Climate Change Denial Down Under

Last the ABC aired a piece on Four Corners, Malcolm and the Malcontents about the Federal Opposition and it's position on the proposed ETS or CPRS as we call it down here

Now if the issue wasn't as critically serious, this Tragi-comedy would almost be funny. If there was ever an argument for generational change in the Liberal Party, this was it.

I am sick of the right wing's attitude to this issue. Just because your elected to Canberra, it doesn't mean your an expert. If you have studied statistics at a tertiary level, comprehend climate science and are prepared to face your peers, then I'll listen.

The Australian people have already voted for action on this issue and just because half your main supporters are either (and I'm sorry to say this), are either ignorant of the science, or that old they won't even be around in 2020, it's no excuse.

Through all this childish debate, everyone seems to have forgotten that the opposition are the opposition and it only take a few forward thinking senators to cross the floor and the bill will be passed.

It's high time for the Australian Centre Right to stand up on this issue. Whilst this is should be just matter of principle, based on the science, there are more votes in supporting this, than there is in avoiding the issue.

I implore any Coalition voters out there to watch this report, form an opinion and then contact your senators. The CPRS is a bill which can be changed once your party regains power, we just need to start now, send the market the signal, it's common sense.

CORY BERNARDI, BARNABY JOYCE, TONY ABBOTT and NICK MINCHIN stop acting like children

IAN MACFARLANE, I have a lot of new found respect for you!

JULIE BISHOP, MIA as usual

Stimulating Discussions on QandA

Last nights Q&A on the ABC was brilliant, even more so when combined with Twitter! The video is already available on the site, transcripts to come!

On twitter, the top trends for a while was people commenting on the show by including a hash tag "#qanda" in the tweets.

The range of guests was interesting, Julie Bishop, deputy opposition leader; Craig Emerson, Minister for Small Business; David Marr, journalist; and Cindy Pan, doctor and author; and of course PJ O'Rourke.

The discussion was wide ranging and once again, a right wing female liberal politician came off looking second best. Julie Bishop, like Rachel Fry, national president of the Young Liberals, was intelligently shot down by both David Marr and also PJ O'Rourke.

A few of my selected highlights were

1. David Marr shooting down Julie Bishops attack on the Rudds Handouts @ 19:30, nicely broken by the Hamster comment from PJ.
2. David Marr saying that opposition was good for Julie, because it gave her time to think
3. PJ's passionate comments about refugees actually being good for a country rather than a burden

So I'm a leftie, I really do enjoy watching the right wingers squirm on such shows because it's one of those unusual moments these days where a politican can be properly challenged.

At one point some tweeted about PJ O'Rourke being the kinda of right winger than they thought (or was scared that) Malcolm Turnbull might be.

What was refreshing last night was watching some of the panellists thinking and talking, rather than falling back on blind belief. Personally I hate blind belief, we all have brains, we should all use them.

Even with religion, I personally view it more as an approach rather than a belief. When approached in that fashion, religion can be a very strong and powerful force for good. The moment you take your brain out of the equation and fall back on blind belief, things start to go wrong.

A little aside, but I am rambling, during the American Election, I remember watching CNN and the live twittering and when Obama was talking about health care, I tweeted something and someone commented back along the lines of, "so if they pay for our health care, should they pay for our food too?"

It reminded me of how lucky we are in Australia, far from perfect, but getting there!

So after you watch QandA, there's a good article over on the Huffington Post as well, Why I'm Not Now and Have Never Been the Democrats' "Rush Limbaugh"

Israel and it's WMD Style spin on Gaza, Obama MIA

As we watch the last days of the Bush Administration, the world is breathing a sigh of relief. The problem is that Israel has adopted the terrible spin approach used by the neo-cons in it's war in Gaza.

The media campaign by Israel has video of oxygen tanks being loaded into a truck being mispresented as rockets, de-ja-vu Iraq and WMD...

Propaganda war: trusting what we see?

and the methodology about the casualties is also totally flawed

UN count of civilians killed in Gaza excluded all dead men

This is outrageous behaviour on behalf of Israel and Obama cannot continue his silence.

Obama needs to rebuke Israel (and it's use of the current Administration flawed spin), which is difficult and obviously given that Bush is almost out of the White House, unfortunate timing, but many, many lives are being lost.

Shame on Israel, I can really understand their situation, having rockets landing everyday in their towns is an outrage, unfortunately, they have overstepped the mark completely and now have lost most of their credibility with their actions in Gaza.

Kevin Rudd has been MIA on this as well, the Federal Opposition is going to have it's hand tied somewhat having Helen Coonan as the Shadow Foreign Affairs, given her seat lies in the heart of Melbourne's Jewish Community.

It's one thing to complain about wars whilst in Opposition, it's entirely different when a war is happening now and lives are being shattered and your now the (almost) the government.

The world is waiting for some leadership on this issue, time and time again the international community sits on it's hands whilst people are being killed.

Once again the UN Security Council shows itself to be impotent, isn't Democracy based around majority opinion, which is achievable? rather than this unachievable unanimous opinion...

That said, Hamas does appear to be acting as a terrorist organisation, with a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black when it comes to the allegations of war crimes against Israel.

In the end we are all losing on this one, some more than others

"Americans" - the documentary

Some friends from Melbourne are traveling around America at the moment making an independent documentary, "Americans" - the documentary, blogging along the way.

Tim just posted on Facebook that they are looking for interesting people to interview, so if your in the US of A, drop them a line over on their blog and see what happens.

Personally, I would love to be in the States at the moment, as readers of my blog would be aware, I'm a typical foreigner and oh so pro Obama!

Watching the GOP spin itself into a horrible mess is making the rest of the world very happy!

My birthday is the day before the election and there's only want one thing for my Birthday...

My mate Ben who's a Union bloke from Melbourne is over campaigning for the election at the moment and I have to say I'm quite jealous. This election will/has/must affect the the entire world...

I did a round the world trip last year and spent some time in NY, LA and at Burning Man. One of the strongest, lasting and refreshing memories of the entire trip was the sheer number of Americans who were deeply concerned and interested in how I perceived them as a foreigner.

Sarah Palin's Facebook Page

this one is going around the web at the moment, pure genius!

Brilliant Politicial Stuff

Newstopia, it's Australian, but lets face it it all
about the US at the moment

Brilliant, check it out

The Qantas spoof ad is especially worthy

Re-introducing Australian's Sarah Palin

I have to admit I am absolutely fascinated by the the US Elections. Sarah "Expalination" Palin reminds me of Pauline Hanson.

This clip is a song by Pauline Pantsdown, once again, it's made up of quotes from a right wing politican. To this day I think it's still banned in Queensland..



John Howard, famously once called the Deputy Sheriff by George Bush, pandered
to her views and took Australia in the wrong direction.

While this is all very amusing, it's also extremely scary stuff.

Fortunately for Australia, these days Pauline Hanson seems to only run to make money for the votes she gets and since Kevv-e got in, Australia is becoming a better place.

Recent themes in Australia have been some real action on climate change, the wonderful moving apology at the opening of parliament ( why didn't Midnight Oil sing tho ), a solid commitment to introduce paid maternity leave and down in my home state Victoria a move to Legalise Abortion.

Of course the Catholics and getting their choir boys in a knot over the fact they run a 1/3rd of the state's hospitals and that they won't offer abortions and are threatening to pull out all together.

A couple of points here:

1. A Catholic hospital would be the last place any woman would go to get an abortion.

2. Some doctors object to being forced to offer a referral if they have moral problem with abortion and then are threating to quit the profession.

It's not about the doctor, it's about the patient! Go watch some Boston Legal

3. I don't understand why they (the religious right) don't let this one through. When something is technically illegal, but is permitted, you can't have any control over it.

Legalise it and suddenly you can tinker with the law..

i guess that's a bit too complex an idea for the religious right...

So that's the kind of stuff America can look forward to when Obama wins...

But Obama should keep Sarah Palin at the front line of America's foreign policy, watching the Russian coastline...

Sarah Palin in depth interview on SNL

The really scary thing about this is, nearly the entire script comes from Palin quotes