The negativity syndrome infects the ABC

I wonder how many were as dismayed as I was at the tenor of this Sunday’s Insiders? With so many journalists in the carbon tax lockup, I suppose Barrie Cassidy was scraping the bottom of the barrel when he enlisted Niki Savva and Glenn Milne as panelists, but he must have known that this would result in unremitting negativity towards PM Gillard and her Government. Even the usually balanced Laura Tingle was drawn into negativity; she was no counter for the other two.

Why just two hours before one of the most important announcements in our nation’s history where all the details of the largest reform since the GST were to be provided, did Our ABC enable such negativity? These two panellists virtually canned a favourable outcome for the event and went on to can almost everything else the Government has been doing. According to this pair, the Government has done nothing right, the people have stopped listening, and selling anything to this skeptical public, let alone a complex carbon tax, will be nigh on impossible.

This morning as I listened to AM, I wondered if Insiders was just part of an affliction spreading in epidemic proportions through the ABC – the negativity syndrome.

Since the acerbic Lyndal Curtis seems to have moved to ABC 24, Sabra Lane has taken over her role on AM of wielding the knife, but only towards those to whom she has a negative attitude.

I was appalled to hear not only the words she used, but her tone of voice as she interviewed Wayne Swan this morning. The transcript is in italics; my comments are in bold. The transcript is here.  

SABRA LANE: Mr Swan, good morning. This is do or die for the Government. If you can't sell this, the Government will be tossed out at the next election, won't it?

Note the words: “do or die” and “tossed out” and won’t it?” Already the pattern is set. The knife is out. Yet she is addressing the Treasurer and Deputy PM.

WAYNE SWAN: Well, Sabra it is not about the politics. It is about the policy. It is about doing the right thing by our environment but also the right thing by our national economy. This is a fundamental environmental and economic reform because what we've got to do is put a price on carbon pollution. The big polluters have gotten away with polluting our environment for free for far too long.

SABRA LANE: But if you can't sell this, you're out?

Sabra is not going to let this go, so she pushes the knife further with the impertinent “you’re out”.

WAYNE SWAN: Well, Sabra as I've said before, what we are on about here is a fundamental reform. Look, Sabra what would I say to my children or grandchildren in 20 or 30 years time if we don't put a price on carbon now and they are living with the impact on the Great Barrier Reef, the Murray-Darling Basin, Kakadu and so on.

Note how the rationale for the carbon tax is explained, but that is of no interest to Sabra – she has other negative fish to fry.

SABRA LANE: There is mixed reaction in the papers this morning. The Herald Sun says working families will pay the price. Some families will be worse off, won't they?

See how she goes straight to the negative, the ten percent who will be worse off.

WAYNE SWAN: Well, what we've said is that nine out of ten households will receive additional assistance. No doubt about that. The average price impact will be covered for six million households. Some households will receive partial assistance and some households will receive no assistance, Sabra.

SABRA LANE: How many households will be worse off?

Presumably Sabra learned simple arithmetic at primary school and could calculate in a second that if nine out of ten households would be better off, one in ten might be worse off. But no, she wanted a number from the Treasurer.

WAYNE SWAN: Well, in terms of no assistance, something like 700,000 households but six million households will be covered for the entire average price impact and there are something like nine million households in Australia.

She got her number, but she wanted to drive the knife deeper by evoking the so-called ‘politics of envy’.

SABRA LANE: Is your message to those families then, you're rich, you can afford it.

WAYNE SWAN: No, my message is that we've got to do the right thing by the environment; we've got to do the right thing by our economy. We have got to put in place a range of assistance that is affordable over time and we've got to target our assistance to those who need it most. 

Sabra, we're in the Labor Party. We absolutely believe in looking after people on low and middle incomes. This is a package I think which provides support to people on low and middle incomes, recognises the financial pressures that they are under and puts in place fundamental tax reform. Another million people are removed from the tax system altogether. This is a very, very big reform to our tax system in lifting the tax free threshold so high, up to $18,000.

Not satisfied that it is only the better off that would not receive support and would therefore pay more, she gives the knife another twist, referring to that impeccable source of reliable information – ‘some newspapers’.

SABRA LANE: Some newspapers say though that working families will be worse off. Do you agree?

WAYNE SWAN: Well, certainly there was some people who will not be covered for the entire impact of these price rises but bear this in mind, the price rises are very modest, very modest, less than 1 per cent. The fact is that this price on carbon will be paid by the 500 largest polluters. Yes that will be passed on by some businesses and yes, there will be an impact on prices but that will be modest and what we've done through the assistance packages here is recognise that but also at the same time, put in place some fundamental tax reform. I notice Mr Abbott was going around yesterday promising tax cuts with no means of funding them whilst at the same time putting forward a policy which will cost households $720 per year. 

The fact is, you can't run around the country claiming that you are concerned about cost of living pressures and have a policy which is going to increase the burden on households by $720 a year and not necessarily produce any impact on the environment.

Now you can be certain that Sabra will ignore the reference to Tony Abbott’s $720 a year burden on every household, and overlook the fact that the Government’s increases in costs to the well off are modest. (I notice that Greg in his piece in Grog’s Gamut shows that in the worst case scenario of a family with dual income (50-50 split) of $200,000 and children 8-13 and 13-17 years will be out of pocket by $19.69 per week). 

SABRA LANE: Mr Swan, your scheme won't start for another 12 months. With all the tax changes that are tacked onto it, some families won't actually know whether they are ahead or not until they do their tax probably around August 2013, that is about the time of the next election.

The point of this question is obscure. But she promotes the idea of ‘being ahead’, as if that was the whole idea of a carbon tax. Isn’t the idea of the carbon tax to save the environment, to give our successors a decent planet on which to live?

WAYNE SWAN: Well, I think there will be a pretty thorough debate, Sabra, about all of these issues in the next 12 months and I think everybody in Australia will understand a very clear choice - fundamental tax reform here, additional assistance to families. That will be clearly outlined by the Government. 

Mr Abbott is the one who has got the problem here because he is running around the place saying he will give tax cuts. He can't say how he will fund them. The fact is that Mr Abbott has a policy which is going to be much more costly for Australian families and not produce the environmental outcome that we all require.

That should have given Sabra a cue for her interview with Tony Abbott. But as there was no joy there for Sabra, she tries another tack – small business.

SABRA LANE: There is no leg up here for small businesses. They are the engine room for the country. They're going to cop it, aren't they?

Note the words “leg up” and ‘cop it’.

WAYNE SWAN: Well, small businesses are very important in our economy and that is one of the reasons why we increased the instant asset write-off in this package recognising that many small businesses will want to make additional investments in energy efficiency and the other reason that we've put in place the household assistance package because households will have the capacity when some cost increases are passed on, to pay for those cost increases.

No joy for her there either, so she tries the ‘budget neutral’ story.

SABRA LANE: This won't be budget neutral as you've promised. Suddenly now it is going to cost $4 billion. You will rake some of that back in cuts to the fuel excise rebate but where will you cut spending elsewhere to keep your promise that the budget will return to surplus in 2012/2013?

Note ‘won't be budget neutral as you've promised’ and ‘rake’.

WAYNE SWAN: Well, first of all Sabra, there is an up-front cost. There always is an up-front cost with these very big reforms …

Sabra is determined to nail him on this one – note her impatience.

SABRA LANE: Just one moment, just one moment there Mr Swan but you've promised for a long time that this would be budget neutral. Not that there would be an up-front cost.

Sabra seems unable to reconcile an upfront cost with budget neutrality, even although she must know that budget neutrality is over the forward estimates, not year by year; this is too good a point to be obscured by fiscal facts.

WAYNE SWAN: And it is broadly budget neutral over the forward estimates. Sabra, we budget over the forward estimates. When you put in place a very big change like this, then there are up-front costs but over the forward estimates, the costs are relatively modest and of course, we will account for all of that when we produce MYEFO (Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook) towards the end of the year. A relatively modest charge on the surplus as we go through the surplus years, we will bring the budget back to surplus in 2012/13 and our fiscal rules still apply.

SABRA LANE: I think many economists will doubt that $4 billion equals budget neutral. They would really question that. Doesn't this become an issue of trust? What you say and do are again very different when you deliver the policy.

The knife plunges deeper as ‘trust’ raises its ugly head.

WAYNE SWAN: Absolutely not, Sabra. Our record of applying our fiscal rules is second to none. What we have produced here is first class economic and social policy, Sabra and I am really proud of it. It is Labor to the bootstraps.

Sabra is getting desperate for a gotcha. So she switches to emissions mitigation.

SABRA LANE: Hand on your heart, will this scheme definitely cut emissions by 5 per cent by 2020?

Can you believe it: ‘hand on your heart’?

WAYNE SWAN: There is no doubt that this scheme is very effective, very credible and will take 160 million tonnes out of the atmosphere. We can all be proud of that because what this is all about is to keep our economy growing strongly while we reduce carbon pollution in the atmosphere.

Now more Sabra rudeness.

SABRA LANE: But you haven't answered my question, will it cut emissions by 5 per cent?

WAYNE SWAN: Well, that's the target that we are implementing and that is what all of the modelling shows.

He answers her question but she’s still not satisfied, so she gives the knife another twist with: is it ‘yes or no’?

SABRA LANE: Yes or no, will it cut emissions of 5 per cent?

WAYNE SWAN: Of course we will meet our target in this scheme. That is why we have designed it.

I hope Sabra remembers that simple fact. Only time stopped her attack.

SABRA LANE: Mr Swan, thanks for your time...

It was not just the words; it was her pejorative tone of voice that made the words even more cutting. You can listen to it here.  

Now for Sabra’s interview of the one who would-be PM.

SABRA LANE: Tony Abbott, welcome. This scheme will get through Parliament and when it does and when people are compensated, aren't they going to think what was all the fuss about?

So Abbott gets a ‘welcome’ and a Dorothy Dixer.

TONY ABBOTT: I don't think you can assume it will get through the Parliament, Sabra. There are a lot of Labor members who are very unhappy, members in mining seats, steel-making seats, motor manufacturing seats. I think one of the reasons why the Prime Minister didn't want to announce this in a sitting week is because she didn't want to face the caucus. 

Let's face it, this was a package designed by the Greens. It wasn't a package that was designed by Labor and it certainly wasn't a package that Labor members of Parliament had any real input to.

SABRA LANE: You've said that you'll rescind this tax in government; will you roll back all the tax cuts and all the additional welfare payments too?

No provocation here – just a simple question, for which she already knows the answer.

TONY ABBOTT: Look, this is a bad tax and we are against it. We say that you can't fix it, you've just got to fight it.

More of the same tired old slogans, which Sabra will not dare to challenge, but she feels she must persist a bit.

SABRA LANE: Will you roll back the tax payments and the additional welfare payments?

TONY ABBOTT: Well, look what I've said and I'm very happy to keep saying it is that under the Coalition, there will be a tax cut without a carbon tax. Under the Coalition there will be a fair go for pensioners, a fair go without a carbon tax.

She's still looking for a gotcha.

SABRA LANE: So you'll roll it all back?

TONY ABBOTT: Well, as I said, we haven't seen the legislation.

Feeling she’s being fobbed off, which she is, she tries again with a daring riposte.

SABRA LANE: You're being very tricky.

TONY ABBOTT: No, I'm not being tricky I am just telling you our position. Our position is that there will be a tax cut without a carbon tax and there'll be a fair go for pensioners because there won't be a carbon tax.

She could hardly avoid asking the next question, but does so benignly.

SABRA LANE: Well, how will you pay for all of that?

TONY ABBOTT: Well, as I said many times before, Sabra, let me repeat it again on your program, in good time before the next election, we will announce our fiscal position and we will pay for tax cuts out of spending reductions and the thing is Sabra that a tax cut that is paid for by tax increase, it is not a cut. It is a con. These are mirage tax cuts.

Not ready to challenge this deceptive nonsense, she tries another slap with a wet lettuce. Her knife is in its scabbard.

SABRA LANE: Given that this tax package is dove-tailed with tax reform, your job of rolling it back has been made pretty difficult, hasn't it?

TONY ABBOTT: Look, Sabra, it is myth to describe this as tax reform. This is the first time in a generation that marginal tax rates have been increased. The 15 per cent rate goes up to 19 per cent; the 30 per cent rate goes up to 33 per cent. Low and middle income earners face an increase in their marginal tax rates. That is not reform. This is a big tax retrospect-a-scope. That is what it is. Bob Hawke and Paul Keating would be appalled to see this done to the kind of tax reform that they supported.

Unable to counter this Abbott-speak, she offers another wet lettuce statement that is not a question.

SABRA LANE: But some economists say that lifting the tax free threshold is pretty significant.

TONY ABBOTT: I have supported lifting the tax free threshold. What I haven't supported and wouldn't support is an increase in marginal tax rates. That is going backwards. That is reducing the work incentives for low and middle income earners. This is an attack on aspiration. This is an attack on the aspirational classes of our country. That's why it is not fair dinkum reform.

So she tries another gentle statement.

SABRA LANE: The Treasury modelling shows that the price impacts on families will be quite minimal. At the supermarkets milk will go up by about a cent, eggs two cents.

TONY ABBOTT: Um, this tax is just going to go up and up and up Sabra. The carbon price is going to be $29 a tonne in 2020 and that is in 2010 dollars. The carbon price is going to be $131 a tonne in 2050 and that's in 2010 dollars. So look, this price is just going to go up and up and up and I don't think believe this Government. Even on the Government's own figuring, more than three million households are going to be worse off. A single income family with one child under five, on average weekly earnings, is going to be worse off and that's even on the Government's own modelling.

SABRA LANE: You say that you don't trust these figures but they've come from Treasury, the same mob that modelled your GST.

Note the word ‘mob’; she doesn’t have much regard for Treasury.

TONY ABBOTT: As I said, I don't think people are going to believe this Government. I mean why is the Prime Minister any more believable now than she was six days before the last election when she said …

SABRA LANE: But you don't trust the figures, they haven't …

TONY ABBOTT: Let me finish Sabra, when she said six days before the last election there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.

She is willing to listen to Abbott’s slogans, but unwilling to challenge them or pursue them any further.

SABRA LANE: You are going to travel the nation now, much like the Prime Minister, will you visit any steel mills, will you visit Whyalla? You said Whyalla would be wiped off the face of the Earth.

Another Dorothy Dixer.

TONY ABBOTT: Well, that was the Australian Workers Union and does anyone think for a second, Sabra, that there wouldn't be a steel package had I not been out there fighting for the steel industry, day after day after day. Does anyone not think that if the steel industry was safe the Government would have announced this straight away? No, no, no, I am very pleased to have helped bring about what is a better outcome for the steel industry but I think everyone in the steel industry understands, this is a stay of execution. It is not a permanently good deal.

No challenge of the Abbott assertion by Sabra! So more wet lettuce.

SABRA LANE: Well, Blue Scope and OneSteel both say that are pretty happy with the package.

TONY ABBOTT: Well, let's wait and see what happens to employment at Whyalla and Port Kembla.

SABRA LANE: So I take it you won't be visiting steel mills?

What sort of a question is that?

TONY ABBOTT: Oh look, I will be visiting the workers of this country and letting them know that this is a toxic tax. Let's put the boot on the other foot. Will Julia Gillard be going to Whyalla? Will Julia Gillard be going to Port Kembla? I tell you where she'll be going, she'll be going to university campuses, that's where she'll be going. 

She won't be going to the factories and to the mines where the Australian workforce and where traditional Labor voters congregate.

SABRA LANE: The Government will put its additional steel compensation package through Parliament. That will then put the heat on you. Will you pass it?

Another pseudo-challenging question.

TONY ABBOTT: Look, this is a bad deal for the steel industry. At best it is a stay of execution and as I said Sabra, look and see what happens to employment at Whyalla and Port Kembla and that's where we'll discover whether this really is a good package for the steel industry.

SABRA LANE: Tony Abbott, thanks for your time.

Again, listen to her tone of voice speaking with the would-be PM. 

You be the judge of who got the knife and who got the wet lettuce treatment. We can all be biased, but I came a way from these interviews infuriated at the negativity, rudeness and sharpness of Sabra’s interview with Wayne Swan and the limpness of her interview with Tony Abbott. Is this yet another sign of the negativity syndrome that seems to be spreading through Our ABC? 

What do you think?

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Lyn

11/07/2011Hi Ad Thankyou for your delightful article, highlighting the sickening bias that is being carried out on a daily basis by the staff at the ABC. I love the way you have written your words under the questions you make the interview more interesting, I wish they would do an interview with your voice over, that would be great, I would love it. Listening to both interviews the difference is stark, Sabra has definately got a defiant, argumentative tone with Wayne Swan, she sounds disrespectful, Wayne Swan should have bitten her head off. Lyndal Curtis is so sarcastic lately, her face has changed in the wind, which left a sarcastic look there, even her smile is sarcastic. I just see awhile ago another young girl on ABC24 talking via video to a mother of 2 in Melbourne, about the carbon tax. The ABC girl tried so hard to extract something nasty, even personal about Julia Gillard it was painful. . The good part was the young mother wasn't going to be fooled, she was too clever for the silly interviewer. Julia Gillard on Channel 10 tonight: [i]Julia Gillard & Tony Abbott become guest hosts on 7PM Project[/i] This week The 7PM Project has invited politicians onto the show, to co-host an entire episode. Julia Gillard will co-host The 7PM Project on Tuesday night, joining Dave Hughes, Carrie Bickmore and Dr. Andrew Rochford who is filling in for Charlie Pickering. All week the show is having “Pollie Week” with politicians invited to co-host a nightly episode. On Wednesday night Tony Abbott will take a panel chair, Gillard is also a guest on Q & A tonight Check it out at 7pm, obviously, on TEN. http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2011/07/julia-gillard-tony-abbott-become-guest-hosts-on-7pm-project.html Cheers :):):):):):)

D Mick Weir

11/07/2011The challenge for all of us in assessing this is [i]'How can I objectively determine if the interviews were biased?'[/i] The key determinant of whether I perceive something to be biased is the set of my own biases that I carry with me as I assess the level of the bias of someone elses contribution. I suggest that most people would see a particular article or interview as biased is when it has a point of view that they disagree with. In a similar way most that say [i]'... s/he is just not listening ...'[/i] are saying so because s/he is saying something that the complainer doesn't want to hear or disagrees with. Is there any objective way to determine bias? The only reasonable attempt [b]that I know of[/b] in Australia was done by Joshua Gans and Andrew Leigh and presented in a paper in September 2009. [b]Estimating Media Slant in Australia[/b] http://economics.com.au/?p=4214 [i]We employ several different approaches to estimate the political position of Australian media outlets, relative to federal parliamentarians.[/i] Many people with a 'more left view of the world' jumped on this part of the findings [i]'... ABC TV appears slanted (towards the Coalition – sorry, Mr Costello) ...'[/i] to prove their point of view that the ABC is biased against Labor. Meanwhile those from the right chose to highlight [i]'... The Age appears slanted (towards Labor)'[/i] Many satisfied themselves that they were right the media is biased against their side without reading or absorbing the full report. [b]How Partisan is the Press? Multiple Measures of Media Slant[/b] Joshua S.Gans & Andrew Leigh The pdf is available here: http://people.anu.edu.au/andrew.leigh/pdf/MediaSlant.pdf A few excerpts may enlighten us: [i]Overall, we find that the Australian media are quite centrist, with very few outlets being statistically distinguishable from the middle of Australian politics. It is possible that this is due to the lack of competition in the Australian media market. To the extent that we can separate content slant from editorial slant, we find some evidence that editors are more partisan than journalists. ... Note that we deliberately use the term “media slant” instead of “media bias”, for the reason that our measures are relative rather than absolute. To see this, suppose that a political party were to publicly pronounce that the earth is flat. In this instance, one might expect that most – if not all – media outlets would denounce that political party, perhaps making unkind comments about the intellect and judgment of the party?s leaders as they did so. If an election were in the offing, editorials in some newspapers might even opine that these pronouncements made the party unfit to govern. Such an event would not reflect media bias, since journalists are judging politicians statements against an absolute standard (scientific truth). However, it would be captured as a form of “media slant”. ... To summarize our results, we find that there is some dispersion of media slant in Australia when we use media mentions of public intellectuals. Interestingly, newspapers tend to be located to the left of that range while talk-back radio and television are located to the right. Only one of the 27 outlets we study (the ABC Channel 2 television station) is significantly distinguishable from the center position. These results are robust to various specifications. We also find that there has been no systematic evolution in slant over time. To the extent that cross-country comparisons are possible, our results suggest that the overall range of media slant is more concentrated than has been observed for the US.[/i] There is pretty solid 'evidence' that the standard of reporting and/or commentary is below a standard that we could reasonably expect as Grog, Mr Denmore and many others have very ably shown. Whether it is biased or slanted I suggest is more to do with our own biases than any real or objectively provable bias.

TalkTurkey

11/07/2011On the last thread DMW quoted someone in an angrified meeting on TV [i]". . . what is the coalition going to do to stop the people taking up arms ...? "[/i] Not a bad question considering how much they are doing to [i]get[/i] them to take them up! Then FS said "This is just disgusting: http://twitpic.com/5oeffd . . ." The comment there reads [i]"Someone ought to assassinate Julia Gillard before she entirely destroys our way of life." [/i]Mark of Panania. I've said before, I reckon Abbortt and his henchpersons would be perfectly OK with taking power in a bloodless coup at least, and quite possibly in a bloody one if they thought they could pull it off. They are extremists. When scientists are threatened with violence, we're already at the book-burning stage. Don't miss the signs folks. They did in Weimar Germany until it was far too late. If any violence happens here a la shootings in the US, it will be squarely down to Abbortt himself. But it probably can't happen here. ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKITpVovTAE

Stephen Lazarus Graysun

11/07/2011AA, LOL @ Dorothy Dixers’ I can see mom has left a little impression>>nudge. Though Barr Barr Sabra could be seen as using a Dorothy Dix type of media reverse psychology if more could see what she has in her toolbox. Key Phrase, Bandler and Grindler, Methinks… Like:- http://www.nlpcoaching.com/australia-nlp.php?gclid=CNz9sqfM-KkCFcYNHAodhT34rg Or once upon a time:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming Or try:- http://www.holisticonline.com/hol_neurolinguistic.htm “The basic premise of NLP is that the words we use reflect an inner, subconscious perception of our problems. If these words and perceptions are inaccurate, as long as we continue to use them and to think of them, the underlying problem will persist. In other words, our attitudes are, in a sense, a self-fulfilling prophecy.” Bandler and Grindler featured on mom’s bookshelf, I recall the 2 had a falling out as one sort wealth through mind manipulation as a sales tool. I have met people who know of NLP and not of Bandler and Grindler, sales reps the lot of them. Whilst the other stayed true to humanist psychology. Part of the ploy as therapy is inference on key terms or phrases to push something across. In my case an unwanted behaviour, something that if left unchecked would have left me a Martin Bryant. I remind the blog I share the diagnosis, my luck? “early intervention”, even at 15. I pulled the mp3 from the “ABC” (SHOULD BE, CBA, Contrived B*** S*** Arsenal) and got the telephone crackle out as best as I could to hear the stress control factors primed in Wayne Swan, a good game of football and the like can condition this. Or a good linguistic coach, who teaches “Diffusion” of errant, thought process. I understand it, wish I could master it. Once conditioned someone can have an inner emotional reaction yet master it on the outside. Remember Wayne presenting the budget, think back to the stress factor in his eyes. Perhaps the Labor party should be more into mind manipulators like the Fib Lib’s??? Then again, I’m glad not. On another note, how do I up-load an MP3 into a wordpress.com blob. Going through mom’s do list and ok, this one is under way. Oh wait mom, where’s the credit card, oh that’s right! We don’t believe in them. RAOTFPMSL, I know I shouldn’t be. & she got an avatar in here, she is still one up on me there also. Wink, :-0 P.S AA and lyn you have my e-mail if you want im sure i could cut, paste, mix the ABC MP3 and AA together. Ahh Audacity, soo simple and yet it works and FREE. Or if you want the ramped up edited ABC interview...Watching

Lyn

11/07/2011Hi Ad How to get depressed in one minute, read this : [i]Ten sees mileage in new breakfast show ,News Com[/i] THE Ten Network has plans for a news-based television breakfast program to rival Nine's Today and Seven's Sunrise. Lachlan Murdoch has asked executives to develop a third breakfast program to run between 6am and 9am, tentatively called AM. Sources say the "dream host" for AM is Nine's Today co-host Karl Stefanovic, a Gold Logie winner [b]who is close to Mr Murdoch[/b] Stefanovic's defection to Ten seems unlikely as he has expressed a desire to escape breakfast television With News Limited columnist [b]Andrew Bolt installed as the high-profile host of a politically conservative talk show, The Bolt Report, on Sundays, Ten is actively pursuing other options for[/b] [b]balancing what is available on television by introducing more right-wing voices.[/b]Sources say the network is after "lively and contentious" voices like Bolt's and is searching for fresh talent. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/ten-sees-mileage-in-new-breakfast-show/story-e6frg996-1226091911940 Cheers :):):):):)

2353

11/07/2011AA, Well written. There does seem to be some differences between interviews in my opinion (but that's my opinion. For this post to do some real good - have you complained (again) to the ABC using the text from this post? While it probably feels like hitting your head up against a brick wall, sooner or later the volume of complaint from you and others will trigger investigation. Might be worth also sending a copy to the Minister in charge of the Media and/or Mediawatch as well.

Patricia WA

11/07/2011Ad Astra, thanks for that break down. Sadly it would be possible, if one had the time, patience and your forensic skills, to do the same for so many ABC news radio interviews. By the way, alongside Julia Gillard's capacity to stay rational and unruffled in similar situations, Wayne Swann has developed similar skills and stoicism. I think the day he broke that glass during an interview one had a bit of an insight into how much control he sometimes needs to exercise. I can't understand why so many people are dismissive of Swannie. Thank God he is our nation's Treasurer and not Joe Hockey.

Stephen Lazarus Graysun

11/07/2011right clicks avatar and sees gravatar under propities. Ok, so it's a gravatar. Ah, reverse engineering a madness. Lets just see if i can get this to work...

Patricia WA

11/07/2011Re the PM's address to the nation - Norman K I agree with you in one obvious sense. We know and love the feisty Julia Gillard and we accept her steely style too, even approve of it. But this was trying for a softer impact and aimed at a different audience at a much broader audience than true believers. Therein lies its weakness, I suppose. Was she being herself? [i]Can you trust her?[/i] Was it pre-recorded? If so, I think her advisors could have done a much better job. By the way, I did notice a slight lessening of the twang in her voice too. Even that I saw criticised somewhere today. When [b]will[/b] she get a fair go?

Ad astra reply

11/07/2011Hi Lyn Thank you again for your kind remarks and your additional comments. I agree that the sourness that Lyndal Curtis exhibits towards so many of those she interviews, seem to have become etched on her face. I suspect if Bolt gets involved in the Ten Breakfast show it will be just another conservative program along the lines of [i]The Bolt Report[/i]. Depressing! 2353 I might do as you say, send a copy to the ABC. We need to keep chipping away. Patricia WA Thank you for your comment. You are right, Julia Gillard is able to withstand the incessant onslaught on her and remain unruffled.

Ad astra reply

11/07/2011Folks I posted this on the last post, but as comments are coming in here on the subject, I’m copying it here. NormanK, D Mick Weir I note your comments about Julia Gillard’s five-minute Address to the Nation. Anyone who missed it can see it on Ross Gittins article in today’s edition of [i]The Age[/i] http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/tax-will-be-neither-as-good-nor-as-bad-as-were-told-20110710-1h905.html I too would have preferred a different demeanour, although I’m not sure what the difference ought to have been. As I reflected on your comments I wondered what we are expecting of our leaders. There seems to be some idealistic notion that we carry in our imagination – the demeanour of an actor trained to simulate an impressive speech like Atticus Finch’s (Gregory Peck) to the jury in [i]To Kill a Mockingbird[/i], the ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat’ oratory of Churchill during the war, the words of a Gettysburg address, or the inspiration generated by Ben Chifley’s ‘Light on the Hill’ address. http://australianpolitics.com/parties/alp/chifley-light-on-hill.shtml Few of our leaders have had such attributes. In our memory Gough Whitlam did – we all remember his ‘It’s Time’ Address; Paul Keating did – his Redfern Address was a classic; Bob Hawke had such knockabout charm that almost anything he said was applauded. But there are not many others, and very few are around now. The commentators like to label Julia Gillard as wooden in her public presentations, apparently unwilling to accept her manner of speech and her ocker accent. While appearance and presentation are unquestionably important in transmitting messages, is it not the substance that really counts? What is said must trump how it is said. Yet that is not how she and other politicians are judged. Looking at contemporary politicians, who actually possess the attributes of oratory for which we long? If Julia Gillard doesn’t make the grade, does Wayne Swan or Greg Combet or Kevin Rudd (he did in The Apology, but after that?) or Peter Garratt (he can be impressive)?; or on the Coalition side, Tony Abbott or Joe Hockey, or Andrew Robb, or Christopher Pyne or Greg Hunt or Barnaby Joyce? Not many are there! So why do we demand so much from our PM? It was what Julia Gillard said last night that ought to have been the focus of attention, but for some her demeanour detracted from that and again evoked the ‘schoolmarm’ rebuke and of course the ‘wooden’ epithet. What a pity. Is it possible for her to be morphed into an actor with all the style good actors enjoy? Maybe not. And if that were possible would she be accused of artificiality, of being chameleon-like, or of being insincere, or being just an actor? Lest we get too carried away with romantic notions of what a PM should be and do and say, take a look at the ‘Light on the Hill’ address (below) that is held up as the shining beacon to which our leaders, our Labor leaders should direct their vision for inspiration. It is sincere, it points the faithful to the [i]“great objective - the light on the hill - which we aim to reach by working the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand”[/i], and it focuses on the working man. But is hardly stunning oratory. Look carefully again and see if you can discern among the words the very things Julia Gillard has been saying over and again about work and the working man. See if you can see any comment about the tribulations that leaders attempting big reform have to endure. See if you can see any resemblance between the Gillard climate change reform and Chifley’s quest ‘for the betterment of mankind’ and ‘for a greater feeling of security’ for children. Rather than us becoming caught up in the media-induced demeaning of the Gillard demeanour instead of focusing on what she is saying and doing, let us admire her gutsiness and determination in taking on a major reform in the interests of future generations knowing it will cause political pain now, a reform that is as major as the GST reform and the reforms of the Hawke/Keating era, and give her our heartfelt support. I have not got the audio, but here is the transcript of Ben Chifley’s ‘Light on the Hill’ address to an ALP Conference in 1949: “[i]I have had the privilege of leading the Labour Party for nearly four years. They have not been easy times and it has not been an easy job. It is a man-killing job and would be impossible if it were not for the help of my colleagues and members of the movement. “No Labour Minister or leader ever has an easy job. The urgency that rests behind the Labour movement, pushing it on to do things, to create new conditions, to reorganise the economy of the country, always means that the people who work within the Labour movement, people who lead, can never have an easy job. The job of the evangelist is never easy. “Because of the turn of fortune's wheel your Premier (Mr McGirr) and I have gained some prominence in the Labour movement. But the strength of the movement cannot come from us. We may make plans and pass legislation to help and direct the economy of the country. But the job of getting the things the people of the country want comes from the roots of the Labour movement - the people who support it. “When I sat at a Labour meeting in the country with only ten or fifteen men there, I found a man sitting beside me who had been working in the Labour movement for fifty-four years. I have no doubt that many of you have been doing the same, not hoping for any advantage from the movement, not hoping for any personal gain, but because you believe in a movement that has been built up to bring better conditions to the people. Therefore, the success of the Labour Party at the next elections depends entirely, as it always has done, on the people who work. “I try to think of the Labour movement, not as putting an extra sixpence into somebody's pocket, or making somebody Prime Minister or Premier, but as a movement bringing something better to the people, better standards of living, greater happiness to the mass of the people. We have a great objective - the light on the hill - which we aim to reach by working the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand. If it were not for that, the Labour movement would not be worth fighting for. “If the movement can make someone more comfortable, give to some father or mother a greater feeling of security for their children, a feeling that if a depression comes there will be work, that the government is striving its hardest to do its best, then the Labour movement will be completely justified. “It does not matter about persons like me who have our limitations. I only hope that the generosity, kindliness and friendliness shown to me by thousands of my colleagues in the Labour movement will continue to be given to the movement and add zest to its work.”[/i] http://australianpolitics.com/parties/alp/chifley-light-on-hill.shtml

Feral Skeleton

11/07/2011Ad Astra, The worst of the political journalists at the ABC smell blood and they are only too willing to kick the Gillard government when they are down in the polls. It is the hive mentality which wants to see them all get a go at stinging the government with their stingers. It's mindlessly ferocious stuff and I don't know why the ABC is getting in on the act. Maybe they've finally been infected with the Murdoch virus, just when his empire may be starting to crumble. No doubt, on Q&A tonight we''l see a perpetuation of this with the most vindictive questions to the PM being chosen.

Stephen Lazarus Graysun

11/07/2011I could have sworn i watched Wayne fighting tears not that long back delivering the budget i think it was. Sometimes i think people forget that if you are standing atop the mountain, and turn 360 degrees. Behold, the world can be both round and flat. And alot of bumps and troughs ta boot.

Lyn

11/07/2011Hi Patricia, Did I miss your last article on Polliepomes, I hope not. I'm pleased Mr Denmore answered your question. There is a lot more to come out of this scandal and maybe there are questions to answered in Australia, if not voice mail hacking, reporting. [quote]UPDATE 10/07/11 My question is answered today by a direct challenge to this ‘blight on our democracy’ by The Failed Estate’s Mr. Denmore asking, ‘Who will have the guts in Australia to take him on[/quote]?’ http://polliepomes.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/remember-true-liberty-is-when-free-born-men-speak-free/ Cheers :):):):)

D Mick Weir

11/07/2011The Gans / Leigh paper was probably subjected to 'biased' interpretation as I noted above and used by some to prove that they were 'right' or to be holier than thou. This is how [b]The Austalian[/b] saw it [b]Media shock! The Age leans to the left, bias study finds[/b] http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/media-shock-the-age-leans-to-the-left-bias-study-finds/story-e6frg6n6-1225768807993 [i]PAPERS are pinko but the TV is tory. That is how media slant in Australia goes, according to a new study. ... Professor Leigh said that in general television was the most right-wing medium while newspapers were the most left-leaning.[/i] Sloppy headline in that it used the word bias. I will leave it to any interested to determine if the story was 'biased'. Andrew Norton gave his assessment: Can public intellectuals be used to assess partisan media slant? http://andrewnorton.info/2009/09/02/can-public-intellectuals-be-used-to-assess-partisan-media-slant/ Norton questions the methodology and maybe wants to create a stir but still a point of view worth consideration. Gans has a bit of dig back at Norton here: [b]Slant and wind[/b] http://economics.com.au/?p=4226 Gerard Henderson put in his two bobs worth (can't get a working link) and bought forth a very interesting response from then Professor Leigh. [b]A Letter to Gerard Henderson[/b] http://economics.com.au/?p=4384 This par is worthy of careful consideration: [i]'... in a small country like Australia, I would hope that it is possible to disagree without being disagreeable. Ad hominem attacks not only cheapen the debate; they also distract from the bigger and more interesting questions. It is easier to deride one’s critics as fools than to admit that they are thoughtful and intelligent people who have ended up with the opposite view from our own (Question Time suffers from a little of this too, I think).[/i] To selectively use Leigh's words to reinforce my point of view The claims of bias [i]distract from the bigger and more interesting questions.[/i]

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11/07/2011D Mick Weir I note your comments about bias. We all have them. As I recall it, the last assessment of the ABC was that it was biased against Labor, but I can’t find the reference. This piece was not about general ABC bias, but instead asked the question of those who comment here what they thought about yesterday’s [i]Insiders[/i] and today’s interviews by Sabra Lane, which to my mind exhibited gross negativity against a Government minister, and a facilitatory approach to the Opposition leader, and whether that was part of a growing negativity syndrome at the ABC. I am aware of my biases; it is the opinions of others I seek, to ascertain if my views are aberrant or consistent with the views of those who visit here.

Feral Skeleton

11/07/2011Gravel has been asking me to tell her what it was like to be in the Sydney Town Hall, the spiritual home of Labor and the room in which the 'Light On the Hill' speech was given by Ben Chifley himself all those years ago, and to hear Julia Gillard give her speech to the gathered delegates and observers in the NSW Branch of the Labor Party. Firstly, let me say that when Julia entered the room to give her speech she was greeted with a standing ovation and the genuine gratitude, as far as I could tell, of the people there as a result of their acknowledgement of the fact, and fact it should be acknowledged as, that she was the one, missteps and all during the campaign, who got the Labor Party over the line to form government again in 2010. People cheered and whistled and kept clapping until their hands hurt(well, I know I did). It lasted all the way from the back of the hall, down the walkway and past many people who rushed up to shake her hand, and until she ascended the stairs to the stage to give her speech. In fact, even after she got to the lectern people wwere still clapping her and she had to put her hands up to stop them so she could start her speech. The atmospherics then changed. All of a sudden, this giant-slaying woman, who had defeated the combined might of the Murdoch media and the Coalitiion, which was led to the election by the most scheming, underhanded and Machiavellian politician since the Borgias themselves, seemed at once like a little girl. She seemed like the girl who at Unley High, all those years ago, transformed the Light on the Hill into a fire in her belly which was strong enough to carry her through every level of adversity that women have had to face over the last 30 years or so. From fighting for the right to go on to University and study the same courses as man could, through the Feminism and Women's Rights movements, all the way through the nepotistic patriarchy that was politics in much of the Western World, except for a very few women who got into positions of political power via their husbands, or, like Margaret Thatcher, by having more of the masculine attributes that got strong, aggressive, ambitious men to the top in politics, combined with a searing intellect and tactical brilliance(even if for the wrong cause as I see it). Of course, Julia was probably inspired by women politicians like Golda Meir and Indira Ghandi, from the 1970s, too. Somehow, though, for the country which granted women suffrage almost before any other, we had dragged the chain of actually allowing a woman to lead our country. Yet Julia did it. She became the first woman to lead our country, and she did it in conditions that were not ideal, to put it mildly. She stepped up and led the party from the front, in its hour of need. That is, when it was looking down the barrell of a certain election defeat. And let no one forget that Kevin Rudd had effed his chance up of leading the country royally. No matter what sort of rose-coloured glasses his time in office is looked at through now. He lost it, and he almost lost government for the Labor government, who had been waiting all those long years to get back into power and do some real reforming in the good old egaliatarian Labor tradition, in the areas of Health, Education, Industrial Relations, and now, at last, great lord a'mighty, they have broken free at last to implement transformative Environmental and Economic change, that our country sorely needs, and which the Conservatives and their bloated capitalist pig supporters tried their best to stop, but have failed to do. There really is only one person to thank for that. And that is Julia Gillard. Sure there are support players in the game that got Climate Change action over the line. And, don't forget that the environment cannot vote, and so the decision taken to expend political capital on this issue is purely and simply an altruistic one, essentially devoid of politics. So, the impression I got last Saturday morning, as Julia gave her speech, again, without referral to notes, and most definitely from the heart, was that she was overwhelmed by what it meant to be our first female Prime Minister, a Labor Prime Minister, giving her speech in the same place, and on the same stage, that Ben Chifley gave his 'Light on the Hill' speech. And it was almost as good, except, I think, for the fact that Julia isn't possessed of a booming stage actor's voice, but only that of the schoolgirl in pigtails that we have seen in photos, all grown up now and taking on the world. :D

Michael

11/07/2011I truly wonder why the media have such a set against the Labor government, especially those who've been around long enough to have dealt with Howard's gang. A Bad Abbott for today. The likes of Chris Kenny at The Australian are so much in Shouldabeen's thrall that they (he) seem to cast aside all sense of journalistic probity, and indeed, training, when it comes to regurgitation of Tiny's nonsense. Kenny asserts in today's Australian that Abbott's direct action plan will easily match the effects of the Government's carbon pricing up to 2020. But he doesn't validate that much-repeated claim in his article with just how direct action will do that. And, more importantly, how it will do that continually, that is, year after year ("keep digging, Maria, bury that pesky carbon deeper than last year", perhaps?) to match carbon pricing's effects on encouraging emitters' efficiency. They will have a vested interest in reducing polluting, and thus will do so. Direct action, therefore, is a free pass for emitters with limited storage options becoming more limited with each year. Until the 'free pass' has visibly turned into the 'nod and a wink' the Coalition's DA policy has always been. It is worse than doing nothing, because it is a remarkably expensive method of buying time in the hope that someone overseas will show us the 'way'. It is also snivellingly smallminded. But then, it IS Abbott's preferred option, so quite in concert with his repeatedly demonstrated smallmindedness.

Feral Skeleton

11/07/2011Michael, I'm still trying to figure out where 'Toxic' is going to find arable land 5 times the size of Tasmania to grow all the trees he needs to get to his 5% Emissions Reduction target. He keeps speaking about only using Marginal Land. I would have thought growing trees on Marginal Land was a marginal proposition at best.

Feral Skeleton

11/07/2011Here's Get Up's explanatory ad for Climate Change Action: http://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/climate-action-now/climate-announcement/give-facts-a-head-start?referring_service=twitter#.ThpynywePx5.twitter

Feral Skeleton

11/07/2011And a Charles Firth Climate Change ad: http://mumbrella.com.au/union-ad-celebrates-great-moments-of-denial-52014

psyclaw

11/07/2011Ad Astra Your article was spot on. I have listened to / watched a range of media today and the focus has been almost 100% on what the respective interviewees saw as the down side of the PM's announcement. So the ensuing dialogue was always downbeat. I watched the first 10 minutes of 3 commercial TV news and the ABC, and all focussed exclusively on the 'problems" of the tax. There were 2 exceptions. The Financial Review today carried about 15 articles about the carbon tax. All bar about 2 were focussed on the beneficial effects of the tax ie pushing companies and people towards renewables,rather than on the downsides. Even L Tingle was reasonable, but she is still harping on that the Labor backbenchers haven't had their say yet, and they might yet reject it. As if!!!! Then on ABC 7.30 tonight Geoff Cousins, leading businessman, Telstra Board member and former confidant of John Howard, described the tax as a most significant and gutsy effort by the PM. He gave unqualifed support for the tax, and stated that it was the first and most important step in Australia entering the forthcoming new world economy where renewable energy will be the cornerstone. This was the most positive endorsement I have seen of JG and her work for many months, and it was by someone who has been closely connected to the Liberals. (Mr Cousins is a most articulate and perceprive man....I doubt that he'd bid the time of day to the current fool of a leader). By way of background, Geoff Cousins lead the fight against Gunn's Mill in 2009/2010. He is a no nonsense man who on one occasion at a Telstra board meeting was said to have got up, left his chair, walked around the other side of the table and said to Ziggy Switkowski "open your mouth once more, you pr.ck, and I'll throw you out the f....n window!" So I think there can be little doubt that when he praised JG and the tax, he meant it!

NormanK

11/07/2011Ad astra Unfortunately, you have misunderstood my criticism of the PM's recorded speech. It's a pity that you have lumped me in with the vile media critiques of everything Ms Gillard does. I wasn't calling for her to try to be something which she is not. On the contrary, I was calling for her to stop trying to be something which she is not. We saw Ms Gillard in fine form throughout the day, from the press conference through to the many interviews she participated in as the evening news programmes went to air. Her recorded speech stood in stark contrast to those earlier performances. Whoever it is that is close to her offering advice on how to present her scripted speeches is incompetent. The election advertisement where the PM spoke straight to camera was almost as bad. She employed a patronising tone as though she was explaining to a four-year-old why it is that they can't have a bike for this birthday but if they're good they might get one next year. I cringed, and I mean literally cringed at her opening remarks yesterday. [quote]I want to talk to [b]you[/b][/quote] (leaning forward) [quote]tonight about why the Government is putting a price on carbon and what this means for [b]you[/b][/quote] (leaning forward). It was awful and I'm afraid it didn't get any better. Someone is giving her bad advice and unfortunately it does effect perceptions regardless of the content of the speech which, as it happens, was perfectly adequate. In answer to the question of what I would have preferred to have seen, I suspect we will see on Q&A tonight a far more natural and engaging Julia Gillard. That's what I would have preferred. I don't expect her to be Meryl Streep or Winston Churchill. I just don't want her talking to the Australian people as though they are intellectually-challenged children. Ultimately the blame rests with her but initially it should fall on those around her who are giving her very poor advice and feedback.

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11/07/2011Folks I'm retiring to watch Julia Gillard's time on Q&A

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11/07/2011FS Your description of Julia Gillard's reception and speech was exciting to read. I hope she does as well tonight on Q&A.

Ad astra reply

11/07/2011NormanK I note your comments, take your points, and assure you that I am not lumping you with anyone. Let's see how she goes tonight on Q&A and contrast that with her Address to the Nation.

D Mick Weir

11/07/2011Ad @ 6:08 PM You make some good points and yes the PM has been talking along the same lines of many of the themes in the [i]Light on the Hill[/i] speech. [i]It was what Julia Gillard said last night that ought to have been the focus of attention, but for some her demeanour detracted from that and again evoked the ‘schoolmarm’ rebuke ...[/i] Yes the focus of attention on what she said not how she said it. I understood NormanK to be saying that how she said it lessened the impact of what she said and the presentation could have been better. To illustrate with one example. A lady I know (a Labor voter) asked about what she thought of the announcement said [i]'I don't know I had trouble understanding what she said she was so hard to listen to.'[/i] Asked about the increase in the Tax Free Threshold (which will benefit her greatly) [i]'What? ... oh, I missed that completely, I must of switched off ...[/i] I have heard a couple of similar comments today and it highlights to me the incredible challenge that is confronting the PM in getting her message out there when even Labor voters are not hearing her. [i]Rather than us becoming caught up in the media-induced demeaning of the Gillard demeanour instead of focusing on what she is saying and doing, let us admire her gutsiness and determination in taking on a major reform in the interests of future generations ...[/i] Rather than being caught up in the demeaning of Ms Gillard I am aware that the PM's demenour and presentation style are such that while some are still listening many of them are unable to hear clearly what is being said.

Acerbic Conehead

11/07/2011Good analysis, AA. Yes, I also found it unbelieveable that the interviewer used the expression, "hand on your heart". For me, that expression assumes the recipient is untrustworthy and needs to perform the gesture openly to ensure they will keep their word. In view of the "non-core promises" approach and the "statements that need to be taken absolutely as Gospel truth are those carefully prepared, scripted remarks" formula, should she not have suggested this to the Leader of the Opposition instead?

nasking

11/07/2011First opportunity to get back here...so many thnx to Lyn, Feral, Ad Astra, Gravel & Talk Turkey for yer kind b'day wishes on other thread. I've had a wonderful day. Gravel, I will second yer "Happy b'day Gough!". A great leader. Lyn & Feral, that is good news re: Bskyb. Let's hope Murdoch is prevented from increasing his hold in the long run. Talk Turkey, gracias for the many candles...will come in handy during an electricity outage. :) Aa, I agree. Wasn't 'Insiders' a disgrace? Absolute tripe. We need a different host...Cassidy looks like his USE BY date is up. The political cartoons were hostile & biased too. Awful. Not funny. Will return to comment on yer great post later. Enjoyed AC's last post too. Cheers N'

Stephen Lazarus Graysun

11/07/2011Watching qanda, sorry but i want the young woman with her mom, said exactly what i would say. Good think tank and steering commitie launch pad. BIAS, umm. Even with all the plain straight figures, still the faces look so glum. "she" would have been better "this person" IMO

TalkTurkey

11/07/2011To the Right Honourable [b]Edward Gough Whitlam[/b] [i]Prime Minister of Australia 1972-1975[/i] on this the occasion of your 95th Birthday Congratulations and best wishes Mr Whitlam I hope this finds you and Margaret in good health and spirits. You have done great things for Australia and all the world. You made me personally proud to be Australian. Your leadership inspired a whole generation, and your influence is magnified in all those who benefited from your wisdom and goodwill. Thank you Gough. (K)

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11/07/2011Folks, D Mick Weir, NormanK Just finished Q&A. What did you think of Julia Gillard tonight in the face of some pretty hostile questions and a a rather rude and at times negative Tony Jones, still reaching for his gotchas? Admitting my biasses, I thought she did well, answering clearly and forcefully even the curly questions. The faces on which the cameras focussed looked pretty hostile. I wonder whether they were all that hostile looking. There were several positive questions and I noted that many of the Twitter comments were very positive. Overall, I feel this session will turn out to be a big positive for her. DMW and NormanK, in the light of our debate today, I would value your comments about Q&A tonight and Julia's performance.

Ad astra reply

11/07/2011Folks It's late now - I'll respond to your comments tomorrow.

Jason

11/07/2011So there we have it! another episode of Q&A and what did we get? the same old ill informed tossers from "western Sydney". They really should put a fence around the place. Apart from the "me me me" attitude or why don't we have an election every time the government wants to do something,I also got the feeling that most of them who thought they were clever trying the "old ABC type gotchas" proved they were dumber than bricks, and relied on the "Shock jocks and News LTD" for their information. Surely if you are going to appear on "Q&A" would you not read up on the subject you wish to ask? and at least have a vague idea or do they think it's funny to ask the same old questions the media ask all day! Also I think it's Wednesday for the PM and Thursday for Abbott at 6PM on SKY, who will be holding the Q&A forums they had during the election campaign in the RSL clubs where no doubt we will get more uneducated people asking the same old questions. At least with Abbott his answer will be that he'll release his own policies 'in good time' before the election.

Patricia WA

11/07/2011Thanks FS, for those inspiring impressions. I am so pleased to hear that the Prime Minister Julia Gillard is truly appreciated by her party. She needs as much love and support as we can give her through what everyone of us can see is often pure bloody hell.

Feral Skeleton

11/07/2011Yes, have just finished watching Q&A and the Lateline interview by Ali Moore of Tony Wood, head of the Energy Group at The Grattan Institute(and, AA, can you please tell me, if you know, are the Grattans an old Establishment Melbourne family? Michelle Grattan, The Grattan Institute, etc.) Anyway, the thing I noticed tonight was that if the PM got a hostile question she needed to spend a lot of the answer diffusing the aggressive intent of it before she got around to making her point in response. This tended to make some answers quite long-winded and less punchy. This is what my son also noticed, he said she made her answers too complicated and should learn, like someone in the audience suggested, to make her answers more like Tony Abbott's. That is, more cut-through, memorable themes and one-liners that get burned into your memory. He, as I, felt that, after the question from the older gentleman with the beard, which we both thought would be hostile, but which turned out to be supportive and thus provided a turning point in the show, the PM seemed to relax noticeably and the 'Real Julia' finally shone bright. I especially loved her analogy between her and Tony Abbott where she said on the one hand you have the CSIRO and on the other, Alan Jones. She would take the CSIRO any day, but she thought Tony Abbott would prefer Alan Jones. :)

Feral Skeleton

11/07/2011ReCaptcha has provided the answer to your question, AA, in one word: leadership.

NormanK

11/07/2011Ad astra We should be a very happy little blog tonight. The PM was wonderful tonight (even if her make-up was awful) (or the lighting director got it wrong) (I suspect a right-wing conspiracy between the two). That was the Julia Gillard that I wanted to see address the nation. I'll say it again. She is getting some very bad advice. I feel inclined to whip off an e-mail to her but I can't help but believe that it will end up in a digital bin. The most encouraging aspect of the peripherals of tonight's Q&A was the positive Tweets. One even suggested that they had changed their mind on the issue based on tonight's appearance - very encouraging. I might add more tomorrow but in answer to the question posed by this blog re: negativity, I listened to both interviews one immediately after the other and found very little difference in them. I don't know if Tony Abbott was in the studio with Sabra Lane but if he was it might explain the slightly different tone of voice. Journalists are emboldened during phone interviews because they don't have to look their subject in the eye when they decide to be rude. However, if the question is about the contemporary fixation with negative angles to political stories then the answer is a resounding 'yes'. It seems there is almost no such thing as a good vibe political story in this country at the moment. A disparate group of politicians of wide-ranging political persuasions reach agreement on a landmark reform and the likes of Malcolm Farr couch it in terms of 'all this work for 20 cents a week profit - why bother?'

Feral Skeleton

11/07/2011Jason, What about that jerk who said that he would be "Cast into poverty" by the PM's taxes? Um, the big polluters pay the Price on Carbon, the Mining companies will pay the MRRT, and he probably didn't have to pay the Flood Levy. But, he probably pays the GST every day. Anyway, he hardly looked like he was on his uppers, nor anywhere near it. Pretty sleek and fat looking actually. :)

Feral Skeleton

11/07/2011The last 4 ReCaptcha words I have had are saying it all again: 'first attempts electric leadership'. :D

Feral Skeleton

11/07/2011Now THIS is a poll(and check out the couple of rubes in the picture): http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/07/public-opinion-on-rupert-murdoch-and-news-corp-bskyb-takeover/

Feral Skeleton

11/07/2011NormanK, A couple of answers to your questions: 1. Yes, Abbott was in the Parliament House studio with Sabra Lane. 2. Malcolm Farr Just. Doesn't. Get. It. He's behaving like a hack.

D Mick Weir

11/07/2011Hi Ad, I was seriously worried during QandA and said 'she's blown it'. It was as though she had just learnt the lines and was saying it with exactly the same words from Sunday's press conference. Just sticking to the script. Yes it was a seemingly hostile audience and some tough questions but none that you wouldn't have expected. I don't totally agree with the assessment of Jones being rude and negative so much as attempting to get the PM to answer the questions asked which even to me she seemed to be side stepping or possibly answering poorly in the sense of having an appearance of not being fully true or genuine. I struggled with staying 'tuned in' with what she was saying. Somewhere things turned. I think it was about the the time the 82 year old said 'thank-you PM' she turned to Jones in what appeared to be embarrassment almost didn't know what to say and become momentarily 'human'. A few more rough patches and then a defining moment, for me. [i]'The CSIRO or Alan Jones, I chose the CSIRO ...'[/i] It was is if she suddenly 'owned it', relaxed but at the same time became determined and well 'real'. On the wole I think she may have turned a few around and the last question and answer were a 'show stealer' and she made some emotional impact.

D Mick Weir

11/07/2011NormanK tut tut, [i](even if her make-up was awful) (or the lighting director got it wrong) (I suspect a right-wing conspiracy between the two).[/i] I would have thought that you would have known, given the choice between conspiracy and stuff up, take up stuff up and you'll be right almost every time. :P

NormanK

11/07/2011D Mick Weir Bugger! I forgot the emoticon!

Feral Skeleton

11/07/2011If you read nothing else over the next 24 hours, you must read this next link. It is the perfect companion piece to this post by Ad Astra: http://kainagata.com/2011/07/08/why-i-quit-my-job/

Feral Skeleton

12/07/2011This knocks Mr Abbott's Climate Change position into a cocked hat: http://climatechangeaction.org.au/inaction-risk/tony-abbott/

D Mick Weir

12/07/2011FS [i]'... if the PM got a hostile question she needed to spend a lot of the answer diffusing the aggressive intent of it before she got around to making her point in response. This tended to make some answers quite long-winded and less punchy.[/i] Good point, maybe that partly explains my 'tuning out'. Will cogitate that further. More better than worse, or something like that, overall as I see it. Lots of applause at the end but still some folded arms with a 'you'll never convince me b1+&h' looks though. Probably young libs.

macca

12/07/2011What I saw tonight on Q&A was a political leader explaining and defending the courage of her convictions. After watching it. My immediate thoughts were that if anybody writes this woman off they are in for one hell of a surprise. Another thought? Julia Gillard needs to stop suffering these fools. Many of the questions, undoubtedly written by Liberal heirachy and vested interests, were an insult to both the Prime Minister and the veiwing public. They were out and out "gotchas". That she batted them away with aplomb is of no consequence. The fact that they were asked is testament to the ingrained ABC agenda. The Prime Minister doesn't have a problem with the media. The media have a problem with the Prime Minister. Julia Gillard is a strong, courageous, principled woman. Thats the problem the media faces. Murdoch, and his lickspittles, have no understanding of a woman who; Rarely flinches in the face of vitriol. Can negotiate in good and honourable spirit. Can debate without the need to debase the forum. Has moulded a strong, effective ministry....just observe the body language at QT. Very strong, even Mr Rudd. Has the political knowhow to push through Nation building legislation. Has accepted and grasped the reality of a diverse parliament, and, in the nations interest, has made it work. The Murdoch medias' problem with Julia Gillard is that she scares them. They, cowards that they are, can't understand how she puts out the fires they light. They can't see why she hasn't folded and wont. I think it must be rather obvious that their direction comes from New York. But that will be changing sooner than anyone thinks. When you consider the very real possibility of News Int claws being clipped, both in the UK and USA an intriguing scenario opens up. When the inevitable inquiries start in the UK and the US and, hopefully, in Australia. The last thing that News Ltd(Aust) needs is a Government that they can't control. They need Abbott in the Lodge. Rupert needs Abbott in the lodge. Julia Gillard is standing in the way. The lickspittles are panicking. They are going to get more shrill, more viscious. Basically, more deranged. The Insiders on Sunday showed us that. It will be their downfall. This Govt isn't going anywhere for two years. Neither is Julia Gillard. Can the same be said for Rupert Murdoch?

Patricia WA

12/07/2011Thank you Macca! As someone tweeted during Q&A, [b][i]This country has a leader![/i][/b]

Feral Skeleton

12/07/2011PatriciaWA, We have Nick Davies, Alan Rusbridger & The Guardian to thank for putting Rupert Murdoch under the sort of pressure that no one else has ever been able to. And make his carefully-crafted facade start to crack. We can only hope that the British Prime Minister doesn't cover for him. It's for this reason that I agree with what Macca said. That is, if Rupert can see things going pear-shaped elsewhere in his empire then in his lizard brain he would be thinking about cementing himself into a bunker, and where else but Australia?

Lyn

12/07/2011 [b]TODAY’S LINKS[/b] [i]Desperate Tony Abbott is Being Marginalised on Carbon Tax Debate, Peter, Aussie Views News[/i] it’s socialism masquerading as environmentalism. Or if you prefer, it’s desperation pretending to be erudition,it’s opposition pretending to be discerning, it’s nothing pretending to be something. Forget it Tony. http://www.aussieviewsnews.com/2011/07/11/tony-abbott-marginalised-carbon-tax/ [i]Carbon Reds under the bed, The Conscience Vote[/i] It’s just that Abbott has come out from behind his rhetorical smokescreen this time. He isn’t bothering with weasel words or half-truths. And that may be his biggest mistake. Where people might listen to something that sounds plausible, resorting to ‘The Socialists are coming, hide thewomen and the silver!’ just sounds … well, it sound ridiculous. http://consciencevote.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/carbon-reds-under-the-bed/ [i]The good, bad and ugly of the carbon tax plan, Mungo MacCallum, The Drum[/i] It’s too much to expect that Abbott will shut up, so he can be challenged to put up. And just perhaps that would be a first step towards a genuine debate on an issue which is now back where it belongs: front and centre. http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2790266.html [i]Who is thinking of the Flint Knapper or Whaler, Wolf, Insert Cleve Title Here.[/i] The biggest grip I have is that all those that are opposed to the carbon tax are self interested groups. The groups that the Libs are playing a stuck record for. “Big Fat Tax”, “Toxic Tax” etc http://www.wolfcat.com.au/randomrants/2011/07/postid-1884/ [i]To Workers, employers – what’s the difference, Jeremy Sear, Pure Poison[/i] Why would someone dress up a pro-employer rant as some kind of defence of the workers? Why would they honestly do it, anyway? http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2011/07/11/workers-employers-whats-the-difference/ [i]The Carbon Tax We Had To Have, Ben Eltham, New Matilda[/i] Abbott and his frontbench will now be much less able to reflexively oppose everything the government says and does. The Opposition has had adream run in the media since Abbott gained the leadership, but that can’t last forever. http://newmatilda.com/2011/07/11/carbon-tax-we-had-have [i]BER – just the bad news please, Sandi Keane, Independent Australia[/i] But what shocked me was the total beat-up by the ABC, the public broadcaster, in a disgraceful disregardfor objective reporting.On that evening’s 7pm news and again on Lateline at 10.30pm, the ABC cherry-picked http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/media-2/just-the-bad-news-please/ [i]A local News of the World? What's to stop it? Jason Wilson, ABC[/i] We urgently need to have a conversation in Australia about guaranteeing a greater media diversity in the future, in the name of accountability,healthy competition and the maintenance of democracy. http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2790340.html?WT.mc_id=newsmail [i]Media ownership, not hacking, is the big story: in the UK and here, Trevor Cook[/i] Arguably, News Limited has even more power in Australia than it does in the UK. It has a newspaper monopoly in several major metropolitan markets(Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth), and it has a monopoly on pay TV. It has the only national broadsheet, and the two biggest selling newspapers in Melbourne and Sydney. http://trevorcook.typepad.com/weblog/2011/07/media-ownership-not-hacking-is-the-big-story-in-the-uk-and-here.html? [i]Come Now, There Are No Tabloids In Europe,Charles McPhedran, New Matilda[/i] News of the World is not simply about the bad behaviour of a single paper — but rather has become the symbol of the "manner in which the whole British media, the political class and the police relate to each other," http://newmatilda.com/2011/07/11/come-now-there-are-no-tabloids-europe [i]I feel sorry for Kerry Stokes, David Havyatt[/i] It is worth noting that the ownership in Sky News is NOT by the local News Limited, but by BSkyB - which in turn is part of News International (only controlled though - Murdoch is currently seeking full ownership). http://davidhavyatt.blogspot.com/ [i]News of the World scandal reverberates beyond the Murdoch empire, David McKnight, The Conversation[/i] the consolidation of Murdoch’s empire will be put on hold for some time. The events from the phone hacking are still unravelling and it’s not clear where and when they may end. http://theconversation.edu.au/news-of-the-world-scandal-reverberates-beyond-the-murdoch-empire-2256?utm [i]Why isn’t Rupert Murdoch in jail?, John, En Passant[/i] Greens leader Senator Bob Brown has called for an official inquiry into News Limited so that the Australian public can be satisfied that the company is fit to publish and broadcast in Australia and doesn’t follow its soul mates at the News of The World. http://enpassant.com.au/?p=10602 [i]Carbon Sunday: a good day for Julia Gillard,Fiona Sugden, Mamamia[/i] For the first time for many people, she really looked and spoke like the Prime Minister. She barely even glanced down at her notes because she knew what she wanted to say backwards.As one girl friend said to me, ‘today she really looks like the Prime Minister http://www.mamamia.com.au/news/carbon-sunday-a-good-day-for-julia-gillard/ [i]Carbon tax: let the games begin,Amber Jamieson, Crikey[/i] This is Julia Gillard’s finest achievement as a political fixer … She has become a carbon pricer, a tax reformerand a renewable energy champion rolled into one,” writes Paul Kelly in The Australian. http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/07/11/carbon-tax-let-the-games-begin/ [i]At Last, a tax they want you to avoid, Tim Colebatch[/i] a Robin Hood tax reform that will make lower and many middle-income earners better off butmake higher-income earners pay most of the cost of the carbon tax. http://colebatch.blogspot.com/2011/07/at-last-tax-they-want-you-to-avoid.html [i]Carbon tax deal comes at too great a cost, Solidarity Net[/i] The Gillard government is gambling that the compensation for households contained in the package will ensure people are not out of pocket. But John Howard’s modeling for the GST said the same thing, and there were still pensioners who were worse off. http://www.solidarity.net.au/web/carbon-tax-deal-comes-at-too-great-a-cost/ [i]carbon tax: going slow , Gary Sauer-Thompson, Public Opinion[/i] And there are heaps of subsidies and compensation to ease the political fallout on the Gillard Government byshowing that Abbott’s big scare campaign about the cost of living has been wrong and to de http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2011/07/carbon-tax-goin.php#more [i]Carbon Price Banter,Artneuro Weblog[/i] he’s going to look weak and powerless for not being able to stop it. All this talk of repealing it is not going to help his cause at the next election when the pricing will already be in place. So really, what the hell are you doing in politics, Mr. Abbott? http://artneuro.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/carbon-price-banter/ [i]So the carbon price means climate policy is sorted, right? Wrong…, Melissa Sweet, Croakey[/i] in the realm of physics and atmospheric chemistry, Abbott doesn’t matter, Monkton doesn’t matter, and Andrew Bolt doesn’t matter – atm http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2011/07/11/so-the-carbon-price-means-climate-policy-is-sorted-right-wrong/?utm [i]When Treasury modelled a minor change, Peter Martin[/i] “The changes to the Australian economy from pricing carbon are small by historical standards and small compared to the changes we are already seeing in our economy as it adjusts to accommodate the pressures of Mining Boom Mark II, http://www.petermartin.com.au/ [b]Has the Coalition concluded its Quigley witch-hunt, Renai LeMay, IT Wire[/b] the Coalition had let loose its attack dogs in full swing. Like a pack of oversized dire-wolves, Turnbull and his colleagues had bared their fangs and lunged for Quigley’s jugular while simultaneously trying to slice his hamstrings, in vicious attacks on theexecutive’s personal credibility which have variously been [b]labelled “a smear campaign”, “McCarthyism”, “a witch hunt”, “Godwin Grech re-visited” and worse[/b]. http://www.itwire.com/virtualisation/48395-has-the-coalition-concluded-its-quigley-witch-hunt

Feral Skeleton

12/07/2011Boy, am I glad I'm not Mike Quigley! I only got nipped at the ankles by Club Troppo and DMW. ;-)

Feral Skeleton

12/07/2011The latest Newspoll is, you guessed it, lead story on ABC. Sigh.

Michael

12/07/2011Tuesday's Bad Abbott You have to read all of this to get the flavour of it. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/abbott-challenges-pm-to-carbon-tax-debate-20110712-1hb79.html Stupid is as stupid does. Tiny Abbott would be trashed in a one-on-one debate with Julia Gillard, an event he could not walk out on or deny responding to points/questions as it played out. He would look and sound like the fool he is, and the words he uses in this article (where's Dubya when we need him?) "bring it on", and the lie he tells that the Prime Minister "runs away from debate in Parliament every other day", clearly indicate that testosterone is winning out over common sense somewhere between those flapping ears.

Ad astra reply

12/07/2011LYN'S DAILY LINKS updated: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/page/LYNS-DAILY-LINKS.aspx

D Mick Weir

12/07/2011... and now for something completely different. [b]Andrew Leigh[/b] praises and congratulates [b]John Quiggin[/b] for being bestowed [i]the Distinguished Fellow award from the Economic Society of Australia[/i] [i]John Quiggin is a rare beast. ... I can’t recall a conversation of substance with John in which didn’t learn something new – whether we were talking about water, education, crime or politics.[/i] PS Leigh got a gong as well.

D Mick Weir

12/07/2011... and now for something not so different A link to the post mentioned in my comment above @ 9:59 AM http://www.andrewleigh.com/blog/?p=1186 :$

Lyn

12/07/2011 Hi Ad Poor Julia Nice Journalists, I wonder how low Gemma Jones had to go to take this photo:- [quote]Political Tarot One of the worst article's I've ever read, courtesy of the Daily Telegraph. http://t.co/sklWCVG. #auspol[/quote] PM needs sole-searching of her own , Gemma Jones , The Telegraph Yesterday, she chose a pair of black court shoes with bows on the front, which were made from a polluting cow and arrived in Australia on a carbon-emitting jet from their country of manufacture -- China. To fly the PM's shoes to Australia, a jet plane would typically emit more than a tonne of carbon, and a cow can expel 120kg of gas a year, the same amount as a car. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/pm-needs-sole-searching-of-her-own/story-fn6b3v4f-1226092814035

D Mick Weir

12/07/2011Ad @ 7:00 PM (July 11) I take your point that I was 'on the wrong track' in using example of bias in my response. Let me do it this way: The challenge for all of us in answering your question is 'How can I objectively determine if the interviews were negative or rude?' Again we are dealing with something that is very subjective and subject to how see the world. Stephen Lazarus Graysun @ 5:42 PM quoted some things about NLP in particular: [i]In other words, our attitudes are, in a sense, a self-fulfilling prophecy.[/i] I suggest because we 'know' the ABC is negative we will tend to see more and more as negative and will be able to find more examples of that negativity where ever we look and often we will tend to overlook any 'positivity'. Does this make the assertion that there is [i](a) negativity syndrome that seems to be spreading through Our ABC[/i] wrong? No. That is a valid point of view but is it an accurate assessment of the state of play with regards the whole of the ABC? Realistically how can we objectively determine whether a particular interview/story is negative?

Lyn

12/07/2011Hi DM Weir On the Bias subject the ABC has lots of information, there has been a lot of analysis done. Go to their site and key in Bias on it's own or bias Coalition, or ABC Bias, there is 20 or so pages to read. I have collected some links that you may be interested in: Bias to the right? 'Yeah right' The Australian National University (ANU) study, which measured slant in Australian radio, television and newspapers between 1996 and 2007, found that newspapers favoured the left, radio favoured the right, and the media as a whole favoured the Coalition. John Howard and Peter Costello have berated the ABC for supposed left-wing bias, the study actually found that ABC television news was the most pro-Coalition of them all. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/03/2675819.htm Media favours Coalition, study finds When it came to editorial slant and donations by the media to political parties, the Coalition was laughing all the way to the polls Media companies donated significantly more money - 39 per cent more - to the coalition than to Labor. Every media company that donated favoured the Coalition. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/02/2674717.htm Guidelines to counter ABC bias claims "Impartiality is a long held expectation of our news coverage and news stories and news analysis are to be presented without favour. "The editorial policies now require all of the ABC to be impartial as a broadcaster and a generator of content." Mr Scott says the editorial policies will not lead to the ABC becoming a plaything for lobby groups demanding equal air time. He says not every lobby group can expect equal access, as the main aim will be to have the principle relevant views aired. "This is not, in essence, stopwatch driven impartiality in a sense where a clock is allocated and each group is given their slated time," he said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2006/10/16/1765713.htm Cheers happy reading :):):):):):):):):)

Ad astra reply

12/07/2011Folks It seems that the timing of this piece is propitious; the questioning of the interaction between the media and our politicians is now a hot topic of discussion, both here and overseas. Mixed into this is a vigorous discussion about Julia Gillard’s demeanour, her manner of speech, and her capacity to ‘get her message across’. This detracts from what she is trying to do – to reduce this nation’s carbon pollution, to transform to a low emissions economy, and to pull our weight as an international citizen in countering what is a serious global problem, a problem that too many blithely dismiss as too far away to occupy our thought now. I fear for future generations if this head-in-the-sand approach prevails. Thank you to all of you who have contributed overnight and this morning. I was greatly taken with what you had to say macca. The media has been trying to ‘get’ Julia Gillard since she began as PM, but it has failed. She presses on regardless, with guts and determination. She tossed off impertinent questions this morning about whether she will step down if the polls continue to be poor (Sabra Lane again) simply by insisting she is determined to get the carbon job done and will not be distracted from this. The impression that is growing in my mind is that the more the media and the Coalition try to hack her down, the more determined she is to get the job done. That macca is why she is infuriating them, as you point out. We have seen demonstrated in the UK the pernicious evil influence that the Murdoch media has had in UK politics for years, and every day more deplorable behaviour is exposed. While there seems to be no evidence yet that the phone hacking behaviour has infected News Limited here, we ought to look beyond that to the behaviour that phone hacking facilitates, that of influencing the direction politics takes. We know that Murdoch sees himself as a political kingmaker, preferring conservative to progressive governments. We know that he ruthlessly uses his outlets in the US, UK and here to achieve the political outcomes he wants. We hear from as senior a politician as the UK PM that politicians have been too close to the media, trying to curry favour and support during elections. This is not news to us although the admission is. We have seen how, through his flagship [i]The Australian[/i] he has waged a relentless war against successive Labor Governments with the purpose of bringing them down, and almost succeeded last election with attacks on the HIP, the BER, the stimulus package, the asylum seeker issue, and so on the list goes. That News Limited has not yet succeeded drives it still harder as frustration grows at PM Gillard’s persistence in the face of some of the most vitriolic criticism any PM in this country has had to face. While we have come to accept the antagonism of News Limited as par for the course, what infuriates me is that Our ABC has followed suit so slavishly, often repeating almost line-by-line News Limited headlines and replicating, even sometimes exceeding its aggression and negativity. We saw that yesterday with Sabra Lane’s interview with Wayne Swan, and again this morning with Julia Gillard. Rude, impertinent, disrespectful and aggressive are apt words to describe Sabra’s negative approach. This morning on 774 Melbourne ABC radio we had Raphael Epstein (substituting for Jon Faine) directing more negativity toward PM Gillard prompted by the Newspoll results. Last night on Q&A we saw more negativity, more impatience and even some disrespect from Tony Jones. I will comment more on that later as this comment is already long enough. I for one am proud of our PM and the job she is doing, and resent the continual sniping, the unremitting negativity that the ABC is currently exhibiting toward her. It seems groupthink has it that she is finished, she can never recover from the poor polling, that the vast majority of the population is against her and her carbon initiative, and that her political demise is nigh. Like chooks in the fowl yard that believe they have pecked her sufficient to cause blood to flow, they are going in for the kill. I have rescued fowls suffering from the pecked-chook syndrome – they can and do survive. Our PM is self-sufficient and can look after herself, but must be comforted by knowing that she does have both support and admiration from many in the community. She seemed surprised and almost embarrassed when some praised her last night, but she must have felt a glow inside after hearing those warm fuzzies. Let’s give her some more.

psyclaw

12/07/2011D Mick Weir It appears we were watching different channels last night....I watched the ABC qanda and saw a relaxed PM making good rapport with an audience that contained the usual ignoramouses. I don't understand your reference to the sunday news conference ....there she made a prepared speech. But on qanda she answered a large variety of questions, not of her design, and she answered them well, authoritatively, and off the cuff. Of course there were some common words and explanations......why on earth would she change her narrative now. The most ridiculous contribution for the night came from the young liberal at the front who naively ridiculed her "garbage" analogy. In my opinion it is a perfect analogy.....until councils began charging, we all dumped anything at all into the infinite bin with no thought of any environmental aspect....the tip was an unfillable entity which could take whatever we chucked. Or so we thought. That's the essence of the carbon problem....big emitters pump their "garbage" ie carbon into the (presumed) infinite vessel called the atmosphere. Sadly ABC news has been playing that "ridiculous analogy" grab over and over today. I thought that the best gauge of JG's performance were the tweets praising JG. I can't remember a qanda when the tweets were so overwhelmingly in accord with each other and so positive to one person. Her dodging the question of a debate with Abbott was most wise and her reason very valid....it would be impossible to debate him because he refuses to recognise the information provided by credible scientists about AGW per se, and the information provided by credible economists about solutions.

D Mick Weir

12/07/2011Hi Lyn thanks for those links. The first two were stories related to the Gans / Leigh study that I linked to above. Some interesting comments and points of view. The third I don't find helpful in that it is really only a press release on what the ABC says it was doing. To re-inforce my point that some used it to be 'holier than thou' the last line in the [b]Media favours Coalition, study finds[/b] story. Try the last line: [i]The ABC's Radio National was the only media outlet to score dead even when it came to favouring left-leaning or right-leaning intellectuals.[/i]

D Mick Weir

12/07/2011psyclaw @ 12:13 PM thanks for your comment. We were watching the very same QandA. That your interpretation of the PM's performance differs from mine confirms a point. We all see it differently, we use our own 'glasses' to filter it. You are no doubt better informed than I on the psychology of this and could inform our understandings and help us to be a little more objective if that is what we want. To be a little flippant, [i]It's all relative and it totally depends on who your relatives are.[/i]

NormanK

12/07/2011My days would be brighter if we had more contributions like this one. [b]Carbon tax: you all better get used to it[/b] by Nicholas Stuart [quote]It's time to accept the science - and the carbon tax - and get on with shouldering the burden of trying to alleviate climate change. No matter how loud the shouting, raving and complaints of those standing on the sidelines, this is going to become the new reality no matter what Tony Abbott says. The Opposition took a calculated risk when it decided not to accept seats on the committee that designed the tax; now it's been marginalised. The carbon tax will pass through Parliament.[/quote] http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/carbon-tax-you-all-better-get-used-to-it/2223387.aspx?storypage=0

Patricia WA

12/07/2011I thought the little boy at the end of Q&A program, the grateful grandad and the clutch of cheerful young conservationists, offer most hope for the success of the PM as she travels around the country. I've commented earlier this morning at LP that someone should organise as many 'stunts' as possible for Julia Gillard with cameramen around to show her surrounded by smiling, grateful children and appreciative old folk, cheered on by trendy teenagers and twenty somethings. She wouldn't need to rent-a-crowd either. I wonder how much the audience last night appreciated how positive and constructive the Prime Minister was throughout the inquisition to which she was subjected. She rarely mentioned Abbott except when asked and only briefly talked about 'scare tactics' and even at the last she refrained from complaining about adverse media when that delightful young boy, who approves of the carbon pricing plan, asked her if it was the right thing to do, why was Abbott winning. What a pity she couldn't tell him the truth, that Abbott's lead in the polls, his ruthless scare campaign aside, was because he has overwhelmingly favorable media coverage. That supportive coverage emanates from News Ltd controlled newspapers, radio and TV outlets, which are largely owned by Rupert Murdoch, who is bent on blocking global action on climate change.

Jason

12/07/2011Normank, This is also good reading!he may be talking about the UK, but just as relevant here. So the right-wing papers run endless exposures of benefit cheats, yet say scarcely a word about the corporate tax cheats. They savage the trade unions and excoriate the BBC. They lambast the regulations that restrain corporate power. They school us in the extrinsic values – the worship of power, money, image and fame – which advertisers love but which make this a shallower, more selfish country. Most of them deceive their readers about the causes of climate change. These are not the obsessions of working people. They are the obsessions thrust upon them by the multimillionaires who own these papers. http://www.monbiot.com/2011/07/11/a-hippocratic-oath-for-journalists/

Lyn

12/07/2011Hi psyclaw I am thoroughly enjoying your comments, what a brilliant opinions you have posted, you have such an honest genuine insight, thankyou very much. I too was delighted by the qanda tweets and agree with you, they were positive and factual. [quote]I can't remember a qanda when the tweets were so overwhelmingly in accord with each other and so positive to one person.[/quote] Julia's garbage analogy, was fabulous I thought, should have been easy for the forgotten Australians to understand. That young Liberal was rude and sounded stupid. The CSIRO or Alan Jones comment, Julia thought that was funny,so did the audience. Julia answered all the questions both friendly and hostile, she showed her strengths, she was confident and Tony Jones did not upset her at all. Julia Gillard acted lovely, she looked lovely, she is lovely. Keep your posts coming most enjoyable. Cheers :):):):):):):):)

Lazarus

12/07/2011Morning thought storm:- Today, in introspection room, without looking and linking just thinking! Q:? What today in modernity is the difference between:- A Suffragette? A feminist? A liberated woman? DMW puts me to heart with the following,[quote] “Somewhere things turned. I think it was about the time the 82 year old said 'thank-you PM' she turned to Jones in what appeared to be embarrassment almost didn't know what to say and become momentarily 'human'.”[/quote] And I recall the “not an X-Box question”, and tear up. So much I watched last night reflected the process in a TV of what I also see around me on easy to mould minds. <<<Note dual definition< Living in the “marginalised life and mind” of the Adelaide north described in a previous post. I’m used to living in a concrete Labor seat. To use a pendulum analogy, Sorry asperser mind eye I hope you can follow as I’m trying to also see if I understand how politics uses this device also:- 1998, definite Labor around the usual what I’m calling for sake of this 90-deg right or usual status quo… 2001, Still labor, (little “l” intentional) but the lift is going and I will use an observational, conversationally derived 60 degrees. Tampa at this time was divisive but the but this seat was still obviously not needing advocacy amongst voting malleable minds. 2002 through 2004 BABY BONUS, and I’m running around saying “their just buying your votes”, kept the votes but also see the results in said anomie around me. And now the pendulum swings constantly but still slowly and passes that lowest ebb point, swinging through the bottom 120 degrees, still got 30 maybe leaning Labor’s way. 2007 and all the mess was becoming evident around me, lots of “support”, encouragement structures around me created to seemingly buy the lower middle classes votes. By giving them upper middle class jobs in lower class suburbs. Anybody else remember an old English lore? Fornicate Under Command of the King! Although this old lore legitimised sex with pubescent girls for “noble men” way back when (maybe 1000 years ago, thats a great great grand ma story), on a sociological level locally, a modern analogy I could apply. These “Support structures” constantly now “coun-sell” said malleable minds. Hard working many, but many not bright, the hand that feeds the one that needs hope is also the mouth that feeds said hope to the mind. So now they are wrestling with their life experience that cannot be deleted from their hard drive of life. But in analogy someone is feeding their mind, “Cognitive behavioural therapy”!!! (CBT) Like a virus it unfolds the anomie within said minds’, look back at the faces at QandA and maybe you can experience said anomie, vicariously? Ever ponder that maybe CBT could be their Liberal splash of modern mind control? A modern version of an old tool, I posted NLP previously to show the beginnings of this Big Brother scenario I see playing out before me… Tell you people, they have been doing this to me (NLP,CBT) all my life, ok when it is done by a mom with love, But?!. I’ll let you finish that sentence for yourself… (lol another good one mom) And now the pendulum swings through maybe 180 degrees seemingly in cycle to when a “support serve-us”, puts maybe food on a table. Feeds the mammonites fable by putting other “support structures”, (usually run by the same organisation) agendas on the persons do list table as a way to get out of this social under-class. A self-recycling engine of misery was created in my experience that will take a person only so far into Max Webers’ Iron Cage. Then let them drop back into seemingly controlled unemployment. Abject misery to be “healed” or recycled seemingly using CBT. For analogie sake lets call this stage “mind”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy What we once called competency and deviancy cycles, I think these self-explanatory but if not please ask. I don’t advocate either tool here as good or bad either, just a question of who weilds these things and how! Like the scalpel can kill and cure. Iron Cage? Umm Would hope that would not need explaining here , but mom says reference so see:- http://sd-5.archive-host.com/membres/up/3262206863616248/DiMaggio_et_Powell_1983.pdf [quote][b]“THE IRON CAGE REVISITED: INSTITUTIONAL ISOMORPHISM AND COLLECTIVE RATIONALITY IN ORGANIZATIONAL FIELDS PAUL J. DIMAGGIO WALTER W. POWELL [/b][quote] Yale University OPENS:- What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative-leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change. “ [/quote] Opening:- <quote> In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber warned that the rationalist spirit ushered in by asceticism had achieved a momentum of its own and that, under capitalism, the rationalist order had be-come an iron cage in which humanity was, save for the possibility of prophetic revival, imprisoned "perhaps until the last ton of fossilized coal is burnt" (Weber, 1952:181-82). <quote> [/quote]NOW THIS PENDULUM SWINGS LIKE 270 DEGREES AFTER EVERY APPEARANCE OF A POLY ON TV. Talk about an engine for mental illness. Tony has male minds as he plays <vomit> "worker", whilst the fe-mail, thus child focused, still "loves" Howard for his "compassion". Some big TV poly nights end up around here in broken marrage. Poly? Dead Parrot Sketch! And no joke! Thus I put forward that I observe the “retarded”, “crippled” “insane” Et-Al Ad-Infinitum, Ad-Nauseam by reason of becoming both an economic and political recourse. Mom wrote at Get up:- “So yes I am obviously from the Humanist model, objective being engaging humanity in its own evolution toward humane-ity. Q:? how would you make clinical depression? Perhaps picking somebody up… Then letting them fall… Time & TIME AND TIME AND TIME AGAIN!!!!!! Ever read the experiments the Nazis did on the Hebrew people, by telling them the war is over and letting them out, only to herd them up again latter? By the process of operant conditioning, and after maybe 2 weeks if memory serves, they would wake up smiling and expecting emancipation each day, though the gates now would not be opening again. I’m sure you may find an old “Data Set” out there somewhere if your game to look.” Bandler and Grindler would not have condoned this practice I’m sure, but I know it was part of their beginning theory! And the TV is now doing this same process constantly. Seemingly one talks to the heart. Like the mom who would not give you all your pocket money at once. Julia and her baby bonus reform! Agreed whole heartedly Julia, but try selling it around here to someone who is afflicted by this Mammonism?.. The Vexation actually being more like the Grandparent of perhaps a sperm (or egg)donor who laments after his childs’ “lost ways”. This “BAD ABBOTT… (Michael, thanks for the smiles and think tank), or BAD HOWARD”, seemingly like this “GRAND PARENT” who buys the attention by throwing money at the grand child. Ever wonder how so many P plated at 16 get around in brand new cars around the slums of Adelaide!? Toorak Gardens Grandparents I call them. Always ready with a lawyer for the grandchild of their child. Who ended up slum to get away from said sad manipulation and control in the first place. But still addicted to the lifestyle they were brought up in. The money can really fly around here sometimes, speaking to greed, ego and/or mind. And the social control system here that works is implemented by the “Out-Laws”, who else can control a 21 YO ADHD, asperger or simular, who has just been taken off Dr prescribed Amphetamine and put onto some anti-psychotic. Dr saying, there will be a settling in period of maybe 3 months. Umm am I the only one seeing this pattern? Vastly easier to join up as a prospect with you’re local mates and put your son back on amphetamines for yourself. Believe me more survive this way. Glad to be middle aged and missed that little piece of human vivisection first hand. So all of a sudden at times like the one DMW pointed out above, deja-vu as I read it again, I see Julia the person and love her dearly for trying to re-map all this mess. Yes Julia is human, perhaps too much so in juxtaposition to Howard. Perhaps a humane being and Prime Minister need significant melding together. But I see a certain pragmatic ideology now instilled around me, the quest for the magical iron cage”. But first a whole complete new data set is going to need re-compiling. And with Julia seems to have come “Acceptance Commitment Therapy”(ACT), both in psychology and seemingly politically. As somebody who lives and works in this field now as volunteer and “CONSUMER”, the creation process of said data set I described on Sunday here. Lets call ACT heart for above-mentioned juxtaposition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance_and_commitment_therapy But Julia, when you made the X-Box remark, that youth held back indignation and was seeking validation for being the young adult. If you look back at the video maybe you can experience this vicariously also. In comparison, Daughter and Mother got an alternate Julia. Dare I say more like woman to woman! Reflect now on the Daughter and her validation, like a second take, and the mother/daughter interaction, vicariously! I dare say He may not support an ETS, whilst She will go forth and advocate as best she can with what she has gotten from her paragon. And I would add both are probably considering whether to procreate or not within their being. An endogenous expression of anomie in an educated pair I am seeing expressed in their questions. So to see also the old man validating in acceptance and commitment to the ETS, so obviously spun back to a taxx. (4 letter word), was to watch Julia being validated. And obviously She was not expecting it, and that kudos cretin (I wont validate it by using it’s mind manipulating name) methinks did it intentionally as a way of manipulation. Validate, In-validate…Validate, Invalidate, and with each cycle the map of the mind is being drawn in this experience around me. I am watching it on a daily basis these days. Last night and QandA a microcosm, of the national macrocosm. There ye be mom, big sophistic words, gee I’m clever. So how too make the populace feel Julia’s word and thus her truth becomes the question I believe. Like perhaps the truth so many felt with Gough or Ben. I wonder how many felt Ben Chifley’s words in the “Light of the hill speech”, Julia is seeking the Heart light again of us all, through a darkness of mind miasma, I’m going to call a “Star of Wormwood” fall, who has a “Star of Solomon” (Islands) again? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_Solomon_Islands The Aussie Buy Bull Of Lazarus De G, Revaluation 1:1 “And Howard reined down sacred pentacles… (Insert as you wish in your observation & experiance)…. & the Men their hearts may grow bitter, and wither and die… $$$$$$$PENTACLES IN TAROT =$$$$$$$ "And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter." (Revelation 8:10, 11 - KJB). Particular to Patricia WA, but also Returning to the poised question at the top of the page, see if you can get your head around mom’s little “is gender the agenda” rant and rave here and maybe you will see where we are coming from. http://suggest.getup.org.au/forums/60819-getup-campaign-suggestions/suggestions/1067693-same-sex-marriage?page=2&tracking_code=dcff15efed6e4522129b15f3c7d1d0cb Going to shut up now, not speaking unless spoken to till sunday. I know I’m not the only Wiccan in here, feel my words, feel my truth… Lazarus LOL captcha lotto, I have "Employees allssa" like all's SA PS admin Ad Astra, cant get preview happening here??!! otherwise i would. Using modzilla firefox on xp sp3 if that has any meaning?

Ad astra reply

12/07/2011Lazarus Thank you for your contribution. Preview works for me using Safari and Internet Explorer and Firefox. Hover the cursor over the word 'Preview' and click. You will not see a 'hand' appear when you hover as is usually the case, as BlogEngine.NET does not have that feature. But it still works with just the cursor hovering. Once you have previewed, hover your cursor over the word 'Comment' and click to return to the previous screen; then click the 'Save comment' button. Please try again and let me know how you go.

Casablanca

12/07/2011Now for the really bad news, or at least, to have our worst fears confirmed. According to researchers at University of Western Australia “The effect of misinformation on memory and reasoning cannot be completely eliminated, even after it has been corrected numerous times” See Setting the record straight almost impossible at http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/07/11/3265013.htm?site=science&topic=human. This research underscores the difficulty for Labor of cutting through with the correct details on the Carbon Price policy to replace all the incorrect information that has been broadcast relentlessly by Abbott and the MSM.

Dorothea and lazarus

12/07/2011Nope, mom get the option but i dont, like the avatar im thinking delete cookies. then if mom decides to come back then she will feel "in-validated". Guess i can stick to my word processor and classic schooling for me, Like 15 yo grade 3 :-) As above, so below... To delete. Thanks anyhow ad astra

NormanK

12/07/2011This interview the PM did with the ever-punchable Neil Mitchell is well worth a listen/watch. Ms Gillard in fine form. Once again, apologies to those on the Malcolm Turnbull Superior Wireless Broadband Network. http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/neil-mitchell-blog/it-all-comes-down-to-trust/20110711-1hafl.html Jason & Feral Skeleton Two superb links today. Thank-you. Lyn Thank-you (as ever). What a great list of links. My eyes are sore but my brain is happy. :D

Lyn

12/07/2011Hi NormanK I am so pleased you are happy, the Newspoll this morning was enough to depress everyone. You know I am all the more dubious about these polls than I ever was, after all they are designed to sell newspapers or to elect and destroy Governments. Anyway at least all us TPS people, as Talk Turkey said yesterday, we are all well informed, we all sure know what's going on out there. I see Mr Abbott and Co saying upsetting stuff about the Greens again this morning. Seeing they are a hearbeat away from being in Government it hasn't occurred to them they may need the Greens on side. mansilloLuke Mansillo by kurtrudder Brown has challenged Abbott to a debate on the details of the #carbontax Is Abbott Chicken? This is an extensive infographic showing Rupert Murdoch's enormous global media holdings all over the world: http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00622/newscorp-graphic_622942a.jpg Cheers :)::):):)

Steve

12/07/2011Q&As Tony Jones always rigs a few nasty questions - he thinks it gives his show "gravitas". The four young Liberals in the front row gave young people throughout Australia a bad name as they did not bother to listen to our Prime Minister but instead gave us their very best cynical look. The woman who had difficulty with English comprehension was a hoot though as she kept asking the Prime Minister to not use big words and answer in words of one syllable. She had to be a Liberal plant to throw the PM off her response. It would have worked with Abbott.

Jason

12/07/2011From the Daily Telegraph http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/facts-dont-count-for-gillard/story-e6frezz0-1226091395038 I KNOW it's Sunday, but the truth compels me to pull out the pin, and burst a bubble. At least my opinion about the truth does anyway. Today's announcement of the key carbon tax details will not be the beginning of a turnaround in the fortunes of the carbon tax, or the fortunes of the government. If you are lover of informed and considered policy debate you may be disappointed to hear it, but the quaint era of facts and figures (even tasty ones about compensation) being the dominant player in major public debates is over. In a media cycle dominated by opinion, facts and figures have gone the way of mixed tapes and hyper colour T-shirts. Revered by an idiosyncratic few; but abandoned by most of the populous. In the good old days (three or four years ago), when fact-based news still dominated politics, facts and figures mattered because of the influence they had over news content. Facts are the dominant currency of news, so when the government released positive facts and figures, those details were dutifully, and often positively, reported. That flow of news still exists today; the details announced by Gillard today will be in the fact-based news cycle tomorrow. But the problem for the government is that the importance of the fact-based news cycle is rapidly diminishing. The rise of the opinion cycle means the days of reforms, like the carbon tax, sinking or rising on nothing but a tide of fact-based news stories are over. Tomorrow morning listen to a bit of talk back radio, watch a bit of Sky News Agenda, flick through a few auspol tweets, or click through a few comments on the Punch, if you want to better understand exactly what I am talking about. The facts announced today will be bobbing around on the surface of the media cycle tomorrow. But it's opinions that form the currents and eddies of that ocean. These opinion-based shows, and websites, and social media platforms, don't just need facts to keep on cycling, they also need constantly refreshed divisions of opinion. They are not just partial to opinion, for many, boring and stodgy old facts don't really work well with their rapidly evolving business models. Facts make panel debates dull, and talk-back calls monotonous. Twitter's 140 characters don't really leave you much room for accurate charts and detailed figures. The prime minister could stand up today and read out the name and address of every single person who was going to be compensated and it wouldn't make a huge difference; because it's insults and accusations, not facts and figures, that matter in the opinion cycle. Many senior politicians, on both sides of the fence, have sensed this change. But much of the analysis about politics, and major political events, has not yet adjusted. That is why there is still so much anticipation and excitement around the budget, and why so much optimistic ink has been spilled in anticipation of today's announcement. The theory of politics hasn't yet adjusted to the fact, that in the opinion cycle, facts and figures don't really matter. In one of those moments of synchronicity that columnists pray for, as I was writing this column on Friday afternoon, I received a call from one of the commercial TV networks. A very polite producer enquired if I would be available to be the "Labor voice" on their Sunday Night Carbon Tax News Special. After being informed that I would be matched with a conservative columnist, I asked for more details. The producer replied, matter of factly, that the format of the "argument" had not yet been finalised. When columnists - not experts - become the go-to TV talking heads to respond to a major economic policy announcement, you know the importance of facts in political news is rapidly diminishing. In February, when Gillard announced the carbon tax, I wrote that it was the best decision she had made as prime minister. Despite the tsunami of bad polls and negative media coverage that has followed, I stand by that analysis. Despite all the bumps and bruises along the way, the carbon tax is still the richest source of prime-ministerial credibility Gillard has located. If the government's luck remains as elusive as it has been, that credibility may just be the last best hope for the Gillard government. Tony Abbott's performance on the 7.30 Report on Monday night made it crystal clear that lack of policy credibility is by far his biggest weakness. The tables will turn for carbon tax and, in the end, it will pay political dividends for the government. But today will not be the start of that payback. Lachlan Harris is co-founder of One Big Switch and was Kevin Rudd's senior press secretary between 2006 and 2010

Ad astra reply

12/07/2011Folks Now to pick up on last night’s Q&A. Let me begin by acknowledging that we all have our unique perceptions of every event we witness, from which we form our opinions. We are entitled to voice our opinions and reasonably expect that they will be respected, even if they differ from those of others. Given that caveat, let me give you my perceptions and opinions. Last night I thought Julia Gillard performed admirably in the face of several nasty questions and comments, all of which she handled with assurance and poise. She did not appear to me to be rattled, nonplussed or unable to answer. I doubt if I could have maintained equanimity in the circumstances, where she faced lamentable ignorance, misinformation and disrespect. I did not notice her makeup or the lighting so I cannot comment. Her dress was dignified and certainly not distracting. She may have been nervous, but I didn’t detect it. To be calm in that environment would speak volumes about her composure. How did she answer questions? I can only speak for myself, but I understood every word she uttered, but then I always have and am mystified when I see others unable to do so. Perhaps that’s my problem – to me she consistently speaks commonsense. I can’t speak for how others hear her. Some had difficulty staying tuned in. By contrast, I was riveted by every word she uttered and by what others said too – this was a crucial political event. This is yet another example of different perceptions of the same event. Had she rehearsed her lines? Of course she had. Knowing that she would have to give impromptu answers and that some questions would be curly, she would have work-shopped possible questions and appropriate answers. As Mark Twain said: “[i]It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.”[/i] Were the lines the same as she had used before? Of course they were. There are only so many ways that one can say the same thing, yet when lines are repeated, instead of applauding consistency, some see them as boring or just sticking to the script. To do otherwise would invite a ‘she’s all over the place’ criticism. A member of the audience (the young woman with her Mum) astonished me by asking what all this talk of carbon was about, then admonishing Julia for not explaining it in simple terms, like Tony Abbott does, in words she can understand. She was pleasant enough, but I wondered where she had been all her life seemingly with no idea about carbon, carbon pollution, greenhouse effects and consequent global warming. She reaffirmed why I would never be a politician, having to cope with such ignorance. But there is here a deeper issue than ignorance. She wanted the PM’s messages to be simple and easy to understand like Tony Abbott’s, echoing what we hear from the media. Just think of that. The PM is expected to explain the complexities of climate change, the reasons why we must act decisively and now to save the planet, why we must pull our weight as a global citizen, the complex mechanism of placing a price on carbon leading to a cap and trade emissions trading scheme that will operate on a world market, the consequences of that action to polluters, trade exposed industries, other businesses, farmers and consumers, the arrangements that are planned to facilitate a transition to a low carbon economy, the plans to encourage the development of renewable energy sources, the sectors that are to be excluded such as domestic users and light business from petrol excise, and farming, and finally the effects that will flow through to consumers and how they will be compensated. Pretty simple isn’t it! Yet the only messages Tony Abbott has to get across, without the need for any explanation, are that this is another GBNT, a toxic tax, that we will all be rooned, that countless jobs will be lost, that ghost towns will be created, that the cost will go up and up and up, that there will be all pain for no environmental gain, and of course No, No, No…. You pick which is easier. Yet have you seen or heard anyone in the MSM pointing out the massive difference between explaining a complex plan and endlessly chanting plausible slogans, the veracity of which goes quite unchallenged. If anyone can craft simple, plausible, understandable and memorable Abbott-style messages for Julia to use to explain the complexities of the carbon plan, let’s see them here. I thought the young man who chastised our PM for a poor ‘garbage’ analogy reflected the disrespect that the incessant media and Coalition campaign has induced in her opponents, such that a kid still wet behind the ears felt he could put down our PM in public. He was wrong, but that is not the point. It was his impertinence and lack of respect that was so appalling. Tony Jones was his usual impatient gotcha-seeking self. He seems quite unwilling or unable to allow the audience to run the questions; he feels compelled to put his bib in and press some issues about which he thinks he can score a point or look clever or achieve a gotcha. He even pressed the childish ‘can you guarantee’ line. I despair whether he will ever grow up and realize that no politician is going to fall for that. I thought he was rude to her when he said that he wanted shorter answers so he could get in more questions as if she was there simply to enable him to pepper her with more and more questions hoping for a stumble, or should I say in journalistic parlance, ‘a gaffe’. I thought too that his attitude was negative and testy towards her. Others may disagree. There were some delightful spots, when a couple of older men congratulated her, when the young people applauded what she was doing, and when at the end the young lad commended her for trying to make this planet a better place for his children and theirs. So accustomed is she to dodging brickbats that when something positive was said, she seemed almost embarrassed, like a young person unexpectedly thrown a compliment. One aspect that I found pleasing was the number of positive tweets that came in during the show, many more than is usual. Likewise, on ABC radio this morning, as I perceived it, there were more positive comments from talkback callers than negative, many expressing admiration for the PM’s courage. One older lady, a past teacher, said that in all her long experience she had not witnessed a better performance. And this was despite the radio presenter being pretty negative himself. Several expressed ‘it’s about time’ sentiments. No doubt the commercial shock jocks made a meal of her presentation, but although these ABC comments may be just a few straws blowing in the wind, I wonder is the breeze changing direction, leaving weathervane Abbott not knowing which way to point. Did you notice how sombre, even disbelieving were the expressions on the faces of the audience, at least those we saw? Why was this? We know that the audience was ALP 36%, Coalition 47% and Greens 10%. On that basis one would have expected around half the faces to be showing signs of appreciation or approval, even pleasure, or at least receptive concentration. I didn’t count, but there seemed to be a predominance of grim, disbelieving, ‘you can say all you like but I won’t believe you’ looks. I know that some will think me paranoid to suggest that the focus was deliberately on the disapproving, but it was curious that there were so few happy, smiling and approving looks transmitted to the viewing audience. I am in accord with what psyclaw has written and his view of the way the ABC played the Q&A reporting this morning, focusing on the negatives and ignoring the positives, linking it all to today’s Newspoll. If any of you out there wish to convince me that the ABC is not largely negative to Julia Gillard and what she is trying to do, argue your case. There’s more – our own Sabra again. That’s next.

Jason

12/07/2011Rupert Murdoch's new movie http://www.flickr.com/photos/64041833@N04/5928915539/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Gravel

12/07/2011Ad Astra I heard that interview with Wayne when it happened. Thank you for agreeing with my thoughts on it. I mostly tuned out for the Abbott one as I knew just what to expect and after reading your interpretation I was right. Feral Skeleton Thank you so much for your response to my request. In my ignorance I did not know the history of where Julia was speaking at. I am even more overwhelmed now that I know all that. Julia came across as just spectacular and I enjoyed watching her on the TV. I am running behind today so hope to get to read everyone's response to Ad Astra's post tomorrow.

Ad astra reply

12/07/2011Folks I’m not sure how much more I need to write to convince you of the negativity of at least some sections of the ABC. Now I’m not here today to debate whether the ABC is more negative to Labor than the Coalition, just to demonstrate what to my mind is flagrant negativity, once more from Sabra Lane interviewing PM Gillard on AM this morning. If you feel she was balanced and fair, so be it. If you wish to read the whole transcript and hear the interview it is here: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2011/s3267305.htm In the interests of brevity I will omit much of what the PM said and instead highlight Sabra’s edifying questions. SABRA LANE: Prime Minister, good morning. Is the problem for you that voters aren't listening to the details of your compensation in this package; they're still stuck on your broken promise?

 [b]Nothing like a condescending, rude start to get the interview going.[/b] JULIA GILLARD: I'll keep explaining the details and what this is all about. It's about cutting carbon pollution… So it's…

 SABRA LANE (interrupting): But you could explain all these points…

 JULIA GILLARD: …about the future and I'll keep explaining it.

 SABRA LANE: You could explain these points until you're blue in the face but people just don't seem to listen or want to listen to what you've got to say; don't you have a political problem here?

 [b]Another dose of arrogant rudeness and impertinence. What is the point of the question other than to express Sabra’s view? She knows Julia is not going to answer in the affirmative. So is she trying to get her on the defensive where she may make a gaffe?[/b] JULIA GILLARD: Well Sabra, long after today's opinion polls are forgotten we will be a nation that is cutting carbon pollution and tackling climate change. 

Climate change threatens our country… 
SABRA LANE: You mentioned the polls, Newspoll figures today show that you and Labor are deeply unpopular - your primary vote is at 27 per cent. Your colleagues say that if there's no lift in that in the next couple of weeks it will show that voters are not listening, and if that continues for months that your Government's as good as gone.

 [b]Another acerbic taunt in which Sabra delights, but not really a question.[/b] JULIA GILLARD: Well this is about the future of the country and making the right choices for that future. Reform isn't easy Sabra, it can be tough, tough to deliver, tough to explain… [b]No joy there for Sabra, so she tries another tack – renters who can’t change light bulbs would you believe![/b] SABRA LANE: In your compensation package for families, most of it seems to be skewed towards those with a mortgage, with kids out in the suburbs who have the means to change their behaviour. What about renters, they can't go and change light-bulbs, they can't go and install solar panels?

 JULIA GILLARD: Well we will be working with low income communities through a low carbon communities initiative, which is part of the package. It will be a way of bringing to people who may be renting in lower income households the tools that they need to reduce the amount of carbon pollution they generate in their lives.

 SABRA LANE: But not all renters are low income workers either.

 [b]Sabra is not going to let go of the ‘renters’ line’.[/b] JULIA GILLARD: Well Sabra let's be very clear about this package though, the price is going to be paid by around 500 big polluters…Yes, there will be some flow-through price impacts for households. They will be modest, at less than 1 per cent of the cost of living of the Consumer Price Index… [b]‘Modest’ is irresistible to Sabra.[/b] 
SABRA LANE: Some families will say though that $500 isn't a modest impact at all. You paid a visit to a family in Western Sydney yesterday who were quite supportive of your package, why not visit a family who isn't and convince them of your argument?

 JULIA GILLARD: I went to Western Sydney yesterday, I met with a family in their own home… then I went from there to the local shopping centre and walked through and talked to literally hundreds of people with different views about different issues, including different views about pricing carbon… [b]Not much joy there for Sabra so she switches to the old chestnut, mines.[/b] 

SABRA LANE: What about coal mines? Will you be visiting them as well as Tony Abbott? Some of the loudest criticism of your package has come from the coal industry; it still maintains that 5,000 jobs will be lost. Do you believe them?

 JULIA GILLARD: I'll be talking to people in different occupations in different places around the country. 

But I'm really glad that you've raised the future of coal because today's newspapers record, the front page of the Australian particularly, that we are seeing the biggest takeover bid in Australia's history for a coal company. Now you couldn't get a better indication that business people see a good future in coal mining in this country. I see a good future in coal mining in this country…

 SABRA LANE: So do you think they've been crying wolf?

 JULIA GILLARD: We will be working with the coal mining industry. We've got $1.3 billion in the package to work with gassy mines and we will continue to see employment in coal mining grow.

 [b]Looking for a gotcha, she is not going to let the ‘crying wolf’ line go unanswered.[/b] SABRA LANE: So Prime Minister do you think that they've been crying wolf? Do you think that they've been truthful in their arguments?

 JULIA GILLARD: I think it does pay, when you're looking at businesses, to track where the money's going. And where's the money going today? Well it's going into buying an Australian mining business. People would only do that if they thought it had a great future.

 [b]Good answer without getting trapped. So Sabra takes another turn, the small business woman she spoke to yesterday, as we say in the research game an ‘n’ of one’, from which Sabra extrapolates wildly.[/b] SABRA LANE: Regarding uncertainty, I spoke with a small business woman last night, she lives in Wollongong and was hoping to expand her business to employ five to six more people, but she won't now because of the uncertainty and questions over costs to her business. As they rely on aluminium products, isn't this kind of thing happening right across the country?

 JULIA GILLARD: There's more certainty now than there was before Sunday. The package is there for everyone to see. People can look at it, think about what they will do as we price carbon from the 1st of July next year… [b]Nothing there for Sabra, so she pulls the ‘consensus’ line out of the bag.[/b] 

SABRA LANE: Last year you said you'd only put a price in place if there was a deep and lasting consensus on climate action. 30 per cent support is not a deep and lasting consensus is it?

 JULIA GILLARD: Well change is difficult. Reform is difficult. I talked to the Australian people about walking the reform road and I do that because this nation is a better place today because hard reforms were faced up to yesterday.

 We've got the same obligation for our nation's future, we've got to face up to the hard decisions today, like putting a price on carbon pollution and tackling climate change, driving investment in renewables.

 So Sabra, I'll continue to be out there explaining it, but we've debated pricing carbon for more than a decade now. The time has come to get this done and we will get it done from the 1st of July next year.

.. [b]Sabra can’t make much of this so she goes back to the polls to see if she can get her to hint that she might resign if they don’t improve. [/b] SABRA LANE: Prime Minister, returning to the polls, the numbers are dire for the party and you personally. Would there come a time when you'd countenance for your party's sake, stepping aside for someone else?

 JULIA GILLARD: Sabra, I will be leading this country to a clean energy future. That's what I'm determined to do… [b]But Sabra is not satisfied, so she tries again.[/b] 

SABRA LANE: Would there ever come a time that you would that? Last year, when you took on the prime ministership you said you were putting your party first; would you do that again and step aside?

 JULIA GILLARD: I'm putting my nation first and that's why I'm leading us to the clean energy future that this country needs.

 [b]Touché.[/b] SABRA LANE: Prime Minister thanks for your time.

 If the words don’t speak negativity to you, try listening to her voice. http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2011/s3267305.htm What do you think? Am I imagining all this?

TalkTurkey

12/07/2011Lazarus quoted *St* John *"the Divine*": "And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter." (Revelation 8:10, 11 - KJB). Doesn't it just blow you out though that the Russian word for Wormwood is [i]Chernobyl![/i] (confirmed.) www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/.../chernobyl_wormwood.htm

2353

12/07/2011FS wrote [quote] If you read nothing else over the next 24 hours, you must read this next link. It is the perfect companion piece to this post by Ad Astra: http://kainagata.com/2011/07/08/why-i-quit-my-job/]/quote] I was in Canada recently and CTV seemed to be reasonably factual and balanced. While I didn't know the backgrounds of the story, the station across the country seemed to do a reasonable job of presenting the "talking points" for both sides and assuming the viewer could make up their mind. Off topic but their morning show "Canada am" is brilliant. CTV & CBC are miles better than some of the complete crap on the other cable stations - "Extreme Couponing" anyone?

Ad astra reply

12/07/2011Hi Lyn, FS, NormanK, Jason, Casablanca, 2353, Michael Thank you all for the links you have supplied today. I played the Neil Mitchell interview right through and wish that Julia Gillard would be as feisty and self assured as she was with Mitchell, and willing to put such assertive interviewers in their place. Why should our elected PM be subject to the insults of such self-anointed opinion leaders? There is far too much media-initiated opinion perpetrated in this country, yet the opinion of journalists is worth no more that yours and mine. What right do they believe they have to influence thinking in the community when all they are are shock jocks?

janice

12/07/2011Here is a piece that is a good read, written by Jenauthor of Pollbludger: [quote]Sticks and Stones? Words Do Hurt: Or, How to Trash an Effective Government. (by a Crikey subscriber) Proverbs aren’t what they used to be. There was a time when children were taught life’s lessons through the example of proverbs. But in the 21st century these proverbs rarely apply if Australian politics is anything to go by. If the current interaction between the two main political parties was transposed to a marriage, one could arguably call it “mental cruelty” – a situation where the opposition, and principally its leader, has sought to denigrate the government to a point where in the eyes of the electorate it appears a monumental disaster. But lets examine the disaster. Economically, the current federal government is being applauded world-wide for its successes. This year Stanford University voted ours the best economy in the world. We have low inflation, low interest rates, low unemployment, wonderful terms of trade, great infrastructure developments are in train, schools and training are leaping ahead and yet … to the average Australian it seems the government has lost the plot and is a complete failure. Anyone observing from overseas would justifiably ask: “How can this be?” Simple as it appears, this poor image is an opposition strategy that has been far more effective than perhaps even they predicted. From the date of the first issues with the Insulation Scheme, the opposition has launched into the government with what can best be termed “denigration by rote conditioning”. The insulation scheme, on balance, was very positive and achieved a lot. Reports confirm this. However the opposition managed to convince people that the rorting by greedy individuals was primarily the Labor government’s fault and the deaths associated with the scheme were laid squarely on the shoulders of the minister. The same with tactic was successfully extended to the BER – again against all official reports to the contrary. The catch-cry of the opposition from this point on was : “Government BAD”. A message they hammered day in and day out until almost everyone (but diehard Labor supporters), including the media has come to believe it. If one looks closely at every press conference or interview, the opposition has repeated these keywords over and over – and like children learning their mathematical times tables – the electorate have slowly but surely been brainwashed. “BAD government. Incompetent government. Pink batts. BER rorting. Stop. Waste. Waste. WASTE!” Just this past week, an interview with Joe Hockey had him parroting the terms “bad government” and “incompetent government” five or six times in the space of a few minutes. At the same time, the opposition leader was on commercial morning television repeating the same mantra. We might laugh about Tony Abbott’s three-word-slogans – yet they are very effective because they reinforce this rote learning. Even the most thinking and analytical journalists have been indoctrinated. The upshot? They now fail to truly scrutinize the opposition – the only scrutiny is of the government (and then with an automatically negative slant). What this tactic has done is allow an opposition with virtually no policies and few statesmen/women evident in its ranks, to outstrip an achieving government in terms of public image. Question Time, the contest when the House is on display for the public to see is generally ‘won’ by the government. The ALP shows daily that its ministers are competent and doing their jobs. 130 + pieces of legislation have passed the house this year alone. Yet Abbott’s unsuccessful censure antics are the only aspect ever shown on evening news broadcasts, and these antics are specifically designed to reinforce the message “Government BAD”. The 24 hour news cycle plays into this as the “negative message” gets played and replayed every 15 minutes on the dedicated news channels, and the free-to-air stations (time poor in terms of journalists) pick up on that message and run with it. Even the ABC now takes up the cudgel without seriously scrutinizing what it is transmitting. Print news outlets, arguably already inclined to the conservative side, take up the message with relish, further minimizing the catchwords with headlines designed specifically for their melodramatic and damaging effect. The government has constantly been accused of failing to get its message through, however by virtue of this simplistic tactic, the opposition has diverted the press away from any message more complicated than a few words – thus whatever information the government might be trying to disseminate, is being ignored as “too complex, too confusing” and the piece de resistance: “too boring” – as if Lindsay Tanner’s “Sideshow” is truly how the country is being run. Meanwhile, the opposition has become more and more bold in its bullying tactics. And they are bullying tactics. Repeatedly calling the Prime Minister a liar about the carbon price (when, if one looks at the whole interview she explains quite implicitly that it is, and has always been, her intention to price carbon) is indeed a bullying tactic. Censures and MPIs in the house repeat the messages over and over until all the press gallery hears are negatives. Is there an answer? Obviously the government cannot advertise – that avenue was cut off by their own when they vowed to limit government advertising. Noble but short-sighted. This act has given the opposition just the kind of ammunition it needs to further portray the government is “BAD” every time there is even a hint of an advertised counter assault – the suggestion that the government has set aside $12M to inform the public about the carbon pricing regime is proof positive of that. Unfortunately, it is a proven fact of advertising that a negative message goes deeper and lasts longer than a positive one. So to all intents and purposes, the opposition has got the battle won. Whatever the policy achievements of the government, (economic position, carbon pricing, mining tax, asylum seeker policy) they will be overshadowed if the conduit of information, the media, doesn’t begin to look beyond the “rote conditioning” that the opposition is transmitting. Likely, this farcical situation will lead to a change of government in 2013 if something cannot be done to reverse the psychological damage inflicted onto the electorate. However, having sown the seeds of such nastiness, the opposition will have to contend with more of the same if or when its own time comes. It will be interesting to see whether, when the roles are reversed, they proclaim such tactics are unfair. [/quote]

tiffany232

12/07/2011Watching the 7pm project and our PM nailed it!

Lyn

12/07/2011Hi Ad A big thankyou to Mark Thomson for linking to TPS in his article today: Mark's article is brilliant a very enjoyable read: [i]Our ABC losing the plot again on Carbon Pricing – Q & A becomes a parody of itself, Mark Thomson, Seeking Asylum Down Under[/i] An excellent deconstruction of a Radio National interview with Swan can be found at the Political Sword blog. ABC 24 is littered with one liners and headlines slamming the carbon price package. It is relentless. Every step of the way ABC reporters are out digging for negative reactions to the package, whipping up more fear in place of reasoned analysis of the package as a whole. http://seekingasylumdownunder2.blogspot.com/2011/07/our-abc-loosing-plot-again-on-carbon.html Cheers :):):):)

psyclaw

12/07/2011Ad Astra, I very much agree with your views about the impertinence of that wet behind the ears coalitionist youth. And as I said earlier, I am disgusted that ABC news has been using the grab as a promo today. Sabra Lane also upped my blood pressure with her arrogant psuedo analytical questions on AM. I was particularly offended by her invitation for JG to visit an uncooperative family. At the time when my wife and I discussed it with disgust, neither of us could remember such a proposition being put to any other politician in recent years. And of course Abbott always avoids "uncooperative" audiences, especially the media on the occasions they ask him an analytical question. Lyn, Thanks for your kind remarks. I must confess that I have been remiss for the many months I have used your Daily Links in not thanking you for your boundless energy in doing this valuable task so well. All your finds very much flesh out the current "picture". Thank you for the great work you do. Someone above mentioned Lateline last night, but not the great I/V of Grant King, MD of Origin Energy. Here was a captain of industry from one of the most relevant sectors saying that the carbon tax package was very good. One aspect was his view that a price of just $1 per tonne would've been enough to send current big emitters on a search for better technology, to protect their bottom line. He also said that the $23 per tonne price will result in investors looking only at renewable technologies for the future. I wonder what tonight's media will bring.

Jason

12/07/2011CUhlmann | 2 minutes ago The Govt has all but sealed its asylum seeker swap deal with Malaysia. More on 730 in a few minutes.

Jason

12/07/2011AshGhebranious | 1 minute ago @CUhlmann Also Chris. Please ensure the public that no phones where hacked to get the story :)

janice

12/07/2011[quote]Please ensure the public that no phones where hacked to get the story [/quote] Jason, what's the betting that Murdoch's mob in Oz are worn out burying evidence?

janice

12/07/2011re Q & A, I think that next time the PM goes on that show she ought to put one of Tim's socks up her sleeve. When Jones does his interruption bit while she is trying to answer a question from her audience, she could just pull it out and give it to him.

Feral Skeleton

12/07/2011janice, Thank you for sharing jenauthor's words with us. It's truly like a form of political Stockholm Syndrome, isn't it? The way the Opposition and the media bash the government day in, day out, with too regular polls used as sticks to beat them further. Tony Abbott is going to skate through to the political Gold Medal in this country, like Stephen Bradbury. Without any scrutiny, and without any real talent except for the ability to still be standing so as to walk it in over the finish line at the next election. Truly it astounds me to hear, and I have been occupied elsewhere all day, so have only had a few minutes of listening to the radio to be able to catch up with events today, but what did I hear? Tony 'Antichrist' Abbott stating that he was going to keep going to every Labor-held seat in the country, over and over until the next election, and especially until the vote is taken in parliament over the Climate Change legislation, to "make the Labor MPs in those seats listen to the will of the people in their electorates and vote against this toxic tax that they don't want." Of course, he's telling them what they 'don't want', day after day after day after day after day. He's never giving the electorate time to think any other way or believe that what they want is the government to take action on Climate Change. As David Marr has said, Tony Abbott isn't the slightest bit interested in doing anything about Climate Change. He just wants to demolish Julia Gillard. And as Xavier Herbert said, 'Poor fellow my country', that we have this man whose heart is full to the brim with undiluted evil, as our Opposition Leader. No wonder that Rupert Murdoch has such high hopes for him. They are birds of a feather. Vultures. Who stick together to feed off the carrion flesh that is the rotting corpse of Democracy.

Jason

12/07/2011Janice, Judging by the quality of questions during pressers it would be the only way they could get a story!

janice

12/07/2011FS, Abbott's scaremongering is wearing a bit thin now, me thinks. When companies have to resort to writing to the ASX to say the carbon tax isn't about to destroy them, they must have come to the realisation that Abbott's tactics are not doing them any good. And there are some retailers who are beginning to realise that the scaremongering is why people are not spending as they wait for the sky to fall in. We can just hope that there is enough of an awakening before Abbott gets hold of the keys to Kirribilli. Jason, You're right there. Most of them don't know any more than the gnu's out in the electorate about policy and they're too lazy to find out. Their questions reflect their ignorance.

janice

12/07/2011Anyway, so pleased you liked Jenauthor's piece, FS. Enjoy your evening, FS and Jason. I'm going to put my weary self to bed.

D Mick Weir

12/07/2011An interesting and totally unexpected point of view in a post at Menzies House: [b]On The Job Training[/b] - Nick Weir (no relation so far as I know) [i]When Julia Gillard got the top job, she wasn't like other employees. She was doing her training on-the-job, like a lot of us just starting out, but her audience was national.[/i] Have a read, you may be surprised, even if you don't agree with everything Nick writes.

Lazarus

12/07/2011I felt that TT, going to take that on face value, IE your word for it. Cracked me up though. It was an Anal-ogie, i know I'm full of it at times, it's all around me :-) Like a star of David or Solomon (islands) {It's a Kabbalah/wicca thing} started it off for me, let you fill in the rest... P.S. whoever asked earlier about Grattan, Michelle, institute. Nothing obvious i could find, But Libral think tank and spin machene sprang to mind alot, wikpaedia and you can get some idea.

Lazarus

12/07/2011P.P.S, somebody gave me this idea if you want a place to than Julia like a web blog in box for her and all too see. BB http://thankyoujuliagillardproject.aussieblogs.com.au/ Still learing how to drive it... watching :-)

Ad astra reply

12/07/2011Folks Great reading tonight. Thank you all. It's been a long day of writing. I'm off to watch TV in bed.

D Mick Weir

12/07/2011Nearest and dearest had me totally lost for words tonight (not actually a rare event) and more on that in a moment. Caught the PM on a syndicated FM network show tonight (Jules & Fi-Fi?) and it was a great segment - very natural and played well. What tiffany232 said @ 7:31 PM and more. PM was relaxed and natural on the 7PM Project. SWMBO said [i]'... she should be like that more often she was brilliant'[/i]. I can only agree even if I would use the word 'brilliant' with caution :P Anyhow, naturally they had to promo that Mr Abbott was in the chair tomorrow and this is where SWMBO had me lost for words: [i]'Oh I absolutely hate that man, he has no redeeming features at all ...[/i] Believe it or believe it not, as much as I struggled I could not name one.

Feral Skeleton

12/07/2011D Mick Weir, Surely you respect Abbott's way with words? His mastery of style over substance? His sticking his finger in the wind to find that being a perpetual political weathervane of no substance is au caurant in today's politics? Those features have certainly redeemed him well, if you believe the polls. :)

D Mick Weir

12/07/2011FS @ 10:00 PM where were you when I needed you? Now you have told me I can see how umm, silly I am not have been able to come up with those most obvious of redeeming and utterly fine features. Do you ladies stick together just to show me I am but a mere male?

BSA Bob

12/07/2011I thought today that Abbott set a new standard in something, just not sure what. When confronted with the fact a mine he'd written off as doomed had just received a generous upping of a foreign takeover bid he simply kept going as if it hadn't happened. As outlined prevously, it'll be his negative comments that stick. Also, a worrying development methinks; saying today that the Government will botch the carbon scheme. Predictable in itself but given Abbott's disregard for anything but his longed for promotion, I've no trouble imagining him simply stealing any or all of the Government policies & saying "allright, but you'll have to have me/us in to run them properly." Will he be allowed to get away with this?- is Christopher Pyne a creep?

Feral Skeleton

12/07/2011DMW, Sorry, but you will forever merely be male. :)

Feral Skeleton

12/07/2011BSA Bob, I got a sick feeling in my stomach when I read your synopsis. Please let it not be so. However, knowing the convincing way he lies, I wouldn't put it past Abbott. He's made of such pure, unalloyed evil that such a move would appeal to him.

D Mick Weir

12/07/2011Interesting ... it is often said [i]Just follow the money[/i] Just caught a bit on the encore of George Negus' 6:30 show the Liberal MP (missed his name) with Abbott on about the death of mining has bought a bunch of shares in a coal mining company.

Feral Skeleton

12/07/2011And, speaking of pure, unalloyed evil, of course I'm speaking about Rebekah Brooks: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/bmbifnhttp://www.twitlonger.com/show/bmbifn

Feral Skeleton

12/07/2011But, of course, who can out evil the both of them? Rupert Murdoch: http://www.deadline.com/2011/07/analysis-referring-bskyb-deal-to-uk-anti-trust-regulator-a-smooth-move-by-scandal-plagued-news-corp/

TalkTurkey

12/07/2011Ad astra: Sword Warrior, Blogger Extraordinaire! As you stated in your very first post Ad, you started this blog for this very purpose, viz., to keep a critical eye on politicians and media. You have never wavered, it is the reason that all of the rest of us express our own thoughts here, and it is a tribute to your Orwellian prescience that such community-based evaluation has become ever more urgent. And you set a pace and a standard which the rest of us can really only marvel at. You make it easy to remember not to be too impressed with our own efforts. Whoever could have anticipated, even with the precept of Orwell's 1984 to forewarn us, that Australian politics could sink so low as it has under the influence of the likes of Howard and Abbortt, aided and abetted by shamelessly Right-bigoted journalism, under the absolute dominance of one born in my own home town, who now has rejected his nationality and bought a new one, and who bestrides the world like a super-colossus . . . As the news about [i]Merde[/i]-och breaks around his head, (and as I watch Gordon Brown is speaking, in obvious and permanent distress, speaking of the publishing of the fact that his little son is a victim of a serious medical condition), we on this blog must be feeling a good deal of schadenfreude, glee even at seeing that horrible old man (no offence to other senior cits, I'm one!)squirming like a vicious kid-biting rat finally pinned by a vengeful boot. But I'd rather there was no horrible old rat-man, and no media of the kind that he has created all over the globe. Including the ABC. As I write, on ABC24 Mark Simpkin: . . . " Labor's figures are diabolical but among Labor figures there is more resignation than panic . . . There is [i]neither[/i], you ( * ). What there is, is [u][b][i]determination[/i][/b][/u]. [i][b]Venceremos![/b][/i]

Jason

13/07/2011Despite all the bleating we have had to put up with! re the mining tax and the carbon tax, It would seem not all in the "broad church" that is the Liberal party have not heard their man in question time. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/coalition-mps-buy-into-mining-companies-20110707-1h3xm.html Coalition MPs buy into mining companies Paul Osborne, AAP Senior Political Writer July 7, 2011 AAP Coalition MPs have been trading shares in resources companies, despite the opposition blasting the government for putting the sector at risk with mining and carbon taxes. The latest update of the register of members' interests shows eight Liberal and Nationals MPs acquired resources shares between March 24 and July 6 this year. The coalition, led by Tony Abbott, has been scathing of the impact of the government's proposed taxes on the mining industry. Mr Abbott has described the taxes as an act of "economic self-harm" and says the carbon tax in particular would "over time spell the death for the Australian coal industry". But the updated register shows coalition MPs have enough faith in the future of the industry to put their money into it. Opposition climate spokesman Greg Hunt's wife Paula bought BHP and Tiger Resources shares in March but sold them 17 days later. She then bought Tiger Resources shares in June, the register shows. Liberal MP John Alexander bought shares in Jupiter Energy, Fortescue Metals and Bradken (which supplies steel products for the resources and freight rail industries). Colleague Josh Frydenberg bought Woodside Petroleum derivatives in late June. Brisbane Liberal MP Teresa Gambaro bought 88,333 Aust Pacific Coal shares in June, while fellow Queensland coalition member Ken O'Dowd bought 10,000 East Energy Resources shares in May, and another Queenslander, Stuart Robert, invested in Conquest Mining. West Australian MP Stephen Irons purchased shares in Burey Gold, Monteray Mining Group and Ventnor Resources, while his state colleague Michael Keenan invested in GR Engineering, Gold Corp and Newland Resources. Nationals leader Warren Truss declared a trip paid for by Hancock Coal in June, to mark the first export of coal from Queensland's Galilee Basin. © 2011 AAP Brought to you by

TalkTurkey

13/07/2011[[u]b]Swordsfolks![/b][/u] [i]I want some reactions to what I am about to post[/i]. And I bet I get some too when you see it. It relates to an email I received today from one Howard Schulze, of Adelaide. [i]First bits of background[/i]: a. Howard Schulze is Australasia's longest-serving patent lawyer. Well into his 70's. b. I have known him for many years.(30+) c. He was a fellow member of the Inventors' Association of SA Inc for all the years I was too (more than 25.) d. He directed the (losing) campaign for Liberal Richard Noble, in which I was personally involved on Labor's behalf, for the seat of Kingston during the Hawke years. e. We have always been on proper terms nonetheless, and for many years he has sent to me, along with [i]many[/i] other people, almost daily emails, sometimes several. Thousands and thousands, literally. Many are clever, or funny, or beautifully photographed, or bizarre, or newsworthy; many are invention-based, and, (I say this only because it is true), quite a high proportion are pretty smutty, though note, [i]none[/i] is truly obscene nor pornographic. It has always seemed strange to me that such a bloke keeps finding weak smut amusing. I just don't. [i]And a great proportion of them are [b]political bigotry [/b]- anti-Obama, anti-Rudd and anti-Gillard, and especially, [b]climate-change denialism[/b]. [/i] f. I have only argued at all with him once, and that was to tell him, as we parted company the last time, what I think of his incessant sniping and nonsense about no climate change. This, from a man who more than almost anyone should be able to understand the dynamics of it. An educated (sort of) sort of man. You'd think. Got all that? Howard Schulze, OK? [i][b]Second bit of background[/b][/i]: Remember I posted this following comment (between square brackets) earlier yesterday: [ DMW quoted someone in an angrified meeting on TV [b]". . . what is the coalition going to do to stop the people taking up arms ...? " Not a bad question considering how much they are doing to get them to take them up! [/b] Then FS said "This is just disgusting: http://twitpic.com/5oeffd . . ." The comment there reads [b]"Someone ought to assassinate Julia Gillard before she entirely destroys our way of life." [/b]Mark of Panania. I've said before, [b]I reckon Abbortt and his henchpersons would be perfectly OK with taking power in a bloodless coup at least, and quite possibly in a bloody one if they thought they could pull it off. They are [i]extremists[/i]. [/b] When scientists are threatened with violence, we're already at the book-burning stage. Don't miss the signs folks. They did in Weimar Germany until it was far too late. [u][i][b]If any violence happens here a la shootings in the US, it will be squarely down to Abbortt himself. [/b][/i][/u] [b]But it probably can't happen here[/b]. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKITpVovTAE ] [u]I said all that before[/u]. [u][i][b]NOW[/b][/i][/u] [i]to take this to the next level![/i] See how you like this folks! [u]Just today I received this email from said Howard Schulze[/u]: It reads, in [b]BIG [/b]writing, [b]No. 1 ON AUSTRALIA'S VERMIN LIST HIGHLY VENOMOUS & WILFULLY DESTRUCTIVE. RED-HEADED LIAR BIRD. [picture] SHOOT ON SIGHT!![/b] That is the wording. Check out the accompanying hilarious graphic at: http://david.patrickson.net/?p=660&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fat-red-headed-liar-bird I suppose the above-named jokester is the originator. Guess someone or several might would like Howard Schulze's email a/d too . . ? . . hschulze [hschulze@collison.com.au] [b][u][i]No need to tell me ol' mate Howard who sent you.[/i] [/u][/b];-) I guess he'll find out anyway, I don't care, it's about time I let him know exactly how I feel about his incessant smart-arse bigotry anyway. For all the funny clever pretty surprising fascinating stuff he sends me I thank him sincerely, but this is Clayton's War, and it might easily be WAR if his side of politics gets its way. As I said above. So I can be no true friend of his, this is too important. He himself seems not really hateful, but the worse posts of other people's that he forwards are, and he himself is in total and irrational denial of planetary heating, and he sends his posts to many people nearly every day. But he can go on sending me stuff if he wants, I enjoy the good and ignore the crook, and I wouldn't mind keeping an eye on him. So what do you think of THAT eh Swordies?

TalkTurkey

13/07/2011Oh and just in case you'd forgotten, Folks, I've told you times before, what I truly am is a Liar Bird, and I'm red-headed too! That's a hen from my tribe they're saying shoot! No joke though. This just isn't funy.

TalkTurkey

13/07/2011Or even [i]FUNNY[/i].

Lyn

13/07/2011 [b] TODAY’S LINKS[/b] A[i] Done Deal, Andrew Elder, Politically Homeless[/i] Abbott has done what you'd expect a wannabe-PM to do: sucked up hard to the mainstream media, especially News Ltd, which is starting to crumble like some eastern European dictatorship: first slowly, now very quickly. http://andrewelder.blogspot.com/2011/07/done-deal.html [i]What is the effect of the carbon price package on work incentives??, Matt Cowgill, We Are All Dead[/i] The household assistance component of the carbon price package builds on this work by increasing the tax free threshold to $18 200. This will mean that fewer people need to file tax returns. http://mattcowgill.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/what-is-the-effect-of-the-carbon-price-package-on-work-incentives/ [i]Our ABC losing the plot again on Carbon Pricing – Q & A becomes a parody of itself, Mark Thomson, Seeking Asylum Down [/i]Under An excellent deconstruction of a Radio National interview with Swan can be found at the Political Sword blog. ABC 24 is littered with one liners and headlines slamming the carbon price package. It is relentless. Every step http://seekingasylumdownunder2.blogspot.com/2011/07/our-abc-loosing-plot-again-on-carbon.html [i]UK scandal raises fears of Australian hacking, ABC[/i] Former authority head Peter Faris QC says the Government must appoint an independent statutory body to ensure that Mr Murdoch's Australian media operation is behaving responsibly. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/07/12/3267160.htm [i]And more again from News Limited’s Greg Baxter, Margaret Simons, The Content Makers[/i] for News Limited to excuse its own failure to make its code easily available with reference to Crikey is ironic, to say the least http://blogs.crikey.com.au/contentmakers/ [i]News of the World: Why whistle blowers don't blow the whistle and why ethics aren’t ethics , Peter Bowden, On [/i]Line Opinion John Hartigan did not, and I suspect cannot, tell us that News Limited forbids the hacking of mobile phones belonging to celebrities, victims of crime,terrorism and even relatives of soldiers killed in action. http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=12304&page=0 [i]UK: corruption in public life , Gary Sauer-Thompson, Public Opinion[/i] journalists, especially those who work for the concentrated power of News Ltd in the mediascape, are actually employed as the enforcers of corporate power. Their conservative commentary denounces http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2011/07/uk-corruption-i.php#more [i]Will Rupert Murdoch's woes cross the Atlantic?[/i] Rupert Murdoch's troubles in the UK could spread throughout his global media empire, say experts. A lawsuit filed Monday in Delaware may be just the beginning http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0711/Will-Rupert-Murdoch-s-woes-cross-the-Atlantic?cmpid=addthis_twitter#.ThwB7Wv77cM.twitter [i]Domino Geronimo, Ash, Ash’s Machiavellian Bloggery[/i] Imagine you are a newspaper man. Imagine that in your time you were able to grow and consolidate your empire.You know newspapers. You know what sells. You know how to get that exclusive and how important it can be to sell papers. http://ashghebranious.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/domino-geronomo/ [i]CPI and I, Ash, Ash’s Machiavellian Bloggery[/i] Of course the NOTW, sorry I mean THE AUSTRALIAN, opted to run the following headline:Miner bets $5bn on future of Coal Yes. That’s right. That is how business works. Lets take a gamble. http://ashghebranious.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/cpi-and-i/ [i]When international permits are OK or not OK, Bernard Keane, Crikey[/i] So in railing against international permits, the Coalition is going even further down its bizarre path of opposition to market mechanisms and minimising costs — except, of course, where it suits it. http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/07/12/carbon-tax-international-permits-and-liberals/ [i]Finally Laying The Foundations For Climate Action, Alex Schlotzer[/i] Australia’s unions took the position that the greatest long-term threat to workers was to ignore the climate science and refuse to act. http://alexschlotzer.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/finally-laying-the-foundations-for-climate-action/ [i]Australia Is About To Have A Totally Reasonable Climate Policy, Sarah Laskow, Good Environment[/i] she will have done a great service to leaders around the world by proving that supporting carbon pricing is not the policy of a political fool but of a visionary leader. http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/A3mK7W/www.good.is/post/australia-s-julia-gillard-introduces-carbon-tax-puts-10-billion-toward-clean-energy/ [i]Compensating households – how do the Government’s proposals stack up?, Peter Whiteford, The Conversation[/i] For example, over the past five years, real household electricity prices have risen by over 40%.Price rises for similar reasons may wrongly be blamed on the carbon tax. http://theconversation.edu.au/compensating-households-how-do-the-governments-proposals-stack-up-2245 [i]Carbon Pricing and household compensation, is it enough, Peter Whiteford, Inside Story[/i] its reception could still be rocky. If other factors increase prices – electricity prices, for example, have risen by over 40% over the pastfive years without any kind of carbon tax – then households might blame what they perceive to be inadequate compensation, and http://inside.org.au/carbon-pricing-and-household-compensation-is-it-enough/ [i]Carbon Tax Package finally Unveiled , Tristan Ewins, Left Focus[/i] All those political, environmental, industrial and social movements which support the policy therefore need to begin a mobilisation immediately if the situation is to be saved. An information campaign involving all these movements needs to begin, http://leftfocus.blogspot.com/2011/07/carbon-tax-package-finally-unveiled.html [i]Carbon Tax the News Limited, parallel Universe, David Donovan, Independent Australia[/i] News Limited has unprecedented sway over the minds over Australia’s voters. If Murdoch says to bring downa prime minister or a policy, he normally gets his way. He is naturally conservative leaning, but he hates to back losers. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/politics/carbon-tax-and-the-parallel-universe-of-limited-news/ [i]Leigh honoured for economic research,DANIELLE CRONIN, Canberra Times[/i] It was a loss to research when he went into politics but right now Australia’s best economist under the age of 40 resides in Federal Parliament. This must be good for the country.'' http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/leigh-honoured-for-economic-research/2223571.aspx [i]Motherless child, David Horton, The Watermelon Blog[/i] Finally listened in amazed disgust as first Tony Abbott, after visiting an open cut coal mine in a devastated landscape said that he “didn’t see anyone”among the miners who was into damaging the environment; http://davidhortonsblog.com/2011/07/12/motherless-child/ [i]Australian Media Codes of Practice[/i] http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/resources.htm

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Talk Turkey, It's character assassination, and it's exactly the sort of thing we saw in Salem, in the lynchings in America's Deep South, and in any number of repressive regimes where the Ruling Party want to villify and delegitimise their opposition. It goads the gullible into disinhibition and it manipulates the minds of 'the mob' as Howard used to sneeringly refer to them as. Does Mr Schulze speak to all women that way? Does Mr Schulze denigrate women in the Liberal Party that way? Does Mr Schulze virally disseminate imagery meant to incite violent acts against Liberal Party MPs? Probably not. Yet he thinks it's OK to do it about our first female Labor Prime Minister. Despicable and disgusting. And exactly what the Antichrist Abbott is encouraging. Talk Turkey, there's no point in writing an e-mail to the Howard Schulze's of the world. They are not listening to reason anymore. They are only listening to their own echo chamber. The Great Unhinging, as Possum calls it, has occurred. And it is Tony Abbott and the malevolent Machiavellian minions of Minchin and Bernardi, in your own home State, TT, that have absolutely no morals or ethics, and so will continue to push it until our own John Wilkes Booth turns up, enraged enough, crazed enough and in possession of a gun, when our fine,upstanding Prime Minister is within range. We produced Martin Bryant and numerous others, so it's not too hard to imagine, I think, sadly.

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Did anyone else wake up to hear the ABC NewsRadio bulletin broadcasting word for word, and without comment or question naturally, Tony Abbott's Lie of the Day at the Melbourne Fishmarkets? It was the top story and wasn't even put behind the veil of, "The Opposition says...". They just taped every word and toxic emission coming out of his mouth and rebroadcast it, on high rotation, every 15 minutes. If that's not attempting to brainwash people listening, I don't know what is.

Ad astra reply

13/07/2011LYN'S DAILY LINKS updated: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/page/LYNS-DAILY-LINKS.aspx

Patricia WA

13/07/2011First link of the day Andrew Elder with an article which has given me a real lift even without that delicious titbit of gossip from a writer not given to rumor mongering. [quote]Mini-mogul Lachlan Murdoch can't help himself, his father or brother or his mad-haired sister-from-another-mother,[/quote] Is this generally known? Or intuition by AE? I had myself been pondering how particularly fond of a certain News International executive he seems to be, and had been putting it down to an old man's folly. Or even that she had so much dirt on him she had to be kept very close. That somehow makes the evil empire even more sinister, doesn't it? So much place finding for family. (TT, Norman K, AA .....anyone! Help! - lost for a word in that last sentence, on the tip of my tongue, can't pin it down on the web, either! 'giving preference to one's family .......???' Ridiculous.) Mind you, if she really is of RM's seed, then she of all them is certainly is a chip off the old block. Reputed to be a wickedly ruthless and cunning individual. Must stop gossiping and get back to serious reading.

Acerbic Conehead

13/07/2011Patricia WA, Is 'nepotism' the word you are looking for?

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011PWA, Nah, AE is just referring to the fact that Murdoch treats Rebekah Brooks like his favourite daughter, even tho she isn't. She's a chip off the old bastard's block, but icewater runs through her veins, not Murdoch blood.

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Next time someone from the Opposition bleats about the World's Biggest Emitters not having a Price on Carbon Dioxide Pollution, point this out about China(who at least isn't under the malign influence of the self-interested capitalists the way America is): http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/10/carbon-tax-emissions-trading-international?CMP=twt_gu

Patricia WA

13/07/2011That's it! Thanks, AC! 'Nepotism' - possibly rhymes with despotism? FS, what a pity! So we go back to her having so much dirt on him she has to be kept very close? Just listening to Joel Fitzgibbon on am. Sterling performance, neither he nor Andrew Fraser gave an inch to Kelly's probing. What is it about Joel that I like so much? A bit too human and so a bit incautious at times? Solid as a rock today, anyway. Found our good friend, David Horton, too depressing for words today. I literally couldn't comment at Watermelon. What can we say to cheer him up? Thanks to tiffany232. I watched 7pm Project and had my faith restored in at least some commercial TV news media presenters. Thought the PM was just lovely and it was good to see her being given the opportunity to both get her message across and how us her warmth and fun loving side as well. It will be interesting to see how the stunt man comes across. I wonder if he'll keep his PM bashing line going. I hope so, show him at his best. Which reminds me, Janice, that article by Jenauthor from Poll Bludger clarified for me how I see Abbott's relentless attacks on the Prime Minister. It's like the vile verbal onslaughts used by angry, dominating women and men in marriage, as bad as any domestic violence, so personal and intent on destroying the character and self worth of the other. Good to see your gravatar, Lazarus, and know that you've got your eye on what's happening out there! I did like your Gender is the Agenda poem, great for when same sex marriage issue rears its head again, which for sure it will.

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Solid analysis of Rupert Murdoch by Alan KNight, Head of Journalism at UTS Sydney: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/murdochs-only-real-interest-is-no1-20110711-1hal8.html

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Enjoy: :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a0g4_bX6AQ&feature=youtu.be

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Taking heart from Lenore Taylor, what a gem she is. So glad Fairfax lured her away from The Austrollian: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/facts-assail-abbotts-chicken-little-act-20110712-1hcdo.html

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011What a great motto on George Monbiot's blog: [i]“Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable.”[/i]

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Take out paragraph from the Monbiot blog: [i]The cracks are appearing in the most unexpected places. Look at the remarkable admission by the rightwing columnist Janet Daley in this week’s Sunday Telegraph. “British political journalism is basically a club to which politicians and journalists both belong,” she wrote. “It is this familiarity, this intimacy, this set of shared assumptions … which is the real corruptor of political life. The self-limiting spectrum of what can and cannot be said … the self-reinforcing cowardice which takes for granted that certain vested interests are too powerful to be worth confronting. All of these things are constant dangers in the political life of any democracy.”[/i]

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Bob Carr about the Climate Change policy: http://bobcarrblog.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/carbon-action-the-battle-lines/

BSA Bob

13/07/2011Patricia WA Popped over to Watermelon on your sayso & came away thoroughly depressed, because I think he's on the money. A brief straight reporting of the Carbon pricing, then straight to Our Guide To Working Out Ways In Which YOU Might Conceivably Lose Out Of This. Blanket negative coverage. About the only thing Watermelon didn't mention is something I put up here last night, also depressing. Abbott would rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven- he wants to be P.M. & doesn't care how. He's entirely capable of pinching any & every workable policy & claiming it as his own, he wouldn't be seriously picked up about it. The current opposition crew is such a ragbag of contradictions that something as small as another backflip from Tony would pass generally unremarked & more importantly unpursued. P.S. in a site about the ABC- Virginia Trioli this morning referring to one of Tony Blair's PR men "kicking the Murdochs while they're down." Language fails.

D Mick Weir

13/07/2011[i]'Tony Abbott’s already low opinion of economists is about to sink.'[/i] [b]Abbott. Economists vote.[/b] Peter Martin http://www.petermartin.com.au/2011/07/abbott-economists-vote.html [i]Asked a week ago why he thought it was that most economists supported a carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme rather than his own “direct action” plan to tackle climate change he replied: “maybe that's a comment on the quality of our economists rather than on the merits of argument”. ... Today in Canberra several hundred of Australia’s leading academic economists will deliver their verdicts. At the start of their three-day annual conference the delegates were given voting slips and asked to put a tick next to either the “direct action” plan put forward by Tony Abbott or the carbon tax transitioning to a trading scheme proposed by Julia Gillard. Abbott will get slaughtered. ...[/i]

NormanK

13/07/2011TalkTurkey I have just forwarded the link you provided regarding the liar-bird to the Prime Minister's Office with a covering note voicing my concern for her security. I have also sent it to the Australian Federal Police. All it will take is for one unstable individual to not quite see the 'joke' and we will have a catastrophe on our hands. Swordians It is also worth saying that unstable personalities don't exclusively reside in the conservative side of politics. If, by virtue of something we have said, an individual decides to identify Tony Abbott as a real risk to our society and they then consequently choose to embark on a pre-emptive attack on him before he can do more harm, we will all of us be responsible if our rhetoric has strayed outside of reasonable criticism.

Ad astra reply

13/07/2011TT I read your post with some trepidation but when I came to the graphic on the David Patrickson website this feeling was confirmed. This is not funny; it is dangerous. Like you, I lay this development squarely at the feet of Tony Abbott, whose incendiary language is fanning the flames of anger, hatred and violence. Remember the Sarah Palin website that portrayed Democrats overlaid with cross hairs that a rifleman could target? This graphic employs the same strategy. Day after day, Tony Abbott is unleashing words and ideas that inflame passion and loathing against Julia Gillard that could lead to violence if he continues unabated. The comment made by an angry man at Joe Hockey’s meeting yesterday about taking up arms against our PM shocked even him. I hope he will counsel Abbott to moderate his inflammatory language, to pull back before something tragic happens. But as I concluded in my post: [i]The pugilistic politician[/i] written just a few days after Abbott’s election to Opposition Leader: [i]“…we can expect Abbott, the pugilistic politician, to attack Government policies and actions incessantly and relentlessly, to keep Coalition policies under wraps as much as possible to avoid having to defend them, and to exhibit venom, vitriol and vituperativeness the like of which we have not seen in politics in Australia for a long while. It will be unremittingly ugly.”[/i] That prediction is now a stark and frightening reality. If you haven’t read that piece, it is here: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/post/2009/12/10/The-pugilistic-politician.aspx Sadly the situation is much more ugly and much more dangerous that I imagined it could be. Abbott looks and behaves like someone with an obsession, like a zealot. Whether the obsession is to get the keys to The Lodge or simply to win this fight to the death against Julia Gillard on the carbon tax, even he may not know. But he acts as if possessed, like an extremist who will stop at nothing to win, like a punch-drunk pugilist wildly slugging it out, arms flailing, sweat pouring from his tormented frame as his tries to knock out his opponent. But she, like PK in Bryce Courtenay’s [i]The Power of One[/i] is a much tougher and smarter fighter that Abbott, deftly avoiding his punches and reserving her energy until he inevitably stumbles exhausted and exposes his vulnerabilities – then it will be all over for him.

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011I can't believe my ears. I just heard ANOTHER Press Conference by Tony Abbott, on ABC24, wherein he has claimed that because there are more important problems than Climate Change, like the Cost of Living(and this is in the richest, or thereabouts, country in the world with the highest standard of living in the world), that the government should abandon it's recently-announced Climate Change policy and use the money instead to bring down Australian's Cost of Living. Words fail me at the audacity and bald-faced lies of that man.

D Mick Weir

13/07/2011George Megalogenis has moved to a 'new model' with his blog and there has been an informative and a pretty well 'snark free' discussion on the Carbon Pricing Package. I learnt a few thing as I meandered through the discussion. This gem is worth remembering: [i]'The important thing to remember with any reform is that mistakes are an inevitable part of the process. The first politician of this era that understands this point, and can manage public expectations accordingly, might get to deliver a decent reform.'[/i] George Megalogenis - Wed 13 Jul 11 (10:07am) http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/meganomics/index.php/theaustralian/comments/on_climate_change_and_tax_reform/P50/ hmm what is captcha trying to tell me? cycle. onegrame

Patricia WA

13/07/2011Some Australians are so rich and have such opulent life styles that government intervention is needed to help those who aspire to share the same standard of living! Aspirational citizens should be heard! Julia Gillard must listen to them! This is serious! These citizens are revolting! Their concerns are more important than any pie in the sky idealism about saving the environment for our children! Get real Prime Minister! Save the planet! Are you insane?

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Sigh. http://www.theage.com.au/national/gillard-caught-in-shopping-centre-slanging-match-20110713-1hd8w.html

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Thank goodness the surfers haven't joined the Tradies on the Climate Change Deniers side: http://www.tracksmag.com/Blogs/Big-Heavy-Stuff/SCEPTICGATE-%E2%80%93-Blog.html

Gravel

13/07/2011Ad Astra I read and feel your despair at the ABC. You are not alone in your thoughts, I have been saying and thinking the same thing for a long while. It all seems to be becoming so strident now. Why? A bit of my history coming up for anyone who wants to skip over it. I have always been a Labor voter, I didn't take any notice of politics until Howard was elected. For the first time ever I voted Democrat (1998) in the senate, because I thought I heard or read in the media that they would vote against the GST. How wrong I was. Life marched on until the Tampa. I thought Australians would not put up with the horribleness of what Howard was doing. How wrong I was. Life marched on until I heard on the radio that Mark Latham was opposition leader. Good I thought, he might take the fight to Howard, which he did. Got Howard to back down on a few things which I was pleased with. Then Howard came out with the "Who do you trust" rubbish and I thought surely Australians wouldn't fall for this. How wrong I was. Life marched on until Kevin Rudd came on the scene. I couldn't get too excited at first because of all the let downs, but that is when I really tuned into politics as it was being played. I found a few blogs through the Crikey email that I subscribed to, and couldn't believe there were some other Australians feeling about Howard as I did. Kevin won, oh how great that was. I was going to stop reading blogs and go back to being ignorant, make up my own mind about what politicians said and life would march on. Unfortunately I found I was addicted to blogs, though not commenting on them, just reading. I started to read, and analyise (spelling wrong?) what was being written, and also started to really listen to what was being said. Needless to say I have learnt much that I couldn't comprehend when I was at school. I wish I could have but them's the breaks. When the media started hinting/implying bad things about Kevin I was a bit confused. Then the Labor party changed leaders which I was quite happy with, thing that the media would give Julia a fair run... not on your nellie would they. Now we have a totally rabid media that just seems to not want to back this, or any, government. I know we all hoped things might get better when the carbon policy was finally announced last Sunday.....was that only a couple of days ago?.....only to have on the first news bulletin and the TV bagging it. I knew then no matter how bad or good this policy was, it was going to treated like shite. And so it has come to pass.

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Great news: http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/07/11/wotif-com-founder-re-emerges-to-fund-attards-global-mail/#comment-146255 (Tell me if it's behind the paywall and I'll cut n paste the whole thing.)

Lyn

13/07/2011Hi Feral Yep! it's behind the paywall. Cheers :):):):):):):)

D Mick Weir

13/07/2011Off topic ... [b]'Living hell hole' still taking a toll[/b] http://www.theage.com.au/national/living-hell-hole-still-taking-a-toll-20110712-1hbr4.html ... will it cause anyone to rethink?

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Gravel, Disappointing about how our fellow Australians are prepared to act, isn't it? Like selfish bigots, basically.

D Mick Weir

13/07/2011Has anyone ever made a promise that later they found, for whatever reason, they could not keep? [i]Dear Mrs 'You lied to us Prime Minister and you are still lying, Please imagine this situation: You are a great cake baker, you have one particular 'special one' that the family just loves beyond all else. It has a secret ingredient that only you know. You promise the family that you will bake it tonight for a treat. You go to the pantry and gather up the ingredients only to discover the secret ingredient is not there - all gone. You race down to that shop where you buy it but they have run out. Ahh but, there is another shop all the way across town that stocks it, but it will cost twice as much but that doesn't matter you have to keep your promise no matter what. Your honour is at stake, you promised to make the cake. Finally after avoiding traffic jams you get to the store and find it closed there is nowhere else to go. Your choice is to not make the cake or choose an inferior substitute for the secret ingredient. If you don't make the cake, did you lie to your family when you said you would make the cake? If you make the inferior cake are you lying to your family by giving them second best? Please help me by explaining how you would resolve this dilemma, Yours faithfully Julia Gillard Prime Minister[/i]

Ad astra reply

13/07/2011Gravel Tony Abbott has been poisoning the minds of the electorate against Julia Gillard and the carbon tax for months. As Goebbels knew, if you tell the people something often enough, no matter how untrue, they will eventually believe it. What Abbott has been and is doing is malicious and dangerous, and it has had its damaging effect. Reversing the damage will not take place quickly. I do not expect the polls to improve for many months, although having hit what appears to be rock bottom, perhaps the most likely direction now is up. We have to be very patient, but even in just a few days there have been early signs that there is a group of people and maybe some commentators who believe that Julia Gillard has done the right thing. More will gradually follow, but reversing the antagonism that has been induced by the Abbott rhetoric will take a long while. He has induced feelings that amount almost to fanaticism; fanatics are hard to change. Witness the woman today in a Brisbane shopping centre, who says she has never been part of a protest, screaming abuse at our PM, calling her a liar. That is what happens when people are provoked to a state of seething anger. Let’s watch for the emerging signs of change and applaud each one, no matter how small. Let’s not get to discouraged. Human nature is fundamentally better that what we are seeing at present from many of Abbott’s acolytes

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011[quote]Has anyone ever made a promise that later they found, for whatever reason, they could not keep? [/quote] Of course I have, and I have carefully explained the reasons why I couldn't keep it and the adults in the room understood and accepted my explanation. The children were the ones who threw a tantrum about it.

nasking

13/07/2011[quote]See how she goes straight to the negative[/quote] A habit of many in the mainstream media these days Aa. My wife & I are plenty disgusted w/ the amount of negativity on TV & radio the past coupla days. Bloody herd of negabeasts. Helping to transform Australia into an American carbon copy...generally greedy, rampant capitalist, ME ME ME, fear-driven, voting against own interests, whining, ignorant dipsticks who fall for the cons & scams & lies of the corporate scumbags. And Newspoll putting out early in the week that pre-carbon price announcent poll is typical of the type of opinion/perception manufacturing we've gotten used to from the Murdoch lot & other corporate-related pollsters. BTW, I was a wee bit worried for PM Gillard in the first half of that Q&A program, bloody grim & hostile audience (not that Jones attempted to lighten things up as he does w/ Pyne etc.)...but she stuck to her guns and her determination and calm approach seemed to win many over by the end. It was a strong performance overall. I reckon that woman in the Q&A audience who constantly complained that the carbon price had to be explained in more simple language was as "thick as a brick". Plenty of others are just lazy ME ME MEers who rely on gossip & tabloids & radio thugs for their views...bleedin' unoriginal copycats who can't think for themselves...vomitin' out the dumbed down vomit of the day. Not surprising considering the state of our media these days. A good reason to give Murdoch the shaft in every country...his media organs have catered to the most myopic, self-centred, bed-wetting, delusional xenophobes in our communities for years. I guess history is riddled w/ profiteers & opportunists, such as Rupert Murdoch & Allan Jones & Rush Limbaugh, who use media & political propaganda to give the bulk of the people educational lobotomies in order to gain & retain enormous power & privileges. The Coalition in this country are a bunch of deceitful, cowardly BSers. I hope their coal & nuclear power-related shares materialise in earwig form at night and crunch their way thru canals 'til their brains are consumed...like their spines & principles have been. Hope this government kicks their arses next election...they deserve to be crushed for allowing themselves to be led by such a negabore crusading nutjob. I noticed America has a few too...including Michelle Bachman. In a rational world these kind of politicians would be left to wander the streets holding THE END IS NIGH, HE IS COMING signs...but our semi-lobotomised world enables them to spew their toxic negativity & delusions into the public sphere by way of mainsteam media day in & day out...whilst earning good money by hypocritically sucking on the public teet. It seems only a massive campaign of brain stimulation & information by the government will help many of the citizenry to recover some of their reasoning & cognitive abilities...and more headkicks by the climate will help. Pretty sad it's come to this. Thumbs up to the government for perservering tho. Managing change resistance is hard & painfully slow work...but they'll get there. Rather them than me. :) N'

NormanK

13/07/2011What's needed now is for every individual and institution who supports a price on carbon to speak up. I don't understand why those bodies who have been calling out for certainty in order to make future investments are not out lobbying in favour of this proposal. Surely they can see that if the public don't get behind this initiative then in 2 or 3 years' time that uncertainty will once again prevail. It's not a question of trying to keep Abbott or the LNP out at the next election but influencing public opinion until it reaches such a point that any fiddling with the ETS will be politically unviable and thereby business will have the ongoing certainty it spends so much time talking about. It's all well and good for those opposed to the scheme to take to the airwaves to can it - where are the businesses in favour of it trying to counter the possible repealing of it? Not that I seriously believe it can be rescinded but it can be fiddled with and uncertainty will once again be the order of the day. Where are the investment bodies? Where are the superannuation schemes who could make a killing on investment in this? It's not enough to expect that the average Australian is going to change their mind and bring about a mood swing. We need significant individuals and powerful businesses to stand up and be counted with a sustained effort to educate and reassure the masses.

John

13/07/2011Hi, All Lyn: sickening bias from the ABC. Oh, I'm sure Paul Keating could have said that; to be followed closely by John Howard & Peter Costello. I do agree, however, that many of the current crop of ABC radio journalists do not have the skills, or teh desire, to ask the hard questions. Ad Astra: You said that [quote]"Tony Abbott is unleashing words and ideas that inflame passion and loathing against Julia Gillard that could lead to violence if he continues unabated."[/quote]He does it the collusion, or laziness, of teh mostly conservative media (see alos my blog posting today: http://truepolitik.blogspot.com/2011/07/politicians-and-media.html FS: I agree. Australia is being made The Selfish Country. I blame the media & Abbott et al. :)

TalkTurkey

13/07/2011Gravel, Loved that last post of your'n. Great writing, Girl you got style. You voted for the Democrats once eh, and saw the error of that all too graphically, thanks for nothing Meg Lees. Then because of the Greens the original CPRS got rolled, (despite their attempts at rewriting history as to that, and now claiming that if they had not done that the original scheme would have been utterly unalterable which of course is garbageous) and the Labor party nearly lost the election because of that, and the Greens benefited in terms of seats, cosmic justice I don't think. At least Brown is worth his place, no doubt. The moral of all this is there is only one party that will and must govern in the name of the People, it is the oldest Labor Party in the world, the first Labor party in the world ever to form government, the oldest political party in Australia. It is the party of which the magical Don Dunstan said: "When I started University I joined the Liberal Club. I stayed with them for a week. Then I joined the Communist Club, and stayed with them for a day. Then I joined the Labor Club, and I have been with Labor ever since." It is the party of the true believer, of the light on the hill. I am proud of it. Where Australian society has anything distinctive and precious about it, the traditions of Australian Labor has much to do with it. I don't hate Greens. In fact of course I feel great empathy with them. I just hate it that in following their hearts rather than their brains, and splitting from Labor whose job it will really be to implement the hard work, they make it so much harder for the rest of us.

nasking

13/07/2011[quote]George Megalogenis has moved to a 'new model' with his blog and there has been an informative and a pretty well 'snark free' discussion on the Carbon Pricing Package.[/quote] Mick, I've been impressed by George's rational, wide thinking & in-depth approach of late on 'Insiders'. Quite frankly, I don't know how he remains sane working for the Murdoch empire...he must be "venom" resistant. Typical they'd pick slimey negabore Bolt for a Rinehart/Murdoch family show on Ch.10 during these days of necessary tax/resource/environmental reform... it's like choosing the most "up himself", argumentative, obstinate, short-sighted, "loves the sound of their own voice", morally deficient, delusional, petty, pedantic kid in yer school to give the graduation address... entertaining for the gullible & control freak-inspired... but generally leaves a negative impression like a blockbuster movie that turns out to be a Christian action film that's all pontification & dodgy effects...script lacking depth & originality. The sequals only get worse. I can't see Bolt making a splash in any other country...other than the other semi-lobotomised nation...the USA. Perhaps the UK during Thatcher & Blair's rule. I wonder which Moriarity-like media mogul all three countries have in common? :) N'

D Mick Weir

13/07/2011Hi NormanK, [i]I don't understand why those bodies who have been calling out for certainty in order to make future investments are not out lobbying in favour of this proposal.[/i] One answer could be that they are too busy getting on with business now that there has been some degree of certainty injected into the system. Another, and possibly more likely answer, is that the media is not asking them for comment.

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011DMW, As for that guard that committed suicide in Bali after seeing someone commit suicide in his line of work at Baxter Detention Centre, well, you can somehow believe it is all the Gillard government's fault somehow, or you can be mature enough to realise that they are not 'responsible' for either suicide. The Afghan refugee should have been made to realise that detention wasn't forever, he was on the mainland of Australia and eventually, after health and security checks were complete, he would be released into the Australian community. Don't ask me why he couldn't wait like 99% of other refugees for their Asylum claim to be processed, so as to eventually have a long and happy and healthy life in this country. Secondly, if the company who employed the guard didn't properly arrange for Post Traumatic Stress Counselling for him, which I have heard is the case with Serco, that is the Gillard government's fault because? Honestly, it's getting beyond a joke that the Gillard government is being blamed, virtually, for someone stubbing their toe on their watch. And yes, I know, committing suicide is not stubbing a toe. However, beyond what you have read, what do you know about the personal circumstances of the particular inmate you refer to and why he committed suicide? Ditto the guard. Last time I looked the country around Baxter Detention Centre resembles Afghanistan a lot, so why should it have discomfited these refugees particularly? Especially if they were being correctly treated by the authorities and advised about how long it would take for their claims to be processed before they could be released. I know that if I were a refugee I would feel that having made it to the Australian mainland that I was 95% of the way to where I ultimately wanted to be. That is, released into the Australian community.

nasking

13/07/2011[quote]Day after day, Tony Abbott is unleashing words and ideas that inflame passion and loathing against Julia Gillard that could lead to violence if he continues unabated. [/quote] Aa, like I said, he's a crusading nutjob. And his words & promises will come back to haunt the Liberals next time they are in government. They no longer think about the long-term viability of their party...they're permitting Abbott to set fires that will oneday consume them. Dopey & unethical & short-sighted strategies. Child-like in fact...bully, say & do anything to get what you want...screw the consequences at the time...and down the road...includes creating a poisonous atmosphere. If Abbott ever wins government he will cop a hiding from millions. N'

Jason

13/07/2011Normank, Although a month old "nutters" are out there! PM kill threat NATHAN PAULL | June 10th, 2011 A TOWNSVILLE man is behind bars after being arrested for threatening to kill Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Jeffrey Charles Geaney, 38, appeared briefly at Townsville Magistrates Court yesterday on three charges of using a carriage service to threaten to kill, which each carry a maximum penalty of 10 years' jail. http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2011/06/10/238375_news.html

Ad astra reply

13/07/2011Nasking, FS, NormanK, John (nice article on TruePolitik), TT, DMW Thank you for your informative comments. The influence of the media in politics in this country is beyond all that is reasonable, particularly the Murdoch media, as you point out Nasking. I am starting to put together something about this.

Patricia WA

13/07/2011Good news doesn't sell newspapers or attract listeners and viewers, either, Norman K. If the government wanted to announce another death in Afghanisan or a disastrous capsizing of a naval vessel they'd get plenty of air time and column space. Did I hear some bad news for Tony Abbott just now tail end of some ABC report about Malcolm Turnbull pointing out that Abbott had changed his mind several times about carbon pricing and ETS? 'I'm not suggesting it was not for good reasons, I'm sure,' he hastened to add. Thought that came to mind immediately was "For Brutus is an honorable man......"

nasking

13/07/2011[quote]The influence of the media in politics in this country is beyond all that is reasonable, particularly the Murdoch media[/quote] Aa, I hope the Murdoch media's role in the unrelenting & grotesque attacks on Rudd, Simon Overland & Christine Nixon are investigated...and how the OZ was able to get info on terrorist raids before they happened. The same goes for ch.7 re: the gay club visiting NSW minister. And how the so called "leaks" were gotten during the last election. Somethin' stinks in the state of Australia. ------------------------------------------------------- As for Obama & the American Democratic party, if the Republicans continue their "no tax rises, cut entitlements" stand...to the detriment of ration, bi-partisan politics and the world markets...I reckon the Dems should NAME & SHAME the major corporations who are making mega-bucks but failing to hire during these "hard times"... and NAME & SHAME Republicans who are or have sucked on the government teet re: subsidies, charities etc. in order to demonstrate their hypocrisy. Give 'em as good as they deserve. The Republicans stand has benefitted the oft non-hiring, overseas invested mega-rich whilst previously stable government jobs in education, firehouses, hospitals etc. have been lost. It's not surprising that families feel destabilised...homes are being lost...and small business, including tourism, is suffering as these once stable jobs are deleted. It's another great crime of this century, just like the last, committed by large corporations & rich dynasties w/ the aid of a sycophantic & stubborn group of morally bankrupt politicians. Kick 'em where it hurts. N'

Patricia WA

13/07/2011TT, just reminding myself about Brutus and co. from memories of Roman history studies. The blood and gore and sex scandals of the NOWT pale by comparison! Also remember - [b][i]Sic semper tyrannis[/i][/b]! - it was true then and will be true again. Talking of tyrants.....FS, perhaps not bunkering down here, surely. Rather think of Rupert Murdoch seeking asylum from political persecution in the UK and US and travelling incognito to shores downunder. Maybe he'll try to come by sea to avoid detection by the media. He has a yacht or two, surely. Think of the possibilities if it was stopped by coastal surveillance as a SIEV. We could have him interned as an undesirable alien. [b][i]Sic semper tyrannis[/i][/b]! [b]Evil be to him who evil does![/b]

D Mick Weir

13/07/2011FS @ 4:45 PM can't say I particularly disagree with anything you wrote. I am sure there would be some that could blame the government for this person's death. Just as there are some that blame the government for anything and everything that they see as wrong in their lives. I am not one of them. There are those that will blame the opposition for all the ills that the government seem to be suffering at the moment. I am not one of them. There will be some that blame the media for all the ills that the government appear to be suffering at the moment. I am not one of them. There may be some who think that this lad is just another casualty in the continuing war on terror. I am not one of them. There may be some that think if an Aussie has lost his life there may be something wrong with the system of detention. I can be cynical enough to think that it takes Australians to suffer before some may actually rethink their attitudes toward the suffering of others. I don't think on its' own this sad story will change the thinking or attitudes of many, if any at all.

2353

13/07/2011Those that set to benefit from the Carbon Policy are probably of the opinion that one trick Tony will run out of bluster sometime between now and 2013. The media is also questioning a tad more than they have in the last few months. It would be interesting to compare the advertising spend of the GST introduction vs the Carbon Tax introduction. It would also be interesting to compare the polls for Howard immediately after the GST was announced vs Gillard's next poll numbers. As much as I hate to say it, the ALP and ACTU (as opposed to the Government) should be running a one trick Tony campaign showing his triple backflips with pikes and distortions for all to see. The footage is available - all they have to do is sort it out.

Michael

13/07/2011Wednesday's Bad Abbott Trotting out his wife and two of the three daughters for a photo opportunity at a fish market today. "This isn't about the Abbotts" he said, "it's about the country". Yeah right. What's truly fishy was right there centrescreen with a death-rattle laugh and a "mmmm", and an "ahhhh", and a lie a minute. Shouldabeen in full flight!

TalkTurkey

13/07/2011http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk3mAX5xdxo I don't think I could do Bob Dylan justice with any parody I could come up with but I think a lot of people around the world will bring their own thoughts as to whom this applies most deliciously. Hint: On gender grounds the word 'Doll' in the third line may need for want of a better alternative to be changed to Troll instead. Nor all the words fit but the jeering tone does. "Jeering Tone" - sounds right.

Lazarus

13/07/2011Ad Astra, The Riddle of lost gravatar, returned, just wish i had kept better records. <<< shakes head >>> And says to self "silly steph", as stated above <del> cookies :-( Umm Perhaps troll through the folder next time and just the one, {{{kicks self firmly}}} And full function along with it, perhaps crashed cookie, spent 2 hour in regedit today cleaning all sorts so there may be a third occult factor. TT, did you have to send this link to me. I'm going to be lost till the end of time here:- Et-al, Ad-Infinitum... http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/ "Conspiracy" is sort of like Bovine Skat. Always some elements of what’s good and true :- ) Like the Lotus and the compost, within it's form. seen?, probably! http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/ I started my web experience from Dos6:22 Mosaic, Its just a tool and I got board with it years ago. But what gets out there now, man. DMW R.e;- [quote]"Dear Mrs 'You lied to us Prime Minister and you are still lying,"[/quote] Had me remembering something called "the warm and fuzzy faire tale" By Claude M Steiner See:- http://www.originalwarmfuzzies.com/tale.htm Something any "Child of Pandora" needed in his toolbox when I was a child. I ask if I may re-post at a place to keep said messages, holus bolus? @ http://thankyoujuliagillardproject.aussieblogs.com.au/ Just think Julia as the Hip woman, And the evil salve merchant is who else but "Bad Abbot, I would love to drown you in ten to of feathers sometimes!!! (use your mind eye folks, Ya know? That place where a unicorn has it's horn? :-) Hi Patricia WA, I wave west over the water from SA :-) AND I'M LOST... But to whoever placed the link, so probably LYN, Of Kneel Bitchall Mitshheeeehel <knave of the would be ursurper>, And Julia, (((hugs))) thanks. That got down loaded and I’m siting here leaning a program called audacity. I'm trying to turn Kneel B.M (as in bowel movement(a form of thought filter therepy or my form of CBT)) Into a little girl, And Julia into like she's got tennis ball "gonads", not quite working yet but great for an OCD insanity, Keep trying to making Julia tell him off like a teacher to a child. Patricia sort of inspired this from up above, so expressed below. Very self-entertaining. :-) Did anybody else note though? That the only caller was a “hysterical” male!? Umm It is something of an oxymoron of a statement I know but think about it!

Lyn

13/07/2011Hi Ad Patricia wrote above:- [quote]Did I hear some bad news for Tony Abbott just now tail end of some ABC report about Malcolm Turnbull pointing out that Abbott had changed his mind several times about carbon pricing and ETS? 'I'm not suggesting it was not for good reasons, I'm sure,' he hastened to add. [/quote] I just came across this so Patricia you did hear right: Malcolm Turnbull reignites leadership tensions within federal Opposition, Joe Kelly, The Australian MALCOLM Turnbull has reactivated the bitter leadership rivalries which have threatened to derail stability in the Opposition, accusing Tony Abbott of disloyalty and inconsistent conduct when he was leading the party. Mr Turnbull suggested today that Mr Abbott was not a team player after he resigned from shadow cabinet and challenged him for the party leadership at the end of 2009. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/malcolm-turnbull-reignites-leadership-tensions-within-federal-opposition/story-fn59niix-1226093960753 [i]Turnbull highlights Abbott's climate change indecision, Jeremy Thompson ABC[/i] "I have given Tony Abbott a consistency and loyalty that I didn't receive consistently from my colleagues when I was leader. After Tony Abbott took over from me as leader of the Liberal Party the policy was changed to one of absolute opposition to any emissions trading scheme." Mr Turnbull has said he still personally supports a market-based emissions trading scheme and has described the Opposition's "direct action" plan as expensive and easy to dump. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-13/malcolm-turnbull-climate-change-policy/2793604 Cheers :):):):):)

Lazarus

13/07/2011Patricia, @ \o/ :-) [quote]Sic semper tyrannis[/quote] Global example of anomie expressed in media and it’s effects follows;- Takes me back to Daria:-) Did you catch this little grim-moi of teenage angst from the 90's. Like the Indigo Girls “Rights of passage” had little awakeners all through it. W.O.W., Wonder Of Wonders! Just the Video’s I needed to remember for a project. :-) Like a Namaste of sorts. (Steph places hands flat at centre of chest and bows curtly to you, as a somewhat indignant Hindu may do if pressed and at home.) <why didn’t I think of that> BAD NAUGHTY ABBOTT, “your standing on my neck” [quote]Sic semper tyrannis[/quote] :-) See :- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic_semper_tyrannis and you just also inspired a logo perhaps, Julia in blue, ABHOOT of course where it should be, let you fill in the rest perhaps. Consider it a reincarnation of said classic notion. Like the “F” word, I accept all variants. There have been many variants of this one. In Virginia it meant your [quote]standing on my neck[/quote], the year was 1776. My greater matrons always sort to implement the suffragette movement as legislation. A LA, Dorothea Dix, as stated but yet for me to locate in "his"-"Story"! Or was it just some cabbalistic family notion, bahh don’t know, but I know I have heard this phrase all my life. See:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2uQT_WK4Ho&feature=related Between the growing collection of sound bytes i have and this i want to see how clever i can get and revive some long not visited skills, Just [quote] think G-String grandmas [/quote] becoming g-string Abbott, Et-al, solid gold if I can get this into my head. hear, the teenage angst in the theme song here, and "your standing on my neck" Sort of an American MTV bounce off Dr G I see before me often bring me to hysteretic laughter! BB http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UslR8AfIxBw or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwXzO7xiSXk&feature=related for an “out takes” sort of collage. If you were to watch the whole series from beginning to end it is as if MTV took “The Female Eunich” and turned it into a De-Eunich-ification story for some characters. Apparently some last bastions of the US suffragette movement saw Daria as the mother of the movement known as the “Suicide Girls” of today. Just think new age “Super Groupies”, with masculine guile in a gang driven world. [quote]“Next on sick sad word”[/quote], Darias’ Dorothy Dix. And I see how clearly the media and life forms it all, here and elsewhere… Dorothea Dix I believe would weep though. I agree Daria, [quote]wish i were made off granite[/quote] also... Ahh, can the computer program it's self.

Lazarus

13/07/2011AND another :-), cracks showing.

NormanK

13/07/2011Well, it's the little things that make a difference. Last night I watched the [i]7 PM Project[/i] which I don't normally indulge in because it strikes me as being lightweight. Interest was sparked because the PM was on. I thought everyone had a good time, Ms Gillard was a sport and took some gentle ribbing really well. As I recall it there was no 'hard' politics. I gave them credit because they showed some camera tape of Tony Abbott walking out of a press conference (having just said that he was making himself available to the Australian public) and the journos assembled started to whinge because they had been there since 9 o'clock and now here he was strolling away without answering many questions. Shades of Jon Stewart, I thought. Tonight, Mr Abbott was the guest and much of the show was in the same vein as the previous evening - a bit of ribbing of Tony (which he took well) and some embarrassing stuff for the PM. Jolly good - much the same treatment for each leader if you are willing to accept Dave Hughes' fawning and obvious desire to sit in Mr Abbott's lap. Then we get to the last few minutes of the show. An item on lying and how Aussies feel about it and how often they indulge in it. A vox pop of who is the more trustworthy leader - Abbott wins three to two. And the clincher - one of the panellists (I don't care who he is) says (in effect): "We've heard all about both schemes for tackling climate change. It's obviously a complex subject so I guess Tony that it comes down to a question of trust?" 'Would you like fries with that Dorothy Dixer, sir?' A free pass for Abbott to trot out his tired old lines and bag Julia Gillard for being a liar. Thanks a lot [i]7 PM Project[/i]. You've helped me to make my mind up about Channel 10 and whether I will ever watch your programme again. I hate it when I'm undecided.

TalkTurkey

13/07/2011Sic semper tyrannis et Honi soit qui mal y pense! Remember folks that tune for Gallagher and Shean (which I parodised with Abbortt and Reith) ? Well here's just one verse about Mr Abbortt and Mr Turnbull. Oh Mr Abbortt! Oh Mr Abbortt! - Well what's on your mind this morning Mr T? Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee! Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee! Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee heeee! (to be continued) :) Thanks for that delightful news Lyn.

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Wow! I have just been watching PM's Questions from Westminster. Now that's what I call a Judicial Inquiry! A Lord High Justice has basically been given carte blanche to go wherever the evidence takes him, and he will be able to call as witnesses in the phone-hacking scandal, reporters, management and proprietors, police, private investigators, and probably Royal Household staff. This is going to be the gift that keeps on giving if you don't like the malign influence of Rupert Murdoch, and, in a funny way, David Cameron is probably the only politician in the world who could have taken on Rupert Murdoch. A scion of the British Upper Class and a Conservative PM, a staunch Royal Family supporter, so truthfully repulsed at the invasion of their privacy. Also, Murdoch cannot ingratiate his way out of responsibility in any way now because Cameron has got where he wanted to go, that is, Prime Minister of Britain, and doesn't really need a weakened Murdoch to keep him in power now. On a local note, I can only hope that with Murdoch fighting the bushfire surrounding his empire that he no longer has his 'Tony Abbott for PM' project front of mind, and we start to see a faltering of the full court press that Abbott has been receiving. We live in hope.

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Lazarus, If you get a really good political mashup together you can always submit it to Q&A. :)

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Nasking, Did you see that the American Senate has referred Murdoch to a subcommittee for investigation? I think wrt hacking the phones of the 9/11 victim's families. Oh how the mighty are falling. Haven't fallen, yet. Slippery as a sewer rat, is our man Murdoch, so still standing for the moment. I wouldn't count him out yet. Though I expect that there have been a lot of individuals in positions of power just waiting for the chance to put on the hobnail boots and give him the kicking he so richly deserves. :D

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Nas, Here's the link: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100096603/rupert-murdochs-troubles-reach-america-as-congress-serves-notice-on-news-corp/ Jay Rockefeller. Another 'old money' family who are probably sick of blowing smoke up Murdoch's wrinkly bum and have just been waiting for the opportunity to wreak their revenge. You gotta love that old saying: 'Revenge is a dish best served cold.' :)

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Here's another great little blog, lyn, about the Price on Carbon: http://www.heathenscripture.com/you-shut-your-goddamn-carbon-taxin-mouth/#comment-4009

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011From Twitter: [quote]Kersebleptes Man who harassed the Greens lady at Tony's meeting revealed as Declan Stephenson, a member of Bruce Bilson's team at the 2010 election.[/quote]

Feral Skeleton

13/07/2011Rupert Murdoch has dropped his bid for BSkyB in the UK! George Monbiot says it is time for dancing in the streets. :D

Lazarus

14/07/2011FS, [quote]If you get a really good political mashup together you can always submit it to Q&A.[/quote] Starting to think I would have to log out for quite some time, Hated Blogs once, actually finding them a good information filter now. Believe me if I can learn all this, you will be my first peer review. Myre-Dock, Are our minds just mud maps on a global scale to some of these sculptors to pile up and knock down until they have their collective unconsciousness!? Conscious only to one omnipotent being, If we live backwards and thus spell the word so what do we have again:- live evil, live evil. EVIL LIVE. An English Yin Yang? Ad Astra and Lyn, but Therefore all of you thanks again for said thought filtering :-) &@ a heads up, I have pointed some in here for same thought balancing, some may seek counsel, if they do, and they have been asked not too. Refer them to me as needs be back at Get Up, I would add I have pointed them to the blog subject R.E. any post. Link for this at http://suggest.getup.org.au/forums/60819-getup-campaign-suggestions/suggestions/1833821-better-access-to-psychologists?tracking_code=b7f8f7459d1817add2a995168dc4489a Is the only example thus far, let me know and I will pull the post if it proves to be a problem. But it may also prove out something of a solution. "Gratis ET Gratis" as mom may say. TT, [quote] Honi soit qui mal y pense [/quote] Thank you for expanding my verbosity to new grounds, gotta learn that one for my little Dr "consumer" psychodramas or street theatre. Next on sick sad world:- http://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/latest/a/-/newshome/9837895/7news-exclusive-aged-care-assaults-increasing/ Seem to remember that new data that fed this know ledge being started under Kevin about 3 year’s back. As you may envisage if reading my posts, this I do watch, closely. Now to trawl for a clarifier. GRRR On a lighter note what do you make of this, real or staged? http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/9835013/is-this-the-bet-proposal-ever/ Methinks they are just “budding actors”, method and seeking kudos. Perhaps a video resume! Just trying to offer a little Yin and Yang… :-) Watching but disappearing, block blog reply on weakend, must maintain bio-functions! <Says to self>

Casablanca

14/07/2011There have been a few references to the PM's appearance on the 7.30 Project but I did not see a link posted so here it is - apologies if I am repeating something aleady posted: http://7pmproject.com.au/video.htm I thought that the PM was absolutely delightful and hope that TPS people have been/will go to the video in droves because I'm sure someone will be counting the number of times that both PM & Mr Rabbit videos have been accessed.

Lyn

14/07/2011TODAY’S LINKS [i]News of the Screwed, Andrew Elder, Politically Homeless[/i] in Australia and elsewhere the exposure of activities of this sort is most likely not from other journalists, but fromIT professionals who can play all the games that Murdoch's people did but better, and with the sense and skill to http://andrewelder.blogspot.com/2011/07/news-of-screwed.html [i]Politicians and the Media, John, True Politik[/i] there would appear to be a financial & editorial bias from many media organisations towards the Liberal Party. Furthermore, Tony Abbott’s use of soft, populist media, and supportive shock-jocks, is effective use http://truepolitik.blogspot.com/ [i]What happens when you tell people they’re about to be oppressed, Jeremy Sear, Pure Poison[/i] It’s almost like there’s some kind of pattern in right-wing behaviour at the moment, isn’t there? It’s almost as if the validation from shameless partisan shock jocks has made them comfortable indulging in the fantasy of being some kind of oppressed people who are http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2011/07/13/what-happens-when-you-tell-people-theyre-about-to-be-oppressed/#more-10983 [i]The Australian Newspaper, Carbon Tax and Misleading Conduct?, Peter, Aussie View News[/i] impression that “a series of opinions polls” taken last week might reflect current thinking is,in the opinion of Aussie Views News at least, very close to misleading and deceptive conduct. http://www.aussieviewsnews.com/2011/07/13/the-australian-newspaper-carbon-tax-and-misleading-conduct/ [i]Siding with the Minority, Peter Browne, Inside Story[/i] Creating a sense that the government is illegitimate and unstable has shored up Abbott’s leadership, but it appears also to have had a real impact on economic confidence, http://inside.org.au/siding-with-the-minority/ [i]Abbott’s fishy scare campaign is on the nose, Climate Action Team[/i] Once again, Mr Abbott made inaccurate claims about the impact of a carbon price on businesses like fish wholesalers and on consumers. http://climatechangeaction.org.au/abbotts-fishy-scare-campaign-is-on-the-nose/ [i]The Murdoch – Crises-press-will-never-be-as-sleezy-again, Barry Everingham, Independent Australia[/i] some consolation in knowing all the Murdoch tabloids, worldwide, will at last serve a useful purpose — wrapping up the fish and chips on a Friday night http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/media-2/the-murdoch-crisis-press-will-never-be-as-sleazy-again/Rupert's [i]crisis blows up $6 billion in a week, Stephen Mayne, ABC[/i] a declaration News Corp is not fit and proper to own 100 per cent of the monopoly pay-TV provider is also a declaration that it must sell the existing 39 per cent stake. http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2793508.html [i]Rats get caught in the same mess London Edition, Piping Shrike[/i] Murdoch’s business model. Not actually manipulating public opinion, but convincing an insecure political class that it could. This influence over the political class was not merely a delusion, http://www.pipingshrike.com/2011/07/rats-get-caught-in-the-same-mess-london-edition.html [i]Press Council: payments to police are not legitimate journalistic practice, Julian Disney, The Conversation[/i] Australian News Ltd chief John Hartigan says it isn’t, but the UK experience demonstrates that senior News executives have denied activity that has subsequently been proven to be occurring. http://theconversation.edu.au/press-council-payments-to-police-are-not-legitimate-journalistic-practice-2291 [i]News Corp's Australian papers check their books for wrongful payments, Guardian UK[/i] Hartigan said attempts by some Australian media outlets, commentators and politicians to connect the phone-hacking scandal in the UK with News Ltd's conduct in Australia were "offensive and wrong http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/13/news-corp-australian-phone-hacking?CMP=twt_fd [i]News Corp's message to its Australian staff on editorial payments, Guardian UK[/i] Yesterday, HWT released an updated and expanded version of its editorial code of conduct and editor in chief Phil Gardner conducted briefings to staff. HWT's new code has been 3 months in preparation and its release is unrelated to events overseas. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/13/news-corp-australian-staff [i]Protect yourself from these hacks, David Rogers, Technology Spectator[/i] I am asking the network operators to look at the use of remote voicemail access in general, with the proposal that they should consider shutting remote access down entirely. http://technologyspectator.com.au/security/data-security/protect-yourself-these-hacks?utm [i]TORY ERRORIST: Liberal stand-over thug prompts Greenie tearsVicky Kasidis, Vex News[/i] Liberal cause was not helped by the thuggish stupidity of boof-head brazen bully Declan Stephenson,a man thanked by Bruce Billson himself in Parliament as a hard-working member of the local Liberal campaign machine, http://www.vexnews.com/2011/07/tory-errorist-liberal-stand-over-thug-prompts-greenie-tears/ [i]Abbott's climate plan fails the test , Peter Martin SMH[/i] delegates were given voting slips and asked to put a tick next to either the "direct action" plan put forward by Tony Abbott or the carbon tax morphing to a trading scheme proposed by Julia Gillard.Abbott will get slaughtered. http://www.smh.com.au/business/abbotts-climate-plan-fails-the-test-20110712-1hc6z.html [i]Abbott's direct action plan on carbon is friendless,Matt Grudnoff On Line Opinion[/i] the Coalition's policy is a caricature of big government programs. It is not surprising then that the Coalition has been unable to find any economist that supports its direct action policy. It has also had great difficulty finding any business leaders to support it either. http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=12322

Lyn

14/07/2011 Good Morning Ad Jeremy expresses his sympathy: Sympathy for the Rupert, by Jeremy Sear , Jeremy Sear, Pure Poison We’d like to express sympathy for and solidarity with News Corporation chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, who – based on last night’s news bulletins – appears to currently be undergoing the sort of treatment [b]his media empire usually doles out to others[/b] http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2011/07/14/sympathy-for-the-rupert/ Cheers :):):):):):):):):):)

Feral Skeleton

14/07/2011Casablanca, Shall do! We need to get behind sensible and credible action on Climate Change and that means getting behind the PM in her efforts to push it along the road.

Feral Skeleton

14/07/2011Just one more story on Rupert Murdoch's 'Citizen Kane' moment by Roy Greenslade: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/markets/article-23969502-dangers-mount-for-murdoch-as-he-faces-citizen-kane-moment.do

Feral Skeleton

14/07/2011Lazarus, In order to understand the Collective Unconsciousness I would advise you read 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley. :)

Ad astra reply

14/07/2011LYN'S DAILY LINKS updated: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/page/LYNS-DAILY-LINKS.aspx

Ad astra reply

14/07/2011Folks You will recall that yesterday Peter Martin alerted us that a survey about the Government’s and the Opposition’s climate change plans was to be conducted among 140 economists attending yesterday’s meeting of the Economic Society of Australia. The results were given on [i]The World Today[/i] but the item was not there when I looked, however this morning it is. The results are as follows: “[i]…we asked about 140 Australian economists, about 60 per cent believe the Government's package is good economic policy and about 25 per cent disagree with that assessment, and that meant there were about 15 per cent without an opinion.

 The second question was about the Coalition's direct action plan, more or less the same kind of idea, how much in favour are you of this plan? And about a quarter of the respondents were unable to give a clear opinion this early in the piece. But of those who did have an opinion around 85 per cent didn't, said they did not think the Coalition's direct action plan is a sound economic proposal to reduce carbon emissions.[/i]” The English is not great, but the results are clear: 60% of the 140 economists believed the Government package was good, 25% disagreed and 15% had no opinion. Regarding the Coalition’s Direct Action plan, around 25% could not offer an opinion; of the 75% who did, 85% did not think the plan was ‘a sound economic proposal to reduce carbon emissions.’ Putting it more simply, leaving aside those who did not have an opinion on one or the other plan, over 70% who offered an opinion on the Government's plan supported it, while only 15% who had an opinion supported the Coalition’s plan. As far as these economists are concerned the Government’s plan is clearly superior to the Opposition’s. The full item on [i]The World Today[/i] is here: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2011/s3268292.htm

Feral Skeleton

14/07/2011Ad Astra, Further to the comparison of the competing plans wrt Climate Change, I hear on the radio today that a new investigation in the journal 'Nature' has said that the concept of Carbon Tree Banks, or believing you can counteract your C pollution by locking C away in trees is not as good as it sounds at first blush. So there's a large part of 'Direct Action' down the toilet, and the government have included it as part of their suite of responses to Climate Change too. Plus, I will add that similar problems plague the BioChar concept, that is, microorganisms involved in the process, have been found to emit large quantities of methane and Nitrogen-based gases that partially counteract the good you are attempting to do.

Feral Skeleton

14/07/2011Barnaby 'The Ugly Australian' Joyce in full flight and on the front page: http://covers.ruralpress.com/frontpages/258/55292.pdf

Lyn

14/07/2011Hi Patricia Here is your word you were searching for yesterday in exactly the right place on exactly the same subject: NotW: Murdoch withdraws BSkyB bid, Amber Jamieson, Crikey US shareholders of News Corp — not to be confused with Murdoch’s UK operations News International —  are suing News Corp over the purchase of Shine Group Ltd, a company run by Rupert’s daughter Elisabeth Murdoch, [b]since they argue the purchase was [u]nepotism [/u]not a valid business strategy.[/b] http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/07/14/gordon-brown-the-latest-notw-target/

Patricia WA

14/07/2011Well, Ad Astra, those economists are just plain wrong. They need to think again, don't they? Lyn, yes [u]'nepotism'[/u]- funny how words elude one! Just following your link there and on to others there's a mine of information about Murdoch and nepotism. I particularly like this one from that group of shareholders claiming that Murdoch was spending $675 million on his daughter they also complained that [b][quote]"In addition to larding the executive ranks of the company with his offspring, Murdoch constantly engages in transactions designed to benefit family members."[/quote][/b] TT, Could this ignite those 'funeral pyres' beneath Murdoch and his News corp liars?

D Mick Weir

14/07/2011Hi Ad, in search of how the PM could put the case more simply maybe we could direct her towards this piece by [i]Brian @ Larvatus Prodeo:[/i] [b]It's simple, really[/b] http://larvatusprodeo.net/2011/07/13/its-simple-really/ [i]'Frustration at the nonsense purveyed on Madonna King’s program inspired me to send her an email, stating the main features of the Clean Energy Future (CEF) package in three simple points. ... The scheme does seem to me to have an elegant simplicity about it together with a flexibility that bespeaks careful design.'[/i]

Ad astra reply

14/07/2011FS Yes, the scientists are saying that the carbon mitigation effect of tree planting needs to be discounted by 20% because of the emission of methane and nitrous oxide that tree planting occasions. Moreover, as Wikipedia states: “[i] Carbon in trees is temporary: Trees can easily release carbon into the atmosphere through fire, disease, climatic changes, natural decay and timber harvesting.”[/i] and “[i]A recent study has claimed that plants are a significant source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, raising the possibility that trees and other terrestrial plants may be significant contributors to global methane levels in the atmosphere.”[/i] This is what today’s report is quantifying. The whole Wikipedia item is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_offset#Effectiveness_of_tree-planting_offsets Amazingly, Michael Stutchbury has a piece in today’s issue of [i]The Australian: PM trounces Abbott in economists survey[/i] that gives somewhat different figures but ends with additional information: “[i] A separate and bigger Economic Society survey of its members, also released yesterday, found even stronger support for the proposition that "price-based mechanisms -- taxes, subsidies or an emissions trading scheme -- as opposed to direct regulation, are the more appropriate mechanisms for cutting greenhouse gas emissions". “Of 531 economists, 79 per cent agreed or agreed strongly with this. Only 11 per cent disagreed.”[/i] That is a pretty convincing statement. No doubt the economically illiterate Tony Abbott will dismiss it with an imperious wave of his hand, as you suggest Patricia WA. The whole story is here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/pm-trounces-abbott-in-economists-survey/story-e6frg9if-1226094172989?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheAustralianOpinion+%28The+Australian+%7C+Opinion%29

TalkTurkey

14/07/2011Sharkie wrote in comments on Jeremy's site that you linked us to Thank You Lyn, " . . I do love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning . . " Couldn't say it better myself, though after *J*U*L*I*A* finally got up last year I wrote a little parody on Edelweiss from Sound of Music, can't remember how it goes but it starts as you may imagine, [i]Schadenfreude, Schadenfreude . . . [/i] That's all I remember but I know it feels Goo-oo-oood! [i]Merde[/i] och really is a horrible man, well nothing new there, worse than Nixon at his worst, perhaps the most powerful and corrupt person of all modern history. Prime Ministers and presidents, governments and global corporations all dance grotesquely to his tune, and the masses hang on his every front page. He bestrides the globe as a super-colossus. Countless people have been pilloried by him, their lives blighted at mere whims of his, and it is not too long a bow to draw to count him co-responsible with Howard and Reith for the SIEV X drownings,[i]and all such mischiefs world wide[/i], up to and including the wars and fights in which the world is currently embroiled. He uses his extraordinary influence to put evil governments in place, he is responsible for their actions. And where with his mighty might he might have educated the world and turned it in peaceful directions, he has chosen to exacerbate hatreds and to dumb the world down. I'm not a Capital-C Christian, I do not have to forbid myself the right to hate. But I am a [i]humanist[/i], and in a lucky country where i have been able to avoid the worst excesses of crimes in which the Merde och hand may be found. That is why I [i]don't[/i] really *hate* this terrible ex-Adelaide man. But by the love of Dog, I abhor his empire and his actions. All the persecution in the world will never undo a jot of the hurt he has done to the many, but I do so hope his whole evil empire crashes in rubble around him. Today! Enjoy your schadenfreudulous morning folks. Oh yes and *J*U*L*I*A* DID look delightful on that 7project link, thank you [i]very[/i] much Casablanca for emphasing its worthwhileness. Swordsfolks and others, you want "Real *J*U*L*I*A*", there she is, show your friends, you can't put on girlish enjoyment and charm and wit and taking ribbing on the chin (!) like that without it being real. Here 'tis again, increase your schadenfreude level THREE FULL NOTCHES! :) http://7pmproject.com.au/video.htm Abbortt eat your heart out, you'll never be nice like [i] [b*J*U*L*I*A* ![/b][/i]

D Mick Weir

14/07/2011I am liking Fiona K more and more, well her catoons anyway [b]The Aftermath[/b] http://newmatilda.com/2011/07/14/aftermath-0

TalkTurkey

14/07/2011PatriciaWA quoted this: [i]'In addition to *larding* the executive ranks of the company with his offspring, Murdoch constantly engages in transactions designed to benefit family members.' [/i] And asked rhetorically, "TT, Could this ignite those 'funeral pyres' beneath Murdoch and his News corp liars?" To which I respond metaphorically, O what a Boon to a Bard! When those Merdeochs are feathered and tarred, Then their funeral pyre Will burn SKY-high and higher 'Cos those Merdeochs are [i]made[/i] [i]out of[/i] lard!

Ad astra reply

14/07/2011Folks I have just posted [i]Has the political influence of the Murdoch media reached its nadir?[/i] http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/post/2011/07/14/Has-the-political-influence-of-the-Murdoch-media-reached-its-nadir.aspx
T-w-o take away o-n-e equals?