Two Melburnian school colleagues fighting in Israeli army are injured in Gaza

Sam Gosling and his father Anthony.

Two former students of a Jewish school in Melbourne have been wounded while fighting for the Israeli army in Gaza.

Sam Gosling and Daniel Wein, both 22, are recovering from recent injuries sustained during the conflict between Israel and Hamas that has lasted almost four weeks.

The combat soldiers are former students of Leibler Yavneh College in Elsternwick, and are believed to have been a year level apart. Both are reportedly expected to recover.

Mr Gosling, who left Caulfield for Israel last year, was hit by shrapnel from a missile in late July.

A close friend, Toby Azoulay, said it was extremely distressing to see a photo surface on social media showing Mr Gosling in a hospital bed. "It was very upsetting ... very confronting," he said.

Mr Gosling's family moved to Melbourne from New Zealand in 2008.

He was involved in the Zionist youth movement, Bnei Akiva, where he became a leader for younger students at weekly meetings.

"He moved mid-last year to join the army," Bnei Akiva Melbourne president Romy Spicer said.

"But it really hits home when you see a photo of your friend who has been injured. It throws you about."

Earlier in July, Mr Wein, who grew up in Melbourne but moved to Israel before graduating from Yavneh College, was reportedly shot in the thigh.

Ms Spicer said that out of the 365 students and leaders in Melbourne's Bnei Akiva program, as many as 10 had joined the Israeli army in the past two years.

"What drives them is a love and passion for Zionism," she said.

There are about 2500 foreign citizens from more than 60 countries enlisted in the Israeli Defence Forces.

The US provides the greatest contingent, but there are also large numbers of Russian, Ukrainian and French soldiers.

Sixty-four Israeli army soldiers and three Israeli citizens have died in the conflict. The Palestinian death toll has reached 1822.

Mr Azoulay, whose 20-year-old brother also left Melbourne to fight in Gaza, said soldiers in the army were often under heavy fire and went days without being able to contact family.

"I didn't speak to my brother once for five or six days ... it is nerve-wracking," he said.

"We don't want there to be a war, but unfortunately the circumstances force it."

The Israeli embassy in Canberra refused to comment on the number of Australians fighting for the IDF, but it is believed there are in excess of 100 enlisted.

The Department of Foreign Affairs does not keep figures on how many Australian citizens have gone to Israel to fight for its army.

theage.com.au 4 Aug 2014

The Australian government allegedly banned people from leaving Australia to fight in armies overseas.

They are supposed to be charged as terrorists.

 

Does the Australian government support these terrorists?

Job Network rebate

DOLE BLUDGERS REJOICE!

Too many times the people in need, who are reliant upon government welfare are victimised and harassed by not only the corporate media, but also by employers or politicians as free loaders, with derogatory terms like 'dole bludgers' also being used.

If similar attitude was taken towards migrants calling them 'wogs' in today's day and age, then the corporate media would jump on it and the lawyers would have a field day.

Apart from the fact that the Australian government is importing 'slave' labour into Australia at an astronomical rate in order to lower the rate of the Australian worker, there is still hope for the 'dole bludger'.

Employment is big business in Australia, where you (the unemployed person) are the traded as a commodity / resource to all those businesses feeding of you.

Centrelink is a corporation that distributes your money (allocated by the government) to you, with the prime objective to give you as least as possible, via 'breaches', the remainder of which being from your total allocation is (fraudulently) pocketed.

Further down the food chain is another company making tens of thousands per year from your unemployed status, called a 'Job network provider'.

They also fraudulently claim to their customers, the unemployed person, that they are Centrelink, in order to harass and intimidate their client.

Well not all is bad news, as their IS relief for the ones who are on government benefits, (no, not the politicians), the 'dole bludgers'.

Corpau has obtained information from a source that definitely wishes to remain anonymous, regarding an incentive secretly on offer to employers, information that is not handed out to everyone, as it COSTS the job network provider.

$$$ - HERE'S THE DEAL FOR EMPLOYERS - $$$ - A sponsored dole bludger.

The job network provider will pay an amount to the employer to take on their client, the 'dole bludger'.

If an employer can guarantee six months worth of work, and more than 30 hours per week, then they receive a rebate of 70% on the wages of their newly acquired 'dole bludger'.

An example of an employee working for $30 per hour at 40 hours per week, would cost the employer a gross amount of $1,200.

The rebate offered by the job network provider would be $840, with a total cost to the employer being $360 per week or an effective rate of $9 per hour.

A spreadsheet is available for download in the format of Microsoft Excel (97-2003) worksheet from the link below:



Happy employment !

Taxpayers footing bill on Treasurer Joe Hockey’s $1.5 million Canberra house

Hockey apologises for comment about poor 

JOE Hockey has defended his practice of claiming a $270-a-night taxpayer-funded travelling allowance to stay in a Canberra house majority-owned by his wife on the grounds that it is an entirely legitimate practice embraced by scores of Labor MPs. 

The Treasurer has legitimately claimed $108,000 in travel allowance for 368 nights over the past four years including many nights for parliamentary sitting weeks where he has stayed at the Canberra house.

Treasurer Joe Hockey with Annabel Crabb in an episode of ABC's Kitchen Cabinet

 

Mr Hockey would not be drawn on whether there were any tax minimisation advantages to ownership structure of the property stating only that: “The Treasurer fully complies with all relevant national and territory laws.”

The Treasurer has endured a storm of controversy over his comments that poor people did not drive their cars very far this week. On Friday, he issued a grovelling apology for his choice of words.

The Hockey family’s astute purchase of the property in one of Canberra’s premier suburbs is a well-known story in political circles. The home is worth an estimated $1.5 million according to local real estate agents.

But the Hockey clan picked up the property for a song, purchasing it for just $320,000 in 1997.

In his recently published biography Not Your Average Joe, a former Liberal MP Ross Cameron boasts that Mr Hockey struck a golden deal, spotting the house when driving in Canberra.

“The house was a piece of Hockey mercantile genius,’’ Mr Cameron said.

Biographer Madonna King writes that the seller, who according to ACT lands title records was called Robert Hamilton wanted “no part in lawyers or agents.’

“So Joe, the lawyer, called his father, the real estate agent, who took the owner out for a beer,’’ Ms King writes.

“The Hockey’s scored the house for land value. Joe’s father didn’t mention he was a real estate agent, buying the property on behalf of his lawyer son.’’

Treasurer Joe Hockey and his wife Melissa Babbage

 

When it was purchased in 1997, Mr Hockey was listed on sales documents as owning 5 per cent, his wife Melissa Babbage 61 per cent and his father Richard Hockey 34 per cent.

A group of Liberal MPs including Mr Cameron, Bob Baldwin and Defence Minister Brendan Nelson then moved and paid rent to stay at the property. Dr Nelson famously lived in the shed after his marriage broke up in return for paying half rent. Now employed by the Australian War Memorial Dr Nelson sometimes still stays at the property.

The double dipping of MPs who claim travel allowance to stay in properties owned by themselves or their wives and in some cases reduce their tax by negatively gearing property is well-known in Canberra. In 2007, it was revealed Malcolm Turnbull, then regarded as Australia’s richest MP, rented a house from his wife Lucy when in Canberra. It was reported Mr Turnbull paid $10,000 a year to his wife under the arrangement and claimed another $10 a night when she stayed in Canberra. In response, Mr Turnbull said the story was a “beat up.”

Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey

 

“Where I stay, whether I stay in expensive accommodation or cheap accommodation, in my own apartment or an apartment belonging to my wife, a hotel or a serviced flat, is immaterial,” he told ABC television.

“You get the same amount and where you stay is of no concern to the government. That’s the way the system works.”

In Canberra, MPs are not required to show a receipt to prove they stayed in a hotel because the blanket $270 rate applies whether you stay in a hotel or a house owned by yourself or another person.

Because of the rules, many MPs purchase property in Canberra to provide a base during parliamentary sittings and use their travel allowance to pay off their mortgage.

After the Sunday Telegraph inquired about Mr Hockey’s house it was pointed out by the government that more than a dozen Labor MPs own property in Canberra where they stay during parliamentary sitting weeks and also claim travel allowance.

These MPs include Anthony Albanese, Warren Snowden, Tanya Plibersek has an apartment in
Joel Fitzgibbon, Jim Chalmers, Mark Butler, Tony Burke and Doug Cameron.

Mark Butler has an apartment in Kingston.

Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd also owned property in Canberra before they retired from politics.

dailytelegraph.com.au 17 Aug 2014

More Australian political SCUM.

Degrading the 'poor people' (who would be on government benefits?) simultaneously while he himself on government benefits.

These are the people that are in charge of Australia?

He should be removed from 'government' immediately!

Here’s how Facebook chooses which ads to show you

Facebook is watching your every move. Source: News Limited

FACEBOOK ads are pretty annoying. 

They either seem super random or aggressively encourage you to buy things you’ve already purchased. Every once in awhile they remind you of something you were thinking of buying, and you realise that that’s how they’re supposed to work all the time. But generally the process seems pretty disorganised.

If you want to know what’s going on behind the scenes, there are some options, though. In June Facebook expanded the information you could get about ads and also started showing a list of the things the company knows about you. If you hover your cursor over any Facebook ad, an “X” shows up in the upper right corner. Clicking the X reveals a drop-down menu (below) that gives you options about how to proceed. If you choose “Why am I seeing this ad?” a pop-out window (shown at the top of this post) gives you some information about what’s going on.

The dropdown menu on ads. Source: Supplied

 

It can be fairly specific like, “One of the reasons you’re seeing this ad is because davidgage.com wants to reach people interested in New York University” (I went there for grad school), or “One of the reasons you’re seeing this ad is because we think you may be in the ‘Technology early adopters’ audience. This is based on what you do on Facebook” (I am a tech reporter after all). But they can also be incredibly vague and general like, “You’re seeing this ad because hertz.com wants to reach people on Facebook through Turn, an advertising company that uses Facebook’s ad exchange.” Often the explanations will add, “There may be other reasons you saw this ad. For example, Facebook is always able to use information about your age, gender, location and the devices you use to access Facebook when deciding which ads to show you.”

Unspecific reasons! Cool!

One time I bought underwear online, just once, and now the underwear ads won’t stop. Source: Supplied

 

If you “View and manage your ad preferences,” you can see a list of things Facebook thinks you like or are interested in. The list is divided into categories like “food and drink,” “places and events,” “shopping and fashion,” etc. Some of them are pretty general. For me “Maryland” makes the places list because I used to live there. But the more specific ones start to paint a picture of who you are. “Charles Mingus,” “PBS,” and ”physics” pretty much sums me up. At first it’s kind of exciting to see yourself captured in a tailored list, but then it starts to feel creepy. You can edit out things that don’t represent you, or trick Facebook a little bit by getting rid of all the things that are true and leaving only the stuff you hate that happens to be on there, but eventually your browsing habits are going to betray you.

In many ways it’s great that Facebook made its targeted advertising a little more transparent and added some granular controls, but it certainly forces you to confront the reality of how intimately the company knows you. After all, as Time points out, the company made about $5.79 from serving ads to each of its 204 million U.S. and Canadian users last quarter. This is just the tip of Facebook’s personal data iceberg.

news.com.au 18 Aug 2014

KISS music banned from Aust airwaves

A radio station has banned music by rock band KISS after negative comments by bassist Gene Simmons. Source: AAP

 

BOSSES at an Australian radio station have banned KISS music from the airwaves as a protest against comments bassist Gene Simmons recently made about people battling depression. 

THE rocker upset a lot of people when he suggested people with depression and addiction issues should kill themselves in a recent interview when he was asked about relations between himself and former KISS bandmates Ace Frehley and Peter Criss.

Simmons told SongFacts.com, "I don't get along with anybody who's a drug addict and has a dark cloud over their head and sees themselves as a victim. Drug addicts and alcoholics are always: 'The world is a harsh place'.

"My mother was in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. I don't want to hear f**k-all about 'the world is a harsh place'. She gets up every day, smells the roses and loves life. And for a putz, 20-year-old kid to say, 'I'm depressed, I live in Seattle'. F*** you, then kill yourself."

Simmons went on to say he always calls people on their bluff if they are standing at the top a building saying they are going to jump.

Motley Crue star Nikki Sixx attacked Simmons over his remarks on his satellite radio show earlier this week, and now bosses at Triple M have pulled all KISS tracks from playlists nationwide following the bassist's "misguided and insensitive" comments about depression and suicide.

Network head Mike Fitzpatrick says, "Depression and suicide are not topics he should be using to further his notoriety or sell records. His desperation to use mental health issues to find relevancy in a modern age is sickening. I can only put it down to a brain fade on his part.

"The Triple M network can't and won't be playing or supporting this d***head's music. I put the challenge out to other stations across Australia and North America to also drop any of this nudnik's songs until such time as he reconsiders his thoughtless and insensitive position."

Simmons has released a statement on Facebook in an attempt to clarify his remarks. It reads: "Depression is very serious and very sad when it happens to anyone, especially loved ones. I have not commented on various allegations made in the media, but I want to make this statement for the record and to clarify. I deeply support and am empathetic to anyone suffering from any disease, especially depression.

"I have never sugarcoated my feelings regarding drug use and alcoholics. Somewhere along the line, my intentions in speaking very directly and perhaps politically-incorrectly about drug use and alcoholics have been misconstrued as vile commentary on depression.

"Unkind statements about depression was certainly never my intention. And I do not intend to defend myself here and now by listing the myriad charities and self-help organisations I am involved with." He adds, "My heart goes out to anyone suffering from depression."

news..com.au 16 Aug 2014

Total racist scum, with a pathetic attitude towards mental health.

Music not even worth pirating, and never will be.

It's always a good idea to throw in Nazi Germany which never effected him directly anyway.

Newcastle Lord Mayor Jeff McCloy quits after ICAC scandal

Jeff McCloy in Sydney. The property developer last week told ICAC he had given political donations to two MPs. Source: News Corp Australia

 

NEWCASTLE Lord Mayor Jeff McCloy, at the centre of corruption allegations, resigned last night effective immediately. 

His resignation came after NSW Premier Mike Baird told Mr McCloy he should “do the honourable thing and resign” after it was revealed last week the property developer had illegally donated to Liberal candidates at the 2011 election.

In a statement to the Newcastle City Council and the people of Newcastle last night, Mr McCloy said: “The controversy surrounding donations I made in the lead-up to the 2011 NSW elections may effect the proper functioning of Newcastle City Council.

“I, therefore, tender my resignation as Lord Mayor of Newcastle effective immediately.

“It has been a privilege serving the people of Newcastle.’’

Mr Baird earlier said the government would take “every legal option available” to see Mr McCloy stand down, after the property developer last week told the Independent Commission Against Corruption he had given political donations to two MPs forced to resign after revelations of corruption and lying.

Mr McCloy’s resignation came as Mr Baird said his government would not be contesting the two central coast seats ­vacated last week by Tim Owen and Andrew Cornwell, at by-­elections expected to occur within three to five weeks.

“We do not think we are in a position to ask the community to vote for us,” he said yesterday.

“In the by-election we have forfeited the right, I strongly believe, to seek their endorsement at this time. We need to get our house in order.”

He did not, however, rule out standing candidates at the state election due in March. Mr McCloy said last week he gave at least $20,000 to the now former Newcastle MP Mr Owen, and $10,000 in cash to Mr Cornwell, who held Charlestown.

The refusal to run candidates for the two seats was viewed as a cynical political manoeuvre by the opposition, with the government viewed as being able to avoid a near certain wipe-out in those Hunter Valley seats by not contesting, while giving it a slightly better change at regaining the seats at the March election.

Opposition Leader John Robertson said the move was “extraordinary” and that in modern times no party that had held a seat had abandoned running candidates at a by-election.

“It’s pretty extraordinary and I think it's a demonstration of the act that Mike Baird is raising the white flag,” Mr Robinson said.

Mr McCloy told ICAC on Thursday he had given Swansea MP Garry Edwards between $1500 and $2400 for his election campaign. Mr Edwards has since stood aside from the Liberal Party.

Since 2009 developers have been banned from making political donations in NSW following a string of corruption cases.

theaustralian.com.au 18 Aug 2014

What just one 'Lord Major' to quit over corruption?

There are many more.

Let's just see how the 'authorities' deal with this.