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accident prone
Picture: car crush. Bottom right images shows view into back seat via rear passenger window, internal roof light is jammed on with reflections of camera, building opposite, back of front seat at right.
accident proneWe took these pictures off Lateline webcast Friday night show just now, following the Thursday night big blast (also below). And see commentary below. If PK is not "ginned up" in some sections, to borrow Barak Obama's phrase then it's a good impression all the same.
Of particular interest is the picture of Keating hobnobbing with one of the other 4 amigoes of the Old Sussex St NSW ALP Right Laurie Brereton involved in recent years in smashing the NSW Planning legislative framework in order to expand Port Botany against the Inquiry of Commissioner Kevin Cleland, via a qango called the Freight Infrastructure Advisory Board. Is Keating on the payroll? We would love to know. The event is the May 2006 launch of the book The longest decade, by moderate political economic writer George Meglogenis of The Australian Murdoch press and often on Insiders.
Another jarring moment was the audio of the "incompetent unions" compared to the saintly pose of Greg Combet who helped centrally to deliver a $4B asbestos compensation fund to victims across all strata of society. Shamefully cavalier language from Keating really.
We haven't pictured Julia Gillard shadow minister below, because we feel she is well out of this somehow particularly male egomaniacal context. What we also liked was the humour in Rudd's reaction, shown below leaning forward on his toes, as if to emphasise a charitable response, for a charity case. Mmm. Quite appealing and impressive actually.
Pictures, from top: face pulling by Keating, Greg Combet unionist, Keating looks away constructing a line about Julia Gillard in his mind that fits the exagerated thesis, Rudd's charitable reaction, Beazley Gray and Epstein 1998, Keating with ex federal minister Brereton 2006.
More commentary
We've been mulling over Paul Keating's psychology these last 24 hours. The political consequence of going the bash on his own team is obvious - humour for the enemies of the ALP, and gnawing self doubt for the ALP Family when confidence and morale is a premium.
So the question becomes twofold 1. why did PK do it? and 2. is it true?
The answers to both we suspect, confusingly are related. We keep having images of Glen Milne going the swing at Crikey staff. Glen was so embarrassed professionally he quit drinking so it seems. Milne's work has revived in quality and quantity in the press. Well done.
Then there is our own experience: Alcoholic father and grandfather. We went tea total 12 months back, and feel great for it too. Just stay away from my coffee. My work has revived similarly along with my mood.
Then there is Bill Leak accused by his ex girlfriend of being "a cruel bastard". Bill is on the wagon too, hearing tunes in his head and drawing inspired cartoons about Kevin Ruddy/Tintin and double backflips with bellyflop. That's revival. Beautiful stuff.
Paul Keating after a life long of fine reds? The odd Glenfiddich double malt, 21 years? We wonder. We know how these secrets run their course.
Because this is where the truth question kicks in. Or rather, how true is more like it? Gary Grey ex federal ALP ex Woodside now candidate, David Epstein et al are "no value" people says Keating?
Paul Keating on the lead-up to the federal election
07/06/2007 The former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, speaks with Tony Jones about the political climate in the lead-up to the federal election.
We in the law know a categorical exageration when we see it and how evidence in such terms is bound to be misconceived. Never ever, 100%, Black and White, Pure Certainty. These absolutes are not the real world. When a witness goes that way you can tell they are leaning into the answer.
So it's safe to say these senior ALP folks do really "have value". It's probably safe to say they are not quite A1 quality as per the Keating sledges, as Rudd would say and hope, this side of a near election contest. But similarly that they have the potential, as likely we all do.
But it's even more likely, Keating is a genius gone sour, compares his huge talent (or perhaps more accurately the memory of such talent) with lesser mortals, and wounds them cruelly projecting his own ugliness (read drink?) rather than lift them up or take them with him. After all Paul, politics is essentially about popularity no matter how right or good, a cruel and unfair master at the best of times.
Mandela says - 'a leader lets the most nimble go forward and find the path' and 'a leader's duty is to keep the group together, those in front and those straggling behind'.
These comments say so very much. That a good leader humbly acknowledges the skill and wit of his 'followers' even beyond his own, is not threatened by their abilities, and understands the deep truth that we are all limited human beings and no one can be it, and do it, all.
It also says - not all can be as gifted or "keep up" with the genius or ability of the leader or his closest helpers. Yet a real leader works at, and keeps an eye to the whole group's cohesion and well being, even the slow ones. And why do that if you are concerned with victory first and foremost? Why not just cut 'em loose as PK implies?
Because everyone at some time in their life is bound to be straggling, when before they were leading. First and last depending on the snapshot. Even Paul Keating. That's life. We all intuitively know it. So if you are a compassionate leader who cares for the stragglers even the fast ones feel better and safer for it, and love you for that too, and work above and beyond the call of duty. Love, Paul, not obedience per se. They reach for their A1 quality and even achieve it. Becasue we all know one day that could be, will be, me if bad luck strikes.
But it's not all bad luck. In many ways where you finish up at the end of life's journey, leading, stone mother last, or in the middle is a personal choice: Such as faith in the great deceiver, alcohol, or not. This nasty drug takes you up but always leaves you further down than when you started until you end up gasping for credibility in the dangerous white water rapids of a Tony Jones Lateline hazard.
We will now go and see if Rudd has been swallowed by the same rapids, as those poor victims of the floodwaters yesterday, and Paul Keating the day before has already been (even if he thinks not):
Rudd defends party against Keating attack
08/06/2007 Labor Leader Kevin Rudd has defended his party against suggestions from former prime minister Paul Keating that its members are not capable of winning the election.
It's almost as if Keating is being "defeatist" to quote Gillard, that if he lost against Howard in 1996 everyone else must too or be seen as better than the great PK. But who is to say they are not greater? We will see in due course. Because no one knows. Not John Howard, not Paul Keating, Kevin Rudd, Grey, Epstein, the gaggle of commentators and definitely not this writer.
Postscript #2 - late Saturday 9th June
Well live and learn. We went back to the main interview of last Thursday night, all 25 minutes of it
Paul Keating on the lead-up to the federal election
07/06/2007 The former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, speaks with Tony Jones about the political climate in the lead-up to the federal election.
after reading Matt Price in The Oz Murdoch press today:
Matt Price: Paul just getting better all the time
because he said staffers in parliament (party non specific) were playing and replaying the interview, which pricked our interest, and to give PK a fair hearing, not second hand from big media hacks generally.
And a re- appraisal is in order. We don't fully retract the tone of our sledge about a punchy ginned up personal aggression of Big Paul Keating. But we do say this:
For the first 10 minutes of a long long interview it is a bravura performance explaining even to an economics amateur like me where the political economy of the country has been. Especially the Hawke Keating govt role. A role the party of the bosses would be proud of in terms of productivity, killing the inflation dragon, enterprise bargaining replacing centralised wage fixing/pattern bargaining, raising wages 2 per cent per year over 20 years but also critically floating the dollar and absorbing both Asian economic shocks and booming mineral exports now.
And the rest of the interview full 25 minutes interview, on national tv no less, one to one talkies is mostly high level analysis too. It pays to replay in parts because like the West Wing the content is dense. But though I am no economics trained observer I notice a major flaw apart from the psychological violence on his rivals within the modern ALP, as above:
PK notes Howard had interest rates running at 21% in 1982 - and lost the 1983 election. Keating had interests rates 16% or so 1995-6 - and lost that election. But PK actually has the gall to say interest rates were not an issue in 1996. Wrong. Very wrong. For whatever reason they were, unlike the 1993 election though rates were of similar magnitude. Maybe because people's exposure was just so much greater on higher capital investments/mortgages etc (a bit like a climber 100 feet off ground same objective difficulty as 3 feet off the ground, but much much scarier)?
But apart from this, some criticism above - and lastly PK's inconsistency of junking "comparative wage justice" [ie pattern bargaining across sectors] "which had to go" yet defending the right of collective unionism, which surely is the localised version of the same thing - there is a hell of a lot to recommend Keating's 25 minute lecture. It pricks the puffery of Costello's alleged economic mastery. Rather implies Christian Kerr's sledge of laziness.
Subject to the GST being alot bigger deal than Keating is willing to acknowledge - bailed out the social services budget which was bleeding as per the Democrat thesis.
In that sense it becomes clear why Rudd was looking so happy with the whole thing. It will shock the govt as much as bruise the ALP egos. Younger egos that will mature and grow from the lecture, which could have been given without the intergenerational spite and acid we have come to expect from the inflated boomers PK included.
We have never forgetten PK's disdain for the environment, not least the loggers who thrashed him in 1994, dudding Faulkner in the process, and we noticed a PK rare past confession as to this very profound failing.
In conclusion not so much a "sad" or "charity" case, as one to be analysed carefully. Just as his preselection was built on sharp tactics a good 30 years ago, and now is laced with selectivity and exageration. Common trait of geniuses actually.
quizzical
It's an inside day. It's wet in Sydney. There is disaster afoot and best to cocoon, right?
But this chilly greasy cold, of closed windows and high humidity has caused (?!) the smashed teapot above. One thing about being teatotal, you take your tea very seriously. A very small disaster in the scheme of things but then again I want my hot invigorating ginger laced tea damn it.
Another receptacle to brew my lean chai. What? A glass jar? A tin pot? Nah, the thermos of course. So cheap at KMart. Then I get to thinking. Why not always use it instead anyway?
How much energy would be saved using a thermos like they do in cold poorer countries like Chile? Typically in meeting rooms there it is, the vaccuum flask along with the table, chairs, no central heating and extra layer of clothes.
Save energy? Well we remember Richard Glover on 702 radio making a blow for domestic energy bills everywhere by not heating the pot under the running hot water. Why not not heat the pot at all? (Well done on the deletion of shampoo there too Richard, I'm a convert.)
First you don't have to keep the pot warm on the stove on super low heat. You don't need to reboil and top up the pot, or worse chuck out and remake. The ginger prevents stewing (really, try it). This may bear alot more life cycle analysis - like how much energy to make the thermos versus a crokery fired teapot? Still you don't even need a tea cosy. All courtesy of the insulation benefit of a vaccuum. And notice the new design of thermos have a neat release valve without unscrewing for those frail hands.
Mmm, a silver lining to a broken teapot, maybe.
Picture: Muesli pancake: Mix wholemeal flour, one egg, shape milk, cheapest muesli homebrand. Don't let it stand long. Cook on medium heat pan, lid off, on a little oil. Flip once. Eat and listen to Liz Farrelly on radio, doesn't get better than this.
irritated
happy
Linda Burney MP launches NAIDOC week action at Addison Gallery 2pm Sunday 8th July 07
In sympathy with the lead article running in the crikey.com.au ezine today here we suggest Paul Keating does indeed get busy again with Indigenous empowerment projects:
Get a job! Therapy for Paul Keating
At Crikey, we love Paul Keating. We love him for floating the dollar. We love the way he and Hawke and Walshie bashed the economy into something fit for the twenty first century. But we worry about old Paul. Hanging out with Jack Lang was pretty cool. Tuning into Jack Lang isn’t.
Postscript #1
We've been mulling over Paul Keating's psychology these last 24 hours. The political consequence of going the bash on his own team is obvious - humour for the enemies of the ALP, and gnawing self doubt for the ALP Family when confidence and morale is a premium.
So the question becomes twofold 1. why did PK do it? and 2. is it true?
The answers to both we suspect, confusingly are related. We keep having images of Glen Milne going the swing at Crikey staff. Glen was so embarrassed professionally he quit drinking so it seems. Milne's work has revived in quality and quantity in the press. Well done.
Then there is our own experience: Alcoholic father and grandfather. We went tea total 12 months back, and feel great for it too. Just stay away from my coffee. My work has revived similarly along with my mood.
Then there is Bill Leak accused by his ex girlfriend of being "a cruel bastard". Bill is on the wagon too, hearing tunes in his head and drawing inspired cartoons about Kevin Ruddy/Tintin and double backflips with bellyflop. That's revival. Beautiful stuff.
Paul Keating after a life long of fine reds? The odd Glenfiddich double malt, 21 years? We wonder. We know how these secrets run their course.
Because this is where the truth question kicks in. Or rather, how true is more like it? Gary Grey ex federal ALP ex Woodside now candidate, David Epstein et al are "no value" people says Keating?
Paul Keating on the lead-up to the federal election
07/06/2007 The former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, speaks with Tony Jones about the political climate in the lead-up to the federal election.
We in the law know a categorical exageration when we see it and how evidence in such terms is bound to be misconceived. Never ever, 100%, Black and White, Pure Certainty. These absolutes are not the real world. When a witness goes that way you can tell they are leaning into the answer.
So it's safe to say these senior ALP folks do really "have value". It's probably safe to say they are not quite A1 quality as per the Keating sledges, as Rudd would say and hope, this side of a near election contest. But similarly that they have the potential, as likely we all do.
But it's even more likely, Keating is a genius gone sour, compares his huge talent (or perhaps more accurately the memory of such talent) with lesser mortals, and wounds them cruelly projecting his own ugliness (read drink?) rather than lift them up or take them with him. After all Paul, politics is essentially about popularity no matter how right or good, a cruel and unfair master at the best of times.
Mandela says - 'a leader lets the most nimble go forward and find the path' and 'a leader's duty is to keep the group together, those in front and those straggling behind'.
These comments say so very much. That a good leader humbly acknowledges the skill and wit of his 'followers' even beyond his own, is not threatened by their abilities, and understands the deep truth that we are all limited human beings and no one can be it, and do it, all.
It also says - not all can be as gifted or "keep up" with the genius or ability of the leader or his closest helpers. Yet a real leader works at, and keeps an eye to the whole group's cohesion and well being, even the slow ones. And why do that if you are concerned with victory first and foremost? Why not just cut 'em loose as PK implies?
Because everyone at some time in their life is bound to be straggling, when before they were leading. First and last depending on the snapshot. Even Paul Keating. That's life. We all intuitively know it. So if you are a compassionate leader who cares for the stragglers even the fast ones feel better and safer for it, and love you for that too, and work above and beyond the call of duty. Love, Paul, not obedience per se. They reach for their A1 quality and even achieve it. Becasue we all know one day that could be, will be, me if bad luck strikes.
But it's not all bad luck. In many ways where you finish up at the end of life's journey, leading, stone mother last, or in the middle is a personal choice: Such as faith in the great deceiver, alcohol, or not. This nasty drug takes you up but always leaves you further down than when you started until you end up gasping for credibility in the dangerous white water rapids of a Tony Jones Lateline hazard.
We will now go and see if Rudd has been swallowed by the same rapids, as those poor victims of the floodwaters yesterday, and Paul Keating the day before has already been (even if he thinks not):
Rudd defends party against Keating attack
08/06/2007 Labor Leader Kevin Rudd has defended his party against suggestions from former prime minister Paul Keating that its members are not capable of winning the election.
It's almost as if Keating is being "defeatist" to quote Gillard, that if he lost against Howard in 1996 everyone else must too or be seen as better than the great PK. But who is to say they are not greater? We will see in due course. Because no one knows. Not John Howard, not Paul Keating, Kevin Rudd, Grey, Epstein, the gaggle of commentators and definitely not this writer.
a-ok
Call us for professional service on tel. 0410 558838 or land line Sydney (02) 9558 9551or send an email Attn Tom to
The editor gets by on about $10K annual income just below the taxable income threshhold. This is for several reasons:
- to keep a low carbon footprint;
- remain independent of vested financial interests, either corporate or party political;
- to show solidarity with the majority of the poor in this world;
- when we do have spare cash we donate it to such as Clean up Columbia here and ecology action Australia projects generally.
- we don't know how to make any more money and still have time for our community media work, and stay independent. Cheesy but realistic.
chatty
With federal govt money involved in this hyper consumption view of the future Cr Khan has plenty to work on in this side of Sydney.
and here
Media Release - 7 June 2007
Anvil Hill coal mine approved: Govt's climate change credentials in tatters
Greens MP and mining spokesperson Lee Rhiannon said Planning Minister Frank Sartor's decision today to approve the massive Anvil Hill coal mine in the Upper Hunter Valley shows the Iemma government is not serious about addressing climate change or safeguarding the Hunter's water resources.
"This decision shows the Iemma government is completely captured by the coal industry," Ms Rhiannon said.
"The approval sets NSW down the path of no-return. Our state's future has been hijacked by today's announcement.
"While approval has been granted, the fight to stop this and other mines has just begun.
"Greens MPs will join with effected communities in taking peaceful, direct action to resist the expansion of the coal industry.
"The approval of the Anvil Hill mine signals that the 22 applications on the table to build new mines or extend existing mines will also be granted.
"Anvil Hill will produce 10.5 millions tonnes of coal annually. When burnt this coal will produce 27 million tonnes of Co2 annually, equivalent to doubling the number of cars on NSW roads. It will cause up to $58 billion worth of climate change damage in less than one generation.
"Coal is the elephant in the room when it comes to climate change.
"Nothing can compensate for the environmental damage this mine will do. Minister Sartor is wrong to think strict conditions or minimal job creation opportunities will be a sufficient trade-off.
"The burning and mining of coal is responsible for 40 percent of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions from our coal exports are equivalent to all our domestic greenhouse gas emissions.
"Minister Sartor is swimming against the tide of international scientific evidence on climate change and the need to take urgent action to cut emissions.
"Morris Iemma's children and all of our children will condemn the government for this decision in years to come," Ms Rhiannon said.
Contact: Lee Rhiannon 9230 3551, 0427 861 568
............
and here
Vote Climate Goes Live
Australia's first dedicated election website focused on the issue of Climate Change, now moving towards its second year, has just released its "At A Glance" policy analysis.
The "At A Glance" page summarises the different parties' climate related policies in clear and concise graphical tabular format.
The "At A Glance" page will be updated in a week to include links to our policy summary pages and further links to the source material on which the summaries are based.
Help Vote Climate
We are asking your group to become involved in the Vote Climate campaign in a number of ways.
- Link to VoteClimate.org.au from your own web page.
- Promote VoteClimate.org.au to your lists and friends.
- Print out the Vote Climate posters and put them up in your local area, workplace, uni etc.
- Carry a Vote Climate banner at this years Walk Against Warming being held the Sunday two weeks before the day of the Federal Election.
When linking to our site please also link to the Big Switch Campaign (no website yet) organised by Greenpeace and the state Conservation Councils.
What is Vote Climate trying to achieve at Federal Election?
Vote Climate is working to the following goals for this election:
- get Labor elected
- move the control of the senate to the minor parties (most likely Greens)
- get a clear strong vote for the climate
- push inner city green marginals closer to the point where Greens can win
- move all parties to stronger climate policies
What are some other activities your group can undertake?
- Run a climate change candidates forum in your local area
- If in a Labor / Liberal marginal or Greens/ Labor marginal you could leaflet your electorate with a strong statement on each parties performance on climate change. Vote Climate would be happy to help you draft your letter.
- If not in a marginal seat help a group that is in one.
- Any number of other activities from stalls, to postering, to talks.
Vote Climate a Unique Website
Vote Climate is entirely self funded by its volunteer campaign team and consequently its voice is not restrained by fear of losing tax deductible status or government funding, unlike the mainstream environment movement. Vote Climate will be the only independent national climate election website to recommend who to vote for and in what order .
A few points on political campaigning?
With the election now under way its time to start applying pressure on the political parties to get outcomes. Here are a few points to guide you along.
Have Labor already won?
- NO absolutely not.
- With Rudd in the leadership position they merely have a chance.
- People interested in a change of government will need to work very hard to make sure this happens.
Applying Pressure
- Political parties and politicians only care about getting votes in seats they want to win. If you can't give or take away votes in seats they are concerned about you have NOTHING, and that is NOTHING to negotiate with.
- They will often engage with lobbying in an effort to convince you that you are on the right track and they will do something for you and that you are about to succeed, while all the time simply trying to prevent your group actually doing something that will effect their votes.
- Parties will make decisions almost always on a least cost analysis (though they usually claim otherwise), comparing the dollar cost of implementing a given policy to the cost/benefit in votes/influence you are offering, the votes they loose and the implication for other key supporters/donors/pressure groups.
- They will even try and get you working for them, ie THEM "we can't do X unless you give us Y" If you find yourself in this position something has gone wrong with your campaign. Instead the conversations should go YOU "Give us X or we will do Y". Even better is to be able to say YOU "Give us X and we will stop doing Y"
- If you have limited resources (ie time) avoid talking to people who can not actually influence decisions within their party.
Where to target
- Liberal will be concerned about seats it might lose to Labor
- Labor will be concerned about seats it wants to win from the Liberals and seats it might one day lose to the Greens.
- Greens can use help anywhere to hopefully win Senate seats or in the Greens/Labor marginals (though these seats would be a much lower priority than winning balance of power in the Senate).
--
Adrian Whitehead
VoteClimate.org.au
0403 735 118
............................
and last but not least this on Get Up via YouTube
lyrical
.
a-ok
Picture: Thank heavens for the garbos taken at 5.10am this morning, with welcome light rain making for a cold job for these toilers.
Apparently influential columnist Andrew Bolt in his column June 6th 2007 in Melbourne
has called in effect for a 6 week time line on removal of PM John Howard to be replaced by Peter Costello .... who as Treasurer took a grilling from Kerry O'Brien of the 7.30 Report last night
Government welcomes strong economic figures
on why his Cabinet submission to act on climate change was rejected by PM Howard 4 years ago 2003. Costello was very light hearted and patient saying he had "set his course" sounding very much like "I told you so".
Also climate change sceptic Cardinal George Pell has been roundly and collectively repudiated by the NSW ALP - ostensibly on stem cell research, but also the subtext of climate change? One wonders. It would be interesting to know if Pell is quoted in the PM Howard's so called Clever Climate PR advertising package.
It would be quite orthodox for Pell to be in Howard's PR as a trenchant critic of the Greens and their alleged rival religious belief in global warming.
The ALP (federal and state) presumably know they have to neutralise Catholic cardinal Pell prior to the next federal election vis a vis Catholic voters on global warming let alone stem cell research for medical benefits.
And to underline how the climate is the main game PM Howard is in the news today prefacing attempts on a post Kyoto international deal at the Sept APEC in Sydney:
MARK DAVIS | John Howard will use this year's APEC summit to try to forge an international consensus on climate change.
Just as Glen Milne has written about this recently: Glenn Milne: APEC makes heavy weather for Howard | Opinion | The ...
Our sense of this is that it's all too late for long time, allegedly indispensible PM Howard.
...............
Which calls up this article (offline it seems) by Geoff Gallop hidden away in Higher Education May 16th in Murdoch press The Australian, perhaps explaining again his journey from depression to light in his new job as director of the graduate school of government at Sydney University (from which campus this writer is still capriciously banned?):
Not just the grip of the Bourke cronies running developer corruption through the ranks, not just the pro uranium mining stoush with federal colleagues, but also the underlying existential philosophical foundations of a post industrial economy. It's an article as if written by and for the Green Party:
Postscript #1 - press backgrounder climate change, G8, APEC
PM Howard seems to have woken up that climate change is a global problem and isn't going away on his watch judging by the press today. Shortly we will add a snapshot of the headlines. But for now some links showing that Howard like his mentor Bush regime are trying to play catchup for APEC in Sept if not G8 on now.
There is an intriguing side play to all this: Why was Peter Hartcher's so called blog story excluded from the paper version of the newspaper today: John & George and the G8: Who's copying whose homework? posted "6 June 2007 5.32 pm"?
This reminds us of the Marian Wilkinson story of the Singapore diplomatic alarm at nuclear energy (or worse) proliferation/safety problems in south east Asia, which also missed the paper print version: Asia-Pacific nuclear authority plan scuttled after safety debate ...
Other serious reporters today on this evolving geo politik theme of how to save our planet today, in scary real time are here:
Blair will be at his most persuasive
Canada joins PM on climate (p1 of The Australian)
Mike Steketee blog: Playing on fear
Vital role for APEC in any post-Kyoto framework
Dalai Lama calls for climate change action | The Daily Telegraph
including quote from Virgin Blue airline chief Brett Godfrey in furious agreement at a function with the Dalai.
Airline industry wakes up to green debate far too late
Good oil on carbon trading needed now
don't askWe wonder about Michael Costa Treasurer of NSW due to give the next NSW Budget speech on June 20th: NSW State Budget Lunch 2007 - CEDA
We noticed the increasingly rotund and rambling state of mind of the treasurer in the Upper House Question Time 8 days ago, effecting the nonchalance of a political assassin who fears no one and nothing and thus seems somehow a little careless.
But it's pretty dangerous it seems to us living and working in a chaotic zoo like NSW politics even for Costa. Might be a rampaging fang toothed Gibbon, or Kodiak Bear on the prowl at any time. We wrote of that slightly bizarre wild atmosphere up there at Macquarie St a week back here:
We get the intuition Costa may get a shock within the next 5 weeks. Politics is a frighteningly random and dangerous business really and those who live by, quite often die by the same ruthless play. Look at Chief of the DPP here just doing his job copping a fearsome flogging in the press:
Then look at these two hapless ASIO agents being prosecuted for allegedly leaking (?!), who must feel like they are lions on the main course in the Coloseum of old. Why the reporting restrictions? Why indeed has Chris Merritt the legal editor at The Australian and a seriously heavy journalist, formerly with the Australian Financial Review whacked this postage stamp story on p5 of The Weekend Australian. Heaven knows:
We bought the postcard of the Roma icon at right from the junk stall at Addison Rd Centre Market last Sunday to send to the thinking man's crumpet. Sure enough she has a column today about public/private censorship in today's press refering to "exotic fauna" - ironic really coming from the unique Liz Farrelly - and also "ancient Rome". Perfect.
And the apprehension by the coppers of a quite different Mediteranean type Tony Mokbel all seemed to gel together with Mr Costa, not for any illegal shipping on the latter's part. No totally legal coal export is Costa's game but he also has that cavalier style in his politics bragging 8 days ago to the 3 Green MPs how his dark suit was "the colour of coal", as if climate change was a figment.
It's probably easy for Costa, Premier Iemma with him, PM Howard too, to think it's only the economy that matters when people around them are pandering to their ego as per this cover of the Sydney Writer's Festival broadsheet #1 of 4, with Morris in the middle:
It's all enough to make us feel like the frog in this picture below for newsletter #2, one per day for the 4 day event, or the kid in this YouTube classic being chased by the wolf.
And not just me. Costa might consider just how many wolves there are in the legal fraternity when he attacks one of their own like Cowdery ... for doing his job. Lawyer Greg Barnes gave a clue to the anger within these halls of serious money and power yesterday on the crikey.com.au ezine. Nor would I think that's the end of the matter if I have any sense of my own legal profession here. Some serious hard cases in there the equal of one Michael Costa.
