Female Solidarity

Kristina Keneally's twitter pic

With her fiery speech in Parliament still being played around the world with over 2 million hits on You Tube , the Prime Minister Julia Gillard's trip in India has hit the airwaves and the hits of film on it on You Tube are also rapidly rising.
Former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally has come in support of her Labor Party comrade and posted a new profile pic on Twitter. Watch the video of Julia's fall                              


   

Going Out In Style

One guest who hit the red carpet at last week's world launch of the new musical Dr Zhivago-A Musical was the American born and accented New South Wales Premier Kristina Keneally.

 Immaculately dressed, tall and elegant Keneally is one politician the camera does not do justice. She is extraordinarily beautiful and charismatic in the flesh, And that is one reason that despite the unpopularity of State Labor, Keneally has spent the last year visiting every electorate in the state to press the flesh.

As the Shuttle accurately predicted 6 months beforehand, Kristina was elected by the Labor Caucus as Premier in December 2009. Although she has become highly popular in the top job, that popularity isn't translating into percentage points for her ruling Labor Party which is expected to be defeated at the polls in 5 weeks time although the rumoured Coalition landslide is highly unlikely. While Labor languishes in the polls at anything from 23 to 27 %, Kristina stills comes in at just under 50%.

At a televised election debate with Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell this week the audience overwhelmingly declared the unflappable Keneally the winner by far.

 A party in power for 13 years was bound to suffer from the tiredness factor and although media speculation at the time was that it would be Keneally's role to stench the flow of blood from the coming defeat. there have been more concrete plans in the wings.

Born in Las Vegas and brought up in Colorado, Keneally cut her political teeth as an intern for the US Democratic party working for the Colorado Governor. When she emigrated to Australia with her Aussie husband in 1998 she joined the Labor Party and after being elected to the state seat of Heffron in 2003, her rise has been meteoric albeit quietly in the wings. Those granite jawed men who run the party had their eyes on Keneally from day one and marked her out as leadership material.

Brought into Cabinet on the strength of Emily's List that promotes greater numbers of female politicians, Keneally joins the growing list of Labor Party women who are going places.

Now with Julia Gillard as PM , Quentin Bryce as Governor General, a state Governor in Marie Bashir and with QLD premier Anna Bligh's approval rating soaring 35 points since her handling of  the flood catastrophe, when Kristina Keneally is re-elected to her seat at the end of March it will be for a short time.

When the country goes to the polls in the next general election in 2013, expect Kristina Keneally to be standing side by side with Julia Gillard as a star candidate.

When have we ever been wrong ?

exclusive- special guest for Oprah Winfrey's Sydney show

US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey is to record 2 shows at the Sydney Opera House in December, the first time she has filmed a show outside the USA.

Apart from 25o crew members and 300 guests who will travel with her, Oprah will have a host of Aussie guests like Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and Cate Blanchett. Russell Crowe has said he will appear if he is in town.

Agents are already negotiating for a number of smaller stars to appear given the extraordinary showcase the opportunity presents with 40 million viewers world-wide.

The Social Shuttle can exclusively reveal one guest who has been signed to appear-Bondi Vet's Chris Brown. Apparently Oprah had already seen vision of Chris and has been secretly negotiating for the TV vet to appear. This is sure to catapult the 6'2"Brown into international stardom with his classic movie star looks and easy manner.


The credit for getting Oprah to Sydney goes to US born NSW state premier Kristina Keneally whose NSW Tourism department began negotiations with the US TV queen 9 months ago. And how will this mob get here ?. Simple. Qantas roving ambassador John Travolta will be piloting a 747 from LA to Sydney !.



Watch Oprah tell her audience they are off to Australia !

exclusive : Sydney snares film awards and Morgan's on the way

            On the day NSW premier Kristina Keneally ( with Cate Blanchett in tow) announced that Sydney has lured the Australian Film Awards (AFI) away from their usual home in Melbourne, tSS can exclusively announce plans are well underway to film a science fiction epic based on the Sir Arthur C.Clarke's award-winning 1972 novel Rendezvous with Rama ,some of which will be shot in Australia.

           The rights to Rama were purchased by actor Morgan Freeman several years ago and he has raised $US200M to produce the film. tSS's Hollywood spy disguised as Freeman's co-producer says that script problems are nearly over with Freeman, a perfectionist  demanding re-writes to steer the movie away from Hollywood sensationalism and to stay more faithful with Clarke's original concept, much like Stanley Kubrik's epic 2001 A Space Odyssey, based on another Clarke novel.

        Rendevous with Rama is set in the 22nd century when an alien ship suddenly appears in Earth's solar system and an expedition is sent out to explore the first alien artifact. The film has been Freeman's pet project for over 10 years now.
         tSS was fortunate to visit Sri Lanka in 2006 to meet with Freeman and Sir Arthur when the actor arrived to spend a week with the science fiction master in his rambling beachside bungalow to discuss aspects of the production.
         Much of the film is to be shot in New Zealand at Lord of the Ring's director Peter Jackson's studios with dates now being lined up at Sydney's Fox Studios and the Gold Coast's Warner Bros studios in 2011. Freeman will produce, direct and star in the film and is expected to visit Australia later this year.
         Freeman and Clarke formed a close bond as far back as 1996 when he first contacted the writer about purchasing the rights to his book. He, along with most of Sri Lanka were rocked when Sir Arthur was accused of sex crimes by one of the UK's most tawdry tabloids in 1998.

           Unkown to the outside world, Clarke had been paralyzed from the waist down for over 15 years putting paid to some of the physical claims by a reporter. Like the US president FDR, he would have himself propped up for media photographs to give the impression he was mobile on his legs.
           Clarke was regarded as one of Sri Lanka's most honoured citizens having spent almost his entire life living there. Despite Sri Lankan diplomats demanding the British newspaper hand over their proof, it continually declined to or ignored them.

            Then 3 young men admitted they had been paid cash by the newspaper to make the claims and withdrew their allegations. To this day, a Sri Lankan arrest warrant is still outstanding for the newspaper hack who filed the original report. Several NGOs who picked up on the false claims citing rumours alone, were only relieved from million dollar defamation lawsuits upon Clarke's death in 2008.
           At the time of the allegations, stories swirled about that the false claims were an attempt to embarrass HRH Prince Charles who was to travel to Sri Lanka in 1998 to invest Clarke with his knighthood. tSS has some inside credible knowledge on that, which we may publish one day.
            When Clarke died, he left most of his milllion dollar fortune to his Sri Lanka male partner of over 40 years and their extended family. The lurid tabloid stories contained tales of children living in Clarke's compound of an old English style house and half a dozen smaller houses. The kids turned out to be the children of his partner's brothers and sisters, all who had been housed by the British born writer.
          

tabloids...not quite dead but on the way out

     The UK blogger Madame Arcati posts the following in response to a letter : "I take the view that newspapers by and large have outlived their usefulness, are generally bullying and vulgar, and do more harm than good in their present form."

      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 Fairfax Newspapers 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 Richard Akland, 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 PM Gordon 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. 

                  
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       Next Wednesday sees the first Australian singing appearance of Tallulah Rendall-the daughter of 'Christian The Lion' 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 Liz Brewer.

 

a Christmas present for Kristina

     When NSW premier Kristina Keneally said in November 2009 that she "would never be premier of NSW", 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 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).

     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 Barry O'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.

an ode to Kristina :

and so it came to pass..

So the tSS is 4 weeks out but as it was revealed just 5 minutes ago-our spooky prediction 3 months ago has come true. NSW has it's first female premier in the capable form of  Las Vegas born, American accented and former Colorado Teamster's Union organiser, 40 year old Kristina Keneally.

Keneally is the niece of Oscar winning author Tom Keneally who penned the bestseller Shindler's Ark which was turned into a blockbuster film by Steven Speilberg. Kristina was elected in a party room spill after premier Nathan Rees threw in the towel 30 minutes ago.
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# with the elevation of Tony Abbott 2  days ago to Federal Opposition Leader of the Liberal Party, tSS has slaughtered it's pet chook and studied the entrails. Ignoring our advice to stick with our pal Malcolm Turnbull and running with an Abbott/Bishop ticket ( Julie Bishop as deputy leader) the Liberals look likely to lose another 20 seats in next year's general election.
           Should PM Kevin Rudd pull a double dissolution with the full Senate up for grabs-the Greens will pick up an extra 2 seats giving it the balance of power in the upper house. 
(If only former treasurer Peter Costello had still been around-who could resist an Abbott & Costello team ?)
Prove me wrong.
(ps: we'll still be going to Mal's Christmas bash. We'll be bold here with another claim..a defection is in the air)