Public hospital emergency services are abysmal in NSW. Try to get treated in an emergency room on a Saturday night if you don’t believe me…

And yet Manbed wants to CUT 20,000 public service personnel– including nurses?

That’s progress!

-weez

The completely hapless NSW Liberal leader has shown his true colours.

First, Manbed parades some ‘struggling Mom & Pop investment property owners’ to the media, first said to own ONLY FIVE rental properties (only?!), but later found to be real-estate agents- who actually own EIGHT rental properties…

Then a friend of a Debs staffer, a former real estate agent, posed as a frustrated renter for Channel Nine:

Elissa Kracjer: My ex is an adviser to (NSW Premier) Morris Iemma and one of my friends who is a (Peter) Debnam staffer thought it would be a funny way to get back at him if I came out on the Liberal’s side…(Opposition leader) Peter Debnam was making a statement or announcement on it that afternoon or evening so they staged a lot of things for me to say to go with it.

— Media Watch’s interview with Elissa Kracjer

Hey, that really was funny, Elissa. Hilarious, in fact…

OK, now we know who your friends are, Debs… and we know where they are, too; on the big end of town.

-weez

Go gittem, Pete. Get ’em used to real authority, real young.

If they’re midget ‘Middle Eastern thugs,’ Debs will “charge them with anything to get them off the streets.”

As long as there are Speedos, Debs will always have a place to keep his socks.

-weez

nods and winks to mushie & roo

Rising Tide is a Newcastle based public interest group committed to informing the public about the real costs of coal in terms of carbon emissions and global warming.

Rising Tide spoofed the NSW Minerals Council website at http://www.nswmining.com.au/ with their own site at http://www.miningnsw.com.au/.

Rising Tide initially used edited screengrabs of the mining lobby’s website for their spoof – straight bit of culture jam, much as you often see here on mgk. The NSW Minerals Council complained to Rising Tide’s host about ‘copyright violations,’ and their host turned off Rising Tide’s jam site. Rising Tide rebuilt the site using their own artwork and were pulled off by their host yet again on complaints from the mining lobby. Rising Tide lodged a counterclaim; their site is back online via a host in Germany pending a result of the ‘investigation.’ (more…)

Australian meteorologists are now suggesting that the current El Niño cycle which has caused the worst drought in 100 years in Australia is at an end.

They’re sure not wrong! We’ve gotten more than 350mm of rain in the last month here in the Blue Mountains, often with ferocious lightning storms.

Two bands of heavy thunderstorms moved through the Sydney area last night alone.

The views of city lights and approaching storms from our verandah which overlooks the Sydney basin can be spectacular, especially at night.

This storm moved from south to north over Penrith at about 2:30am today. If it was going to wake me up, I figured I may as well get some pics!

Thick and black as a squid ink milkshake, glowing from within,
the storm sneaks up on a sleeping Penrith at 2:30am

then sssssKRAKKbbbBOOOM!!
(more…)

Remember in October just who took away your pay and conditions and gave your employer the right to treat you like a serf.

-weez

Howard and Costello’s well-staged theatrics over Rudd’s meeting with Brian Burke, including the undoubtedly pre-planned resignation from cabinet of Ian Campbell, has indeed turned up a flaw in Kevin Rudd’s leadership abilities.

While Rudd did meet with Burke– as did Ian Campbell, for 20 minutes- Rudd should never have admitted to any wrongdoing, especially on a typically disingenuous Howard accusation. Kevvo should have come out with all guns blazing. To admit any sort of defeat on cause of Howard’s desperate accusation was just plain silly. Altruism and honesty are admirable but they don’t win elections. Age and treachery usually overcome youth and skill- but I don’t think we’ve quite seen the best of Kevin Rudd just yet.
(more…)

image: United States Geological Survey

The battle for NSW government between Labor’s Iemma and the Lieberals’ Manbed turns on its head when it comes to water policy for Sydney. Manbed (bravely) wants a sewage recycling plant while Iemma is punting on the seemingly voter-safe ‘Toowoomba option,’ a desalination plant which Iemma has in the past said is ‘beyond public discussion.’

Is it now, Morrie?
(more…)