Heroin for Dole Bludgers by Austin G. Mackell

Found this on a blog called The Moon Under Water

A plan for Australia
 

I heard a very good story on ABC’s PM a while back. Apparently treasury –working on “the principle of least regret” – don’t want unemployment to go any lower for fear of triggering dangerous inflation.

Well, I thought, I guess I can stop faking my fortnightly Job-Seeker-Diary then?

In my head I saw treasury official coming into Centrelink office and standing up on the counter to get our attention. He speaks:

Fellow citizens, our nation owes you a debt, if it were not for your sacrifice, for the poverty and humiliation in which you live, we, the successful ones, could not prosper, or feel superior to some one. You serve two great purposes in this nation, keeping those with shitty low level jobs motivated to show up for fear of joining your warty and unappealing ranks, and providing a non-racial scapegoat, ideal for redirection of scorn from the burgeoning ethnic middle class. We know that in your hearts you crave a place in society where you can contribute, where your talents and good nature can be appreciated by colleagues and those who benefit from your work, but sorry, the current system simply cannot provide that for everyone. It’s a zero-sum game, if we help you we hurt mainstream Australia, and I mean who would you pick? The battlers or a bunch of skummy dole-bludgers?
Have any of you considered heroin? We’ve done the research and found it is the most effectitive way to sap any ambition or long term goals. Users even say it destroys the part of them that feels shame, so they no longer care what the rest of society thinks. We’re introducing a new scheme, where centrelink will increase your fortnightly payments to $750 from the current $500. We’ve calculated this to be exactly enough to support a moderate to heavy heroin addiction along with a subsistence diet of beans and discarded cooking oil. Sure, you wont be the builder, baker, community worker or national parks ranger you might have dreamed of being, but really, how likely was that any way? At least this way you’ll be comfortably numb, and the rest of us can get on with the Australian dream.

...and stay down!

Seriously though, having mainstream economists put it so bluntly, that capitalism does require a certain degree of poverty and suffering in order to function, is interesting.

On a less theoretical note, though, since we’re doing it for the country, then, and shouldn’t be hoping for jobs, can we have a bit more money, please?

Yeah, hi, uh, officer, I'm in a bit of a bad way... I've got a video of guy being tortured

Winner of best drama iSpy by Tymon Langford

This is definitely the most mind blowing thing I have ever seen shot on a mobile phone. In four minutes it conveys so much. North Shore represent!

Australian soldiers throw grenades into civilian compound. Woops, wrong house.

Three Australian commandos have been charged with manslaughter over the deaths of six Afghan civilians. You can almost see newspapers across Australia going into damage control. Headlines are making use of the word 'manslaughter'  and The Sydney Morning Herald is making as outraged that these diggers were even charged in the first place (Anger as commandos face manslaughter charge). 

This is the first time that the killing of civilians by Australian soldiers in a combat situation has come to light. Director of Military Prosecutions Brigadier Lyn McDade has prosecuted one man for manslaughter or dangerous conduct and the section leader with failing to comply with a lawful general order or prejudicial conduct. A third man, believed to be the lieutenant-colonel, is overseas and will be charged on his return.

There has been sparse mention of killing or grenades but that is what happened. The soldiers were targeting an insurgent leader who was not found at an initial compound. They moved to a second compound and exchanged fire for an extended time with an Afghan man, who was killed. The soldiers are adamant that it was necessary to throw a grenade into a room including one teenager, two younger children and two babies because they were under fire.

Soldiers state that the casualties were caused by the acts of an insurgent. But there was no insurgent. The Taliban commander that they were looking for, Mullah Noorullah, was killed several weeks later.

The family of the six people killed have said that Australian troops burst into their compound in the early hours of the morning and attacked using machine-guns and grenades. They accused the Australians - from 1 Commando Regiment, which includes many reservists - of shooting without identifying targets and then admitting they were in the wrong compound.

Defence Force officials have sent letters of protest to Brigadier Lyn McDade, the Director of Military Prosecutions, with some officers hoping the charges will be downgraded.

But it is unlikely Brigadier McDade will change her mind, and The Age has been told she is unclear why there has been a continuing delay for the public announcement of the charges.

The brother of Amrullah Khan, the man killed in the raid, said he wanted to skin the soldiers responsible alive.

"This was not an accident," Zahir Khan told The Australian. "They came at night and killed children. It was a ruthless incident. Six members of my family have been killed and they are talking about putting them in jail.  Bring these people to me and I will take off their skin while they are alive. "If they won't bring them to me then they should be put in jail." Mr Khan said that more than 18 months since the raid, no Australian military personnel had returned to the village.

So now the blame game begins. Of course, our valiant warriors can't be responsible for any misconduct, so lets watch as the onus shifts to the politicians.

Looks like another botched raid in a botched war.

Mexican Journos: What Can We Publish?

Mexican drug cartels: Can journalists escape their violence?

By Sara Miller Llana – Fri Sep 24, 3:25 pm ET

Mexico City – The Mexican press has been subject to assault and attack at the hands of suspected drug traffickers – including grenades launched into high-tech broadcast stations and dingy newspaper offices – for years.

Even as media watchdogs have declared Mexico one of the world's most dangerous places to report from, each outlet has had to act individually to protect its staff. Mostly they omit writer bylines and leave out crucial details of shootouts and kidnappings – if they cover the mayhem at all.

But now the Mexican media is demanding more protection, working together to draw attention to the threats the job is generating.

The plight of journalists was forced into the national consciousness last Sunday, after the daily El Diario, based in murder hot spot Ciudad Juárez across the border from El Paso, Texas, pleaded to drug traffickers: "Tell us what you want."

The front-page editorial told drug traffickers they are essentially the de facto authorities and asked them what the paper can do to keep its staff off Mexico's growing casualties list. The editorial came days after the paper´s young photographer, Luis Carlos Santiago, was gunned down in a car at a mall in Juárez, the paper´s second reporter to be killed in two years.

Tragic as they may be, El Diario's woes are far from isolated. Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights says that 65 media workers have been killed in the past decade. The Committee to Protect Journalists says more than 30 reporters have been killed or have disappeared since December 2006, when Mexican President Felipe Calderón took office and dispatched the military to tackle organized crime. In that time, more than 28,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence.

Four journalists were briefly kidnapped in July, when they were inquiring about a mass murder in Torreon. In January 2009, gunmen launched a grenade at a popular television station during its nightly broadcast.

Newspaper editors at a meeting Thursday in Mexico City sponsored by the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Inter American Press Association detailed the threats they receive and the self-censorship they undertake to stay alive.

Some of them have been showing up in the US asking for help. Jorge Luis Aguirre, the editor of an online news site in Ciudad Juárez, was granted asylum just days ago, after fleeing to the US in the face of a death threat. He is the first journalist believed to be granted asylum by the US in the past four years, and it could have repercussions for other journalists seeking haven on American soil.

Since the majority of the cases against journalists are unsolved – as is crime in general in Mexico – it is sometimes hard to distinguish between cases in which journalists are killed for personal reasons, including for being on the payroll a certain group and killed off by a rival, and when it is their reporting that puts them in danger.

The Mexican government has been criticized for suggesting the former in some cases. But this week President Calderón also said he would unveil a plan to protect journalists in the country. Similar to a plan that helped Colombian journalists report on incidents in the height of its armed struggle, it includes greater links to authorities to report threats, greater scrutiny of why journalists are being attacked, and legal reforms to ensure safety.

Ice Cream Shout

Its no secret, I love dream pop.
I stumbled across this song called Tattooed Tears the other day. It sounds like what Edward Norton's character would have been listening to while he did his time in that movie American History X. Actually that's a really funny image... a hardened skinhead listening to this floaty, new wave Japanese gem.

when you shout something louder than bombs
it's just the chance you take
but your tattooed tears done in the yard
they won't dry today
you've lost your love for good
to those damn Surenos

but on the day the doors open up for you
you believe there will be
a life waiting there for you
in the fields of Salinas

Listen and download it for free.

French indie musos Jamaica (formerly Poney Poney) have another track apart from I Think I Like U 2. Short and Entertaining is pretty catchy but not as cool as the aforementioned song.



And if you haven't heard this song by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, something in your life is truly lacking.

I'm Still Here

 A (very) good looking celebrity one day wakes up and decides to throw his whole career down the drain to make a rap album.

Joaquin Phoenix has to be the most egocentric bastard in the world, you say.

And in this film, he really is. From shows at Miami nightclubs, to telling long time friends they are "just pieces of shit, dude", by the end of this film you just want to kick Phoenix in the face.

And that is why it is a great documentary, mockumentary, whatever. Because for most of it, you actually believe everything. Because it is just too extreme. Trying to collaborate with Puff Daddy, insulting Ben Stiller, snorting coke of a hooker's tits.

The film takes celebrity culture and turns it on its head. It follows the relationship between the celebrity, the media and the consumer and makes a vitriolic comment on the nature of Hollywood.

Well worth a look, you'll piss your pants.

Watch out for gay men near you!

I read a headline in the Sydney Morning Herald weekend edition that pronounced "One in five gay men in US has HIV". This is a classic case of the press having a responsibility for the stuff they publish. Its a fact that when most people open the paper they generally might only read the first paragraph or two of an article. This is really giving the impression that if you're in a room of 25 gay men, 5 of them will definitely be HIV positive. Its not helping the issue at all, and is reminiscent of the fear mongering campaign that began in the 1980s. Why not give the article a less explosive name?

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention tested more than 8000 men in 21 cities in 2008, and found that even as infection rates were climbing among men who have sex with men, young, sexually active gay men and those in minority groups were least likely to know their health status, while the rates of other at-risk groups - heterosexuals and intravenous drug users - were falling.

The findings were published this week to precede US National Gay Men's HIV Awareness Day on Monday.

The stigma around this disease is one reason why people don't like talking about it. If you don't talk about it you don't know about it. If you don't know about it then...?

This stigma creates ignorance and the widespread impact of it is really underestimated. I've met people who are still convinced you can get HIV from a toilet set, from a mosquito bite or from kissing.

Hey, I'm not a doctor but that's a load of crap!

Check out this dude who claims there is no connection between HIV and AIDS and that Barack Obama may have been elected because he was able to hypnotise voters.

Wow, this explains so much.

Stephen Colbert Fake Fights Immigration Before U.S. House Committee

Outfoxed.

"If you see the properties around the world that Rupert Murdoch owns, the strong conservative view that these properties often reflect, its different than ABC or CBS, sure they reflect a point of view, but not nearly as strongly or not nearly as consistently, from one ideological perspective."

Gene Kimmelman

Watch the whole of Outfoxed here.

Jon Stewart vs. Bill O'Reilly

Playdate cancelled

So in groundbreaking news, Katy Perry's rendition of Hot n Cold with Elmo has been cancelled from appearing on Sesame Street because shes got boobies.
Poor Katy. Her singing really sucks though. Maybe it was this rather than boobies they didn't want to expose the little ones to?
Also, the University of Texas has determined that fat kids are less loved by parents.
I don't think this is true in all cases.
How did the kid get to be fat in the first place? "Have another pie little Jimmy, you're so cute when you shove stuff in your expansive gob."
My sister's first word was "more". My mother was delighted by this, and she received more everytime.
What a crappy, illegitimate study. I bet it appears in mX.

Australia, where the bloody hell are we?

R.I.P. Josefa Raulini.
These are some comments on an article written by Michael Brull on the ABC website.

Jumping off roofs, throwing children overboard or going on hunger strikes... please don't come until you are asked.
There are too many of you and too few of me here (average white working Australian tax payer).
I despair for my children if your numbers grow and it is your influence WE have to live under. I don't like your religion. I don't like your customs. And I don't like that you tell me that I HAVE to accept you on your terms and at my expense.

spongers and scrounger..sure, let's just let anyone in and help themselves to our state benefits, handouts etc. The majority of these people get here and make no effort to integrate or learn the language and group themselves into their own insular communities.
If you've got nothing in the way of skills or anything of worth to contribute to society..bugger off because we don't want you! Go scrounge somewhere else.
All you bleeding hearts. "it's human rights" etc etc..go with them.

His application for refugee status was denied - He was about to be deported.
Therefore due process was followed, and there was obviously no threat of execution hanging over his head in Fiji - Unless for reasons that had nothing to do with a legitimate claim for refugee status.
Threatening to kill yourself unless you are accepted as a refugee is certainly blackmail and in my mind, a form of terrorism - Exactly the same as threatening to burn yourself on the steps of parliment house, or do any harm including to yourself if your demands are not met. It seems to me that genuine refugees would ask for asylum - They would not demand it, or make threats to get it.

Children overboard never happened, everyone knows that, even John Howard.
The second comment is gold, though. "You've got nothing in the way of skills...", who do you think does all your fruit picking and toilet cleaning and just about everything else, even though a lot of asylum seekers and immigrants come here with degrees that can't be used?
Why is it that anyone who vocalizes "bleeding heart" sentiments is characterized as a left wing, pot eating hippie who should leave the country for holding an opinion?
Australia, where the bloody hell are we?

News Ltd = Evil Inc.

I really liked this article by Rodney Tiffin, ripping on Murdoch for trying to shape Australia's political landscape... again. Dude doesn't even live here anymore! How greedy can you get? Murdoch, you're already brainwashing a large proportion of the American population, leave us alone you old bastard.

Diversity of opinion is great,  but Fox News is not diverse. It is the epitome of narrow-minded, unintelligent and frankly poorly produced news programming.

Everyone has to earn a dollar, but how do you have any sense of self worth if you work for such a corporation?

Fairfax are no angels, either. They publish this insightful article then jump over to calling the burqa anti-woman. Elizabeth Farrelly is trying to paint an individual's choice to wear an item of clothing as a defiance of the United Nations Convention on Human Rights. She admits to defending hypocrite porno man Fred Nile in his proposition to ban the burqa. She is contradicting herself. In championing the right of these poor, oppressed Muslim women to cast off their burqas and embrace our utopian, secular society, she is restricting who is able to inhabit our democratic paradise. I don't want to live in a country where some screwed up politician can dictate what a small minority of women are and are not allowed to wear. Why not ban low rise jeans that produce unsightly muffin tops? Or ugg boots as a legitimate choice of footwear outside the house? These items offend me, but the right of some lady who I don't know to wear a burqa doesn't bother me at all. And why should it if you're not even Muslim?

I'm sick of every article about Muslim women being accompanied by some ominous picture of a black veiled face. We get it, they're wearing a burqa and you can't see the rest of their body. That doesn't make them terrorists.

Seeking Asylum from Detention Centres

Yesterday afternoon several young people entered the Department of Immigration shortly before office closing hours and chained themselves to posts.

Enter the jumbo-sized police rescue van, a few bored looking police officers and a couple of ABC cameramen.

A woman in a beret passed out flyers and a young lady paced outside, wearing combat pants and boots.

Passer-bys paid scant attention as they hurried along the windswept pavement.

As far as protests go, it was a fairly low-key affair.

In fact, I would have missed the site of civil unrest completely lest a grim faced law enforcer had not stopped me from walking near the Department building.

However, peeking below the closed blinds of the office, you could just discern the heads of the embattled young people in a dispute with police.

They were arrested and escorted from the premises.

So why spend a Tuesday afternoon handcuffed inside a government building?

Protesters were incensed by what they described as consistently inhumane government policy towards asylum seekers entering Australia.

The news that morning had shown 11 asylum seekers sitting on the roof of Villawood Detention Centre, threatening to jump at 5 pm if their claims for asylum were not reassessed by the government.

Quite a serious warning, given that a Fijian man had fallen to his death the day before after pleading with immigration officials to reconsider his deportation.

Josefa Raulini was allegedly told by Villawood staff to “jump” on to a mattress just before he met his death.

Suicidal behavior and self harm have become common occurrences at Villawood Detention Centre, where detainees are becoming increasingly frustrated over indefinite periods of detention and being treated worse than criminals for daring to apply for protection visas.

It is a fact that notorious serial killer Ivan Milat receives more privileges from inside Gouldbourn’s Supermax jail – television, radio, jug, sandwich maker, visitor and telephone rights – than your average traumatized refugee.

Former Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock described self mutilation by detainees as “inappropriate behavior” and that “in many parts of the world people will get outcomes by behaving that way… its cultural.”

The current government seems to share this inhospitable view, as seen in their freezing of processing claims for Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has also announced a tough new policy to turn back asylum seekers arriving by boat.

However, the vast majority of asylum seekers arrive by air.

The government’s hostility to asylum seekers has become increasingly inexplicable. Claims that boats are bringing terrorists to Australia are baseless, with counter-terrorism experts stating that the threat of terrorists entering Australia this way is infinitesimally small. It is puzzling that a terrorist would use this mode of transportation anyway, as they would inevitably face years of delay before entering Australian society.

Another argument against fulfilling our obligations as signatories of the United Nations Refugee Convention is that asylum seekers are bludging off government benefits.

The claim that refugees cost the taxpayer $628 is a lie being shamelessly perpetrated by commercial media. Centrelink and the welfare department have each come out to denounce this, stating there is no data to support this figure. Only about 3% of Centrelink customers who were in receipt of a Newstart Allowance income support payment at 30 June 2009 held a refugee and humanitarian or permanent protection visa.

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship states that immigration currently provides sixty percent of our population growth, but within the next few years it will be the only source of net labor force growth in Australia.

Despite this evidence, potential attributes to Australian society are still being treated as hardened criminals.

This all points to a disturbing trend; detention centres are the problem, not asylum seekers.

Girls Go Crazy

This is the video for Muscles new song Girls Crazy Go. It all starts off fun an games until someone gets too drunk, slaps an Asian dude, and gets shot in the head!



Muscles makes some fuckin weird videos but awesome music.



This is the Bag Raiders track Way Back Home directed by Kris Moyes.

Gen Y

 Imagine you ruled the world. Name five things you'd change.

Your ideal job?

Your most frequent emotion?

The hardest thing you've faced so far?

Do you think Gen Y have an unreasonable "sense of entitlement"?

Your image of yourself?

What makes you angry?

Do you want children?

Best life lesson?

Do you care about status, money, career?

How would you define success?

Press freedom battles in the courts

BY MILLICENT CAFFREY

A Current Affair reporter Ben Fordham escaped conviction for breaches of the Listening Devices Act on August 27, but the fate of the media watchdog is another matter. The charges against Fordham and his producer, Andrew Byrne, included concealing a device to record a private conversation and knowingly communicating a private conversation to the public. Justice Elizabeth Fullerton took into account his good character and previous instances in which he cooperated with police. However, Fordham still faces a conviction of concealing a serious offence.

What has become a saga fit for a soap opera began with the former mayor of Waverly, James Markham, paying his nephew Sean Tolmie $12,000 to kidnap, torture and murder a male escort, Paul Dunshea. Tolmie, allegedly seeking revenge against his uncle for mistreatment as a boy, took a mobile recording of Markham’s horrific plans to A Current Affair. Fordham took his role as investigative journalist to new heights, posing as an underworld contract killer and entering a car bugged with cameras and microphones in order to gain conclusive video and audio of Markham admitting his intentions. Fordham received more than he bargained for, with Markham being heard to say that he wanted to watch the escort being brutalized and also that there were two more people he wanted harmed, but that any further contract would be dependent on the success of Fordham’s first venture.

Like many of their other efforts, this ACA story could be the plot of a trashy paperback, but it is still in the public’s interest to know its contents. The fact also remains that a member of society who once held a position of power and trust is now facing trial on charges of recruiting others to commit crimes, including kidnap and assault, because of this story, seamy and tasteless though it may be.

The right to use recording devices by journalists is therefore an integral part of the Fourth Estate, which has had one of its functions amputated by the overzealous Listening Devices Act, raising the question of what corrupt dealings and criminal activities are being concealed in NSW at this very moment. The irony is that in trying to prevent illegal activity, this law is allowing criminals to proceed unmonitored. Sarah Ferguson should have come to NSW to sell access to her ex-husband Prince Andrew, after being caught out by a journalist wearing a listening device in her home country.

As Fordham said back in 2008, ACA conducted an investigation that may have saved a man’s life. This is the main point, and Paul Dunshea is probably very happy that Fordham and Byrne acted illegally to stop a criminal.

Diana F

A conscious pause of your natural drives and instincts.

"I wonder what Mohammed would have thought about this?"

 

There have been a few crazies coming out of the woodwork lately, most notably U.S. Pastor Terry Jones who announced and then cancelled his plans to hold a "Burn a Koran Day" to mark the 9/11 anniversary.

Good work by the mainstream media, too, for giving such a crackpot blanket coverage in the news. The redneck preacher only has about 50 followers who attend his services, so God knows why he is receiving so much attention in the press.

He was chucking a tantrum about plans to build a mosque close, not on, the 9/11 site in Manhattan.

Burning a Koran would not achieve anything.

However, one embarrassing article in Murdoch's Herald Sun read, the act would incite an "almost certain Islamic over-reaction".

Thanks, dickheads.

They're covering a story about a racist redneck, writing like racist rednecks. The article goes on to cite examples of Muslim atrocities against Christians, pointing out that Christians have never retaliated.

What do you think the Iraq War was about? (George Bush: "God told me to invade Iraq.")

Anyway.

Now another media shitstorm has arrived. A Brisbane lawyer, Alex Stewart, has torn out pages from both the Koran and the Bible to compare which one is better material for smoking a joint.

His comments on the Koran: "Sounds like someone wrote this when they were smashed."

I like the point he is trying to make, but how can someone in the U.S. be condemned as a redneck for planning to burn the Koran when this guy has effectively done the deed?

However, Stewart emphasises something that many frustrated people have been thinking over the past ten years as religious tensions have increased: the Bible and Koran are just books.

Anyone who kill or threatens to kill in the name of religion has been brainwashed.

Born HIV Free

A baby dreams of the wonders of life to come when born HIV free.
This animation is part of a campaign to combat the mother to child transmission of HIV.
All children can be born HIV free by 2015.
Learn more.

Jesus Christ

Fear has long been used by religions to keep followers faithful. Hell, anyone?

But this advertisement by Answers in Genesis takes it to a whole new level.

Answers in Genesis are based in America, and believe that evolution did not happened. Instead we were created by God. I think this is similar to the concept of "intelligent design", a teaching that was so controversial in schools a few years ago.

"The Bible—the “history book of the universe”—provides a reliable, eye-witness account of the beginning of all things, and can be trusted to tell the truth in all areas it touches on. Therefore, we are able to use it to help us make sense of this present world. When properly understood, the “evidence” confirms the biblical account."

Religious institutions tend to flourish in times of crisis or tragedy. And this advertisement is riding off the fear and horror induced by the series of school massacres in America.

This ad is trying to communicate that teaching the theory of evolution in schools tells children that they have no divine creator, therefore are worthless, giving them low self esteem and allowing them to go around doing stuff like this, without being accountable.

I guess it all depends if you believe "if you don't matter to God you don't matter to anyone".

Little Red

Love Little Red.
The new album doesn't seem to have the barbershop sound of the first album. In fact their whole image has changed.
Its produced by a dude who worked with The Temper Trap and Silverchair.



And here is another ace song...

ABC snubbed Greens, complains Brown

 The newly powerful Greens leader, Bob Brown, has demanded to know why key ABC television news programs failed to cover his party during the federal election campaign.

Many early predictions showed the Greens set to win Senate balance of power, and a House of Representatives crossbench seat. But Senator Brown said the party went missing from key ABC coverage, prompting him to write to the ABC's director of news, Kate Torney.

The Greens were omitted from the national broadcaster's nightly political news packages out of Canberra, and not interviewed once during the campaign for its current affairs programs The 7.30 Report and Insiders, he said.

He wants comparative statistics of ABC television news coverage for the two major party leaders and himself, plus details of radio air time in Sydney and Canberra.

Senator Brown told a Tasmanian Greens meeting that commercial media could do what they liked, but the ABC had a community focus. ''We got 14 per cent of the vote, but zero per cent of the coverage every night out of Canberra,'' he said.

He told reporters he made no complaint during the campaign and was a great supporter of public broadcasters, but challenged the ABC to justify its actions.

''I'm very happy to debate with the ABC the absence of the Greens in the federal election campaign news packages for the last month. No 7.30 Report. Nothing on its flagship Insiders program. One on its morning program. It was all Gillard and Abbott.''

An ABC spokeswoman said yesterday external monitoring suggested that across all outlets, the Greens received just under 10 per cent "share of voice" compared with the other parties.

This varied from place to place, and from program to program, she said.

''For example, there are relatively few major stand-alone interview slots on programs like Insiders and The 7.30 Report, but many more opportunities for regular comment on radio programs and in daily news.

''Overall, the ABC is satisfied that the share received by the Greens was appropriate.''

No politics, please.

"My life is a series of bizarre yet mundane events, punctuated by late nights and nicotine cravings."
I don't post on my blog right now because Karl Marx has ownership of my life! I can't wait until this politics shit is all finished! It gets to the extent that you begin looking at the world through the lenses of theoretical perspectives.
Like if you're on the bus and you start wondering whether the bus driver realises his exploited position in the capitalist system, or some weird bullshit like that. That is when you need to stop studying and get drunk.
Someone made me watch a movie from the early 1980s the other day called Liquid Sky. You must see it. It is pretty hard to describe. Basically about... two lesbian fashion models (?) who kill people by having sex with them while using lots of heroin? Oh, and there are some aliens in there.



Please, if you watch this, follow it right up with Golden Skans by The Klaxons remixed by SebastiAn. Their new album is pure crap. But this song is ace.

Limits on political donations to stop Labor’s derailment

Author: Staff Writer Posted: Thursday, 2 September 2010
By Millicent Caffrey

To reverse the image of the state government as a corrupt train wreck beholden to interest groups, Premier Kristina Keneally has proposed dramatic electoral funding reform. This would place a $2000 limit on individuals donating to candidates and a $5000 limit on individuals donating to parties.

City of Sydney Labor councillor Dr Meredith Burgmann has welcomed Keneally’s proposals.

“I think the main benefit is that the public needs to see democracy and justice happening,” Dr Burgmann said. “It won’t if it sees large amounts of money being donated to parties.”

Dr Burgmann has pointed to developer donations as the most corrupting influence for members of local government. She insists that her campaign used no funds from developers, alcohol or cigarettes.

Some councillors may not welcome the ban of corporate donations. According to the Electoral Funding Authority, Liberal councillor Shayne Mallard received at least $11,000 from companies owned by the hotelier George Thomas in 2008. In June 2009, Mallard voted on development applications for two of Thomas’ hotels. He was cleared of any misconduct in February of this year.

However, Dr Burgmann points out that the only problem with cutting all donations is that, “You then need large amounts of public funding.”

It could be argued, however, that major parties are already floating on the money of citizens, with Australian Hotels Association injecting four donations worth $130,000 to NSW Labour in the financial years 2008-09.

The insidious nature of corporate donations was vocalised by Rob Monson, son of a lung cancer victim, in a question to Tony Abbott on the ABC’s Q and A on August 16.

“What I want to know in all good conscious and especially as a former Health Minister, will you continue to lead a proud political party that still accepts donations from those corporate killers?”

“But where do we draw the line?” Abbott deflected. “Do we refuse to take money from the motor industry because cars can kill under the wrong circumstances?”

This would be a smart response if the Liberal Party had accepted any donations from the motor industry in the financial year 2008-09. According to the Australian Electoral Commission, it did not. Tobacco companies, however, contributed a princely sum of $83,000 to support the Liberal campaign.

Large political donations place control over political processes in the hands of corporations, not individuals. The independents on whom the election may now hinge have listed electoral funding reform as one of their seven requests to Labor and the Coalition. Independent senator for South Australia, Nick Xenophon, has perhaps summed up how political donations are affecting Australian politics. “If you give a politician a $1000 donation you’re a supporter but if you give them a $100,000 then you’re an owner of that politician.”