Around this time on Friday I mentioned that the Australian government was considering taking in detainees from Guantanamo Bay, and I mentioned the concerns that I had about the issue.
My concerns about it, for the most part, revolved around the issues with placing the detainees in facilities here. Do we have a central camp? Or do we mix them in with the general prison population.
I was also concerned about Who would pay for them. Logic would say that the US Government would have to pay, but the history of the whacky world of politics says that we, the Australian taxpayers, would end up footing the bill.
There were also issues about the legality, under Australian law, of us detaining the Guantanamo inmates.
In the end I concluded that, in my view, it would be easier and better for US President-elect Obama to take an interest in either improving the conditions at Guantanamo, or finding better accomodation for the detainees at other US facilities.
Well, there has been some movement on this story, and quite frankly I feel used.
Let’s take a look at the timeline shall we?
Friday morning, front page of The Australian, there’s a big story about how Australia might be taking the detainees, and the story quoted a spokespoerson for acting prime minister Julia Gillard.. Understandably, it becomes THE story of the day. It leads most of the news bulletins, various “experts” and politicians make statements about it, people like me editorialise about it, and talkback radio goes in to meltdown mode with people flooding the phone lines with their views on it.
The general concencus seems to be that taking in the detainees in some mass influx wouldn’t be a wise political decision as a lot of the voices in the media, be they political commentators, so-called “experts” or the general public, seem to be against the move.
By the time the Friday night television news bulletins had rolled around, acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard has almost made a decision, telling the country that Australia is unlikely to take the detainees.
More speculation and debate occurred on the Saturday, the newspapers had their say, and the general view still seemed to be that we shouldn’t take the detainees. By Saturday night, Ms. Gillard had completely ruled out the influx of detainees. Here’s the main bit of the speech that she read to the media at a press conference.
Ms. Gillard did go on to say that future requests for individuals to be resettled would be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Now, I’m glad to see that sense won out here and that we’re not going to make outselves responsible for fixing a problem which belongs to the United States, but there is something slightly odd about this.
Friday, the day after New Year’s day, a day which would otherwise have been a very quiet news day, a story which has been bubbling away in the background for a while suddenly becomes the biggest story in the country thanks to a statement from a “spokesperson” for Julia Gillard.
And then, that night, this slow, calculating, federal government, has suddenly made a decision, or almost made a decision. It was received warmly by the public, so by the next day, it was policy.
For a government which loves to take time to make decisions by referring them off to committees, this was an extremely fast decision with some interesting international relations consequences.
I suppose that I should be happy that the government followed the wishes (or the apparent wishes) of the people, but I do feel used, and I’ll tell you why.
The old “flood the media with a controversial decision and then announce whatever the public reaction says to announce” trick is one which the Howard government used quite often. It’s a trick which, whilst useful to a certain extent, is subject to manipulation by the media, who may very well have their own agenda to push.
It’s a trick which was roundly criticised by the media, the public, and the then federal-Labor opposition…and yet here it is, in January 2009, making a come back.
I suppose that I shouldn’t be surprised…the content never seems to change in politics, just the people making the statements. And on this occasion it seems that, whilst we’re not taking terror suspects in today, Ms. Gillard has the key in the door, ready to open it when she finds a terror suspect which she likes.
Ah yes, that other wonderful trick of politics. It sounds like a decision, but it’s actually a case-by-case basis.
If you’re driving home at 4:20am, what’s something that you wouldn’t want to happen?
How about your car making a loud banging noise and stopping working? That was on your list? Good, because that’s what happened to me.
Car is driving along (albeit making an awful racket which will be checked out on Monday when it gets serviced) and then “bang…clunk” it sounds like something has either blown up or fallen out or both. The battery warning light flickers, then the car stalls and just keeps rolling, and there’s the battery warning light as well as some other warning lights.
I slowed down and moved the car on to the nature strip…its inertia just managed to carry it up on to the nature strip. I got out and walked back down the road to see if something had actually fallen out…no sign of anything, so I returned to the car. Hmmm, strong burning smell, get out and take a quick look around…that looks like smoke, “wonderful, just what I need”. Rush back to the cabin and collect the handful of personal belongings which are there, move to a safe distance and call the fire brigade and accidentally give them the wrong street name.
Fire brigade turn up quite rapidly, obviously they worked out that the cross street which I mentioned doesn’t actually intersect with the street that I claimed to be on. They investigate and find that, whilst there isn’t a fire, something definitely burnt and caused some smoke…the spark plug wiring has had it.
They disconnect the battery, advise me to lock up the car, take down my name and I get a lift home from a friend who shall remain anonymous for now.
On the plus side, the car is about two blocks away from the mechanic that it has an appointment with on Monday. Logistically that will be interesting, but it’s better than halfway between Canberra and Deniliquin. It’s probably also a good thing that it happened when I wasn’t in a hurry to get somewhere.
I’ll deal with the “now what…” questions after I’ve had some sleep. Good night everybody.
Police catch Summernats founder speeding
January 2, 2009 - 1:05PM
The public face of the Summernats car festival - organiser Chic Henry - has been chastised by police for speeding through a Canberra street on day one of the event.
Police issued Mr Henry with a formal warning after he was clocked doing 77km/h in a 40km/h zone outside the Summernats venue, AAP has learned.
Police let Mr Henry off with a warning because the street - Flemington Road in Mitchell - is usually an 80km/h zone.
It has been temporarily reduced to 40km/h for the annual event, which kicked off on Thursday.
Mr Henry was not fined and will have no points deducted from his licence.
It could just be me, but isn’t being aware of your surroundings and changes to road conditions part of driving? And wouldn’t the Summernats organiser be aware that the road just outside the event is having its speed limit reduced for Summernats?
It’s unfortunate that Mr. Henry was speeding as he does generally try to set a good example for the attendees of the event…unfortunately the Police, despite their public bleating to the contrary, have just set an example of “ignorance is an acceptable excuse for bad behaviour”.
I can’t wait to see the number of people who see Chic Henry getting away with speeding and decide that they can get away with it as well.
There’s an interesting story in the news this morning.
According to the Australian Newspaper, Australia is planning to rehouse Guantanamo Bay detainees in Australian prison facilities when US President Elect Barack Obama shuts down Guantanamo Bay at some stage in the next two years.
US authorities have approached Australia and Britain about resettling detainees of the notorious prison.
The Times of London reported on Thursday that Britain was preparing to take Guantanamo Bay detainees to allow the Obama administration to shut down the prison.
The Rudd government is now considering quietly accepting detainees, the Australian newspaper reported on Friday.
A spokesman for Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard told The Australian that detainees could be accepted in Australia under strict conditions, but that there would be no wholesale intake of former detainees.”
Well, let’s face it, we can’t just let them go. The people who are being detained at Guantanamo are suspected of being the worst of the worst of the worst. If they weren’t, then they wouldn’t be being held there.
The issue that I see here is that there have been a lot of complaints about the conditions at Guantanamo Bay…rehousing them is fine and would probably improve conditions, but can it really be done secretly in the way that seems to be planned?
Government’s may be concerned about the security implcations of publicising the location of the detainees if they were take them…but we all know where Guantanamo Bay is.
That said, you would think that, if we’re going to avoid the alleged human rights violations which occurred at Guantanamo Bay, then perhaps we can’t have large central camps for these people, perhaps we would have to put them in our maximum security prisons…so who pays for them? They’re United States prisoners, surely the United States would have to pay for them, but undoubtedly we’ll end up footing part of the bill.
Federal Opposition Leader malcolm Turnbull raised yet another concern…acording to him, “There does not appear to be any legal basis under which Australia could hold the Guantanamo Bay detainees in custody,”
To me, this looks like an impossible logistical and legislative nightmare. Guantanamo Bay might not be perfect, but at least it’s a known quantity. We know what we’re dealing with, and in my opinion, rather than closing the place down, President-Elect Obama should take a personal interest in ensuring that the prison meets human rights guidelines. Surely that would be a better and easier solution all round.
Good morning Canberra, Samuel Gordon-Stewart back from Deniliquin and with you again…and it looks like I scared the news team away…I’ll try to coax them back in for tomorrow morning.
According to the calendar, today is part of a different year to yesterday…so how did you spend New Year’s Eve? How did you sleep? Have you slept?
I was up at about 4:30 yesterday morning to prepare the news at 2QN in Deniliquin, and I stayed there until 1pm, at which time I drove to Echuca and caught up with the staff at the 2QN and Classic Rock Echuca outpost, before driving home via the scenic route through Albury.
I got home at some stage around 10pm and, understandably, wanted to go to bed, which I did not long after.
When it comes down to it, I don’t care much about the new year. For me, and this may seem a tad selfish, I celebrate a new year on the second of June, when my birthday rolls around. It has more meaning to me than an arbitrary day on which the calendar starts all over again.
My plan was always to be in bed by midnight, the theory being that, if I got to sleep, I could sleep right through the fireworks and be ready to wake up nice and refreshed at 4:30 this morning. No such luck unfortunately.
For some reason, people kept sending me text messages all night. I was asleep by 11 o’clock, but I was woken by the arrival of a text message at 11:58, which meant that I couldn’t get back to sleep before the fireworks started, which meant I was stuck lieing there waiting for the noise to stop. I was tired so I think I partially drifted off to sleep despite the noise, and considering that I live only a short distance from the fireworks, that’s no mean feat.
I was then woken again at about 2am, and again at 4:28, a mere two minutes before my alarm went off. That last text message was from a friend who was attending the “Sensation” dance event in Melbourne which has been the news a bit this week…and whilst it could be argued that he didn’t know what time it was, it prompted a mildly annoyed response from me, sarcastically thanking him for waking me two minutes before I employ an alarm clock to do so.
You might be wondering why I didn’t just silence my phone…well it’s my failsafe alarm clock. My main alarm clock beeps, and my phone has an annoying voice saying that it’s time to get up and constantly rambling about what time it is. If mobile phones were allowed in the studio I’d give you a demonstration.
I had an awful night of sleep, and I fully expect to collapse back in to bed when I get home this morning.
I’m glad that people enjoy themself on New Year’s Eve, it’s just a pity that they forget that not everyone cares what they’re doing…and I’m not the only one who likes to sleep.
All that said, I hope that you have a good new year.
This was the script for my morning editorial this morning on 1WAY FM, although I did deviate from, and expand on, it a bit while I was reading it. I think it works quite well as a blog post, so here it is.
I re-used my blog-based editorial about the new punishment for using fake IDs in New South Wales as my other radio editorial for the morning. The re-use of editorials is a wonderful thing.
I’m heading back to Canberra this afternoon and should arrive at some stage tonight. At this stage I intend on taking the longer and more scenic route via Echuca and Albury, although that may change.
It may interest you to know that on Monday evening I decided to drive to Echuca and ended up buying petrol (at 111.9 cents per litre, three cents cheaper than in Deniliquin) while I was there. 57.63 litres of the stuff to be precise. It had been exactly 660KM since I had last filled the tank, and apart from a small amount of city or town based driving as I left Canberra, drove through towns and a small trip in Deniliquin, it was all highway driving.
57.63 litres to travel 660KM works out at 11.452368558042686100989068193649 kilometres per litre.
I will be topping up again before leaving Deniliquin, so it will be interesting to see if I am able to get back to Canberra on one tank of petrol if I take the longer route via Echuca and Albury which is about 663KM or 57.89 litres based on the above calculation. If the calculation is accurate, then I shouldn’t have any problems getting back to Canberra on a single tank of petrol.
And for those of you who are wondering, yes this does mean that I will be back on 1WAY FM’s breakfast show tomorrow morning.
A 40-year-old Chicago area man allegedly robbed a Chicago bank on Friday using a threatening note written on the back of his own pay slip, which was printed with his name and home address.
Thomas Infante of Cary, Illinois, walked into a Fifth Third Bank at 5.50pm local time and handed a teller a note that read “Be Quick Be Quit (sic). Give your cash or I’ll shoot,” according to an FBI affidavit filed on Monday. The teller gave the man about $US400.
The robber left behind his demand note, written on a torn half of the pay slip.
Investigators found the other half of the note - with Infante’s name and home address - outside the bank’s front doors.
The pay stub showed Infante was paid $US165.99 by Jewel Food Stores on October 23, according to the FBI.
“It’s fairly unusual that we see something that specifically stupid,” said FBI spokesman Ross Rice.
“But overall, we see a lot of strange bank robberies.”
The bank teller described the robber as a man in his late 30s with brown eyes and no front teeth.
Investigators learned Infante may have been living at a home less than two blocks from the bank. They interviewed his brother there, who said Infante had been there earlier and had left a brown jacket behind - the same one seen in a security videotape of the robbery, according to the FBI affidavit.
His brother, shown a photograph taken from the bank security video, also identified him as the robber.
Infante was arrested at his Cary home and later admitted to the robbery, according to the FBI affidavit.
Not exactly the most inspired bank robbery in history. Surely if he wanted to rob bank customers of $400 he could have just taken up a job as a bank executive and introduced a new fee. He might have managed to get away with it then, although with his writing skills he may have created a “reverse fee” where every customer gets $400…hmmm, who runs St. George Bank and how do I make them hire this bloke?
I certainly hope it’s a December version of April Fools Day, because this story which I heard on the 5am 2UE news, seemingly from The Daily Telegraph, is just bizarre.
TEENAGERS caught with fake identification will be forced to spend an extra six months on their P-plates.
The move comes as police warn of a thriving blackmarket in fraudulent IDs, with students paying up to $80 for professional-quality altered driver’s licences.
To be introduced early next year, police will pass on offenders’ details to the Roads and Traffic Authority and those already on their provisional plates will have the additional six months automatically added.
It will take their minimum time spent on P-plates to 3½ years.
Uh huh, and what about those who don’t have a licence?
Gaming and Racing Minister Kevin Greene said the penalties would be retrospective, meaning youngsters caught and who are unlicensed will still be forced to spend the extra time on their provisional licences.
Apparently it removes the burden from parents…apparently being responsible for people under the age adulthood is a bad thing.
It is also in response to parents bailing out their children by paying the existing $620 fine on their behalf.
“We’re introducing this sanction because P-platers to be punished for using fake IDs risking your driver’s licence strikes a chord with young people,” Mr Greene said.
“Imposing a fine which might cause some fleeting pain - or even none at all if parents are paying it - but having to stay on your P-plates well after all your mates are on their full licence might just get the message through.”
If they’re so serious about making sure that parents aren’t inconvenienced, why not just make it illegal for parents to pay the fine, with some awful penalty if they are proven to have done so.
I’m not sure that referreing to the great deterrent of our legal system, the fine, as “fleeting pain” was such a good idea either.
All that said, it looks like people who never get a licence, and quite possibly those who move interstate, will never have to deal with the extra half a year of a provisional licence. Could this be a novel approach to curing Sydney’s traffic problems?
There’s a bit of a hullabaloo going on in the media today about a supposed lack of security guards at a New Year’s Eve dance event in Melbourne.
The event in question is called “Sensation” and until now, I’d never heard of it. Well, actually, I had seen the name, but didn’t really bother finding out what it was…which was probably a good thing as it’s not really my cup of tea (and it could be argued that it wouldn’t suit people who measure events in terms of cups of tea anyway). It does occur to me now that the myriad of people I know who have left Canberra for Melbourne this week are probably going to that event…I’m glad that I wasn’t present when the idea of going was floated as it would have made for a very boring conversation.
Anyway, back on topic, there are supposedly going to be 50 security guards, although organisers have claimed on 3AW that the number will be closer to 200, for the 40,000 people expected to attend, which works out at 800 people per guard (or 200 people per guard if the organisers are to be believed), a number which falls short of some supposed benchmark of 2 guards for the first hundred people and one guard for each hundred thereafter.
Surely though, the number of guards plus the uniformed and plain-clothed police who will be there is plenty for what will almost certainly be a festive and fairly pleasant event. The people who are whinging about a lack of guards really need to remember that security guards are not riot police, and are really just a form of crowd control and a deterrent to those who may want to cause mischief. There is almost nothing that they can do to prevent or stop a riot should the conditions be right for them…that’s when you call in the police and let them deal with it.
Sometimes I think the people who are whinging about this (as the latest thing in a long series of “whinging because we can”) won’t be happy until there are two security guards for every attendee. They don’t seem to realise that nobody would actually attend such an event, and they would avoid “organised” events if such rules were put in place, effectively leading to impromptu events in suburban locations, which are prone to gatecrashes, and the exact trouble that these organised events tend to discourage.
Virtually mandating that people attending these organised events end up dancing with the security guards is not helpful to anyone, and it’s about time that the people who in reality want to ban organised (and impromptu) events, and are using this security hoopla as a thin veil to do so, should just follow my lead, and go to bed before midnight on New Year’s Eve.
A mere click away from the WIN News videos that I posted earlier today, in the “related videos” section of YouTube, I came across these videos of an idiot hooning around Canberra’s streets on a motorbike, in one case reaching 212km/h on ANZAC Parade which is a 60km/h zone, and reaching plenty of other ridiculous speeds on other Canberra roads, in traffic.
For the record, this article on this blog was written at about 7pm yesterday. End Edit.
It looks like they may have run a red light towards the end of the second video as well…almost a certainty considering that they were slowing down but still travelling in excess of 100km/h when the video faded to a different clip just as they were reaching the stop line.
The sooner this idiot is caught and stopped, the better. It’s just a pity that the numberplate which appears briefly is unreadable.
Update 3:42pm: Thanks to Kenneth for a link to an ABC News article which notes that a man is being questioned by police over the videos.
I congratulate the police on their swift work, however I am taken aback by a section of the article:
Superintendent [Matthew] Varley has also criticised internet users who viewed the video.
He says viewing the video might encourage others to drive unsafely.
“We want Canberrans to recognise themselves that simply promoting this sort of behaviour, viewing this sort of behaviour and commenting on it online encourages this sort of thing and it’s quite simply a stupid irresponsible act that puts other people at risk,” he said.
“If you see people driving around at excessive speeds, report it to us at the time so we can take some action at the time as well.”
I must say that I find the comments of Superintendent Varley somewhat perplexing considering that the online community did a lot of the legwork on this case (see the work done by The RiotACT in unearthing various online profiles which apparently belong to the creator of the videos) and have been highly critical of the rider in the videos. It would also be fair to say that a number of people have reported these videos to Police after watching them.
In my view, Superintendent Varley needs to remember that watching the videos is not illegal, and in a democratic society the public is entitled to discuss such things. Whilst it is possible that Superintendent Varley is venting at the few people on YouTube who seem to be encouraging the creator of the videos, his comments are too broad, and are enough to prompt me to write a letter to him expressing both my concerns about his comments, and my thanks for his, and his team’s, prompt action. End Update
On Friday I noted that WIN News in Canberra was actually a state/territory edition for New South Wales and the ACT produced in WIN’s Wollongong studios. I also noted that I believed it was of a higher quality, and provided a better insight in to the news than the usual Canberra bulletin.
I notice that YouTube user canberratelevision has posted highlights of both the state/territory bulletin, and the Canberra bulletin from the 17th of December. As such, here they are…decide for yourself.
What a pity it is that there isn’t going to be a natural thunderstorm around 11:59 on Wednesday night in Sydney. Just think of all the money that the New South Wales government could pump in to schools, roads and hospitals:
SYDNEY will usher in 2009 with a $5 million pyrotechnics display using almost twice as much fireworks as last year.
More than five tonnes of fireworks will explode over Sydney Harbour, in what event organisers have dubbed the Midnight Creation Storm.
The fireworks display will feature “stunning new effects like lightning, thunder and rain,” Sydney New Year’s Eve Creative Director Rhoda Roberts said.
Which makes me wonder why the weather bureau haven’t noticed the impending storm. Their forecast calls for “mostly sunny” weather.
“As we go into the countdown and the fireworks begin, you really are going to be taken away to another world.”
My question though, is where are all of the climate change alarmists? Why aren’t they complaining about the pollution from the fireworks:
More than 5000 kilograms of explosive devices will be fired into the sky, 2000 kilograms more than last year, at a cost of $5 million.
On the bright side, at least we haven’t been fed the usual nonsense about the fireworks being great for the economy, because think about it for a moment, about the only people to make money out of new year’s eve are licenced premises, taxis, and whichever television network has a bunch of inebriated hosts ooohing, aaahing and rambling at the fireworks. The first two would happen regardless of the fireworks, just in a more distributed manner, and the latter, well they’re on all three commercial networks this year as Seven and Nine have worked out that there are fireworks outside of Sydney…wouldn’t be nice if these were people from whom we could be spared.
When an email from GetUp about climate change was forwarded to me earlier this year by a friend, all that I could do was laugh…I couldn’t even muster up a full rant due to my amusement.
It wasn’t the fact that it was an email pushing the “humans are destroying the planet” line, asking for people to sign an online petition that caused me to be amused, it was the fact that this friend, who I consider to be quite intelligent, had fallen for GetUp’s version of the story which, as usual for this mob, was quite a twisting of the truth.
Perhaps this press release which has crossed my desk late yesterday from The Australian Environment Foundation will adequately explain what I couldn’t find the words to explain after receiving that email and falling in to a fit of laughter a few months ago:
Australian Environment Foundation
Media Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, 29 December 2008 Getaway GetUp on the ETS
GetUp’s global warming television ads (to air today) are dishonest and inaccurate, according to Dr Jennifer Marohasy, Chair of the Australian Environment Foundation.
“For all sorts of reasons a number of groups, of which Internet campaigners GetUp.org.au are one, are pretending that the Rudd Government’s proposed Emissions Trading Scheme is a minor 5 to15 percent adjustment to our way of life”.
“In fact, the government’s ETS will reduce the amount of energy available to every man; woman and child currently living in the country by an extraordinary 35 percent, absent the discovery and implementation of an unknown source of carbon free energy in the next ten years”.
Dr Marohasy said that this would be the equivalent of closing down all of Australia’s manufacturing and half its rural industries.
“Or thought of another way, it is the equivalent of closing 72% of our current power generation capacity (stationary power)”.
Dr Marohasy said that population growth masked the severity of the scheme.
“Our natural birth-rate plus immigration intake adds around 360,000 to the population every year, roughly the equivalent of another Brisbane every 5 years - 20 percent growth in 11 years - making 35% look like 15%”.
Dr Marohasy said that it was understandable that groups like GetUp that stand for nothing and are opposed to everything would want to downplay the severity of the government’s proposals.
“If GetUp has nothing to complain about they are out of business, so of course they want to portray the government’s decision in the ‘worst’ light”.
She said that the government also has a vested interest in downplaying the severity of their scheme.
“Kevin Rudd wants to convince Australians that it won’t hurt one little bit, so he’s happy for groups like GetUp to criticize him for being John Howard lite.
In fact, the proposed ETS will make Australians poorer; while it is richer, not poorer nations that are better able to protect their natural environment”.
I just love the “groups like GetUp that stand for nothing and are opposed to everything” quote, and I hope this story gets a good run in the media today.
So, how did they do it? The stock intro for the story had a line added to it about it providing branches or pine cones or similar to Victorian school students over the years. The rest appeared to be the stock intro which would have been used on the Canberra edition of WIN News, followed by Janene Manwaring’s story, which also would have aired on WIN News Canberra.
It’s nice to see that I’m not the only one who thinks it’s a slow news day around here…oh, and that a bunch of stories on WIN News Victoria were on my 2QN bulletins this morning.
I left home around 3:30am and decided to head over to Weston to the Caltex which is usually the cheapest Caltex in town. There was also a nice fog which turned out to be much thicker than I expected.
I also forgot to take a 4c discount voucher with me, so ended up paying 98.9 cents per litre for 50.56 litres at a cost of $50.00
I left Caltex Weston at 3:55am and decided to take the slightly longer route via Albury (it adds about 10KM to the “medium distance” northern run via Narrandera, which is in turn about 40KM more than the short run via Lockhart and Urana) as I haven’t travelled to Deniliquin via this route before, so it would make for an interesting change…and I had plenty of time. Depending on how I feel when I leave the town, I may decide to take a longer route home.
I pulled over and stopped for a nap for about an hour and a half about twenty minutes before reaching Gundagai as I was overcome by a sudden tiredness. I stopped in Gundagai for breakfast for half an hour. These were my only breaks along the way.
I was also stopped for a random breath test in Holbrook, while I was listening to Jason Morrison interviewing Alan Jones about his operation to remove a brain tumour, on 2GB’s “Highlights of the Alan Jones Breakfast Show, with Jason Morrison” podcast.
I arrived at the hotel in Deniliquin at 11:50am which, once the breaks are removed, makes a total trip time of 5 hours and 55 minutes. The total travel distance was 564.2KM, and therefore the average speed of the journey was 95.357746478873239436619718309859 km/h.