I’m not normally a fan of the show “Top Gear” however tonight’s episode on the Nine Network will be well worth watching. In it, the two hosts (whose names escape me) travel to Iraq and kit up in full body armour, expecting it to be the most dangerous place on earth as per the general narrative in the media. After a while they realise that it is actually quite safe and declare it to be safer than some place in England.
More proof that we are doing much more good than harm in that country and should stay the course.
I’m not in the least bit happy about Julia Gillard’s proposed flood tax, and I have a few reasons for that which I’ll try to get to when I have a bit more time, however there was one thing which Julia Gillard did which pleased me greatly.
Julia’s spending cuts, whilst they should go further, are a very good start, especially the cuts to the so-called “green” or “climate” programs. It’s very nice to see, even if Julia won’t say it aloud, that Julia recognises that wasting money on programs which try to limit the non-existent global warming is quite a silly thing to do.
When I saw Green Senator Christine Milne on the television last night shrieking about how awful it is that these programs are being cut, and putting on an hysterical rant about climate change causing the floods (that one gave me a good laugh), I was the happiest that I’ve been all week. Seeing The Greens being put back in to their lunatic fringe box is delightful, and seeing that Julia Gillard was responsible for that…well it’s definitely a good start…if she can drop the flood tax and scrap the NBN instead then I’ll send her flowers.
Happy Australia Day to you all. I hope that the day is joyous in patriotic celebrations for you.
Celebrations of this day do of course come in many forms. For me, the celebration comes in the form of my pride in being a part of this great country, and the freedoms which that affords me. My planned activities for the day include going for walks with Nattie, and watching an episode of Inspector Morse, and as always, enjoying our wonderful national anthem, Advance Australia Fair, as sung by the best in the business, Julie Anthony.
I invite you to be upstanding with me for the national anthem.
It seems that every year, without fail, around Australia Day a national discussion starts on one or more of these topics and that, every year, without fail, the same arguments are trotted out. Some people want us to change our national anthem, some people want a new flag and some want to sever ties with the Monarchy. All of the proposed changes seem to tie back to a dislike of the Monarchy…and I keep wondering why.
At the moment we have a system which works. We are governed by our elected governments of various jurisdictions with the aide of a bunch of people who sign bits of paper generated by and for the people we elect. In essence, the only negative effect of our Monarchy is that we pay a whole heap of people to do little more than sign papers, drink tea, and keep a porch light on in case the Prime Minister decides to pop in for a visit. This may be wasteful, but no more so (and in fact far less) than the overt extravagance of our public service. But the arguments against the Monarchy were never really economic ones so we’ll let this one slide.
Perhaps it’s the seemingly widely held fear of having Charles as the future king, but he would have no more influence than his mother does, so unless the fear is of seeing him on coins, I don’t see the problem here either.
Admittedly I prefer the model of the republic used by the United States over the model of our Monarchy, but I don’t think it would work here. For one thing I don’t think it can work particularly well without a larger population and at least double our current number of states, and apart from that I don’t think enough Australians are politically interested enough for a system which contains an elected head of state to be workable. That’s not to say that Australians are uninterested in politics, just that not enough people seem to be interested enough to deal with the differences between the House of Reps and the Senate half the time, let alone another arm of the government.
As such, we have a system which works well enough for us and is in no real need of change, so I see no good reason to change, and with a change to our system of government out of the question, the cases for changing our national flag or anthem are dealt serious blows, albeit not fatal.
There are a couple main reasons left for changing the flag. The first, somewhat left over from a change of government system, is that if we’re not really under the control of the Monarch, we shouldn’t bear her mark (the Union Jack). Well that’s just absurd. The Union Jack does not brand us as being a part of the United Kingdom…it is a sign of our heritage, of the beginnings of our nation. Much like the Southern Cross marks our bit of the sky and therefore our bit of the planet, and Union Jack is a representation of our start as a nation. It is an important reminder of our heritage.
The other main notion is that the flag should be more representative of Aboriginal people. There is also the occasional mention of our flag being “ugly”, but when you dig in to that argument it tends to be nothing more than a lead-in to the “not representative of Aborigines” argument (and when it comes to ugly flags, have you seen the Aboriginal flag?). This whole argument is easily sorted. Aborigines are citizens of this country and our existing flag is the symbol of the country. Simple. Apart from that, Aborigines have their own flag which, although I can’t fathom what precisely they need it for, it exists in a similar way to the flags of the states and territories, as a symbol of something within the nation. These flags all live under the greater banner of our national flag which represents them all on the international stage.
So the flag doesn’t need to change, and we reach the national anthem.
We’ve already changed it once. Originally we had “God Save The King/Queen”, and now given the lack of influence on us a nation from the Monarch, we have the more apt “Advance Australia Fair”. For some reason, despite the fact that this song has nothing whatsoever to do with Her Majesty, some still argue that if we change the flag or the political system, then we should change the anthem as well. If they dislike the country so much, maybe they should find somewhere else to live, rather than expecting the rest of us to subscribe to their deranged “oh look, that person over there changed the colour of their roof, I’d better change the plants in my garden to match” logic.
Then there’s the other argument, that the song isn’t very interesting and we’d be better off with something like Waltzing Matilda. Waltzing Matilda is a nice song, but do we really want our national anthem to be a song about theft, a lack of willingness to “do the time for the crime” and suicide? I certainly don’t, and I don’t much care if the rest of the world won’t understand half the words of the song as it really doesn’t change a thing…it’s not a suitable song to officially represent our nation.
And anyway, what’s wrong with Advance Australia Fair? It’s a lovely song which talks about Australia with pride. There is nothing wrong with it. It’s a perfect song for a national anthem.
There is one change that I would make though, and that is in relation to the national anthem. It is my view that we do not hear enough of the national anthem and, as such, the one change I would make would be the mandating of the daily airing of the national anthem by all broadcast media.
To prevent it from being buried in the wee hours I would also mandate that the daily playing of the anthem occur between the hours of 6am and midnight, and it would have to be a legible and faithful performance or playing so as to prevent a distasteful mockery of the anthem which would inevitably happen if the anthem’s daily airing was embedded in a comedy program, but other than that I would not set rules about how or when it should be aired. For example, it would be entirely up to the broadcaster as to whether they would have set daily time for the anthem or just play it when the feel like it, and it would be up to them whether they choose to let advertisers sponsor the anthem. I think it would be quite an honour to be the local business which presents the playing of the national anthem on a given day.
But other than having the national anthem played more than it currently is, I see no good reason to change our current system of government, flag or national anthem. They all serve to make the identity of our nation and work very well together. We should be proud, and whilst occasional debate of these topics is healthy, the incessant annual discussion about them for no good reason is pointless and degrading…especially when it keeps happening at this time of the year, on a day when we should all be very proud of our great country, not doing our best to run down our country in the hopes of needlessly and pointlessly changing bits of it.
The floods up in Queensland have not only been devastating, but have also been extraordinary in a way which words fail to describe. The footage of the floods really rams home the magnitude of the disaster…and it seems that no matter how much of it I see, I’m still in awe of the destructive force with which Mother Nature has hit our nation, and Queensland in particular.
These two videos feature some of the most amazing footage that has come from this crisis.
I give thanks for the fact that the Brisbane River’s peak was at a lower level than expected. I shudder to think just how much worse this all could have been. It really is more than bad enough as it is.
Mainly for the benefit of people overseas, here’s some information about live online coverage of the devastating floods.
The Seven Network’s coverage, having finished for the night at midnight Eastern Daylight Time, resumes at 5am Eastern (4am Brisbane/6PM UTC/1pm US Eastern/10am US Western) in time for the expected peak of the flood in Brisbane. I’m of the view that Seven’s coverage has been the best of the bunch, and they’ve been streaming from their website http://yahoo7.com.au/news.
ABC News 24 are also streaming and have apparently unlocked their stream for international viewers. http://www.abc.net.au/news/abcnews24/. Their content has been good, but as I noted yesterday, I find the graphics package quite distracting and hard on the eyes, and fairly difficult to watch for any length of time.
Others may be streaming, these are just the ones I’ve noticed. Hopefully this is of some help to people.
This certainly is a country of extremes. Floods in parts, fires in others. It’s the country we love and the country we have come to expect, and yet somehow when dreadful natural disasters like these strike, we all not only feel the pain and the shock, but seem to band together for the greater good.
My role on this blog is not to keep you updated on the flood crisis, or the bushfires near Perth. There are many news agencies working around the clock to do that. If you are coming here for updates on the crisis, then I strongly urge you to instead turn to your local TV and radio services. If you are in an affected area, you have my thoughts and prayers.
My role outside this blog is with a commercial television network, working behind the scenes to keep the network going. I hope that this helps people who not only want, but need information about the unfolding crisis. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of other people who are also working in various parts of the media to ensure that information gets to the people who need it. To those people, I salute you.
And to the people who bravely work through the crisis in our emergency services, government agencies, volunteer organisations, and other groups too numerous to name, we all thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your service.
So, my role on this blog in this crisis. I feel compelled to offer some analysis of the coverage of, and reaction to, the floods by both the media, and the elected officials who are in charge of responding to this crisis.
Radio, across the board, as I understand it, has done what radio does best…provide immediate local information to their broadcast area.
Television has been a bit of a mixed bag. I thought Seven did a great job yesterday, especially with bumping the Tennis over to 7TWO so that they could continue with news on the main channel and on their only analogue channel. Larry Emdur once again proved that he is perfectly capable of anchoring coverage of a crisis and did an outstanding job on Sunrise. The rest of the team also did an outstanding job from what I saw.
Nine did a pretty good job too from what I saw. Apparently they were putting giant “first on nine” watermarks on footage (I didn’t see this, but have been reliably informed that this is what happened) which is a very low act during a crisis, but other than that I was impressed with their coverage. They seemed to have a higher number of phone crosses than Seven which probably allowed them to be a tad more immediate with news, at the expense of the pictures which really rammed home to those of us outside the flood zone just how bad it really is up there.
I’m told that WIN did a special bulletin of their own which is commendable…but I would kindly ask WIN to do something about the offputting “WIN News” square which just feels intrusive and wrong over the top of the current Nine graphics.
ABC TV was an interesting one. In terms of content, they did a stellar job. I need not say more about that as they did a great job. The trouble I had was with the graphics on ABC News 24 which just hurt my eyes to the point that I found it unwatchable…I’m not a fan of the look of that station to begin with as I think the whole design is downright ugly, but when the yellow “live” block is up as well, it’s nauseating. The ticker is the only thing I like about the design of that station…if they bring back the old look or rebuild based on the ticker and less oddly shaped supers, then I’ll be able to deal with it.
Outside of the distracting look of ABC News 24, I must commend them for staying on overnight (even if it’s a looped set of stories), and for dropping regular programming on ABC1 in Queensland for the ongoing news. I do wonder if, at least until analogue television is phased out completely, the main ABC channel should have taken the rolling coverage nationally…but seeing as the other networks were catering for the analogue audience, I’ll let it slide.
Ten however get a smack to the head. For a network which is trying to position itself as a powerhouse of news, yesterday’s lack of effort was embarrassing. I know they were busy with the launch of Eleven, but failing to enter rolling coverage until 5pm is simply unacceptable from any network which wants to be taken seriously when it comes to news.
On to our elected political leaders. The aim here is not to politicise the floods, but to check on the performance of the people in whom we have invested out trust.
I’m normally not a fan of Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, but she gets a very large tick in my books today. She has shown her genuine concern and empathy, while remaining somehow composed and in control, and remaining as a strong and calm voice for her people. She is doing very well.
The various Mayors of flood-affected areas are clearly distraught and doing whatever they can to help co-ordinate a response. Many of these people appear to me to be understandable overwhelmed, and I hope that they are receiving all the support they need from larger bodies such as the Queensland government.
Julia Gillard however, has disappointed me. This is the type of event in which I thought her usual calculating approach would serve her and us very well. Alas it hasn’t…at least not in public. I was shocked when I saw her interview on ABC TV last night in which she looked and sounded happy about the floods…she was trying to hold back her smile and came across as if she really did not care. It was embarrassing quite frankly, and I hope that the interview is not seen overseas as it will only serve to make other countries think that we’re a cold and uncompassionate bunch who don’t deserve their support.
Maybe she is doing some good behind the scenes…I truly hope that she is…but if she can’t show even a shred of empathy in public, then she should be sending a minister out to represent the federal government. It’s not whether she cares or not that I care about right now, it’s the message that her body language sent to the people of Queensland last night…if I was in a flood zone right now, I would feel like the federal government did not have my back and that I was reliant on the limited resources of the state government. The federal government needs to instil confidence in Queenslanders, and if Julia can’t do that, then a minister should be doing it instead.
Anyway, I must go and get ready for work. Once again my thoughts and prayers are with those who are ravaged by floods and fires at this time. May you all get through this safely.
Yesterday’s shooting in Arizona is undoubtedly a tragedy, the fact that people died is horrible, and that the primary target was an elected representative of the people is horrendous.
I can’t describe how sickened I am by the actions of the shooter. I’m incredibly saddened for the loss of six innocent lives, especially the loss of a 9-year-old girl who attended the event, having recently been elected to her school’s student council, so that she could meet Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). Of particular note is that this girl was born on the day of 9/11, and whilst any loss of innocent life is tragic, the fact that we have lost one of the children who represents the hope of life going on despite the best efforts of terrorists, is even more tragic under the circumstances.
I am incredibly shocked and saddened by all of this, and my heart goes out to everyone who has been affected by this terrible and tragic event.
I’m am very pleased to hear that Mrs. Giffords survived. The initial reports of her demise were horrifying to say the least, and I was incredibly relieved when the hospital announced that she was still alive. The good news is that, although Mrs. Giffords is still in a critical condition, doctors have confirmed that the bullet did not enter both hemispheres of her brain, something which apparently makes her recovery much more likely.
President Obama has called for a moment of slience tomorrow at 11am US Eastern Time (3am Canberra time). I fully intend on honouring this request and I would ask you to join me…if not at 3am, then at some time tomorrow.
With the immediate repercussions of the shooting out of the way, I must express my extreme disappointment with those who have sought to politicise the dreadful event. There have been people trying to blame the right-wing for this, people trying to blame the left-wing for this, people claiming that the US needs tighter (and unconstitutional) gun laws, and even people (Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, I’m looking at you) claiming that freedom of speech is somehow to blame and that people need to take in to account the possible ways that insane people might misinterpret things, before people open their mouth. I mean really, what utter nonsense.
The pure fact of the matter here is that the alleged shooter is nuts. His rambling blogs and videos are enough proof of that.
Loughner was kicked out of Pima Community College following a series of run-ins with school officials and police at the colleges where he frequently caused disruptions in classrooms and elsewhere on campus, according to The Arizona Republic.
The tensions with school officials led to Loughner’s production of a YouTube video in which he declared the college illegal, the newspaper reports.
The college said Loughner could only return if he received mental-health clearance, according to The Arizona Republic.
Loughner is suspected of posting a series of YouTube videos that show a focus on literacy and currency — as well as his distrust in the government.
[..]
“The majority of citizens in the United States of America have never read the United States of America’s Constitution. You don’t have to accept the federalist laws,” the video’s titles say. “In conclusion, reading the second United States Constitution, I can’t trust the current government because of the ratifications: the government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar. No! I won’t pay debt with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver! No! I won’t trust in god!”
The second United States Constitution? The government controlling minds with grammar? You look at this tripe and “delusional” is about the most favourable description that you can reach.
Then there are the claims about this guy’s affiliations with various groups (which are being described as right-wing but certainly aren’t representative of what the majority of people would view as “right-wing”) which are denying any involvement with him, and books which he claims to like (such as “The Communist Manifesto”, although you’d have to draw a very very long bow to believe that he adheres to that text).
There are a lot more people claiming that he is a right-wing extremist than there are people claiming that he is a left-wing extremist…but they’re both wrong. He is an extremist for sure, but a very sporadic extremist whose views seem to be based on fantasy and delusion.
It’s easy to discount the notion of him being a right-wing extremist based on the fact that he targeted Gabrielle Giffords, a moderate Democrat who voted against Nancy Pelosi (the person who most on the right despise more than any others in the House) for Speaker recently and is a supporter of gun rights.
It’s equally easy to dismiss the idea of the suspect being a left-wing extremist as Mrs. Giffords also supported some of the favoured items of the left including the economic bailouts and Obamacare, and is a pro-choice advocate on abortions.
Neither side of the divide is responsible for this atrocity. The only person responsible is the shooter. A suspect is in custody and, if he is guilty, it’s plainly obvious that his own problems were to blame for this incident, not the actions of others.
On that note, we move on to the argument which has reared its ugly head again: the idea that the US needs to limit gun ownership. Patently absurd. The only thing which gun control does is give the bad guys an unfair advantage as they will continue to trade illegally in guns long after the innocent have been disarmed by the state…and then when the gun supply becomes even more limited (as is the case here in Australia) the bad guys switch to knives and blood-filled syringes. I know that I’d rather face a gun with a gun any day, rather than face a knife or a blood-filled syringe unarmed. It is also worth noting that another person in the crowd shot at the gunman, an action which may have saved lives and quite possibly distracted the gunman from his targets…also of note is the actions of the brave people who tackled and restrained the gunman, and definitely saved lives.
It should also be noted that banning guns is not a solution, nor is gun ownership a problem. If guns were responsible for killing people, Switzerland (with its estimated three million guns in circulation, in a population of just under 8 million) would have the highest gun-related death rate in the world (instead they had 64 deaths or near-deaths as a result of gun-related violence in 2006…if you can find a more up-to-date figure, do let me know…and no, I’m not interested in the imaginary “300” figure dreamt up by anti-gun politicians in that country). Instead they prove my point that an effective standoff is the best defence as people who wish to harm others with guns know that any attempt to do so is likely to end badly for them…unlike a country like Australia where if, hypothetically speaking, a person were to go on a rampage in the Sydney CBD, many dozens of people would be injured before police could react.
Of course I hope and pray that such a thing will never occur, but it only takes one nut with a gun, and the innocent people nearby will be wishing that they had a gun to put an end to the nut’s reign of terror.
I continue to hope and pray for the swift and thorough recovery of all who were injured in the shooting, and I join in the mourning for those whose lives were tragically lost.
If there is one thing which can be learnt from this event, it is that security needs to be more well thought out for politicians’ public events. The fact that civilians were solely responsible for stopping the shooter speaks volumes to the lack of security at this event. This is where the focus should be…not on political point scoring over the alleged actions of one deranged individual.
Urgent Update 6:55am: Conflicting reports as to whether Rep. Giffords has died or not. Reports suggest that up to six people have died, but I can’t give you a definitive answer on the status of Rep. Gaffords. Hopefully she is alive and pulls through. End Update
Further Update 7:53am: Thankfully Rep. Giffords is alive. She is in a critical condition, but it is wonderful that she is alive, and I hope she makes a full recovery. Sadly not everyone was so lucky as FOX News reports:
At least 19 people were shot at Gifford’s “Your Corner” event held outside a Safeway grocery store in Tucson, including three members of the Democratic congresswoman’s staff in Arizona. Five have died, including one of Gifford’s aides, and nine are in critical condition at the University of Arizona Medical Center.
FOX also notes that police are looking for a possible second suspect in the shooting. Now clearly it is up to the courts to decide on guilt, but let me say right from the get-go that this is the sort of crime which deserves the death penalty. If somebody is found guilty of being the shooter or being involved in the shooting, then they lose all of their rights to being a part of our society in my view.
In the meantime though, my thoughts and prayers continue to be with all of the victims and their families. End Update
Urgent Update 6:37am: I’m very sad to have to report that Gabrielle Giffords has died as a result of the shooting. This is utterly tragic. My most sincere condolences go out to Mrs. Giffords’ family, friends and colleagues. I have no word on the condition of the others who have been shot at this stage…I can only hope that they recover. End Update
Some very disturbing news in from Arizona. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (Democrat-Arizona) has been shot in the head and has been rushed to hospital.
Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot along with three of her aides by a gunman Saturday morning outside a grocery store in Tucson while holding a public event, Fox News has confirmed.
Twelve others were shot as well at Giffords’ “Your Corner” event held at Safeway. The gunman is in custody.
Giffords was taken to a hospital but the condition of those shot was not immediately known, a senior congressional aide told Fox News.
The three staffers who were shot worked out of Giffords’ Arizona office.
Giffords has held multiple “Your Corner” events over the past four years, the aide told Fox News, adding that she had held three previous events that this venue before.
(Article credit: Fox News. Image credit: Wikipedia/United States Congress)
Investigations are obviously ongoing, but given the fact that Mrs. Giffords was shot at a public event which she has held at this location a number of times prior to today, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that this shooting was a deliberate crime of hatred, probably politically motivated…and almost certainly the action of an unhinged person. This is deplorable, and one can only hope that the responsible person is brought to justice and has the full force of the law thrown at them.
To Mrs. Giffords, her family, and everyone else who has been injured in this horrifying act, my thoughts and prayers are with you. May you all recover thoroughly and quickly.
On Thursday I was sitting at work watching the TV news report on yet another mass bird death (or maybe it was a fish death) and in the same breath rehash the words of some government official somewhere speculating on possible reasons for the deaths, as if what he was saying was new and informative when in fact it was exactly what they reported him as saying the previous day, and was pure speculation and totally uninformative.
It was at this point that it struck me: these events are neither related, nor remarkable. Mass animal deaths happen all the time, perhaps not usually with as many in such a short space of time, but whenever you have these intermittent random events, you will necessarily see a momentary spike in them. The fact that there was a momentary spike in mass animal deaths is newsworthy, it is worthy of discussion, and in the places where the deaths occurred, it’s definitely one for the record books…but the hype, the panic, the near headline spot on TV news bulletins in countries where the deaths aren’t even occurring, is not even remotely warranted.
I fell for the hype for a few days. I was wrong.
The other thing which struck me about this on Thursday was that it’s the Qantas syndrome all over again. What I mean by that is that whenever a Qantas plane has some sort of somewhat newsworthy problem (and the amount of danger required to warrant it being a “newsworthy event” for Qantas seems to be less than for other airlines), every other little thing which happens on a Qantas plane over the following two or three weeks becomes somehow related to the original story and “symptomatic of an ongoing dangerous trend” in the media’s eyes…to the point where “air travel industry experts” are called upon to comment on stupid trivial things like a plane’s kitchen’s microwave oven’s lightbulb burning out (example only…but many of the Qantas events which get reported are about as trivial as that).
This bird/fish/whatever death story is the same. Birds die in one spot on New Year’s Eve. It’s a slow news day so the story goes further than it normally would. Fish die nearby, local news people pass it on to the national press who see a connection and suddenly it’s an international story. Birds die elsewhere, and the world’s media assume it’s all connected because the experts don’t have a sane explanation, and then every animal death for the next week is related and becomes global news.
Anyway, the reason I bring this up now (I was tempted to let it slide and just ignore the bird/fish/whatever death story from here on) is twofold:
Firstly, I was wrong to follow the media’s excitement and hype
Secondly, I completely forgot to write a retraction of my hype and excitement and was reminded when I saw a clip of Glenn Beck’s show where he had a similar thought bubble to me and reminded me of another topic.
Towards the end of the clip, Glenn wanders on to the topic of fuel prices (there was a coherent link between the stories, but I’ve forgotten while I’ve been writing this post…watch the clip and you’ll see it) and how a few years ago the media latched on to the story of fuel prices in the US nearing $3 per gallon with much alarm. Now that the prices are at that level again, the media is almost completely silent on the matter (I think I spotted one passing mention in the middle of a not-quite-related story last week).
This reminded me of how, over here, I was filling up my fuel tank a few weeks back when I noticed the price on that day and thought “gee, a couple years back this price would have been enough for a month long session of ranting from the media…where are they now?”. It’s as if the media have moved on to some other topic and are now happy to ignore the fuel prices.
And if that’s the case, it leads me to wonder why they no longer seem to care. Was the fuel price outrage just a distraction from other news? Or is the current lack of outrage and focus on other non-stories (bird deaths, microwave ovens on planes etc) a distraction from the fuel price?
Personally I think it’s neither and that instead, the mainstream media have a short attention span and aren’t very good at following through on stories except when they’ve run out of new stories and need to check up on old ones in order to fill a content quota. Whilst this isn’t a good thing, it does have one almost positive outcome, and that is that with the mainstream media now sidetracked by an imminent royal birth, we should get a rest from all of the unrelated animal death stories…unless a few hundred birds land on the hospital in which the royal birth takes place, in which case we could probably expect a month of both stories blotting out all others.
A large storm is making its way through Canberra at the moment. It appears to be affecting southern Canberra more severely than northern Canberra. The weather bureau cancelled their severe storm warning at 9:40pm which was a silly thing to do. The storm is bring some pretty heavy falls.
The storm appears to have caused a power surge, which occurred while it was still a fair way out of Canberra so I suspect that lightning has struck a power line somewhere. When this happened, it killed off transmissions from Telstra Tower and, presumably, the transmissions for surrounding areas which generally feed off the tower.
The storm is moving fairly quickly, so it should move out of the area soon. If you need help in the storm, call the SES on 131 500.
With TV and FM radio broadcasts currently off-air due to the issues up at Telstra Tower, my little hobby transmitter on 99.9FM at home is the only FM station still on air in the area. I suppose I can take some pride from that. It also carries a responsibility and I’m breaking in to programming with storm updates. I don’t expect that anyone is listening, but I’m there just in case somebody has checked the dial for a signal.
Update 1:14am: That storms seems to have passed, but there’s another concerning storm about to pass through Canberra. This one appears to be travelling slightly north of the last one. Again, I’d suggest being prepared…it sounds angry. End Update
Update 1:23am: TV and radio services on Telstra Tower have mostly been restored. Main radio stations are back, some smaller stations not on the main antenna still don’t have carrier, but some of the bigger stations seem to be transmitting dead air which could be studio or link related. On the bright side, at least Telstra Tower is back.
Bad news is the second storm cell is just about upon us. North Canberra and suburbs nearish to the lake take care. End Update
Update 1:34am:It’s here. Baton down the hatches NOW! Reminder that the SES can be contacted on 132 500. End Update
Update 1:55am: That should be it for Canberra. The storm is just about out of our hair now, but Queanbeyan residents should probably keep an eye on it for another 10-20 minutes. Another reminder that the SES can be contacted on 132 500 if you need help cleaning up from the storm. I took a couple video clips of the storm passing over my area…I’ll upload them shortly. End Update
Update 2:03am: Actually, I’m seeing another small storm cell which should pass to the south of Tuggeranong, maybe scraping the edges of civilisation down there in about the next 20-30 minutes. Tharwa and Michelago residents should be on alert for this one, but it looks like problematic than the two bigger cells which have already passed through the region. End Update
Final Update: Here are a couple videos of the view of the second storm cell from my place.
This first video is from the height of the storm. The window is closed in this video but the rain is still clearly audible. Note the frequency of the lightning…the last time I saw lightning that frequent was in the lead-up to the great hail storm of 2007…thankfully we didn’t have hail like that this time.
I shot this second video a tad later on when the storm had died down a bit and I had finished talking with 2UE’s John Kerr (the end of the call is audible in the background as I had the 2UE webstream on which has about a 45 second delay on it). The highlight of this one is that a lightning bolt is directly visible, rather than just a series of flashing clouds.
And speaking of that call to John Kerr, I ran a tape (tape? OK, maybe I just fired up Cool Edit Pro, which reminds me that I’ve been meaning to upgrade to Audition for yonks) over the 4BC webstream because I wanted to hear how loud the rain sounded in the background…not as loud as I thought, but loud enough.
Certainly an interesting night in the nation’s capital. End Update
Another update…Monday January 3: For the record books, the reason the TV and radio signals from Telstra Tower vanished is that the generator did not kick in. Apart from the power surge, Telstra Tower was one of the parts of Canberra to also suffer from a power failure. Unfortunately their backup generator did not start, and so the entire tower, including the transmission equipment lost power. End Update
I had reason to get up to the flood-affected Captains Flat this morning (and did I regret that or what? I spent most of my time up there wondering if I’d be able to get back) and on the way back stopped off at the flood-affected Queanbeyan, although to get there I had to take the long way via Fyshwick as the main road through town was closed due to the flood.
I got some video and photos of the flood, although I wasn’t the only one by a long shot; I was actually quite surprised to see just how many people were standing around near the water either watching it, filming it or taking photos of it. Seven’s Jodie Speers turned up with a cameraman as I was leaving and, based on the footage they’ve put to air, the water rose a fair bit after I got out of there.
First up, here’s my video of a crane plucking a caravan out of the caravan park which was slowly flooding.
And my photos. This is why I was worried about getting back from Captains Flat. Captains Flat Road about 23KMs out of Captains Flat was flooded. It was passable, but only just. The water had risen slightly and the flow was faster when I came back through.
Jerrabomberra Creek was very close to flooding Canberra Avenue between Fyshwick and Narrabundah this morning. Apparently it did partially flood the road later on after I had left the area. Quite extraordinary for a creek which is normally a mere trickle.
Riverside Plaza in Queanbeyan became River Plaza.
The carpark was inundated.
Meanwhile downstream from Captains Flat and Queanbeyan, Lake Burley Griffin was copping the debris.
My best wishes go out to everyone who was and will be affected by the floods, both here and in other parts of the country. Hopefully the forecast upcoming week of sunshine comes to pass as I don’t think anyone can really take much more of this.
I didn’t have time to address this yesterday, but I certainly wanted to.
I’m sick of people complaining about banks making profits and increasing interest rates, without giving any thought to changing bank and instead wanting the banks to be more heavily regulated.
Regulation is not the answer to this problem; competition is. At the moment there is virtually no competition for two reasons:
1) People don’t consider changing bank. If they did, the banks would be more afraid of losing customers and be less willing to annoy their customers.
2) The federal government put that silly deposit guarantee in place which gives banks an unfair advantage over the smaller outfits such as credit unions. This bit of government regulation is killing competition by making smaller outfits seem less safe in the eyes of customers.
The banks are doing what any sensible profit-making business does when in a virtual monopoly position; they’re making as much money as they can. Of course they wouldn’t be in a virtual monopoly position if the federal government’s deposit guarantee hadn’t caused a heap of people to shift their business from credit unions to the big banks.
The federal government’s regulations are largely responsible for this situation, and yet people want more regulation. Haven’t people learnt from the financial crisis yet? Government regulation was the main catalyst for the financial crisis, as the US government forced lenders to lend money to people who could never pay it back. Government regulation does not help people when it comes to banking. In fact the current situation is not sustainable as this ever increasing concentration of the banking business will lead to many people defaulting on their loans, followed by banks struggling to sell houses, followed by the federal government (aka the taxpayers) compensating banks for lost investments due to a lack of loan repayment income.
The solution to this problem is for the deposit guarantee to be removed. This will encourage competition.
Competition is good for consumers, and leads to businesses being more creative in the way they run their business in an effort to gain more market share. This, in turn, leads to economic growth.
The solution is simple…the question is though, will the government make it happen?
The message from voters in the Midterm election is clear. When they voted for “hope and change” in 2008, they were not hoping for socialist change, and they do not appreciate the massive spending of Obama and the Democrats.
Republicans romped in on a basis of cutting spending, repealing Obamacare (which undoubtedly would have eventually led to the total collapse of the private healthcare industry through over-regulation, resulting in government-run socialised medicine) and reducing the role of government to a more constitutionally mandated role. Basically, Republicans got in on conservative principles, something which can’t really be said of Republican victories since Reagan was President, with perhaps the exception of the 1994 midterm victory. The Bush-led governments, while Republican, were not what the American public view as being based on conservative principles…a subset of them perhaps, but not true conservatism.
Republicans did not win enough seats to take control of the Senate, but they did win more of the Senate seats which were up for grabs than the Democrats did (currently by a margin of 23-11), in much the same way as they won more House seats than the Democrats and more Gubernatorial races than the Democrats. Whichever way you looks at it, more people wanted Republicans in charge than wanted Democrats in charge…and the only reason the makeup of the Senate does not reflect this is that only a third of it was up for election.
The onus now is on the Republicans to follow through on their promise. They have a hostile Senate to contend with, but even without the blessing of the Senate, they can at least show that they meant what they said by submitting the Executive branch to proper scrutiny, and by passing various bills in the House which are in line with their agenda. They don’t have to get their agenda through the Senate, but they do need to be able to show in 2012 that they have at least been trying to do what the people have asked them to do.
The split control of the Houses is in many ways the perfect opportunity for both Republicans and Democrats. The Democrats have two years to rethink their approach. If they’re smart, they’ll learn from this election. A decent chunk of the country obviously wanted at least some of what they promised in 2008 (and they did promise a few things, once you get past the whole “isn’t Obama such a lovely historic man” thing), but the country has flatly rejected the socialist approach which they took, and especially the dishonest approach (attempting to appoint a whole heap of tax cheats to important positions, for example) which they took in doing it. I’m sure that people expect some level of dishonesty in politics…but when, Like Obama did, you campaign on a platform of “ethical administration” you just can’t get away with being unethical.
As I say, if the Democrats are smart, they will learn from this, and offer a better product in 2012.
As for the Republicans, they have two years to prove that they are capable of doing what the people have elected them to do. If they can run the House in a conservative manner for two years, and make sure that the public are well informed of this, then they should be able to quite easily take the Presidency and Senate in 2012.
One thing which I can say with absolute certainty is that socialism has been rejected by the American people, and as funny as it may sound, Obama is one of the best things to happen to the conservative movement in decades. Sometimes it takes a taste of the exact opposite of what you believe, to remind you of the value of what you believe.
Now on a lighter note, I thought this was the funniest thing to happen yesterday. You might recall the infamous MSNBC utter elation at Obama’s 2008 victory, and MSNBC host Chris Matthews going all giddy over it to the point where he was getting tingles and thrills up his leg.
Well the delightful Michele Bachmann who won her House seat was interviewed by Chris Matthews on MSNBC. Chris completely lost his remaining marble and asked Michele if she was in a trance. Michele was not thrown by it, and instead managed to have some fun at Chris Matthews’ expense.
Well, he deserved it, and it looks like it threw him because that ramble trying to justify the thrills and tingles was a cross between a flat-out lie and some sort of deranged incoherency.
An interesting election, and needless to say, I’m very happy with the outcome. The final results won’t be in a for a little while yet, and in the coming days I will run through the results of some of the races which were of particular interest to me.
For now though I will just say this. The people have spoken, and the clear message is Conservative Victory 2010!
Alrighty then. This will probably be my last rolling update for the day as we’ve pretty much run out of things to update, plus the fact that I have to be somewhere soon, and I have to be at work really early in the morning. I will aim (but can’t promise depending on my sleep requirements) to post some sort of summary in the wee hours of the morning, although if that falls through, you can look forward to it later tomorrow.
In the Nevada Senate race, Harry Reid has hung on to defeat Sharron Angle. I’m disappointed, but that’s the way it goes. On the bright side, Brian Sandoval has prevented Rory Reid from extending the Reid dynasty. Brian will be the new Governor of Nevada.
In California, various websites are confusing me by telling me that Barbara Boxer has hung on to her Senate seat (shudder) with less votes than Carly Fiorina. I don’t understand what’s going on there, so I’ll wait for something more concrete.
Sadly Jerry Brown is the replacement for the Governator, defeating Meg Whitman.
Some good news from California is that the silly proposal to legalise marijuana has been defeated, currently 56%-44%.
Alaska has only just closed, so we’ll be waiting for that one for a while, especially given the remote nature of many of the polling booths.
Overall though, it’s a great victory of historic magnitude for the Republicans, having taken the majority in the House and reduced to a mere handful the Democrats’ majority in the Senate, meaning that the Democrats no longer have a filibuster-proof majority. To that end, I’m very pleased that Nancy Pelosi has flown out of the House on Broomstick One (as Rusty Humphries quite cleverly called it earlier) for the final time. She’ll have to broom-pool like the rest of the representatives now.
As I said, I’ll run a more thorough summary later on. Suffice to say though, I’m pleased. As with any election there are a few disappointments, but overall this has been a great election.
Some very disturbing news in from Arizona. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (Democrat-Arizona) has been shot in the head and has been rushed to hospital.
