Archive for January, 2009
WIN TV seem to be having some issues tonight. Their digital signal keeps disappearing, and every time it does, it takes the analogue station with it, simply leaving a blank grey screen behind.
Apparently it’s happening in Wagga Wagga as well.
More information if and as it comes to hand.
Update 7:50pm: Well it’s been a good fifteen minutes of nothing from WIN this time around so far, and I just retuned a digital received and it failed to recognise WIN and its selection of channels (HD etcetera) at all. End Update
Update 8:05pm: Well that’s half an hour, and WIN analogue just changed from a grey screen to a black screen. Digital is still out. End Update
Update 8:08pm: Analogue and Digital just came back to life. Hopefully the problem doesn’t re-occur as it happened during Nine News for brief periods as well. End Update
Update 9:12pm: Off-air again, and they have been for at least the last 25 minutes. End Update
Samuel
January 6th, 2009 at 07:50pm
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.
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/gillardgitmoJan09.mp3]
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.
Samuel
January 5th, 2009 at 07:12am
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.
Samuel
January 3rd, 2009 at 05:27am
I see that Summernats head honcho Chic Henry is setting a good example:
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.
Samuel
January 2nd, 2009 at 02:24pm
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.
To quote from livenews.com.au’s take on the story:
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.
Samuel
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:17am
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.
Samuel
January 1st, 2009 at 09:25am
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