Lay off our ABC

Phillip Marr on the right-wingers out to get the ABC

RTA Traffic Management

Remember the RTA Traffic Management Vans? You know, the ones with the big arrow lights on the top? Well, over the last two days, I've seen two areas of road work with those vans. But now, instead of RTA vans, they are what seem to be vans from a private company - called "Arrow Traffic Management". I'm wondering if the RTA has outsourced it's traffic control services?

Cabinet musical chairs

Well, John Howard has announced his much mooted cabinet reshuffle. Abbott, Constello, Downer Fishnets and Vanstone have kept their positions.
Brendan Nelson takes on Defence. I guess the troops now will have to pay the full cost of their army gear. Officer ranks are available only to full-fee paying soldiers. Julie Bishop is the new minister for Education.
Malcolm Turnbull is now Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister. I think Howard is taking the old advice "Keep your friends close... and your enemies closer" on behalf of Peter Costello - perhaps as a "reward" for backing off the leadership challenge.
A move that I thought was actually quite good, was to shift Indigenious Affairs out of the Immigration Portfolio, and into the Family and Community Services portfolio. It was always a little offensive to consider the Indigenious Affairs with the affairs of "Foreigners". Instead, since most of the Aboriginal affairs relate to community services anyway, it makes much more sense to combine it. This portfolio will be overseen by Mal Brough.

Anyway, this new cabinet will take a little getting use to, but it will prove to be an interesting year.

Stealing the thunder of Howard's shuffle, is Senator Julian McGauran's defection from the Victorian National Party, to the Liberal Party. McGauran is a bit of an idiot - known largely for flipping the Opposition the bird in the first senate Coalition majority senate vote. The QLD Nats are furious - and Mark Vale (Nationals Leader) has called for his resignation to keep the senate position National. Howard has flatly discouraged this (obviously, an extra Lib senator is one less variable in his master plan). However, cracks are beginning to widen in the Coalition, and this potentially divisive issue could carry quite some milage. Watch this space.

For the full list of positions - see this SMH page

PLEASE PLEASE DO!!!

Miranda Devine - hypocrite

Miranda Devine posted this article in the SMH, entitled Bashing the cops won't stop this mindless ethnic violence. It is a blunt attack on the State Iemma Government for sacking one of the police responsible for not using video evidence to its fullest in prosecuting "middle eastern thugs". Devine is pretty much a Liberal Party mouthpiece, and a constant media critic of all Left-leaning policies. And this is why she is the ultimate hypocrite.

Peter Debnam has been using every opportunity to play the race card to make political points - and in the process, nearly every day, has been out criticising the police force. Every time there is a law-and-order "problem", he is the first out there directing blame at the police. Debnam has no grounding in policy or direction - just another noisy (and divisive) Liberal, from the same mould as Pauline Hanson. I think this has allowed Iemma a more smooth transition into the "top job" and he is looking a much better statesman at the moment.

In the mean time, Miranda Devine should have a good hard look at herself. Maybe she and Janet Albrechtsen (of The Australian) could quit their "jounarnalist" careers, show their true colours, and join the Liberal Extreme Right.

AWB Scandal

So... you've probably (hopefully) all heard about the impropriety of the Australian Wheat Board. Its been revealed that as part of the U.N. "Oil for Food Program", the Australian (monopoly) Wheat Board paid millions of dollars to Saddam Hussain's regime with (what is now apparent) the full knowledge of senior management. Emails have been revealed showing staff trying to work out how best to deliver the bribe to the Iraqi dictatorship. There have been suggestions that the government knew (or should have known) about this, given the top level meetings between the wheat board executive and the foreign minisiter Alexander "Fishnets" Downer.

As usual, the Government has come out saying that they "heard no evil and saw no evil" and were blissfully ignorant of the whole bribery affair. They "don't recall" anything that could hurt them politically, but oh yeah - they were given firm intelligence about the WMD in iraq (pffft!) It just really irks how selective the hearing is of this government!

Anyways, in the whole story, I feel most sorry for the people of Iraq. Firstly, they had overseas Countries prop up their dictator with dodgy Oil bribies. Then those sames countries decided to "liberate" Iraq from this terrible dictator (btw, whom we installed and propped up). The Liberation was a success with the Iraqi army, and about 30,000 "collateral" people killed. Great going guys.

Energy Conference

Over the last few days the South Asia Energy Conference, with delegates from the US, Australia, China, India, Korea and other countries, was held in Sydney. "We" and the U.S. are touting this as an alternative "agreement" to Kyoto.

What has come out of the conference, is that they have decided that fossil fuels are going to be the major energy source for the forseeable future. Rather than an attempt to reduce any pollution, they are trying to reach "agreements" and "co-operation" to increase the use of C02 minimising technologies. These include "clean coal", and Geosequestation (storing C02 underground). They have decided firmly against mandatory targets.

It seems to me that this leaves Australia and the US with no obligation to reduce pollution. Rather, they are trying to get Asia to take up so called "clean" solutions as they develop their energy Industries. It seems typical, particularly of the 'states, to try and tell OTHER countries how they should behave, whilst making very little effort (particularly given the size of their economy) to make any changes themselves.

Without any targets, what incentives are there for countries and business to make a difference. Its like giving someone a project to do with no guidelines, no outcomes, and no due date. Of course they aren't going to produce anything!!

On the other hand, I agree there is a good case for pushing the implementation of C02 saving technology - because it IS unrealistic to focus solely on "renewable" energy sources. However, this needs to be pursued in tandem with clearly defined outcomes. Otherwise, there will be no action. More disturbingly, the whole conference seems to have generated a lot of lip service to the issue of the greenhouse effect. The U.S. representative was interviewed on ABC radio, and it was clear that he was a consultant in his past career. He spoke of "enhanced information flows", "co-operative understanding", "synergy" and "alignment of goals". The Australian Minister for the Environment was not much better, saying that they wanted to "save the climate". What the HELL does THAT mean? He clearly had no idea what he was on about.

So whilst I hope that something tangible came out of the conference, I rather suspect it was a "boys club" excuse for free food and accomodation.

In a related story, a german scientist has just published a paper suggesting that Trees excrete Methane in large volumes, potentially making up 1/3 of the earths greenhouse gasses. Conventional wisdom (as adopted by the Kyoto treaty) suggest planting forests can reduce greenhouse pollution. This may turn out to be misguided.

Emotional Dump

*Warning: Sappy drivel ahead*
There was a time, a few years ago, that I felt very content and emotionally satisfied as a person. I know why and how - but since then, I guess in a different phase of my life, I've changed. Even then, I can remember back to that time - and almost actually percieve the feelings I had then. Its like an ephemereal perception - a fleeting mix of senses that seem to hover tantalisingly just out of mental reach. Occasionally, they become more substantial, just for a little while. It might be triggered by the most obscure things - a certain smell, the wind blowing against your face in a certain way... a particular song. Given the right mood, sometimes I can actually feel as if I was back in that timeframe, enjoying the emotions and perceptions I felt then. And like *that*, its gone again.

Perhaps I'm living in the past. I know though, that one day... something will change in my life - and I want to be able to re-evoke all these things - drawing on the experience and understanding of the past. For the time being, that part of me, is dormant - occasionally coming back as a little reminder that they still exist.

*And now, we return you to your regular programming...*

Optical Mouse Scanner

SlashDot has this article about a wonderful hackjob - turning an optical mouse into a handheld scanner! Don't you just love bored geeks :)

New Wattyl Advertisements

Has anyone seen the new Wattyl Paint Advertisements for Solagard and i.d ? If so... any comments or feedback? I'd be interested to know what people think!