More on the gay penguin plan

I clearly have a bad case of “the blogs” today (like diarrhea but different). I just got this email from my favorite record label, Alternative Tentacles, that I felt was compelling enough to reproduce here:

“A short time ago East Bay Ray faxed Jello Biafra a proposal to sell the DK’s version of “Viva Las Vegas” to one of TV’s all-time worst programs on TV’s all-time worst network- “American Idol” on Fox. Biafra strenuously objected, pointing out this was even worse and more against the principles of the band than the proposed Levi’s commercial the ex-DK’s sued Biafra for. True to form, he never heard back from Ray. Now we are getting vague e-mails claiming Ray went behind Jello’s back and did indeed sell DK’s music and legacy to Fox for “American Idol.”

“Can anyone out there confirm this actually happened? Did anyone overcome their nausea long enough to tape the show? Please let us know. Biafra hasn’t heard from Ray and does not expect to. Obviously this is the worst and stupidest thing to be done to Dead Kennedys yet in the name of a quick dirty buck, but is this true??? We are interested in facts, not gossip and blogs.

“If you have seen this or have confirmation of this happening, please e-mail Jesse at jesse@alternativetentacles.com.

Thanks!”

Ray, it must suck to be you and suck so bad. How were you ever involved in the greatest punk rock band ever and suck so much. Yep, you suck.

The Kyoto protocol came into effect today, all be it a little belated and without the support of Australian and the US, thanks to Russia who have finally signed on.

The US produces a quarter of the world’s Greenhouse Gas and Australia is the highest per-capita contirubter to global warming – neither are particularly desirable positions to be in. In fact, you could argue that it is gross negligence that has and will continue to lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of people a year (and yes, I’m happy to provide examples.) And that’s just the short term, long term it is about the survival of the planet.

Moreover the protocol is clearly inadiquate and at this stage there are no “post-Kyoto” plans. If we are to seriously address the issue of Global Warming then we need to go a lot further.

I’m told that Australia is actually meeting the demands of the protocol because of ‘carbon credits’. However I’m also told that this is largely due to the fact that Queensland’s timber industry has basically run out of old-growth forest to log. Everything that is left is protected forests. Not only is this a short term solution to ‘cabon debt’ but also represents just how ‘ad hoc’ the federal government is about a lot of things – particularly the environment.

European court of human rights has ruled that Dave Morris and Helen Steel, the two activists that were sued by McDonalds in the “McLibel” case, were denied a fair trial by the limitations of the British legal aid system and denied a fair trial.

As John Vidal (author of McLibel) writes:

“They were appalled that when they took the British government to the European court of human rights in 1991 to try to get legal aid they were refused, bizarrely because it was considered that they were defending themselves rather well on their own. They were infuriated, too, that they were denied a jury on the basis that ordinary people would not understand complex scientific arguments, even though they – as ordinary as they come – could clearly understand the issues well enough to defend themselves. And they found it hard to believe that the burden was always on them on prove with primary evidence what almost every other country would consider legitimate comment.

But the heart of their case was that McDonald’s, a company with a turnover of $40bn (£21bn) a year, was unfairly using the British libel laws to sue two penniless people for libel over public interest issues which affect people’s every day lives. It was a clear case, they said, of the corporate censorship of opposition and debate backed by the British establishment.”

The leaflet that started this all off can be found here and an extended version can be found here.

It is great to see common sense and good judicial process prevailing.

German zoo says penguins can stay gay

How charitable.

It was mentioned on the RRR Break Fasters this morning and I had the thought myself while watching Pauline (you know who) on ‘Millionaire’ last night.

I’m concerned about the trivialisation of Hanson. She is a racist, small minded bigot. So when they advertise her being on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and the ad consists of her answering a question to the effect of ‘What is the definition of Xenophobic’ you really have to wonder. Surely her racism is not a trivial manner. A good sport is one thing, bigotry is another.

The BBC has reported that predictions with regard to an increase in temperature due to global warming will be double original estimates. As they have noted: “At this point, whatever we did to curb our emissions, it would be too late. Ten thousand billion tons of methane, a greenhouse gas eight times stronger than carbon dioxide, would be released into the atmosphere. The Earth’s climate would be spinning out of control, heading towards temperatures unseen in four billion years. But this is not a prediction – it is a warning. It is what will happen if we clean up pollution while doing nothing about greenhouse gases. However, the easy solution – just keep on polluting and hope that Global Dimming will protect us – would be suicidal.”

“this is not a prediction – it is a warning” but Bracks still allows the country’s most polluting power station to operate for another 20 years.

Increasingly it is virtually impossible to discuss any environmental issues without discussing climate change but governments continue to do this. Increasingly this is not a case of inter-generational equity but an issue for us now – we are that next generation.

What is even more distressing is that the Environment Movement is becoming more conservatice. When you think of all the great environmental ‘wins’ over the past 30 or so years, most of them were 20 years or more ago when the movement was much smalled and much more radical.

Sometimes I feel like I’m one of the few who have awoken to the importance of our environment. But why make excuses – this is hardly rocket science. A child knows we have to look after our environment and she probably has a reasonable grasp of biodiversity and climate change too. Why don’t our leaders? And why do we keep voting for them?

Sometimes I think about my position on the environment which I consider to be pretty radical. Then I’m reminded that Victorians are one of the worlds biggest polluters. Then, combined with the fact that a Labor government (one you’d expect to take the environment reasonably seriously) is extending the life of our most polluting power generator in the State buy 20 years.

It really baffles me and I couldn’t go without commenting on the situation.

I think that in extreme circumstances it is reasonable for a government to lie. The only extreme circumstance that comes to mind is an issue of national security where many people’s lives are at stake. However such instances are particularly rare.

It would seem that, with regards to Robert Hill’s denial of Australians being involved in interrogation at the Abu Ghraib gaol in Iraq, he has lied. Even if he hasn’t there is certainly no doubt that this government has lied profusely.

In the past, something of this nature would have lead to the resignation of that particular minister. And it should. If the minister then refused to resign the Prime Minister would essentially sack them. This still happens in probably the majority of legitimate democracies, with the British parliament as a good recent example where an MP resigned because he ensure someone got a visa.

There was good reason for this. For a democracy to function effectively there is a need for transparency and accountability. If someone lies in parliament it undermines our entire political system because the information that the populous then makes a decision on with regards to who should be governing our country is false and that government is therefore not truly legitimate because it has come into being on the basis of incorrect information. We need to be able to make decisions on the facts – not lies.

I wish I could put my finger on when it was that this shift occurred and could explain it. I can’t. But what I am sure about is that this trend has worsened under the Howard government and really half his cabinet should have been sacked by now.

…and another thing. If you want to get rich quick, you can do it by fucking government departments and local government in the arse by launching a web page that you can only view in Internet Explorer.

Take PlanningNSW for example. Try and view this page in Firefox or any other non-Internet Explorer browser. That’s right, Fucked in the Arse.

And woe be you if you use a Mac.

Seriously, who is making a profit out of making web pages that just don’t work. Forget functionality or navagatability. Just fuck ‘em in the arse.

I’ve been wanting to get that off my chest for a while – Viva la Firefox!