Corruption
Four Corners returned with a bang. The Greenhouse Mafia is another indictment of the Howard Government's culture of corruption and secrecy, this time on how industry insiders have hijacked global warming.
A whistleblower tells how industry representatives have infested the federal bureaucracy to write greenhouse policy to serve their ends. The minister irresponsible, Senator Ian Campbell, has been well coached by John "I know nothing" Howard. Unable to answer a simple question put to him repeatedly, he exhibits an apparently endless repertoire of weasel words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and would still be doing so today if reporter Janine Cohen hadn't stopped him.
As if that weren't bad enough, scientists from CSIRO describe the censorship imposed on them by government bureaucrats working conveniently out of earshot of their ministers, particularly when the scientists' research on global warming directly contradicts government policy.
The show will be aired on ABC TV again tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 11 pm, and also on digital channel ABC2 at 7 pm and 9:15 pm. Don't miss it, but make sure your dinner is well behind you.
Here is the transcript of the program.
Stupidity
Poor old Danna Vale is a simple soul. She's not a bad person; she would have been fine in some ladies auxiliary serving tea and cakes to volunteer churchgoers. But as a federal Liberal MP she has mostly embarrassed herself over the years. Then again, with the voter awareness quotient hovering between wha...? and duhh, Vale may be the one they can really relate to.
Anyway, she believes that if we keep "aborting ourselves almost out of existence," we may find ourselves at the mercy of Muslims, who never abort.
To that end, she and four other Coalition doormats are promoting a compromise amendment to retain political interference for abortion drug RU486. The TGA can go ahead and make their decision, but parliament would now vote on whether to approve it. And you can bet there would be no conscience vote.
Links:
We may become a Muslim nation: Vale
Vale 'on her own' over Muslim population comment
Hubris
So John "I stand by my Stalinist values" Howard has gagged public servants from answering questions relating to AWB during Senate estimates hearings.
Senate Clerk Harry Evans says it's illegal and they must testify.
ASIO chief Paul O'Sullivan has refused to answer questions, even when put on the spot by Labor Senator Joe Ludwig, who said, "It's an interesting point Mr Sullivan whether you are going to cooperate with this committee or whether you are going to cooperate with the Government."
Ludwig and O'Sullivan are living in two different Australias. Ludwig belongs to the Australia that used to be a democracy, O'Sullivan belongs to the one that could be described as Corporate totalitarianism.
Links:
Iraq issues ban, public servants gagged
ASIO chief refuses to answer AWB questions
Labor questions legality of Senate estimates gag
The dirty trick
The man who eschews competitions of any sort, Age cartoonist Michael Leunig, is the subject of a vendetta by someone who hates his left-wing views.
This someone, posing as Leunig, entered one of his cartoons in the Holocaust competition launched by Iranian newspaper Hamshahri.
The cartoon in question was deemed inappropriate for publication in 2002 by then Age editor Michael Gawenda. Because of this the "Leunig double" said, "...here is this cartoon which cannot be published in my own country."
There are two panels to the cartoon. The first shows a poor man with a Star of David on his back walking towards the Auschwitz death camp in 1945 with the words "Work Brings Freedom" over the entrance. The second shows the same scene but depicting "Israel 2002" with the slogan "War Brings Peace" over the entrance and the same man walking towards it bearing a rifle.
David Marr obtained a copy and published it on Media Watch. Harold Hark's Scum at the Top published it from the Media Watch website. Click here for the SCATT posting, which will take you to the Media Watch website.)
Leunig's cartoons are a unique combination of compassion and political incorrectness. There is both gentleness and intense anger in his drawings of John Howard's desecration of Australia's ethos. Leunig is as dumbfounded and outraged as the rest of us. Talk about a national treasure.
