Obama “takes responsibility,” yeah, right.

Cartoon; By Glen McCoy.

After BP announcements indicated that they were achieving some success with their “top kill” operation to plug the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama decided to take responsibility for it. It is something like “The buck stops here,” only retrospectively.

His administration has been criticized for some time for what has been described as a lax response to the crisis. If this is the case it is fortunate for the gulf and the environment, as any lack of government action has effectively allowed the oil company to get on with dealing with it unhindered by bureaucracy and armchair experts. There is nothing worse in these situations than unknowing idiots, whose opinions are backed by authority.

We are all aware that the response by government to any crisis is an arse covering exercise followed by the establishment of a Congressional committee to deliberate on the subject, and then recommend a series of enquiries. In conjunction with this the Senate would conduct its own high drama inquisitions, calling needed experts away from the cutting edge of the action in order to give themselves the opportunity to grandstand on Cspan.

Trust me; the last thing needed in a crisis involving technological difficulties is a decisive government.

A good example of government action is the revelation that the Minerals Management Service, which is in charge of giving permits to oil companies is generally corrupt and its employees have been taking bribes during those intervals when they are not too stoned or absorbed with watching porn during working hours. They give authority to apparatchiks to interfere in billion dollar projects on whim and wonder what happened when these people decide they want a piece of the action.

No doubt it will be claimed that the big bad oil companies ‘corrupted’ them. When the person who has the authority of the state to stand in your way wants money not to do so, the reasonable thing to do is pay the bastard, just like a political donation, but to the underlings. These people are taking bribes because they are corrupt, not because the oil companies are evil.

The response to this situation is typical of the thinking of the state. The MMS is to be abolished and be replaced with two bureaus and a revenue collections office. The answer to a failed government agency is always in the opinion of creatures of the state, more of them.

About the craziest and most dangerous suggestion Obama has made is that the federal government might establish its own team with its own equipment, paid for by the oil companies. How out of touch with reality do you have to be to think that the sort of people who over years have acquired the knowledge and experience to deal with such situations, would take a government salary, rather than go where the real money is?

His statement about little Malia knocking on his bathroom door and peeking in saying, 'Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?' is probably an indication of the way he promotes himself.

Fraser leaves The Liberals.

Cartoon: Probably by Pickering.

The Liberals have lately been buoyed by what has been described as a rise in the polls, although it seems to have occurred because of the total ineptitude of the Labor Party combined with the overbearing incompetence of Kevin Rudd, rather than any success of their own. In further good news for them they have managed to come out level with Labor in later ones despite a couple of incredible gaffes by Abbott.

These include his televised admission that voters should not believe every pledge he makes unless it is written down as the "gospel truth", saying that "in the heat of discussion" he sometimes goes further with a promise than he should.

In another promising development this week Malcolm Fraser a former Prime Minister from back in the 70s resigned from the party after being a chronic embarrassment to them ever since 1975 when he was elected.

Fraser was an avowed centralist with a decidedly small l liberal progressive agenda, who only avoided being a complete disaster because of a few competent people within the party, and his own inertia, which prevented him from doing anything substantive. Since leaving parliament he has set himself up as a sort of conscience of the party, criticizing anyone who did better than he did.

My personal recollection of him is that after he defeated the Whitlam government in 75 a spirit of optimism pervaded the nation. He was in a position to do pretty much anything he wanted and had a huge majority to do it with. After the dust settled and nothing happened the country settled into an ongoing quagmire of disillusionment.

Fraser was an arrogant prick and an incompetent one.

State Of Origin; its back.

Cartoon: By Zanetti.

In case I don't get a chance to post before hand I'll put this up just for Joe and the other cockroaches from beneath the border.

More from Allen West.

When I first discovered Allen west I was a little disappointed that he was standing in a fairly solid Democrat seat as this should normally mean he had little chance of election. The good news is that in latest polling he has hit the lead, which at this stage in the campaign means his incumbent opponent is in deep trouble.



With Holder and the rest of the administration having difficulty weaving their way around political correctness to the point where they can only obfuscate when asked about radical Islam, people like this are needed.

Government Building Co.: Houses @ $896,000.00 + each.

Illustration: KevinRuddRLess

Yesterday an article was published in the US by Clifford Thies, “Aussie politics: Rudd may be in for a Rude Awakening,” pointing out what most of us except died in the wool Labor supporters know:

The latest from Australia... it appears that the Liberal-National Coalition has caught-up with, and may even have surpassed Labor in the polls. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a climate change advocate, who was elected in 2007, may turn out to be a one-termer. The next election must be held by April 11, 2011.

Asked for a contribution I added:

The Rudd government has caused this situation themselves through bad policies and sheer incompetence in their implementation. While the Liberals under Howard were able to bring the budget into surplus and repay debt, they completely failed to halt the growth of government spending, which had they done so would have reduced the average tax burden to around 20%.

In less than three years though Rudd has spent the future fund created by the Liberals and gone into massive deficit spending.

In the Australian this weekend is another example of just why these idiots deserve to lose, despite the fact that the Liberals don’t deserve to win.

“THE federal government has quietly - but radically - shifted the boundaries of the $672 million Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program, conceding that its plan to build 750 houses in 16 remote Northern Territory communities will require significant additional investment.”

That’s right, they can’t build 750 homes for $692 million dollars. This may seem a bit of a harsh judgment on first viewing, but if you divide $692,000,000.00 by 750 you get the figure of $896,000.00, the average figure for each of those houses. Admittedly the cost of houses in remote areas is higher owing to additional transport costs, but given that $250,000 gets you something pretty flash down here, this is ridiculous.

The Australian has been chasing down this issue for some time, first highlighting the wastage and bureaucratic red tape that was strangling the SIHIP last year, when it was found that as little as 30 per cent of the housing funds would be spent on building houses.

It was then revealed that after spending $43 million no houses had actually been built at all. I guess you can’t just go rushing in and doing it like they do in the private sector. That would cause chaos, much better to hire expensive consultants, more bureaucrats, establish offices, and whatever the hell else these pencil pushers feel they are entitled to at taxpayers expense.

In the last year, they have really pulled their fingers out and after 2 1/2 years have completed 11 houses. At this time they are going so badly that they have failed to get the approval to go ahead with the scheme from over half the communities involved.

But don’t worry according to Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin; it will enable the government to capitalize on economies of scale and other efficiencies associated with large-scale building works. Packages of works will be allocated progressively, community by community, as leases are finalized and preparatory planning in the communities has been undertaken."

But still, $896,000 is not enough to build a house?

Libertarian Republican hits the big-time.

I tend to derive a great deal of pleasure from seeing friends do well, be it in business, personal life, or realizing a dream. I was thrilled when my old mate Al over in the Catskills found he was sitting on a massive gas field and stood to make a fortune.

Eric Dondero over at Libertarian Republican has worked tirelessly on his site and in the cause of liberty for a long time, and has been rewarded for some time with an extensive readership, as well as being quoted and linked by both news media and major sites. He has in fact become an authoritative source of breaking news.

Now he has made it to the HuffPo shitlist. Howling about his tendency to be a little intemperate in his language at times, they came up with an article devoted to what an absolute unmitigated, radical, unfettered free market supporting, capitalistic bastard he is. On our side it just doesn’t get any better than that, unless you get mentioned in the "Pricks we should all hate" section of the NYT or get to be number 1 on Olbermann's "Worlds worst People."

The author wrote an item on being taken to task by a restaurant owner when he tried to engage him in leftie politics. This dirt bag went on to lament:

Our conversation left me rather depressed because he was so absolutely certain of his own position, and so well armed with his own set of facts that there was no point in discussing it with him at all.

Note the condescending “his own set of facts” as if those facts supporting the other side are inferior. Leaving him feel rather depressed is pathetic; the guy needs to, harden up a bit, put in a ‘hurt feelings report’ (maybe it was), or ring some bastard dumb enough to care. Then this:

The restaurant owner represents a growing chorus of obviously educated Americans who honestly believe that the fiscal crisis facing the nation is a result of high taxes and government spending. These people make up the intellectual foundation for movements like the Tea Baggers and the Ron Paul Libertarians. While well intentioned (at least some of them), they are utterly misguided, wrong and dangerous to the economy.

Image: The Peoples Cube.

Apart from showing his ignorance of economics, believing as he does that ideology trumps the natural order of the marketplace, he then goes on to the tired old Rahm talking point of referring to the Tea Partiers as “teabaggers,” as if that is somehow going to make them go away. Then there is the obligatory reference to dangerous Ron Paul libertarians.

He like the rest of the left demonstrates the current fixation of his ilk in attempting to accuse any opponent of racism:

Eric made the comment:

Taxation is theft. Government is coercion, when you get right down to it. What right does the government have to put a gun to my head and steal from me to support some moocher who wants to sit on their damn couch all day long, munch on Cheetos and watch Oprah Winfrey?

In his bitch session about Eric on this subject the writer attempts to suggest race is part of the issue along with the obvious attempts to smear Ron Paul with:

There's usually nothing sadder than a middle aged angry white man venting on the internet about how 'the government stole my wages and gave it to black welfare mothers', but the fact that Dondero actually worked for a main stream political candidate (for President, no less), is actually quite disturbing.

Lefties are pathetic, the moment they are challenged they enter full hue and cry mode about how terrible the right are. They appear oblivious as to the viciousness of their own side which at its most sincere is scumbag vile.

“Computer Models, Climate Forecasts and other Dice Games.”

By, Viv Forbes
,

Chairman,

The Carbon Sense Coalition.

Graph: The forecasts of Global Temperature produced by the IPCC in 1990 are all well above actual temperatures measured accurately by satellite since 1978.

The Carbon Sense Coalition today called for an investigation into the IPCC/CSIRO computer models relied on for the scare forecasts of drought, floods and rising sea levels.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, challenged the IPCC claims that their computer forecasts have a 90% probability of being correct.

“The World Bank computers did not forecast the Global Financial Crisis.

“The British Met computers failed to forecast Europe’s frigid winter.

“Computers were unable to forecast the spread of swine flu or volcanic ash clouds.

“Since the introduction of its new computer program Queensland Health has been unable to pay their own employees properly.

“And the Australian Weather Bureau cannot forecast next month’s weather.

“Yet we are asked to believe that the IPCC computers are able to forecast global temperature, sea levels, hurricanes, droughts and diseases for a century ahead. They promise that, if we just stop using coal and oil, everything will be rosy.

“That is like betting our jobs, our industry and our energy and food supplies on a roll of the dice in the casino.

“There are about 20 Global Circulation Models using variable assumptions that claim to represent climate processes.

“Every model uses suspect or manipulated data and disputed processes, is fudged to fit past data and its forecasts reflect the biases of the builder.

“In twenty or so years of forecasting, not one has yet made a forecast that has proven to be correct. Moreover, no two forecasts agree.

“But we hope one gets it right soon so we can scrap the other 19 and so save a lot of money.

“Until then, all IPCC forecasts should be written in pencil.

“And we should ignore them.”

This graph is taken from a presentation by Norm Kalmanovitch to GeoCanada in Calgary May 2010.

Global Warming? Nothing New.

This was received from the Carbon Sense Coalition, and as I normally publish their stuff I assume this is OK.

By Bill Kininmonth

The graph alongside shows temperatures reconstructed from Greenland ice cores and published in the peer reviewed literature. The data confirm pre-IPCC understanding of the climate history of the Earth: Earth warmed from the last glacial maximum about 15,000 years ago when great ice sheets covered North America and northern Europe and sea level was about 130 m lower than today. By 9,000 years ago Earth had warmed to the Holocene maximum when temperatures were warmer than today; the Holocene maximum lasted until about 4,000 years ago and there has been irregular cooling since.

The IPCC alarmist claim that Earth’s temperature has been steady for the last 10,000 years but this view is at odds with historical and archaeological evidence.

1. Hannibal took his army and elephants across the Alps about 200BC in winter!


2. Julius Ceaser, about 50BC conquered Gaul and, after building a bridge across the Rhine River, waged war on the Germanic tribes; he and his army withdrew across the Rhine and dismantled the bridge. The Rhine River acted as a natural barrier for the nearly 500 years but as the Roman Empire in Gaul was disintegrating the Vandals crossed the Rhine in the 5th century AD. The vandals did not build bridges but walked across the frozen Rhine River in winter.


3. Greenland was settled by Vikings and by the 1100s there were more than 3,000 settlements. As the Little Ice Age advanced so the Greenland settlements were disbanded and the last was known to have perished about 1550AD, a century before the coldest of the Little Ice Age.


4. For 300 years Earth has been recovering from the Little Ice Age. Mountain glaciers have retreated and high mountain passes of the Alps have opened. Archaeologists have identified artefacts from various eras corresponding with warming and cooling, and retreat and advance of mountain glaciers.

The arguments of the IPCC alarmists rely on an unchanging temperature record prior to industrialisation (that is, no Greco Roman warm period, no cold of the Dark Ages, no Medieval Warm Period and no Little Ice Age) to support their storyline of anthropogenic global warming. They claim that the warming of the past 100 years is unprecedented and therefore must be due to increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide.

Idiocy and the need to be in charge.

I can identify with the following story as of late I have been involved in the management of a project, and one of my responsibilities is the development of SWI’s, (Safe Work Instructions.) One of the those I will have to develop, (they are not just written, that sounds so passé, ‘developed’ sounds much better,) is one on “Chucking and Un-chucking the rig.”

To those who are uninitiated in the drilling game this sounds pretty technical, but in fact means, doing up and undoing three nuts. It can probably be covered by as Homer Simpson would say, “Do them up, undo them, do them ….” The problem with this is not that it is hard to explain, but that the people in management behind me, (or as they would say, above me,) expect me to come up with at least 5-6 pages of technical bullshit that will, in the event of some dickhead stuffing it up, cover their arses.

My mate Bawb is a rugged individualistic type of guy who lists in his pretty comprehensive resume, service in the US military. I have to be pretty impressed by this but he probably, like so many of his Tea Party mates doesn’t understand how much old nanny has been taking care of him during that time. He probably didn’t think while he was enjoying a brownie, just how much care and attention went into the making of it.

The US Military has come up with a document, which details the recipe for "Cookies, oatmeal, and brownies, chocolate coated," which takes 26 pages to complete.

Fair dincum, I’m not kidding, you just can't make this stuff up.

By the time you have done it you have lost your appetite.

Mark Latham’s views on Rudd.

Cartoon: By Nicholson.

Mark Latham is vilified among Labor purists, but he understood just what sort of disingenuous piece of shit Kevin Rudd was and is.

Generally I have no interest in political diaries or autobiographies, as I usually have little time for the type of people who write them, politicians or their acolytes. Apart from a short time in history, (the founding of the US) where government was considered to be for the protection of the liberty of the people, politics and its manipulators have sucked.

In this country the sort of people attracted to politics are not those who believe in free people doing their own thing, but the more authoritarian view, that we need both them and governing.

The problem with the state is that it is seen as ‘authority’ and as such, like any institution involving that aspect of life, attracts the worst in people. There is little difference between the attraction of politicians to politics, pedophiles to schools or scouts, and sadists to Abu Ghraib. The attraction of flies to crap is more honorable – flies are just being flies, politicians are just being politicians, both are pretty disgusting but the flies only want a feed.

Mark Latham is one of the most extraordinary and most controversial figures to walk the political stage here. He was a divisive figure in many ways often due to his intemperance in language and behavior. After losing to John Howard he resigned from parliament after criticism, both for his tactics during the election, and for being out of communication. During the election and afterwards he was suffering from pancreatitis.

He wrote a great op-ed on the folly of the need to be seen to be doing something, a major problem in government.

Andrew Bolt in his Herald Sun article relates some of the things one of his commenter’s gleaned from “The Latham Diaries,” on his opinions of Rudd, and examples of his behaviour such as:

Another slice of Caucus chaos: Kevin Rudd. On Wednesday, ‘ The Australian ‘ carried a front-page story saying that if Rudd didn’t became Shadow Treasurer he would go to the backbench. My thoughts went back to December last year and his tantrum over his title. He’s such a prima donna.

Rudd came around to see me yesterday morning, lobbying to be Shadow Treasurer. He went into a long explanation of why he’s so wonderful. When he finished I put my cards on the table: that I regard him as disloyal and unreliable, and he only holds his frontbench position because of his media profile and public standing among people who have never actually met him. I also told him that if the newspaper report was true, he should get ready for the backbench, as there was no way I could give him the Shadow Treasury.

He appeared surprised, protested his innocence and then broke down badly, sobbing over the recent death of his mother, just before polling day. I told him to leave work and go back to Brisbane to rest with his family. But he wouldn’t give up. Even though he was crying, he kept on lobbying to be Shadow Treasurer. It was becoming quite sad. Then he said words that I will never forget: ‘I swear on my mother’s grave that The Australian story is wrong, totally wrong, and that I’ve been loyal to you and will continue to be loyal to your leadership’.

I don’t mind people bullshitting to me in politics, but not like this. Last week he rang around Caucus to gauge the mood after our loss, and told Trish Crossin that my leadership was on notice: I had until the Budget Reply speech next May to prove myself. He’s always bagging me to journal­ists and that’s not going to change any time soon. I don’t trust him, no matter what he says.

Rudd’s Resource Rent Tax.

With attribution to Ron Kitching.

Some commentators writing about Rudd’s 40% Resource Rent Tax, are saying that he is the greatest social reformer since Whitlam. The term ‘social reformer’ is used to infer changing the basis dynamic of individualism from being the basic element around which society is formed to one in which the individual is subservient and reliant on society.

Gough's social reform taught people that they did not have to pay for their education and health services. He was one of the great believers in the theory that by increasing social welfare spending at the expense of the productive sector, it would stimulate the economy. The Whitlam government was so inept, corrupt, incompetent, and out of control that he was able to make Fraser electable, in the same way Rudd has done with Abott.

It has taken the Labor Party 35 years to produce a worse Prime Minister than Gough was.

Ken Henry is a trained interventionist. State interventionism in all forms destroys the impartial co-ordinating ability of the market and turns what may have been profitable investments into malinvestments.

Xtrata has made $44 billion in Australian revenue since 2002. Of that, $27bn was paid to employees, to suppliers, the stake holders in communities and towns and to the states and commonwealth tax offices.

The remaining $17bn, and another $1bn outside the country, has been invested in Australia to develop or acquire new mines and infrastructure. That is a fair share for Australians.

There is no such thing as a windfall profit. Huge profits indicate that a producer is serving its customers well. Profits have a social function:

* Profits induce competitive producers to enter production.

* Profits generate new capital.

* New capital generates exploration activity.

* Exploration activity generates new discoveries.

* New discoveries generate production and jobs for the entire spectrum of society's workers.

The Rudd government's RRT is a capital destroying exercise and as such becomes a production and job destroying activity.

It also leaves countless millions of tonnes of otherwise profitable ore in the ground. Low grade producers are wiped out completely.

Rand Paul; battling the establishment.

While Rand Paul is comfortably ahead in the polls for the Kentucky Senate seat, he is in a much more insidious battle against the business as usual elements of the party. While Paul has the support of fiscally responsible republicans, and the Tea party, there is an element within the party of good old days Republicans who will move heaven and earth to maintain the status quo, by supporting his main opponent, Trey Grayson.

It is probably a great thing that Congress, the house of ill repute has such a low approval rating that the endorsements they have given Grayson have caused his electoral chances to drop with each one.

Here is a clip that puts things in perspective, including the prospect of his opponent being in charge of the count in the election:

Wayne Root; “Obama knows what he is doing.”

Photo: Wayne Allyn Root.

And it's bad news.

It’s been a while since I mentioned Wayne Root the former VP nominee of the Libertarian Party. Wayne is one of the best Presidential candidates we have seen in recent times form any party and caused considerable concern among some of the more insightful Republicans as to the votes he could get from small government members of the Party. Fortunately for the GOP the LP went into meltdown at the prospect of mainstream candidates instead of the usual ideological whackos.

A Goldwater republican with a strong commitment to the constitution, a deep belief in individual liberty, and a determination to reduce the size, scope, and cost of government that would bring joy to the hearts of all Tea-partiers, Wayne is an articulate voice for freedom. He adopts a reasoned approach to issues and is not prone to extreme statements.

For this reason it was something of a surprise to read his article, “The Real Obama Economic Plan: Overwhelming the System to Destroy Capitalism and Freedom” on his blog. This is not some wild eyed radical right winger, but a solid, sound, and well reasoning person and for that reason we should take notice:

"It’s time to stop mincing words. Obama is not a fool. He is not incompetent. He is not a madman. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis, and social chaos- thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within. But the bonus is brilliant…as he destroys and taxes to death business owners; he also cripples his political opposition.

Rahm Emanuel cynically said, “You never want a crisis to go to waste.” It is now becoming clear that the crisis he was referring to is Obama’s Presidency. As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Obama is following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Obama’s Columbia University. In 1966, they outlined a plan to socialize America by OVERWHELMING the system with government spending and entitlement demands. Add up the clues below. Taken individually they’re alarming. Taken as a whole, it is a brilliant, Machiavellian game plan to overwhelm the system, wreck the U.S. economy, damage or destroy the free market, in order to turn the U.S. into a socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival.

Universal healthcare. The healthcare bill had very little to do with healthcare. It had everything to do with adding millions of new union and government employees (sixteen thousand new IRS agents) feeding at the public trough. Obama doesn’t care that giving free healthcare to 30 million Americans will add TRILLIONS to the national debt. Or that not one new doctor was added to the system, thereby causing a healthcare crisis. What he does care about is that it overwhelms the system and cements the dependence and loyalty of those 30 million voters to Obama and big government. Who but a socialist revolutionary would pass this reckless spending bill in the middle of a depression? Why now? Why the rush? Why risk destroying the economy on a reckless, unproven scheme? There is only one answer -- OVERWHELM THE SYSTEM." ....

He goes on to comment on Cap and trade, making Puerto Rico a state, legalizing 12 million illegal immigrants, card check, stimulus & Bailouts, and raising taxes with the same theme in mind.

Well worth the read. His site is Root for America.

Right Network launch.

Kelsey Grammar is one of the few Hollywood celebs who has the courage to be an advocate of the right. Kelsey of course has too much going for him to have to worry about going on the blacklist, a sort of modern day leftist McCarthyism, and can do pretty much as he likes.

He is about to unveil Rightnetwork and says, he is proud to be a part of the new network. "RightNetwork is filling a big gap with entertainment programs that combine compelling content with a perspective we don't generally get from the media," Grammer said in the network's promotional materials. "We're bringing outstanding talent and production values to our television, internet and mobile platforms. I'm proud to be part of this team!"

It obviously has a lot going for it as is shown in the following clip, when you make Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World” list you know it just doesn’t get any better than that:


Right comedy is one of the themes, with among other things some rather irreverent Obama humor. The left will no doubt scream “Racist,” and disrespect for the institution of the Presidency, but in fact they get better than they have shown for the previous administration so I guess they will just have to suck on it. The left don’t know too much about what they want, they rely on the DNC to tell them that, but they sure know what they hate:


Their reality based show “Running,” features six first time candidates, and follows their campaign with some interesting perspectives, “And I am running for the Congressional seat currently infested by Henry Waxman.”

This looks promising and I wish them the best with it.

“Taxing the Heart out of Australia.”

By Viv Forbes.


Chairman,

The Carbon Sense Coalition

The Carbon Sense Coalition today claimed that the Rudd Resource tax was just another in a long line of taxes helping to depopulate rural Australia.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that depopulation of the outback started with the fringe benefits tax and the removal of accelerated depreciation, both of which penalise companies who provide housing for employees.

“Every government since then has accelerated the drift to the coastal and capital cities.

“The heavy burdens of excessive fuel taxes, coal royalties, rail freights and infrastructure bottlenecks have for years restricted the development of the outback resource industry. Only deposits that are rich or close to the coast can pay their way, which is why the Galilee Basin has been undeveloped for so long.

“The vegetation control bans, water mismanagement and growth of carbon credit forests are depressing agriculture and will depopulate rural towns.

“Humans and their industries are also prohibited from vast areas of our land and sea sterilised by a confusing mixture of exclusion zones. And the lack and high cost of outback infrastructure has fed the fly-in mentality of industry and governments.

“Had the money wasted just on roof insulation been spent on new infrastructure, Australia would be a more decentralised and productive place.

“The climate alarmists urge still more carbon taxes and force the usage of expensive alternative energy. All outback industry relies almost totally on carbon fuels for motive power. None of our quad bikes, cars, trucks, road trains, tractors, dozers, trains, planes or ships are powered by solar panels or wind turbines – they need diesel, petrol, gas and electricity (from coal). And our biggest outback industries are focussed on exploring, developing, supplying or transporting carbon products. Coal, gas, oil, beef, sheep, dairy and timber are all threatened by more carbon taxes.

“The Rudd Resource tax is yet another centralising force, depressing outback industry and stimulating the population of drones around the government honey pots in Canberra. It increases the risk that the belated rush to build infrastructure will leave new trains without freight and new ports without ships.

“Taxes are creating ‘A Nation without a Heart’.”

An old dog with plenty of fight left in him.

Those who read the comments section of the online editions of the Australian or Courier Mail will occasionally run into some rather pithy and ‘right to the point’ ones from regular contributor, Ron Kitching. Ron is one of my regular contacts, a friend, and a guy I have got to know well since I worked for him in the early 80s. He was a supporter in my unsuccessful campaign for Bob Katter Senior’s seat in a federal election back then.

Ron was in fact probably one of our first Classical Liberals/libertarians, having freed his mind of the clutches of the state after reading Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged while trying to find out how and why governments could regulate the economy to such an extent that an ostensibly booming industry (like mining) was reduced to penury.

An author, life member of the Mont Pelerin Society, and a major contributor to F.A. Hayek’s lecture tour of Australia in 1976, Ron at 80 years of age still has a great deal to offer. His comment on the article, “Kevin Rudd may give ground to miners,” is telling:

I am annoyed by Rudd's talking up economic nationalism, insofar as he has been braying that BHP is 40% foreign owned and Rio Tinto is 70% foreign owned. The implication is that foreign owners are enemies and criminals and should be heavily taxed.

Then Rudd claimed in a TV statement that his wonderful reforms would increase exploration and mining by 5% plus. And Treasurer Swan keeps parroting "These are the resources of the Australian people".

That implication indicates that ALL business resources including farms are the resources of the Australian people.

I thought the remarks of Mac Nichols, in a letter to the press, spot on:

Any of these resource rent or royalty tax legalised plunder initiatives are based upon the premise that mineral wealth is for all to share. Each and every mineral deposit is a testament to our indomitable spirit, is a patentable invention and not a public asset.

A legally plundered mining royalty is identical to the concept of a government demanding a tax from a current model Intel Computer CPU, as the ideas were always there, it just happened to be Intel that discovered them.

And again the following:

I well remember how Whitlam's reign wrecked Australia's Exploration and mining industry during and for long after his disastrous term.

There is no such thing as a windfall profit. Huge profits indicate that a producer is serving his customers well. The social benefits of profits are that they generate new capital.

New Capital generates exploration activity. Profits also induce competitive producers to enter production.

The Rudd government's Resource rent tax is a capital destroying exercise and as such becomes a job and production destroying activity.

It also leaves countless millions of tonnes of otherwise productive ore in the ground. Low-grade producers are wiped out completely.