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a-okAll election related comment on this non profit micro news website is authorised by Tom McLoughlin, C/- 142 Addison Rd Marrickville 2204*
* this is a mailing address only, no relation to Addison Rd Community Centre Board or tenants. The editor works part time as a gardener at the ARC.
mischievious
party time!
caffeinated
Author’s general introductory note (skip this if you know this regular weekly column):
This is not a well packaged story. It’s a contemporaneous traverse of the Sunday television free to air political talkies indicating the agenda of Establishment interests: Better to know ones rivals and allies in Big Politics and Big Media.
Indeed it’s the tv version monitoring task similar to what Nelson Mandela refers to here in his book Long Walk to Freedom (1994, Abacus) written in Robben Island prison (where he was meant to die like other African resister chiefs of history in the 19C), at page 208
“..newspapers are only a shadow of reality; their information is important to a freedom fighter not because it reveals the truth, but because it discloses the biases and perceptions of both those who produce the paper and those who read it.”
Just substitute ‘Sunday tv political talkie shows’ for "newspapers" in the quote above.
For actual transcripts go to web sites quoted below except with Riley Diary on 7. And note transcripts don’t really give you the image content value.
Media backgrounder
- Incredible theme of dangerous climate change concern, perhaps metaphorically symbolised by the Sculpture by the sea above, blue man and people looking one way, the turbo liesure cruiser and follower going the 'wrong way' on energy policy:
- Fabulous half page colour advert in The Australian shown in penultimate post, paid for by The Wilderness Society.
- Fair bit on regional rorts on quality media as per National Audit Office
- Cricket national radio coverage will have zoned out alot of the voting public reprising a Garrett quote - sport is the opiate of the masses while big companies rip the guts out of the planet. Howard knows that too, ever the sportsman and big company sell out.
- national launch speeches on abc tv prime time. Didn't bother watching either as tedious rhetoric. Both did "well" by press reaction but the ALP is defending a structural lead.
- commentators note Insiders pissed with Rudd 'who prefers Rove' or is it posturing so Rudd turns up?
- Marian Wilkinson, serious, talented, sticks by George Newhouse campaign last Friday in Sydney Morning Herald noting ALP "doubling" efforts.
- lots of attack adverts on unions on commercial free to air. Also noticed a few flyers in Wentworth beachside suburbs - Labor 'can't manage money' vibe based on States debt but ignores reality of Commonwealth disproportionate financial resource.
- Last quarter of football match metaphor of Rudd and to don't let up at all.
Picture: Rudd supporters coincidentally (really) drop by our information stall about forests, raising the implication with the polls in the major Sunday press next day favouring their side, that the public are indeed thinking of Kevin 'the cuddly koala' this weekend, but will they next weekend when it counts? And given ALP support for the pulp mill, is it even justified the weekend before? ALP too slick for their own good?
10 Meet the Press
Steven Smith looked hard worked. Good line about Howard experience led to climate Iraq water non policies.
Tuned out on other work for rest of it, but mostly standard rhetoric.
Nicholson animation about excessive bidding on Kirribili House thow in Harbour Bridge con artistry. Funny, sad all in one.
Get Up advert about fearmonngering in empty box.
Second half with panel Steve Lewis, Jennifer Hewitt both of News Ltd, tabloid, broadsheet respectively both sharp and tough.
Transcript in due course www.ten.com.au/meetthepress ,
Myspace web address: www.myspace.com/meetthepeople
7 Weekend Sunrise, 8.35-40 am Riley Diary -
Missed start but Gene Wilder side kick afro american comedy artist buying votes theme like Nicholson animation on MTP. Funny. Long Q & A with Mark Riley but deferred to 9 early coverage of politics especially Greenwood feature on Rupert Murdoch interview.
New attack ad re Howard on diverse stuff "won't" but "will" build reactors at 9.15 am.
http://www.seven.com.au/sunrise/weekend
Insiders 2
Laurie Oakes on 9 with treasurer set against intro by Cassidy: Final show before election: ALP looking at historic lead.
Grumpy BC notes Julia Gillard as stand in, Rudd won't appear first leader in 3 elections.
Gillard against Treasurer on 9 in the ratings at 9.10 am. Looking very goomed and hard worked too.
Gillard uses union slang - "chop out" ie to help a MUA campaign back in waterfront days of lawyer Josh Borshman, a good friend.
Home page is http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/
Sunday 9
Pre 9 am Peter Van Onselan (spelling wrong) and quick talker ALP snot nose like out of West Wing from Qld on political panel.
Ross Greenwood has brief footage of Rupert Murdoch in Australia saying Australian's too highly taxed (which is why we are actually fairer and more stable you nitwit), both sides of politics are making people too dependent on the state which means less aspirational , and commercially no difference obvious between ALP and Coalition, which in itself damages Howard's case really.
Longer sit down with John Hartigan of News Ltd. - look to their website for transcript probably - upshot is that nationally News Ltd will play it 'straight' - no leaning on editors who will exercise their own readership discretion. That is agnostic.
Given that News Ltd is notoriously conservative this shows that Rudd is very conservative and also that Howard has lots of traditional advantage and thus the green light to News Ltd papers to editorialise for Rudd.
Laurie Oakes on 9 with treasurer set against intro by Cassidy. Peter Costello looking upbeat, maybe lost a bit of weight too.
Gillard against Treasurer on 9 in the ratings at 9.10 am.
Oakes bowls up toughie about hospitals boards not in the Govt costings. PC sledges Rudd not following schedule of Budget Honesty - is it true?
Laurie gets very riled about differentials on Julia Gillard as union lawyer when PC was a bosses lawyer.
Feature on flight safety in south east asia
Feature about corruption implied in Victorian Police involing "people's lives".
http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/default.asp
hug me
Picture: Oxford St Paddington, heart of Wentworth electorate 7 hours yesterday, opposite the busy Saturday market set up in front of St George Bank, not trading perhaps due to the recent interest rate hike?
We were out yesterday doing what we do (Christian Kerr calls it “skulduggery”) and on return found there were no invitations in our email for “growth” of a wedding tackle kind, or “Want to u love” from cosmopolitan types. No spam, no nuthin. Not even the 15 Green Party media releases you might expect with 6 days to go until the election. Mmm.
“WTF?” we thought, not again after yesterday’s blank Blog greeted us as bare as a baby’s backside. We got the website front page back after a snotty blog post (RSS feed to malcontent?) and some judicious queries to the Lycos folks over in the USA (server upgrade glitch?).
We had over 400 page views yesterday. That’s unusually high in fact.
Funny how the clunks, glitches, airbrush gremlins all happen one weekend before the election on a community media micro news website. Mmm.
………………………….
Our last email before before we lost transmission of any electoral significance was this:
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 12:29 PM
Subject: Re: [chipstop] Woodchip company power plant may supply Eden area
The politics of this relate to the season - summer season. It's mid November. We all know what's coming. When the bush burns SEFE will point to that 'lost opportunity' literally 'up in smoke'.
It's mad enough to work for a stupid ALP state or federal take your pick. No one seems to get that it's this exact kind of logging that has dried out whole landscapes inviting huge bushfires through lost humid climates under the canopy (or what's left of it), let alone destroyed water supply.
More here:
It might also be a PR trap for the greens etc. As soon as you complain they will say ... you prefer to see it burn in a bushfire. Cheap but redneck effective among quite a few voters.
And who knows who will light a fire between now and 24th November voting day!
Remember on the mega fires in California the mailbag to Australian 60 Minutes follwoing week about 3 weeks ago, was all about not climate change which was the actual premise of the story ....but greenies stopping logging to stop such big fires. That is the logger industry got all over it with their letters in denial. Peter Harvey was sceptical but he read out the feedback all the same.
So my strong recommendation is to shift focus - Go for woodchipping causes mega bushfires angle. Or go for climate change causes mega fires, and saving forests is the best way for carbon storage and strong bushfire prevention resources. You could use the diagrams on the web link there about destroyed humidity. Or at the least think very carefully about the PR dynamic.
Cochrane was surely enough boosting a redneck agenda on World Today re horses in Kosciuszko NP yesterday here (for similar reasons - its the election season):
Critics fear brumby removal plan threatens Kosciuszko tradition
The brumby is part of Australia's high country history, inspiring poems and legends. But growing numbers of the wild horses have forced the National Parks and Wildlife Service to come up with a new plan to control them in the Kosciuszko National Park. Some are opposed to the plan, believing the service's aim is to eventually rid the park of the horses altogether.
Yours truly, Tom McLoughlin.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 11:15 AM
Subject: [chipstop] Woodchip company power plant may supply Eden area
Hi greenies
This is SERIOUS!!!
The chipmill has been putting out hints for some time now that they are heading this way. They see the writing on the wall for woodchips (largely due to exchange rate problems, not environmental; Aus woodchips are priced in $A) and they see their future burning forests and calling in clean, renewable, green energy.
They look like they are getting their foot in the door with pine, but that will get them their infrastructure and their markets stitched up and next step native forests. It is quite disastrous. We have seen this coming but nobody has taken it seriously. I fear it has even been encouraged by some clean energy campaigners, so that makes it harder.
regards
harriettWoodchip company power plant may supply Eden area
ABC Regional
Posted November 16, 2007 08:34:00
Updated November 16, 2007 08:33:00
The New South Wales far south coast's woodchip plant could soon become an important producer of electricity for the region.
South-East Fibre Exports has outlined plans to build a multi-million dollar generating plant at its mill near Eden, using waste products from its chipping operations.
The plant will run in conjunction with a new softwood chipping line soon to be installed.
The company's spokesman, Vince Phillips, says the electricity plant will not only power the mill, but also the surrounding districts.
"We think we can produce something like four megawatts of power here and we need about half that, so we would think the other half would go back into the grid," he said.
"From what understand about what happens in Eden, that would make a pretty significant dent in the general day-to-day power consumption of the Eden township areas.
"We'd certainly be hoping it goes back into Eden.
"We've been in Eden 40 years and it would be a great thing if Eden and us ... went into partnership on this."
Tags: electricity-energy-and-utilities, forests, bega-2550, eden-2551
……………………….
We think the gremlin issue is unconnected but who really knows. Here are the critical diagrams showing how the unrestrained woodchipping turns our wonderful natural heritage into mega fire prone land scapes, and yes including in wet old Tasmania eventually:
Which reminds us of this wet old growth forest pictured in The Australian half pager yesterday. Humbling isn't it? This is the forest the woodchippers have excelled in killing, along with the water cycle and humid canopy this last 40 years hand in glove with the major parties, ALP and Coalition. Disgusting isn't it?
It's this mentality that leads younger generations like our mate Dylan from Turrella's Mekanarchy (also seen in the SMH recently) to make apocalyptic sculptures like this at 'Sculpture by the Sea' (last day today 18th Nov 07):
And for the world's thinking people to notice how Kyoto has been junked by the institutions of power in Australia and the USA. What hope is there really? Not much is our depressing view.
sharp
Who can say whether the Greens have done the right thing tactically or in principle as regards the alleged split with their national parliamentary leader Bob Brown in the press today (front page no less Sydney Morning Herald)?:
Greens caught up in the Newhouse net
THE Greens have split over the controversy surrounding the Labor candidate for Wentworth, George Newhouse, as they fight off accusations of hypocrisy and betrayal.
We have thought deeply about this as it's this writer's vocational core business of ecology action. We decided it would take the wisdom of Solomon which we don't have but do aspire to, to know if it's a wise approach.
Thus we have decided to remain agnostic about this state of affairs in the Eastern Suburbs Greens known to us for over 7 years after breaking the story here on SAM months back about the strangely very, very early preference deal to George Newhouse of pro pulp mill brand ALP:Greens in Wentworth release their preferences very early (14th August 07)
Strange because it crueled any negotiation power over policy like opposition to the pulp mill when it counted pre approval. And isn't that what elections are supposed to be about? Policy?
This writer has an informed opinion having been the Greens candidate in Wentworth in 1998 with a humble 5% vote - at least we got the parties roughly $500 or so bond back. We are now non aligned a good 7 years now when our membership lapsed (knowingly) in 2000.
We remain agnostic because time will tell whether the green (ie ecological action) in Green will best be served by a Newhouse victory. Factors to weigh up in the moral calculation from a vocational green community media activist perspective include:
1. In our judgement Howard has a covert agenda for nuclear weapons, not just reactors. It works like this - USA pressures Iran, and maybe even invades one day. Iran may or may not declare nuclear weapon capacity. North Korea already has them. The USA seeks to boost its military industrial complex in the JK Galbraith sense by turning Australia into a link not only in it's Star Wars 'defence shield' (which doubles as a first strike pre emption device) but also with nuke weapons on 'aircraft carrier Australia'.
This is a recipe for a nuclear apocalypse via weapons proliferation, goodbye ecology, with Australia under ideological hawk Howard playing a serious role in the end of the world in shorter rather than longer term.
2. On another serious ecological policy problem Newhouse "accepts" the criminal pulp mill in Tasmania. This was always going to be the case under the pro logger/woodchipper CFMEU controlled national executive ALP policy on natural heritage me toosim of Howard. That's the price to be an endorsed candidate (Mayor Pearce now MP paid same to get endorsement for seat of Coogee after the Olympic stadium on Bondi Beach Affair of 2000). We know George having spent possibly as much time with him at interminable Council meetings for 4 years as maybe he did with his family. We know enough of his character that in his heart he supported closure of the very controversial dioxin producing Waterloo Incinerator. We noted when and when he didn't vote, how soft or sharp. He is of a certain younger generation and greener tinge but the NSW ALP is not.
3. The role of the leftish/centre ALP branches like Waverley is to deliver progressive votes to the dinosaur Big Business Right of the ALP party that could never hope to get them in a naturally indepedent milieu (like State seat of Manly for so many years). This is why George and his professonal friends in the Eastern Suburbs Greens are dupes of that cyncial vandalistic ALP machine by throwing in their lot with Sussex St, when they could take the truly independent road and build a true community voice. That was how I did my politics for 4 years there as Chair of the Environment Committee, ex officio co director of the Incinerator I helped close, member of the Finance Committee, and Bondi Beach Ward councillor, and also how I ended up with the numbers to be the Mayor that George did in fact become. We preferred to retire than be so harnessed, preferring freedom from Party and Local Govt hackles. Those interminable meetings. It was that rock the Greens built on with the tripling of Green Party councillor representation in Sept 1999 elections. I was the pioneer which was built in turn on my work with The Wilderness Society 92-95. But these Greens haven't learned the value of fair dinkum independence as one can read front page of the Herald today.
4. So on domestic ecological policy Newhouse is crueled and captured but trending to green personally. On covert policy he at least is no Howard barracker for nuke weapons proliferation or Iraq wars.
5. Will Wentworth help decide the government? It might but unlikely. But an early preference approval can also play a role in building momentum for a broader campaign of removal of the Howard led govt. And it's perhaps this cranking of the early momentum with the 'moral' vote of approval for Newhouse as brand ALP so far out that was important in regime change in Australia. We think the motives of the Eastern Suburbs Greens (including Rhiannon and Kaye MP as their local group) are likely ideological and narrow socialist (like faith in public ownership of everything it seems) rather than ecological in calculation. But the preferencing of Newhouse so early might well be the right one by default for the ecology.
However it would be quite foolish to think that local Green Party group are deeply motivated by ecological concerns. We didn't observe that in 6 years membership after 3 years with The Wilderness Society, the last 2 as State Campaign Coordinator leading to the election of the Carr Govt in March 1995.
To such people climate change, like forest to Carr back then, were an expedient wedge of the Liberals from the Nationals Coalition. But history tells us neither the ALP or some opportunists in the Green Party are commited to ecological sustainability. They are committed to their own political career first and foremost. That's the brutal truth, and that's why this writer got out. To save our sanity upon realising Green was not really green in 2000 in NSW.
Now it's mostly a moot point because climate change is such a scary reality everyone is coming back to the real green position of "ecology action" just as the national Green party slogan is "Green Action" pictured above. Gotta love that.
...............
Feedback and response
A long time writer, researcher, campaigner writes:
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 10:42 AM
Subject: Re: Wentworth
tom you use the word 'crueled' in this piece below. methinks you
might mean corralled, which essentially means herded into an enclosure.
yours in the interest of clearer communication
with respect
[signed]
ps. seems newhouse's campaign might have gone off the rails for the
moment, or so he's behaving that way (having, it seems gone to
ground). i'm not sure i'd say wentworth is a defining electorate.
it'll still be the outer metro marginals, although i suspect there'll
be a few surprises: seats considered safe will likely become marginal.
[I actually meant cruelled. But thanks for the feedback. ALP definitely
corrals their endorsed candidates but in this case it would be highly
popular for Newhouse to oppose the pulp mill and he would like to I don't doubt
it, but he can't for Tas election purposes and nasty Oconnor on the national
executive. The Waverley Council and him specifically has voted symbolically
against destruction of forests. So the ALP have in fact cruelled his natural
leanings. If he was a redneck (and there have been some ALP rednecks at
Waverley (like Norman Lee RIP, father of Ben Lee) then there would be no way
to justify the Greens preference to him.
Cheers Tom.]
............................................
Postscript #1
To give Senator Kerry Nettle of The Greens her due they are punishing Turnbull in the week it counts here:
Sydney pulp mill protest at Malcolm Turnbull's office
Who: Greens Senator Kerry Nettle and Greens members and supporters
What: Sydney pulp mill protest part of day of action on pulp mill, with
protests from London to Hobart.
When: 1 PM, Saturday, November 17, 2007
Where: Office of Malcolm Turnbull, 5 Bronte Road, Bondi Junction.
For more information: Damien Lawson 0419 253 342
PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: "No Pulp Mill" triangles in front of Minister for the
Environment's office.
Help retire John Howard by volunteering to help the Greens at
http://greens.org.au/volunteer
Kristian Bolwell
Office of Greens Senator for NSW Kerry Nettle
T:(02) 96902038
F:(02) 96902041
M:0411638320
www.kerrynettle.org.au
quizzical
November 15th, 2007Dani Ecuyer is announcing that as a true independent, who is standing on a 'Climate Change and anti pulp mill ticket", will split preference. Ms Ecuyer says "that she was always standing to give the constituents of Wentworth a chance to make a concern or protest vote. Voters can send a strong message to the major parties that they want immediate positive policy action on Climate Change solutions and approving the pulp mill is not acceptable, to combat Climate Change.Ms Ecuyer has preferenced the Greens, the Democrats and the Climate Change Coalition ahead of either the major parties. She is preferencing the Greens in the Senate.However, Ms Ecuyer says "all voters to must seriously consider that only one party has agreed to ratify Kyoto, the Labor Party. It is imperative that Australia is at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the Bali meeting in December. Voters who make the choice and want action on Climate Change should therefore preference Labor."
sharp
What a coincidence. About 2 weeks ago we were contacted by an officer of the NSW Ombudsman's office. They wanted to action my complaint of early May 2007 regarding this:
Notice the CC to "Mr Richard Fisher, General Counsel" for the University. Looks like the heat of a potential adverse finding by the NSW Ombudsman's office may well be in the offing. And so it should be.
We are wondering how to respond to VC Gavin Brown's man above. Something about a confidential settlement based on this media and legal practitioner:
- having to waste several hours packaging up material and evidence applying our legal know how on correspondence in order to have our matter considered by the Ombudsman, in order to have our public licence reinstated to attend the campus as a law abiding member of the public with a valid interest.
- And then there is the matter of the inconvenience and embarrassment of having been blacklisted for a good 6 months including several public events and exhibitions we would have liked to participate in as a comunity media practitioner and or private citizen.
- Some might say a wrongful termination of licence to attend the campus was akin to defamation of good character; and of course
- The emotional injury of being surrounded and stood over by 4 intimidating security staff who didn't like their picture being taken as they harrassed students supporting a public education rally. That's akin to an assault and I did really think they were capable of the wrongful detention they did in fact threaten to carry out.
Still we are glad to have finally achieved some engagement from the hallowed sandstone towers of Sydney's pre-eminent university.
But will the public licence to attend the campus for lawful reasons be reinstated? Will there be compensation for our injuries? Well one wonders. Perhaps Mr Richard Fisher will have a constructive opinion about that?
party time!
Apparently acording to Mirandia Devine the progressives including Ecuyer don't have a sense of humour anymore but we beg to differ as our collage of climate related politiking Big Meeja stories indicates:
Body surfing candidates, fluffy polar bears, and the 'funniest' of all, guilty advertising executives urging us to go green after flogging consumerism their whole working life. Now that's funny up there with Henry Kissinger getting the Nobel Peace prize after blessing Operation Condor to kill his political rivals.
But the truth is not very funny, in fact it's very grim. So grim the Big Media are getting it, despite their overpaid wages, and personal hyper consumption lifestyles:
Notice in The Australian yesterday a story about crashing extinctions, and also in the Sydney Morning Herald re running melt water high and deep in Antarctica threatening to slip stream massive ice floes into the ocean and clear ice (different it seems to snow pack or other frosted ice). That continent is changing. Similarly notice the story in the Daily Telegraph today (sounding worried actually) re melt allowing resource access to Antarctica … for oil, God forbid. Which itself echoes the quite mad interest in distilling oil from the huge resource of tar sands in Canada (but also mid west USA) - said to be more than all of the oil in Saudi Arabia, Venezeula and Nigeria combined to really cook us all. Again God forbid.
And then these other prominent science stories (noted via the Ecuyer website):
Marian Wilkinson from the Sydney Morning Herald reports that
"Graeme Pearman, the former head of CSIRO's atmospheric research unit, yesterday released a report showing that evidence of global warming has dramatically increased in the past 12 months.""Greenhouse emissions are rising faster than the worst-case IPCC scenarios," Dr Pearman said.
Ms Wilkinson also states that the 4th report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will be released this weekend. "The panel's report will be released on Saturday in Spain at a meeting attended by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, and is expected to carry a dire warning that without urgent action over the next five to 10 years, the world's leaders risk climate change accelerating at dangerous levels. The head of the UN climate negotiations warned this week that failure to recognise the urgency of the warnings "would be nothing less than criminally irresponsible".
We know its unfashionable but we feel we are well on the way to a crunching endgame much like a 4WD on a hill that slips a gear or depresses the clutch at the start of the slope - slow to start but then the momentum is exponential. This is Pearman’s implication in fact in the press today. It’s a horror really.
As for the other silly, cynical press today on the Wentworth contest. M Devine waxes lyrical about ad hominem attacks being bad and shallow and then indulges in plenty of it herself. Talk about scratch and bite within the sisterhood. Inconsistent, hypocritical, just plain whining? Her own colleague Murphy contradicts her rubbish earlier in the same edition:
The front pager in the Tele is amusing (shown above - the one with the 'Truck of Truth') but more about trivialising an oh so serious contest and principles involved. As for The Oz today, their Media Section does exactly what they accused Media Watch of doing - going soft on one of their own: Previously it was alleged MW airbrush of ABC Brissenden’s misdemeanours over Costello dinner reportage, now it’s the Media Section today with nary a mention of their own Ms Overington indiscretions reported earlier this week (see for instance Murphy above).
Cie la vie. Take care out there, it’s a dangerous game politics, and not a game at all really.
a-ok[Direct lift below from Get Up organisation website, and we notice Bret Solomon of that organisation with a profile in the back section of the recent Boss 11/07 magazine of the Australian Financial Review - no mention of Bret's connection with ex Looksmart chief Evan Thornley now an ALP MP. Cute omission that as much as we like Get Up's work. This call by Blix is timely with the inevitable financial scandal of this so far $1.7 Trillion Iraq dollar war, a predictable financial tragedy via the military industrial complex according to giant USA political economist J K Galbraith.]
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