Mood:
energeticTopic: independent media
The life of a political blogger is not so easy it seems. Soon after we finished a little feedback comment to the 702 abc Trioli show at 9.15 am yesterday 2nd March 07
(giving new information corroborating the stink of a page 1 story in the Sydney Daily Telegraph - about a “$5B TOLL SECRET” about a huge “Inner West Tollway”, namely the Marrickville Truck Tunnel we pursued with unsuccessful FoI requests back in 2005 – and posted the relevant original documents on Sydney alternative media site)
we suddenly lost our dial tone and adsl broadband connection to the office about 9.45 am.
We ducked down to a local internet business to check our website was still up with our server, which it was, and posted our increased readership figures.
Maybe it’s the weather, or paranoia. We hope it wasn’t any of these stories which attracted the attention of the authorities in an oppressive censorious way:
- sledging the visit by an alleged war criminal the Vice President of the USA, Dick Cheney especially his strange expression entering the plane at KSA (possible);
- sledging the shadowy, privately funded Australia America Leadership Dialogue which Cheney addressed last Friday 26th Feb 07 here in Sydney, with heavy defence hitters in their ranks from both sides, (possible);
- sledging Maxine McKew a supporter of the AALD and aspirant of John Howard’s seat (not very likely);
- sledging dancing bear Greg Sheridan, journalist for Murdoch press, over his interview with sinister Cheney around invasion of Iran (possible);
- broadcast email to Federal Parliament of our SAM piece on rednecks motive to start a bushfire at Goonoo Pilliga area of North West NSW this summer, to neutralise malicious smears by Minister Eric Abetz of the ALP and Green Party in the Senate last Wednesday 28th February (unlikely); or
- Legally privileged correspondence from a bunch of agitators at the NSW Supreme Court recently seeking advice about trial by jury (unlikely).
In the paranoid stakes we recall Peter Wright’s book Spycatcher where he desribes the orthodox methods of faulting a phone line in order to insert eavesdropping equipment via the ‘repairman’. Only we are happy to have our information and hard drive transparent to the whole world, just not have our communications equipment sabotaged by persons unknown, or indeed act of God.
Curiously Telstra’s helpful staff after calling back to our mobile told us they ‘are locked out of checking our line” on their remote system, and would have to send a tech in the next few days. The second staffer specialising in faults curiously mentioned she ‘was briefed about the problems you are having with your family’. No actually, that wasn’t my case, nothing about sick family members or anything like that. I told her I was a political blogger. “Oh, okay” sounding a little confused herself.
We only hope to be back doing our democratic duty soon, and posting stories about Sydney politics as below as the NSW election approaches, and federal election after that. Heaven forbid we would be censored by Big Brother with its excessive security budget. As the High Court noted in the famous Albert Langer case, Mr Langer is entitled to be “an agitator”, and so it is with sydneyalternativemedia.com/blog, in a democracy anyway:
Picture: Playfair St corner with Argyle St to be renamed Jack Mundey Street for saving the amenity and heritage of The Rocks in Sydney. Or will it be like the traffic chaos above?
Picture: Electioneering on Glebe Point Rd last Saturday in the seat of Balmain affected by the Inner West Motorway plan.
Picture above: Cr Marcel Hoff working for re election of Clover Moore at Broadway in the seat of Sydney last Saturday.
Picture: Upper Glebe Point Rd, seat of Balmain, Liberal candidate at far left on poster, main view is apolitical community group The Glebe Society awareness raising last Saturday.
* This post was via another location.
