Teacher Bullying, A Surprising, Under Reported, Issue

Teacher Bullying, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

A recent report into teaching from the University of new England exposes bullying of teachers by their colleagues.

Of chief concern to me is that the NSW Minister of Education is not up to the task of addressing these issues. Or maybe they are. Maybe it is appropriate that a welfare teacher with specific responsibilities retains their position after a child dies from neglect. Maybe it is appropriate that a Principal who hinders a paedophile investigation be awarded a plumb teaching post at an elite public school after they retire. Maybe it is appropriate for a head teacher to harass her functioning staff, so that the staff member's students are threatened by the head teacher.

New leader Of The Liberal Party

Brendan Nelson, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

Mr Brendan Nelson has the following for opposition:

HERE is a full list of the ministers in prime minister-elect Kevin Rudd's new federal Cabinet.

Julia Gillard, Deputy Prime Minister, Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Social Inclusion.

Wayne Swan, Treasurer.

Senator Chris Evans, Leader of the Government in the Senate, Immigration and citizenship.

Senator John Faulkner, Special minister of State, Cabinet Secretary, Vice president of the executive council.

Simon Crean, Trade.

Stephen Smith, Foreign Affairs.

Joel Fitzgibbon, Defence.

Nicola Roxon, Health and Ageing.

Jenny Macklin, Family, Housing, Community services and Indigenous Affairs.

Lindsay Tanner, Finance and Deregulation.

Anthony Albanese, Infrastructure, Transport and Regional development, Local Government, Leader of the House.

Senator Stephen Conroy, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate, Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

Senator Kim Carr, Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.

Senator Penny Wong, Climate Change and Water.

Peter Garrett, Environment, Heritage and the Arts.

Robert McClelland, Attorney-General.

Senator Joe Ludwig, Human Services, Manager of Government Business in the Senate.

Tony Burke, Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

Martin Ferguson, Resources and Energy, Tourism.

Outer Ministry:

Bob Debus, Home Affairs.

Chris Bowen, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs.

Alan Griffin, Veterans Affairs.

Tanya Plibersek, Housing, Status of Women.

Brendan O'Connor, Employment Participation.

Warren Snowdon, Defence Science and Personnel.

Craig Emerson, Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy, Minister Assisting the Finance Minister on Deregulation.

Senator Nick Sherry, Superannuation and Corporate Governance.

Justine Elliot, Ageing.

Kate Ellis, Youth, Sport.

Parliamentary Secretaries - Maxine McKew, Anthony Byrne, Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Greg Combet, Mike Kelly, Defence.

Gary Gray, Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development.

Bill Shorten, Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

Bob McMullan, Duncan Kerr, Foreign Affairs.

Senator Ursula Stephens, Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector.

John Murphy, Trade.

Senator Jan McLucas, Health and Ageing.

Laurie Ferguson, Immigration and Citizenship.
====
The ALP have made a mistake in not placing in ministry some very talented individuals, such as Joe Hockey, Julie Bishop, Malcolm Turnbull, Alexander Downer or any of many other better parliamentarians.

Contract Cleaner Wrote For Help

Kevin 07 or Mamdouh Habib, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

Right to privacy experts say that it was unfair to target a former driver of Osama Bin Ladin as a security threat.

While he was in Afghanistan, searching for appropriate schools to send his children as Australian ones were deemed unsuitable. While he was in Afghanistan, and collecting social security because he wasn't working in Australia. Mr Habib has declared he wants to live in Australia.

Mr Habib has also written that he hates Australia so much he wants to live in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, or Libya under Gaddafi, before Gaddafi gave up terrorism.

The Music Stops And There Is No Chair

Ken Bates, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

The music has stopped playing in the corrupt ALP government of WA. A man who was sent to prison on trumped up charges has issues that the government desperately needs to pin it on. The serving second to Deputy Public Prosecutor, Mr Ken Bates, is standing and the music has stopped.
The question is not 'Why might police plant evidence' in a state which sees a 1% conviction rate for rapes, but why didn't the DPP know that police might have planted evidence.
Perhaps that talented lawyer, Penny Easton, might help with some wisdom, but the WA ALP did for her a long time ago.

Cosmic Evolution

Found on Space.com
By Dr Laurance Doyle
(with apologies to Langdon Smith's Evolution Poem)
audio available at
http://www.icompositions.com/music/so...

When the Earth was young, and the Moon nearby, in a cometary sea, prokaryotic thoughts arose, what fun it is to be!

"Lets rust the world!" we all agreed, "until the iron's done. We'll use the oxygen we make! Come on, it will be fun!"

As huge salt mountains melted down to spice the saltless seas, the dosado tectonic dance of plate activities,

Trilobites now filled the sea, and oxygen the air, "What say we all crawl up on land? And have a picnic there!"

"We'll bring amphibians and trees, and Oh, it will be fun! And bring some extra ozone to protect us from the Sun."

So off we went, and partied on, from cynodont to 'saur. Time flies when one is having fun. Then from a distant shore,

We saw a comet hit the ground, the best I've ever seen. It turned the Moon a pretty blue, the Sun a shade of green.

"Now that's a party!" we all sang, and went to mammals be. The 'saurs became a little flock of ornithology.

The trees were great, but it was late, so onto two we strode. And chipped some stone and built some fires to warm the cave abode.

"Already the Holocene? My how the time does fly! Seems like t'was but yesterday, when the Moon was nearby."

Now here we are, upon the Moon. Next—to another sun! A galaxy to party in. I said it would be fun!

The gift of giving

The stupendous Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington ruined with a first attempt at using Movie Maker by Voynitsky
===
'Tis the season of our folly. Some give gifts that serve themselves, like that green activist that gives a fluorescent light bulb to their friend. Or the that person who gives a goat to an african family ..

But it is the gift that Malcolm Turnbull threatens to give the ALP in turning to the left. Conservative leaders are rarely successful for such maneuvers. Malcolm Fraser was the highest achieving wet Liberal in memory, and he came to be PM making hard decisions, but left power making decisions appear hard.

Liberal Leadership

Malcolm Turnbull, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

My only problem with Turnbull is related to his experience. He is, as with the other contenders, gifted. However, he too often has appeared to not know how to appropriately address questions put to him to hose down issues.
Case in point was his appearance on Sunrise on 26th November. He was asked about his experience, and he limited it to parliamentary experience when his impressive resume includes much more .. but which also might show the public he has opinions. Mr Rudd’s success in opposition has been to do with the fact he never had an opinion on anything. However, Mr Turnbull isn’t trying to appeal to ALP voters, but to conservatives. Conservatives like scruples. So long as those scruples are benign, and allow heart and feeling, the ALP/liberal supporters will follow. Howard did not get to be PM by allowing his strong opinions to override other considerations, but he kept his job for so long because his strong opinions informed his debate.

Election of Rudd Breaks Mid East Reserve

Peace Talks, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

After Clinton destroyed the mid East peace process a decade ago by handing a cigar to the PLO leader which some sniggering from the sidelines described as a 'Monica Special', President Bush has brought together that which can initiate peace. What is it that brings these three together now? Could it be that the possibility of bringing another Clinton to office, seen through the election of Mr Rudd last weekend, has spurred the trio to action?
Rudd's election has done more than provide this hope. It has also ended Australia's run of prosperity which has seen the UN accolade of a third place listing in the 'World's most livable nations' after Iceland and Norway. Australia is even higher than Canada and Ireland. No doubt Rudd can get it into a position to rival the sub Saharan nations ..

NSW Health Minister Bungles Again

Reba Meagher, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

Mistake prone Reba Meagher shows the form which encouraged NSW to vote in a federal ALP administration. Mr Rudd has promised to insert more bureaucrats into the upper echelons in health, apparently believing that ordering around doctors and nurses and providing more paperwork will fix the broken administration.

Meanwhile, Ms Meagher shows her own ways of manufacturing results. Giving a report on how it came to be that a young woman died in pregnancy (Semmelweis would spin in his grave) Ms Meagher repeatedly called the dead woman by the wrong name. It was a touching display, reminiscent of how the Health Minister treats her constituents whom she won't live among. The parents of the dead girl, who attended parliament especially for the tabling of the report didn't seem to share the joy the rest of NSW feels in the display of competence.

Promises, Promises

Man Overboard, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

He would say anything to be elected, now he has to make a choice.
16 Indonesians rescued from a sinking boat in Australian waters have spent the night on Christmas Island.

The press roundly criticized Mr Howard for making the wise decision to detain and process illegal immigrants so as to not encourage people smugglers. The problem being that people smugglers put people in desperate circumstances, some dying, as with Sieve X.

Latham promised to cut Australian Navy and create a coast guard (or was that Beazley?) and let em in.

Decisions, decisions. What is the bet these people are detained as per Mr Howard's policy .. and the press don't complain about 'heartless' Rudd.

Religion of the Insane Left

Jackson, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

There are religious leaders and there is the left. The left holds fast to religious bigotry of the type that suspects any conservative of sinister motives. It is the same bigotry that holds that global warming is of the type that it is appropriate to give an alarmist, like Al Gore, a peace prize.

Some years ago, Brit PM, and left wing leader Tony Blair was justifying his judgement to a group formed of the further left. Interview is within the comments section.

Toolie Plys Trade in Kevin's State

Toolie Plys Trade in Kevin's State, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

SCHOOLIES girls targeted ... a pervert is luring girls to an organised pub crawl where they get drunk, and strip while professional photographers capture their image and post it on the internet.

Pictured here is someone who approached the Daily Telegraph and admitted to his 'work'

What Kevin Did

Another 'Who Cares' Election, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

When is Rudd going to begin the slide into ignominy? When will Australian troops leave Iraq? When will Workchoices be eliminated? When will he apologize to Aboriginal peoples for being alive, and eliminate protections for Aboriginal children?

Rudd has already promised world leaders he will ratify Kyoto. When will Rudd remove the investment the Howard government made into research into alternative energy?

If Rudd keeps his promises, Australia won't be using Nuclear energy, but North Korea and Iran will be using Australian uranium.

Now For Important Issues

Mr Chalk Ball, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

The election is over, now after more than four months, some questions need to be answered.

Why is it that a public servant has been harassed by their public service employer?
* A year 7 girl has been verbally assaulted by an acting Deputy for no other reason than that that student was in the class of the teacher who had been harassed by that acting deputy?
* Some year 12 classes have had their Trial HSC Math paper remarked, and students in this teacher's class have had fewer marks for the equivalent responses than those in other classes.
* A fully functioning teacher who led several extra curricular activities was referred to a medical body to have their health assessed with the view to their being dismissed from teaching. The medical body dismissed the concerns, but no action was taken in regards to the inappropriate referral.
* An outside activity of journalism was denied by the public service employer which demanded the deletion of two and a half million words and images.
* The public service department, rather than address the issue of an unfair dismissal has opted to not talk to their employee.

Also, it would be good to know why a state government has been allowed to cover up the accidental death of a year 8 school boy?

Also, it would be good to know why the state government has covered up a bungled paedophile investigation at a state run high school.


Finally, I would like the Minister who gave me a person to refer to if I had any further enquiries, and named a person whom I'd named as an abuser, to be investigated for corruption.

Australia Loses Election

Triumph, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

The picture shows the face of Australia's latest Prime Minister.

Issues that Rudd will have to face include:
Rampant corruption within his party.
An uncertain world economy.
Demands for resources by an overpowering left wing.

He is under investigation over allegations of corruption pertaining to the destruction of evidence involving the pack rape of a detained Aboriginal Girl 17 years ago.

He has failed to make a hard decision during an election campaign in which press gave him a free pass.

He can speak Mandarin. Let China pull his strings.

The Choice this Saturday

There is no risk-free change of government
By John Howard
AUSTRALIANS face a critical choice between an experienced team that has overseen unprecedented economic growth and a Federal Labor Party that has no plan to maintain our prosperity.

Today, Australians enjoy a fantastic quality of life that is unequalled anywhere in the world. Our supremely strong economy is linked into the broader resources boom, but has been able to diversify and build new strengths, especially across the services sector.

The Coalition will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that the Australian economy remains strong.

Critically, we will maintain our workplace reforms – a key contributor to the strength of our economy and particularly the mining industry. Under Labor’s union-centric industrial relations plans, the strength of the resources sector will be undermined and the nation’s prosperity will be put at risk.

The abolition of Australian Workplace Agreements and the return of the unfair dismissal laws, both of which are Labor policies, will damage businesses of all sizes across the country.

Bringing back anti-job unfair dismissal regulations will push up unemployment because business will be less likely to hire new staff.

People who think the economy is good and the nation is secure but are flirting with change just for the sake of change, should remember that there is no such thing as a risk-free change of government.

Australia will not be the same if the nation elects a Labor-union government.

We must all be mindful that there are some dark economic clouds on the horizon with the credit squeeze and a possible downturn in the US economy. For Australia, this global uncertainty will require extremely careful economic management. Otherwise, inflation will rise and this could mean interest rates rise too.

Only a Coalition Government can successfully navigate our $1.1 trillion economy through these uncertain times.

One wrong move by inexperienced amateurs could lead to an inflation breakout and inevitably a significant lift in interest rates. This would directly affect every Australian household.

If Labor is elected on Saturday, across Australia we will have "wall-to-wall" Labor governments, federally and in every state and territory, for the first time ever. There will be no checks and no balances on these extreme union bosses.

Unions will have no restraints on them and will enter work sites without permission. They will demand pay rises without equivalent productivity increases, unavoidably putting pressure on inflation and interest rates.

My Government has a bold 9-point plan to protect and grow Australia. We have a tax plan to help families, reward hard work and grow the economy. We will build 100 new Australian Technical Colleges to improve the skills of our young people and ensure our workforce has the skills necessary to keep the economy strong.

The Coalition wants to reduce the unemployment rate to three per cent and help grow small business. We will help families and seniors with cost of living pressures through tax reform, a significant boost in the Utilities Allowances and a plan to encourage savings to make housing more affordable for first home buyers.

We will also boost frontline health services by increasing the number of Australian-trained GPs and establishing 50 Family Emergency Medical Centres in local communities.



Finally, we have practical plans for infrastructure, water and climate change such as a world-leading Emissions Trading Scheme to drive investment in low emission and renewable energy technology without sacrificing jobs or economic growth.

John Howard is Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party of Australia
Website: liberal.org.au

The Liberals Plan to Grow Australia

The Liberals Plan to Grow Australia

My Gut Says I Can Win

John Howard, originally uploaded by Sydney Weasel.

As Andrew Bolt points out, Rudd doesn't have any guts ..
===
The leader from Market Research
Andrew Bolt
The ABC’s Chris Uhlmann again demonstrates why he’s now one of radio’s best political interviewers. And Kevin Rudd again demonstrates why many journalists now realise he really is a flim-flam man:

CHRIS UHLMANN: Leadership means making tough decisions doesn’t it? Can you name one thing in your plan that’s a hard sell, something that you have to cajole the Australian people to get?

KEVIN RUDD: Well on climate change, Mr Howard has been out there running a fear campaign all year, that if we were to prosecute our proposals on climate change, which is one, ratifying Kyoto; two, a carbon target of 60 per cent by 2050; and three, boosting the Renewable Energy Target, the sky would fall in…

CHRIS UHLMANN: Sure, but it’s not a hard sell, is it? I mean, most of the people agree with you on that.

KEVIN RUDD: Mr Howard, his rolling attack against Labor is that - and this has been carried right across the country, extensively by him all year, and it’s an argument I’ve had to engage in and engaged in forcefully - is that if you implemented these policies to deal with climate change, then Mr Howard has constantly said, the sky would fall in. I say Mr Howard is being economically irresponsible for not prosecuting -

CHRIS UHLMANN: But is that a hard sell? Is that really a difficult thing to talk to the Australian people about, to sign Kyoto Protocol? Most of them agree with you.

KEVIN RUDD: Well, the core proposition from Mr Howard, and he continues to say this is about the sky falling in if you implement these policies on the part of Labor as an alternative plan for government…

CHRIS UHLMANN: Let’s try and find out a little bit more about you. What have you done that’s hard?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, the climate change agenda is one…

CHRIS UHLMANN: Well, let’s pick something. Mohamed Haneef, where was the voice of the Labor Party when that was going on? When the courts freed him and the State decided to detain him, where was the Labor Party’s voice? Where was the hard work there?

KEVIN RUDD: What we did then was responsibly respond to the information provided to us by the security authorities at the time…

CHRIS UHLMANN: Did you act with courage?

KEVIN RUDD: Sorry?

CHRIS UHLMANN: Did you act with courage?

KEVIN RUDD: We acted entirely responsibly Chris, when it came to the information provided to us.

Natrually, Uhlmann didn’t feel it necessary to ask the same question of John Howard in the interview that followed.

Some Labor boosters are going to get awfully disappointed with Kevin Rudd.

===
Lacking even the courage of Rudd’s non-convictions
Andrew Bolt
In a long piece about the choice at this election, Age political editor Michelle Grattan at long last discusses the key question about a Rudd Labor Government - as in: will it really be as conservative as Rudd glibly claims?

Here are Grattan’s entire musings on that subject:

The party has given him free rein for the sake of trying to get to power; once the intoxication of the honeymoon has worn off, competing interests would reassert themselves.

That’s it. Grattan doesn’t even care to mention that the “competing interests” is actually a reference to the Left - which will not let stand Rudd’s all-by-himself rebadging of Labor as a party not of the Left.

This is the fundamental question about Rudd and Labor: Whether he really is what he claims, and his party as conservative as he paints.

Grattan herself seems not to believe it. So why does the Age‘s political editor skate right over that critical issue?

But I fear Grattan simply reflects the overwhelming culture of The Age - timid to declare a leaning all too obvious from its coverage. Take the paper’s extraordinarily long and extraordinarily vacuous editorial today, which mounts the case against Howard that its prosecuted so savagely for years, only to then delicately declare it cannot decide between him and Rudd.

Why? That Eternal Question

Gossip, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

Darkangel of Icompositions.com asked the following of 'why'
The questions that haunt me ....



I was just wondering about some of the more important questions in life.....

Why would someone just randomly go up to a cow pull its ( excuse the phrase ) " dangly bits " (becasue they may not know they were udders )and drink what comes out ???

Also i want to know where the sky ends ! Obviously we know where it ends at the top with the ozone layer... but down here there isn't actually a line where the sky ends . So are we living in the sky ?

Another question... Are we just a planet or...are we a load of tiny people that someone is keeping as a pet ..like sea-monkies...in a globe in some randoms bedroom and every night they drape a cloth with holes in it ( stars ) over the globe?And we are just living normally oblivious to the larger world around us ??

Let me know what you think and if you have any other questions that haunt you let me know !
===
I ask that question each morning ..

Cows have been farmed for many thousands of years. I suspect that the first person to milk one was inspired through anthropomorphism vis projecting human qualities onto something else. It is much the same thing as which led me to adopt a stone or marry my wife.

As concepts go, 'sky' is iffy. The atmosphere is part of the realm we inherit, but sky is subjective, and varies dependent to viewpoint. If you were in the sky, you would know. You aren't.

I'm still struggling with the knowledge that other people on icompositions don't have tails. I used to think my dad, who was an educational psychologist, was playing a game, but by the age of 40, it dawned on me he was serious. The earth is real. People are real. Those things that you think matter are only illusions. We aren't kept like pets, because if we were, we'd have an importance we don't have

Desperate Media Keen To Smear Liberals

Letter Drop, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

The look isn't good for the Liberals. A few party members, now dismissed, created a prank letter drop. It had a fake Muslim organisation praising the ALP for things the ALP have done. Liberal staffers who objected to the idea reported it to the media who have inflated it beyond all recognition, claiming it is an election eve rort and proof that the Liberal Party will say the truth even if it is unpopular.

The media have ignored the ALP leaflets which have made many false allegations. Some have claimed that Howard is secretly planning to extend Workchoices so as to hurt workers. Others claim that Howard supports nuclear terrorism. Not a skerrik of truth, nor policy from the ALP and the media pass allows them to produce such stuff unquestioned. But when a few Libs pull a stunt .. and still print truth ..

===
How about the media address those issues the ALP haven't told the public about?
How about ALP's proposed IR legislation. When will the ALP say what their legislation will be? Will it address the issues, as Workchoices does, but which NSW IR legislation doesn't, that saw a cover up over the investigation into the accidental death of a boy? Will it address the cover up of a bungled paedophile investigation? Will it address the issue of harassment of non union workers by the public service?

I Drink Rats Milk and Dogs Milk to Protect the Environment

Vegan. You Can't get blonder, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

But I drive one of these.

NSW Education Minister Silences Criticism

Della Bosca, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

DOCS child abuse data cover-up
Exclusive by Bruce McDougall to News.com.au
HUNDREDS of public school principals have been gagged from complaining about serious cases of child neglect because to do so is critical of the Iemma Government.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that a statewide survey of schools which revealed concerns about the Department of Community Services' performance was shut down by education bosses.

Principals were warned they may be breaking the law by responding to the survey which was organised by their professional body, the Public Schools Principals Forum.

Last night Education Minister John Della Bosca's office accused the organisation of using the issue for "political sport", saying evidence would be taken by the Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection headed by Justice James Wood.

Labor's Craig Thomson

Another union boss blow-in from Melbourne

Larry Lessig: How Creativity is being strangled by the law

A brilliant lecture worth seeing ..
===
http://www.ted.com Larry Lessig gets TEDsters to their feet, whooping and whistling, following this elegant presentation of "three stories and an argument." The Net's most adored lawyer brings together John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights, and the "ASCAP cartel" to build a case for creative freedom. He pins down the key shortcomings of our dusty, pre-digital intellectual property laws, and reveals how bad laws beget bad code. Then, in an homage to cutting-edge artistry, he throws in some of the most hilarious remixes you've ever seen.

Julia Gillard denies involvement in the waterfront dispute

On ABC Radio on 15 November 2007, Julia Gillard stated:-

"I remember the waterfront dispute...At the time, though, I was John Brumby's Chief of Staff. I obviously wasn't a lawyer for any of the parties involved in that dispute. I was working full time for John Brumby."

On 14 April 1998, Julia Gillard was outside the Old High Court building in Melbourne where several hearings in the waterfront dispute took place. She was with Josh Bornstein, a lawyer who was acting for the MUA.

After Bornstein entered the court building, Gillard distributed documents to assembled media representatives, including MUA legal documents relating to the waterfront dispute then before the courts.

For the full ABC Radio Transcript visit www.liberal.org.au
=====
I refuse to accept the circumstance I am in. I waited until after the state election to break my story which shines a bright light on corrupt activity within the NSW Dept. of Ed. I first brought my story to the new Minister, who gave a cursory investigation before ignoring it. I felt compelled to resign to bring my issue to the public. Media expressed an interest, then the Minister decided to reinvestigate and now I have been out of work for four months, have no income and do not qualify for unemployment benefits. Furthermore, after a second investigation, the Minister has decided to remain sitting on his hands. My local federal member told me that it was a pity I wasn’t a union member and local press claim they want to report the issues, but need to check with their legal divisions. I run out of my own money in January.

Reasons to vote for the Coalition

Here are some reasons to vote for the Coalition

Women in Art, A celebration

500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art

Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Botticelli , Boltraffio, Albrecht Durer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Messina, Perugino, Hans Memling, El Greco, Hans Holbein, Rokotov, Peter Paul Rubens, Gobert, Caspar Netscher, Pierre Mignard, Jean-Marc Nattier, Vigee-Le Brun, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Winterhalter, Tyranov, Borovikovsky, Venetsianov, Gros, Kiprensky, Amalie, Corot, Edouard Manet, Flatour, Ingres, Wontner, Bouguereau, Comerre, Leighton, Blaas, Renoir, Millias, Duveneck, Cassatt, Weir, Zorn, Mucha, Paul Gaugan, Henri Matisse, Picabia, Gustav Klimt, Hawkins, Magritte, Salvador Dali, Malevich, Merrild, Modigliani, Pablo Picasso

They'll Stuff Our Economy

Do you want to go back to Union Control?
Already, under state IR legislation, a worker can be harassed and dismissed for not being a union member. Is that what you call a safety net?
Already, whisper campaigns have been launched which promote lies. One such lie is the one that says that arts funding will increase under ALP. Another lie is that workers are doing it tough under Workchoices. Another lie is that ALP have an articulated policy addressing their stewardship of a federal government.

The sad fact is that the ALP have been given a free pass by left barracking journalists. Lies have been promoted by these journalists on a large number of issues considered to promote ALP as a solution. Yet the ALP have not addressed the corruption issues that lie at the heart of their party.

Rudd Failing To Answer Questions

Rudd's APEC, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

Rudd has failed to answer questions as media have given him a free pass on all issues leading up to the election.

Rudd has claimed he is ready to launch an 'Education Revolution' by giving a tax deduction to parents for buying a laptop each year for each child. He has said nothing about improving school fascilities or, as Mr Howard has done, addressing the needs of the parents.

Rudd has claimed he will improve health care by spending a few billion dollars on more administration. He fails to explain how more public servants will improve the need for more beds, equipment, doctors or nurses.

Rudd has not answered many questions regarding the corrupt praxis of ALP. Or his own poor judgement over Burke, Heiner, Lapdances or media entanglements with favorites such as Sunrise.

Senior Surgeons Threaten NSW Govt. With Resignation

PICEDITOR-SMH, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

I recently resigned from the NSW Dept. of Education so I might bring to the public several issues that I had been banned from writing about. The bans were illegal. Since resigning, the media have not wanted to report my issues, saying they have been gagged by the NSW Government.

Mr Dreyer, pictured, would not want an inquiry, except mismanagement of health resources have led to a terrible tragedy for his family.

"There is no deadline to our ongoing grief and suffering," Mr Dreyer said.

"It has cost both of us terrible grief and we will always be wondering if the outcome would have been different if we had been treated as a priority."

Hidden Agendas in Media No Spin Zone

Hidden Agendas, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

Sunrise, in their ‘No Spin Zone’ with allegedly opinion free Mark Riley discussed the issue of pork barreling in that report. One can learn a lot from that Spin Free Zone. Apparently, no funding has gone to any ALP held seat. Apparently, the ALP don’t pork barrel. There was that ACT White Board affair which the Conservatives made into a scare campaign which they, no doubt will now regret.

However, regardless of you accepting that Sunrise might actually be spinning tales in favour of the ALP, I think you will find that the truth is different. The Conservatives hold more seats, and so naturally will accrue more funds, which is precisely why we hold free and fair elections. Just because the ALP have not held federal government is not a good reason to claim they no longer pork barrel. In fact, one glaring example is that square km, one km high convection wind tunnel that is promised every state election by an eastern seaboard Australian State ALP Government in every election campaign since 1999. The report is clearly inflated and political, but it says the right things to be reported, unlike those issues of mine ..

====
Update.
Mr Howard has addressed the issue, comprehensively. He points out that the proposal acceptance rate across all the parties and electorates was the same.

It is outrageous that the body of the Auditor should make a political statement nine days out from an election. Overnight polling shos that the media repeated lie is haveing an effect.
===
Update, from Mr Bolt
"Lateline frames Tony Abbott, using Labor footage:


Health Minister Tony Abbott has defended himself after being caught on camera conceding that workers have lost protections under WorkChoices.

The amateur recording was aired on the ABC’s Lateline program last night.

First of all, gosh, who knew WorkChoices pared back some protections?

But more important is this: This video, which Labor gave to the ABC, was doctored, removing some qualifications Abbott gave and splicing two quotes together to make his “admission” seem more damning. Compare what the video has Abbott saying with what the transcript produced by his office records:

The video:

I accept that certain protections, in inverted commas, are not what they were.

I accept that that has largely gone. I accept that.

The transcript:

I accept that certain “protections” - in inverted commas - are not what they were. That whole raft of regulation expressed in awards that sometimes ran into hundreds, even thousands of pages, I accept that that has largely gone. I accept that. I accept that the Industrial Relations Commission doesn’t have the same power to reach into the nook and cranny of every business that it used to have. I accept that.

But in the end, the best protection for the worker who feels he or she might be under pressure at his job is the chance of another job, the chance of a better job. That is the best protection. Not going off to some judge or Industrial Commission that might order your employer, who you don’t like and he doesn’t like you, to keep you in an unhappy partnership forever.

So that is the best protection that we can give people, the protection of an abundance of jobs, the protection of an economy which is crying out for more workers. That is the best protection and I think that has been delivered in spades locally and nationally.

Lateline should apologise for falling for this crude propaganda. And Labor should be ashamed."

Prime Minister John Howard's World Diabetes Day announcment

Prime Minister John Howard's World Diabetes Day announcment

Former Labor MP warns of Union Control

Former Hwake Labor Government Member Brian Courtice

Former Labor MP warns about Union risk

Former Hawke Labor Goverment Member Brian Courtice warns about the risk unions pose to jobs

Project Vengeance, from Rumble Pictures

Did I mention how seriously good this team is?

Remember when?

Yearning From Loss

It was supposed to be a crowning achievement. A Rumble Pictures producer had a short movie script recognized as worthy of funding. Rumble are specialists at martial arts, being capable of Matrix like action shots on no budget. However, Rumble have branched out, and shot a Closet Romantic film music video clip, a ‘clean up Australia’ advert and other psychological, rather than action, clips. Rumble are also filming a new martial arts feature, but this isn’t that. This is an award winning script showing the healing of a dysfunctional family in five minutes, with a cactus.
The producer/writer/director has held their part of the bargain. They rewrote the script to suit industry insiders, organized the filming of scenes and characters, introduced important people and sourced expertise.
Come the day, despite a prolonged period of drought, rain impeded on the scheduled shoot days. The Friday was shot in doors, as expected. The Saturday had periods of bright light and heavy cloud, the Sunday wasn’t required.
The intended equipment was unavailable at the last minute, so that a dysfunctional tripod, damaged, crackly sound boom and camera without proper fittings was all that was available. So that the lightest breeze made the voices unusable. The pictures could not be seen after they were shot for fear of messing up the digital tape. And the tripod was held by hand.
Then, to cap it off, while the producer was parked, and standing a few meters away, an uninsured, unregistered driver (any bets on whether or not they were also a dad?) totaled the producer’s car. The driver attempted to drive away, but the wheels of the two vehicles had locked.
So now this producer, who has this award winning script which they shot, but need to edit, has no car to get them to any of their meets. It isn’t just.

PM's 11th November Speech, Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day Thoughts

ALP IR Laws in Action, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

It is remembrance day, and my mind is resisting the normal topics I enjoy perusing.
Chris Mainwaring’s dad wants to confront Ben Cousins over his son’s final hours. Ben has since gone on a bender or two, but has failed to die.
Kevin Rudd has braced himself to fulfill his promise of the ‘mother of all scare and smear campaigns.’ Rudd is planning on personally attacking Howard. I liked the Spanish King’s response to Chavez, and feel it applies to Rudd here.
A 13 yo girl has been left to fend for herself as NSW dithers over how to care for her now that her father has died. She refuses to live with her mother, who abandoned her when she was a toddler.
In London, the headlines say, parents win the right to grow babies for spare parts. I am sure that mufflers must be made else-ways.
Julia Gillard says how a union thug broke her heart a decade ago, but fails to say why she won’t change her ways.

More to the point, Remembrance day brought vandals to war graves. Sydney Journalist Adele Horin attacked the worth of soldiers in general, Australian soldiers in particular.

Both my grandfathers fought at Gallipolli, for different armies. My father's father, who fought for the Brits, fought for Australia in WW2 as part of Rodin Cutler's mob in Syria. My mother's father, an ANZAC, lost an eye at Gallipolli and was a permanent invalid until he died at age 85.
I value the sacrifice they made, and others. I think of Australians serving o/s, and I thank them. I don't find our soldiers warlike, so much as loving and giving. that is what 11/11 means to me.

Also, the sexuality of Dumbledore is irrelevant to the story of Harry Potter, but feel free, my activist readers, to disagree.

Spain's King Speaks My Thoughts, Chavez Should Shut Up

I don't speak spanish, but I understand the exchange went like
The spanish President was talking and at the same time Chavez was saying "Aznar (Spain ex-President) is a fascist". The President had enough and was trying to explain Chavez that he must be more polite. But Chavez kept on saying "Aznar is a fascist", till the King exploded: "Why don´t you shut up?

Prime Minister's Nov 7 press conference part one

Prime Minister's November 7 press conference part two

The Liberals Plan to Grow Australia

Police admit bungling investigation of child sex attack

Cops admit child-killer 'stuff up'
By Andrea Hayward
WEST Australian police "stuffed up" when they failed to DNA test the blood-splattered shorts worn by child-killer Dante Arthurs when he attacked another young girl four years ago, police chiefs admit.

Arthurs, 23, was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum of 13 years yesterday for the murder of eight-year-old Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia-Shu in a toilet cubicle at a Perth shopping centre last year.

During his sentencing in the Supreme Court yesterday it was revealed that a pair of shorts worn by Arthurs at the time he allegedly attacked another eight-year-old girl in 2003 were not tested until last month.

It was only then that a bloodstain on the shorts was found to match the eight-year-old victim of the 2003 attack.

Interest Rates Under ALP

Crying, A 7 yo Dies of Malnutrition after a life with DOCS Supervision

The Depaartment of Community Services (DOCS) has promised it will revue the case. The girl had been found by emergency services, having starved to death, although police will not confirm she was found in her bed. An Autopsy is being carried out.


"The death of a child is a tragedy and (DOCS) shares the extended family's grief at this sad time," the department said.

"DOCS has taken action to keep the child's siblings safe."

The department would not confirm reports the girl had been under its supervision for most of her life.

"As this matter is currently the subject of an ongoing police investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time," it said.

On My Own, an untold story including Charmaine Dragun

Charmaine took her own life recently. She was a popular newsreader for the Ten Network in Australia. She was intending to marry her long time boyfriend and start a family. Everything seemed to be going for her. At age 29, she waged a private battle with depression.

While there are many 'causes' of suicide, suicide tends to run in families. It is linked with depression. In my family, one cousin suicided over lost love, leaving a child in foster care. An auntie suicided after contracting TB in the fifties. Another aunty suicided after her husband of over sixty years passed away. My great grandfather is said to have suicided after losing his wife, his job and haveing placed his children in foster care for which he had to leave them. All of them had different reasons, all from the same family.

Today, suicide still has a multitude of reasons. Penny Easton had been apallingly railroaded by a corrupt ALP government who took her job, her children, her money and humiliated her publicly from the cowards castle of parlaiment. In Australia, two factors contribute to our high suicide rate, drought and drugs.

Drought cripples farmers, so that at some stage, they cannot afford to plant seeds for when the drought breaks.

Drugs cause mental illness. Cannabis may be just as deadly, in that regard, as any other upper or downer.

I never knew Charmaine, although I saw her a few times, and thought her pretty. She had been with her boyfriend since they were 16. It isn't his fault, and it wasn't hers either. It was a mistake, for life is very, very sweet. I feel it is time, if drugs were involved, that these be identified and denounced for the curse they are.

Labor Lets The Cat Out Of The Bag

Bureaucratic Issue, NYC Finds My Birth Certificate

Four times of the day, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

I asked NYC for my birth certificate because the copy I have was not accepted by the US Embassy in Sydney. My copy is a photographic copy, the same one used to acquire my permanent resident visa in Australia in ’78. The same used to acquire my US passport in ’74. It was a copy because in ’72 my mother had burned our house down, and my birth certificate was in the house.
I asked the US embassy in Sydney for a new passport. I am exploring the idea of returning to the US to live and work. This is because I feel my life may be threatened in Australia. My life may be threatened because of NSW Government incompetence which has seen
• The investigation into a year 8 boy’s death compromised.
• The bungled investigation into a possible paedophile public school teacher.
• The ongoing harassment of a public school Math teacher which led to their resignation after 16 years of service.
The issues have been brought to the media on a large number of occasions, but not yet reported.
The US Embassy pointed me to a site which would allow me to get a replacement birth certificate. I bought one. However, I only requested normal snail male delivery as that was cheaper, and the difference in wait times a matter of a few weeks. However, the day after I ordered the certificate, I was advised by an Australian federal agency (Centerlink) I required one. I felt that as I had ordered it by slow method, I would await the delivery rather than order a second. I felt I would have to wait no more than a month.
After a month, I began to explore the possibility of asking NYC where my certificate was. Problem was that I needed to register to ask a question, but to register I required a US postal address. So I waited.
After two months, I began to panic. Centerlink had asked me to prove I was an Australian Citizen as I had said I was. I had understood I was because I was born in NYC to Australian parents. All I needed to do, I thought, was to tell the Australian government who my parents were. The Australian government claimed it had never heard of my parents. I gave them the birth dates and places. Government couldn’t find them. I told them of the work history of my parents. No record could be found, although, I was told, they thought they might know who my father was, there was no evidence he was my father. I needed my birth certificate.
After three months, Australian laws changed, and it was no longer important that I get my birth certificate, but I required my parents ones as well. I cannot get my parents ones because we are estranged .. they really don’t like me. However, I can become a citizen of Australia by showing my birth certificate, passport and passing a citizenship test.
I passed the test, scoring 100%. I got a sister’s US address to register with NYC, only to find I didn’t actually require it. I asked NYC where my birth certificate was, and was told it had been posted out to the given address three months before. I was given a US telephone number to call to resolve any issue. I dialled it, but at 7:30 am in Sydney, it was 5:30 pm in NYC, and they only have office hours for phone answering .. whatever those hours might be.
As I go to the gymn every morning at 5:30 am, and I woke up at 4:30 am to do that, I was going to have to wake up earlier to contact NYC. I finally did that. I woke at 4 am. I was on hold for 25 minutes, before my call was answered. Turned out that the internet service which took down my mailing address for the delivery, which was the same as for billing, billed me correctly, but mailed it to Sydney Canada instead. Canada pointed out that there was no Sydney there, and so my birth certificate has remained waiting in NYC for my collection for three months. NYC assure me it was my fault for not providing the correct address.
Meanwhile, the Australian government have located some flights I was on when I first came to Australia to live, in ’78. I pointed out my mother was on that flight too. The clerk couldn’t work out why I thought that was important.

When the truth is a joke

Peter Garret, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

Shadow Environment Minster, and former rock star, Peter Garret made an unremarkable statement the other day, and is back-pedalling hard as a result. When asked by centre right radio broadcaster how the ALP will behave in government, considering how many ‘me too’s they have tossed around recently (26 at one count, two weeks into the election campaign), Garret replied “We’ll just forget all about them and do what we please.”
Garret now claims his throw away line was a joke. Left wing media have labelled Steve Price as a right wing shock jock for repeating the joke as a statement. The Prime Minister has weighed in, pointing out the risky nature of a vote for the ALP. The ALP’s chief, Mr Rudd, has accepted Garret’s apology for a poor joke, but hasn’t explained to the Australian people why he should be believed when he has opposed every single policy initiative the government has made, but has campaigned by copying over 90% of the promised budget.
What most concerns me is the role of the media in this brouhaha. Following the NSW state election in March, I used the change of government to bring up three important issues to the new administration:
• The death of a school boy and the apparent cover up of detail from investigators.
• The bungling of a paedophile investigation.
• The harassment of a public servant.
I told the minister that if my issues were not addressed, I would resign and tell my story to the media. The previous year, I had deleted 2.5 million words and images from my blogs in order to keep my job. I have lost the words and images, but I can rebuild them. The minister called my bluff, and I resigned.
I contacted the media and was told they would look at the issue. After my resignation, the ones who had promised to look at the issue, did not return any calls or emails. Thing is, my criticism is of an ALP government (left wing), not the conservative government (centre right).
How many other stories are never reported which are critical of ALP administrations?
Almost four months have passed since my resignation, and despite much effort, the story has yet to break in the news. The school boy is not coming back to life, but those involved in the death still retain their substantive positions. The alleged paedophile no longer works as a teacher in NSW, rumour has it they went to teach in Nepal, where their methods were accepted, but those responsible for bungling the investigation are still in charge of children. Those that harassed the public servant out of their position retain positions of responsibility.
The cost to me is in the order of tens of thousands of dollars.
Peter Garret has publicly asked for Steve Price to be blacklisted.
===
Note Garret's t shirt 'Whats your excuse' lol.

From Mr Bolt, Iraq Has Been Won

THERE is a reason Iraq has almost disappeared as an election issue. Here it is: The battle is actually over. Iraq has been won.

I know this will seem to many of you an insane claim. Ridiculous!

After all, haven’t you read countless stories that Iraq is a “disaster”, turned by a “civil war” into a “killing field”?

Didn’t Labor leader Kevin Rudd, in one of his few campaign references to Iraq, say it was the “greatest . . . national security policy disaster that our country has seen since Vietnam”?

You have. And you have been misled.

Here is just the latest underreported news, out this week.

Just 27 American soldiers were killed in action in Iraq in October—the lowest monthly figure since March last year. (This is a provisional figure and may alter over the next week.)

The number of Iraqi civilians killed last month—mostly by Islamist and fascist terrorists—was around 760, according to Iraqi Government sources. That is still tragically high, but the monthly toll has plummeted since January’s grim total of 1990.

What measures of success do critics of Iraq’s liberation now demand?

Violence is falling fast. Al Qaida has been crippled. The Shiites, Kurds and Marsh Arabs no longer face genocide.

What’s more, the country has stayed unified. The majority now rules. Despite that, minority Sunni leaders are co-operating in government with Shiite ones. There is no civil war. The Kurds have not broken away. Iran has not turned Iraq into its puppet.

And the country’s institutions are getting stronger. The Iraqi army is now at full strength, at least in numbers. The country has a vigorous media. A democratic constitution has been adopted and backed by a popular vote. Election after election has Iraqis turning up in their millions.

Add it all up. Iraq not only remains a democracy, but shows no sign of collapse. I repeat: the battle for a free Iraq has been won.

Now the task is one familiar to every democracy, and especially any in the Middle East: eternal vigilance.

If you doubt my assessment of Iraq, ask Osama bin Laden.

Al-Qaida’s media arm last week released a video on the internet in which bin Laden—or a man masquerading as him—revealed how disastrously his war against democracy in Iraq was going.

He called for intensified fighting against the Americans and pleaded for Muslims in the region to come help.

“Where are the soldiers of the Levant and the reinforcements from Yemen?” he demanded. “Where are the knights of Egypt and the lions of Hejaz (in Saudi Arabia)? Come to the aid of your brothers in Iraq.”

Bin Laden even let slip how badly al-Qaida has been mauled by the Sunni sheiks who have stopped fighting the US troops and turned on bin Laden’s killers instead, by pleading for “unity” from the Sunnis and admitting “mistakes” had been made.

Take that as an admission of defeat for the terrorists, and a sign of victory for Iraq and its liberators.

To talk like this will, I know, choke many critics of the war with fury.

How angry so many are to hear good news from Iraq. And how suspicious is their reaction. Don’t we all actually wish for Iraq to be democratic, safe and free from tyranny?

But, they’ll splutter, but, but, but . . .

I can hear them already.

But the bloodshed in Iraq is terrible! Call that victory?

And, yes, the killings are ghastly. Iraq is nowhere near safe, and our help is still needed to make it so. Yet the violence now does not threaten the country or its government.

Go back to the days when American forces were fighting Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi army for control of Najaf, or al-Qaida and its allies for Fallujah.

Such battles for territory are over. Al-Sadr has maintained a ceasefire for more than two years, and is even part of Iraq’s Government. American troops are now based in his Shiite heartland of Sadr City, and no Iraqi city is now under terrorist control as Fallujah once was. “Insurgents” rule nowhere.

But we went to war on a lie!

Actually, we went to war to free Iraq from a tyrant who had used weapons of mass destruction, and would not guarantee he would not do so again. No lie. Job done.

In any case, whatever you may think of the arguments put in 2003, the argument today is whether Iraq will survive as a democracy, and whether we should help it. The answers must be yes, and yes. Mustn’t they? Hello?

But if Iraq is “won”, why are so many Iraqis still dying?
Because some of the killers are just criminals, or are trying to kill their way to a piece of the action, or are—inevitably after so much cruelty and oppression—settling scores.

Others are agents of Iran, which wants to make America pay and Iraq obey. And more—and the worst—are fanatics who just want to kill for their creed, and are killing Iraqis as they are killing Pakistanis, Algerians, Egyptians, Israelis and anyone else in the way of their jihad.

Iraq remains an ugly place, with lethal hatreds, yet none of these killers are winning and Iraq will not fall to them.

Consider: Iraq’s official estimate of civilian deaths from violence is now about 25 a day. In South Africa, with twice the population, the official murder toll is 52 a day. That’s a rate of killing equal to Iraq’s.

Do you think those murders will topple South Africa? And does anyone say of South Africa that these killings just prove freedom was not worth it?

But how can you call this winning when Iraq’s power supply is terrible, its police untrustworthy, its regions divided over how to share oil revenues, and its borders threatened by Turkey, which wants to hit back at Kurdish terrorists encamped in Iraq’s north?

True, Iraq has plenty of problems. Which Arab country does not? But it will solve them better without Saddam than with. And perfection is nowhere.

But, but, but . . . but it wasn’t worth it! See how many died!

And here is the only objection that can be made with integrity.

Yes, people have died, mainly at the hands of fellow Muslims. How many, no one knows. Perhaps 100,000 since the war in 2003? More?

A ghastly loss, and thank God the killings are at last dwindling.

But Iraq was no Eden under Saddam. If the deaths today are bad, the misery before was worse. As, of course, was the threat.

The battle for Iraq always involved a grim calculus: would liberation save more people than it killed?

So let’s calculate how many died under Saddam. In 1980, the dictator invaded Iran, starting a war in which at least 500,000 people died. In 1987, he crushed the Kurds, killing perhaps 100,000 or more. In 1990, he invaded Kuwait, starting a war that killed more than 23,000. On his defeat, he killed some 100,000 Shiites who rebelled.

Add the mass executions he ordered, the purges he unleashed, the opposition activists he shot, the terrorist attacks he paid for. Remember also the children who died, robbed of medicines by his regime.

Add them all up, and even by the most conservative count you see Saddam did not just threaten the West, but cost the lives of more than 100 Muslims a day, every day, for the 24 years of his barbaric rule.

That’s four times more than are being killed in Iraq today, often by Saddam’s heirs and Saddam’s like.

Was Iraq worth it? Yes. It stands, it stays, and the winning of Iraq was worth it, indeed.
====
Editor's note.
Of course, this victory can be thrown away by any of many populist measures taken by those who apparently endorsed the old regime. But the story is comforting.

Halloween and Snap Apple

Snap Apple, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

On Halloween the Fairfield Powerhouse Youth Centre held a showcase of five short movies from three local no budget film production groups. Trinity, Nine Lives and Rumble Pictures.

Introducing the short films was the low budget king that brought the comedy to screen of 'Double the Fist" Craig Anderson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_the_fist

Rumble showed two movies, 'More Than Words' and 'The Elevator.' Craig called 'The Elevator' best film of the evening, through modified audience rating. It was like a game of Snap Apple.

Thing was that none of the short films was on a budget. The stunts were largely unscripted because, had an industry person scripted them, it might not have been allowed under occupational health and safety grounds. Industry will copy the succcess of the unpaid performer. It was ever thus.

Heather Mills - Betrayed Expectations

Heather Mills, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

She married the worlds best known performing artist. There was a substantial age gap. He'd previously married his great love, who had died. He had children as old as her. They agreed they didn't need a prenuptial agreement. They had another child. They rowed. They divorced. After four years of marriage, she has declined an offer of over $100 million, claiming it wasn't enough.

She doesn't need to commit suicide. All she needs is to take the cash and go.

She is not as important as Diana Spencer was. She hasn't the skill of a McCann.

What is so attractive to a press photographer of a walking womb for the stars?

Royal Rehabilitation Centre announcement