.R. campaign an afterthought.

Felicity Ogilvie has written up the story. Essentially, Malcolm Turnbull, Federal Environment Minister, is ready to sign off on Gunns pulp mill. Even though representatives of his department have stated in Federal Court that they have concerns about the mixture of toxins which Gunns will pour into Bass Strait, he has made them his scapegoat. When it all goes to Hell, as it will, Turnbull will be able to turn around and say that he only did what his department recommended.

The little bit of “oh look how transparent and participative our system is” will now come in the form of the conditional approval being open for public comment for 10 days. I think that when the conditional approval is referring to “wildlife corridors” being left for endangered species, it is obviously a plan for death incarnate.

In nature, a wildlife corridor is something that can occur within an ecosystem. Animals of particular species develop favoured runs between, for example, breeding and feeding grounds. Destroying natural infrastructure and leaving a strip of trees which the animal has to essentially stick to or die is not a wildlife corridor. It’s an extinction plan.