More Lies From News Limited

 media  No Responses »
Jun 252012
 

Splashed across the front page of The Daily Terrorgraph, Rupert Murdoch’s low brow Sydney tabloid is the following headline: Exclusive: School excursions hit by Swan budget cuts Taking The Lunch Money The story is written by Steve Lewis, the “journalist” responsible for the “Utegate” fabrication, and up to his eyeballs in the Slippergate scandal as well. With a pedigree like that, i guess we shouldn’t expect too much from him. It claims: CHILDREN visiting federal parliament will be deprived of free bottled water and fruit treats as Treasurer Wayne Swan plays Grinch to school groups. In the latest budget crackdown even teachers who shepherd the kids through the building will no longer get tea and coffee — all for a saving of $235,000 a year.

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Cry Havoc And Let Slip The Dogs Of MOAR Part 2

 australia  No Responses »
May 302012
 

As promised, the dogs of MOAR continue to wreak havoc with Kathy Jackson’s tangled web of tales that make her out to be a knight in shining armour bravely battling the forces of evil on behalf of the powerless. Not only that, but new, though unconfirmed at this stage, revelations draw the Slippergate and HSU scandals together into one sorry tale of an Opposition party desperately trying to bring down the Government of the day. Once again the MSM has been caught sleeping while the independent media does the heavy lifting for them. Peter Wicks and Independent Australia have just uncovered further evidence that Jackson’s version of events int the HSU scandal leave a lot to be desired. The latest revelation contains details of suspicious

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Tainted Vote Scorecard Updated

 australia  No Responses »
May 222012
 

After the original tainted vote scorecard was published by The Derp on May 21, additional scores will need to be added. Following Craig Thomson’s historic speech in the House Of Representatives, Leader of the house, Anthony Albanese uncovered another member of Parliament with a cloud over them. The Member for Hughes, Craig Kelly neglected to update the register of MP’s interests after the August 2010 election. Kelly was a director of several companies associated with Sydney furniture importer DV Kelly, a company founded by his parents. ASIC records confirm that Kelly did not officially resign from these positions until March 2011. This brings the Two Party Tainted Score to: ALP – 1 LNP – 8 It has also been brought to The Derp’s attention that

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Which Side Has The Most Tainted Votes?

 australia  1 Response »
May 202012
 

Tony Abbott has made much ado lately about tainted votes in Parliament. Let’s examine just how many tainted votes each side actually has. By The Derp’s reckoning there are a total of 8 tainted votes between the House Of Representatives and The Senate. First cab off the rank (pun intended) is of course The Speaker of The House Of Representatives, Peter Slipper. Mr Slipper is accused of rorting the Cabcharge system and of sexually harassing a staff member, James Ashby (see Slippergate Smells A Lot Like Utegate and Slippergate Update May 5 2012). Mr Slipper is an Independent, so the score so far is: ALP – 0 IND – 1 LNP – 0 Second tainted vote is that of Craig Thomson. Mr Thomson is accused

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Chris Uhlmann Has Made 730 A Joke

 televison  No Responses »
May 182012
 

In a previous article The Derp made note of the decline of the ABC’s flagship current affairs program 730 (Bring On The Dodgy Plumbers). When Leigh Sales left the show to go on maternity leave, sidekick Chris Uhlmann took over as host. Since then the show has gone even further downhill. All the blame for this decline is solely attributable to Uhlmann’s “interview” style. Rather than let the conversation evolve, Uhlmann seems to have a set list of questions to ask, and races through them, often talking over his guests in order to make sure every question gets asked. This makes the interviews very stilted, and often veer from one topic to another without any sense of coherence. When interviewing members of the Government, Uhlmann

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Brave Sir Tony Ran Away

 australia  No Responses »
May 092012
 

Does everyone remember the famous scene from Monty Python & The Holy Grail were Sir Robin runs away from the Three Headed Knight? This scene should be updated to Brave Sir Ton Ran Away. Here’s a refresher of the scene: Given Abbott’s penchant for running away from press conferences when any of the journalists ask him a question about policy detail, or especially about his prior knowledge of the Slippergate affair, the song just needs a few tweaks to perfectly represent the cowardice of this prime ministerial wannabe. The new lyrics are as follows: Brave Sir Tony ran away Bravely ran away away When policy questions raised their head* He bravely turned his tail and fled Yes Brave Sir Tony turned about And gallantly he

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Slippergate Update – May 5 2012

 australia  2 Responses »
May 052012
 

In yesterday’s article on the Slippergate affair, The Derp signed off with the comment “Watch this space”. Well we didn’t have to wait long for new developments. The Fairfax Press has revealed that the man at the centre of the scandal, James Ashby was actively promoting Mr Slipper’s rival on YouTube whilst he was employed as a media advisor to the Speaker. (These are the videos on Ashby’s YouTube Channel – hat tip to Frank Calabrese at A Frank View) The beneficiary of these video promotion, Peta Simpson, confirmed she was fully aware that Ashby was doing promotional work for her up until February 2012. This is three months after Ashby resigned from the LNP and commenced work in the Speaker’s office. Asked if her

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Slippergate Smells A Lot Like Utegate

 australia  2 Responses »
May 042012
 

With each passing day the Slippergate affair is starting to smell more and more like Utegate. First there is the obvious Steve Lewis connection. Lewis, a journalist for the low-brow Murdoch fish wrapper, The Daily Telegraph, was the one that “broke” both stories. Utegate was subsequently found to be a beat up and cost Malcolm Turnbull the leadership of the Liberal Party. Someone has posted a video on YouTube looking at some of the salient points of Slippergate which point to the LNP being behind this story as well: On Monday April 30, Vexnews published an article suggesting that the plaintiff, James Ashby, had been paid $50,000 arranged by a “senior LNP figure”. Speaker Peter Slipper’s sex harassment accuser James Ashby could be in sorts

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