Is Someone taking the piss here.

I am often amused by the odd placement of adds which can be rather hilarious. I just signed up for Adsense and the first lot came on and I was somewhat stunned by the 50% which were for 'green' services ,schools etc, ironically following a post by Viv Forbes casting dispersions on the whole concept of global warming. Even better was the following sequence, after one for a newspaper article went:

Curious About Carbon?Learn More About Carbon Footprints & What You Can Do! Free Download. www.The-Green-Guide.info/

Jaguar's Sporting LuxuryAward Winning Luxury Jaguars with Fantastic Offers. Test Drive Today! www.Jaguar.com

Marriott Hotels & ResortsAffordable Luxury. Special Packages Official Site Great Rates Book Now! Marriott.com.au

Gillard bribe: Cash for Clunkers.

Cartoon: Nate Beeler.

In another of her less than original ideas Gillard has come up with an electoral bribe to car buyers with a rehash of the Obama administrations “Cash for Clunkers” program.

The idea as proposed by her is to pay people with older cars $2000 dollars to replace them with a small Japanese model more fuel-efficient model. And of course if you believe the press it’s all in the name of the environment and a more compassionate and caring Australia, which is of course in line with Labors election slogan, moving forward.

Reporters need to be a bit more circumspect when listening to the sort of stuff their political cousins regularly come out with.

“"I want to help Australians to update their motor vehicles," she said, noting that the old cars would be turned into scrap metal. The rebate will be on offer for 200,000 new vehicles, costing the Government $394 million.”

This should read as follows: “I want your votes and I don’t really give a shit how I go about it and as such I am prepared to engage in outright bribery, in order to get those of people with older cars. The old ones will be turned into scrap metal, thus denying those who cannot afford new ones, even with a discount, access to the parts from those handed in, to keep their current vehicles running.

The bribe will be on offer for 200,000 new vehicles, costing the dumb arse taxpayers $394 million.” For the record this is not as the press has dutifully reported the members of parliament forking out their own money in order to do good things, but as usual, tossing our money about in a profligate manner to get reelected in order to toss our money about in a profligate manner to ….. .

In many ways the theory of ‘Cash for clunkers,’ is similar to the ‘broken window’ theory where it is argued that vandalism is good, (the leftist perspective on “Greed is good in the movie ‘Wall Street’,) in that the destruction of property is synonymous with economic revival, (thus wars are good for the economy) by causing the victims to spend money they might have been otherwise too bloody selfish to. The fact that the victims may have had their own aspirations as to what to do with the money they have been forced to spend to get back where they started from is beside the point.

There are numerous reasons why people keep their old vehicles. Some have priorities, which they put before having a flash car. Some just can’t afford it. The reality is, that this scheme is most likely to encourage people to spend beyond their means in order to take advantage of the ‘once in a lifetime offer’ thus putting them in deeper shit than Julie has already placed them in.

This is of course not to say that Julie doesn’t understand the aspirations of the po’folk. She has anecdotal evidence from her university days of what her professors told her of how they yearn for the hard earned dollars of the successful to be taken and redistributed to each according to his needs. Its just those poor misguided pricks that aspire to a job and achieving success by the sweat of their own brow that she has problems with.

Gillard: would you buy a used school building from this woman.

I have mentioned the BER scheme before when it was found that hundreds of thousands of dollars was wasted on improving schools earmarked for closure. Taxpayers should be as mad as hell. It is more like the "Doh"! scheme.

Sunset for Subsidies. (With a little insanity on the side.)

By Viv Forbes
Chairman,

The Carbon Sense Coalition

Info@carbon-sense.com

The Carbon Sense Coalition today called for an end to the massive subsidies distorting all energy markets in the name of global warming.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that if Julia Gillard was honest in her support for a sustainable Australia, she should start dismantling the five unsustainable industries created by climate subsidies.

Forbes explained:

“Today’s buzz word is “sustainable”.

“A sustainable industry cannot rely on government subsidies, market mandates or special deals.

“Warmists and subsidy entrepreneurs have created five unsustainable industries in gullible and guilt stricken western economies – carbon sequestration, ethanol, solar/wind power, carbon forestry and the climate change industry

“Carbon geo-sequestration is the idea that we can alter global temperature by burying the carbon dioxide produced by industry. It is totally without merit yet consumes billions of dollars from taxpayers and shareholders.

“The production of ethanol motor fuel from food producing land may be sustainable in some special circumstances, but has been bloated into obesity by subsidies and mandates. It has also cut food production. It should be cut loose to stand or fall in the open market.

“The next unsustainable industry created with bipartisan support is solar/wind power. These energy sources are useful in certain circumstances but generation of network electricity is not one of them. They should be weaned off the subsidy teat.

“Carbon credits and re-growth clearing bans are creating another parasitic industry – the growth of carbon forests. These are also destroying food production and will de-populate country towns but provide zero long term effect on carbon dioxide levels.

“Finally, climate change regulation, research and summiteering has become a mega-dollar, multi-national industry fed almost entirely on tax payer funds.

“Instead of government nannies lecturing us on which cars, light bulbs and appliances to buy, they should relieve tax payers and consumers of the dead weight of all five subsidy-sucking industries.

“All over the world, governments are waking up to the enormous cost and questionable benefits from all the climate subsidies. Australia need not repeat their costly mistakes.

“The sun is setting on the subsidy society.”

For a brief report on how the rest of the world is abolishing global warming subsidy waste see here.

Skeptical books – the trickle becomes a flood.

Green Hell: How Deep Greens Plan to Control your Life

The central concept of this book is that there is hardly any area of your life that the deep greens consider off-limits to intrusion. There is almost no personal behaviour of yours that they consider too trivial or too sacrosanct to regulate...

Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Hilarious

Zero Carbon Emissions by 2020 – prices for firewood and candles to boom.

The Green fairy visited Canberra in June 2010 to leave a detailed blueprint for closing every coal and gas fired power station by 2020 – just 10 years away. 

“The Zero Carbon Australia (ZCA) report is the culmination of 12 months of pro bono work by engineers, scientists and postgraduate university students, performing the research that no Australian government has been prepared to undertake. The result is a truly innovative collaboration the likes of which has never been seen before in Australia.”

(In fact powering an advanced industrial urban society on sunbeams and sea breezes has never been seen anywhere in the world.)

So if you intend to vote Deep Green in this election, make sure you buy some winter woollies and stock up on firewood and candles.

Breaking news: Emissions Trading Scheme reverses

Global Warming in New Zealand.

New Zealand introduced an Emissions trading Scheme on 1st July 2010 to combat global warming.

It is working already. The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research said the past few days had seen some of the lowest temperatures on record. Air temperatures in Taumarunui, in the central North Island, dipped to -6.8C this week, the coldest since records began in 1947. (This cooling effect was so great that temperatures in Longreach and Isisford in far away Queensland dropped to the lowest since records began up to100 years ago.)

However New Zealand temperatures rose again quickly as the New Zealand Climate Change Minister found himself in hot water with NZ farmers.

New Danger – Sunset Change

For some time now scientists in Canberra have observed that sunsets have been occurring earlier each evening. If this is allowed to go on unchecked, we will soon be left in total darkness. We must act now. Full story at here.

NASA’s New Goal – better relations with the Muslim world.

Recently CSIRO decided that promoting global warming propaganda was one of its new goals.

NASA (the US organisation that once put man on the moon) has gone one better – NASA chief Charles Bolden said in a recent interview (July 2010) that his "foremost" mission is “to improve relations with the Muslim world”. Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said “better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel."

Australian Election is on.

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is in election mode. The executive will meet shortly and is expected to announce its candidates soon after. We still have some seats available so those who have not committed should grab the chance to be on the team.

Around three weeks ago Gillard was put in power by the unions and claimed that she would be the fixer and sort out the problems the government had caused which she blamed on Rudd, even though she had clearly been involved in every decision the government had made. Now she has panicked and decided that rather than try to fix the mess she and Rudd have left the nation in her best option is to go to the polls now before her reputation starts to really stink with voters.

She has had a fairly minimal media honeymoon largely owing to her inability to do anything right since getting the top job.

Her one success if it could be called that was when she did a sweetheart deal with three major mining companies on tax to the detriment of all others. In order to do this she was forced to reduce the rate they will pay and restrict it to coal and iron ore. Even the press was not impressed with the obviously falsified figures presented after the deal was made, and said so. It is difficult to tell why these companies agreed to ‘deal’ on having an additional tax placed on their profits, but it can be safely assumed that making it more difficult for competitors to raise investment capital would be high on their agendas.

Other mining companies now face an uncertain future, given that once the resource rent tax is in place she can extend it at will, increase the rate at will, include other minerals at will, and extend it to other industries at will. These three companies have been naïve at best and have sold out the mining industry, not saved it. Their shareholders should be calling extraordinary meetings and sacking their boards. The major coal and iron ore mining states of Queensland and Western Australia will bear the brunt of this in order to support the others.

Since then she has failed at a new attempt at a Howard style Pacific solution, to deal with the people smuggler problem, and caused a diplomatic row by announcing she was building a refugee detention centre in East Timor without consulting their government, preferring to do a quick ‘phone a friend’ to their President. Their government has voted the proposal down.

The last straw for her was the details of Rudd’s political knifing being leaked to the media. She has to have the election now, while she is only on the nose, instead of waiting until she is putrefying. She is managing to make Abbott look good despite his efforts to thwart her.

Government Science: Cowed and Corrupted by Politics

Cartoon: By Lisa Benson.

By Viv Forbes, Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition

The Carbon Sense Coalition today claimed that government science bodies in Australia had become cowed and corrupted by politicians.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr. Viv Forbes, said that following the lead of the climate alarmists infecting the government owned ABC, CSIRO, BOM and most state and federal science departments were now singing the government song on climate.

“It’s time to de-politicize the Australian government climate science industry.”

Forbes explained:

“The once great CSIRO has abandoned objective climate research in favor of global warming activism.

“This started with its selective promotion of extreme drought scenarios. With a portfolio of over twenty unproven climate models to choose from, CSIRO chose one forecasting severe droughts to support the alarmist Garnaut report.

“Then CSIRO applied pressure on staff who disagreed with Penny Wong’s ETS. One who wrote a critical report was censured and resigned.

“The last straw was the recent appointment of CSIRO’s Chairman – he is a lawyer whose day job is a merchant banker with a huge vested interest in carbon trading. He is a global warming alarmist whose long-term climate observations are taken on weekends from his yacht in Port Phillip Bay.

“Both CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology are now focused, not on climate research or weather forecasting, but on holding secret meetings to discuss how to spread alarmist propaganda on man-made global warming and how to combat “skeptics and denialists”.

“Even the numerous state departments of Agriculture and Forestry are so cowed that not one scientist is prepared to say out loud that, over the life of a cow or a tree, there are ZERO net emissions or extractions of carbon dioxide.

“The corrupting influence of government money and government control has destroyed the spirit of open enquiry in Universities, CSIRO, BOM, the EPA, the government media machine and most of the state departments of Agriculture, Environment, Forestry, Energy, Planning and Resources. Politics is even affecting Science Education.

“All government science organizations should be removed from the ACT (Australian Carbon Territory) and the corroding influence of Carbonerra City. They should be directed by scientists and producers from the agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining and processing industries they supposedly serve.

“Finally, all government research projects should have a specific life and goal and be put out to tender.”

For a report on CSIRO drought alarmism see:

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Hilarious (from Carbon Sense)

Cartoon: Nate Beeler.

The following is the latest collection of Climate Change snippets from Viv Forbes, who to the uninitiated is the Chairman of The Carbon Sense Coalition. Viv is a regular contributor here, but for more information I recommend his site which is linked above.

Skeptical books – the trickle becomes a flood.

Climate Change Lunacy


A new book, critical of the climate change establishment, is additionally noteworthy because the author, Mark Lawson, is a senior journalist who writes on environmental matters for the Australian Financial Review.


A Guide to Climate Change Lunacy: bad forecasting, terrible solutions. Mark Lawson, Connor Court Publishers, paperback, 286 pages. $29.95.

Climate the Counter Consensus

Professor Bob Carter from Townsville is one of the tireless and consistent voices for climate realism. Here the ABC “Counterpoint” discusses his new book.

And now for the news.

Wind Power Explodes.

Here is a graphic example of the power in wind. The problem is, harnessing it to produce the power we want, when we want it.

The Great Wall of Queensland

GIANT sea walls may have to be built and coastal developments banned or demolished to safeguard southeast Queensland against rising sea levels, Australia's peak scientific body has warned.

The CSIRO has also flagged the prospect of controversial "planned retreat" policies to force waterfront residents to abandon their homes as sea levels rise and storm surges increase.

The grim predictions have been made at a world-first "climate adaptation" conference on the Gold Coast opened recently by Climate Change Minister Penny Wong. International scientists at the conference say climate change is now impossible to stop and the world will have to learn to adapt to rising sea levels, prolonged droughts and extreme weather.

In another forum, a key UN scientist has warned that more refugees will knock on Australia's door unless rich countries help poorer nations cope with climate change.

With our new wall, maybe Queensland will be safe?

Good News from Britain

A survey by the BBC in February 2010 found that only 26 percent of Britons believed that “climate change is happening and is now established as largely manmade,” down from 41 percent in November 2009. (Elizabeth Rosenthal, New York Times, 24 May 2010).

Environmental Extremism turns a Young Family's Dream into a Nightmare

By Dale Stiller

It is with mixed emotions that I send out this message.

Sadness that what you will see in these two videos has been allowed to happen in this country; a sadness that is intensified with the knowledge that the same disregard, intimidation and abuse has been perpetrated on many other good people.

The young family that you will see in these videos are good people; I have met them in person at the recent Property Rights Conference in Emerald.

But along with sadness I do believe there is hope. These videos have been published by one of the most influential journalists in Australia, Andrew Bolt, who is a newspaper columnist, has his own radio show, regular TV spots and runs the biggest blog in Australia.

Here is Bolt's article entitled “Green Laws and a Dead Business:

To hear the story of Matt & Janet Thompson in two parts see: Part 1 and Part 2

CCNet – regular news on Climate Policy.

This great report is published often by the Global Warming Policy Foundation edited by Dr Benny Peiser.

CCNet gives you all the news on the politics, economics and shenanigans of the Global Warming industry.

To subscribe send an email to: benny.peiser@thegwpf.org .

The Last Word

A burglar broke into Parliament House one night and pushed a knife against the chest of a well-dressed man in one of the corridors. 
“Give me your money,” he demanded.


“Hang on a minute,” said the well-dressed man, “don’t you know who I am? I’m a senior government minister.”


“In that case,” said the burglar, “give me MY money.”

Property rights destroyed by green fascists.

H/t Joanne Nova.

This is probably one of the worst cases of government chicanery, green zealotry, malicious abuse of power, retribution, and probably legal malpractice I have encountered in a long time. It is the case of Matt and Janet Thompson who moved to Australia from the States and set up a feedlot on a property in WA. After obtaining the approvals they needed, they went ahead and built a 15,000 head feedlot only to find the rules had changed by the time they completed it.

The result is they are bankrupt with an unsalable property.


A great deal has been said about sovereign risk of late with the Rudd/Gillard resource tax, but no society can advance without secure property rights, and the ability to trust that the commitments that web are required to meet are honoured by the other side. These people have met every requirement of the license they needed to start their business but despite this have found the states commitment dishonored.

Worse still is the appearance of a vindictive attack on them from green groups for disbelieving in the GW hoax. In 2007 Matt spoke at the WA Lot Feeders Association about the National Environmental Protection Measures, which included greenhouse gases. He expressed doubts that greenhouse gases should be included and handed out copies of the Great Global Warming Swindle DVD. After the meeting the Department of Environment and Conservation began to pay more attention to his application.

The most disturbing thing is the duplicity of the legal people involved. We have plenty of dropkick, scumbag lawyers around here but even some of them would be shocked by what happened here.

They were advised by lawyers to meet with Dr Johannes Schoombee, an environmental attorney who’s web page referred to his expertise in property rights. He advised them that their original approval for a 15,000 head feedlot has no legal standing, and said they should apologize to the DEC for their development. He said he knew important people in DEC and that they should have a series of meetings, which he would coordinate for a fee. His fee for this original meeting, which took 40 minutes, was $4000.

Since they could not afford to pay him on an ongoing basis, they declined. In 2009 they discovered that he was the convener of EDO. EDO listed the fight against Narrogin Beef Producers as a major achievement in 2008, and had won lawyer of the year partly for his work with EDO and he had never disclosed them that this was the case.

If we are ever going to drag ourselves out of the hole, Rudd/Gillard have dug us into, we need people like this. Unfortunately while we rely for our survival on the whims and whimsies of bureaucrats of a gutless and inconsistent state, only the dumb will chose to invest.

Chris Mathews sinks Crist campaign.

H/t Newsbusters.

Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio have been in a neck and neck battle for the Florida Senate seat, with the Democrat way back out of contention. Christ has been slightly in the lead over Rubio, but the latest statement from Chris Mathews has changed the whole tenor of the campaign with his assertion that Crist will caucus with the Democrats.


Any Republicans who stuck to Crist must now reconsider their positions. As a matter of interest, I don't see much of this guy, so can anyone tell me if he is half cut or is this what he is always like.

Reports from the Silly Science Department:

Re-Paint the Silver Lining? 


A grant from Bill Gates is helping researchers explore the possibility that making clouds whiter and more reflective by spraying them with a fine seawater mist could help block the sun's rays and send them back into space.

Cloud whitening builds on the natural cloud-forming process, says Silicon Valley inventor Armand Neukermans, who received the funding to test if the concept is doable.

When water vapour in cloud-forming regions encounters sea salt crystals it condenses around them, forming tiny droplets, he explains. Together, many droplets diffuse sunlight and make a cloud whiter.

Whitewash the Hills?

Workmen in the remote Peruvian Andes are painting mountain summits white in a bid to reflect heat away from the peaks and restore the country's glaciers, Agence France-Presse reported last week.

Closer to home, it is understood the NSW government is following the Andean experiment closely and is considering applying the science in its own climate-change program: by painting the outdoor dunnies white at new coalmines.

The non-government organisation behind the Andean project was one of 26 winners of the World Bank's "100 Ideas to Save the Planet" competition announced last November.

Famous Forecasts that Failed.

In 1969, Richard Nixon’s presidential advisor, Daniel Moynihan, summarised for the President the general concern of scientists about “the carbon dioxide problem". This report was recently released.

Moynihan’s memo reads, in part:

“It is now pretty clearly agreed that the CO2 content in the atmosphere will rise 25% by 2000. This could increase the average temperature near the earth's surface by 7 degrees Fahrenheit. This in turn could raise the level of the sea by 10 feet. Goodbye New York. Goodbye Washington, for that matter.”

These predictions were wide of the mark:

• Rather than increasing by 81 parts per million as the "pretty clearly agreed" experts feared, CO2 rose by only 45 parts per million.


• Rather than spiking by 3.9 C (7 degrees F), the actual temperature increase between 1969 and the year 2000 was a practically imperceptible 0.3 C. Which means the experts were off by 1200 percent.


• Most embarrassing of all, rather than rising 305 cm (10 feet), sea level increased by a paltry 10 cm (3.9 inches). Which means the experts overestimated that particular danger by 2950 percent.

Moral of the story: no one has ever been able to predict the future. Not even highly educated, highly regarded government advisors.

The Week That Was – News you will not see or hear on the ABC.

Every week the SEPP (founded by Fred Singer) produces an email roundup of the week’s news, reports and comments on the revelations and stupidities in the world climate change industry. Subscription is free of charge; send full name, background, occupation, location, etc to: comments@SEPP.org.

Joe Hockey, Mill, and Locke.

Joe Hockey.

Joe Hockey has waxed lyrical, and for a long time according to the transcript of his speech to the Grattan Institute. Joe spent a lot of time dealing with two of the inspirations for the ideal of liberty, John Stuart Mill, and John Locke, who he maintains were inspirations to him:

I would like to think there was a moment of epiphany but in the end there was one writer who stood out to me – and that was John Stuart Mill. Sometimes you read something and just think “this guy makes sense”.

It is a continual source of inspiration to me to reflect on those men and women who, without resort to force or the trappings of political power, but through words alone, can influence their generation and those that follow.

Mill is one of those people. Always clear, often difficult, usually provocative, among the earliest defenders of the equal rights of women, minorities and subjugated peoples. He was a champion of fair, free and open elections. Himself a Member of Parliament and a political activist, Mill was above all an unrelenting champion of the principle that personal liberty was the essential element of a free and decent society.

His famous statement of liberal principles is that:

“the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.” And just in case we have a tendency to gloss over words like “freedom” and “liberty”, Mill defines it in the most compelling way:

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.” …

He goes on to Locke with the following:

I believe that individual liberty must be the foundation of our society, even when it clashes head on with the perceived communal good. That belief rests on John Locke’s positive view about human nature – that there is an essential good, rationality and an innate desire to co-operate in all men and women. I share his conviction that happiness is achieved when individuals are permitted to flourish in ways of their own choosing, according to their own conscience and beliefs. …

Unfortunately he goes on to talk of the Australian concept of a fair go being consistent with this. In the language of the average Australian, there is an element of truth in this, when the ‘fair go’ is a matter between individuals, but some of those things that the man in the street sees as ‘a fair go’ have little to do with justice.

When an Australian politician talks of a fair go, keep your hand on your wallet at all times. He makes no effort to explain why his respect for the two has any relevance to his membership of the Liberal Party. Joe like so many others probably has his heart in the right place, but unfortunately like so many others, his head isn’t. He makes his confusion clear here:

“If the expression connotes ‘each for himself and the devil take the hindmost’, with no provision against depressions, with big monopolies running free and injuring the consumer, with an absence of proper government controls and government liabilities, then it is something which Liberalism cannot support.”

It is this constructive role for government that distinguishes the liberal from the libertarian.

Carbon Taxes, How many is Enough?

Cartoon; by Nicholson.

By; Viv Forbes.

Chairman, The Carbon Sense coalition.

The Carbon Sense Coalition today claimed that the Henry Tax review, designed to provide Australia with a more efficient tax system, had completely failed in the carbon tax area, with three complex carbon taxes now and more being promoted by Climate alarmists.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that a philosophy of centralisation, a developing budget crisis, electoral considerations and climate alarmism were now driving tax policy.

Forbes explained:

“Australia now has three taxes on coal.

“Firstly, coal companies pay the same federal profit-based corporate tax that every other company pays, at the same rate.

“Secondly, every coal miner must pay “Coal Royalties” to state governments who own the mineral resources. Coal royalties are payable even if the mine makes a loss. All mining companies pay royalties.

“Thirdly, if the current federal proposals become law, coal, iron and gas companies will pay an additional profit-based “resource rent tax” to the Federal Government. (see note.)

“Yet global warming alarmists are calling for still more carbon taxes.

“If you tax something you will get less of it.

“How many carbon taxes do we need before we achieve Bob Brown’s green dream of zero coal mining: “We can do without coal and we can do without gas”?

“And with all these taxes restricting the growth of our biggest resource industries why is the government promising to spend tax money on transport infrastructure? Coal is the greatest user of transport infrastructure in eastern Australia and much coal revenue is diverted to coal royalties and rail and port charges.

“With three taxes already curbing the growth of the coal industry, and global warming alarmists demanding still more carbon taxes, it is no wonder that the Premier of Queensland wants to sell the state rail and port facilities.”

“The Federal Treasurer should also remember that the tax on nothing is nothing”.

Note: Coal companies also pay rent on their mining leases to the state government, special high rates to local government authorities, and fringe benefits tax on any accommodation provided to employees.

Disclosure: Viv Forbes is a mineral economist and a non-executive director of a small Australian-owned coal exploration company which is probably exempt from the new RRT.

Gillard and PC.

Cartoon: Bill Leak.

In today’s paper there was a surprising statement by Julia Gillard in appearing to come out against political correctness today:

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says political correctness is hindering the debate about asylum seekers.

The Federal Government says it will announce a new policy on the issue this week, as a three-month suspension on dealing with asylum claims for people from Sri Lanka expires.

Ms Gillard says people who are anxious about border security should not be labeled racist.

"I'd like to sweep away any sense that people should close down any debate, including this debate, through a sense of self-censorship or political correctness," she said.

"People should feel free to say what they feel and for people to say they're anxious about border security doesn't make them intolerant.
"It certainly doesn't make them a racist it means they're expressing a genuine view."

Now before you all get carried away and start thinking that you no longer have to parse and edit carefully every statement you all make in order to ensure that it is so damn meaningless that there is no possibility that it carries any hint of, likely, possible, potential, or remotely conceivable offense to any person, thing, or thought in the past, present, or several generations into the future, think again. Julie babes is lining up to solve the immigration problem, er um I mean well um er resolve the boat people debate.

You see, under the Howard regime with (according to its critics, including Julia) its racist, vicious, heartless, uncaring attitudes, (not that there is anything with that under the new thinking) there were no boats arriving. Under the new compassionate policies she had nothing to do with despite being 2ic Labor, boats were arriving every other day, and worse still the bloody press were saying so, and people were starting to get pissed off about it.

In order to get these people back on side and win the next election she wants to give the appearance of solving the problem. The trouble is polls show many voters want a tougher system, so she really has to convince them she can stop it but that could alienate left-leaning Labor voters, so she has to convince them that nothing will change.

Good luck on that Julia, being a populist and not having any underlying philosophical anchor point can be a real bastard.

Gillard and more WA INC School of fundraising.

Cartoon; by Nicholson.

The Courier Mail seems to be following up on the Gillard fundraising rort with a report on this issue again today headed “Julia Gillard spends $9000 of ours to make $10,000 for ALP.” It seems unusual for a new leader, especially a Labor one not to get an extended ‘press honeymoon’ but on this occasion it is not happening for Julia up here, at least not at the moment. It may be something to do with Rudd being from Queensland, but it is a little difficult to reconcile with the enthusiasm her ascendency was greeted with at first:

JULIA Gillard's trip to Brisbane earned the ALP almost as much as it cost taxpayers to send her here.

The Prime Minister's office yesterday defended Ms Gillard's fly-in-fly out visit for a $40-a-head Labor function on Tuesday night, saying the use of the jet was in line with the usual processes that have been the same under successive governments.

Labor pointed to former Prime Minister John Howard's use of the jet, including to attend the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2006.

However the Opposition said the ALP should reimburse taxpayers for the cost of the flights, saying it would have almost have been easier on the public purse if the Prime Minister made a donation to the party from government coffers.

The $9000 return flight to Brisbane is just shy of the estimated $10,000 collected from the 250 people who attended the function for Labor MP Yvette D'Ath at the Australian Workers Union watering hole in the CBD.

In attendance was state AWU boss Bill Ludwig, whose support, along with the party's national Right, was the key to delivering Ms Gillard the prime ministership last week.

Gillard was as culpable as Rudd in the actions leading up to the opinion polls that indicate that most people would vote for a dose of clap rather than Labor, even to the point where Abbott was looking good. Her deputy, Wayne Swan is the sole surviving member of the ‘kitchen cabinet’ or ‘gang of four’ to survive the coup. The term political assassination is not appropriate here as Rudd was a dead man walking at the time and the kindest thing to do was put the poor bastard out of his misery.

It remains though, totally hypocritical to replace him with Gillard and keep Swan in a leadership position, as they were the architects of the situation Labor found it self in. The only reasonable explanation for doing so would be that they hoped a woman could drag them over the line if nobody looked too hard at her record, or there was nobody else more competent to do the job.

Perhaps there is a level of hypocrisy beyond which even the liberal media will not sink.

Gillard and the WA INC School of fundraising.

Cartoon; By Nicholson.

This morning the Courier Mail let the cat out of the bag in an article, “Taxpayers fork out for Julia Gillard's flying visit to Queensland,” which revealed that Julia Gillard had flown to Queensland to pay tribute to a party boss and raise money for Labor at taxpayers expense. The cost to the public purse was $13,500.

She flew to Brisbane on a Government jet for the ALP fundraiser on Tuesday, and was intending to repeat the performance tonight for an exclusive $5500-a-head dinner with the states business elite.

This afternoon we find that Julia does indeed read the Courier as the story had been changed. It now reads (with a new heading):

JULIA Gillard has pulled the pin on her $5500-a-head fundraising dinner with business leaders in Brisbane tonight.

It is understood the Prime Minister will be caught up in Canberra and will travel instead to Queensland tomorrow for the funeral of 27-year-old Private Benjamin Chuck, killed in Afghanistan last week.

Obviously what has happened here is that Gillard realized she had been sprung and backed out. There’s nothing quite like the light coming on to send politicians scuttling for cover like thieves in the night.

So just what was going down here? It appears that a number of mining industry figures were paying up to attend the function with her while she is attempting to negotiate a deal over the Federal Government's resources super profits tax.

Interestingly the state government has banned cash-for-access functions last year after Bligh and Rudd were caught doing the same thing and copped criticism from the Integrity Commissioner Gary Crooke. This was caused when The Courier-Mail revealed that a prominent developer had paid $5500 to dine with them a fortnight before receiving a favorable planning decision.

The Americans have a great expression; “A thousand dollars worth of gravy to a politician gets you a million dollars worth of pork in return.”

This whole sorry mess is reminiscent of back in the 80s era of WA Inc. At that time the Western Australian state government was handing favors and public assets to business in return for ‘donations’ to Labor. The press was told that it was a great cooperative partnership between the state and the business community with the result that it was praised as the way of the future. The premier was subsequently jailed.

The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott has been doing the same as Gillard, but a bit cheaper. He staged a $1,000 dollar a head lunch for the candidate for Wright, Hajnal Ban, just before she was dropped when it was discovered that she was facing a rather messy lawsuit.

Is Brian Burke consulting to both sides?