Signs of rebellion in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is one of the most oppressive regimes in the Middle East owing to the extreme nature of the ruling Wahhabi sect. While most Islamist nations have varying degrees of paranoia in relation to women, the Saudis have taken it to a fine art form, not even allowing them to drive. While ‘morals police’ are not unique to the Saudis, theirs are among the most extreme, even to the extent of forcing schoolgirls back into a burning building for being improperly dressed.

These ‘police’ seem to be recruited from the pool of trailer trash types who get their jollies by flogging women. Surprisingly, Saudi men seem to be too cowardly and effeminate to resist these people. There have been signs of rebellion from the women though, with some posting images of themselves exercising illegal freedoms. This chick in the video though has caused some interest and praise by resisting an order to leave a shopping mall:


Western apologists, especially in Europe have been attempting to appease the extremist elements among the Islamic population with laws against free speech, draconian PC requirements, and the ever present human rights commissions which seem loaded against native populations.

It seems pretty clear that there is a resistance beginning among youth and women in Islamic countries, especially in the more conservative and repressive ones such as the Saudis and Iran, which has been reported on before on this site.

The younger generation is tech savvy and is able to access information from outside their countries. They see the freedoms and liberties of the West and want them for themselves. This woman was able to use the threat of the ‘Morals Police’ conduct turning up on the web to intimidate them:

But the woman replies: “That has nothing to do with me. Besides that, I am allowed to wear nail polish if I wish. You have nothing at all to say to me. I am not leaving here. I will remain here. And, just so you know: I am filming all of this right now. Smile for the camera.”

And further: “This video is running right now on Facebook and Twitter.”

The greatest threat we pose for these fascist regimes is not a military one. It is in fact a lifestyle and liberty one. Would you prefer to spend your life trying to live up to the demands of the local Imam in prayer and contemplation when you are aware of the freedoms available elsewhere?

Rather than attempt to placate these toads, we should celebrate our liberty, hit them with rock and roll, country and western, even a bit of bluegrass, Bollywood (not Hollywood, its apologist and wimpy), and generally give them something to aspire to. If the population as a whole don’t kick these bastards out, the chicks will.

Rallies to "Smash the Carbon Tax".

Authorised by: Viv Forbes, Chairman.

The Carbon Sense Coalition.

The Gillard/Green carbon tax becomes law on 1 July 2012. To show what we think of this tax, protest rallies are being organised in major cities by CATA (The Consumers and Taxpayers Association) and supported by the Carbon Sense Coalition and other groups.


Rallies are planned for Sunday 1st July 2012 11.30am in Canberra, Sydney (Hyde Park) and Brisbane (King George Square). CATA is suggesting people buy a blow-up baseball bat to indicate their displeasure:


For more information see here.

The Last Word

Three Inconvenient Facts


Providing the Green/Gillard government lasts that long, it appears that the carbon tax will become law on 1st July 2012.

For the first year or so, the promoters and beneficiaries will try to silence all opposition.

The first weapon will be bribery – give a special exemption or handout to everyone who complains.

The second weapon will be threats. Businesses who complain that the carbon tax has forced them to increase their prices will be threatened by government attack dogs.

The third weapon will be government propaganda. Climate commissioners, CSIRO, the ABC, the green politicians and all the alarmist apologists such as Greenpeace and WWF will come up with daily stories of climate scares or green energy subsidies at work.

Sceptic voices such as "Carbon Sense" will struggle to be heard above the din.

But, sitting there, like Vultures on a dead tree watching them struggle in the swamps of reality, are three inconvenient facts:

• There has been no global warming for 14 years:

Global monthly average lower troposphere temperature (thin line) since 1979 according to University of Alabama at Huntsville, USA. The thick line is the simple running 37 month average.

• There is no evidence that carbon dioxide controls global temperature. 


• More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will have huge benefits for all life on earth.

Opposition to this massive stupidity will never cease. Please help us spread the word.

Barnaby on where we’re going wrong.

Cartoon: By Nicholson.

Its fairly common among libertarians in Australia other than the twenty six pure ones, to look over the fence to see whether there are any politicians from the dark side (LNP, Libs, ALP, Greens etc), that are worth feeding or at least, have any potential. Generally we find the outlook pretty bleak, with most of them compulsive oxygen thieves, and few worth standing room in the back paddock.

Shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey caused a stir of interest when during his speech to the Grattan institute he claimed that John Stuart Mill and John Locke had been inspirations to him. We were somewhat mystified as to what influence they had on him and after viewing his statements we came to the conclusion that Mill and Locke must have played Rugby Union.

Barnaby Joyce is no libertarian, more a conservative agrarian socialist, in some ways a carbon copy of Bob Katter except rational. He was roundly criticized in 2009 by everybody form Treasury Secretary, Ken Henry down for mentioning the possibility of a US default. Less than a year later the US tottered on the brink over the debt ceiling.

He has however made it in the real world outside of the political merry go round and has a genuine understanding of the damage done by petty regulation, but as a conservative will seek a government solution. In his recent speech, “Politics and the Environment,” he gives some examples:

Homestead is a very remote property along a dirt road owned by two people, Ray White and Theresa White. …In 2003, some DERM officers arrived at their place to discuss with them a dispute about advice that the Department had given them about clearing trees on their own place. Trees that were formerly owned by them. They were acquired by the state without so much of a cent of compensation.

I am always very suspect when the community divests an individual of an asset to invest it in the ownership of the state without payment. We have tried that trick before, it was called communism and it didn't work. …

Ray and Theresa White were approached by DERM officers who entered into discussions about what may or may not have happened on their place. As good country people they had an open and frank discussion to the best of their knowledge at the gate of their place. Later on we find out that that conversation was secretly taped by the officers and used as evidence against them.

Now that might be legal, but it is also disgusting. If that is what we have become then we are less than I thought we were. …

Then there is David Brown, who actually does have a bit of money. He has a property near Warwick. He wanted to install a centre pivot. A centre pivot is meant to go around, naturally enough, in circles. But it can't go around in circles because it gets to one spot and it gets to a tree. Because there is a tree, the centre pivot has to stop and he is not allowed to move the tree. I live in western Queensland and we are not running out of trees. We have quite a few. …

It is not just here. There was in Victoria, two dead trees, and they are building a road. They come up against the two dead trees. Now little old me would think that you would just knock the two trees over. But you can't do that anymore. They had to transplant the dead trees. This is totally and utterly absurd. …

Then I was talking to a farmer from Nimbin. …He was growing organic macadamias, as he would be. All of a sudden he came against the local environmental plans legislation that was handed to him by his local government. His local government had designated his land as what is known as E2, which means that he is not allowed to change the nature of his farming. His asset which was secure at the bank for a number of millions of dollars, was at that moment, halved in value by reason of a council decision.

The rest can be found here.

Redstate’s Erick Erickson targeted with Swatting.

The practice of swatting is a relatively new phenomenon used by a group of Obama supporters led by Bret Kimberlin, a convicted domestic terrorist and drug pusher, (Image Left).

It consists of a spoof phone call to the police, claiming to come from the intended victim admitting to having killed his wife. The result is a raid by the local SWAT squad with potentially deadly consequences.

This has been done on a number of occasions, one of the most dangerous being against blogger Patterico details here.

Now Redstate’s Erick Erickson has been targeted for the same treatment. Fortunately, Eric had the forethought to contact the local sheriff and warn him that he was posting about Kimberlin and that this would be likely to happen:

Last week we spent a lot of time writing about Brett Kimberlin and the incident involving blogger Patterico where someone spoofed his phone number and told 911 he had shot his wife.

Tonight, my family was sitting around the kitchen table eating dinner when sheriffs deputies pulled up in the driveway. Someone called 911 from my address claiming there had been an accidental shooting.

It wasn’t nearly the trauma that Patterico suffered, but I guess the Erickson household is on somebody’s radar.

Luckily it was two sheriffs deputies who knew me and I had already, last week, advised the Sheriff’s Department to be on the look out for something like this.

SWAT raids are a dangerous situation to find yourself in owing to the highly charged nature of the event. Typically the raiders are armed with automatic weapons, break down the door, kill any pets on the property, and gun down anyone who is perceived as a threat.

In reality committing this act offers the ‘best of both worlds’ to Kimberlin, in that the hated right wingers can potentially be killed by the hated law enforcement agencies, which will be blamed for any deaths.

It’s about time authorities started taking this sort of thing seriously.

Paul Krugman; John Maynard Keynes meets “Mad Max.”

Cartoon: Eric Allie.

Paul Krugman is the sort of guy that is easy to ridicule to the point where such efforts are beginning to be considered soft targeting. It is difficult at times to decide whether he is simply a guy who took Mad Magazine to be a serious publication as a kid, or whether he is barking mad.

There are a number of theories around at the moment on how to solve the debt problem and get the economy moving. A personal favorite is retailer Gerry Harvey’s, “Economic Salvation; The Role of Welfare and Stimulus Funded Retail Therapy.”

Paul, on the other hand has come up with the “Theory of Beneficent Disaster,” which some speculate he arrived at when swatting up on Keynes while watching Mad Max, or Mars Attacks. The idea is that disasters, wars, destruction, and especially alien invasions bring about government spending, which boosts the economy. This idea is loved by NYT and MSNBC as it dovetails in nicely with their current belief in benevolent despotism.

Beneficent Disaster has a big advantage over other theories in that it is not necessary for the disaster to actually occur. It can simply be made up as has been done in the ongoing global warming saga as he explains here:

This is hard to get people to do, much better, obviously, to build bridges and roads and healthcare clinics and schools. But my proposed, I actually have a serious proposal which is that we have to get a bunch of scientists to tell us that we're facing a threatened alien invasion, and in order to be prepared for that alien invasion we have to do things like build high-speed rail. And the, once we've recovered, we can say, “Look, there were no aliens.”

H/t Andrew Bolt.

Labor adopts ‘Craig Thomson’ fiscal standard.

Cartoon: By Pickering.

There has been considerable outrage in the public arena over the way Labor has clung to Craig Thomson in order to cling to power. Thomson has been accused of rorting his Health Services union credit card. Some $100,000 is alleged to be in cash withdrawals, $6,000 on prostitutes, and around $270,000 to campaign for the federal seat of Dobell.

Now t has come to light that Gillard and her party have adopted the same standards with taxpayer funds for their own purposes in trying to spin the carbon tax in a better light in the hope of being reelected. While spending $36 million of our money promoting the compensatory payments to soften the slug, they have now given a $5,500 per day contract to a firm of spin-doctors to sooth the public when the bills arrive:

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency awarded the $400,000 taxpayer-funded contract to Edelman Public Relations Worldwide Pty Ltd for April 19 to June 30. In a move that has infuriated the Opposition, the awarding of the 11th-hour contract was published on Thursday -- after the Senate estimates hearings where it would have pursued the matter.

The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency media unit refused to discuss the contract, instead requesting questions to be sent via email "as per departmental policy". It later confirmed Edelman would be helping to promote the Government's Clean Energy Future package.

"The strategy will build partnerships among federal, state and local governments, community and business leaders to ensure communities are accurately informed about the carbon price, the government's Clean Energy Future Plan and how these will deliver a prosperous and sustainable future for all Australians," the spokesperson said.

"Activities will include development of information products, community engagement and the scoping and establishment of regular communication channels with regional communities.” …

So, we can look forward to more ‘eco enviro tea salons', with candle making and calligraphy.

Cynics have suggested that Gillard has chained herself to Thomson because he disproves the Liberal allegation that Labor is so disorganized that it ‘couldn’t arrange getting a bang in a brothel’ another factor could be in play here; he appears to have set the benchmark for Labor’s financial accountability standards.

Lord Monckton confronts protesters.

H/t; Ben and Bawb’s Blog.

The 7th international Conference on Climate change has just been completed in Chicago under the auspices of the Heartland institute. This, for uninitiated is the world conference of climate change rationalists, as opposed to the annual frantics conference held in luxury resorts in exotic locations around the world under the guidance of the IPCC.

As usual, rentacrowd was in attendance protesting against the holding of ideas other than those of the IPCC and Al Gore. Lord Monckton and a small group of supporters decided to challenge them to a debate on the subject:


No decent protester would be without a chant to promote solidarity and avoid having to articulate ideas, which are seen to be absurd when spoken, and in this case it was:

No decent protester would be without a chant to promote solidarity and avoid having to articulate ideas, which are seen to be absurd when spoken, and in this case it was:

‘That’s bullshit, get off it,

This land’s not for profit.”

It can only be assumed that the reason for it not being something about parboiling the little children and helpless puppies is that the control freak left were the actual organizers of the protest, rather than their allies in the climate change movement.

Carbon Sense has some offerings on the conference itself:

Ezra Levant is in Chicago for the climate change conference the consensus media doesn't want you to see!

Ezra Levant reports from Chicago where a climate skeptics conference is taking place.

Joseph Bast, president of the Heartland Institute on what they hope to achieve with this year's conference on climate science.

The politically incorrect president; Vaclav Klaus, on why it’s important to not let climate change skeptics be silenced and his fight against climate alarmism among other world leaders and the UN.

Ezra Levant interviews Joseph Bast in Chicago on the purpose of the Heartland Climate Change Conference and the need to allow debate on the subject of global warming.

Ezra Levant on how global warming skeptics are demonized by the left and mainstream media even though surveys show regular citizens aren’t so concerned.

Geologist, Don Easterbrook, on the science that shows the earth warms and cools naturally and the frustration with climate change alarmists who refuse to allow debate on global warming.

More on the war on drugs.

Some time ago the Canadian Libertarian Party were advocating legalization of Marijuana, using the argument that kids could be criminalized for life just by being caught experimenting with it. It was a great argument and one, which should have a great deal of appeal to parents. The clip below is a reminder of it.

This guy seems a bit bellicose, but makes good points: H/t Fox News.

… I believe this is Obama chortling with Jimmy Fallon about lower class people. Do we believe, even for a second, that if Obama had been busted for marijuana -- under the laws that he condones -- would his life have been better? If Obama had been caught with the marijuana that he says he uses, and 'maybe a little blow'... if he had been busted under his laws, he would have done hard f*cking time. And if he had done time in prison, time in federal prison, time for his 'weed' and 'a little blow,' he would not be President of the United States of America.

He would not have gone to his fancy-a** college, he would not have sold books that sold millions and millions of copies and made millions and millions of dollars, he would not have a beautiful, smart wife, he would not have a great job. He would have been in f*cking prison, and it's not a god damn joke. People who smoke marijuana must be set free. It is insane to lock people up.

The point is made that 1 in 6 US prisoners is there for Marijuana offenses, and 750,000 are there for victimless crimes. What an incredible waste, never mind the injustice.

Gary Johnson; the issues are moving his way.

During the week polls have found the majority of Americans support prominent positions of Libertarian Party Nominee, Gary Johnson, and the Republicrats are running scared. More of that later.

Rasmussen Reports have come up with three polls indicating that Johnson represents the majority position on at least three issues; withdrawal from Afghanistan, cutting the number of overseas military bases, and legalization of marijuana.

In the case of Marijuana, it was only last year when 50% of voters were in favor of legalization, the latest figure is 56%, or a rise of 12% in one year. One of the centerpieces of Johnson’s policies is legalization. Decades of illegality, huge incarceration rates, heavy-handed police tactics, have failed to have an impact on use. Now the ‘War’ has failed, not just on the field, but politically as well.

Johnson is strongly opposed to continuing the war in Afghanistan, and at present 53% of voters want an immediate pullout. President Obama promised to end the war when he was elected, and is now promising to end it when he is reelected. It seems like a good time to give the job to someone who can be trusted to do what he says.

One of the major issues for libertarians for many years has been the ‘policeman of the world’ role, assumed by the US and voters are sick of this. In the latest polling, 51% favor shutting down US bases in Europe and bringing the troops home.

After WW2, it made sense that with the Cold War in full swing, for the allied powers to help with the security of Europe, which needed all of what resources were left to rebuild, while the USSR was looking acquisitively across the borders of the various nations. Since then, the USSR has ceased to exist, so that threat is no more.

Europe has had nearly seventy years to rebuild and develop sufficient military forces for its own protection. If they have failed to do so in this time, it is not because they are unable to do so, but because they are more than happy to divert resources into living high on the hog in a welfare and debt fueled Cloud Cuckoo Land while Stupid stands on the battlements.

The response to Johnson by the Rethuglicrats has been predictable with Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson announcing that she will refuse to allow his name on the ballot for November, citing that state’s ‘sore loser’ laws.

These laws are designed to protect the two party system by preventing any candidate who had previously appeared on a primary ballot for one party appearing on the ballot for another party. Unfortunately for the Rethuglicrats, there is a precedent whereby the rule does not apply to Presidential candidates:

“On May 3, Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, a Republican, sent a letter to the Michigan Libertarian Party, saying she would not print Gary Johnson’s name on the November 2012 ballot as the Libertarian nominee for President, should the party nominate him.”

This is based on a “sore loser” law, which states that candidates who had previously appeared on a primary ballot for one party cannot appear on the ballot in the general election as a candidate for another party. The application of the law in a presidential election is dubious and contrary to state precedent.

“In 1980, John B. Anderson formed the ‘Anderson Coalition Party’ within Michigan, and his name was printed as that party’s presidential nominee in November 1980, even though Anderson had run in the Michigan Republican presidential primary on May 20. Thus, a precedent was set that this law does not apply to presidential primary candidates. …

The bottom line is that both parties fear third party or independent candidates, simply worrying about their power base. They refuse to examine whether the appeal of these candidates might demonstrate that the main parties have lost their way. Gary Johnson brings new ideas to the table, ideas that appeal to voters across the political spectrum.

But partisan politics is no longer about the will of the people or the common good. Such ideals have been surrendered for a dogged defense of the status quo. Independent voters relish the thought of real choices, third party candidates who are refreshingly different than the candidates turned out by the two party system. However, the establishment is not above using ballot access tricks to lock these candidates out of the election. Such actions may safeguard party power, but they hurt the American people. It is time to forget our fear and focus on the issues, not party affiliation. Americans deserve real options for a change.

For more on the parallel between Johnson and the will of the American people, Delaware Libertarian has an older, but more extensive list of positions.

Farage on Greek default.

Most economic rationalists are favoring the idea of Greece leaving the Euro in order to survive. The EU though and the US are determined that this should not happen, with the result that the world economy is tottering on the brink of the very disaster they hope to avoid. Even if they were, by some miracle, to bail Greece out, Spain, Portugal, and Italy are in the queue to be next, and that’s just for starters.

Meanwhile Australians are outraged that our government is telling us that we have ‘a responsibility’ to assist the World Bank to bail out Europe. US taxpayers feel the same.

Daniel Hannan is a frequent commentator on the issue of forcing more loans onto already insolvent economies, and on this occasion Nigel Farage has weighed in:


The EU is not only undemocratic, but antidemocratic and to continue to prop it up is close to supporting creeping totalitarianism; free societies should welcome its demise. Here is a link to Pat Condell breathing fire on the issue:

And for Ron Paul fans, here is his take on the subject.

2012 State of Origin.

State versus state; mate versus mate.

Cartoon: By Warren.

Well, it’s on again. It’s time to give New South Wales a footy lesson, this time we will concentrate on the mateship.

(L) 'The King’ Wally Lewis discussing the progress of the game with Mark Guyer in 1991.

(R) Queenslander, Carl Webb about to help NSW prop Luke Bailey to his feet.

(Below) Queensland’s Gorden Tallis checking whether New South Wales player Terry Hill has something in his eye.

Canberra’s carbon tax on cyclone damage and lawn clippings.

Image: From “Stock and Land.”

One of the favorite methods by governments of making ‘savings’ as they call it is to use every device possible to extend the reach of existing taxes. The rationale behind this is seen in the term; “revenue forgone,” which describes any money left in the taxpayer’s pockets that could have been more effectively looted had a little more thought gone into the process.

The carbon tax was promoted as a ‘tax on the nations biggest polluters; those stinking coal and iron ore miners, power stations, oil companies and industrialists, by the Canberra snake oil salesmen. Now we are finding out that the big polluters include many local councils which will be up for substantial hits under the tax.

Councils irresponsible enough to be situated in a disaster area cop a double whammy in having property destroyed, and paying additional carbon tax:

RESIDENTS of areas hit by natural disasters such as cyclones and storms could face carbon tax bills for the greenhouse emissions arising from rubbish created by the disaster, a Senate estimates hearing was told yesterday.

The revelation came as the government released a list of 104 local councils it believes may have to pay the tax because of the carbon emissions from rubbish dumps, 46 of which are in NSW and 21 in Victoria.

Queensland Liberal senator Ian Macdonald quizzed officials from the Department of Climate Change over claims by the Cassowary Coast Regional Council in Queensland that it faces a carbon tax bill of about $2 million to cover the waste from cyclone Yasi in February last year.

Under the carbon tax, due to start July 1, rubbish dumps, some of which are privately run but many of which are operated by local councils, will pay for emissions released when rubbish is burnt or decomposes, if those emissions total more than 25,000 tonnes a year. …

Meanwhile, Barnaby Joyce points out that most of the burden from local authority carbon taxing is borne by regional areas:

The price of lawn clippings (as determined by Mr Wayne Swan)

Questioning in Senate estimates has revealed that over 75 per cent of the 112 local governments liable to pay the carbon tax are in regional Australia. There is now an Orwellian concept that all rubbish is bad but some rubbish is worse, most specifically regional rubbish. This to most is a load of rubbish.

We must now have naughty lawn clippings and good lawn clippings. Naughty lawn clippings come from Roma, good lawn clippings come from the Botanical gardens in Sydney. You can tell by just looking at them that they are bad.

Yesterday the government provided the Senate with a list of 104 councils that may be liable for the carbon tax, this in addition to the 8 councils that were identified earlier this month. 89 of these 112 councils are located outside capital cities. Most councils will be liable due to the emissions from landfill sites.

This tax is not just an absurd impost on the cost of living of all Australians it also completely unfair that some councils pay the tax and others don't. Are we now to have signs that "This tip is cooling the planet" and "This tip is not cooling the planet?"

Labor's action of amalgamating Queensland's local authorities is going to cost us dearly because of this, on top of what it already has.

Canberra antics; Barrack mugs destroyed and buried.

Image: The offending mug. Courtesy ABC.


Some bright spark in the Department of Parliamentary Services decided to have a line of coffee mugs produced for sale in the parliamentary gift shop during the US President’s visit in November last year. A problem arose though, when it was noticed that the name of the President was spelled with two Rs.

Noticeable also is that although the visit was last year (2011) the date on the mug is 2010, although it is possible that they were produced in expectation of one of the Presidents cancelled visits for that year in March and June.

When the mistake was discovered, the mugs were crushed and buried under a concrete pour to conceal the event:

The Department of Parliamentary Services had 200 coffee mugs made to sell in the Parliament gift shop during Mr Obama's visit last year. But somehow the mugs were ordered with Mr Obama's first name wrongly spelled - with two Rs.

A total of 198 of them were subsequently destroyed, but not before a journalist could purchase two. Bronwyn Graham from the Department of Parliamentary Services has used Estimates to explain to Labor Senator John Faulkner why and how the dud mugs were crushed.

"The mugs were destroyed into fragments," she said. "They were then disposed of onsite into a planned concrete pour.”

"They ended up in a concrete pour? That's got a touch of the Mafioso about it doesn't it Senator Hogg?" Senator Faulkner said.

"I wouldn't say that," president of the Senate, Senator John Hogg responded.

Ms Graham says the concrete pour now rests at Parliament. "Senator, the sensitivity associated with the mistake that was made with the president's name - the last thing we wanted was for the fragments to be found on a garbage tip somewhere," she said. …

It seems rather dramatic, not to mention wasteful, to smash and bury under concrete the best part of 200 perfectly useful coffee cups, even if they were a bit kitsch.

In the event of mistakes in our capital, concealment is more important than recycling. What the Hell would be wrong with simply getting some staffer to drop them off at Vinnies the nearest charity shop so they can be sold off for a good purpose. If President Obama is any reasonable sort of guy, he would probably see the joke. He might even want one as a memento.

Its not your dad stupid, its you.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was. – Abraham Lincoln.

Image: Bob Katter with what appears to be a gay activist getting revenge. (Click to embiggen.)



Bob Katter’s daughter Caroline Coupland has claimed that people hate her because of her dear old dad after being found guilty of assaulting a preschool teacher, in an incident acknowledged by the magistrate as trivial. She has described Bob’s prominence as a “poisoned chalice.”

This falls down in that while Katter is very prominent in Australian politics to the point where you would have to be from another planet not to know of him, he is not hated nor detested to the point where anyone wants to pick on his kids. Bob might be a bit eccentric, irrational, bellicose, and come across as rather quirky, but is not unpopular. His homophobia is mostly seen as a joke.

The actions resulting in the charge had nothing to do with any perceived infamy of her dad, just her own stupidity in sending one of her children off to preschool with a packet of painkillers and her own actions afterwards:

The child was asked to bring in an item beginning with the letter T, with staff expecting children would turn up with "teddies or trucks". Instead she brought "tablets."

When staff at Sally's Place expressed concern to the mother about a child bringing pharmaceuticals, Ms Katter Coupland allegedly placed the tablets in a pot-plant accessible to children. The Sunday Telegraph has been told Ms Katter Coupland was then sent an email explaining that her actions were unacceptable.

Ms Katter Coupland reacted by sending a series of emotionally charged emails to management of Sally's Place.

Husband Sam Coupland was contacted and encouraged to permanently take his children out of the daycare because the relationship between management and the mother had become "unworkable". The enrolments for the three children were then cancelled. …

It is understood Ms Katter Coupland went to the centre to collect her children's belongings. When teacher Brooke Anderson tried to talk to Ms Katter Coupland she was allegedly "pushed" several times. Ms Katter Coupland then left before police arrived. …

While the act of pushing someone hardly amounts as an assault it is worth remembering that no conviction has been recorded against her. Rather than tossing a wobbly, resigning and leaving town Ms Coupland should grow up and accept responsibility for her own stupidity. Her claim that people like or dislike you because of who your father is means that she probably drops dads name around, in which case she is making her own problem.

If Bob has any fault in all of this, it is probably failing to cut her allowance and smack her bum a bit more when she was younger.

Blaming Bush, # 2,328,422.

Image: Conservative Toons.

There were a few raised eyebrows after the West Virginia Democratic primary when a prison inmate, Keith Judd (Left) was able to score 42% of he vote against President Obama. West Virginia is one of the states where the President has problems owing to the impact of his energy policies and the poor economy on employment, especially in the coal industry. Still, 42% is a big protest vote among his own party.

Now he seems to have a more serious threat in the Clinton home state of Arkansas, where polling indicates that he is holding a slim lead of 7% in a rapidly tightening race against a virtually unknown candidate. The candidate, John Wolfe maintains that the latest polling numbers are indicative of the discontent Democrats have towards Obama who he claims “doesn’t understand them.”

The Arkansas Democrats must be getting nervous as they have announced that regardless of the results, Wolfe would not be allowed any delegates owing to a ‘paperwork’ problem.

Fortunately, in times of crisis, the Administration has Vice President Joe Biden to help put the right spin on things, at least when he is able to remember what subject he is discussing. Joe claims that he doesn’t blame people for voting that way, which is forgiving of him. It makes you wonder what America did to deserve the current Administration:

“Look, I come from a household where whenever there’s a recession, somebody around my grandpop or my dad’s table lost a job.”

"A brother, a sister a friend, a neighbor. When you’re out of work, man, it’s a depression. And a lot of people are still hurting because of this god-awful recession we inherited that cost 8.4 million jobs before we could really get going. And so I don’t blame people, they’re frustrated, they’re angry.”

After around three and a half years in power, it seems to be a total cop out to be blaming Bush, especially given that the Democrats controlled both Congress and the Senate for the last two years of his term, and continued this control until 2011 when they lost the House. It’s worth remembering that Obama came to power on the assurance that he could fix everything including the rise of the oceans and the earth’s injuries.

Finally, the home insulation stimulus ends.

Cartoon: By Nicholson.

When the Rudd government was confronted with the global finance crisis, it went into panic mode and raced into its stimulus effort. This consisted of spending as much money as possible as quickly as possible, something it still gives the perception of doing.

Essentially what was done was to follow the lead of the US, only more ineptly. Bank deposits were guaranteed, which lead to a massive move of investment out of the non-bank finance system, throwing it into crisis. Then there was the cash splash with $900 cheques sent out to nearly everybody to get them spending again. This lead to a few good parties, but most was put away for a rainy day.

Along with ‘cash for clunkers’, the ‘Building the Education Revolution’ scheme, which constructed school buildings at two to three times the normal price, came the home insulation scheme. The idea of this was primarily to spend heaps of money and to give the appearance of saving the planet in the process. This disaster was canned over two years ago and most of the damage has been fixed to the point where the government is bringing it to its ignominious end:

The $2.45 billion Rudd government scheme, which offered rebates for the installation of insulation in homes, was shelved in April 2010 after it was linked to four deaths, 224 house fires and up to 1000 electrified roofs.

The Gillard government committed to inspecting a minimum of 150,000 homes with batt insulation and all homes installed with foil insulation, and announced today it had exceeded that commitment.

Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change Mark Dreyfus said the final tranche of the plan to clean up the program would conclude on June 30 after close to 250,000 home safety inspections. “The latest results show 247,837 inspections in total have been requested and completed,” Mr Dreyfus said. …

In April 2010, cabinet opted to dump the home insulation program, which was rolled out as part of the economic stimulus program, and spend taxpayers' money ensuring the safety of installations already carried out.

A $15 million industry assistance program was also set up to help businesses affected by the abrupt end of the scheme. A total of 1.1 million homes received subsidised insulation under the scheme, which was plagued by fraud and safety problems. Installers were paid rebates of between $1000 and $1600.

An Auditor-General's report released in 2010 found the federal government program put stimulus ahead of safety. The report found the Environment Department was overwhelmed and unprepared to successfully roll out the scheme. …

No final cost to this debacle has been announced.

Marks not high enough? Sue the school.

A former student of Geelong Grammar is suing the school for failing to get her a sufficiently high secondary school score to enable her to study law at her preferred university. There is no information on whether her lawyer got a very good score at the completion of university.

It is doubtful if even ‘Julia’ would come at this. That is not our Jules, the PM, but Julia as in ‘The life of Julia,” President Obama’s professional welfare tart who goes through life, only succeeding on government handouts. This is meant to indicate that the Democrats are truly caring, and understand that women are pretty useless unless the government is there to get them on their feet, as opposed to those heartless Republicans who regard them as capable as part of their ‘war on women.’

Her mother also gets in on the act:

A FORMER student who is suing Geelong Grammar School says she decided to seek damages after she failed to qualify for her preferred university course.

Rose Ashton-Weir, 18, alleges Geelong Grammar gave her inadequate academic support, particularly in maths. Seeking compensation in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, she said her final secondary school score was too low to study law at the University of Sydney.

Of her time at Geelong Grammar, she said: ''I didn't ever feel I was getting the support I needed to really excel. Ms Ashton-Weir boarded at the school in 2008 and 2009 but finished her secondary studies at a TAFE college in Sydney. She is in the first year of a double degree in arts and sciences at the University of Sydney.

Her mother, Elizabeth Weir, is also suing the school for lost income and other expenses. She said she gave up her chocolate fortune cookie business - which she had expected to make $450,000 over three years - because her daughter moved from Geelong to live with her in New South Wales. She is also seeking compensation for $39,000 in rent paid when they moved to another house in Sydney. …

Darren Ferrari, representing Geelong Grammar, said Ms Ashton-Weir could have studied law at several other universities. ''You could have done law at Deakin University by correspondence,'' he said. He said Ms Ashton-Weir had been placed on ''internal suspension'' a number of times while at the school. She was also poorly organised and had been absent from class many times.

Ms Ashton-Weir fell ill with glandular fever in early 2009 and went to stay with her mother at the end of term two. She did not return to Geelong Grammar. …

Over the years progressivism has developed to the point where lack of success can always be laid at the feet of someone other than the unsuccessful. Regardless of the reason, it is always somebody else’s fault, the anthem of the loser. This is a women who didn’t complete the course at Geelong Grammar, but none the less considers them to be at fault.

The mothers claim is clearly ridiculous. The difficulty though is, that in this day and age, nothing is too stupid to be considered a reasonable case in a court.

Women in Shooting submission on National firearms agreement.

• 

Australia’s current firearms legislation is based on the moves made in the general hysteria following the Port Arthur shootings. During this event, a loony named Martin Bryant killed 35 people and wounded 21 others. Amazingly, among the hundreds of people there on the day, none other than the killer were armed, not even the security people.

Shortly afterwards PM John Howard appeared on the 7:30 Report and was questioned by host Kerry O’Brien on the issue of the availability of guns. Howard replied, “Of course what we will do is legislate for citizens to be allowed concealed carry, that way if any other prick tries this he will be blown to Hell by law abiding people.” bent over and announced that he would pass legislation to make it more difficult for law abiding people to get guns.

Currently at least two state governments are moving to do more to stop law abiding citizens owning guns because of illegal use of them by criminals. As these governments have been concerned about bikies, and the current violence is bikers shooting each other, it would seem reasonable to leave it alone and let the problem sort itself out.

At last there is a little bit of sanity coming to the fore in the form of a submission by The International Coalition for Women in Shooting and Hunting (WiSH) on the national firearms agreement:

• The NFA is an obsolete document.

• Its resolutions are based on the very limited information about firearms misuse that was available in the late 1980s and early 1990s (that is, over two decades ago).

• NCV recommendations, on which most NFA resolutions were based, relied heavily on anecdotal evidence and/or unsubstantiated opinions.
• In some instances, NFA resolutions replicated practices from other countries (for example: longarm registration in Canada’s Firearms Act 1995) which have since been abandoned due to a lack of impact on public safety and excessive administrative costs.

The rest can be found here.

Australian government sponsored ‘enviro tea salons’ with candle making, and calligraphy.

Screen grab and H/t: VEXNEWS

This is fair dinkum; you just can’t make this stuff up. Its not from The Onion or Peoples Cube, but from the government’s ‘cleanenergyfuture’ website.

This is not just a government with a cavalier attitude towards expenditure; it is a government and bureaucracy in never-ending carnival time on the taxpayers money:

… These salons, which are part of our Living Green project, bring community members together to share a free cup of tea and chat about environmental issues,” says Claire Pettigrew, ACDN’s Living Green project manager.”

“Living Green is a grassroots community education program that focuses on exploring environmental issues, including climate change and energy efficiency,” Claire said.

“Thanks to support from the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, we have extended our project to include digital climate stories, information seminars in community languages and a community-wide forum for service providers who work with our multicultural community members,” she said.

ACDN’s team of Bilingual Educators host the ‘enviro tea salons’, providing information about climate change, energy efficiency and the carbon price in Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Dari, Hindi and Dinka. They encourage participants to take part in salon activities, including quizzes, chalking, candle making, and calligraphy.

This Saturday, participants can take part in a weaving workshop with local Indigenous Artist Kerrie Kenton, who will use native Lemandra grass to weave objects. Locals will be encouraged to share their energy efficiency tips in exchange for a free seedling, re-potted into a recycled coffee cup sourced from local businesses.

And to think the Yanks reckon the Democrats are bad. This is clearly a case of the irrational encouraging and funding the irresponsible to do the ridiculous.

Labor thrills to poll rise, in July the backslapping stops.

Cartoon: By Pickering.

By all reports Treasurer Wayne Swan has hit the microphones this morning in the wake of a new poll in which Labor has made some moderate gains. In the first one released since his ‘cheques in the mail’ budget, Labor’s primary vote has risen by three points to 30%, and on a Two Party Preferred basis, they only trail the coalition by 10%, - 45% to 55%.

This is hardly good news for the party, and especially not for the PM whose satisfaction rating has dropped a point to 27% in spite of the massive cash splash being sent out to lower income families across the nation as an attempt to buy votes. Some minor improvement may occur over the next couple of polls as the cheques start arriving but after that it is down hill all the way.

In July, the massive $23 per ton and rising carbon tax hits the hip pockets, something the government is keeping quiet about for the moment in its advertising blitz. In fact, in a $36 million taxpayer funded campaign to inform us of how good we should think the government is to offer us compensation for taking our money away from us and increasing prices across the board, they fail to mention the tax itself:

Catching up with Time, or, "We’re from Newsweek, and we’re here to help."

Given the potent mix we currently have of post modernist political thought, a cheerleading media, and the availability of Photoshop, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between genuine articles and satirical posts in the upmarket media.

For example, which of the following is fake and which is a genuine Newsweek post?:

You see the problem here, both have the same degree of logic behind them, and both share the same relevance and importance to people out in the real world.

For those who are confused, the one on the left is the real deal, the one on the right is satire from Red Square.

Given the impact of the recent man child breast feeding cover by Time, and the manner in which it changed attitudes out in flyover country, Newsweek has been left scrambling for something to trump its competitor. Finally an opportunity was presented by President Obama, who after a long transition of conflicting views on gay marriage has come out in favour of it after being against it, after being for it, after being ...

Anyway, believing that it would help the President if people were able to indulge in same sex marriage thus taking their minds off the economy being on the slag-heap, and alluding to Bill Clinton's claim to be the first black President, they came up with the cover below. It sure beats anything Time could come up with and it is reasonable to assume that the editors are already hanging the framed thank you letter on their wall.

It is difficult to find any reason for this issue to be anything other than a distraction. Few rational people give a toss about what others get up to consensually in private. The problem arises because the government chooses to regulate relationships and grant special privileges to those in the ones it approves of.

Some who disapprove of same sex relationships on religious grounds shouldn't find it too difficult to adopt the attitude of allowing others to go to Hell in their own way. No edict from the state ever saved a sinner, if that is what objectors claim them to be.

Just to ensure that this post is not seen as picking on Newsweek, and to achieve 'balance' here are two 'Time' images, one genuine, one satirical from the same source as above. Can you guess which is which?

ANU’s last lingering death threat fizzes.

The issuance of death threats is symbolic of ignorance, inarticulation, intemperance, and is generally the action of a loser who can’t make a rational case for his preferred position. Falsely claiming to have received death threats is much the same, with the addition of cowardice, untruthfulness, and manipulativness.

The Australian National University (ANU) recently gained, firstly some sympathy, then derision, after it claimed to have had to move its climate scientists into more secure accommodation after receiving such threats. In the wash-up, a blogger made an FOI request for said threats. The ANU strongly opposed releasing them citing security and privacy. This lead to statements such as, “The dog ate my death threats.”

The long and short of it is that eventually the Privacy Commissioner released a report citing eleven supposed threats, ten of which contained no threats, and the eleventh could possibly be considered somewhat "intimidating."

This involved an ANU ‘public engagement’ event where a radical climate denying fascist redneck skeptic who had been invited to attend had become frustrated, showing what he claimed was a gun license to people sitting at the table, before claiming he was a “good shot”. The individual is understood to have left voluntarily. It all sounds bad.

Unfortunately for ANU the aforesaid radical climate denying fascist redneck skeptic saw the guff and recognized his input and decided to set the record straight:

I feel I can now throw some light on the matter. The document viewed as most "threatening" referred to an alleged Deliberation at the ANU about climate change in the Canberra region at which one person “made a death threat” (sic) by showing his gun licence and boasting about his skill as a sniper..

Only two people dropped out of the conference only one of those who did so attended the even meal. Me. I am certainly the one who is alleged to show someone their gun licence. That is not true while at the evening meal (of poor quality) comments moved to eating game meat and I was approached by the Commissioner for the Environment ACT, Dr Maxine Cooper who recognized me as someone involved in the kangaroo culling program in the ACT.

She politely asked if she could sit at the vacant seat next to me and asked if I had past the recent licence test - not easy. I replied yes and showed her my current licence. I also impressed on any one interested the high standard of marksmanship necessary to allay any cruelty concerns.

I might add that earlier in the day I had challenged two speakers to comment on a letter in the Canberra Times that claimed that temperatures had not increased in the Canberra area for decades. They were unable to do so, having not apparently checked the record despite the “Deliberation” (conference) supposed to be about rising temperatures in the Canberra region. As all daytime conversations were recorded (we all signed waivers to allow this) this can easily be checked.

ANU is looking worse the longer this goes on. Turning an innocent conversation into something sinister by persons who were onlookers and must have been aware of the context of the discussion is contemptible.

Stop laughing, it probably happens here.

Image and H/t; Courtesy, The Peoples Comrade.


“Never hold an inquiry unless you know what the result will be” – Sir Russell Hinze and Sir Humphrey Appleby.

We in Australia are used to inquiries being held as a sure fire method of making an issue go away, or at least kicking the can down the road far enough to make it somebody else’s problem. We are also not unused to inquiries into inquiries, or multiple inquiries on the same issue.

We have this from the (US) ABC. This is fair dinkum, you just can’t make this stuff up:

The Pentagon was inundated with so many studies in 2010 that it commissioned a study to determine how much it cost to produce all those studies. Now the Government Accountability Office has reviewed the Pentagon’s study and concluded in a report this week that it’s a flop.

The study of a study of studies began in 2010 when Defense Secretary Robert Gates complained that his department was “awash in taskings for reports and studies.” He wanted to know how much they cost.

Two years later, the Pentagon review is still continuing, which prompted Congress to ask the GAO to look over the Pentagon’s shoulder. What they found lacked military precision. The GAO found only nine studies that had been scrutinized by the Pentagon review, but the military was unable to “readily retrieve documentation” for six of the reports. …

The cost of the study of the study of the studies was not available from the GAO.

Enough said.

Can Johnson swing the election?

One of the usual criticisms of third party candidates in any election and especially strong third party candidates is the old claim that they will rob the candidate that the critic supports of his God given right to be President. In this US cycle, Republicans who opted to allow MSNBC to vet their candidates are hitting LP Nominee Gary Johnson with that claim.

Johnson denies it and believes he can take substantially more votes off the Democrats:

Would Johnson take votes away from the eventual GOP nominee and perhaps throw the electoral votes of key states to Obama? Without hesitation, he shot back: “I reject that analysis. You’re saying that people who support marriage equality [gay marriage], ending our military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and smoking marijuana would vote for the Republican candidate if I wasn’t in the race?”

Although believing he would take more votes from among Democrats and independents than Republicans, Johnson did concede that some of his agenda and his record as governor of the Land of Enchantment — including 750 vetoes and cutting taxes 14 times — might appeal to conservatives. He also believes in abolishing the corporate, capital gains and income taxes in favor of a consumption (or “Fair”) tax, not unlike Mike Huckabee’s proposal in 2008.

According to a recent Rasmussen survey, he is probably correct in this assumption. Although the survey was done on the basis of Ron Paul standing as an independent, it is reasonable to assume that were Ron not to do so, a fair swag of his support would go to Johnson:

Three-Way Race: Romney 44%, Obama 39%, Ron Paul 13%

Texas Congressman Ron Paul appears more interested in influencing the direction of the Republican Party than in running as an independent presidential candidate. But perhaps Democrats should be careful what they wish for: Even if Mitt Romney’s remaining GOP challenger should run as a third party candidate, new Rasmussen Reports surveying finds Romney the winner of a three-way race.

The latest national telephone survey shows that 25% of Likely U.S. Voters think Paul should run as a third party candidate. Sixty-one percent (61%) disagree, but 13% more are not sure.

At the time the poll was taken, Romney was leading Obama by the same margin, indicating that Paul was getting equal support from both sides. Assuming Paul does not run, and much of his support migrates to Johnson to add to his 3-5% support, Johnson is likely to get into the 15% range he is hoping for to get into the debates.

Disillusioned Democrats may be more prepared to support Gary than Ron. Gary, unlike Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr, has not been profiled by DHS or MIAC as potential insurrectionist militia leaders, nor have his supporters been considered by those ‘august’ bodies as possible terrorists.

Which ever way it goes, it is typical of the arrogance and imperious nature of the established major parties to believe that all others should stand aside for them to have a clear run at being the ‘ins and outs’ after the election. Ruling classes have never exhibited much other than disdain and contempt for their downtrodden.

Labor delivers a redistribution of wealth budget.

Cartoon: By Pickering.

In delivering what they hoped would be a surplus budget, Labor has stuck to the tried and true formula of abandoning promises in a ham-fisted attempt to buy votes. The projected surplus of $1.5 billion is miniscule and even then is unlikely to come to fruition. It has to be remembered that the projected deficit for the last financial year was about $21 billion; the reality, more than double that.

Ever since the mining tax was mooted the government have attempted to sell it by claiming that it was needed to fund a cut in the corporate tax rate. This was supposed to ease the pressure on the business community, which was claimed to be suffering the effects of a ‘two speed’ economy. This has been dropped in order to hand out money hand over fist in order to buy votes.

Business has not had a change in fortune and no explanation was given as to why the tax cut was no longer necessary. Just suck it up guys.

Rather than being a responsible budget designed to put a halt to the ever ascending debt spiral, it is as Swan said a typical Labor budget with smoke and mirrors, designed with the next election in mind. Rather than being about being fiscally responsible, it a massive handout budget; rather than cutting government expenditure, it increases it by over $200 million.

Much of it has been achieved by the addition of the carbon tax and the mining tax added to ‘savings’, which are actually tax increases. A great deal has also been done by bringing projected expenditure for next year forward into this year, and deferring more into the following year.

This budget effectively strips funds from major employers with the mining and carbon taxes, reduces infrastructure spending and diverts it into increased welfare entitlement spending.

Swan’s ‘balanced budget' overshadowed by sleaze.

Cartoon: By Pickering.

It hasn’t been a very bad week for Julia until now. Our PM Jules, that is, not President Obama’s composite welfare tart who was put out there to let women know that they can never make it in the real world without state intervention.

Jules had managed to string together almost two consecutive days without a major screw-up or scandal and was looking forward to Treasurer Swan’s smoke and mirrors ‘balanced budget.’ Unfortunately, just at that stage, the senate released the report by FWA on the HSU scandal:

A Fair Work Australia (FWA) report has found former Labor MP turned crossbencher Craig Thomson used work credit cards to pay for escort services while he was national secretary of the Health Services Union (HSU). A senate committee has published the 1,100-page report after being handed the document by FWA this afternoon.

The report found more than 150 breaches of union rules by Mr. Thomson, including that he spent almost $6,000 using union credit cards on escort services while he was travelling away from home and staying in hotels.

The report says the money was spent either for Mr Thomson's benefit or that of someone else. It also details almost $270,000 in spending on activities connected to helping Mr Thomson win his seat in parliament.

The budget will come down as ‘balanced’ aided by the already programmed end to stimulus spending, and taking the NBN and other items off budget. Given that during the incumbency of the current government, the nation has been in the midst of an unprecedented mining boom, it begs the question, “Why the hell have we been borrowing our way into bankruptcy to stimulate the economy in the first place?”

The Bolt Report has an interview with economics professor Judith Sloan who at the three minute mark in the video details some of what is going on: