Is it the beginning of a new News Corp attack upon another Labor Prime Minister ?. After they took down Kevin Rudd 2 years ago with their sustained broadcasts at everything that came out of his mouth, the ghastly Fox News channel and Sean Hannity in the USA have insulted JuliaGillard's choice of headwear to the Royal wedding (below). They reckon it looked like a Venus Flytrap !
On the plus side, fashion commentator Melissa Hoyer who can cast a critical eye when necessary gave the PM the thumbs up with her CarlaZampatti outfit, while she was reporting from The Mall for the Seven network.
Who made the PM's flytrap ?. Hoyer speculated that is was either Paddington based Neil Grigg or Woollahra milliner Jane Lambert.
Sunday's Sun Herald will publish a story about the Qaddafi family links with Australia and in particular some of the adventures in Oz of the Libyan dictator's two sons Saif al-Islam and his younger brother Al-Saadi.
The pair have visited several times and met with both Labor and Liberal politicians including the former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer ( Or Lord Downer of Tikrit as journalist Mike Carlton calls him)
Just as dictators-as long as they are friendly to western interests-are warmly welcomed into the arms of British and American political circles, Australia follows suit.
Saif al-Islam
The Qaddafi's are reported to have inspected several multi million dollar properties including an office building in Sydney they planned to turn into an embassy after Canberra re-instated diplomatic relations .
Whilst British and US leaders have been quick to jump on the bandwagon of 'democracy' for the Middle East as repressive regimes seem to be on the slide, Australian diplomats and politicians appear to have been struck dumb offering no support for the Libyan citizens taking their lives in their hands by venturing onto Tripoli streets with one notable exception- former PM Kevin Rudd
According to the Herald Al-Saadi also dined with Nicole Kidman at a Sydney hotel reputedly to discuss film investments (it's one of the downsides of being a movie star-meeting with potential investors ). That information comes from a celebrity security firm. Whether this actually happened remains to be seen but there is an odd link between Kidman and the Qaddafis.
Al-Saadi.
In 2003 Al-Saadi became embroiled in a drama at Port Douglas when a party with several prostitutes went awry. One of his bodyguards pulled a gun and police were called. It was rumoured that two girls were badly beaten and received pay-offs to drop their complaints. Outraged tour operators who went unpaid by the young Qaddafi wrote to then prime Minister John Howard about Qaddafi and his 20 strong entourage . They were ignored. Oil, gas and construction deals in Lybia far outweigh trivial matters like a few bashed working girls.
There is even a claim Al-Saadi walked out of a Kings Cross brothel leaving an unpaid $7000 tab.
Nicole Kidman starred in the Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut along with her then husband Tom Cruise. The movie is about sexual experimentation and after it premiered in Sydney a series of monthly Eyes Wide Shut sex parties began where guests wore masks and indulged in sexual encounters with strangers.
The parties were staged in empty exclusive Eastern Suburbs mansions that were for sale. One tale that swept the East was how the Qaddafi brothers inspected a harbour side mansion with a price tag of twelve million dollars. The real estate agent, a glamorous blond invited her prospective clients to one of the raunchy parties that was to be held that weekend and they accepted and arrived at the party with 6 minders who all joined in the night's activities.
She is reported to have said after :
"they were quiet awful. Rough, rude and fairly unsexy. They never paid the $500 a head donation and it was wham bam with no thank you Mam. Quite frankly I was glad when they left. Mind you, one well know society hostess ****** was sorry to see them go but she loves rough sex !"
* If you haven't noticed, Oprah Winfrey arrived by private jet in Cairns in Northern Queensland today. She didn't alight as the plane was cleared by Customs but flew onto Hamilton Island where she and her great friend Gayle King visited a zoo where they were confronted by 2 mating Koalas !.
According to Oprah as she cuddled one Koala "oh it feels just like the ones in the stores back home". Shops that sell Koalas in the USA? .
** Overheard by our spy in Parliament House in Canberra in the Member's Bar : 2 Labor politicians were discussing the Wikileaks cables and the ones where US diplomats describe former PM Kevin Rudd as a "control freak".
One, a well known cabinet minster said to the other " no, it's very disappointing. I haven't even been mentioned. It's like the kiss of death, I feel like a complete nobody !"
***************************
John Waters
*** It's 30 Years since John Lennon was gunned down in New York City. Rolling Stone Magazine is to publish the very last interview with the great song writer recorded by Jonathan Cott on the 5th December 1980. You can hear much of the material on the magazine's website.
Cott recorded nine hours of interviews with Lennon but had forgotten all about them and most of the material has never been heard before.
**** Local actor John Waters is to tour his brilliant and successful one-man show Lennon in Word and Music: Looking Through a Glass Onion. Water's sings just about every song Lennon wrote and talks through the show about Lennon's life. It's a superb show-the Shuttle first saw it it in 1998 and now Waters has the blessing of Yoko Ono.
Today Waters was at the Hard Rock’s Sydney Rock Shop, Harbourside, Darling Harbour to launch the Imagine There’s No Hunger in co-operation withYoko's Why Hunger campaign.
The campaign was launched by Hard Rock International in November at the Hollywood Cafe and featured performances by Ringo Starr, Dave Stewart, Booker T, Joe Walsh and many more.
Waters is one of Australia's hardest working stage and film actors. Born in the UK he became fascinated by the entertainment industry while watching his father work in his own movie studio very near Thames TV . His first break-as a child in the first Titanic film A Night To Remember.
Check out dates for Looking Through A Glass Onion at the website.
A video of John Waters in Looking Through A Glass Onion
What is happening with Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehart ?.
2 years ago she was content with quietly cruising the Mediterranean after a protracted legal battle with her ex-mother-in-law Rose Hancock Porteus, the Filipino maid who married Gina's dad, the late West Australian mining magnate Lang Hancock when he was 70. Gina, who was left a $4.5 billion fortune by her father claimed there had been skulduggery over her father's death although it came to nought.
Now she has embarked on media buying frenzy and looks set to join her Perth friend the billionaire Kerry Stokes who moved east and swept up the Seven TV Network along with Pacific Magazines which he purchased from Rupert Murdoch's nephew Matt Handbury.
Today Gina bought just under 5% of Fairfax Media, publishers of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne along with several chains of suburban newspapers. Fairfax are the only serious rivals to the News Ltd empire.
2 months ago, as the young tycoons Lachlan Murdoch and James Packer banded together to purchase 17% of the Ten TV Network, 4 weeks later Reinhardt stumped down a few million for a 10% stake in Ten.
Just 6 months ago the normally reclusive Gina clambered aboard a pick-up truck in a Perth park opposite the Hyatt Hotel to protest then PM Kevin Rudd's proposed 40 % mining tax. Reinhardt was joined by fellow miner and billionaire Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest. She helpfully handed out printed placards to the arriving protesters-all mining workers.
Has this new public profile sparked of a deisre to become a player and power broker in the media world ?
On the 1st November Rupert Murdochgave a speech in Sydney praising his personal baby The Australian newspaper. Rupert is famous for saying he never interferes with his editors. Perhaps they just think like him.
Murdoch also promised that in a few years .. "it will be possible to have all the energy we want from economic cheap nuclear plants..it will be safe..there will not be an energy waste problem..we don't have to rush into a lot of mad schemes fouling up the country..windmills and other crackpot ideas.. "
That came as a shock to the landed gentry of Rupert's beloved Liberal National Party coalition who have accepted $100,000 a time to allow an energy corporation to install windmills on their land.
.."just don't let the bloody Greens mess it up.." he continued.
The Greens hold nine Senate seats and the balance of power and look like picking up seats in the Victorian state election. Getting anything past them in Parliament will be a Herculean task.
The Australian promised in an ill-advised editorial after the August General Election to "destroy theGreens" The newspaper has been back pedalling ever since.
Alan Rusbridger
Fast forward to Friday night's 702 ABC Sydney Radio Andrew Olle Lecture given by Alan Rusbridger, editor of the UK Guardian newspaper. Speaking about the media he said :
"And, of course, most topically, there is the prospect of a merger between a wholly owned BSkyB and the four newspaper titles owned by News Corp. That would give one company control of nearly 40 per cent of Britain‟s press as well as a broadcaster with nearly £6bn in revenues compared with the £3.5bn licence fee of the BBC.
Now, I realize that even raising this question immediately translates, in the minds of some, into an argument about Rupert Murdoch. It‟s not. There‟s no one I would want to have that much power."
In his speech Rupert Murdoch said the profits from the current resources boom should be spent on education. How that could be achieved, he didn't say.
In May this year The Australian was at the forefront of a determined campaign to undermine then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who had announced a 40% mining tax on the minerals dug out of land owned by the Australian people and which has driven the extraordinary wealth of the country. He hoped to raise $12 Billion in just 2 years.
The entire News Corp mast heads went into bat for the 3 mining billionaires leading the charge-Andrew 'Twiggy 'Forest. Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer. The 3 funded a multi million dollar ad campaign which News Ltd apparently mistook for news and fact.
The mining tax spelt the end of civilisation as we know it...Forrest, Rinehart and Palmer proclaimed the new tax would destroy the industry, lead to massive job losses and anyway, they were struggling already as it was.
The ruling Labor Party capitulated. It was the end of Rudd's leadership and he was swiftly replaced by Julia Gillard who limped home in the August election.
Clive Palmer
Just to show there are no hard feelings Clive Palmer, a National Liberal Party supporter threw a $20M bash last Thursday in Townsville for 2000 employees to celebrate the $200M personal profit he had made from just one mine.
Clive's a generous man to those who please him. At the party he announced 55 employees would each be receiving a brand new $50,000 Mercedes-Benz B180 each. Palmer toasted the post-GFC recovery as being responsible for his good fortune.
That's the recovery that Rupert Murdoch said in his speech was "governments wasting billions of dollars " for which Kevin Rudd received world-wide praise for keeping Australia out of recession but whose actions were roundly condemned by the Liberal National Party, but supported by those "bloody Greens"!
Rhys Muldoon & Peter Garrett at the Hawke book launch
Who is Rhys Muldoon?.
The quick answer is a very successful actor. A former host of a kid's TV show Muldoon has acted in numerous critically acclaimed roles including the Oscar nominated The Saviour in 2006 and Bitter andTwisted, the hit of the 2008 Tribecca Film Festival.
But perhaps one role could have revealed a political side to Muldoon. In the Melbourne and Sydney productions of the David Hare play Stuff Happens he played the lead role of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
On Tuesday night as our exclusive picture shows, Muldoon was at the Blanche d'Alpuget's book launch of her new title Hawke The Prime Minister. He stood and chatted with Environment Minister and former Midnight Oils front man Peter Garrett MP.
Now it appears he is also a close personal friend of former PM Kevin Rudd, recently ousted by Julia Gillard who launched d'Alpuget's book. And if we believe an article in tomorrow's Australian newspaper Muldoon is so close to Rudd he may have been advising him on certain matters during his tenure as PM. He and Rudd also penned a children's book together-Great Australia Day Kerfuffle.
What does all this mean ?. Well we have no idea but it does add to the amazing publicity campaign-planned or unplanned that is certain to push Hawke The Prime Minister into the number one book spot.
As media reports continue unabated with Labor tribes lining up on either side to support former PM Paul Keatingor Bob Hawkethe relationship between the 2 former political allies seems busted beyond repair. Or is it ?.
Keating say he hasn't previously considered writing his own book about his term as PM from '91 to'96 and as the World's Greatest Living Treasurer ( an honour accorded by a host of financial publication editors around the world) from 1983 to 1990.
If he puts pen to paper now his book is also bound to be a bestseller. Perhaps Hawke will return the favour.
In times of such great upheaval we have asked our resident astrologer Charo to give us a quick rundown on how the Welsh Valley girl and new Prime Minister Julia Gillard, a 29th September Libran , will fare with the country of Australia which is governed by the sign of Sagittarius.:
Charo says-
Libras are fun-loving, diplomatic and charming people. They are loved
by all for their decent mannerisms and kind-heartedness. Sagittarius
people are equally fun-loving, brutally frank and honest individuals.
This tries to understand the possibility of Libra compatibility with
Sagittarius.
Relationship Profile of Libras in a nutshell:
Librans need love and a constant source of care and affection in
their life.
They become vulnerable to when they naively expose their needs
before others.
Heart-breaks are common for this sun-sign, but they learn their
lesson and move on quickly in life.
They prefer a strong individual as their life partner and never mind
being dominated too.
Relationship Profile of Sagittarius in a nutshell:
people
who are so honest that they are
misunderstood a lot.
Though their hard-core optimism make them a hit among people, many
cannot forget the temper these individuals have.
Sagittarians are have commitment phobia and get engaged lately in
life.
But once they find themselves in the company of a right partner,
they get dedicated to their family completely.
Why Libra Compatibility with Sagittarius is the Best:
Libra is an air sign. Sagittarius is a fire sign. In nature, both the
elements fire and air are naturally compatible and can form a formidable
combination together.
Libran compatibility with Sagittarius is a strong one. Vices in one sun-sign will be removed by the virtues
other sun-sign possess. For instance, Libras suffer from low self-esteem
at sometimes. Optimistic Sagittarians can change this nature of their
partner. On the other hand, Sagittarius people bluntly put the truth and
can be rude at times to the people. They can learn how to be diplomatic
and still remain honest form their Libra partner.
It's a marriage made in heaven!
Unlike that of the sad Kevin Rudd, a Virgo who rescued Labor from an 11 year wilderness and was ruthlessly stabbed in the back by..the media !!
Virgo and Sagittarius
There is no surety of long-term compatibility of a relationship
between
a Virgo and a Sagittarian . Virgos are introverts who
don't
like interacting with new people much. Sagittarians are very enthusiastic
towards
life and want to live every moment to its fullest. Virgo somberness,
serious nature and laid-back attitude may be too much for Sagitarrians to
handle.
A Sagitarrian's excessive enthusiasm, wild nature and unpredictable actions
may not
go down well with a Virgoan conservative nature. Not a very good
match, to say
the least!
It was a sight to warm the hearts of Capitalists everywhere-Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehart demonstrating against the proposed mining tax that will be increased to 40% on future profits.
Never have the well heeled battlers come out in force and together for such a common cause. Billionaire's and the nation's 3 richest people-Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, the corpulent Clive Palmer and our Gina, daughter of the late billionaire Lang Hancock who married his Filipino nurse Rose-in twin set and pearls shouting herself hoarse on the back of a flat bed truck on the well manicured lawns of Perth's Langley Park, screeching about PM Kevin Rudd's proposed tax that will kick in 2012 and replace a royalty system currently paid.
No Tax Gina Rinehart
Gina's ex-step mum Rose
'Twiggy' Forrest is one our favourites-hovering between the richest and second richest man in the country depending on share price and always pictured at these events in a worker's orange flouro jacket and miner's helmet-sparkling clean-before clambering into his chauffeured Beemer and speeding off to the boardroom.
The idea of this tax is the more the mining corporations make-most with their headquarters based in Geneva or the Cayman Islands, the more the government will make on minerals dug out of the ground and the more the government will raise in taxes on a finite resource that will run out one day.
Whilst China booms so do we and with building programs there that will see Aussie mineral deposits that have kept the country afloat for 2 decades , sought after for years to come , the government reckons the common people should be getting a bigger share of what basically belongs to the nation. The billionaires aren't having any of that nonsense and reckon the Mandarin speaking Rudd is on the way to become a full blown Communist (while China is well on the way to becoming a capitalist giant).
Clive Palmer
Of course mining actually does little to improve the country. No infrastructure is built-just bloody great holes in the ground from which the precious minerals are extracted and then these mining giants just move on
Someone has badly planned this PR cock-up. The miner's union wouldn't have a bar of it so it was left to the bosses to pitch in a few hundred million dollars for a TV advert campaign. But having a handful of mining corporation bosses-with US , British and European accents weeping over lost billions in profits was always going to end in tears and having one corporation which wasn't stock market listed (hence it's share price wouldn't be affected) announce it was upping stakes and moving out only to discover it was actually expanding it's drilling operations soon backfired.
Not only will these corporations be able to deduct all investment in their mineral searches , they will only pay tax on super profits at 40% which is reckoned by the Treasury to raise an extra $9Billion a year.
As a flushed Gina led a chorus of mine managers (on about $250K a year) in a rousing chant of-
"Axe the tax..axe the tax"..she paused for a minute and shouted "what do want for Australia again?"...one impertinent sod shouted "the Wallabies to win on Saturday !".( the rugby team are playing the English team at Subiaco oval in Perth).
The Shuttle has forwarded Gina, Clive and Twiggy's and names to be entered in the Roll of Honour at the prestige USA organisation Billionaire's For Wealthcare who regularly turn up in limos at anti-Barack Obama parades against socialised health care.
Motto : Appearances Are Everything-Dress to Impress and Oppress !
In his new book The Alastair Campbell Diaries Prelude to Power 1994-1997, released in the UK on Thursday the man regarded as the mastermind behind Tony Blair says he travelled to Australia in 1995 to get some tips from then Labor Prime Minster Paul Keating on how to handle Rupert Murdoch and how to "hate" the Conservatives.
Keating was PM from 1991 to 1996 when he was defeated by John Howard who set about on a 10 year campaign to return Australia to the 1950's before he was finally booted from his own seat in 2007 by Labor's Kevin Rudd.
Paul Keating : 'hate lessons'
Keating's defeat in '96 sent him into a huge mental decline where he disappeared from public view for a year. Not because he lost but he hated Howard so much. Keating's quips and put-downs in Parliament were legendary. Parliamentary Question Time has been dull from the day he left.
On John Howard :
"What we have got is a dead carcass, swinging in the breeze, but nobody will cut it down to replace him."
"He's wound up like a thousand day clock..."
"He has more hide than a team of elephants."
On former Liberal leader the perma- tanned Andrew Peacock who was datingactress Shirley MacLaine:
"...what we have here is an intellectual rust bucket."
"I suppose that the Honorable Gentleman's hair, like his intellect, will recede into the darkness."
"It is the first time the Honorable Gentleman has got out from under the sunlamp."
On the Liberal Party when they were in Opposition:
"I'm not running a seminar for dullards on the other side."
"Those opposite could not operate a tart shop"
"These intellectual hobos"
Our favourite was during the 2007 General Election when the Murdoch media was getting stuck into Kevin Rudd on the campaign trail and printed a facile story about Rudd having lunch with 2 political lobbyists -the former premier of West Australia Brian Burke (who spent time in jail) and his partner Julian Grills .
"the Arthur Daley of WA politics"
The controversy raged for days ramped up by Murdoch's tabloids until it was defused by Keating when he described Burke & Grills as the
" Arthur Daley and Terry of West Australia politics-no-one takes them seriously"
He then went on to describe the flailing Howard as like a " little desiccated coconut under pressure and attacking anything he can get his hands on".
Howard lost the election 2 months later in a massive swing to Labor.
3 months ago tSS predicted then Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull would either start a new political party or defect to Labor if he lost a leadership battle.
Today he has announced he will cross the floor on a crucial vote on climate change proposals, defying his leader Tony 'Mad Monk' Abbott. Abbott's climate policies will turn out to be a lame duck mess when examined in full (and when he actually decides what they are). They'll receive as much impact as when he recently announced viginity was a virtue before marriage. Thousands of teens yawned , looked mildly bemused and went on rutting as before.
It has begun.
The Liberal / National Party Coalition shot themselves in the foot when they booted Turnbull. The Rhodes scholar, ex-merchant banker, barrister and Kerry Packer adviser has notched up bigger scalps than the current PM Kevin Rudd.
He took on Margaret Thatcher's government when they tried to ban the memoirs of ex MI5 spy Peter Wright and his SpyCatcher book. Turnbull trounced them in the English courts. Turnbull succeeded in the Maralinga nuclear fallout trial in Britain when he led the cause for compensation for indigenous people whose lands had been bombed relentlessly by British nuclear testing in the 1950's. A few weeks after the testing ended in 1961 some signs were stuck about the sacred Aboriginal lands warning of the potential radium fallout-written in English.
When a reluctant former PM John Howard added Turnbull to his ministry he consistently ignored Malcolm's advice. With home ownership stretching beyond the grasp of thousands of Aussie families, Turnbull introduced radical proposals for mass housing programs based on age old European and British housing societies that had served those communities so well for decades. They were ignored.
5 years ago at a political party function tSS told Turnbull his dreams would be dashed by joining the Liberal Party. His natural home was the centre left Labor Party that would leap upon his obvious talents.
While political pundits and timeservers on daily newspapers delight in a brief re-surgence in the Coalition's poll fortunes they ignore the quickly shifting populace that is Turnbull's constituency that no longer takes in just the well-heeled Eastern Suburbs of Sydney that house the richest in the nation, but also now include working class areas and the gay and lesbian conclaves of the inner city. Turnbull scraped in at the last election when a blue ribbon Liberal seat began turning left. Malcolm has less than 12 months before a general election to do the obvious-switch parties if he wants to retain his Wentworth seat or just leave. The line of succession has already been decreed. Rudd will serve as PM until 2015 after he increases his majority next year, wins a further election and then hands over to the first female Oz PM, Julia Gillard.
It is then Turnbull will be in a commanding position if he joins Labor now. As it is, he is a dead man walking as is the entire Coalition for at least 10 years.
Why will they not listen ?
# fact: Turnbull's cousin is the British actress Angela Lansbury
# fact 2. The British Maralinga tests make Australia the most nuclear bombed country on the planet with 21 major devices and many smaller ones exploded. Some areas are still contaminated.
# fact 3 'Maralinga' is an ancient Aboriginal word for "field of thunder".
Update : Crikeyhas done a round-up of various political writer's views on Malcolm Turnbull's speech in Parliament on climate change. Most agree his views were presented with more conviction than PM Kevin Rudd's. Has Turnbull singled the first move in a tactic that would see him placed in a powerful position and having a direct influence on whoever governs ?. The Demcrats under Don Chipp dominated in the Upper House for decades when they held the balance of power with just a handful of senators with both main political parties negotiating deals . The Greens under Bob Brown have almost claimed that position but a small break-away Senate party could scupper their plans and Turnbull with just 2 other Senators could become kingmaker.
Malcolm Turnbull has a fortune estimated at $100M. He is only interested in politics for one reason-to affect change. You read it here first.
tSS agrees and nothing demonstrates this more than today's Galaxy poll conducted for the Murdoch Sunday Telegraph about the new premier of NSW, American born Kristina Keneally.
Keneally's rise to the top has given her a 73% approval rating with the punters, as opposed to state Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell-now into his 6th year in the job and floundering at 42% approval. Significantly-70% of Coalition voters approve of Keneally. In other words, they, as tSS has been saying for yonks-haven't warmed to their own party leader.
Keneally and Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt tSS outdid all other news outlets-television, radio and print by predicting Keneally would be Premier by November-she was on the 3rd December. At the time of the prediction one well know political pundit said at a party we were 'batshit crazy" .
Following Keneally's election in a party-room spill both News Ltd and the normally sane FairfaxNewspapers went on a crazy rampage-accusing her of being a "puppet premier" to Labor powerbrokers Eddie O'Beid and Joe Tripodi .
Both newspaper outlets ignored the fact that the Federal Coalition dumped their best chance at scoring a hit against PM Kevin Rudd by sacking the only man who-given time-would give him a run for his money, the extremely clever ex-merchant banker Malcolm Turnbull. Turnbull was dumped via the influence of right-wing Coalition power brokers like Nick Minchin who seem determined to lead their party to oblivion with the 'Mad Monk' Tony Abbott (right) in charge.
That's power brokers on all sides of politics guys-just like it's always been and will be ever after.
Even the pompous Peter Harvey of Channel Nine news tonight pontificated that a certain percentage of voters perceive Keneally as a "puppet" !. Yes Peter-you have been one of the dingbats pushing the line since she was elected but get a grip-the majority of the state's voters aren't buying that line. Political journalists like Harvey have completely lost their way once they repeat tosh from tabloids.
Both newspapers ran bizarre 'people's petitions' demanding an immediate election seemingly oblivious to the fact that 4 year fixed terms are now mandatory and could only be changed by a referendum in 18 months time at the next state election and the end of the err.. current 4 year term.
The tone of these 'people's petitions' changed slightly after about a month when both newspapers changed tack and began demanding Keneally and Labor visit Governor Marie Bashir and offer themselves up for election (still an impossibilty under current law) .
The Fairfax Sydney Morning Herald's law expert RichardAkland, who describes NSW politics as "some of the nastiest on the planet" finally felt obliged to point this out to his own colleagues.
If an 80 year old social snapper, a 6 a day G&T drinking blogger and a useless sub-editor cat at tSS can get these things right, as opposed to some of the oldest and most established news outlets on the planet, what hope is there for the printed media that cannot perceive that the great unwashed public just isn't interested anymore in their attempted machinations of public opinion ?.
In 2007 Kevin Rudd made a conscious decision to ignore Murdoch's hysterical political pundits who were out to destroy his election campaign-furious that he wasn't paying the appropriate homage to them. Murdoch's pride and joy The Australian leapt into the fray with gusto reporting in shock and horror a lunch Rudd attended with lobbyists Brian Burke and business partner Julian Grill . Burke was a former WA Labor premier who had served a jail term.
The Australian thought it was on a winner until ex-Labor PM Paul Keating-himself the victim of a vicious News Ltd smear campaign stepped in to describe Burke ( right )and Grill as the "Arthur Daley and Terry of West Australia politics", delightfully trivialising the whole affair. The only victim was then Murdoch favoured PM John Howard who had huffed and puffed with outrage at Rudd, but then had to accept the resignation of one of his own ministers who had also lunched with the pair.
Again they came up with the startling story that Rudd, as a diplomat , had visited a New York strip club with New York Post editor and Murdoch favourite Col Allan ( in the USSR it used to be called a honey trap). It backfired badly-the church attending Christian Rudd was just seen as a bit more human-his approval ratings dramatically rose.
Then came the great 'utegate" scandal when Malcolm Turnbull-supplied with dodged up emails by a News Ltd hack, accused Rudd of attempting to assist a car dealer friend. The resulting damage winded Turnbull but The Australian political writers leading the charge were mortally wounded-their credibility shot.
President Barack Obama deliberately sidelined Fox News in his campaign. He was vindicated. Only Britain is still enthralled by the tabloids as both PMGordon Brown and Conservative Leader David Cameron fling themselves at the feet of tabloid writers and in particular, grovel for the affection of the Murdoch clan.
Unfortunately one important matter is being lost with the plunging credibility of tabloids and newspapers. Real investigations. To their credit it was Murdoch's Australian journalists who perservered and uncovered the appalling fibs and illegal activities of the Australian Federal Police who had incarcerated the innocent Indian born Dr Haneef after the Glasgow Airport bombings in 2007.
Next Wednesday sees the first Australian singing appearance of Tallulah Rendall-the daughter of 'Christian TheLion' author John Rendall and London publicist and star of 'Ladette to Lady'Liz Brewer.
The Vanguard,a small venue in the very alternative suburb of Newtown says the night is already a sellout with a 100 booked for dinner. Expect Rendell to pull out all the stops for Tallulah's gala appearance with guests like Lady Sonia McMahon and her pal Glen Marie Frost along with Lady Atwill. Presumably John, flush with cash will deliver Tallulah in the vintage Roller he has just had shipped from London.
For those who have already forgotten the Christian the Lion saga-here is the youtube clip that made Rendall and partner Anthony 'Ace' Bourke famous. (It's a vicious rumour a camera assistant was standing behind the pair waving a hunk of raw meat.) Followed by a piece on Ivana Trump with Tallulah's mum LizBrewer.
When NSW premier Kristina Keneally said in November 2009 that she "would never be premier ofNSW", tSS chortled into our G&T(s). We knew better as we had confidently predicted 3 months earlier that she would be premier by November. She was by the 3rd of December.
Like most psychics, we are sometimes a little out in our sooth-saying but certainly score better than every other media outlet in the State. Indeed, most of the media including the normally sane Sydney MorningHerald have gone into a overdrive proclaiming her the 'puppet premier" of Labor Party power brokers Eddie Obeid and Joe Tripodi-pictured left- (as if any political leader gets to the top without strings being pulled).
Even Kristina's soft and pleasant American accent came in for a xenophobic bashing as nameless (to spare them blushes) political pundits declared Aussies would hate her accent, oblivious to the fact 21 million of them are glued to television every night watching Yankee crime shows.
Born in Las Vegas and a former aide to the Governor of Ohio-with a BA in political studies and a stint as a union organiser with the powerful US Teamsters Union, Keneally is also a committed Roman Catholic who met her husband Ben, nephew of writer Thomas Keneally at the World Youth Day in Poland in 1991. And therein lies the rub. Political journos in their ivory towers continually ignore the power of the Catholic church in Oz. Obeid and Tripodi have plotted this move for over 12 months now and tSS goes on record with another bold prediction.
No-the deck chairs haven't been re-arranged on the Titanic as the very amusing song below says-mimicking the dingbats on the Herald and Daily Telegraph who have been running on pure hysteria for a month now with their 'citizen's petitions' demanding an early state election (seemingly oblivious to the fixed 4 year term that prevents such an action)-we now announce that Keneally and her deputy premier Carmel Tebbit will be swept back into power in 12 months time.
Why will they not listen ?.We urged the Federal Liberals not to ditch the cleverest leader they have ever had-Malcolm Turnbull, which means they will be thrashed at the polls by Kevin Rudd in '10 and Turnbull may well form a break-away political party (you heard it here first) or defect to Labor.
And we suggested they do away with their ever so nice but dull state leader BarryO'Farrell (formely Fatty O'Barrel until his weight loss) as it's written in the stars and predicted by us-he will never lead the state. I've seen it all in the tea-leaves.
That's how Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described former PM Bob Hawkewhen I asked him for a comment tonight about the great Labor Party hero at his 80th birthday party. I think it was meant as a compliment. He added " I'm pleased he got to 80 and I hope he's around for another 20 years". I expect Bob thinks likewise.
150 of the faithful had gathered at Guillaume atBennelong restaurant at the Sydney Opera House to toast the Golden Bodgie. Hawkie looked his best, resplendent in black tie and his silver mane had never glowed so glossily..
There were a series of endless toasts from Labor luminaries and a recorded messages from Bill Clinton and golfer Greg Norman plus a live hook-up to former British PM Tony Blair who all sung Hawke's praises. And there were 2 billionaire widows in the room-Kerry Packer's widow Ros and Jeanne, the wife of the late Dick Pratt who both proclaimed words along the lines of "Bob was good to us when he was in power". Well yes, quite.
Advertising guru John Singleton who masterminded Hawke's 3 election wins said "Hawke would still be PM today if it hadn't been for events"-possibly a gibe at that other Labor PM Paul Keating who had unseated Hawke in a party room spill. Keating sat looking stoney faced.
Handel's Messiah may have been thrilling a packed Concert Hall in the
main body of the Opera House but this was after all, a celebration for the
party of the working man so what could be more appropriate than a
stripper gram. One with a difference-a slim female in a mask of Hawke's
great adversary, recently trashed PM John Howard . She girated bizarley and slowly stripped. That was enough for tSS-we left just as Bob and Blanche-B1 & B2 were about to cut Bob's birthday cake-a giant golf ball !
John Singleton's squeeze Yvette Hartman in Versace
**** Local actor John Waters is to tour his brilliant and successful one-man show Lennon in Word and Music: Looking Through a Glass Onion. Water's sings just about every song Lennon wrote and talks through the show about Lennon's life. It's a superb show-the Shuttle first saw it it in 1998 and now Waters has the blessing of Yoko Ono. 
On the 1st November Rupert Murdoch gave a speech in Sydney praising his personal baby The Australian newspaper. Rupert is famous for saying he never interferes with his editors. Perhaps they just think like him. 
There is no surety of long-term compatibility of a relationship
between
a Virgo and a Sagittarian . Virgos are introverts who
don't
like interacting with new people much. Sagittarians are very enthusiastic
towards
life and want to live every moment to its fullest. Virgo somberness,
serious nature and laid-back attitude may be too much for Sagitarrians to
handle.
A Sagitarrian's excessive enthusiasm, wild nature and unpredictable actions
may not
go down well with a Virgoan conservative nature. Not a very good
match, to say
the least! 
Today he has announced he will cross the floor on a crucial vote on climate change proposals, defying his leader Tony 'Mad Monk' Abbott. Abbott's climate policies will turn out to be a lame duck mess when examined in full (and when he actually decides what they are). They'll receive as much impact as when he recently announced viginity was a virtue before marriage. Thousands of teens yawned , looked mildly bemused and went on rutting as before.
He took on Margaret Thatcher's government when they tried to ban the memoirs of ex MI5 spy Peter Wright and his SpyCatcher book. Turnbull trounced them in the English courts. Turnbull succeeded in the Maralinga nuclear fallout trial in Britain when he led the cause for compensation for indigenous people whose lands had been bombed relentlessly by British nuclear testing in the 1950's. A few weeks after the testing ended in 1961 some signs were stuck about the sacred Aboriginal lands warning of the potential radium fallout-written in English.
Both newspaper outlets ignored the fact that the Federal Coalition dumped their best chance at scoring a hit against PM Kevin Rudd by sacking the only man who-given time-would give him a run for his money, the extremely clever ex-merchant banker Malcolm Turnbull. Turnbull was dumped via the influence of right-wing Coalition power brokers like Nick Minchin who seem determined to lead their party to oblivion with the 'Mad Monk' Tony Abbott (right) in charge. 
The Australian thought it was on a winner until ex-Labor PM Paul Keating-himself the victim of a vicious News Ltd smear campaign stepped in to describe Burke ( right )and Grill as the "Arthur Daley and Terry of West Australia politics", delightfully trivialising the whole affair. The only victim was then Murdoch favoured PM John Howard who had huffed and puffed with outrage at Rudd, but then had to accept the resignation of one of his own ministers who had also lunched with the pair. 
Unfortunately one important matter is being lost with the plunging credibility of tabloids and newspapers. Real investigations. To their credit it was Murdoch's Australian journalists who perservered and uncovered the appalling fibs and illegal activities of the Australian Federal Police who had incarcerated the innocent Indian born Dr Haneef after the Glasgow Airport bombings in 2007. 
Like most psychics, we are sometimes a little out in our sooth-saying but certainly score better than every other media outlet in the State. Indeed, most of the media including the normally sane Sydney Morning Herald have gone into a overdrive proclaiming her the 'puppet premier" of Labor Party power brokers Eddie Obeid and Joe Tripodi-pictured left- (as if any political leader gets to the top without strings being pulled).
That's how Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described former PM Bob Hawke when I asked him for a comment tonight about the great Labor Party hero at his 80th birthday party. I think it was meant as a compliment. He added " I'm pleased he got to 80 and I hope he's around for another 20 years". I expect Bob thinks likewise.
Advertising guru John Singleton who masterminded Hawke's 3 election wins said "Hawke would still be PM today if it hadn't been for events"-possibly a gibe at that other Labor PM Paul Keating who had unseated Hawke in a party room spill. Keating sat looking stoney faced.
Handel's Messiah may have been thrilling a packed Concert Hall in the
main body of the Opera House but this was after all, a celebration for the
party of the working man so what could be more appropriate than a
stripper gram. One with a difference-a slim female in a mask of Hawke's
great adversary, recently trashed PM John Howard . She girated bizarley and slowly stripped. That was enough for tSS-we left just as Bob and Blanche-B1 & B2 were about to cut Bob's birthday cake-a giant golf ball !
