Truss; Your duty to democracy, support your ruling class

Acting Prime Minister, Warren Truss seems to be a little miffed with people voting for Palmer United, but doesn’t seem all that fussed with other minor parties.

Speaking about the future for PUP, he claimed that it, like others before it would ultimately fail.  This is a reasonable assumption given the fate of Pauline Hanson and the Australian Democrats. 

At this point though, Truss loses the plot with his claim that voters have ‘an obligation to democracy’ to vote for the three majors (although he only mentions the LNP): 

… He said yesterday those who voted for him [Clive Palmer] in protest were ignoring their obligations to democracy and putting their country at risk. 

Mr Truss, Acting Prime Minister while Tony Abbott is overseas, said the Coalition took its responsibilities seriously and would get on with the job of delivering what was important for Australia. He said other parties could worry about themselves. 

Asked if Mr Palmer's Palmer United Party was just a “flash in the pan”, he said there had always been independent parties. 

“We have had plenty of saviours in the past, like Pauline Hanson and Bob Katter. They all made a little bit of an impact for a while,” he told reporters at the NSW Nationals conference in Queanbeyan. 

Mr Palmer was a big winner at the 2013 federal election, gaining his own seat and three Senate spots.  Ms Hanson roared on to the Australian political landscape in 1996 but was only in federal parliament for a single term. 

Despite big predictions, the vote for the Katter's Australian Party of Mr Katter, a longtime Queensland-based MP, was disappointing at the last election, and Mr Katter's personal vote slumped. 

Mr Truss said there was always a protest vote.  “Sometimes these people will gain support from that element,” he said.  “Those who throw away their vote in some kind of protest are in fact ignoring their obligations to their democracy but also putting their country at risk.”

It is a curious claim that voters have an obligation to democracy that requires them to support their established ruling class.  It is downright bizarre to then go on to claim that failure to do so puts the country at risk.  Of what???

The risk is not to the nation but to the governing triumvirate.  Wazza, like so many other politicians, tends to confuse his own party’s interest with the national interest.

Truss’s problem will not end with the demise of PUP; the vote for Clive is only the symptom of a much bigger issue for the LNP and other majors.  The real problem is that around a quarter of the electorate has had a gutful of the dithering, spendthrift major parties and want someone else to do the job.

Palmer is offering little other than another populist party competing for the ground already covered by the Liberal/ Labor/Greens cartel, but as a policy free zone.  His only appeal to the electorate is that he is not LNP, Labor, or Greens.

National protest on Biker laws

Queensland’s draconian anti biker laws have come under the spotlight today with thousands of recreational bikers, civil libertarians, and others protesting around the nation.

The largest was in Brisbane outside parliament house with over 2,000 people present to express their outrage at the VLAD Act, which has effectively marginalized and in some cases outlawed riding in company.

The Queensland organizer was Gabriel Buckley from the Liberal Democrats, who have consistently opposed laws which unfairly single out groups for prosecution for who they are, rather than on the basis of wrongdoing: 

RECREATIONAL motorcyclists are protesting across Australia on Sunday to show solidarity against Queensland's tough new anti-bikie laws. 

Queensland organiser Gabriel Buckley says the new laws, aimed at criminal bikie gangs, have resulted in the harassment of law-abiding motorcyclists. Mr Buckley said a primary concern was that the laws reversed the onus on proof for people accused of links to prescribed criminal gangs. 

"Some people are being pulled over three times on their way to work,'' he told AAP. "You can imagine why these guys are getting impatient with the government.”

Premier Campbell Newman on the other hand claims that the laws only target criminal gangs and offers the platitude that law abiding bikers have nothing to fear and should be patient as they are pulled over for unreasonable searches and aggressive questioning by police. 

Tasmania bans abortion clinic protests

Image: Tasmanian Health Minister Michelle O'Byrne. (This explains a lot)

In a draconian move by the Tasmanian government, protests cannot be held within a one hundred and fifty meter radius of an abortion clinic.  At this stage there is no other legislation on the books banning any other protests in a similar manner against anything else.

This action is part of the Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill 2013, so it only applies to protests against abortionists.  It also compels doctors who refuse to carry them out on conscience grounds to refer patents to others who will: 

“The bill proposes a fine of $65,000 or a 12 month jail term for the newly created crime of protesting in an area within a radius of 150 metres from an abortion clinic. This is an inappropriate limitation on freedom of speech. 

“General laws against intimidation already exist in the law and they are appropriate restraints on unacceptable behavior.  

“Singling out particular premises for special treatment undermines equality before the law. This bill does not make it illegal to distribute material outside supermarkets or sports grounds, for instance. The Tasmanian government should not ban protests, whether they occur outside an abortion clinic or a timber mill. 

“The bill also threatens freedom of conscience by forcing doctors who have a conscientious objection to abortion to refer patients to another doctor who does not have such objections. A fine of $32,500 applies to counsellors who refuse to contradict their beliefs. This is a clear and unacceptable infringement of freedom of conscience,” said Mr Breheny.

Tasmania is a state with great potential but cruelled by successive governments over the years.  The current one is made up of far left Labor, in coalition with the Greens, who as close to Bolshies as you can get, this side of Stalin.  It is something like Australia’s California.

As much as the idea of abortion is distasteful, legalizing it creates a safer environment for women who undergo the process.  Its illegality has not prevented many from taking place, but has created a situation where women’s lives are at risk.  It is controversial however, and it is reasonable to expect protests against it.

The left though, regard it as some sort of sacred cow that must not be questioned, let alone be objected to. 

Green Party Nominee arrested

Third parties in the US run up against blocking moves by the big two at every move they attempt. The hoops they have to jump through just to get on the ballot on each of the 50 states and DC are extraordinary just for starters. When they manage this, attempts are made to lawyer them off again as has happened to the Libertarian Party team, which is still fighting GOP ones off.

 Then they have no chance of being on the podium in the debates, as the organizing committee is a body formed by the Democrats and Republicans, which excludes outsiders. Gary Johnson has launched an anti-trust suit to no avail. Just prior to the debate the Green nominees were arrested for protesting outside the venue:
 

ABC News has the report: 

Green Party candidate Jill Stein and her vice presidential running mate Cheri Honkala were arrested at the Hofstra University debate site today as they protested their exclusion from the second presidential debate. 

Stein and Honkala were jailed for disorderly conduct around 3 p.m.  when they were blocked by police officers as they attempted to enter the debate hall, according to Stein’s campaign manager Ben Manski. 

Manski said that it was unclear when they would be released, but they could remain jailed until midnight. The Nassau County Police Department said that it was unclear when Stein and Honkala might be released. 

“The arrest was outrageous and shouldn’t be tolerated in a country that is a leading proponent of democracy,” Manski told ABC News. “They knew that there was the possibility that they would be arrested. Their intention was to enter the premises and bear witness to the mockery of democracy that is tonight’s debate,” he said.

The actual arrest was carried out as they sat on the roadway to protest their exclusion.  Just what is it with lefties and blocking roads? 

They could have achieved the same result by continuing to protest at the entrance to the building.  Blocking roads simply causes inconvenience to users and garners little sympathy for otherwise legitimate causes.  More exposure is gained by a longer protest, which has a better chance of being reported, although it is fairly clear that the media have little time for those who are outside their preferred agenda.

Generally, the ruling classes have little other than contempt and scorn for those they trample under foot.

Editorial note: This site has a well known aversion to the far left, far right, and especially the Greens.  This issue though goes way beyond any partisan issues to the heart of liberty itself, in that if we do not support even these idiots when they have a legitimate issue; especially one that affects all of us, we get picked off one at a time.

Call for a “Muhammad cartoon a day

Daniel Pipes has come up with a novel idea to desensitize Muslims to the perceived insults to their religion. Lets face it; it needs to happen. Things were quiet in Australia over the weekend after Muslim clerics realized just how their lunacy on the previous one, had outraged everyone but the left and its apologists. As result they called for calm, which seems to have worked.

 Here is a short summary of what we saw, and why we are really pissed off:

Image (L) These signs have been around in other countries, especially in Europe where the population like authoritarians demanding that they comply, however this is the first time they have appeared here.  Aussies do not tolerate zealots who make threats; just having Gillard is bad enough.  Calls for beheading are vile.

Image (R) Jihad Girl 

SHE may be the youngest voice of Islamic fundamentalism to be broadcast in Australia. This is a recording of 8-year-old Ruqaya urging other children to join the fight for a global Islamic state. As she sees it, “nobody is too young”. 

Ruqaya delivered her speech to an audience of 600 at a conference called Muslims Rise, hosted by an Islamic group called Hizb ut-Tahrir. It was held in Bankstown in Sydney’s west on Sunday. Muslims Rise advocates the restoration of the Islamic caliphate - a global government for all Muslims, operating under strict sharia law. 

Ruqaya was one of nine speakers in a considerable line-up, which included a controversial keynote from Taji Mustafa, described by the Opposition as a "hate preacher".

Image (L) Mother radicalizing child

An Islamic mother is pictured taking a ‘happy snap’ to send to the folks back home to let them know the kids are being raised the right way.  She is claiming she isn’t dumb, she is ‘university educated’, but just didn’t know what ‘beheading’ meant. 

Breaking her silence almost a week after she created a national stir, the 28-year-old university educated woman claimed she did not know what the word "behead" meant. 

She insisted her eldest child picked up the poster from the ground and waved it above his head, so she took a photograph of him, not comprehending the sinister message portrayed on the sign. "I did not know what beheading was," she said. …

Daniel Pipes is suggesting that all publishers publish the Kurt Westergaard cartoon every day:

On the Islamist side, an individual or group took one of these perceived offenses and turned it into a reason to riot. Khomeini did this with The Satanic Verses and Ahmad Abu Laban did likewise with the Danish cartoons. Hamid Karzai goaded Afghans to riot over burned Korans by American soldiers and Egyptian preacher Khaled Abdullah turned Innocence of Muslims into an international event. 

In brief, any Westerner can buy a Koran for a dollar and burn it, while any Muslim with a platform can transform that act into a fighting offense. As passions rise on both sides of the democratized Western / Muslim divide, Western provocateurs and Islamist hotheads have found each other and confrontations occur with increasing frequency.Which prompts this question: 

What would happen if publishers and managers of major media reached a consensus, "Enough of this intimidation, we will publish the most famous Danish Muhammad cartoon every day until the Islamists tire out and no longer riot"? What would happen if instances of Koran burning happened recurrently?   

Would repetition inspire institutionalization, generate ever-more outraged responses, and offer a vehicle for Islamists to ride to greater power? Or would it lead to routinization, to a wearing out of Islamists, and a realization that violence is counter-productive to their cause? 

I predict the latter, that a Muhammad cartoon published each day, or Koranic desecrations on a quasi-regular basis, will make it harder for Islamists to mobilize Muslim mobs. Were that the case, Westerners could once again treat Islam as they do other religions – freely, to criticize without fear. That would demonstrate to Islamists that Westerners will not capitulate, that they reject Islamic law, that they are ready to stand up for their values. 

So, this is my plea to all Western editors and producers: display the Muhammad cartoon daily until the Islamists get used to the fact that we turn sacred cows into hamburger.

It might just work.

Violent Islamic protest in Sydney

Inage: Sydney Morning Herald

A large group of violent Islamic radicals formed part of a ‘protest’ today in Sydney over a video clip depicting Mohammed. Six police were injured and others were treated for the effects of capsicum spray after violent confrontations at the US consulate and Hyde Park. It is understood that not all protestors were involved in the assaults on police, but eight were arrested and video evidence is being studied:

Eight of the protesters were expected to be charged with a range of offences, including affray, assaulting police, resisting arrest and throwing a missile. Police said they would also begin poring through “a significant amount of evidence” that had been gathered through the media and officers, and that anyone caught committing offences would be “vigorously pursued.”

Saturday's angry scenes began after about 1pm (AEST), when an “unannounced and unapproved” group of people gathered at Town Hall as part of a global protest against an anti-Islamic film.

Police said the group began walking along George Street towards Martin Place, where they attempted to enter the US consulate, which is located in the MLC Centre. It was here, according to police, that violence between officers and the growing group first broke out.

Tempers flared again when the demonstrators - then about 300-strong - took their rallying cry to Hyde Park. Capsicum spray was fired, leaving faces red and inflamed, while one man was seen being dragged along the ground with blood dripping down his face.

Superintendent Mark Walton later said he believed some people went to the protest “armed”, with a view to cause damage and assault police. “The group was unorganised and clearly split into factions, being some there to express their concerns from their community perspective,” he said.

“However, there were other elements ... who were clearly here with another intent.” “They were aggressive and violent at times and came into contact with police.” Waving banners with slogans such as “Behead all those who insult the Prophet”, protesters listened as one protester told the crowd: “We will never accept the assault on our prophet.”

Anyone who is even barely more than semiliterate, or is bothered to do a small amount of research on the subject which this rabble claim is dear to them, would know that Australians were not involved in the film. In fact America is not responsible for it. It was made by a small group of religious nutters similar to those demonstrating today.

The video itself appears to be a poorly made, facile, badly scripted, third rate, attempt at parodying the more classical “Life of Brian” only replacing the ‘Christ’ figure with Mohammed. It is a standing joke across the world and the only people taking it in any way seriously are these religious retards. Of course, The Life of Brian was offensive to many Christians, resulting in them declining to watch it. Nobody was killed or injured by fascist mobs.

The report goes on to mention a statement by one of the protestors, who was offended despite not having seen the clip:

Protester Abdullah Sary, who said he wanted a peaceful protest, said although he had not seen the film, he was offended because it ridiculed the Prophet Mohammed.

“The prophet is more beloved then my family, my wife, my mother and myself. So if someone says this, you can see how upsetting it is.”

More important than his ‘family, his wife, his mother and himself’? Only a Scientologist or a cultist of some description would ever come up with something like that. This gives some indication of just what screwups these people really are.

What strange people these are. They seem to have all of that fighting spirit, yet they never displayed any of it when they fled from all of that tyranny against which fighting might have been useful. Instead they decide to fight against the law enforcement agencies of a free country that offered them sanctuary. Perhaps they should go back where they came from and do their fighting where it will do the most good, although the risks are higher.

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.

Women tentatively rebelling in Saudi Arabia.

Image: A 'daring' piece of arm from a Saudi FB page. From WebProNews.

Here in the West we have always had some difficulty in persuading the fairer sex that we men know what’s best for them. Try as we might, women not only refuse to accept this simple truth, they actually appear to resent the very suggestion. “Let me take you away from here and show you how to dress modestly and avoid the attentions of other men,” is not a recommended pickup line in Australia. It may work better in the US.

In Saudi Arabia though, they have a God who has decreed that things are totally different there. Women are subservient and do as they are told even down to the way they dress and are freed from dangerous ideas of independence by strict principles of Sharia law, enforced by the morals police. Latest reports though indicate the first stirrings of rebellion are in the air:

There is an emerging trend among young Saudi women who post pictures of parts of their body without revealing their identity. Journalist Mariyam Jaber said she found several social websites where just the body parts of what appears to be Saudi women are displayed, such as feet, just the body or even fingernails, but without betraying her identity.

“This reveals a woman’s desire to liberate herself from social restrictions and express herself, and Facebook or other networking sites are the easiest platforms to achieve this,” she said.

The number of Saudis on Facebook is estimated at 2.3 million out of the 5 million in the Gulf. According to figures, 29 percent of Saudi Internet users visit Facebook and women under 25 account for 48 percent of all Internet users in the Kingdom.

“Most women on social networking sites use fake names. By displaying parts of their body and sometimes in glittering colors, young women must be achieving some sort of gratification or release of their emotions while anonymity guarantees them immunity from social censure or parental displeasure,” said Amal Al-Saleh, a university graduate. …

But help is at hand. The cause has been identified:

Professor of Social Sciences at Umm Al-Qura University Mahmoud Al-Kesnawi warned the spare time a young woman has at her disposal because of spinsterhood or unemployment is a factor that prompts her to seek refuge in computers and mobile phones.

Saudi Arabia is probably one of the most oppressive Islamic regimes as far as the treatment of women is concerned, equal if not worse than Iran. While this development does not in itself represent a major turnaround, it does give some sign of a changing view by younger people, especially women. The dour nature of Islamic rule may be sewing the seeds of its own destruction as wider communication via the web gives its subjects windows into a much freer world that they will aspire to be part of.

The threat offered by Western values to tyrants the world over is not military, but is the philosophy of liberty.

St Louis cops move Occupy out the right way.

Image: volunteer arrestees in St Louis.

Radley Balko of “The Agitator” passes on a report from St Louis on the method used by the police there to move out the ‘Occupy’ demonstrators from the Plaza there. Radley is a libertarian advocate for rights, and a strong opponent of ‘no knock’ raids, forensic shysters, over zealous prosecutors, police militarization, and the overuse of swat squads, among other causes.

The dispersal of ‘Occupy’ has in most cases not gone well, with violence, rioting, and lawsuits being the order of the day. While Radley states that he cannot verify this at the moment, but points out that if true the police deserve praise for the way they handled what is usually a bad situation:

The first thing they did was the one that baffled me the most, at first: they gave the protesters nearly 36 hours notice, as opposed to the 20 to 60 minutes’ notice other cities gave. … Early afternoon on Thursday, they gave the protesters 24 hours’ notice: as of 3pm on Friday, the no structures in the plaza rule was going to be enforced, and as of 10pm, the curfew was going to be enforced. So, unsurprisingly, Occupy St. Louis put out a huge call for as many people as possible to come to the plaza by noon, to be trained in peaceful civil disobedience; local civil liberties lawyers showed up to brief them. …

So, when no cops showed up anywhere near 3pm, the protesters had their biggest rally to date (as I suspect the cops were thinking, “getting it out of their system”), and then started to drift away. Rally organizers advised people to be back before 10pm, to block the enforcement of curfew. Sure enough, by 10pm, they had 350 people down there. And scant minutes later, people were jazzed up and ready to go, because outlying scouts reported that the police were gathering, en masse, with multiple cars, multiple buses, an ambulance, and a firetruck, only a couple of blocks away!

And sometime around an hour, hour and a half later, the cops just disappeared, dispersed, without ever having gotten within two blocks of the plaza. So the confused protesters declared victory, let most of the troops go home, and fewer than a hundred of them bedded down for the night in their tents. An hour later, somewhere around 150 cops showed up. …

Ah, but the cops did more than just show up after two head-fakes and with sufficient numbers … they did right exactly what the Obama administration told everybody else to do wrong. They didn’t show up in riot gear and helmets, they showed up in shirt sleeves with their faces showing. They not only didn’t show up with SWAT gear, they showed up with no unusual weapons at all, and what weapons they had all securely holstered. They politely woke everybody up. They politely helped everybody who was willing to remove their property from the park to do so. They then asked, out of the 75 to 100 people down there, how many people were volunteering for being-arrested duty? Given 33 hours to think about it, and 10 hours to sweat it over, only 27 volunteered. As the police already knew, those people’s legal advisers had advised them not to even passively resist, so those 27 people lined up to be peacefully arrested, and were escorted away by a handful of cops. The rest were advised to please continue to protest, over there on the sidewalk … and what happened next was the most absolutely brilliant piece of crowd control policing I have heard of in my entire lifetime.

All of the cops who weren’t busy transporting and processing the voluntary arrestees lined up, blocking the stairs down into the plaza. They stood shoulder to shoulder. They kept calm and silent. They positioned the weapons on their belts out of sight. They crossed their hands low in front of them, in exactly the least provocative posture known to man. And they peacefully, silently, respectfully occupied the plaza, using exactly the same non-violent resistance techniques that the protesters themselves had been trained in.

Maybe this would not work all of the time, but it is worth considering the possibility that good police work without the use of SWAT and riot police and aggressive tactics may work better. While rabble rousers among the protestors are likely to attempt to inflame these situations, a lower key response could isolate them from the more peaceful elements and make them easier to deal with.

The ‘Big Joint’ banned from Obama protest.

Image: The famous Big Joint is carried during the Rally for Cannabis Law Reform and Float Parade.- Jerad Williams. Source; Gympie Times.

Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) have been refused permission to display their 30-foot long inflatable joint during protests aimed at President Obama who is visiting Canberra next week. Not only was their original plan, to present the iconic device to the President banned, but also there are plans to prevent its display during the visit.

Banning it is a blatant attack on freedom of speech and expression in this country. While the idea of offering it to President Obama is somewhat over the top and would raise security concerns, there is no credible reason why a giant inflatable joint should be prohibited from being displayed. HEMP has a right to campaign for the legalization of the product just as any other group has for their issues.

Image: President Obama, Drug warrior.

Obama, like George W Bush and Bill Clinton has used marijuana. Unlike his predecessors, he advocated reform of the law prior to becoming President only to become a strident drug war warrior afterward, including a campaign against medical use in states where this is legal. Current polls indicate that 50% of Americans now support legalization of pot, a figure that substantially beats the President's own approval figures.

Apart from the futility of attempting to prohibit the use of such a popular and easily produced product, there are numerous therapeutic uses for it including pain relief. GOP Presidential candidate and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, supports such use after having used it for pain relief for three years after a paragliding accident caused him multiple bone fractures, including a burst fracture to his T12 vertebrae:

“But for luck, I guess, I wasn’t arrested.” Although smoking marijuana for medicinal purposes was illegal in New Mexico until 2007, Johnson says he needed the drug following a 2005 paragliding accident in Hawaii. His sails got caught in a tree, he stalled—and fell about fifty feet straight down to the ground, he says. Johnson suffered multiple bone fractures, including a burst fracture to his T12 vertebrae. “In my human experience, it’s the worst pain I’ve ever felt.”

“Rather than using painkillers, which I have used on occasion before, I did smoke pot, as a result of having broken my back, blowing out both of my knees, breaking ribs, really taking about three years to recover,” Johnson says. He explains that painkillers had once caused him to suffer nasty side effects and the pain of withdrawing from the pills was unbearable. So, Johnson says, in 2005 "someone who cared" for him gave him marijuana to deal with the pain.

Parents need to take responsibility for educating children on the dangers of drugs, not leave them to find out from teachers, peers who may think its cool, or rely on the police force to prevent them trying it out. Prohibition not only fails to protect, but creates the situation whereby kids experimenting with a relatively harmless substance end up with a lifetime criminal record if caught.

An analysis of the Middle East situation.

Introduction.

What follows below is one of the best assessments I have encountered of the current events in the Middle East from Daniel Pipes. While most western peaceniks are inclined to lay the entire blame for the dictatorships that are being overthrown at present at the feet of the US, the reality is that Western interference was carried out to counter communist interference.

Much of the Cold War was carried out by proxy, both sides supporting for strategic purposes regimes that in a decent world would be lined up against the wall and shot. The greatest threat of the West to the USSR and its allies was not so much the armed force but the idea of liberty, or what passes for it today.

Both forms of authoritarianism, secular (fascism, communism etc) and theocratic, have reason to fear the idea of their downtrodden seeing the freedom of the west and asking, “Why not here?” Regrettably, with western governments becoming more authoritarian in their efforts to make nanny statism appear to work, we are losing that advantage.

One act of bastardry too many, caused a fruit vendor in Tunisia to self immolate, igniting seething resentment into full-blown revolution. This will probably not free the people from oppressors but will give them new tyrants, this time religious ones. Probably the only bright spot for the west is likely to be Iran where the population has shown a willingness to revolt against the sort of oppressors the newly 'free' seem about to install.

Friendless in the Middle East

Richmond Tea Party wants its money back.

Cartoon by Foden.

One aspect of the Tea party rallies that has been largely ignored by the press and government in their vitriolic response to their existence is the fact that the organization is orderly and law abiding while protesting against government intrusion and spending. Despite being portrayed as dangerous, racist, radicals, and anything else that comes to mind, they have not been involved in violence and tend to leave areas cleaner than when they went there.

The Occupy movement, which has the approval of the Administration from the top down, seems to be the opposite. Rowdy, confrontational, and without clear purpose other than being against capitalism, they have generally disregarded all rules.

Here is a comparison between the performances of the two groups.

Now the Richmond Tea Party has had enough of being disadvantaged by rules that the other side is allowed to flout. It has asked for the money paid in fees and charges for their rallies to be refunded:

The Richmond tea party is demanding a refund of about $10,000 from the city, claiming it unfairly charged them for rallies while allowing the Occupy protesters to use the same space for several weeks for free.

The political organization is sending the city an invoice for the charges incurred for three rallies held in Kanawha Plaza over the past three years. The Occupy protesters have been camped in the plaza since Oct. 15.

Richmond Tea Party spokeswoman Colleen Owens says it's not fair that her group had to pay fees for permits, portable toilets, police presence and emergency personnel. The group also had to purchase a $1 million insurance policy.

Tea party groups across the nation have raised similar concerns since the protests spread from New York earlier this month.

They make a good point here, however with the Occupy movement having the approval and encouragement of the President and his lackeys, it is likely that they will find that some protesters are more equal than others in the eyes of the law.

Convoy of no Confidence participants upbeat.

Image: The left have accused the convoy of being part of the Tea Party. The people involved say they prefer something stronger than tea.

Contrary to some reports, the convoy protest did well. It garnered fantastic support among the towns and communities along the various routes, and some members have mentioned a very positive response among Canberra residents. Mentions of low numbers seem to be wrong as there were at least 1100 vehicles there and around 2,000 people, who it should be remembered travelled up to 5,000 kilometers to be there.

A number of government and Green politicians, (actually the same thing) made a number of derogatory remarks such as convoy of no consequence, and other disrespectful remarks, such as convoys of incontinence. This is to be expected from the sorts of arrogant authoritarian elitists who inhabit the government benches.

These people tend to regard the population of provincial areas with contempt, disdain and condescension until an election comes up, at which they become the real Australians out there and the backbone of our wide brown land or some other politically spun dribble.

There is an excellent report in “Accidently Outback,” on the success of the effort:

Here is a report direct from a participant:

The Convoy of no Confidence has been a remarkable success.
I was extremely proud to be part of the 2000 plus peaceful protest. It was an unprecedented military style logistical effort performed by 'Salt of the Earth" Australians and their many thousands of supporters along each of the 11 routes.

The commitment of the Convoy leaders and the hierarchy of the National Road Freighters Association was an inspiration. The strength of character to embark on this unknown venture showed the true courage of everyone's conviction despite the threat of failure and ridicule.

After our symbolic drive through the Parliamentary precinct we all gathered on the lawn for the official proceedings. There was a wide spectrum of speakers representing Large Industry, Small Business and Social Groups. While all political parties had an open invitation to speak, only various conservative coalition members responded. Our own Just Grounds members Senator Joyce and Williams gave memorable speeches, as did Bronwyn Bishop and Tony Abbott. Two outstanding young speakers were, Rashida Khan from the Northern Territory and Stuart Austin representing Australians Supporting Beef Farmers.

Due to a week of intense buildup and anticipation the Convoy had captured the imagination of the greater population. This was largely due to the wonderful support of the Talkback Radio across the country, which is the defacto people’s parliament. The leaders of this were the 2GB network - Alan Jones and Ray Hadley in Sydney, and Steve Price and Andrew Bolt in Melbourne. We sincerely thank them for their tremendous support. Alan Jones arrived from Sydney after doing his breakfast show of 3 hours and proceeded to MC for the next 5 hours without a break. I personally, will not hear a word against this man, as his commitment to results for our country is there for all to see.

The Convoy of No Confidence was labeled of no 'consequence' two hundred metres from where we were in the House of Representatives. This is an insult from a disgraceful government by a minister of no 'significance'.

It was resolved that we would not submit the 30 000 strong petition signatures on the day. Given the short timeframe and massive support all over the Australia along the way, we are going to continue gathering signatures with an aim of 1 million to be tabled by Senator Joyce in the parliament.

The community spirit that the Just Grounds members have shown was one of the bonds that made the Convoy a success. It eliminated the isolation and aided the organisers to communicate ideas into action right across Australia in a matter of weeks. Give yourselves a huge pat on the back.

Convoys of No Confidence, libertarian conspiracy: The Drum.

The Convoy of No Confidence has made its protest and will by now, be on the road home. Have a safe trip and thank you to those hundreds of people who, disillusioned with the lies, profligacy, mismanagement, and taxing ways of the Gillard government, drove up to 5,000 kilometers to Canberra in order to make their feelings known.

While there has been some positive reporting, much of the media seems to have concentrated on the negative government response, and in some cases have concentrated their efforts on interviewing some of the fringe elements present, such as the CEC.

Some time back, the Australian public broadcaster, the ABC launched its online forum, “The Drum Unhinged,” to provide a platform for their regular left wing contributors who were too batshit crazy for their regular ABC Online forum. To be fair, Drum also publishes material from right wing masochists to entertain those of their regular readers who are into blood sports.

According to The Drum, Convoys of No Confidence go beyond extremist right wing fascist opponents of the carbon tax who refuse to acknowledge the infinite wisdom of Dear Leader Julia. 
Their intrepid investigative reporter, Ramon Glazov claims to have exposed them as tea-bagging astroturfers duped by the 'libertarian' Just Grounds Community, and inspired by the evil Koch brothers. The glowing reports from the Murdoch 'hate media' don’t fool Ramon:

But is something darker going on? As I examined the convoys myself (as part of an investigative report for US magazine, eXiled Online) I found some disturbing unanswered questions that media sources, centre-left and centre-right alike, have shied from touching.

Firstly, is the Convoy of No Confidence just another Astroturf group - a fake grassroots organisation - much like the Tea Party groups in the US organised with funding from the Koch Brothers.

Reading the Just Ground Community forums - the libertarian website where the Convoys were first organised - you'll notice something strange. The threads with instructions on how to join your local convoy have very few comments, most of which are written by the organisers themselves. There are a total of 11 routes to Canberra, each one departing from a different city in Australia. You'd expect these threads to be full of god-speeds, count-me-ins and dumb itinerary questions, but there are hardly any of those. …

The same names keep appearing: Cate Stuart, Julene Haack, Matt Thompson, Janet Thompson, Anna Hetherington-Grego. It didn't matter if you were reading the thread for Convoy #6 (Perth) or Convoy #10 (New South Wales) or Convoy #5 (Brisbane). The organisers always spent more time communicating with Convoy leaders in other states than with the angry locals who were supposedly lining up to join their protest. …

This seems suspiciously close to how "Astroturf" organisations in the US are arranged: the actual backbone of the group is a tiny nucleus of organisers, individuals with close ties to corporate-sponsored think tanks. These organisers send call-outs to the public, and a larger nebula appears, mostly composed of casual one-timers who know nothing about the organizers. …

The whole thing is standard leftist, tinfoil hat, Koch Bros conspiracy, boilerplate about pseudo angry mobs, creating the perception that these supporters exist, corporate-sponsored event organizers, supporters being unpaid extras, manmade-climate-change-denier Jo Nova, global-warming denial group once sponsored by Exxon-Mobil and the Koch Brothers, and so on. He also claims there is evidence that blockades form a major part of the convoy movement's “libertarian ideology.”

A first hand look at the Just Grounds community reveals little to do with libertarianism, and a lot to do with conservatism. It appears that the author could not bring himself to believe that any group of people could actually disagree with Gillard, even those he perceives as the great unwashed knuckle draggers from out in flyover country. That is of course, unless the minions of the Koch’s such as Allan Jones, Andrew Bolt, Jo Nova, the Cato Institute, Menzies House, and Just Grounds lead them astray.

Disclaimer: Jim Fryar works in the mining and exploration industries, but is not in receipt of any grants from the Koch’s, not even in unmarked brown paper bags passed under the table. He states though, that he would be willing to sell out all of his principles to them for the right sized financial inducement, especially if it were to include an air conditioned office with a couple of attractive research assistants.

Brown; Convoys of No Confidence a failure.

Failed to cause massive disruption.

While the press seems to be concentrating on negatives in covering the arrival of the Convoy of No Confidence in the Federal government, the truth is at variance with this. While most concentrated on the procession of around 200 trucks vans cars etc, the ABC let the cat out of the bag, with a report, that another 150 trucks had moved through unescorted.

Five convoys were already in Canberra, having arrived the previous night. In addition busses arrived from Sydney. Darryl Pedersen, leader of convoy 2 was provided us with an estimate of 6-700 vehicles, which seems more consistent with the figures coming out earlier.

Mick Pattel, the organizer, maintained it was just going to be too difficult, even with 60 vehicles behind you it was incredibly hard to manage in terms of getting parking, in terms of getting fuel, getting food. We realised that we could actually collapse in on ourselves just by the sheer weight of numbers, and by the time we got to Canberra I really think it would have been a mess," he said.

Greens Leader Bob Brown says the convoy has been a failure, as it hasn't blockaded anything. "But it has got the moaners brigade in town and to whinge about everything in general and nothing in particular it seems. That's their right.”

The reality is that there was never any intention of blockading anything or of causing inconvenience to anyone. Bob is from the narcissistic left, which believes in throwing tantrums and trying to prevent people from going about their lawful business.

Vitriolic Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said Mr. Pattel was an extremist who referred to world government on his website. Mr. Albanese should not dismiss the threat of world government so quickly, given that he is clinging to government with the help of Bob Brown. Bob has called for a world government and has been adamant that the best thing for all of us is another layer of politicians and bureaucrats superimposed on the ones we already have.

Albanese, also referred to them as The Convoy of No Consequence. “The Convoy of No Consequence, Mr Speaker. The Convoy of No Consequence, where a coupla hundred people gathered with no support from the mainstream organisations, the people who believe in one world government.”

The convoy has widespread support in the wider community, and people prepared to drive several thousand kilometers at their own expense deserve more respect than this. The very fact that the frustration in regional Australia has reached this height is an indication that Albanese and his mates should be listening, rather than repeating leftist boilerplate.

Tony Abbott, said the protesters comprised "salt-of-the-earth Australians who feel they are being ripped off by a bad government."

He said the Prime Minister today should meet representatives of the convoy, some of whom had travelled from Perth, Cairns and Darwin. "You have to have a reasonable dialogue with the Australian people and this is part of the Prime Minister's problem," Mr Abbott told Fairfax Radio yesterday from one of the trucks.

Kudos to Tony for traveling into Canberra with a convoy.

Protest Convoy: Canberra Times chucks a hissy fit.

Cartoon: Zeg illustrates the relationship between parliament and the people.

The Canberra Times seems a little confused over their attitude towards the Convoys descending on the town from all parts of the nation. In a report mentioned in the post below, on routes for the Convoy of No Confidence being altered to lessen the inconvenience for towns along the route, the following was said:

“Another route change involves a convoy deciding to travel directly to Canberra rather than stopping off in Marulan as originally planned on Sunday night. Convoy leader Ken Wilkie said the change was made due to concerns from the Australian Federal Police about traffic congestion for Canberra workers on Monday morning.”

Despite the clear indication in their own report that there was an effort to minimize inconvenience for the population, the editor threw a wobbly over the inconvenience of it all. Perhaps he should look at the inconvenience or, perhaps bloody minded destructiveness inflicted on Australians by Federal parliament that has driven hard working people to this sort of peaceful action.

Note: In the excerpt below there are frequent references to the term, “Canberrans,” which may cause some confusion. Wikipedia explains: “A resident of Canberra is known as a "Canberran."

This is presumably a word from the local ACT dialect which roughly translates to whatever term the reader normally uses to describe these people, although it lacks some of the subtle nuances and inferences contained in real world Australian terminology. Levity aside, here it is:

But before their show of disgust at politicians ''out of touch'' with the common man, organizers appear set to unleash traffic congestion across Canberra by having large semi-trailer rigs converge on the capital from all points of the compass. They may deny this will be the effect, but it is hard to envisage anything other than extensive traffic delays if the territory's main roads are flooded by up to 11 convoys of slow-moving trucks, utilities and camper vans during morning rush hour.

This apparent disregard for the rights of Canberrans to go about their business unimpeded by disruptive demonstrations suggests the organizers are as out of touch with reality as the politicians they seek to lambast.

For years, Canberrans laboured under the handicap of being equated collectively and individually with the Federal Government and federal Parliament - despite the fact that the politicians and their staffers comprise only a small subset of this city's social and business character. Indeed, with the exception of the territory's four representatives, no politician even deigns to live here except when Parliament is sitting. That people continue to believe this is a city of fat cat bureaucrats and self-interested politicians (even after two decades of self-government) shows insular thinking and blinkered viewpoints are not the sole province of our politicians.

If a desire for maximum media coverage is understandable, it should not be at the expense of ordinary Canberrans going about their daily business. Convoy organizers should rethink their plans to invade Canberra's roads or, failing that, show proper cause as to why they should not be barred by police from impeding or disrupting traffic.

Well, how about that. It seems to an outsider looking in, quite reasonable that they should have, “laboured under the handicap of being equated collectively and individually with the Federal Government and federal Parliament,” sob, shudder. Lets face it, if that area had not been chosen for the national capital, it would still be a bloody good sheep run, which was probably a better and more economical use for it.

Of course it is equated with “the Federal Government and federal Parliament,” after all, that’s the only reason it exists.