Fielding flags changes to Fuel Watch

A key senator wants state premiers and motoring bodies to give their approval before a national Fuel Watch scheme is established.

The federal government is hoping the seven balance-of-power senators give their support to the scheme when the upper house debates enabling legislation on Tuesday.
One of the senators, Family First's Steve Fielding, intends tabling an amendment to the government's bill.
If accepted by the Senate, it would require each premier and motoring body to sign-off on Fuel Watch before a one-year trial was introduced in each state.
"The Rudd government initially told us Fuel Watch would put downward pressure on petrol prices and save motorists 1.9 cents per litre at the bowser," Senator Fielding said in a statement.
"The government has since backed away from that claim, saying instead the real benefit of the scheme is to help motorists compare prices between petrol stations.
"That backflip concerns Family First."

aap 13 Oct 2008

The Fuel Watch Scheme is nothing more than a farce as it will NOT reduce the price to any significant extent at the pump.

EVEN if it does motorists WILL pay for it in another way.

The government HAS to been seen as if it is doing something, BUT the people at the top know it's implications are meaningless.

The Petro-Chemical industry is BEYOND the reach of any Australian inquiry.

'UFO Hacker' Tells What He Found

The search for proof of the existence of UFOs landed Gary McKinnon in a world of trouble.

After allegedly hacking into NASA websites -- where he says he found images of what looked like extraterrestrial spaceships -- the 40-year-old Briton faces extradition to the United States from his North London home. If convicted, McKinnon could receive a 70-year prison term and up to $2 million in fines.

Final paperwork in the case is due this week, after which the British home secretary will rule on the extradition request.

McKinnon, whose extensive search through U.S. computer networks was allegedly conducted between February 2001 and March 2002, picked a particularly poor time to expose U.S. national security failings in light of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

McKinnon tells what he found and discusses the motivation behind his online adventures in this exclusive phone interview with Wired News.

Wired News: What was your motive or inspiration for carrying out your computer hacking? Was it the War Games movie?

Gary McKinnon: This is a bit of a red herring. I have seen it but I wasn't inspired by it. My main inspiration was The Hacker's Handbook by Hugo Cornwall. The first edition that I read was too full of information.... It had to be banned, and it was reissued without the sensitive stuff in it.

WN: Without this book would you have been able to do it?

McKinnon: I would have done it anyway because I used the internet to get useful information. The book just kick-started me. Hacking for me was just a means to an end.

WN: In what way?

McKinnon: I knew that governments suppressed antigravity, UFO-related technologies, free energy or what they call zero-point energy. This should not be kept hidden from the public when pensioners can't pay their fuel bills.

WN: Did you find anything in your search for evidence of UFOs?

McKinnon: Certainly did. There is The Disclosure Project. This is a book with 400 testimonials from everyone from air traffic controllers to those responsible for launching nuclear missiles. Very credible witnesses. They talk about reverse-(engineered) technology taken from captured or destroyed alien craft.

WN: Like the Roswell incident of 1947?

McKinnon: I assume that was the first and assume there have been others. These relied-upon people have given solid evidence.

WN: What sort of evidence?

McKinnon: A NASA photographic expert said that there was a Building 8 at Johnson Space Center where they regularly airbrushed out images of UFOs from the high-resolution satellite imaging. I logged on to NASA and was able to access this department. They had huge, high-resolution images stored in their picture files. They had filtered and unfiltered, or processed and unprocessed, files.

My dialup 56K connection was very slow trying to download one of these picture files. As this was happening, I had remote control of their desktop, and by adjusting it to 4-bit color and low screen resolution, I was able to briefly see one of these pictures. It was a silvery, cigar-shaped object with geodesic spheres on either side. There were no visible seams or riveting. There was no reference to the size of the object and the picture was taken presumably by a satellite looking down on it. The object didn't look manmade or anything like what we have created. Because I was using a Java application, I could only get a screenshot of the picture -- it did not go into my temporary internet files. At my crowning moment, someone at NASA discovered what I was doing and I was disconnected.

I also got access to Excel spreadsheets. One was titled "Non-Terrestrial Officers." It contained names and ranks of U.S. Air Force personnel who are not registered anywhere else. It also contained information about ship-to-ship transfers, but I've never seen the names of these ships noted anywhere else.

WN: Could this have been some sort of military strategy game or outline of hypothetical situations?

McKinnon: The military want to have military dominance of space. What I found could be a game -- it's hard to know for certain.

wired.com

Thief caught out by revealing tattoo

British detectives have made short work of a bungling car thief who broke into an unmarked police car kitted out with CCTV cameras.

To make matters worse for the aspiring criminal, he had his name and date of birth tattooed on his neck — making his arrest that much easier.

Aarron Evans, 21, pleaded guilty in Bristol Magistrates' Court to breaking into a covert police capture car in the city, according to UK media.

"We get such excellent images from these cameras that there is often — and never more so than in this case — no doubt who the criminal is," Supt Ian Wylie was quoted by the BBC as saying.

"Criminals won't be tolerated in Bristol and we will keep catching them and bringing them before the courts."

Evans, an illiterate man of no fixed address, was sentenced to seven months in jail.

The capture car — known as a "honeypot" — is a common technique used by British police to catch criminals in the act.

Officers bait the "honeypot" with a bounty of tempting items such as satellite navigation systems, handbags, car stereos and mobile phones.

Inside the car, cameras film the thief in the act.

ninemsn 8 Oct 2008

Elementary my dear Watson....

Nothing silly about this bloke at all !!! Lets take the logical approach.

Since he is illiterate, he tattooed his details for others to see if need be.

Since he is of no fixed address, he committed a crime CLEARLY showing his details, in return having guaranteed a fixed address, with bed and meals three times a day, free sex if he is the stronger party, all at the taxpayers expense.

Sounds like a deal too good for him to refuse !!! Now who's the silly one ??? !!! ??

Can a foetus be aborted at 1132 weeks ??

Your Say = NO SAY

Comments that were made to the 'financial crisis' in a mainstream news media site, ninemsn.com were not published on the site. The sites disclaimer naturally states that it reserves the right to publish information. One of the questions posed was :

What do you think the banks should do?

Are you worried about the impact of the financial crisis on Australia?

The content of comments made were as follows :

There is NOTHING the government CAN or WILL do as this is an economy BEYOND the scope
of some miniscule Aussie penny watchers.

The depression of the 30's was an orchestrated event, by the financial elite.
(documentation today shows this to be very accurate). It was designed by the world's
largest banking families

It was designed to wipe out this middle class (which it did, and took over a generation to recover)
During this time the financial elite made LOT$ of MONEY, as the stocks fell and they bought up.
One of the most important commodities that went up (ten fold) was gold.
Officially the world's largest deposits of gold are held in London and N.Y, which are in the hands of the financial elite.

For those people in the know, and who are ca$hed up THIS is the BEST time.

The whole idea of this is for people to live in poverty, ie. be void of any savings.

During the depression of the 30's the financial elite 'bathed' (literally) in milk, and drove great big
guzzling Rolls Royces, whilst the people starved. These are documented facts, and pictures today
can be found, if you dig deep enough.

The mass media is in the control of a few individuals, in Australia, Packer, Stokes and Murdoch.
If political comments are uncomfortable (however true) they will NOT make the light of day to the masses.

This is generally TRUE of every government, even the ones who in theory say you have free speech

See comments on : "Your Say: Should the banks pass rate cuts on?"

Banks 'need to explain' rates position

The banks have refused to give any detail as to why they can't pass on the benefits of an interest rate cut, opposition Treasury spokeswoman Julie Bishop says.
The Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to hand down an interest rate cut of half a percentage point Tuesday, but the banks have indicated they won't be able to pass on the cut because of costs.
"The banks have clearly convinced (federal Treasurer) Wayne Swan that they need the benefit of the rate cut rather than passing it onto say small business borrowers or mortgage holders, but we don't have any of that detail as to why the banks cannot afford to pass on the benefit of an interest rate cut," Ms Bishop told ABC radio.
"The banks did complain of higher borrowing costs earlier in the year and increased their margins on the official cash rate by half a percentage point.
"That margin has been maintained and the banks went on to make a record profit throughout this year."
There were also mixed messages coming from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Mr Swan, Ms Bishop said.
"Given that Kevin Rudd is talking of the need to pump-prime the economy, for a $20-billion infrastructure fund, it's confusing when Wayne Swan says that it's more important to protect the banks' profit than stimulate the economy, when he's talking of an interest rate cut."
It's important that the banks remain profitable, but at a time when the economy needed to be stimulated, the question was how much of the cut the banks could pass on, she said.
"And we've heard very little from the banks."
Ms Bishop said the opposition's offer to sit down with the government on a bipartisan level to discuss the economic situation was rejected.
"So we are dealing with the available evidence and the available evidence shows that the banks are highly profitable and could afford to pass on an interest rate cut to those people who desperately need it."

AAP 6 Oct 2008

The banks DO NOT and will NOT explain anything to ANYONE. Whilst interset rates rise they are quick to pass on the cost to the consumer, BUT when they fall the same transaction takes twice as long.

Banks make phenomenal profits, and in difficult financial times make similar high profits.

Common interest rates that banks give in Australia can be 8%, whilst overseas interest rates given to the public of 20% are NOT uncommon.

Secret Money

Walter, Ingo. The Secret Money Market: Inside the Dark World of Tax Evasion, Financial Fraud, Insider Trading, Money Laundering, and Capital Flight. 2nd edition. New York: HarperBusiness, 1990. 377 pages.
This scholarly work is replete with numerous examples of slime that floated to the surface from the underground world of high-finance and illicit wheeling-dealing, which is why we put it in NameBase. It is well- written, tightly-argued, and very informative, alternating between statistics on the dimensions of the secret money market, descriptions of escapades that ended in prosecutions, discussions of how accounts are opened in places like the Cayman Islands, and matter-of-fact observations about the effectiveness of SEC monitoring and regulation.

One suspects, however, that if this book sells well off campus it's because readers want to know how NOT to get caught. Off-shore banking, tax shelters, insider trading, and the arcane world of Swiss financial privacy are treated in rich detail, while more difficult scams such as fraud and organized crime within the savings and loan industry are not treated at all. But then Ingo Walter, professor of business administration, probably finds it difficult to keep on top of the high-capital crime curve from his office at New York University.
ISBN 0-88730-489-3

Mum takes son to drug deal, cops pounce

An unsuspecting mother drove her teenage son to an alleged drug deal rendezvous in Sydney on Thursday where police were waiting.

The 19-year-old man from Bondi was arrested in the Ramsgate Street car park at North Bondi about 10.30am (AEST) during an alleged deal for 1,000 ecstasy tablets, police said.

Three men sitting in a nearby car were questioned but later released without charge.

His mother is not believed to have known about the alleged deal and is not facing any charges.

Following the teenager's arrest, a 26-year-old man, alleged to be a source for the drugs, was taken into custody at a house in Westmoreland St at Glebe.

He will face Newtown Local Court later Thursday, charged with supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and supplying an indictable quantity of a prohibited drug.

The 19-year-old has been charged with large commercial supply of a prohibited drug, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years.

He is expected to face Waverley Local Court later Thursday.

Strike Force Dooley was established by the Surry Hills Region Enforcement Squad in May to investigate the supply of ecstasy in the eastern suburbs and distribution to inner-city club-goers.

During the operation, officers have seized ecstasy pills with an estimated street value of $110,000.

Surry Hills Region Enforcement Squad Commander Detective Inspector Gavin Wood said the investigation was continuing with further arrests likely.

"We are constantly targeting those people engaged in dealing illicit drugs and taking them off the streets," he said.

"Every drug arrest we make further disrupts the supply network and I can assure the community that we will only continue to step up our activities."

aap 2 Oct 2008

Why don't they also target the PRODUCERS of the drugs ?? !! ??

Hint: Well known areas like the Adelaide Hills and Griffith are primary producing areas of drugs.

Inmate loses appeal on prison murder

A psychotic prisoner who kicked a cell mate to death while in the "implacable grip of an urge to kill someone" has lost an appeal against his 18-year sentence.

Michael Allen Heatley, 32, was jailed after pleading guilty to the 2004 manslaughter of Craig Anthony Behr, 24, in the Long Bay Prison Hospital.

The NSW Court of Appeal has rejected Heatley's claims the sentence did not adequately reflect his guilty plea and placed too much weight on his previous criminal history.

Heatley suffered from chronic psychosis and was twice acquitted of armed robbery on the grounds of mental illness.

He smoked, sniffed and drank his dead father's ashes, and believed he was the racehorse Phar Lap.

When he kicked Behr to death Heatley was supposed to be in solitary lockdown, after telling Corrective Services officers he was having homicidal urges.

Heatley begged prison guards not to place Behr in his cell, and within an hour he was dead.

Sentencing Heatley in the NSW Supreme Court in 2006, Justice Anthony Whealy said "systemic and individual failures" on the part of prison officers had, in large part, caused Behr's death.

The 18-year-sentence accounted for the manslaughter of Behr and an unrelated armed robbery, committed in 2002 after Heatley escaped from prison on another offence.

NSW Chief Judge at Common Law Peter McClellan dismissed the appeal.

He agreed with Heatley's submission the two prior armed robberies, for which he was found not guilty on mental illness grounds, should not have been considered part of his criminal history.

However, Justice McClellan said it was merely one problem in an "otherwise complex sentencing task carried out by his Honour with great care".

"Having regard to the objective seriousness of both offences and the various aggravating and mitigating matters to which his Honour had regard and, in particular, allowing appropriate weight for the offender's mental health problems, I am not persuaded that the sentences imposed were inappropriate," he said.

"I am not satisfied that some other less severe sentence was warranted in law and should have been passed."

Justices Graham Barr and Derek Price agreed with Justice McClellan's ruling.

An inquest into Behr's death and the role of Corrective Services will resume next year.

It was adjourned in February 2005 pending Heatley's sentence and appeal.

With time already served Heatley will be eligible for parole in March 2016, at the expiration of his 12-year minimum term.


AAP 2008 2 Oct 2008

Telco Fraud : Supported by law

Recently a matter has been lodged within an government organisation, outlining a fraudulent activity managed by an Australian Telco.

It has been documented that the contractors are being ripped of, from their salary, with contracts that they sign, and the balance being split between the agency and the Telco.

This practice has been identified by a legal firm as fraudulent.

The amount that the workers are being ripped off is in the magnitude of millions of dollars per year, with the scope to be in the tens of millions depending of the breadth of the offense.

In order to take onus away from the institution, with which the documentation was lodged, the representative from the organisation, claims that they do not understand what has been written, and pointed the individual on a goose chase, e.g to claim holiday / sick pay entitlements, which was NOT the concern of the documentation.

With similar cases of fraud, and collapses of large institutions:

HiH Insurance - BUST - the public did not see the money;
Quintex - BUST - again the people lost,

the law generally does NOT refund the public the monies they have been defrauded of, and the companies concerned are NOT penalised accordingly.

Eg. :
Steve Vizard fined $400,000 for a $3,000,000 fraud - 11% fine (better than tax)
Pratt fined $36 million for a $700 million fraud - 5% - (did better than Vizard)

Since this matter has been initiated by a member of the public (read : no lawyers have been involved to charge ridiculous amounts for their time : money given to mates), and as a consequence, contractors across the entire board would be applicable to claim, the matter has NO chance of success.

In the cases of a Queensland Police officer who WON a case of sexual harassment again the force was awarded an approx amount of $120,000 of WHICH approx. $105,000 was "GIVEN" to the lawyers for the legal costs.

There is ONE of THE most important aspects that needs to be taken into consideration, and that is of PRECEDENCE.

A matter of this magnitude CANNOT make it to court for it can set a precedence.

Justice is NOT as matter of who is right, but who has the BIGGER WALLET to prove / disprove.

Carnage on the markets as bailout fails

More than $53 billion has been wiped from the local sharemarket (.AXJO

.AXJO , 4624.2, -183.2, -3.8%) after US markets suffered a record drop overnight as the $840 billion Wall Street bailout collapsed.

In the first 20 minutes of trade, the market dropped by 5.4 percent after US stocks suffered their biggest ever loss overnight.

In the first 20 minutes of trade, the market dropped by 5.4 percent after US stocks suffered their biggest ever loss overnight.

Macquarie Bank (MQG.AX

MQG.AX , 34.470, -2.730, -7.340%) shares dropped, while mining giants Rio Tinto (RIO.AX RIO.AX , 87.990, -7.510, -7.860%) and BHP Billiton (BHP.AX BHP.AX , 31.980, -2.260, -6.600%) also plummeted on fears that a global downturn will hurt demand for commodities.

Just prior to the local market open, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan attempted to soothe nervous markets and pledged to lobby the US to pass the Wall Street bailout plan.

ninemsn.com.au 30 Sep 2008

Just like the Great Depression was DELIBERATELY created, by the MONEY EXCHANGERS, to get rid of the middle class, whist a LOT of financiers made ASTRONOMICAL amounts of money, similarly the same is happening today.

During this depression, some wealthy industrialists bathed in milk, whilst other slept on the streets. This have been widely documented.

As stated in his speech to the nation G.Bush said that the middle class must tighten their belt buckles ( read : pay for it).

The 700 billion dollar bail out SOUNDS like alot to the general public, BUT pales in comparison to what some company's assets are. E.g. ONE Company alone, US Insurer AiG has a asset base of 2 trillion ( 2,000 billion - nearly 3 times more than what the US public are forced to pay for).