Chicken Nation have created an excellent “How Preferential Voting Works” cartoon that explains perfectly why your vote IS NOT WASTED if you vote 1 for a minor party.
How preferential voting works and why voting 1 for a minor party is not a wasted vote
Peace Convergence: Media Release 16 August 2013
Rockhampton Tiger Ploughshare trial begins Monday 19 August
with widespread support for the accused
Peace activists will be gathering in Rockhampton to support Graeme Dunstan when he appears for the beginning of the Tiger Ploughshare trial
10 am Monday 19 August
Rockhampton District Court
Solidarity rallies will also be held by peace activists in Brisbane and Melbourne. The trial is expected to take three days.
Long time peace activist, Graeme Dunstan of peacebus.com, is charged with wilful damage of Commonwealth Property, namely an Australian Army “Tiger” Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter which was disabled by a blow from a garden mattock during the 2011 Talisman Saber Military Exercises.
WIN Tv news footage of the event show Bryan Law, dressed in a black suit and a Bob Katter hat, riding a tricycle across the Rockhampton Airport tarmac and striking the blow. Mr Law died last Easter.
Graeme Dunstan has confessed to being Mr Law’s driver and assistant and is a charged as a co offender. But Mr Dunstan is pleading not guilty to the charge and is defending himself with the assistance of Brisbane based nurse, Sean O’Reilly, as a “friend in court”. Sean is the brother of Ciaron O’Reilly, a Brisbane born activist, famous for his Ploughshare actions in the US and Ireland.
“Ploughshare” is a reference to the Biblical prophecy of Isaiah (2:4) about a coming time when “nation will not rise up against nation, spears would be beaten into pruning hooks, swords into ploughshares and we would study war no more”.
There have been more than 80 such actions since 1980, with three common elements:
1. being absolutely nonviolent towards people;
2. to remain and take responsibility for the action; and
3. to make some attempt to disarm a weapon and begin its transformation into something useful.
The Tiger is similar in design and identical in function to the Apache helicopter used by the US Army to gun down innocents in the Collateral Murder footage leaked by Bradley Manning and Julian Assange and which has had in excess of 14 million viewers on YouTube.
Dunstan will be arguing that the strike was an act of conscience aimed a raising public awareness to the true nature of the war in Afghanistan where the attack helicopters were to be deployed.
“Disarmament is often seen as an impossible dream; desirable, certainly, but utterly unrealistic,” said Mr Dunstan. “It is precisely this societal torpor that the Tiger Ploughshare action sought to address.”
Further information
Graeme Dunstan 0407 951 688
http://peaceconvergence.
FaceBook event http://www.facebook.com/
Downloadable flyer: http://tiny.cc/vy4v1w
Peace Convergence: Media Release 10 August 2013
Melbourne Baptist Pastor to defend Ploughshare accused
The Reverend Simon Moyle of the GraceTree Community in Melbourne will be coming to Rockhampton to support and defend Graeme Dunstan in the Tiger Ploughshare trial which will begin the Rockhampton District Court on Monday 19 August
Mr Dunstan is charged with a wilful damage of an Australian Army Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter on the tarmac of Rockhampton airport during Talisman Sabre 2011. His co accused, Bryan Law, who actually struck the blow with the garden mattock, died last Easter.
The Reverend Moyle describes Mr Dunstan as “a spiritual companion” and says Dunstan’s willingness to risk jail and suffering in order to arouse the conscience of the Australian community on war demonstrates integrity of the highest order, not to mention exemplary citizenship.
“Civil disobedience is generally not well understood in this country,” observes the Rev Moyle. “But it is one of the highest duties of any person when their government is acting immorally or unjustly.”
Ploughshares actions take their inspiration from the Biblical books of Micah and Isaiah, which speak of a day when “swords will be beaten into ploughshares, and spears into pruning hooks”.
There have been more than 80 such actions since 1980, with three common elements:
1. being absolutely nonviolent towards people;
2. to remain and take responsibility for the action; and
3. to make some attempt to disarm a weapon and begin its transformation into something useful.
Disarmament is often seen as an impossible dream; desirable, certainly, but utterly unrealistic. It is precisely this societal torpor that Ploughshares actions seek to address.
Ploughshares actions are an indictment on the imagination and moral commitment of contemporary society just to the extent that they are seen as outrageous, destructive, or utopian.
While most of us ask, “Why would we reduce or even give up our ability to kill?”
People like Graeme Dunstan and Bryan Law gift us with a confluence of flesh, steel and carbon fibre, and ask, “Why not?”
“In a time of perpetual war, it is high time we took that question seriously,” said the Rev. Moyle.
See full statement here.
Further information
http://peaceconvergence.
FaceBook event http://www.facebook.com/
Simon Moyle smoyle@gmail.com 0402 857 915
Graeme Dunstan 0407 951 688
Members of Peace Convergence, The Greens and other anti-war groups met today at Luggage Point to share their message of peace.
Headline for the protest from Robin Taubenfeld: “US nuclear warship in our port? US-AUS games in our region? Bombs dropped on the reef? Bradley Manning in prison? Live firing and bombing practice are planned for this weekend at Shoalwater Bay! Just say no! ”
The protest was small but attracted interest from sightseers, including a US navy sailor scrutinising the protesters through Binoculars.
Photos below.
(full photoset here)
Protester show pictures of war affected children from Iraq.
Displaying the banners.
Peace Flag.
Andy Paine sings some peace songs.
The Guardian has released the XKeyScore full presentation (with slides on current NSA operations redacted).
Check it out here.
There is a very good article on The Guardian at the moment that exposes more detail about NSA data collection (see here) but I would question some of the conclusions. The headline makes it seem like XKeyscore is collecting all internet activity on every user but this is not the case. The term used by the NSA material, “nearly everything a typical user does on the internet”, means that they collect nearly all the types of data an internet user generates: browsing history, email, chat, social media etc. Not that they collect all the information in those data classes for all users.
The XKeyscore database collects data from various sources including prism, ISP taps etc. It can hold the data usually for only 3 days or so before it has to be rolled off to make room for new data.
When Snowden says all he needs is an email and he can access all the data for any individual, he has to be exaggerating. For a start pop email accounts download mail from the server onto the end user’s computer which is protected behind a home or business hardware firewall – NSA will not be able to access this data just by “filling in an online form”. Also people with their own domains may or may not be hosted on ISP’s for which NSA have onsite ‘taps’. Users whose email address on social media is different to their personal email address will not be so easily connected – for example the address max@xxxxxx.net.au has no connection with the user’s facebook page.
What Snowden is talking about is the user whose online identity is connected through various cloud providers – for example one email address that forms the basis of their webmail (example gmail which includes email, browsing history etc), facebook, dropbox and so on. For those users, through Prism, an almost complete online history is recoverable. For other online users there will be varying levels of data able to be recovered.
XKeyscore seems to be a data collation program, bringing together data from various NSA sources, as opposed to an overarching data collection mechanism laid over the internet as Snowden and the Guardian article seem to be inferring.
Other than this exaggeration on the part of Snowden, and on the part of the Guardian in the way they have headlined the article, there is some high quality information and is well worth a read.
Media Release from Department of Immigration and Citizenship:
Sri Lankans face return to Colombo or transfer to PNG
30-07-2013
A group of 68 Sri Lankans who recently arrived at Cocos (Keeling) Islands is now on Christmas Island about to begin enhanced screening processes.
They face the same assessment process that unauthorised maritime arrivals (UMAs) of Sri Lankan background have since last year when the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) took steps to stem a significant upsurge in boat arrivals from Sri Lanka.
“Those who are screened out will be returned to Colombo as soon as possible, often within days,” a DIAC spokesman said today. “If any of the group is screened in, they will not come to Australia for assessment; they will be among the first Sri Lankan boat arrivals sent to Papua New Guinea for processing.
“If they are entitled to asylum, they will not be able to settle in Australia; they will be settled in PNG.”
The Sri Lankans began their enhanced screening as arrangements were finalised for the first transfer of people affected by the post-July 19 regional settlement arrangement to Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
Under new rules announced on July 19, anyone – including a person from Sri Lanka – who arrives in Australia by boat without a visa no longer has the chance to settle in Australia.
“If they are not quickly returned to Colombo, they will be taken to Papua New Guinea where their claims will be assessed,” the spokesman said.
The prime ministers of Australia and Papua New Guinea signed the new agreement, meaning all people arriving by boat without a visa from July 19 will be sent to Papua New Guinea, where their claims will be assessed.
If people are found to be refugees, they will be permanently settled in Papua New Guinea – not Australia.
“The message this agreement sends is clear: the dangerous boat journey is not worth it and you will never settle in Australia,” the spokesman said. “Accommodation is being expanded on Manus Island and there is no cap on the number of people who can be transferred there.”
Almost 1300 Sri Lankans have been sent home since August 2012 – nearly 1100 of them involuntarily.
“These arrangements will continue and if they do not have proper asylum claims, people will be quickly returned to Sri Lanka,” the spokesman said. “This is making it clear that those who pay smugglers are throwing their money away and risking their lives in the process.”
Media Enquiries: National Communications 02 6264 2244
The nuclear powered USS George Washington is docked at Patrick’s wharves for the week after participating in the Talisman Sabre 2013 war games. The George Washington is a Nimitz class nuclear powered aircraft carrier, with a complement of roughly 5000 crew and 90 aircraft.
Environmental and peace groups protesting Talisman Sabre are calling for an end to the exercises. Robin Taubenfeld of Peace Convergence 2013: “USS George Washington is in Brisbane port – taking part in some of the world’s largest war rehearsals – Talisman Saber. Stop the exercises, close the bases, end the wars”
(more stories to follow on the environmental impacts of Talisman Sabre)
(Full photoset here)
Brisbane Aboriginal Sovereign Embassy:
Sacred Fire Ceremony – Embassy Eviction
Nimbin Mardi Grass 2013 Parade:
Nimbin Mardi Grass 2013 Parade
Media release (Via BASE)
28 July 2013
Brisbane Aboriginal Embassy to host Freedom Flotilla to West Papua
The Brisbane Aboriginal Sovereign Embassy will be hosting travellers in the Freedom Flotilla from Lake Eyre to West Papua at our meeting place. The Freedom Flotilla will be welcomed to Jagera country at the sacred fire on Tuesday evening from 4pm on the 30th of July. The flotilla is expected to stay in Brisbane for a few days.
The flotilla’s purpose is to bring attention to ongoing genocide in West Papua since the Indonesian invasion in 1971. A media blackout prevents foreign journalists from entering the country.
Jacob Rumbiak, Foreign Affairs Minister of the Federated Republic of West Papua, as well as Uncle Kevin Buzzacot of Arabunna country, a long time leading elder in the fight against uranium mining, are the forefront of the campaign and will be among the inspirational speakers at the ceremony on Tuesday.
“We have a responsibility to care for our brothers and sisters from across the water. We must bring the water and the fire, the love and the music to heal the country and move in solidarity,” said Buzzacott.
Water ceremonially gathered from the sacred mound springs in Arabunna country south of Lake Eyre is travelling with the flotilla to be united with its head waters.
“We work for world peace and justice, we start from our region, the Pacific,” said Rumbiak.
The Flotilla departs from Cairns in a few weeks, making its way up to the Torres Strait and across to West Papua.
Supporters in Brisbane are encouraged to come and pitch a tent with the convoy during its stay at the embassy. There will be music (courtesy of the travellers’ mobile PA), food via Food Not Bombs, and Chai, during their time in Brisbane.
For more info contact:
Uncle Kevin Buzzacot 0417 838 906 (Freedom Flotilla)
Boe Spearim 0424 610 492 (Brisbane Aboriginal Sovereign Embassy)
For more details about the plight of West Papua and updates on the progress of the Flotilla goto:
http://freedomflotillawestpapua.org/