Danger - out of control

[Gozu]

Did anyone see Q and A last night?

That guest from the British media was a real piece of work - to describe him as lacking cultural fit with the Australian way, would be the kindest I could be.

He certainly was a piece of work wasn't he, Brendan O'Neill I think his name is. He's been brought out here by the CIS and Crikey ran a few columns of his last week which were appalling, naturally. Somehow lands a gig on Q&A last night and then tonight was on The Drum. That fromer adviser of Rudd's Lachlan Harris I think his name is was itching to get stuck into him.

Aside from his Frankie Goes To Hollywood get up on Q&A I found him to be absurd and borderline offensive. When your biggest issue about Rupert-gate over in the UK is the "left-wing media" ganging up on poor Rupert you know something is amiss with your moral compass.

[redandblack]

Yes, he was quite incredible. His argument that journalists should effectively be above the law was astounding.

Squawk, I agree about parliamentary procedures. I enjoyed the UK PM's Qyestion Time, whee the answers were relevant and the Speaker had control.

[redandblack]

More hate comments being allowed to be published.

Whatever your politics, how can anyone, idiot or not, think this sort of thing?

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/

[Gozu]

"2GB enters the violent comment sweepstakes":

We’ve seen it from the Herald Sun, we’ve seen it from the Liberal party’s official website, now 2GB is having a go at publishing calls for the death of Australian politicians.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2 ... eepstakes/

[Gozu]

"LNP hopeful stands aside over JFK email":

AN LNP candidate has stepped aside as his party investigates an email saying he hopes Prime Minister Julia Gillard "follows the history" of assassinated US President John F Kennedy.

LNP state director Michael O'Dwyer this evening confirmed the party's candidate for the state seat of Cairns, Paul Freebody, had voluntarily stepped aside while the party conducts an investigation into the email.

Mr Freebody denies writing the reference to President Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, and claims the email which has been circulating in far north Queensland has been doctored.

An email, obtained by AAP, shows Mr Freebody also labelled the Prime Minister "evil".

"I see Gillard and Brown as the most evil people we have ever had in power in our country," the email states.

"We can only hope that she follows the history of JFK."

The email was sent to dozens of recipients and appears to have been written in reply to a circulating petition which criticises Rupert Murdoch's influence over the government.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/br ... 6114053981

[redandblack]

What is wrong with these people

[Psyber]

Freebody could be innocent...
It is not hard to create an email address and backing ID in somebody else's name.
[I have a totally fictitious ID behind an email address I use to register free software downloads and to create the Facebook page I only need so I can log into certain sites at all.]

If he isn't innocent the local branch membership in his electorate could consider rescinding his endorsement.
In theory, under some circumstances, the state branch of the party could throw him out which would achieve the same end, but they would prefer it to be dealt with locally.
The doesn't exclude him winning the seat as an independent though if local people agree with him..

[Sojourner]

Agree with you there Psyber, if the email has been "circulating" it will be interesting to see how they go proving he was the source and that is what he did in fact say!

[Gozu]

"LNP candidate Paul Freebody claims relative wrote JFK jibe":

AN LNP candidate who sent an email to dozens of people saying he hoped Prime Minister Julia Gillard "follows the history" of assassinated US President John F Kennedy, now says a family member wrote the offending line.

Businessman Paul Freebody, the Liberal National Party's candidate for the state seat of Cairns, has had his party membership suspended since Saturday while it investigates the email saga.

also:

He said a male relative intervened before it was sent and inserted the JFK reference without his knowledge.

"It has come to light that the family member has admitted to making an adjustment," he said.

"It was an attempt to be humorous, nothing more. There was no malice whatsoever meant and the person involved wants to make it known that he intended no offence to the prime minister."

Mr Freebody said he would not identify the family member.

However, when contacted by AAP on Friday, Mr Freebody claimed the "JFK" email had been doctored and provided a copy with the KMR reference that he said had been sent.

Asked about that email today, he said it was not sent.

Mr Freebody said he had "cut and pasted" the "KMR" text from a draft he had written in Microsoft Word.

"I couldn't find the email so I then went and cut and pasted from Microsoft Word which I use anyway for spelling because I'm not the greatest speller," he told AAP.

"I sent it in good faith because I didn't realise what had occurred."

However, he claimed the text had "not sent" written on it, which does not appear on AAP's copy of the email.

Instead, the email which was also provided to the LNP, shows an identical sent time and recipient list to the "JFK" email and also shows a reply from one of the respondents.

Mr Freebody said he is cooperating with the LNP's investigation into the matter, including providing his laptop to the party and hopes to remain the candidate at the upcoming state poll.

The LNP has high hopes of winning Cairns, which is held by retiring Labor minister Desley Boyle with a margin of 4.2 per cent.

http://www.news.com.au/national/relativ ... 6115435580

[Gozu]

QUEENSLAND'S Liberal National Party (LNP) has expelled a candidate who sent an email saying he hoped Prime Minister Julia Gillard "follows the history" of assassinated US president John F Kennedy.

LNP state director Michael O'Dwyer today said the party's state executive had expelled businessman Paul Freebody, its candidate for the state seat of Cairns, from the party, as a result of the email.

"The LNP expects all candidates and elected representatives to behave with the utmost propriety and to uphold at all times high standards of behaviour, loyalty and integrity," he said in a statement today.

"The LNP views any act of disloyalty and improper conduct by a candidate as a gross breach of the party's standards."

Mr O'Dwyer said the party had reopened nominations for the seat.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/br ... 6118182679

[redandblack]

How pathetic can you get

From the SMH today:


It was raining heavily in Canberra on Wednesday so, after question time, Julia Gillard walked the corridors back to her office rather than cut across a courtyard as she usually does.

As she strolled past opposition MPs' offices, Christopher Pyne and Joe Hockey, like two schoolyard ne'er-do-wells, trailed about 10 paces behind, heckling. Hockey was bellowing the Engelbert Humperdinck lyrics: "Please release me, let me go, 'cause I don't love you any more …" Pyne, doing his best to affect a menacing gravitas, was taunting repeatedly: "You're drowning Julia, not waving, you're drowning.''

By any measure, it was disrespectful behaviour towards a prime minister but Gillard, whose government has plumbed record depths in unpopularity, is getting used to such treatment and ignored her tormenters.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/ ... z1ViJEOZEq

[redandblack]

Alan Jones at it again.

The evidence mounts:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-fee- ... 1j6fu.html

[fish]

It was raining heavily in Canberra on Wednesday so, after question time, Julia Gillard walked the corridors back to her office rather than cut across a courtyard as she usually does.

As she strolled past opposition MPs' offices, Christopher Pyne and Joe Hockey, like two schoolyard ne'er-do-wells, trailed about 10 paces behind, heckling. Hockey was bellowing the Engelbert Humperdinck lyrics: "Please release me, let me go, 'cause I don't love you any more …" Pyne, doing his best to affect a menacing gravitas, was taunting repeatedly: "You're drowning Julia, not waving, you're drowning.''

By any measure, it was disrespectful behaviour towards a prime minister but Gillard, whose government has plumbed record depths in unpopularity, is getting used to such treatment and ignored her tormenters.

If this happened in my workplace the perpetrators would be facing charges of bullying.

[bulldogproud2]

How pathetic can you get

From the SMH today:


It was raining heavily in Canberra on Wednesday so, after question time, Julia Gillard walked the corridors back to her office rather than cut across a courtyard as she usually does.

As she strolled past opposition MPs' offices, Christopher Pyne and Joe Hockey, like two schoolyard ne'er-do-wells, trailed about 10 paces behind, heckling. Hockey was bellowing the Engelbert Humperdinck lyrics: "Please release me, let me go, 'cause I don't love you any more …" Pyne, doing his best to affect a menacing gravitas, was taunting repeatedly: "You're drowning Julia, not waving, you're drowning.''

By any measure, it was disrespectful behaviour towards a prime minister but Gillard, whose government has plumbed record depths in unpopularity, is getting used to such treatment and ignored her tormenters.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/ ... z1ViJEOZEq

Apparently, Christopher Pyne is no different today to what he was as a student at the College I teach at. Very poor form!

[Sojourner]

How pathetic can you get

From the SMH today:


It was raining heavily in Canberra on Wednesday so, after question time, Julia Gillard walked the corridors back to her office rather than cut across a courtyard as she usually does.

As she strolled past opposition MPs' offices, Christopher Pyne and Joe Hockey, like two schoolyard ne'er-do-wells, trailed about 10 paces behind, heckling. Hockey was bellowing the Engelbert Humperdinck lyrics: "Please release me, let me go, 'cause I don't love you any more …" Pyne, doing his best to affect a menacing gravitas, was taunting repeatedly: "You're drowning Julia, not waving, you're drowning.''

By any measure, it was disrespectful behaviour towards a prime minister but Gillard, whose government has plumbed record depths in unpopularity, is getting used to such treatment and ignored her tormenters.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/ ... z1ViJEOZEq

I recall only too well Wilson Tuckey breaking into a media Huddle when then oppostion leader Kym Beazley was giving a talk and giving him a mouthful about his weight along with other adjectives for no other reason likely than to get a go on TV doing it. Why they even bother is anyones guess, does not do anything for their own case for credibility in the postion that they occupy!

[Gozu]

A SENATOR who backed a union boss over the Craig Thomson fraud scandal has been targeted in a chemical scare.

Members of the critical incident response team converged on the Sydney Rd, Coburg, electorate office of ALP Federal Senator David Feeney this morning following the discovery of a suspicious white powder.

Police have since confirmed the white powder was found to be “non suspicious’’ but would not confirm reports that it was icing sugar.

Earlier, two officers dressed in orange jumpsuits from the police chemical biological response unit examined a small mound of white powder on the doorstep, while about 10 uniformed officers arrived at the scene soon after 9.30am, some carrying breathing apparatus.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/senato ... 6125354310

[Gozu]

The talkback host Michael Smith has been temporarily suspended by 2UE station management after he was "slammed" by the ABC's Media Watch program last night.

Smith has given much attention on his afternoon show to old allegations about the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, about a former boyfriend's misuse of union funds. Ms Gillard has vigorously denied the allegations.

Similar claims were also raised last week in a column in The Australian by Glenn Milne, for which the paper subsequently apologised, after it was published without being cleared by lawyers.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv- ... 1jvhv.html

[Gozu]

A DUTCH MP accused of racial vilification for his hostile views on Islam has been invited to visit Australia by Liberal senator Cory Bernardi.

Geert Wilders, who narrowly avoided conviction in his own country for likening the Koran to Hitler's Mein Kampf, hopes to visit here this year or next.

In an interview with the ABC's Foreign Correspondent which aired last night, the right-wing MP depicted Liberal Senator Bernardi as a kindred spirit.

"I met one of your senators, Senator Cory Bernardi, not so long ago. He invited me to help him at least when I would visit Australia, and I will certainly do that," he told the ABC.

Privately other Liberals were fuming about the incident claiming it was another embarrassment from Senator Bernardi.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/liberal-a ... 6130929346

[Gozu]

A senator has withdrawn a comment comparing Communications Minister Stephen Conroy with Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in a fiery question time in the Senate.

"Goebbels would be proud of you minister," Liberal Senator Ian Macdonald yelled.

Senator Conroy said he had not heard the interjection.

Senator Chris Evans said it was the second time that opposition members had likened government ministers to Nazis in the past few days.

"I don't think it's appropriate," he said.

Senator Macdonald later withdraw the comment, made on the day Senator Conroy announced details of an independent media inquiry.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/senator- ... 1k967.html

[scoob]

RENEGADE unionists have made chilling threats to Toyota workers who refuse to strike or reject overtime, warning "we know where you live".

A letter to the workers, which is not endorsed by the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, claims those who don't tow the line in action for a pay rise will be classed as a "F---ing scab'', reported the Herald Sun.

"You are the lowest of the low," it says.

"We know who you are we know what car you drive. We know where you live payback is a b--ch 3 fold (sic).

"Scabs do not go against the majority."

A caller to 3AW Radio revealed the contents of the letter this morning.


http://www.news.com.au/national/union-h ... 6137885382