Comments

Geoffrey Taylor

Fri, 2010-11-12 10:12

Influence of 'socialist' groups on Greens detrimental, but ....

I agree that the influence of 'red' groups in the Greens is detrimental, but not necessarily for the same reasons as John Marlowe. I consider socialism a laudable political goal and if it were incorporated into the platform of the Greens it would actually add to their value as an alternative pro-environmental political group rather than detract from it. The problem is that, as far as I can tell, all significant far-left Marxist 'revolutionary' groups in Australia, including those whose influence in the Greens John Marlowe has discussed, aren't socialist at all. I think true socialists would not seem as anywhere near as alien to normal Australians as most members of these groups manage to seem.

John Marlowe

Thu, 2010-11-11 23:39

Permalink

Greens, with so much red influence, are 'browning'

The Australian Greens, with so much 'Red' Labor Left influence, are politically aligning into a confused murky 'brown' as they build numbers recruiting disaffected Labor Lefties.

Disaffected and defecting Labor Left are clutching on to the least worst alternative - The Greens. But old habits die hard and so these Labor Lefties now with The Greens have steadily wormed their extreme Left agenda into Greens leadership platform and policy.

Meanwhile traditional 'Greenies' remain loyal to the Party, despite the clear platform colour changing, simply because they 'can't find a better man' flying the small 'g' green flag.

Other political hopefuls seek any alternative to Lib/Lab 20th Century Laboral conservatism, yet without a clear vision, become stuck in a perverted kaleidescope of ideology that only further confuses and distracts - just making the Greens more ineffectual.

The Greens used to have an inferiority complex about being a single issue party. However, their born again mission to become more 'mainstream' has seen them go to the other extreme. Green policies are now so numerous that they outnumber those of the Liberals, Labor and National combined!

Big 'G' Green has become politically aligned to almost any idealistic notion that is 'alternative', so long as it differentiates them from the other mob - the Laboral Centre Right.

So big 'G' Greens have now drifted into issues so far removed from their environmental conservation core as to make their namesake a misnomer. Perhaps 'New Labor' would be a more apt name, or has that name already been taken? Still, the Greens have now wondered into alliances like feminism, gay rights, gay marriage, multiculturalism, multilateralism, pacifism, childcare, housing, ageing, and suddenly pure chlorophyll Greenies wake up one day to learn their leaders are endorsing heroine injecting rooms in Kings Cross! What planet are we on?

Greens are the new brown - lovely colour that, says everything about ideology, direction and strategy!

Media scrunity is democratically healthy. Constant media criticism and the holding to account of those who supposedly represent us, is far better than the alternative - State controlled media who don't and can't.

When I watch ABC's 'MediaWatch' or 'Four Corners' or 'Stateline' or even listen to the odd shock jock irrespective of any personal bias, I reflect that aren't we lucky to be able to challenge those in power without journalists being arrested, disappearing or being shot like in so many other countries? Just type 'journalist shot dead' in Google's search engine and note the number of hits - Greece, Bulgaria, Russia, Rwanda, Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand, Colombia, Mexico....

In response to anonymous 9/11. The website that you are basing your post on also contains the following claims and misinformation:

A video suggesting muslims have sex with goats
A doctored photo showing President Obama urinating on a US flag
Claims that Obama's mother was involved in pornography
Claims that Obama was involved with a "crack whore" in his youth
Suggestions that Obama is the "lovechild" of Malcolm X

Furthermore, David Yerushalmi is the author of an unbelievably racist article that challenges why the following claims are racist:

Islam is an evil religion
Blacks are the most murderous of people

Yerushalmi also goes on further to advocate a pre-Bill of Rights Constitution and to limit the vote to white, male landowners. His mosque-mapping exercise is not transparent and his current website is only available to "members". So why oh why would anyone in their right mind be believing a word that Yerushalmi, Geller or anonymous 9/11 say?

Enne K (not verified)

Wed, 2010-11-10 14:15

Permalink

AUSTRALIA hands Indonesia $500 million to build 2000 schools

Indonesia has a population of 242,968,342 (July 2010 est.) Indonesia is the largest Muslim majority country. Most of its 240 million people adhere to variations of Islamic beliefs to some degree. Mosques are a common sight and Islamic rituals are largely observed. The discovery of a militant training camp in Indonesia, along with persistent terrorist attacks there, have increased U.S. concerns that extremists are regrouping and eyeing Western targets in a country long viewed as a counterterrorism success story. Julia Gillard offered Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono $100 million for each of the next five years to boost his push to ensure all Indonesian children have at least nine years of schooling by 2015. We handed Indonesia $500 million to build 2000 schools, 1500 of them ISLAMIC SCHOOLS. This is in an effort to reduce radical teaching in Islamic schools, but by their very nature, Islamic schools ARE radical! She herself is a self proclaimed atheist, so there is a fairly good chance of her taking it for granted that all religions are equally bad and none can be more radical than others. If so, she is out of her depth. Indonesia’s Islamic schools are largely moderate in outlook but there have been pockets of radicalism that have produced terrorists in Indonesia. No promises of clemency for Corby, and Gillard did not condemn Indonesia's invasion or West Papua or the torture of nationals.

RichB

Wed, 2010-11-10 13:47

Permalink

So when are Australians

So when are Australians going to wake from heir stupor, take to the streets and refuse to pay taxes. As with every other country in the western world this is the only way to stop these treasonous theives from bleeding every Australian dry...

John Marlowe

Wed, 2010-11-10 12:11

Permalink

Meanwhile Gillard donates $500M to Islamic schools in Indonesia!

Meanwhile Australia's Prime Minister Gillard flippantly donates $500 million to 1500 madrasah Islamic schools in Indonesia [Read More], while Indonesian President Yudhoyono is set to splurge Rp 100 trillion (AUD10 billion) over the next five years 'to bring the military’s arsenal up to date'. [Read More]. What bloody for?

Gillard hasn't even had the gumption to make the donation conditional - such as insisting the money not go to Islamic fundamental teachings, that the Indonesian Government tries the military human rights abuses in Papua, and insisting upon sending Australian convicts back to Australia to serve out their time. Gillard is a naiive spendthrift with no national vision - an embodiment of her irrelevant self-serving political party.

As what electoral mandate does Gillard thinks she's got to gift half a billion dollars of Australian taxpayer money overseas anyway? It is not as if Australia is rolling in it, or as if Australia's growing underclass and infrastructure aren't desperate for government funding after decades of neglect under the Howard regime?

Now Labor's Finance Minister Wong and Treasurer Swan claim Treasury's budget is running over...no bloody wonder with wonder woman in the till! [Read More].

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 2010-11-10 00:35

Permalink

Three quarters of U.S. mosques preach anti-western extremism

An undercover survey of more than 100 mosques and Islamic schools in America has exposed widespread radicalism, including the finding that 3 in 4 Islamic centres are hotbeds of anti-Western extremism. The Mapping Sharia in America Project, sponsored by the Washington-based Centre for Security Policy, has trained former counter intelligence and counter terrorism agents from the FBI, CIA and U.S. military, who are skilled in Arabic and Urdu, to conduct undercover reconnaissance at some 2,300 mosques and Islamic centres and schools across the country."

atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/12/mapping-sharia.html

So far of 100 mapped, 75 should be on a watchlist," an official familiar with the project said. Many of the Islamic centres are operating under the auspices of the Saudi Arabian government and U.S. front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood based in Egypt. Frank Gaffney, a former Pentagon official who runs the Centre for Security Policy, confirmed that "the vast majority" are inciting insurrection and jihad through sermons by Saudi-trained imams and anti-Western literature, videos and textbooks.

The project, headed by David Yerushalmi, a lawyer and expert on sharia law, has collected data from the 102 mosques and schools. Preliminary findings indicate that almost 80 percent of the group exhibit a high level of sharia-compliance and jihadi threat, including: Ultra-orthodox worship in which women are separated from men in the prayer hall and must enter the mosque from a separate, usually back, entrance; and are required to wear hijabs. Though not all mosques in America are radicalized, many have tended to serve as safe havens and meeting points for Islamic terrorist groups.

Even with such radical mosques operating in its backyard, the U.S.government has not undertaken its own systematic investigation of U.S.mosques. In contrast, European Union security officials are analysing member-state mosques, examining the training and funding sources of imams, in a large-scale project. Some U.S. lawmakers want the U.S. to conduct its own investigation."We have too many mosques in this country," said Representative Pete King. "There are too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully.

Source: Intercessors for America

Editorial comment:

(This comment was originally published at 12:35PM on 9 November 2010.)

Perhaps a question to consider is just how fundamentally opposed to the interests of the western ruling elites are the 'extremist' 'anti-western' 'Islamist' ideologues? Al Qaeda, itself, is largely the creation of US intelligence agencies. Sincere Islamist fundamentalist terrorist recruits to al Qaeda should be considered no more than patsies, who, in fact, serve the interests of the U.S. elites by providing them with excuses to launch bloody wars against countries in the Middle East or Central Asia.

Controversy and unanswered questions surround all of the major terrorist actions, supposedly committed by Islamist extremists in recent years -- 9/11, the Bali bombings, the London Tube bombings of 7/7, the Madrid Train bombings -- which are cited to justify these ongoing wars.

If it is true that these actions were carried out by terrorists trained in bases in Afghanistan, why has not one with a proven link to any of these atrocities been captured in 9 years of U.S. military occupation of Afghanistan?

Still, it is not altogether impossible for some of these actions to have been assisted by sincere Islamist jihadists. Even if this were ever proven to be the case, it seems that their actions have very nicely served the interests of those looking for excuses to wage war against Islamist nations.

Bandicoot

Tue, 2010-11-09 23:20

Permalink

Canada has unlimited human tolerance and land to fill

According to website "Multiculturalism in Canada" , the greater the diversity of the racial and cultural mix, the greater the need for tolerance and openness in accepting one another as fellow Canadians. Canada's future depends on the commitments of all its citizens to a unified Canadian identity, while still taking pride in the uniqueness of their individual heritage. Surely this is a ideological big ask of human nature, to be unified and diverse and tolerant at the same time? What is the point of stretching human tolerance and social fabric beyond natural abilities? Who really gains, and what motives are the hosts supposed to have in seeing their resources being consumed, their jobs taken, and increasing pressure building up? As many as 300,000 Canadians are homeless and about 1.5 million tenant households pay more than 30 per cent of pre-tax income on shelter. Marriages of convenience are a continuing issue for Canada's immigration system, despite internal warnings by immigration officials in 2007 that they were a serious concern. Like Australian conservative newspapers, there are headlines that Westerners simply aren't "breeding." Canada, and several other countries, have an aging population that is approaching the pension years, the golden ears, the ailing year. A strong tax base is required to fund "zoomers" until death. Canada is such a large land mass, and so scarcely populated per square kilometre, even in comparison to other northern countries, such as Norway and Finland, that the term "overpopulation" simply doesn't apply to Canada. The only viable course of action is to open the borders fully for peoples from every nation to immigrate to Canada. Environmentalists point out that Homo sapiens has destroyed 844 other species and some 800 million of its own kind, and they claim that human activity endangers the extinction of thousands of other species. Surely being a plague species is part of our human genetic makeup that creates a timestamp for the total time allowable on this planet.

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 2010-11-09 18:19

Permalink

If you think you are frustrated.....

Thanks for the comments---all were right on target. As I have said many times before, our countries seem to be mirror images of each other. Two siblings in overshoot in a dysfunctional family ruled by a tyrannical greedy patriarch---or so it seems. I cannot find words to articulate my frustration. And sadly, as you can see from my archive, there are times when this frustation has led me to say intemperate things and lash out at allies who deserve better treatment. You must understand that I feel like I am banging my head against a steel door that will never open. The national media ignores us and the community media only permits the odd criticism of local development. The growth paradigm remains unchallenged. Locally, I am caught in a vice between pro-development forces and the green-left who collude with them. I am very rarely published, and in all modesty, it is not for want of logic or reason. Anti-growth forces in Canada are well below the critical mass of support that our Australian counterparts needed to achieve their breakthrough. Our environmental icon, David Suzuki, has never said what his Australian counterpart, Tim Flannery, once said about Australia. He won't go public with his private beliefs that Canada is overpopulated. And so far, while many books have been critical about mass immigration, no one has yet published a book that has made the ecological case against it with same impact as O'Connor and Lines have made with Overloading Australia. And not one MP in any party has broken ranks to say what Kelvin Thomson has said about Australia. No Kelvin Thomson, no Bob Carr, no Barry Cohen. Not in Canada. More critically, no one with the resources and stature of Dick Smith has given our arguments the credibility they need to open the media door. We've grown our population by 25% in two decades and we don't hear a peep from any parliament, any political party, any prominent academic or incredibly, any environmental NGO. None has said what the Australian Conservation Foundation has said about the need for population stability. And of course, our Anglican Church---in fact no Christian denomination--- has ever described irresponsible fecundity as a commission of one of the seven deadly sins. We are getting hammered by population growth and yet we are made to suffer in silence. And then there is the generation gap. Joni Mitchell said, in her famous song, that "you don't know what you got until it is gone". The problem is, half the people in this country never knew what we lost. They have grown up in an urban bubble. As Robert Bateman, our world famous wildlife artist has remarked, the digital generation has not had the contact with nature that his and my generation did. The late Steven Jay Gould said that you can't fight for something you don't love, so how can we expect a generation of kids wedded to computers and IPODs cloistered in urban apartments to love something they never knew? Toronto or Bangkok---shrug, what's the difference? Things may get tighter but hey, we will have a broader cuisine. Nature? Who cares---its boring. Tim

John Marlowe

Tue, 2010-11-09 16:03

Permalink

Bangkok population target for Melbourne - woa hoa!

If the destructive growthists keep pushing for an 8 million human target for Melbourne then Bangkok must be their Mecca, with 7.2 million humans and growing. Look out Ballaraat, you're about to be rezoned an outer Melbourne suburb!

Holistic, pantheistic, and panentheistic spiritual traditions regard humanity as existing within a universal natural order and assign human "evil" as the result of ignorance of one's place with Mother Nature.

Cruelty is evil, like the Indonesians torturing West Papuan man, Tunaliwor Kiwo, on 30th May 2010; like individuals being cruel to animals. Shooting a baby Koala in southeast Queensland, and shooting a female joey then inflicting a blow to its head at Jimna are evil acts of cruelty.

I think that 'making money' and 'profit' are misleading terms. A more accurate term, which I think we should use instead is 'wealth transfer'. If by 'making money' we mean 'creating wealth', which is what it would mean if we had less dysfunctional monetary and financial systems, then that does not describe most of the activities of banks or any of the activities that land speculators and landlords are involved in. In fact they destroy wealth, rather than create wealth by consuming so much resources to transfer wealth created by other sectors of the economy out of the pockets of others and into their own pockets. Most inhabitants of a country, such as Australia, receiving high immigration are being made poorer in at least three ways:

Because Australia has long ago exceeded its optimum population, additional numbers cannot create additional wealth, contrary to what many economists pretend. It can only make each existing inhabitant poorer on average because there are more people to divide the national wealth amongst.
The growing scarcity of shelter forces those who have to buy it or rent it from others to pay for it an even larger proportion of their income.
The land speculation and renting 'industries' and most of the banking 'industry' that create no wealth whatsoever, whilst consuming a good deal of our nation's economic resources.

nimby

Sun, 2010-11-07 18:53

Permalink

Symbol of hatred of our wildlife

This deliberate cruelty and evil is truly sickening, and too much of it is happening across Australia. Attacks on native animals are continuing to grow. However, there is an element of hypocrisy coming from Queensland's Kate Jones. The numbers of koalas in Queensland is plummeting, and they are suffering from loss of habitat, roads, straying dogs, land developers and starvation. This of course is deliberate and cold cruelty, but with koala numbers becoming dangerously low, they are on the extinction trail. More needs to be done to protect our wildlife from the explosion of human numbers in SE Queensland. The propagation of humans is causing havoc to wildlife, and this koala is only one victim of human callousness. Let's hope this poor joey survives to be a symbol of victory over human -caused malignant hatred of our wildlife.

RichB

Sun, 2010-11-07 10:47

Permalink

Koala Sunshine coast..

I wonder if its something they put in the beer to make these monsters do these things.....I have never felt so sick to my stomach in my life. I would gladly skin alive the detritus that did this.. A BABY koala has been shot in a vicious attack in southeast Queensland. The female joey, believed to be 14 to 16 months old, was wounded with a shotgun at Jimna, receiving 15 pellets to her body, including one blow to the head. She underwent emergency surgery at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital and is currently in a critical condition. Veterinarians have only been able to remove three pellets at this stage because of the critical condition of the joey. She is expected to have more surgery later. Climate Change and Sustainability Minister Kate Jones said a member of the public found the joey on Friday night. "There was a report that the joey's mother was dead, also probably shot, but the body has not been found to confirm the report," she said in a statement. She has described the attack as sick and cruel. "I'm absolutely disgusted by this cruelty and hope the young koala can recover," Ms Jones said. Harming a koala is a serious offence under the Nature Conservation Act. The penalty for deliberately shooting a koala is a $225,000 or two years imprisonment. Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to contact Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.

Bandicoot

Sun, 2010-11-07 08:41

Permalink

Rising costs due to population growth

Producer prices - the prices of goods and services at the factory or farm gate - increased at it's fastest quarterly pace since the December 2008, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data showed. The PPI is a major component of the key measure of inflation, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), due on Wednesday. The price index for utilities - gas, electricity and water supply - jumped 8.9 per cent in the quarter. Prices of utilities tend to ratchet upward. The chief executive of one of the country's biggest energy retailers has warned that power prices are set to increase dramatically. Origin Energy boss Grant King said that complying with the mandatory renewable energy target (RET) and network spending would put upward pressure on energy prices. Energy Minister Martin Ferguson and his opposition counterpart Ian Macfarlane warned in separate interviews that power prices were likely to double in the next five to seven years. The RET seeks to ensure that 20 per cent of Australia's energy consumption by 2020 is derived from renewable sources. To ensure that renewable energy sources are a sizeable portion of power generation, these expensive components must continually outstrip population growth. Groups such as the Energy Supply Association of Australia say the situation is leading to higher costs for energy users. Network costs -- which made up about half of the total electricity bill for households and businesses -- were going up, particularly in NSW. Population growth means infrastructure costs must be paid for in the fixed price. Soaring utility prices have already been one of the biggest recent drivers of inflation, prompting groups such as the Energy Users Association of Australia, whose members include mining giant Rio Tinto and multinational packaging company Amcor, to warn that jobs and investment could be at risk. Household water bills are spiralling upwards as states struggle to expand desalination and recycling. Further rises are predicted. Figures show we need a growing investment in more diverse sources of supply, such as desalination plants and recycling due to more consumers and diminishing supplies. The World Bank and the OECD, representing major developed countries, warned that the price of water must go up as supply dwindles and populations multiply. A food security summit in Brisbane (Sept, 2010) heard that prices are expected to increase by up to 50 per cent over the next 10 years, making fresh food unattainable for some people. There's very little additional arable land to bring into production and productivity rates in farming have plateaued, irrigated water is not going to be all that much available. Nothing should be growing on a planet with diminishing supplies of natural resources, yet we keep hearing about growth? Economic growth is touted to improve livelihoods, create job opportunities and raise household and government incomes. Higher household incomes directly reduce poverty and help people afford the basic necessities of life. Growth also increases government revenues that can be invested into schools, roads, and hospitals. That's fine, until population growth outstrips the finite supply of natural resources, and government revenues! The workhorse model of economic growth, the neoclassical growth model, suggests that rising population growth reduces steady state living standards, and has no effect on per-capita economic growth. A rise in population growth rate in theory does not affect steady state per capita growth, but lowers living standards. Economist deal with infinite numbers and ideological theories, not with real life where finite environmental factors lead to depletions, rising costs and poverty. Business do not care about GDP per capita. They support high population growth because more people means a larger consumer base and (potentially) higher profits.

David Z (not verified)

Sun, 2010-11-07 07:08

Permalink

Banks and Immigration

Despite weeks of white noise about "excessive" bank profits, no-one seems to have undertaken any deeper analysis of where most of these profits are coming from. In the rust-belt south-eastern states, immigration is the boom industry. Record immigration intake both supplies new house buyers, and by inflating rents, encourages others to invest in residential land and houses. Capital city house prices are going up at a vigorous clip. The poor stiffs who sign up for 30-year mortgages, will end up paying three times the (highly inflated) price of their home to their lender over the life of the loan. And which lender is making so much money for jam? All the major banks declare more than half their profits from lazy, no-risk house mortgages. There are winners and losers from runaway population growth. But an investor, I want more babies, more immigrants and more refugees. I want even bigger dividends from my bank shares. David Hughes I own shares in ANZ, NAB, and Westpac. I bought 1000 more ANZ on margin loan, on 25/10.

John Marlowe

Sat, 2010-11-06 21:54

Permalink

Qantas outsourcing its PR - spinning reputation maintenance!

Qantas Corporate Communication has spun a humble press release today which reads as follows:

'Australia's Qantas reeling after second mid-air scare' by Australian News.Net 6th Nov 2010.

'It was coincidence that on consecutive days Qantas passenger jets experienced engine problems that forced them to return to Singapore shortly after take-off, the Australian airline said Saturday.

Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth, commenting on the latest incident, exonerated foreign maintenance facilities over the Boeing 747 that abandoned its flight Friday to Sydney after one of its engines had to be shut down.

'In fact, I can report that this recent aircraft, the 747, was actually maintained in Avalon in Australia,' Wirth said. 'Qantas has 85 percent of our maintenance. In fact, last year 92 percent of our maintenance was done onshore in Australia.'

Qantas grounded its A380 fleet Thursday after an engine on a superjumbo failed four minutes after takeoff, raining shards of metal onto Indonesia's Batam Island below.

The A380 landed safely in Singapore, despite the second engine on the left wing failing to shut down and tyres blowing as it touched the tarmac.

The Boeing 747 with 412 passengers and 19 crew on board returned safely to Singapore's Changi airport after an engine failure.

'As a precautionary measure, the captain sought clearance to return to Singapore, and the aircraft landed safely a short time later without incident,' the airline said in a statement.

Flight QF6, which returned to Changi around an hour after takeoff, had arrived from Frankfurt.'

But Olivia Wirth's statement is contrary

It has transpired that Wirth's above statement for QANTAS that 'In fact, I can report that this recent aircraft, the 747, was actually maintained in Avalon in Australia' is in fact contrary to that by Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association secretary Steve Purvinas who stated yesterday that it was:

According to industry sources, the damaged Qantas A380 recently underwent its first heavy maintenance stop in Germany with Lufthansa Technik. The jet is powered by four Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines.

Mr Purvinas said the heavy maintenance check - a root- and-branch investigation in which the aircraft is pulled to pieces and reassembled over a period of weeks - would be the first focus of investigators.

He said the incident highlighted concerns about the airline's maintenance.
"Certainly I think there are some danger signs starting to poke their heads out," he said.'

[Source: Read more]

Olivia Wirth's PR background

'Qantas picks Olivia Wirth as PR head' by Steve Creedy, Aviation writer, The Australian, 27th May 2009.

'TOURISM and Transport Forum executive director Olivia Wirth will become the head of Qantas corporate affairs.

This is part of Qantas's moves to consolidate the airline's public and government relations activities.

Ms Wirth will report directly to executive general manager government and corporate affairs, David Epstein, working alongside the airline's new head of government and international relations, Jane McKeon.

Joining the airline on July 14, Ms Wirth will be responsible for issues and events management, public relations and internal communications.

The consolidation reflects a belief within Qantas, whose reputation has taken a battering in recent years, that the airline needs to improve its internal and external communications. Insiders said yesterday the airline would be more active promoting its case externally and was looking to boost the level of engagement with employees.

The move is also expected to help the airline build relationships in Asia, as it pursues its expansion strategy in the region.

Ms Wirth has extensive experience in tourism and public affairs and is well regarded in political and business circles.

A veteran of the Australian Tourist Commission and its successor, Tourism Australia, Ms Wirth was also an adviser to former tourism minister Joe Hockey and worked for the industry lobby group Tourism Council Australia.

Kurt Sonnenfeld was the only videographer, who was allowed to film at Ground Zero in New York. He was working for the FEMA. (FEMA - Federal Emergency Management Agency of US homeland security). On New Years Eve 2002, he was arrested for having killed his wife. The story didn't make big headlines in the news, but started some speculations and rumours on the internet. On June 14, 2002, prosecutors dismissed first-degree murder charges against Sonnenfeld in the early New Year's morning shooting death of his wife. Nancy Sonnenfeld, 36, died of a gunshot wound in the head after she and her husband had celebrated New Year's Eve together. If he is guilty of murdering his wife and is using the 'evidence of conspiracy' that he possesses to ensure his continuing liberty, then his 'evidence' may never be released. If, however, he is innocent of the murder and is being harassed with a trumped up charge precisely because he has evidence of a 9/11 government conspiracy, then it would seem sensible for him to release the details at some point in the near future. His wife, he said, committed suicide. The defense investigation found a note written by Nancy Sonnenfeld which police had not taken into evidence. Interview with Kurt Sonnenfeld: We are asked to believe that all four of the “indestructible” black boxes of the two jets that struck the twin towers were never found because they were completely vaporized, yet I have footage of the rubber wheels of the landing gear nearly undamaged, as well as the seats, parts of the fuselage and a jet turbine that were absolutely not vaporized. This being said, I do find it rather odd that such objects could have survived fairly intact the type of destruction that turned most of the Twin Towers into thin dust. And I definitely harbor some doubts about the authenticity of the “jet” turbine, far too small to have come from one of the Boeings! What happened with Building 7 is incredibly suspicious. I have video that shows how curiously small the rubble pile was, and how the buildings to either side were untouched by Building Seven when it collapsed. It had not been hit by an airplane; it had suffered only minor injuries when the Twin Towers collapsed, and there were only small fires on a couple of floors. There’s no way that building could have imploded the way it did without controlled demolition. Yet the collapse of Building 7 was hardly mentioned by the mainstream media and suspiciously ignored by the 9/11 Commission. When Sonnenfeld discovered that his official documentation contradicted the U.S. government’s account of the events, he refused to be a part of a cover-up and did not turn over the tapes to officialdom. However, the federal government is determined to do whatever it takes to retrieve Sonnenfeld’s material and silence him. This has converted him into the refugee that he never meant to be. Sonnenfeld writes, “There are many who say that the wildest conspiracy theory of all is the one offered by the United States government.” Based on his observations, did you know that:

On the weekend prior to the World Trade Center attacks, all electricity was cut off for approximately 36 hours , including the security cameras and control systems in a highly irregular maintenance operation;
In the weeks leading up to the attacks there were several unusual evacuations of both towers;
The company in charge of security at the World Trade Center, Securacom, was directed by Marvin Bush, George W. Bush’s younger brother, and Wirt Walker III, George W. Bush’s cousin;
Hundreds of government personnel were pre-positioned in New York City on Sept. 10 ; and
FEMA officials had already set up their command post at Pier 92 near the World Trade Center one day before the attacks?

Anglophones need to take what they read about Venezuela in the Anglophone press with an entire shaker of salt. I agree with James that Chavez is wrong to prevent Arizonians from taking democratic control of their territory to prevent flooding of the labour-market and to prevent exacerbation of ecological degradation by overpopulation, but his remarks could be made in the context of an ongoing propaganda war between the US and Latin America, where the US has for many years sponsored and marketed privatisation and exploitation. I went into this with an open mind when I researched the article which I cite below for a book of energy articles in 2008. I cannot see how things could possibly have been described as 'better' - except for the corrupt elites - before Hugo Chavez won power.

Venezuela before Chavez:

“In 1998, or 168 years after independence, a tiny wealthy elite was separated by a vast chasm from the rest of the people, of whom one quarter were unemployed. This seems disgusting when you realize that Venezuela was then the second biggest [oil] exporter in the world and had received around 300 billion dollars in oil sales – or the equivalent of 20 Marshall Plans - over the preceding 25 years. It was in this context that Hugo Chávez and his social plan won the elections of 6 December 1998 with 56.24% of the votes.” (Nicolas Lehoucq, Paris Institute for International Studies).

Why and how Chavez won government of Venezuela:

"From the 15th C the indigenous long-term stable clan and tribal populations of Chávez’s people were ravaged by invasion, immigration, disease, dispossession and slavery. The original peoples nearly died out, then, completely disorganized, ballooned in circumstances where child labour was the only source of additional income for low-wage landless people. What is now called Venezuela contained a stable population estimated at around 400,000 Amerindians in 1498. (Now the population is around 27 million.) In the early 16th C King Charles Martel V granted Welsers German banking firm rights to exploit the people and resources of Venezuela in payment of a debt. The colony returned to the Spanish Crown within 20 years and hereditary land grants were made to conquistadores for a time, but later declared illegal. Meanwhile the Amerindians fought back until smallpox overwhelmed most of them in 1580. Not until 1821 did Simón Bolívar win the long indigenous struggle for independence.

In 1921 the discovery of oil permitted agricultural and industrial development. At the start of the Second World War Venezuela’s oil production was only exceeded by that of the United States. Much of the oil concession development involved attracted US, British, and Dutch companies. Venezuela became a democracy in 1958 and founded OPEC in 1960.

The historic inequities of colonial land distribution guaranteed a large population of impoverished rural labourers. As oil prices waxed and waned, productive agricultural holdings were neglected and waves of poor people left the country regions to look for work in the city, creating the slum of Caracas. Between 1959 and 1964 the government redistributed rural land to 150,000 families but many resold the land to speculators, it is said, because they had little education about farming and no ready market for their product. Other wealth redistribution and educative policies were carried out but these programs failed to establish themselves against a background of depressed commodity prices and political schism. The then Democratic Action (DA) government was aligned with the USA but many Venezuelans were sympathetic to the Castro regime in Cuba, which was charged with supplying arms to guerrillas in 1963. The state became increasingly repressive in the context of continued political unrest. In 1968 the Social Christians (SC) won government and remained in power until 1973.

In the wave of nationalizations following the first oil-shock, the DA Government created the State-run oil and natural gas company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PdVSA) in 1975-1976. PdVSA is Venezuela’s largest employer and provides 80 per cent of export earnings but, reflecting later trends to privatization, government revenue declined from 70.6 per cent in 1981 to 38 per cent in 2000.

The oil countershock of 1979 culminated in currency devaluation by one third and a change to an SC government, which remained in power until 1983, when AD was returned under Jaime Lusinchi. Despite promises to diversify the economy and deliver on housing, public health and education, the situation continued to deteriorate. In 1988 another AD president, Carlos Andrés Pérez, introduced an austerity regime, removing subsidies on gasoline as well as on a number of important consumables, culminating in hunger riots in Caracas, with a death toll of thousands.

Two attempted military coups took place against a background of continued repression in 1992 and Hugo Chávez led one of them. President Pérez later went to prison for 28 months with the government limping along under another recycled leader, Caldera, whose foreign policy was very USA friendly. In 1995, 103 per cent inflation hit the Venezuelan middle class. In 1997 doctors, university professors, and national telephone company workers went on strike. In December 1998 Hugo Chávez won the Presidency.

3. The core driver of environmental degradation (including pollution, habitat loss, species extinctions) is the exponential human population increase and the unchecked encouraged consumerism per capita. More people in the same area causes more pressure on the environment - simple logic!

Climate change is merely a background broad incremental consequence; it is the consequence, not the driver of the environmental problems!

Brown and his Greens have sided with the population control lobby but only in vague in-principled support. Reason for the token support is that the new pink allegiances and policies adopted by The greens have inherently compromised the ability of The Greens to achieve a consensus on a population control policy that would be effective in reducing its environmental impact.
The Greens are now beholden to its 'pink' policies on social justice, yet have failed to recognise that both social justice problems and environmental problems are compounded by excesses in human population.

4. The genteel, academic and legalese make up of The Greens leadership has shaped a group think culture of idealistic passiveness with any change management specifying a conciliatory approach. A lack of effective principled 'balls' has meant a failure to take the conservation fight to the protagonists - the selfish property developers, property speculators, stock market, the banks, the growth lobby, the big corporate exploiters, the self-sustainable captains of industry and industrialisation.

Is it then any wonder, with The Greens beholden to a 'pink' agenda displacing their environmental conservation core, that conservation groups are disaffected with The Greens and that we are experiencing the emergence of a fresh wave of political groups fill the political void?

* Australian Protectionist Party
* Stable Population Party of Australia
* Australia First Party (NSW) Incorporated of which I acknowledge being an active member.

Conclusion

If The Greens continue down their popularist vote grabbing 'pink' path, it is only a matter of time before the critical mass of environmental conservation disaffection in The Greens sees a new alternative 'green' party emerge. Personally, a political wing of The Wilderness Society has best chance of achieving that.
There is logic in this assessment, but that is another article.

Hope in the Gilluddite should be tempered by an uninterrupted watching of the classic 1966 US western film 'The Good Bad and the Ugly'.

By the end of this spaghetti western, one should be clear deciding who best portrays the metaphor for Labor's good, bad and ugly - in terms of governance and electoral performance.

The following immortal quotes from the movie ought assist, while listening to Ennio Morricone's legendary theme music:

"I've never seen so many men wasted so badly."

"Two hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. We're gonna have to earn it."

"Tut, tut. Such ingratitude after all the times I saved your life."

"Every gun makes its own tune."

"The way I figure, there's really not too much future with a sawed-off runt like you."

RichB

Fri, 2010-10-29 21:38

Permalink

Charities

When some charity hassles you again for money on the street dont give them anything. Haiti where millions of people donated...Wake up people. 'Foul drinking water is killing Haitians in the first epidemic of cholera on the island in over a century. Behind the TV images on German television of the misery lies a tale of international corruption and malfeasance that goes directly to former US President Bill Clinton and leading families of the so-called Haitian Oligarchy. According to Haitian civic organizations donations that could have provided permanent clean water are not being used to do so. Instead, the money is part of a racket by so-called “poverty aid” NGOs to earn huge financial gain off the outpouring of international contributions to the victims of the January devastating earthquake.' (emphasis by editor.)

Milly

Fri, 2010-10-29 19:52

According to Prof. Tim Flannery, in his new book Here on Earth: An Argument For Hope , this is the century of crisis, because this is the century population is going to peak. He says that it's also the century of the great climate crisis. If we survive this century, we'll be in a much better position to forge a sustainable global human entity on this planet. Sounds like a big "if"! To achieve sustainability our environment must come before all the considerations, including the economy. Having reached environmental limits to the Murray Darling food bowl production, it is time we concentrated on products that are sustainable, both economically and environmentally. In 2007-08, vegetables for human consumption contributed the highest value to total irrigated production of $2,972 million, followed by fruit and nuts ($2,292 million). On the contrary, the ABS estimated that 43 per cent of the water consumed in agriculture was used by dairy farms (16 per cent), other livestock industry farms (19 per cent) and other irrigated pasture (8 per cent). Yet only 13% of the 1.65 million hectares was for grapes, fruits and vegetables. The major agricultural water users in the MDB were: cotton (1,574 GL), dairy farming (1,287 GL), pasture for livestock (excluding dairy, 1,284 GL) and rice (1,252 GL). These crops and pasture collectively accounted for 70% of all agricultural water consumption in the MDB. The dairy, livestock cotton and rice industries are simply over-rated and grossly inefficient! The looming cuts to water use in the Murray-Darling Basin would affect Australia's ability to make competitive food products for export, a spokesperson for Australian Food and Grocery Council said. Australia produces enough food for 50 or more million people. yet we are net importers of food. With climate change, drought, population growth, lack of fertilizers, loss are arable land to McMansions, strangling of river systems with irrigation farming, and salination of soils, the quantity produced may not continue - and clearly it is unsustainable. We should make optional, and luxuries, the industries that consume inefficient and unrealistic amounts of water and prioritize of those that consume the least and produce more income. Our diets are our closest link with Nature, yet are continually overlooked in issues of sustainability, and sustainability is not optional.

admin

Fri, 2010-10-29 05:31

Permalink

Good reasons to be wary of Julia Gillard, however ...

I think John Marlowe and Bandicoot should be commended for having drawn our attention to reasons to be very wary of Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Nevertheless, I think Gillard should still also be commended for having stood up to and toppled her awful predecessor, instead of having been meekly subordinate to the misrule of her 'leader' as nearly all Federal Labor politicians have been for the last three decades at least. I haven't completely abandoned my hope that Gillard will turn out to be a significant improvement upon Kevin Rudd, but, sadly, that hope is now considerably diminished.

John Marlowe

Thu, 2010-10-28 22:38

Permalink

Gillardite in office

Gillard's reckless legacy of waste and mismanagement from her championed 'education revolution' continues to plague her credibility now as PM. Gillard was complicit in the Rudd gang of four's failed insulation scheme and the failed green loans scheme. The Gillard Government's nationalisation of health has stalled. The emissions trading scheme seems all but abandoned. The Murray Darling water sharing solution ignored rural communities.

Some record of so-called 'reform'! It is not reform - it is Rudd's popularism legacy.

Now PM Gillard is spruiking 'reform' in tax and superannuation under another hastily thought through scheme, which in true Labor style has sought to only divide and conquer the mining industry. How can reform be based on selective favouritism of a few big mining companies?

It is Labor short-termism at best, driven by classic Sussex Street manipulative self-serving bullying. Dare anyone disagrees with Labor and its methods of 'reform', or Gillard will label you a 'Hansonite'. How unfair on someone who has long left politics!

For years now I have been disgusted and upset at the sight of trees in streets that have been deformed to accomodate cables. This, for me, symbolises natures pain and the dictatorial and vandal nature of our government. Recently this practise has been, unbelievably, stepped up. Thanks to your protests and those of some Councils - Boroondara and Stonnington Councils (also MAV?) will be holding talks with Premier Brumby, Energy Minister Batchelor and the Electricity Safe Victoria (ESV) which brought in the new draconian regulation that all street trees under/near power lines must be lopped so that "structural branches" are removed from trees. This means that trees will be lopped back to the tree trunks and will end up as stumps. This will cost millions and resident rates will escalate. (Lots of work for contractors though) Plus your property values will deflate if your street trees are mangled. ESV claims this is necessary because of a "windstorm in April" and as a result of the Bushfire Royal Commission recommendations. Ever had a bushfire in your suburb? Please write - if you have not already done so - to Premier Brumby [email protected] and Energy Minister Batchelor [email protected] and the Mayor of your suburb asking them to stop the chop and review the 2010 regulation and ensure that Councils have exemptions for lopping street trees. Source: Julianne Bell of Protectors of Public Lands Victoria, Inc. Editorial comment: Thank you, greatly, Julianne Bell, for having alerted us to this. Please also, send to me, copies of any correspondences to John Brumby etc. and any reponses or, better still, post them here yourself in your comments, as any site visitor can (subject to our moderation) here, to the Your Say (or "Miscellaneous Comments pages") or to any other appropriate page on candobetter.org. Personally, I think that given the enormous benefit that the Internet offers to most of us, including its ability to reduce our consumption of non-renewable natural resources, some expense to build it in the first place and even some amount of disruption to our natural environment can be justified, but nowhere near to the extent we are being made to endure now. Nearly all of the destruction could have been avoided if the natural monoply had been taken advantage of and the silly contrived 'competition' of having two sets of cables run past each house, below ground and above ground, often through the trees, had been avoided, especially if Telstra has remained in public hands. If cables had to have been erected above ground, then the greater expense (even if it proved to be greater) of having cables skirt around trees, rather than be built through them would have been easily justified. - JS (end of editorial comment).

Comments

Qantas Corporate Communication has spun a humble press release today which reads as follows:

But Olivia Wirth's statement is contrary

Olivia Wirth's PR background

Venezuela before Chavez:

Why and how Chavez won government of Venezuela:

Climate change is merely a background broad incremental consequence; it is the consequence, not the driver of the environmental problems!

Pages

Tags in Topic

Help save injured wildlife

Recent comments