Friday 29th of March 2024

thuggery, intimidation & illegality .....

thuggery, intimidation & illegality .....

What a weasel. The self-serving manoeuvrings of Bill Shorten have become excruciating in their transparency.

Shorten, the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, is one of the Labor Right factional powerbrokers who removed his own prime minister, Kevin Rudd. He has become the most ardent cheerleader for the beneficiary of his knife-work, Julia Gillard, even as her poll numbers remain mired in unelectable territory, lower than Rudd's poll numbers when he was deposed.

getting it right .....

getting it right .....

The Gillard government hoped to turn the asylum-seeker impasse to its advantage but the plan was doomed.

Thursday's cabinet debate on asylum seekers was the first big, long, hard-fought cabinet argument of the Gillard prime ministership. And the most important person in the debate wasn't even in the room.

The entire discussion, broken into two meetings and running close to three hours in all, was held in anticipation of how Tony Abbott would react to any government decision. And the final decision was made on the same basis.

and still no road .....

and still no road .....

Papua New Guinea is torn between customary rights and economic progress, writes Jo Chandler.

From 200 metres up, the jungles of Papua New Guinea's Western Province look like close-packed heads of broccoli. The canopy is so dense you can't see the trees for the forest.

blood from wood cuts......

blood

Opposition leader Tony Abbott’s “blood pledge” to dismantle the carbon tax if he wins power would financially punish the vulnerable and reward the big end of town, Throsby MP Stephen Jones claims.

Labor has promised to defend the carbon tax if it loses government to the Coalition, which tried unsuccessfully to block the passage of the tax through the House of Representatives yesterday.

Mr Abbott believes the Parliament had no mandate to introduce a carbon tax, predicting it will lead to a higher cost of living and job insecurity. Yesterday, he reiterated his plan to repeal the tax if the Opposition wins government.

the bias sound of ABC...

FRAN

I may be wrong...

But I feel that Fran Kelly on Radio National ABC TV is not so secretly enamoured with Tony Abbott... She seems to hate Julia. It may be that she loves the sound of her own voice while talking with a man, but when talking with other journos, it's all in roundabouts based on politics rather than the importance of proper policies... Even this morning I think I heard her say something like "I don't trust this [Labor] government to achieve something worthwhile..." between two interview segments. Of course this comment does not appear on transcripts because the transcripts are focused on the interviews...

I could have heard wrong... but I don't think so...

medic .....

medic .....

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has taken his campaign of fear and misinformation across the country but his latest stunt is a blood oath to make Australian families, pensioners, workers, industry and business worse off.

Mr Abbott would remove pension increases. That's the pension increase of $338 for singles and $510 for couples that the Gillard Labor government is introducing. He has promised to remove the extra payments that are going to families receiving family tax benefits and he has committed to remove personal tax cuts. And on top of this, Mr Abbott would put a $1300 tax on families and give the money to polluters.

10%

percent

We are often reminded that we use only 10 % of our mental potentials... People will liberally quote Einstein on this belief... But is it true, did Einstein play a trick on us or did he really say that? ...

My view for what it's worth is that Einstein might have been using 10 per cent of his mind to create his most important theories while we need about 200 per cent of our brain power to understand these... People are different. 

scratch his back and...

WSJ

The Wall Street Journal Europe – owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation – was mired in controversy yesterday as its publisher quit over fears the newspaper had "crossed the boundary" between editorial content and advertising.

Andrew Langhoff sent a memo to colleagues at Dow Jones – which produces The Wall Street Journal – saying: "I wanted to let you know myself that I have decided to resign." He added that it was "the most honourable course". The move comes at a time when the "culture, practices and ethics of the press" in the UK and of News Corporation have come under close scrutiny by Lord Justice Leveson.

80 years of extra carbon dioxide between photographs...

himalayas

Rivers of ice: Vanishing glaciers

Stunning images from high in the Himalayas - showing the extent by which many glaciers have shrunk in the past 80 years or so - have gone on display at the Royal Geographical Society in central London.

Between 2007 and 2010, David Breashears retraced the steps of early photographic pioneers such as Major E O Wheeler, George Mallory and Vittorio Sella - to try to re-take their views of breathtaking glacial vistas.

political compassion .....

political compassion .....

The Prime Minster, Julia Gillard, has taken a personal interest in the plight of a 14-year-old NSW boy arrested on drug charges in Indonesia, speaking to him over the phone yesterday to offer reassurance.

The Prime Minister's office confirmed to smh.com.au that Ms Gillard told the boy the government was doing "everything it could" to get him out of the situation.

Ms Gillard has also spoken daily to Australia's Indonesian ambassador, Greg Moriarty, and yesterday she also spoke to the boy's father, who was at the Denpasar police station with Mr Moriarty.

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