Obama Stimulates Corruption.

h/T Libertatian Republican.

Some of the lefties who were so certain that Obama was one of them have been shocked at DEA raids on medical Marijuana suppliers in California. People carrying out legal activities in that state are finding themselves under arrest: -

From a libertarian perspective this is a double-whammy: Through this action, Obama has signaled that his administration would not be a friend of legalization, even for medicinal use, but worse, that he has little if any respect for the concept of States' Rights. It calls into question, what will his DEA be doing in the other 10 states in the Nation that have also decriminalized medicinal marijuana, most recently in the 2008 election, Michigan and Massachusetts, by overwhelming majorities.

We libertarians, especially libertarian Republicans, have been screaming at the cultural left for months now that Obama was no friend of civil liberties. Outside of abortion rights, and gay rights, Obama is a cultural authoritarian, most especially on issues such as seat belt laws, 55 mph speed limit, gambling, free speech rights, affirmative action quotas, gun ownership and smoking bans. Why should any civil liberties advocate expect anything different from him on marijuana reform?

Rather amusingly some of them are blaming Bush.

I have just been reading some stuff on the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, which Bush proposed to eliminate because it proved to be an ineffective and inefficient use of resources.

The Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program provides hundreds of millions of dollars a year to local and state crime prevention initiatives. ….

A 2002 report by the ACLU of Texas identified seventeen scandals involving Byrne-funded anti-drug task forces in Texas, including cases of falsifying government records, witness tampering, fabricating evidence, false imprisonment, stealing drugs from evidence lockers, selling drugs to children, large-scale racial profiling, sexual harassment, and other abuses of official capacity. Recent scandals in other states include the misuse of millions of dollars in federal grant money in Kentucky and Massachusetts, false convictions based on police perjury in Missouri, and making deals with drug offenders to drop or lower their charges in exchange for money or vehicles in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Well we are in for hope and change, right? If it as a government program was so bad that Bush was prepared to scrap it, then Obama would surely get rid of it, wouldn't he? It seems that according to Ron Paul the opposite is the case.

At least $4 billion is allocated to expanding the police state and the war on drugs through Byrne grants, which even the Bush administration opposed, and the COPS program, both of which are corrupt and largely ineffective programs.

They are rewarding them with massive increases in funding to do more of it. Failed government programs always tend to get more money, otherwise it would be an admission of failure and the state will never accept that.

Or is it just that the activities mentioned in the third paragraph are the sort of conduct a Chicago Democrat can empathize with?

Bizarre Bigger, Better, Bailout Bleating By Bligh.

ABC photo: Anna Bligh, calls for a “coordinated spending plan.”

Anna Bligh has to be committing one of the greatest acts of political cynicism that has been foisted on the Queensland and Australian taxpayers in a very long time. In the recent round of economic talks with Rudd she has claimed that what we need is a “coordinated spending plan” which she claims is vital.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has urged the Federal Government to accelerate plans to stimulate the economy.

Ms Bligh held talks with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in Canberra today to discuss ways to protect jobs amid speculation the Federal Government is preparing another economic stimulus package.

Ms Bligh says a coordinated spending plan is vital.

"Now is the time for governments at all levels to put our foot on the pedal and be doing everything we can to invest in the economy, whether it's in services or infrastructure and job creating programs," she said.

"It is public investment at times like this that is going to ensure that we see it through.

"Our own data shows us that we are seeing a deterioration of the Queensland economy and it's happened very rapidly.

"What we need to see is state governments responding very very forcefully and the Commonwealth continuing the sort of activity that they've put in place over the last few months."

The problem we have with this is that one of the reasons for the “deterioration of the Queensland economy” that she professes concern about is that last August Anna canned the McFarlane Oil shale project at Proserpine. Onya Anna, the marginal seat of Whitsunday will be kept in Labor hands at the expense of the Australian taxpayer.

The immediate result was the loss of the jobs of 500 people engaged on the project. It also wiped out $300 million already invested in the project. The project was worth $15 Billion, with the potential for $400 million annually in royalties alone and would have created 3,000 direct jobs as permanent as jobs can be.

It would have produced 30 million barrels per year of low sulphur diesel and aviation gas and could have lowered Australia’s fuel import deficit to the tune of $10 billion per year.

Queensland’s reputation had already taken a beating from the prohibition on the mining and export of uranium and the oil shale decision meant that the Queensland government had effectively halted the development of two globally significant energy fuels in 15 months for the sake playing politics.

It has to be incredible hypocrisy for a state government, which has blocked thousands of jobs worth of development projects, to then go to Canberra with its hand out for massive funding for infrastructure projects to create jobs that it prevented us from having in the first place not to mention the economic cost both to the state and the nation as a whole caused by these idiotic feel good at the time decisions.

Australian Young (L)liberals plagiarize Obama.

H/T Thoughts on Freedom.

An item in “The Australian.”

THE Young Liberals are proposing nine months of compulsory national service for all young Australians, to be completed before age 24.
The service would not be restricted to the military but include community and foreign service and trades.

Under the plan, young Australians could do their service overseas, working in foreign aid and development, either in programs run by the Australian government or helping non-government bodies such as the Red Cross or Doctors Without Frontiers. 



The domestic option would enable people to serve in hospitals, old age homes and other community organisations. 



Participants could also have the option of working and studying in various trades including plumbing and electrical. 



Young Liberal president Noel McCoy said the aim was to provide a sizeable low-cost workforce that would help to offset the effects of the financial crisis. 

At the same time he said it would help instil a work ethic and sense of national pride in young people. …

Mr McCoy said under the proposal students would not be able to graduate from university without a certificate of completion of national service.

This has been proposed before, I wondered for a minute how the young Liberals managed to come up with a new idea all by themselves, until I remembered this.

Barack Obama's national-service plan purports to be voluntary, yet nonparticipating schools would lose funding, and uncooperative individuals would be denied tax credits. …..

Obama advocates expanding AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 250,000, and establishing a "Classroom Corps," a "Health Corps," a "Clean Energy Corps," and a "Homeland Security Corps." Obama also wants to expand national service beyond our nation's border by doubling the Peace Corps, and creating "America's Voice Initiative" to send Americans fluent in other languages overseas as part of a new public diplomacy outreach.



Obama has set the goal of 50 hours per year for high-school students and 100 hours per year for college students. He claims he is not going to directly compel young people in high school to serve 50 hours per year, but instead would simply withhold educational funding from schools if they fail to comply with his programs. ….

At the college level, Obama says he will "require 100 hours of service" per year by creating a new "American Opportunity Tax Credit" that will reduce education costs by $4,000. So instead of it being mandatory, one could opt out by simply paying $4,000 more than the person who doesn't opt out. That is a high price to pay for something that is allegedly optional.
…..

The Liberal Party has lost its way, the senior party elements think they can get back into power by outRudding Rudd, and the young ones have always been babes in the woods.

Update: The motion lapsed for want of a mover and was only supported by the outgoing president. Hopefully this will be the last that is heard of him.

Government and why it doesn't work.

Cartoon by Nicholson. Click to enlarge.

I am not sure which is worse, politicians or those who believe in them.

Chris Berg at IPA has come up with a great article “Go on, mate, get out there and make a difference.” In it he refers to the resignation of Labor MP Evan Thornley in order to reenter the private sector when he was on the verge of a ministerial position.

But if the only reason state Labor MP Evan Thornley has resigned his seat is so he can re-enter the private sector, then, well, that's fantastic. In 2009, we're going to want every businessperson on the ground working overtime to create jobs. The last thing we need is talented entrepreneurs spending their lives stuck in the world of petty rivalries and disproportionate egos that is Australian politics.

Anyway, we have a more than sufficient number of politicians trying to engineer political solutions to what is an economic crisis. Thornley founded a company that, at its height, was worth just shy of $1billion. His commercial acumen and skills could be far more useful building the economy than regulating it. …

So it is no surprise that so many laws and government programs are ill defined, have no clear goal, and provide no method of assessing whether they are actually working. But politicians find it's a lot easier to start a government program than to close an old one. Bureaucracies, commissions, departments, boards, committees and taskforces pile up upon each other, each insisting on a slice of the annual budget. They say that laws are like sausages: it's better not to see them being made. But do we really have to be forced to eat so many? …

In another post he linked to an article in “The Australian,” containing the following: -

... because one of our biggest problems is recruiting good people into politics," (Liberal MP) Dr Washer said. Without proper pay, there was a risk only "clowns", "losers", "screwballs" and "halfwits" would want to enter politics. "We need highly professional, highly skilled people to run the economy," he said. "If you're going to squeeze their pay you can't get them."

This raises the question of just what sort of people are we getting in parliament, are they, “highly professional, highly skilled people,” or are they, “clowns, losers, screwballs and halfwits." OK, OK, lets be fair and at least analyze the sort of person who is there. Obviously not all of them fall into the second category, "clowns, etc. but considering the nature of politics, the highly skilled professional type is unlikely to be drawn to it.

Thomas Jefferson had an interesting take on them: -

"The nest of office being too small for all of them to cuddle into at once, the contest is eternal, which shall crowd the other out. For this purpose, they are divided into two parties, the Ins and the Outs, so equal in weight that a small matter turns the balance. To keep themselves in, when they are in, every stratagem must be practiced, every artifice used which may flatter the pride, the passions or power of the nation. Justice, honor, faith, must yield to the necessity of keeping themselves in place. The question whether a measure is moral, is never asked; but whether it will nourish the avarice of their merchants, or the piratical spirit of their navy, or produce any other effect which may strengthen them in their places. ...”

Oh well, as they say, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Jefferson obviously displayed much of the same contempt for politicians, or in this case political parties in 1810 that we express today and for the same reasons.

Politicians are by choice people who hold onto office at the whim of popular opinion and for that reason have to play to the majority of the public in order to keep office. In reality parties hold the loyalty of certain groups on ideological grounds who seldom consist 50+% in their own right, so the order of the day is to appeal to sufficient others to get to the magical figure.

In order to keep that loyalty of consistent followers they need to talk the sort of talk that keeps them in thrall, which is not generally difficult, as they had to be good at it to get there in the first place. The trick with the rest is to play the game of giving them the old something for nothing, or at least sounding like it. This practice does not appeal to people of conscience or principle.

The problem is and has always been that the sort of people who would be best suited to conducting affairs of the nation seldom want to be there and are not well equipped to get there anyway. The sort of people best equipped are those who crave power, many such as John Howard have played the game since their late teens, I mean what sort of teenager wants to spend time doing political committee work rather than chase chicks? Basically, to have the drive for politics you have to believe that the use of the authority vested in it is personally fulfilling.

In other words it appeals to those who get a kick out of power; who like running the show, with the attention and kudos that goes with it. Some on the other hand are just plain dumb enough to believe they are giving genuine public service, and that their superior ideas are best for all of us and therefore perform a noble function. Parliament is therefore not the sort of place where we should expect to find people of self-respect and integrity.

There are undoubtedly people in our parliaments who do consider themselves honest, moral and intelligent, and some of them may in fact be so. Those that are so are a small minority, the rest are deluding themselves.

Climate change legislation wound back.

Cartoon; how Barnaby Joyce must feel.

The current economic crisis seems to be putting climate change on the back burner.

Dr Muriel Newman in an article called “Getting our house in order” made the following point: -

In light of the worsening state of world economies, USA President-elect Barak Obama is reported to be planning to delay many of the pledges he made during the election campaign so that he is not distracted and can focus on reversing the economic slide. Action on climate change is said to be one of the projects that he is expected to sideline.

This seems to be an ongoing theme at present with much of Europe backing away from the idea as well as India, China, and so on refusing to take part in the first place. Recently Vaclav Smil, the prolific environmental thinker at the University of Manitoba – he's written 25 books was asked by NYT about Barack Obama's chances of ending American dependence on imported oil.

The only way that Mr. Obama could significantly advance this objective, he said, would be with the help “of a deep and lasting recession.” Otherwise, he said, “there will be precious little of any rapid change.” As for Mr. Obama's promise to enact a cap-and-trade regime to discourage the use of fossil fuels, “it will only further cripple America's industries.”

“Energy transitions take decades to accomplish. Anyone who expects Mr. Obama to transform the world will be disappointed [and] the degree of disappointment that must follow such naiveté will be phenomenal.”

There is also a recurrent theme in that the climate change frantics are becoming desperate at the growing skepticism of their voodoo cult among a growing band of respected scientists, as reported recently: -

Timothy Ball, a former climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg in Canada, has received five deaths threats by email since raising concerns about the degree to which man was affecting climate change. ……

Why is this happening in Ball’s view:

“Western governments have pumped billions of dollars into careers and institutes and they feel threatened,” said the professor.

“I can tolerate being called a skeptic because all scientists should be skeptics, but then they started calling us deniers, with all the connotations of the Holocaust. That is an obscenity. It has got really nasty and personal.”

Richard Lindzen, the professor of Atmospheric Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, …. Recently claimed: “Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves labeled as industry stooges. ….

Dr Myles Allen, from Oxford University, agreed. He said: “The Green movement has hijacked the issue of climate change. It is ludicrous to suggest the only way to deal with the problem is to start micro managing everyone, which is what environmentalists seem to want to do.” …..

Here in Oz the government is determined to continue with its draconian carbon emissions trading scheme, which although watered down somewhat from its original proposals will cripple industry even without our current economic woes. Here again there is deliberate deceit and hysteria being used.

In a recent interview on ABC the opposition, Barnaby Joyce, (the Liberals are intimidated by Rudd and back down on every principle they have ever held) was asked: "Your comments of course will lead some to brand you as a climate change denier. What do you make of those accusations?"

Senator Joyce replied: "Well, I find the whole term repugnant. Climate change denier, like holocaust denier, you know, this is the sort of emotive language that has become stitched up in this ETS issue. A climate change denier? One is not allowed to question anymore and one is not allowed to call to question? One has to sort of fall into sort of a lock step goose step and parade around the office, you know, ranting and raving that we are all as one."

The government has accused him of comparing environmentalists with Nazis, which is a deliberate falsehood. The government themselves injected the word Nazi into the argument. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of history is aware that it was not the Nazis who came up with legislation to make Holocaust denial an offence.

Senator Joyce would be wrong to call them Nazis, McCarthyists would be reasonable.

Glen Beck, becoming libertarian.

H/T Libertarian Republican.

I generally have little time for ‘opinion makers’ and pundits, and the rightist or conservative ones are only slightly less irritating than the lefties. I would find a frontal lobotomy more stimulating than the morbid Allan Jones, and don’t fantasise over the generally histrionic Ann Coulter, (although, I’m a somewhat partial to Elisabeth Hasselbeck.) Keith Olbermann would delight the average masochist but lefties love to be talked down to by authoritarian figures, its part of what they stand for.

There is an article in the Miami Herald relating to Glen Beck, which I find interesting: -

Glenn Beck goes on the air with Fox News for the first time Monday afternoon, and he's got a surprise for you: He's not a conservative anymore.

''Every day that goes by, I'm more and more libertarian,'' says Beck, whose new show (titled, coincidentally, Glenn Beck) will air from 5 to 6 p.m. weekdays. 'I've always been a conservative. But every day I find myself believing more and more in states' rights, individual rights -- let people alone, get the government out of everybody's lives, let everybody rule themselves.''

That might seem startling news from somebody who's built a multimillion-dollar one-man media conglomerate out of jauntily acerbic conservative commentary. In nine years he's gone from a rookie talk-show host on a puny Tampa radio station to a syndicated powerhouse heard on more than 300 stations (including Miami's WIOD-AM 610). …..

''I'm not so sure that he was ever a conservative to begin with,'' says Bill Shine, senior vice president for programming at Fox News. ``He's one of those guys it's hard to put into a corner or give a label to. I think that's what makes his show interesting. I think that's what makes it unpredictable.''

What will be different is Beck's political perspective. Libertarians eschew the culture wars, think drugs and pornography should be legal, favor an isolationist foreign policy and generally believe in shrinking the government to about the size of a walnut -- all of which appalls most mainstream conservatives. Beck, in fact, regularly ridiculed libertarians on his CNN show for their beliefs about foreign policy and drugs.

Beck is what I would call a developing libertarian.

Generally he is in favor of a strong military and not afraid of using it. He seems to display enough intelligence to reject the idea of immediately pulling American troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, which would place him at odds with the LP, but appears like many libertarians rather soft on preemption.

His statement, “I think we've got to say to the world, `If you come after us like they did on 9/11, we will pound you into rubble. Otherwise, we're minding our own business,'' sounds promising on the issue, but why wait till they do it? There should be a requirement for a damn good case prior to hitting the other guy first but Israel’s recent attack on Gaza proves that even retaliation for unprovoked attacks is not a good enough reason to satisfy the anti-war element.

Despite almost wrecking his career and life with grog and drugs and pulling back from the brink, he is willing to countenance legalization but his statement about selling heroin in vending machines is a fairly stupid and provocative one. I doubt that any but the far out radical drop kicks are using such an analogy, it is better to decriminalize ‘soft’ ones first, then explore the possibilities. The war on drugs is not working and will never work, but this kind of talk makes our name stink among voters.

He ends that statement fairly sensibly though with; ….. “saying heroin should be legal, that's fine, as long as you as a society are willing to step over the guys in the street,'' Beck says. ``Real, true libertarianism will only work when people will govern themselves and not make special exceptions for their feelings. You can't be libertarian and let everything go to pieces and then do all kinds of special programs for the people who screw up.

``But when everybody is willing to self-regulate and take responsibility for their own actions, count me in.''

An Apology.

H/T Viv Forbes.

This is GREAT...just hope it is true...as that would make it even more funny!!!!




Posted to Craig's List Personals: 


To the Guy Who Mugged Me in Downtown Savannah



I was the white guy with the black Burberry jacket that you demanded I hand over shortly after you pulled the knife on me and my girlfriend.

You also asked for my girlfriend's purse and earrings. I hope you somehow come across this message. I'd like to apologize. I didn't expect you to crap in your pants when I drew my pistol after you took my jacket.

I was wearing the jacket for a reason that evening, and it wasn't that cold outside. My girlfriend had just bought me that Kimber 1911 .45 ACP pistol for Christmas, and we had just picked up a shoulder holster for it that evening. Beautiful pistol, eh? It's a very intimidating weapon when pointed at your head, isn't it? 



It probably wasn't a great deal of fun walking back to wherever you came from with that brown stinking sludge flopping about in your pants. I'm sure it was even worse since you also ended up leaving your shoes, cell phone, and wallet with me. I couldn't have you calling up your buddies to come help you try to mug us again.

I took the liberty of calling your mother, or "Momma" as you had her listed in your cell, and explaining to her your situation. I also bought myself some gas on your card. I gave your shoes to one of the homeless guys over by Vinnie Van Go Go's, along with all of the cash in your wallet, then I threw the wallet in a dumpster.



I called a bunch of phone sex 900 numbers from your cell. They'll be on your bill in case you'd like to know which ones. Alltel recently shut down the line, and since I've only had the phone for a little over a day, I don't know what's going on with that. I hope they haven't permanently cut off your service. I was about to make some threatening phone calls to the DA's office with it. Oh well.



About your pants. I was a little rough on you when you did this attempted mugging, so I'd like to make it up to you. I'm sure you've already washed your pants, so I'd like to help you out. I'd like to reimburse you for the detergent you used on the pants. What brand did you use, and was it liquid or powder? I'd also like to apologize for not killing you and instead making you walk back home humiliated.

I hope that you'll reconsider your choice of path in life. Next time you might not be so lucky. If you read this message, email me and we'll do lunch and laundry. Peace!



- Alex


Economic Stimulus Payment.

H/T Viv Forbes.

This year, taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment. This is 
a very exciting new program that I will explain using the Q and A format: 




Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment? 

A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers. 





Q. Where will the government get this money? 

A. From taxpayers. 





Q. So the government is giving me back my own money? 

A. Only a smidgeon. 





Q. What is the purpose of this payment? 

A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set or a new computer, thus stimulating the economy. 





Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China? 

A. Shut up.

Would you like to super size your bailout, sir?

Maybe the current bailout fever is Congress' way of getting into the spirit of the season-- saying in effect, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." They will undoubtedly also be saying, "Yes, New Jersey, there is a Santa Claus... Yes, Ohio, there is a Santa Claus. . ."   Thomas Sowell.

Well they are now asking for it, as reported in NYT.

ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson joined governors from several other large states on Friday in ramping up their calls for assistance from the federal government, asking for a total of $1 trillion for all 50 states over two years. …

Gov. Deval L. Patrick of Massachusetts said, “We’re really talking about a bridge from where we are today to where we think the economy will be in two years’ time.” He spoke during a conference call in which he was joined by Mr. Paterson and the governors of New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin. All five men are (you guessed it) Democrats.

States are forecasting budget deficits over the next two years that total nearly $100 billion, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. ….

Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey said the $1 trillion figure was comparatively small as a portion of the nation’s $14.4 trillion gross domestic product.

“One trillion dollars sounds like a lot of money, and is a lot of money,” Mr. Corzine said. (Could have fooled me.)

Meanwhile back in Oz the tourism industry is looking for handouts again. It would be difficult to assess just how much, these people get out of us already as they are assisted at every level of government. I ended up in a blue many years ago after suggesting that my local authority should not be taking rate money from struggling farmers to print brochures for local tourist operators. I thought I was likely to be burnt as a heretic, especially by those operators.

Tourism based sporting events are especially good at raking in tax dollars, as the now failed Gold Coast Indy proved. They argued successfully for years that they would eventually make a profit and in the meantime it would benefit all Queenslanders, to have their taxes spent to provide profits for the Coast er, benefit the economy as a whole.

But this time they only are asking for 1.7 billion: -

The tourism industry is lobbying the Federal Government to fight the effects of the financial crisis by paying Australians up to $1.7 billion to holiday at home.

The latest overseas arrivals figures from the Bureau of Statistics (ABS), released today, show visitor numbers in November were 5.1 per cent lower than a year earlier. Arrivals from China and Japan dropped by about 20 per cent. …

Mr Hingerty is a member of the National Tourism Alliance, which will meet with staff from the office of federal Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson tomorrow to discuss a proposed stimulus package, worth $1 billion to $1.7 billion.

Mr Hingerty says Australians should be given tax incentives to take their holiday leave. "We have 121 million days of leave stored up," he said.

"One of the ideas is to have a $40-a-day tax rebate for people who take their leave, or allow people to salary sacrifice a holiday package within their own country.

"That will help us trade our way out of our problems. We don't need a handout. We need some clever government policies to innovate into new markets and to innovate with some new programs to get people to go on holidays in their own country."

Wow; We don't need a handout. We need some clever government policies, …. sounds like they really know the sort of language needed to get those politicians thinking of kudos.

Sex Bailout, or is it a “Stimulus Package?”

From News.com.

TWO porn moguls are seeking a $US5 billion ($7 billion) bailout from Washington, arguing that the limp US economy has thrown cold water on the adult entertainment industry.

Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild video series creator Joe Francis have asked Congress "to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America" in a bailout move similar to the one set aside for US car makers.

"Congress seems willing to help shore up our nation's most important businesses, (and) we feel we deserve the same consideration," Francis said.

"In difficult economic times, Americans turn to entertainment for relief. More and more, the kind of entertainment they turn to is adult entertainment."

The pair were quick to admit that "the $US13 billion industry is in no fear of collapse", but asked: "Why take chances?" …..

I doubt that either of them are holding their breath waiting for their $5 billion to arrive in the mail, in fact it is hard to imagine this call as anything other than taking the piss out of the US government over the auto bailout. On the other hand they might just get it, after all they have presented a better case than the big three auto-makers, and it worked for them.

Meanwhile there is no sign of a slackening over here according to a story in the same issue, relating to a thief who breaks into adult shops, steals the dolls and, well you know the rest. Police are seeking a satisfied looking tall, skinny caucasian guy with a liking for “Jungle Jane.”

Aboriginal people; Where to from here?

Cartoon by Nicholson, Click to enlarge.

I have long held concerns about what is to become of our Aboriginal people. For as long as I can remember there seems to have been an eternal string of policies to solve the seemingly never ending problems associated with this section of the Australian population, none of which ever seemed to achieve the intended result. My great grandfather was brought up among Aboriginals, and could speak the local language owing to having been raised on a property well out of town, so I grew up with an open mind on them.

Working out in the far-flung regions of the country, I have come in contact with them on numerous occasions and had many dealings with them and always had good relations with them. I have often despaired over just what seems to be happening to them, it seems to me sometimes that the majority of them seem like a population of lost souls. It is not that white Australia has tried to destroy them, we always wanted to do the right thing, but we have in the main proved the old adage, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”

Today I received an Email from Ron Kitching pointing out an article in Quadrant magazine titled “Back to Coombs or Forward” by Peter Howson was Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in 1971-2 and is Vice-President, Bennelong Society: -

“The essay deals with how Coombs and the far left of Australian politics, ably assisted by an ignorant, arrogant and mindless media, wrecked the assimilation of the aboriginals into the Australian society. Coombs, influenced by the Rousseauean belief in preserving the cultural aboriginality of the natives, condemned them to a pointless existence many of them are leading in today’s society.”

It is a long article but one that makes a hell of a lot of sense, which is something we are going to need right now if we ever hope to bring the Aboriginal people into our society with true equality. Back in the 70s I had the last paragraph of an article I wrote edited out as inappropriate, as I railed against the policy of the government condemning these people to a state of living museum pieces and tourist attractions. I may have been closer to the mark than I realized at that point.

What follows is a selection from it. For the full article see “Quadrant Online.”

Under the McMahon government, and during my time as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, the Left took control of Aboriginal policy in Australia. The Great White Elder who drove Aboriginal policy from 1979 until the 1990s (he died in 1997) was Nugget Coombs, whose meteoric career in the public service dated back to Curtin, whose preference for socialism was manifest from his earliest days, and whose distaste for Western civilisation, as capitalism triumphed in the West, became increasingly irrational.

The Left policy of separatism based on self-determination, and from self-determination to Aboriginal sovereignty, was based on the belief that all cultures were equally worthy of respect, except for Western culture which was stained by the indelible taint of imperialism, the oppression of women, the exploitation and oppression of native peoples, the pervasive cruelty of capitalism, and so on.

Once this doctrine had replaced the civilising and assimilating doctrines of Paul Hasluck (and his generation) the work of destroying the authority structures which the missions and the various colonial, state and federal governments had created over the preceding century, proceeded apace.

Following the advent of the Coombsian era, steady educational advancement turned to rapid decline. Land rights legislation, beginning with the Commonwealth’s Northern Territory Aboriginal Land Rights Act of 1976, began the process of turning Aborigines from ordinary Australians into members of an hereditarily-privileged, racially-based class of rent-seekers, whose lives were to be maintained from the rents obtained from the mining industry, or perhaps the pastoral industry. All of the Land Rights acts gave Aborigines collective rights over access to land for exploration permits and thence to royalties for any mineral discoveries that became commercially viable.

To make this process more credible the policy made it very difficult for Aborigines to do other than sit on their land, communing with nature and performing the ceremonies which were argued by Coombs and his disciples to be essential to the Aborigines’ spiritual and social well-being.

In the days of hunter gathering all religious and ceremonial life was connected to food. As soon as food became available, on demand, at the missions or at the government out-stations, all of this ceremonial life lost its meaning.
The authority of the old men, the tribal elders, was maintained because they knew the secret ceremonial formulae, which guaranteed successful food supplies. Authority moved from the elders to the missionaries and to the government officers as the new guarantors of freely available food. The elders were as much the beneficiaries of this new arrangement as everyone else, so they did not complain.

In 1961 I was appointed one of the seven members of the Parliamentary Voting Rights Committee, established by the Commonwealth parliament to decide whether the Aborigines should be eligible for voting in federal elections. …..

The main advantage of our hearings was that we spoke at length to a number of Aborigines who themselves had been hunter-gatherers, or whose parents remembered very well what the life of a hunter-gatherer life was really like, and who realised that Australian civilisation (as it was in the 1960s) offered a life that was far more enjoyable and abundant than the life of hunter-gathering from which they had only recently escaped.

Since Coombs’ ascension to Great White Elder status, Australians have been subjected to a relentless barrage of Rousseauvian fantasy about the lives which the Aborigines lived before European contact. …….

After visiting all these places and sharing our experiences, the members of the Committee, from both sides of the House, recommended that the Aborigines should have the right, but not the obligation, to vote. The Committee, by unanimous agreement, also stated the following:

“The declared policy of the Commonwealth Government towards the Aboriginal people is that they should gradually be integrated into the European community. Over the past five years the majority of the remaining nomads have of their own volition, come to the settlements and missions scattered throughout the Commonwealth, and your committee considers that there are now fewer than 2,000 Aborigines living in their traditional tribal cultures. ….. It was demonstrated to your committee that any policy other than integration of the Aboriginal people into one Australian society would be impracticable.”

In the whole of the 500 pages of evidence that we recorded at those hearings, not once did the terms “land rights”, or “self-determination”, or “separate development” appear. These were all concepts that appeared a decade later, after the Left had seized control of Aboriginal policy at the Commonwealth level. …

The transformation of Coombs the economist and central-banker into the Great White Elder of Aboriginal affairs began under McMahon and continued with greater speed and energy under Whitlam and then Fraser. The missions were dissolved, and the Commonwealth patrol officers were sacked. Under the new regime of self-determination, authority vanished from these places (except for the authority born of violence and intimidation); …..

The “leaders” who emerged at this time were, predictably, the leaders in violence and intimidation. For example, when the police went into Kalumburu in 2007 as part of the Intervention program, almost every member of the council was indicted for child abuse; they are still awaiting trial. …..

A continuing theme is the demand for the preservation of Aboriginal culture, a culture allegedly threatened by the restoration of law and order within Aboriginal communities.

There is an irony here not understood by the Left. What is held up to us as “Aboriginal culture” is, in reality, nothing more than the culture of the concentration camp where brutality and horror are the chief attributes. The dances and corroborees put on for the tourists are manifestations of an ersatz “culture” where anything goes and any story will do. For example, Stephen Davis tells the story of being taken to an Aboriginal community, Corranderrk, near Healesville in Victoria, and listening to what was proudly presented as a traditional wedding song, but which he recognised immediately as a mourning song from Arnhem Land. …..

The Coombsian policies have ensured that two generations of Aboriginal men have grown up not learning to read and write, have not learned any of the skills or habits required to earn a living in mainstream society, and are now committing suicide at an appalling, but not surprising, rate.

A recent article in the West Weekend Magazine (October 11) told the story of Aboriginal suicides in Narrogin, a wheat town two hours drive from Perth, where six young Aboriginal men have recently committed suicide. ….. Steven Davis, corporate geographer for WMC, was involved in assessing the state of the Aborigines in the Western Musgraves, when WMC had a nickel prospect there. He found that there was not a single Aboriginal male in the region between the ages of twenty-five and forty-five. ….

After two days of this humbug Warren Mundine had had enough. Stuart Rintoul, reporting in the Australian (October 31), wrote:

“Ridiculing Mr Dodson’s call for Australia to ‘find love for the indigenous people’ Mr Mundine said: ‘They need to get off the 60s love train and get on with the business of getting Aboriginal people jobs and education and the tools for living in the 21st century.

“‘Our people are dying,’ Mr Mundine said angrily. ‘Report after report shows the abuse that is going on towards Aboriginal woman and children and they are living in poverty. There is no point people loving you, if you are living in dirt.’” …..

Because the Left controls so many opinion-forming institutions—the ABC, the Fairfax media, the non-Catholic churches, the universities—it will not be easy to mount the political campaign required to roll back the Coombsian legacy. But Mal Brough showed how to do it. Andrew Forrest and Warren Mundine have taken up where Mal Brough left off. They need to be given every support. The current shadow minister for Aboriginal affairs, Tony Abbott, is said to have complained at not having enough to do. Here is a task which would take up all his energy, all his intellect and all his faith.

Ethanol Bailout; Encouraging the Incompetent to do the Unnecessary.

I have made the point on several occasions in the past that I would have no objection to the ethanol industry if it were a stand alone efficient industry brought into being by consumer demand for the product. If the use of ethanol were in fact due to their ability to produce a cheaper product than gasoline, or a more efficient one thus making a dearer product which pays off the consumer in greater mileage, or even one that those concerned about the environment were prepared to pay more for to meet their green beliefs, it would have a reason for existing.

This is not the case and never has been.

Ethanol is only produced because governments decided that it represented a green alternative to the use of fossil fuels, something the environmentalists themselves have been rejecting for some time. Unfortunately when governments decide something is good for us, they have the power to make it happen, with subsidies, handouts and mandated use of the product. The result has been a disaster for the economy and the environment, with vast areas turned over to ethanol crops and huge resources diverted to its production.

Now they appear to be ready to go into bailout mode as reported in the Wall St. Journal: -

The price of ethanol at the pump has fallen nearly in half in recent months to $1.60 from $2.90 per gallon due to lower commodity prices, and that lower price now barely covers production costs even after accounting for federal subsidies. Three major producers are in or near bankruptcy, including giant VeraSun Energy.

So here they go again back to the taxpayer for help. The Renewable Fuels Association, the industry lobby, is seeking $1 billion in short-term credit from the government to help plants stay in business and up to $50 billion in loan guarantees to finance expansion. The lobby would also like Congress to ease the 10% limit on how much ethanol can be added to gasoline for conventional cars and trucks -- never mind the potential damage to engines from such an unproven mix.

Of course, the ethanol industry wouldn't even exist without the more than $25 billion in taxpayer handouts over the past 20 years. Congress only recently passed energy and farm bills that further greased ethanol production with a 51 cent a gallon tax credit, corn subsidies, plus increasingly stringent biofuel mandates. We were told, as usual, that profitability was just around the corner.

So here we have the situation where an industry which is unable to make a go of it in the real world even with massive handouts from taxpayers are not only asking to be supported further, but is actually asking for even more to expand. In a real economy, an industry that can’t make a go of it either does not get created, or fails with the result that the resources move to something which works. It certainly does not grow bigger.

The failure of the ethanol industry will have massive repercussions for workers, investors, and suppliers who have over the years come to be dependent on it, however it is neither moral nor ethical to ask the taxpayers to dig deep once again for funds to keep it afloat, given that with its past record it should have gone broke shortly after it started. It is a matter of conjecture as to whether the US government will have the moral courage to pull the plug on it. They will probably continue with the policy of encouraging the incompetent to do the unnecessary.

“Lessons from History on Climate Change”.

Viv Forbes is one of the most lucid voices in the global warming debate, heading up the Carbon Sense Coalition, which has repeatedly demolished the myths surrounding climate change. In this message he raises the need to give encouragement to those politicians who have the courage to step away from the herd and take a principled stand: -

We hope you will spread this statement and report around your circle, not just to committed people on either side, but also to politicians, the media, friends and associates who may have an open mind still. Congratulate politicians who say sensible things. Politics is a numbers game.

This year will be crunch time. Many hard political decisions will have to be taken, and many people and businesses will wake up to the potential for costly taxes and red tape. There will be increased attempts to silence skeptics, and vigorous lobbying for exemptions and special deals for certain sectors and businesses. And we have the wild card in America. 


We sense the tide is turning, and more people are supporting our efforts or expressing their own skepticism. There are a number of causes.

Firstly, people are starting to notice the record cold snaps being experienced all over the world. We make no claims that we can forecast the weather, but it is an inconvenient fact for the alarmists that temperatures have been topping out or falling for 10 years now in spite of rising emissions of man-made carbon dioxide. It is obvious that forces far bigger than man are affecting the weather.

Secondly, the grim economic outlook had focused minds on what is important and what is fairy floss. Jobs for workers and profits for business will dominate thinking for some time to come.

Thirdly, businesses are starting to understand that Emissions Trading is just another tax with a huge speculative market attached to it. Someone is going to pay for all this foolishness, and the bill has only four places to land – consumers, taxpayers, employees or shareholders. One or more of these groups are going to be hard hit if Penny Wong and Bob Brown have their way.

The Carbon Sense Coalition, and other allied groups will be increasing our activities this year. We appreciate any help you can give us.

“Lessons from History on Climate Change”.

A statement by Viv Forbes, Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition.

The Carbon Sense Coalition today congratulated Senator Barnaby Joyce, Senator Ron Boswell, Senator Cory Bernardi and Dr Dennis Jensen MP for their principled stand against the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Releasing a new paper entitled “Climate Change in Perspective” the Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition, Mr. Viv Forbes, said that changing climate was a permanent feature of Earth’s history – man did not cause it and cannot change it.

“All over the world, politicians, scientists, taxpayers and shareholders are waking up to the fact that they have been conned by the global warming story. All we need to do is read a bit of climate history to get things into perspective and realize how lucky we are today.”

He commented:

“Within just the last 20,000 years, vast ice sheets melted from the earth’s surface, seas rose about 130 m, temperatures rose well above present levels several times, and as the seas warmed, they expelled their dissolved carbon dioxide.”

“Then just 300 years ago, earth suffered from the bitter cold and famines caused by the Little Ice Age. Since about 1700 AD, warmth created by increasing solar activity has been driving back the deadly frosts, snow and ice. Carbon dioxide is naturally expelled from the warming oceans to the atmosphere – humans have very little to do with it all.”

“All of these events were caused by and controlled by natural processes, and all life on earth was forced to adapt or die.”

“Despite continual increases in man’s emissions of carbon dioxide, the earth has not warmed since 1998. With unseasonal snow, bitter frosts, power failures and lost crops being reported every week, to send 10,000 pampered politicians and bureaucrats on a junket to Poland to discuss “Global warming” is surely a sick joke?

“A growing number of politicians are now bravely stating what a large and increasing number of scientists have been saying: “There is no global warming crisis, carbon dioxide is a benefit not a danger in the atmosphere, and the whole Emissions Trading industry is shaping up to be a bigger financial disaster than the sub-prime mess.”

Here is the full report from The Carbon Sense Coalition on “Climate Change in Perspective.” 

This is a link to the additional 650 scientists who signed their dissent over Man-Made Global Warming claims and continue to debunk the so-called “Consensus” in 2008. 

Here are the comments by Senator Joyce.