Tuesday, 24 November 2015
Team Abbott in exile - does dummy spit over Turnbull's TERROR!© "softness"
Without the shackles of actually being the gov, Team Abbott has gone about frothing at the mouth over Turnbull's alleged lack of hardness over the Paris attacks. Abbott wants our troops on the ground, along with ousted defence minister Peter Andrews. Andrews has gone positively bananas extremist. Showing his true colours now, he's making himself look ridiculous.
See Turnbull dared to agree with the president of our closest ally the US. Oh the humanity! Andrews thinks, as well as is saying, that Obama is way too soft and now that Turnbull agrees with him he's too soft too (Obama must be scratching his head over it all). I've no doubt in my mind now that Abbott offered our planes to bomb Syria rather that Obama asking.
To think we had these nuts in charge of our country :s
Mr Turnbull added insult to the right’s injury by agreeing with the president. He even talked of “complexity” and the genuine grievances of the Sunnis, grievances that are being ruthlessly exploited by Islamic State.
Mr Andrews believes Mr Obama has abdicated American leadership, and by implication his Australian acolyte Mr Turnbull is complicit in the failure.
According to the newly-relegated Liberal backbencher, Paris was the last straw. He is unapologetic for any perception he could be undermining his new leader.
“What happened in Paris last week changed everything. I’ve got an ongoing role as a member of parliament to speak out on these issues and I will,” Mr Andrews told ABC TV.
It is hard not to conclude that Kevin Rudd-style destabilisation of the PM is underway.
It is curious.
Throwing the switch to khaki and trying to scare the pants off the nation didn’t save Mr Abbott’s leadership. Why he thinks it can restore his fortunes is surely delusional. The New Daily
Help the refugees without being victimes to fear - Q&A Australia
Truer words were never spoken below in this whole ISIS Syrian refugee debate. It is simply an act of human kindness to help someone in need without thinking of the cost.
#ICYMI We need to open our doors to refugees without being the victims of fear says @yanisvaroufakis #QandA https://t.co/lqOW1SAiVu
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) November 23, 2015
Monday, 23 November 2015
Hillsong pastor (Sydney) didn't report pedophile father to cops - Royal Commission
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| Frank Houston |
What is it about churches and protecting pedophiles? This is the story of Hillsong founder pastor Frank Houston of New Zealand, with a long history of abuse over there before coming to Sydney and forming the mega-church Hillsong.
The long running Australian Royal Commission into institutional child sex abuse has found that Frank Houston's son, Brian Houston, acted improperly by never ringing the police over the crimes. He took charge of the investigation into his father within the church which has been deemed a conflict of interest. He was also involved in his father organising a $10,000 payment to a victim.
I don't know what will happen from here, but it does seem to me that Brian Houston broke the law by not reporting to the police the abuse.
Frank Houston was eventually suspended from preaching but Brian Houston never called police.
Despite Brian Houston's claim to the contrary, the commission has found there was a conflict of interest between his personal and professional roles and that the church ignored its own policies during the investigation.
"Pastor Brian Houston told the Royal Commission that he did not think he had a conflict of interest because he never attempted to defend his father from the allegations and he acted swiftly to suspend his credential," the commission found.
"We do not accept the views expressed by pastor Brian Houston."
The Commission found the conflict first arose when Brian Houston decided to confront his father about the allegations while holding the position of president and senior pastor.
It found it was also apparent when he acted as a go-between, when his father organised a $10,000 payment to the victim.
In his evidence at the Commission, Brian Houston said "the payment of money to [the victim] had nothing to do with the National Executive [of the Assemblies of God] because I was adamant that this was not about Hillsong; this was not about the Australian Assemblies of God in Australia. This payment was between Frank and [the victim]."
Mr Houston also told the Commission he did not report his father's abuse to the police, despite acknowledging he had committed a criminal offence. ABC
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| Brian Houston |
Trump will bring back waterboarding - still wants Muslim database
Same old bullshit. Because the enemy is bad, that means we can be bad too. Exactly what ISIS would want I suppose. Think of the propaganda and recruitment against the evil terrorist west.....
Australia told to rethink it's refugee polices - UN Secretary General
You can't get much more in trouble with the UN than that I don't think.
The Secretary-General also raised the refugee and migrant issue in the Asia Pacific region. Noting Australia’s longstanding commitment to refugee resettlement, the Secretary-General appealed to the Prime Minister to share responsibilities.
The Secretary-General expressed concern over the detention conditions in Australia’s offshore processing centres and encouraged the Prime Minister to reconsider “Operation Sovereign Borders.” UN
Australia less at risk of TERROR!© due to gun laws and multiculuralism - Justice minister
Credit where credit is due. I do find it hard to agree with anything from the unrepresentative swill in Canberra, but on this occasion I can appreciate the views.
Justice minister Michael Keenan has said that an attack like the one in Paris in unlikely here in Australia, citing our multicultural society that embraces diversity, and Australia's strict gun laws that are in place to stop the crazies getting their hands on them.
He also includes border controls, which I'm not so much in agreement at all. I can't agree with the cruelty to the vulnerable that is being dished out by Australia at the moment, using TERROR!© as the reason to do so. Why should we change who we are because other people are bad?
To me it's more like Australia's geographic isolation that sees our borders less of a problem.
Tough gun laws, strict border controls and the cultural diversity of Australian society mean it is ‘unlikely’ that Australia would suffer a terror attack similar to the recent terrorist raid on Paris, says Federal Justice Minister Michael Keenan.
Mr Keenan cited Australia’s gun laws and diversity as strengths against the terror threat, which he described as very significant.
He said the combination meant it would be very difficult to “perpetrate something like we saw in Paris here in Australia”.
“We manage our diversity in Australia better than anywhere in the world and part of our process of going through and strengthening our anti-terror laws has been that reassurance to the Muslim community and working very closely with them,” he said.
“It would be very hard to get those sorts of weapons here in Australia because of our very robust gun laws.” New Daily
"Reclaim Australia" - far right fuckwits
They caused a bit of bother over the weekend protesting at Australia's tolerance of Islam and Muslims. There were some scuffles with other protesters protesting Reclaim Australia's lack of tolerance and love for refugees, who far outnumbered the Reclaim Australia people.
Once again Reclaim Australia showed to all that it was full of cliche right wing slogans and brain dead morons. Here's some pics from the weekend. Note that they chose to protest burqa wearing by covering their faces :s However the bloke on the right doesn't appear to realise his tattoos are an identifying feature..... fuckin rocket scientists I tell you......
Of course there was the standard cape wearing flagism bla. More pics here.
Sunday, 22 November 2015
Paralympian represents Australia overseas - DSP pension cut at home
More love from our christian gov.....
A Paralympian heads off overseas to represent Australia at a Paralympic event. She's happens to be overseas for more than 28 days. Unknown to her and her family the gov had changed to rules for Disability Support Pensioners going overseas, and after 28 days her pension is cut in half after that 28 days.
She won a silver medal in Qatar in the time away.
Chevron paid $238 tax in Australia last year......
Turnbull says no to changing the bombing rules of engagement in Syria
*faints*
It appears the Turnbull gov is nothing like the war mongering Team Abbott. Team Abbott is harking from the wilderness to send in troops to Syria. The Turnbull gov however won't even change the rules of Australia's current bombing raids in Syria, citing they are there for a reason to limit civilian casualties.
The US is upping the anti and chucked out those rules. The Royal Australian Air Force however is sticking to it's guns and not following the US into mindless bombing that will kill the civilian population.
Again. Do we become like them to defeat them? If so what is the point?
The Turnbull government plans to stick with the RAAF's strict rules of engagement to avoid civilian casualties from its bombing raids in Iraq and Syria, putting it at odds with Washington's plans to ramp up the air campaign against the Islamic State group.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said late last week that the US was "prepared to change the rules of engagement", referring to the tight strictures on when weapons can be released. These rules ensure air strikes are lawful and do not pose an unacceptable risk to civilians.
However, both in the US and Australia, these rules are increasingly being criticised as too tight, making it hard to hit IS targets and meaning that many missions return to base without dropping bombs.
Those criticisms have been amplified in the wake of the Paris attacks.
But Defence Minister Marise Payne told Fairfax Media that the government has "no plans to change Australia's rules of engagement".
"Members of the Australian Defence Force operate under strict rules of engagement designed to protect our forces and minimise the risk of injury to civilian non-combatants and strictly comply with Australia's obligations under domestic and international law," she said.
Dr Carter said the US had already started hitting IS fuel trucks, which had not previously been within Washington's rules.
Australia and other countries in the Western-led coalition work through a central command that is led by the US, meaning Australian pilots are often tasked by American commanders.
But Australia has its own rules of engagement – as does each country – and the final decision on whether to release a weapon always rests with the RAAF pilot. Brisbane Times
US militarism and it's media
It wasn't just in the US but the drums of war were beating in Australia too. I remember talking to a mate years ago, saying how terrible it was that the US was bombing innocents and killing women and children in misguided attacks on the Middle East. That Australian David Hicks had been locked up for years in Gitmo without charge or trial.
His answer? "This is war!"
Does war justify becoming the very enemy you're fighting against? Does war mean that it's OK for us to kill women and children like they do?
Gov wants the poor to pay for the NDIS - Morrison the christian
Treasurer Scott Morrison (member of the happy clappy Hillsong church) is insisting that to pay for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, then there must be cuts to other areas of welfare. In particular, single parents.
This whilst Chevron pays just $248 tax in Australia. These are some of the people at the senate inquiry this week who Morrison wants to take money off to pay for the NDIS:
Edwards explained that low-wage jobs and unemployment benefits left single parents with so little that they now relied on the “bonuses” for pretty important purposes – paying for any out-of-the-ordinary costs, such as car registration or replacing an appliance.
She gave the results of a 2014 survey of single parents, in which 74% said they had trouble paying utility bills, almost 14% said utilities had been disconnected, 58% said their children had given up sport or other activities because they couldn’t afford the equipment or fees, 62% said they could not afford health or household insurance and 57% said they struggled to keep their car on the road.
And she read from stories the single mothers had sent her to pass on to the inquiry. “My son never passes on school notes regarding anything that costs money. I’ve found them ripped up in his school bag, hidden in this room, etc. I think he has noticed my hands shaking so many times from monetary stress that he will do anything to keep things like this from me. He’s 13 and has desperately wanted to get a job since he was 11. He constantly asks why I hardly ever eat dinner but, fortunately, he still seems to believe that I absolutely love toast and two-minute noodles when I do eat.”
Or: “Please, please, please tell them ... all the pollies … that we will go over the edge if there are any more cuts. My luxury is our 18-year-old Corolla.”
Or: “Jack is great at sports, he pretended that he was injured so he would not get picked for the inter-school competition. It was $35. We just don’t have the spare cash.”
According to the government, the family benefit cuts – first announced in its disastrous 2014 budget and recently softened to try to win parliamentary approval – are the only way it can pay for a plan to spend an extra $3.5bn on childcare. The Guardian
Saturday, 21 November 2015
US Muslims shocked by anti-Muslim rhetoric of Trump and Carson
The other day we had three of them (Huckabee, Cruz, Jindal) attend the vile hate conference on how to put gays to death, led by "kill the gays" cow scat pastor Swanson. Now we have two more of them (Trump and Carson) apparently trying to outdo each other in a competition to hate Muslims. Even more shocking when Carson calls himself a christian, to be treating a minority like this. Absolutely disgusting and appalling.
Prominent Muslim Americans have reacted with anger and dismay to the incendiary remarks of Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate in the 2016 presidential race who called for a database of all Muslims in the country to be set up, in order to track their movements.
Trump’s comment was compared by several Muslim-American groups to the branding and forced identification of European Jews that paved the way to the Holocaust.
Muslim leaders told the Guardian they were shocked that a public figure who is the current frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination would utter such an inflammatory idea in the wake of the Paris attacks, when relations were already fraught.
“This is beyond terrifying, any student of history knows what special IDs did in Europe,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the largest Muslim advocacy group in the US, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair). “In 20 years I have not heard such intolerance and hatred from political leaders in this society.”
Awad said that Trump’s promise to “certainly implement” a Muslim database were he to win the race for the White House – coupled with comments equating some Syrian refugees to “rabid dogs” by his immediate Republican rival Ben Carson – suggested that Islamophobia had been co-opted into mainstream US politics. The Guardian
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