The relationship between the journalistic profession and the elusive but still attractive ideal of ‘democracy’ is problematic.

Julia Irwin: all it takes is guts

As long as we live in societies with a vast disparity in wealth, journalists will tend to reflect the interests of the few who are wealthy rather than the many who are not. Someone has to pay their wages, after all.

Partly in recognition of this, public broadcasters were established in countries such as Australia, Britain and the USA. But they have been prone to infiltration, subvertion, intimidation and general complacent lethargy.

Then there’s the small but significant ‘independent’ media. In Australia, it has occasionally shown the gumption to cover stories that the corporate mainstream media and largely-tamed ABC and SBS won’t touch. But undoubtedly independent media cop pressure too from powerful vested interests – and it has to pay its own bills.

Al of which is a preamble to introducing a must-read article by Antony Lowenstein, published in the popular independent Australian blog Crikey.com two days ago… but seen so far by all too few, because it’s behind Crikey’s paywall (paid subscribers only).

In my view, this is the most significant article of the entire election campaign.

It should be headine news – and it would be headine news in a real democracy with a genuine free press. Instead of that, the most effective manipulators of the Australian body politic look like they’ll make it home again, with only a handful of grumblers wise to their shenannigans.

Exclusive new ‘Leak of the Week’ special

Julia Gillard blames Kevin Rudd for a policy designed by “fools, crims and spooks”, according to a source located somewhere in far north Queensland.

Julia Gillard with Cairns blogger Michael Moore: new talent?

Referring to Senator Conroy’s ‘mandatory internet censorship scheme’, Ms Gillard is clearly furious she’s has been set up by “very silly boys” in the Rudd Government.

Julia Gillard & MP Jim Turnour: who's leaking?

My source informs me Gillard knows full well she has to fix this mess before the election – and that the crucial Communications Portfolio must be run by a competent woman if she wins.

“It’s no job for a boy!” the exasperated Gillard is rumoured to have murmured.

In a rare moment of candour, while appearing to relax in tropical foliage surrounded by birdsong and noisy frog mating calls, the new Prime Minister hinted she knows what deep trouble Labor has got itself into over the widely reviled and creepy ‘mandatory internet filter’ policy.

But in a senational new revelation, my source suggests Gillard is still trying to find the testicular fortitude to stand up to the Zionist Lobby, ASIO and powerful mass media interests, all of whom have long regarded the ALP leadership as compliant poodles.

A recent SMH internet censorship opinion poll: Rudd's psephologists told him not to worry

A message to readers…

Below is my best effort at a letter on the subject of Internet censorship to Australia’s new Prime Minister.

It’s an open letter, prompted by the spectacle of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy arrogantly insisting that the Rudd Government’s ‘internet filter’ proposal would go ahead anyway.

The ‘Contact Us’ page on Julia Gillard’s own website, at the time of writing, is not accepting emails or letters by online form. Instead, correspondents are encouraged to write via by post to:

The Hon Julia Gillard MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600

If YOU have time and the inclination, writing direct to the Prime Minister – either via her website when it functions again or even better by snail mail – is well worth doing. Do it soon! Copy your letter to whoever you like, including your own MP. Send it to friends and encourage them to do the same!

You can use my letter (below) as a basis if you like – or even better write your own. Cut and paste material into it that concerns you especially. Feel free to ask hard questions. Freedom is what’s at stake.

If anyone believes there are errors in my letter – or wishes to suggest improvements – do post comments below.

Why not do something similar via your website, Facebook account, Twitter or whatever? Get the letters in – the more the better! Tell your friends, tell the world, write to the press and get on talk back radio.

During August, I had a poll running on this website in which I invited visitors to vote for the name they thought best suited to the small nation-state in the Middle East commonly known as ‘Israel’ since its inception in 1948.

Here are the results:

I didn’t ‘push’ the poll by actively urging people to vote. That invites the Hasbara crowd to fly-by in a rage, like a swarm of angry wasps. So I just let nature take its course.

Now, I’ll admit to some bias. I consider this website is visited by a selection of the smartest people on earth. My dog (rumoured to have an IQ of 250+) assures me most material here is crafted, like fabulous tropical flowers, to attract the most discriminating pollinators.

Therefore I shall take heed of this poll-of-the-well-informed and follow the popular will. Personally, I voted for ‘Rothchildistan’ – but in hindsight the democratic process has yet again come up trumps.

What acronym should I use for the ‘Jewish Apartheid State in Palestine’? Is it JASP – or JASIP? Should that be put to the vote as well?

Nelson Mandela was released long ago: FREE MARWAN BARGHOUTI!

On a more serious note, the vote that’s really needed to sort this tangle is the vote that’s never allowed to happen: that’s a one-vote, one-value poll of all people associated with the land of Palestine in recent times, whether by birth, direct descent or immigration.

I haven’t visited this blog myself for a while.

The long and short of it is that after a technical glitch broke my flow in early August, I ended up feeling like a holiday from blogging.

So I took a few weeks off.

One of the joys of solo blogging is there’s no-one to fire me for indolence. It’s the freedom to slack off. In a highly evolved society, this would probably be recognized as a human right.

Every day is holy

Over the last few weeks, I’ve spent more time contributing to discussions on other websites. I’ve been quite active on independent Australian blogs such as Crikey and New Matilda. Both are serving a useful role, broadening the political debate in Australia, providing somewhat greater choice of material and opportunities for participation.

Judging by these two ‘alternative’ web media, a significant shift in consciousness is underway in terms of the key topics discussed on this website. But it’s a long slog. Here are a few of the recent articles on which I posted comments:

Articles on the Crikey website

• Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick, the true story by Bob Ellis
• Costello’s ABC attacks should be addressed (Crikey Editorial)
• Warnings of a second economic shock wave by Richard Farmer
• No-one forced Grech to concoct an email by Bernard Keane
• Our parliament sabotages our future by Clive Hamilton

Articles on the New Matilda website

• Oil Talks, And The Dying Scapegoat Walks by Alex Mitchell

Four days ago, on Tuesday morning, I made my previous post. It was Part One in what was intended to be a popular series running during Cairns’ Big Week – a week with Prime Ministers and other luminaries from the South Pacific visiting and just a whiff of Terror in the air…

In cyberspace, no-one can hear you scream

Within an hour, I’d managed to stuff up my WordPress blog – not so badly it broke altogether, but enough to make it near impossible to do new work.

It turns out to have been a faulty plugin issue. I never suspected it might cause trouble, but it did. Once found, problem fixed.

Back to blogging. There’s been incessant chatter about Terror this week, by Terror Chatterers far and wide. It’s been a Terrifying week – another landmark in the annals of true-blue Australian Terror.

Don’t relax! Watch this space.

One and a half posts per day is not too stressful.

Today I came across Peter Russell’s Life Expectancy Calculator, which has cheered me up considerably.

Although I was born in the 1950s, it estimates my virtual age as an encouraging 39.6 and reckons I have another 13,700 days to live. Disappointing, of course, to be regarded as mortal at all by a faceless computer application – but that still seems like quite a lot, at least from a 2009 vantage point.

Peter Russell's Life Expectancy Calculator

I may retire from blogging at the age of 90, depending on whether Fidel Castro is still at it. Even though the Cuban health care system is superior, I still think I should be able to out-blog the old fox. Stress over the Bay of Pigs and decades of cigar abuse must surely have taken some toll?

Incidentally, I encountered this gem via Suraci’s feisty blog, which seemed to be down for a few days. I’m relieved the Mossad haven’t got him. Russell’s calculator has its limitations and didn’t ask about whether one maintains a blog that gets up the nose of Israelis

Will Barak Obama still be on Twitter in 2050?

If I eat wisely, exercise and keep my stress levels under control, I may well find out.

I’m thinking of renaming this blog ‘A Street’ before anyone else grabs the name.

Why? Because I slavishly follow trends. Right now, there’s an evident trend underway to call blogs by the name of a Street. One-letter street names are at a premium.

J-Street: having some success in shifting US policy aware from hard-core Zionism

It started with J-Street – a fine new initiative in which some liberal-minded Jewish Americans combined to provide the USA – and especially its Jewish community – with a more fair-minded and peaceful policy alternative to the one-eyed Israel-right-or-wrong approach of the USA’s mainstream Jewish/Zionist Lobby.

J-Street is well worth a visit if you haven’t seen it before.

Rather predictably, this has put the ultras of the Zionist movement out of sorts. Recently some of them launched ‘Z-Street‘. It’s at the far end of the Zionist spectrum. These are folk who probably think Ben Yahoo is a softie. They’re among the most extreme, ultra-nationalist Jewish-supremacists on the face of planet earth.

Z-Street: Zionist extremism unplugged

As a passionate proponent of free speech, I naturally support their right to expound their ludicrous bigoted views on their own blog. Why not? Any normal person will find Z-Street so absurd that it will surely help erode the Zionist project from within.

Regrettably, almost the entire mass media debate about Israel in ‘western’ countries such as Australia is located somewhere between J and Z on the alphabetic spectrum.

As a Twitter neophyte I’m still learning about the strange new universe of Tweets, Followers, Following – and the weird ‘Trending Topics’ list on the right hand side of my page.

Some things remain utterly mysterious.

Stephen Fry: super-human Twittering powers

I looked up Stephen Fry, a celebrated Twitterer famous (in part) for his many followers. As of today there are 666,355 of them. That is a lot!

But what really amazed me was how many Twitterers Stephen Fry is following. According to today’s statistics, he follows 54,877 other Twits!

How can Fry possibly find the time? Does he have a small army of assistant Twitterers to predigest Tweets that show up on his page – and report on the Tweets he really needs to know about?

Or is there a technological fix that enables Master Twitterers to read hundreds of thousands of Tweets per day?

Locating a Stash: Today's Trending Topic for the Twittering masses

This morning I noticed Find Marijuana has been a Trending Topic for several hours. After it reached No 1 my curiosity finally got the better of me.

I clicked the link to arrive at a page of seemingly random Twitterers, all tweeting away merrily about what a giggle it is that Find Marijuana has become a Trending Topic.

How in Twitter’s name did that happen? Is it a genuine expression of random global whim? Has a network of mischievous Twitterers conspired to bump the topic into the top ten?  Could it be a gigantic surveillance operation by the combined drugs squads of participating nations?

Desperately Seeking Rupert

From one twit to another...

More and more of my friends and associates have begun Twittering. They don’t ‘use Twitter’. They Twitter. When I realized this, I grasped they’re on to something big, like Google.

So in recent months, I’ve watched TV segments about Twittering, sat through an introductory Twitter audio-visual – and read Twitter analysis in the press.

Until next week, however, I’ve never actually Twittered myself. So far, next week hasn’t arrived.

I think I have a basic grasp of the Twitter concept, but I’m not sure. It seems too easy to be true – and too daft to be worth doing. But perhaps I haven’t really understood what it’s all about?

Tweets connect twits

If I’ve got it right, the idea is to say things, up to 140 characters long, about what you’re up to. You follow other peoples’ Tweets. They follow yours. Twitterers aren’t supposed to be too ‘heavy’. Keep it light! Little bits and pieces about what you’re up to – mixed with the occasional link and flash of inspiration.

Is that right?

If so, I’m really not sure why it might be worth sinking more hours each week I don’t have spare into yet another bottomless pit for screen-based attention. But perhaps it is?

Presumably once I sign up and start Twittering for real, nothing will ever be deleted from Twitter Central? The thought bothers me. What if I stuff up?