Tuesday 30 September 2014

100 cops in Melbourne terror raids!

OMG! Now the terrorists are in Melbourne and not Sydney! Fuck! Australia is being made war with by terrorists! Fuck! Bomb ISIS now FFS and stop this terrible terror! 

Look! A terror bust map! OMG they're everywhere down there! Fuck!



And look! A terrorist being arrested! OMG! Fuck! How could these evil people hate us? Just for who we are? Oh the outrage! He must have been about to behead someone! Terror! Terror!



OK, now that the mockery is out of the way....... :)

Oh hang on.......... *takes Valium*

Hmmmmmmm....... So 100 police, it was all over the MSM this morning, great big terror raids in Melbourne. One man arrested. That number again, one. That one man was not about to behead anyone. The police allege that he was supplying money to a known terrorist organisation. Oh really?

I have no idea who this man is, have never met the guy, never heard of him before in my life. I have no reason to defend him apart from a demand for fairness. In that context I would have to remind myself of my own experience of the police in Australia, and indeed in the gay community in recent times over the Mardi-Gras. In all cases the police have trumped up the charges, exaggerated, colluded with each other, eventually  reversed in a fair court of law. I personally don't believe much of what comes out of their mouths. I see no reason to look at this situation differently than my own experiences. 

Whether this bloke is guilty of what the police allege is to be decided in a court of law, not by the fuckin Lieberal media. In fact, let's just take a look at the police comments themselves about the raids and arrest. It looks to me that they're seriously trying to tell the media to calm the fuck down and stop making shit up:
Today's counter-terrorism raids at seven locations across Melbourne were the culmination of an eight-month investigation based on information provided by the FBI. 

"I can confirm that a 23-year-old man from Seabrook will be charged with intentionally making funds available to a terrorist organisation, knowing that organisation was a terrorist organisation," 

"There is no information or intelligence to indicate that this man was involved in planning an attack. 

"Nor there are any known links to the 18-year-old man involved in last week's Endeavour Hills incident." 

Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton added that today's searches were conducted in a low key manner. 

"We didn't assess there being a significant community safety risk or significant risk to our officers," he said. 

Deputy commissioner Ashton also reinforced that today's raids were in relation to the funding of overseas terror activity. 

"We just continue to try to reassure the community to get on with their lives and keep doing their everyday business," Read more  

"Never judge people by their appearance" - video

"Teen Terror!" - Australian papers go bananas, really fuck up

May I present exhibit A, the papers screaming about a teenager who went into a police station with a small knife and was shot dead by the cops. Here is exhibit A:


Good god! Teenage terrorists in Australia! He looks so clean cut and nice, a perfect terrorist disguise! But there was more, as Australian newspapers went fuckin bananas about it (I think the cat's there for a bit of a breather from all the terror!). May I present exhibit B:


Terror! Terror! 

Only problem is, the bloke used in the pictures isn't the teen that went into the cop shop and got shot. It was some innocent young bloke. Now the family of this young bloke, and the young bloke himself, are terrorised and fear reprisals from the public. The family are planning to sue

"Misinforming the world for Murdoch's Oil" - video

Very good, pertinent, clear and concise look at how Murdoch shapes gov policies.

 

WCFuckwits dummy spit at hate site :)

The confused dears are at it again. This time the WCFuckwits has entered the fray of the Export of Hate website, where all kinds of truthful things are said about them. Enraged at their outing, they've hit back with an all guns firing online petition, demanding people stop hating them. Seriously. The petition is here. It's had all of 169 signatures worldwide :)
Several individuals associated with the World Congress of Families including Larry Jacobs, Janice Crouse and Brian Brown were singled out by HRC in their report. The HRC says World Congress of Families is part of a “network of American extremists who are working tirelessly to undercut LGBT people around the world,” people who spread “venomous rhetoric, outrageous theories and discredited science.” The suggestion is made that people like me are OK with “systematic stigmatization, persecution and violence” and may even be fine with gays and lesbians being put to death. 

WCF readily and proudly pleads guilty to the “crime” of not supporting the HRC’s desire to redefine marriage. WCF has had the nerve to express that view not only here in America, but when invited to speak in other countries. Hence, in the distorted world of the HRC, I am an extremist and “export hate.” more
Good grief, it's like the US. Dropping bombs on other countries in an undeclared war, then wondering why they're hated :s  

The Naked Barber - The Feed

He used to have a night at the Midnight Shift in Sydney, dunno if he still does. 

 

Welfare Bills now before the senate


This is it folks. Forget the Middle East. Forget the telly screaming TERROR! TERROR! Instead remember the Australia we have, and what these bills would do to our country if passed. It will no longer the the fair Australia that we've so often strived for through the decades. 

You can track the progress of the bill through the senate here: 
Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 2) Bill 2014 

The bill, if passed:
- Making jobseekers under 30 go without income support for six months a year 
- Cuts to the indexation of pensions, including the aged and disability support pension, which will see people lose $80 per week in real terms within 10 years 
- Axing the Pensioner Education Supplement 
- Increasing the retirement age to 70 
- Cuts to FTB payments, including for single parents and low income families 
- Reassessing around 28,000 people with disability, with a view to dumping them onto Newstart  
You can ring your cross bench senator here.

Update:

Palmer reiterates, economy is in good shape and there will be no dasdardly welfare cuts.
Asked on Sunday whether he believed blocking a range of budget measures was stopping the government from delivering its promise to fix the budget, Mr Palmer said: “I’m reading the balance sheet and the fact of the matter is Australia’s got 12 per cent of its GDP as debt. The OECD average is 73 per cent. 

“We’re one of the 13 countries in the world with a AAA credit rating,” he told ABC News 24. 

“When Menzies was our PM, the ratio to debt was 40 per cent. We’ve never had is so good. Do we have to take $10 billion off the poorest people in society that can least afford it? I don’t think we do. We need to tell people the truth and we’re not in a budget crisis and this is a beat-up to get popular support for government, but it is not true.” 

“Certainly our position on budget issues have been very clear: we’re against the $7 Medicare co-payment; we’re against any change to education policy; and on the social security thing the government didn’t bring it on [in the Senate] because we wouldn’t vote for it. 

“We think the changes to the benefits for people under 30 [are] ­discriminatory and will lead to more crime or youth suicide and we won’t support them.” more  

Monday 29 September 2014

Industrial scale climate action needed

It was using the earths carbon on an industrial scale that's bought us to this planet wide climate emergency. It will take action on an industrial scale to fix it, if it's not already too late. Politicians in the hands of dirty energy producers is a political problem that must be fixed, possibly if we're to survive as a species.

 

Miners protest 457 visa rule changes - Perth

I had no idea unemployment was so bad over there in the places mentioned. With the downturn in mining at the moment and unemployed Australians unable to find work over there, the workers are enraged that the Abbott gov is relaxing the rules needed for companies to bring in foreign workers. These workers have been exploited in the past in Australia and used as cheap labour, whilst Australians can't get a look in.

A very good report about it from Perth:

 

Australia's fucked up week in politics - Angry Aussie

Bloody oath! Grrrrrr........

 

Be alert. Not a ladder :)


$8billion a year unpaid tax - top earning Australian companies

Yes, whilst the Lieberals are screaming for me to do some heavy lifting for the country (sorry Tone I've had my own problems to deal with, like survival), the top earning companies in Australia are getting away with ripping off taxpayers to the tune of $8.4 billion a year:

The report finds: 
- An average effective tax rate of 23% – well below the corporate tax rate of 30% 

- 29% have an effective tax rate of 10% or less 

- 14% have an effective tax rate of 0% 

- The loss of an estimated $8.4 billion in annual revenue compared to the 30% tax rate 

- In 2013, 57% of ASX 200 companies disclosed subsidiaries in secrecy jurisdictions (tax havens) – but this could be much higher as reporting is not mandatory more  

Depression explained - video

This is a great little thing explaining what's going on with depressed people.

 

Sunday 28 September 2014

Obama vs Orwell - "war is peace" video

     

US troops pose as ISIS terrorists - pic posted by British MP George Galloway

British MP George Galloway has posted this picture online. It shows a US troops-man posing as an ISIS fighter. I smell a rat.....

 

US bombed vacant buildings - Syrian air strikes

I hardly bother watching the drivel on telly at night that they have the nerve to call "news", but even this picture got through into my head. As soon as I looked at it I recognised it as the building pictures that were released to the media. Shock and awe and all that:


Um. The buildings were empty. It was all a big show. You know, lookit our big blowing up things that we've got. The admiration of the war machine and a statement of military might. Other than that it accomplished absolutely nothing.
Damon revealed on air early Wednesday that ISIL terrorists who were held up in the town may have been tipped off weeks in advance to the US airstrikes on Tuesday. According to Damon: 

“15-20 days before the airstrikes, (ISIL) buildings were evacuated, and fighters then mixed in with the local population”. 

Maybe Damon let the truth slip out by accident, or maybe she was trying to do what US journalists so often are not allowed to do by challenging Washington’s prefabricated narrative. Regardless, CNN’s chief war enthusiast Wolf Blitzer did not feel the need to pursue the point. 

This surprising admission by CNN would mean that the US military may have only destroyed empty buildings in Raqqa, and that Washington’s inflated claims of dead ISIL fighters are probably exaggerated. In other words, it was all a big show, and ISIL’s capabilities were not degraded at all by Obama’s celebrated US blitzkrieg in Syria. more 

HIV drug Epivir succeeds against Ebola

Who would have thought. A doctor in Africa came up with a random desperate idea to try the HIV drug Lamivudine/Epivir. Surprisingly the first results are very positive (pun intended).
A doctor in rural Liberia inundated with Ebola patients says he's had good results with a treatment he tried out of sheer desperation: an HIV drug. 

Dr. Gobee Logan has given the drug, lamivudine, to 15 Ebola patients, and all but two survived. That's a 7% mortality rate. 

Across West Africa, the virus has killed 70% of its victims. 

Outside Logan's Ebola center in Tubmanburg, four of his recovering patients walk the grounds, always staying inside the fence that separates the Ebola patients from everyone else. 

"My stomach was hurting; I was feeling weak; I was vomiting," Elizabeth Kundu, 23, says of her bout with the virus. 

"They gave me medicine, and I'm feeling fine. We take it, and we can eat -- we're feeling fine in our bodies." 

Kundu and the other 12 patients who took the lamivudine and survived, received the drug in the first five days or so of their illness. The two patients who died received it between days five and eight. 

"I'm sure that when [patients] present early, this medicine can help," Logan said. "I've proven it right in my center." more  

Saturday 27 September 2014

"Are you eligible for Disability Support Pension?" - Centrelink video :) ha ha ha.......

Oh I was smiling and laughing watching this. 

A holler to all who think you just walk into Centrelink with a broken arm or something and they chuck this Disability Support Pension at you because you're disabled. 
 photo sungulls.gif photo emot-350.gif
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ........................

I'd note here that I well and truly met all the criteria involved in being blessed with this mega buck few hundred a fortnight pension that does little more at times than keep homelessness at bay. I applied under the new tests (Labor bought it in) that won't be reviewed as they're now so tough. When I presented my evidence of actual illness and innocence of not in some evil plot to rip the gov off of a few hundred $ a fortnight, they fast tracked the thing and it was only a month in getting it. 

The application normally had to go to review by someone else in another state, presumably another Centrelink person who was even more impartial than the Centrelink person in front of me that I'd never met before, looking at all the paperwork that he'd never seen before about me right there and then. After requesting documentation from my GP who sent him about fuckin 6 pages of shit from specialists, the Centrelink guy emailed me straight away and said the DSP was granted. It didn't have to go interstate.   

In short I easily passed the below criteria. Apparently meeting this criteria is "unsustainable" according to SSJoe. Fuck off Joe:

 

"Canada - Australia axis of carbon" - UN climate summit

Wow. Australia has really gotten itself in the shit by Abbott not attending the climate summit in NY. Everyone's really pissed off with the Abbott gov. He was too gutless to turn up and sent Julie Bishop who just reiterated the gov's climate denial and gave no new initiatives. I get a feeling Tone's not gonna be too popular in his future world jaunts.
The reaction to Australia's presence could not have been more different. Tony de Brum, the Foreign Minister of the Marshall Islands, told Fairfax that small islands states were frustrated and baffled by Australia's stance, especially as they had regarded the nation as a "big brother down south" and advocated for its seat on the United Nations Security Council. 

Asked if "betrayal" was too strong a word, he paused and said, "Now it is, maybe not soon." 

On Tuesday the Pulitzer Prize-winning climate change news website Inside Climate News published a story about the "Canada-Australia axis of carbon". It suggested that not only were the two nations not willing to pull their weight, but that they were seeking to derail the binding agreement on emissions reductions at next year's talks in Paris that many view as the world's last best hope to prevent catastrophic climate change. 

"Neither the prime ministers of Canada nor Australia will speak at the summit, and the subordinates they have sent will not be offering the kind of "bold" new steps that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is seeking on the way to a treaty in Paris late next year," it reported. 

"Instead, these two governments, with their energy-rich domains sprawling across opposite ends of the earth, will present strikingly similar defences against what much of the rest of the world is offering. And their stance is earning them opprobrium among advocates of strong and immediate action." 

The online magazine Slate published a story headlined, "The Saudi Arabia of the Pacific, How Australia became the dirtiest polluter in the developed world." 

It charted Australian climate politics since the last election – noting for an international audience Australia's history as a leader in solar technology, the creation and then scrapping of a carbon trading scheme, the promotion of climate change sceptics to key advisory roles, the attacks on the solar industry, the scrapping of the mining tax, the failed bid to expand logging in Tasmanian wilderness. 

"Let's hope that the rapacious policies of the current government represent only a temporary bout of insanity," Slate concluded. "If the Australian people cannot recover some of their earlier regard for their environment they may find in time that their great land is no longer merely apathetic toward their residence there but openly hostile." Read more  

India Coal to invest $1.2billion in renewables

China has already announced carbon pricing by 2016 and quality standards that are beyond much of Australia's coal. India has also joined the worldwide move to renewables. It has announced the doubling of import duty on coal, the extra money being used to invest in solar. 

Now the worlds biggest coal company India Coal, has announced as well that it will be investing $1.2 billion in renewable energy for India.
Coal India is planning to develop solar power plants across various states of India. According to media reports, the company is in talks with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) for the development of 1,000MW solar power plants. The site identification for putting up of solar plants has already been initiated. Coal India will undertake investments of $1.2 billion for this initiative. 

Coal companies are always under pressure from various environmental groups to source their coal in a more ethical and environmentally friendly way to cut pollution. The situation of Coal India Limited is, however, somewhat better than the other coal companies of the world in terms of overall carbon footprint. Though being criticized for consistently failing to meet India’s annual coal production targets, Coal India is known for its sound environmental policies to keep check on greenhouse gas emissions in its production process. 

Recently, another Indian coal mining company – Neyveli Lignite Corporation – announced its plans to invest $80 million to develop 80MW of wind and solar power capacity. more  

Think gays are girlie? Look at these badasses :)

The drag queens are revolting - against facebook

Facebook has come out with a new rule that you have to use your real name. Well I use my real name here, but not my last one. I say whatever I like here revealing much about my life. I feel it's perfectly OK to have some sort of screen there. Most of the blog readers here are overseas anyway. So why the hell would I want to go and post all this shit on a platform such as facebook, where I'd have to use my real name and be used as a guinea pig in their social media research?

The same could be said for drag queens on facebook, who've now been caught out by this new rule. So in protest, there's a new move on to a new platform for pissed off drag queens; "Ello" is here

 

US company's dirty tactics backfire - Australia

Ha! Here's one story with a happy ending for the workers involved. Only because they stuck together and were able to bargain strongly represented by the AMWU. Not a that unusual story in the world of union negotiated Enterprise Bargaining Agreements. I often remember my old work and battles with management trying to fuck us all over. One EBA they wanted to reduce the maximum redundancy from 48 weeks to just 16 weeks (as if.....) and then claimed they were bargaining in "good faith". We bought on a strike over that one too, it being avoided in the 11th hour when management finally caved. There was a lot of argy bargy, but things never reached the point of management assholeness as in this case.

They got their EBA in the end after being enraged at this US companies tactics to try and intimidate them. I've never heard anything like what this company did. Good on the workers for sticking it to the assholes in the office ;)
Workers at the Wetherill Park factory in Sydney make the refrigerated and heated display cabinets for food stores across Australia, their skill and productivity the reason that the new owners McAlpine Hussmann inherited a major long-term contract with Woolworths. 

But they threatened to pull the industrial plug on McAlpine Hussmann after it resorted to sending a series of intimidating letters to their homes with their personal pay details, trying to put extra pressure on their families to get them to accept an inferior workplace agreement. 

One letter detailed the unemployment rate of neighbouring suburbs. 

The letters backfired when insulted members voted overwhelmingly to authorise industrial action, which brought management to its senses in talks just hours before an initial eight-hour strike. 

The fitters, refrigeration mechanics and general workers have voted up a new three-year union agreement which delivers annual pay rises of 4, 4 and 3.8 per cent, plus securing all existing entitlements including a redundancy agreement with 60-week cap. 

“It’s above the cost of living and we’ve been told its one of the best agreements in Sydney, so the majority voted for it,” said AMWU delegate Scott Casitovski. 

“But now we know how the company want to play it, they sent propaganda to our homes trying to undermine our family relationships, targeting where you live is not acceptable.” more  
Is this how companies behave in the US then? Piss off, don't try it here. Just goes to show, workers have got no chance against immoral bosses like this under individual contracts. Note to all, join a union if you're not in one. I'd not trust this Abbott gov one iota.

Friday 26 September 2014

Hockey's first budget deficit is a whooper - $48.5billion

End of last financial year when Labor was still in office, the budget projection for this financial year was a deficit of $30 billion. Two months later Abbott took control with SSJoe at the financial helm. 

Now SSJoe, even though he's been there for nearly all of this financial year, has blamed Labor for the deficit. *pfffffft*
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen and opposition finance spokesman Tony Burke hit back at the Treasurer's claims. 

They said the Abbott government was responsible for the decline, having been in control of the budget since September last year. 

"Last time we checked, the Abbott government has been responsible for budget and economic policy since September 2013. That's 75 per cent of the 2013-14 financial year," they said. 

Labor said that under the Abbott government the deficit had deteriorated from $30.1 billion in the pre-election economic and fiscal outlook to $48.5 billion. 

"Of the $18.4 billion blow-out, over half - $10.8 billion – is due to policy decisions taken by the Abbott government, including the $8.8 billion grant to the Reserve Bank of Australia," Mr Bowen and Mr Burke said. Read more  

Abbott point protestors "terrorists" - Lieberals

An extraordinary rant from a Queensland Lieberal about people protesting the Abbott Point coal expansion (wanna dump on the Reef?), which is currently the subject of two court challenges. Obviously this blokes gotten really bloody pissed off about it. This rant against people who are simply exercising their democratic right to protest the destruction of the Reef is extreme in itself. Think he must be projecting. But anyway he calls these protestors terrorists.

Well you know where this is going don't you:
Christensen said the political agenda of the “Extreme Greens” was overshadowing good work being done by community groups and individuals who “genuinely cared about the environment” and were working hard to protect it. 

“The extremists are the large, well organised, and very well-funded organisations who use fear and blackmail to coerce the government and the public into adopting their extreme political and ideological views,” Christensen said. 

He said that activists “hanging themselves like daft bats from a ship-loader,” or threatening to lie on train tracks were acts of stupidity and of terrorism. 

“To circumvent their frivolous court action against the Abbot Point Coal Terminal expansion, which they know is baseless, I sought another solution – a land based solution – that would nullify the reef blackmail. 

“Such a solution has been announced by the State Government and by continuing to fight the project, the eco-terrorists have proved their protest was never about the environment. 

“The eco-terrorists butchered the international tourism market, which sources tell me is down 30 per cent as a result of their campaign, not for the sake of the reef but for the sake of their political ideology. 

“They threaten to kill off thousands of more jobs in the resource industry because they don’t like coal, they don’t like capitalism, and they don’t like people working hard to earn a decent living.” more
Um, Climate Change is bi-partisan. The climate doesn't give a shit about our politics. 

"Coal has a very strong future" - Lieberals


Incredible. Glaringly psychotic. So blind.

The Greens ask the gov if the gov is concerned about the UN stating that coal has no future in the worlds energy mix. He stands there and says that he thinks (and I quote) "Coal has a very strong future". This gov is nothing more than planetary vandals.

 

Profiteering from banging war drums - US

I noticed the other day on that Fox news video about Australian terror(!) plots, they had a bloody lieutenant on there crapping on about war and terror. Typical.

This one shows something similar. Other people drumming for war on US telly but who get money from the war machine:

 

 

"Team Australia" - Angry Aussie :)

World climate marches historic - GetUp video

This is an excellently put together video about the weekends climate marches around the world. The video is below, but I was struck by a short spinet of a march in China over climate change in the video. Here's a still bit of it.


Man oh man, this gov is on the wrong side of history. Here's the whole video.

 

Spring Magpie attack! - me


Being Spring here the Magpies are nesting. There's a bit of footpath up the road a bit where there's nesting magpies in trees in the middle nature strip. There's even a sign up on a power poll to people walking along there to beware of swooping magpies in nesting season as they fly across the road and literally attack you.

So anyway, I'm walking along there yesterday, warily looking up and around to let the birds know I'm watching for them. They're bloody sly things though. They have a simple but extremely effective attack procedure and even being wary of a possible magpie attack doesn't mean they're not going to.

I saw one attack another bloke there a few days back. They begin by launching themselves casually from their lookout, silently swooping towards their enemy. There is no frontal attack though, as they use the element of surprise. Silently, barely flapping, they come up from behind you. No engine. No footsteps. Nothing but silence. Peacefully walking along the road. 

When all of a sudden there's a great thonk on the side of you head. They come from behind and bonk you with their beak, quite bloody hard too. Can certainly make you bleed.

On this ocassion the bird came behind and attacked my left ear.....*thonk*..... "Bloody magpies" I utter, and thought nothing more of it.

Until later at home I noticed the ball was gone from my earring. 


WTF? Those bloody magpies!

Made a great story though when I got a replacement ball. Should have seen the piercing shop people laughing about it. Must have been because the ball is shiny. They imagined this magpie with a nest full of piercing balls :)

Thursday 25 September 2014

Lieberals lied about need for $7 co-payment - Labor

A casual look at the title would suggest Labor itself may be crapping on and exaggerating to gain political points. This however is not the case. Labor is simply commenting what an independent report states; that there is no blowout in health spending, and in fact it's actually gone down in real terms. It is in fact entirely sustainable:
On average $6430 is spent on the health needs of every Australian each year - $17 less per person than in the previous year. 

It is the lowest growth the institute has recorded since it began the health expenditure Australia series in the mid-1980s. 

Labor's health spokeswoman Catherine King said the report showed the government case for the $7 co-payment was "a complete and utter lie". 

"The report overnight bells the cat on the government's claim that health spending is unsustainable," she told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday. 

Doctors say the government has been feeding the public a false narrative on the co-payment. 

"The Abbott government has justified its extreme health budget measures on the basis that health spending is out of control. Clearly it is not," Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler said. more  

Whining Pyne's travel rort to Europe

At first I was pretty bored with it all. Meh, another gov front bencher rorts the taxpayers for free travel, claiming it's official political business or some crap. But I started getting interested when I came across some of the more spectacular blatancy of the rort. Not a small amount at $30,000 of taxpayers money.

So Pyne took this trip to Europe. With his wife. People started asking "WTF?" This was the justification, that he saved us all money by flying economy:
A letter from Ms Credlin to Mr Pyne's office approving the trip also notes that the attendance of Mrs Pyne was expected to cost the Commonwealth no more than a business class airfare for the minister. As a minister, Mr Pyne is entitled to fly business class on official overseas travel. 

Mr Pyne flew business class from Adelaide to Sydney but switched to economy for the rest of the journey to London. Read more
May I present to you exhibit A, the paperwork about how it all was arranged:


May I present a zoom in of exhibit A. Perhaps I shall call this exhibit A1? Note what it says about flying Sydney to London:


Yes, he arranged all that and said nothing about it. 

Labor stands up against Muslim demonisation, and for multiculturalism

The Labor opposition has written an open letter to the Islamic community in Australia, reiterating their commitment to multiculturalism, and disagreeing with the Canberra politicians who have stirred up this hate against Muslims. 

Here it is in it's entirety:
To whom it may concern, 

We have been very distressed by recent reports about the Australian Islamic community being wrongly blamed for the crimes of ISIL, including assaults and other forms of vilification. 

Labor stands shoulder to shoulder with Australia’s Islamic community and, now more than ever, we are committed to tolerance, social cohesion, mutual respect and multiculturalism. 

Labor will continue to work with you to stop misinformation, bigotry and prejudice directed at the Australian Islamic community. 

Regrettably, some in our community, including a very few elected representatives, have made comments which have the potential to damage community harmony and inflame tensions. Labor strongly opposes these ill-informed and dangerous views and we will continue to speak out against them. 

We know that the twisted ideology of ISIL bears no relation to a faith of peace, love and tolerance which is followed by millions around the world – and we will continue to make this point. 

ISIL has no right to use the name of Islam. 

We will work with you to help stop ISIL spreading division, radicalising disaffected and vulnerable young people. We will not allow them to nurture intolerance and create a world where people fear the unknown and resent differences. 

The Islamic story in Australia has a rich history and grows stronger each year. Australia’s Muslim community continues to do our nation a great service by fostering enduring cultural and religious harmony, and making a substantial contribution to our national prosperity. 

This reflects modern Australian multiculturalism: a story of cultural enrichment, social cohesion and economic growth and it is a story that the Labor Party is committed to and will always defend. 

We are keen to engage with you and your organisation, to listen to you about how we can further these goals together. Please contact Ms Rowland’s office on 02 6277 4833 or Michelle.Rowland.MP@aph.gov.au if you would like to make such arrangements. We look forward to hearing from you. 

Finally, on the upcoming occasion of Eid Ul Adha, we wish you, your family and your community a heartfelt Eid Mubarak. 

Yours sincerely, 

Bill Shorten Leader of the Opposition 

Michelle Rowland Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism link  

Muslims targeted - Australia


If there's one thing I despise, it's politicians demonising minorities for political gain. It is repulsive, vile, and not the Australia that we know. And Abbott calls himself a good person/christian/catholic/monk/bla. To me this is one of the most unconscionable things any politician could do. And the Lieberals are doing it now in Australia. Appalling.
Vandals have attacked a home being used as an Islamic prayer centre in Brisbane, leaving abusive anti-Muslim graffiti, in what police have called a “brainless crime”. 

Police were called to the home in Rocklea on Wednesday night after members discovered the walls of some temporary buildings had been spraypainted with the words “evil” and “die”, as well as “Muslims are evil and have no respect for our ways”, and “get the fuck out of our country”. 

President of the Indonesian Islamic Centre, Hamid Marwadi, told Guardian Australia this was the first time they had been targeted. 

“That’s why we are shocked to come and see the graffiti,” he said. Marwadi said he thought it was prompted by recent police operations and statements from politicians “encouraging the tough laws on terrorism”. 

“I believe politicians shouldn’t say Islamic terrorists because Islam is not terrorism,” he said. more  

Extremist/Moderate - Western doublespeak

I don't keep up much with all the stats of wars, even as they are. I don't agree with going back into Iraq simply because it's a complicated civil war that Australia should never have been involved in in the first place. New Zealand never went to Iraq, and was never part of an illegal "coalition of the willing" as Australia was.

Bob Ellis however does use some stats, and makes a clear point about the propaganda coming from western leaders. It doesn't make any kind of sense, yet we're all supposed to believe it like dumb lemmings.
We are told that Saudi Arabia is a ‘moderate Muslim state’ though it has beheaded more women, in the past six months, than ISIL. We are told that Israel is a moderate state though it has killed in the past three months 450 children, and Hamas, which is called ‘terrorist’, has killed no more than two Israeli children in twenty years. America is supposed to be ‘moderate’ though it killed, or prenatally mutilated, six million people in Vietnam and Cambodia and assisted into paupered exile four million Iraqis including all the dentists. more  

Senate likely vote pattern analysis

This article gives an idea of where the votes are likely to come down in the senate, on the very controversial bits of the budget. They list lots of them. This one was particularly nice :)


 

Wednesday 24 September 2014

Fox News report on Australia's terror! Based on conjecture :s



Ha ha ha ha........ "DefCon3"? ...... ha ha ha ha......

Of course no mention about the "beheadings" being an invention of the Australian media. 
The suggestion that there was an attack planned in Martin Place specifically, and that it to be a public beheading, is pure conjecture from media reports. The allegation that there was a plot to behead a member of the public at a non-specific location has been given more weight because of the prime minister’s response to the following question on 18 September: 

Journalist: “People have been asked to remain calm, but how can they when there is news that there are people willing to conduct public beheadings in Australia?” 
Prime minister: “That’s the intelligence we received. The exhortations, quite direct exhortations, were coming from an Australian who is apparently quite senior in Isil [Islamic State] to networks of support back in Australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country. So, this is not just suspicion, this is intent, and that’s why the police and security agencies decided to act in the way they have.” more
What a laugh though. Watch as the "random beheading" thing is woven into this Fox terror thing :)

TERROR! TERROR!

 

"Coal has no future in worlds energy mix" - UN


I wonder how Abbott's gonna explain this one:
The UN has warned that coal has no future in the world's energy mix, as world leaders gather ahead of a major climate summit in New York.

The Federal Government says coal will serve as an affordable, dependable energy source for decades to come, but the UN's climate chief has questioned whether that is in Australia's best interests long term.

"It is certainly within Australia's purview to decide how Australia is going to pursue its energy generation and energy growth," Christiana Figueres said. "It is just a question of really thinking through very carefully what is in the best long-term interest of Australia and of the Australian population, making careful decisions that are informed both by today’s reality of climate change impacts as well as tomorrow's but very soon reality of a low-carbon society."

More than 120 world leaders, including US president Barack Obama and UK prime minister David Cameron will attend the UN secretary-general's climate summit starting today. more
Meanwhile, the coal industry is in serious strife here in Australia:
Mining giant BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) has announced it is to axe 700 jobs at its central Queensland mines. 

BMA is the largest private employer in the Bowen Basin with more than 10,000 employees and contractors. The cut represented about 7 per cent of its workforce. 

Employees and contractors at the Goonyella Riverside, Peak Downs, Saraji, Broadmeadow, Caval Ridge, Daunia and Blackwater mines could be affected, and the company said consultation would begin in coming weeks. 

BMA is not the only miner struggling amid a downturn in the coal price. Bandanna Energy announced yesterday it was going into voluntary administration and would not proceed with its central Queensland mine. 

The United Nations has also warned that coal has no future in the world's energy mix. more
Hang on, wasn't getting rid of the carbon tax supposed to drive employment? Looks like the Greens were right all along.

 

Scott lively calls HRC "Demonic Hit List For Assassination"! :)


Scott Lively continues on his psychotic hissy fit over the Export of Hate naming him as a hater. This guy belongs in a padded cell:

 

Applying for $10,000 financial hardship Super release

Have decided, after much thought and after seeing how precisely eligible I appear to be, I'm doing an application for getting $10,000 released out of my superannuation for reason of "Severe Financial Hardship".

This is a payment that is applied for directly to your superannuation fund. I've looked into it a few years back but it's impossible to get if your working. These are the criteria for you to be eligible.


Well I certainly fit all of those. We'd be sort of scrimping by without the credit card payments (seems to be taking ages with this Carers Allowance to be processed) but with them it's impossible. We're doing the credit card merry go round (pay all the money gotten on the card and live off the card) and have easily met the minimum payment for the month that way, but it's not looking too sustainable. We had a couple of bigger things to pay last fortnight and totally blew the Newstarve allowance out of the water :s 

Originally I was thinking why the fuck should I have to use my super money to stay afloat when all this is because of David's work and is currently in process in a discrimination case. But then again, do I really want to go through all the trauma and angst of bankruptcy if I can possibly avoid it? Perhaps these damages may be addressed in the court case, but that doesn't help now does it.

It's a very simple form to fill out. I was like, there must be something more they need to know. What about a Centrelink DNA sample? But no, they seem to be able to get that info from my CRN. I did most of it online, but had difficulty with proving my identity online as the agencies were all Australian. Some of my ID is Kiwi. So I have to provide it manually through snail mail via certified copies. Will do that today and see my GP tomorrow to get them certified. And that'll be it. They said up to two weeks to process.

BTW that $10,000 is subject to tax, the real amount gotten a bit under $8,000. If you're not working though then you get that back at the end of the financial year. 

Tuesday 23 September 2014

Lismore climate action rally :)

How times have changed from the hysterical anti-carbon tax fear of Abbott's.

 

Climate change is non-partisan - Abby Grant

Howard's "Conspiracy to mass murder" - Andrew Wilkie, Independent

Andrews lied about NZ dole wait period

What a pack of lies. He's been caught with his bloody pants down. The raving welfare slasher wanabe, when he was blustering incessantly about the need to change the welfare system in Australia claimed there was a one month wait for the dole in New Zealand.

There isn't.

The only "wait" is 20 days to get all the shit together to claim, and you get backpaid from the start date anyway. 
In June, he said: "In New Zealand, everybody who is seeking to get welfare payments, the dole equivalent, has a one-month waiting period." 

But research by the independent Parliamentary Library has confirmed no such waiting period exists in New Zealand. 

"We have been unable to find a waiting period that matches the description Minister Andrews has given previously," the library said in response to inquiries by the office of Labor's families spokeswoman Jenny Macklin. 

The library asked the Department of Social Services for an explanation and it responded that there was a 20-day period to complete "pre-benefits activities" in New Zealand, "thereby having the effect of a waiting period for applicants". 

But the library responded: "I would hold that this is not really the same as a waiting period as most people would easily be able to meet these requirements within the 20 days allowed." 

It also found the pre-benefits requirements did not amend start dates and "an eligible recipient may receive back pay for most of this period" anyway. Read more  

New Abbott fridge magnet :)


The only thing missing from the current terrorism terror is the fridge magnet!

Terror! Terror!