Felines Furever!

Guest Author Uncategorized

Our Guest Poster is none other than Kampong Palmer Trev, whose delightful remarks yesterday evening on his betters caught my eye. Trev (if he will forgive my informality) was kind enough to agree to the “appropriation” of his comment, and even more kindly supplied photographic evidence. Thank you, Trev, and may this be the first of many.

Cat Fotos

My neighbours are away for a long weekend of swimming competitions in Sydney – so I’m looking after their two cats and the two that own this place and consider me their maid. I really want my head read for feeding them ‘roo meat – all four now expect it.

Wally, aka Walter Furry-Griffen

“You can stick your Aldi canned muck … and we have had enough dry stuff, Trev”.

There are, of course, those who say that anthropomorphism is wrong (“No, darling, we are educated people who do not do that sort of thing. Animals are animals and we have no right to project human values. While we do believe in the brotherhood of man, it’s no reason, my dear, for you to associate with them – why else would we be sending you to that school? Now, eat your carob, sweetie, and before you go off for your music lesson, let me explain why when you are grown-up you should vote Green and have a Family Trust”).

Bugger ’em. Life is too short – and why have domestic animals if you can’t talk to them? Yes, lah, as in every other election I’ll be voting ALP.

Old Sporty (about 16 years old and built like Stalin crossed with a Yak fighter aircraft), from next door, is allegedly a Russian Blue cat. IMHO, the only Russian thing about him is his appetite – and it’s just as well I never have vodka in the house. I’d have visions of waking in the morning and finding Sporty reeling around the joint with a bottle in his paws, and meowing the “Volga Boat Song”. That black cat T-shirt on the linked post has some truth in it.

Sporty, the alleged Russian Blue

This is Canberra. Thick feathery winter doona onto bed today and a Chinese quilt on top – Ok, maybe should go under the doona (next time in China I’m going to buy one of those thick quilts from Shanghai filled with spun silk). If I find any trace of cat fur or a dug-out coriander seedling in the next 2 days, I’ll be invoking the ‘Kampong Palmer Internal Security Act’. Punishment without trial – do not pass go and do not collect $100. One swift swipe of the rotan (in this case, a whippy bamboo tomato stake). And to think I have a cat called Harry – named after Lee Kuan Yew (LKY). The uppitty little tabby bastard (“Singapore Tiger”) now wakes me up in the morning for the sake of it. It used to be in order to be fed. He must be about 5 or 6 years old now – in his prime. I’m still to discover if he has a law degree and a fondness for defamation litigation.

Cats – they probably taste good out of a very hot wok, with a bit of oyster sauce and a hint of ginger. You would be better off with a labrador as a pet. Then again, you could have an old black cat like the Tunku Jazz. A cat who thinks he is a labrador, or an old and rather benevolent Malaysian ex PM who lived long and had a fondness for slow racehorses, fast women and whisky. – Jazz even likes going for a walk and is always happy to see you when you arrive home. Jazz is my kind of moggie.

Tunku Jazz (left) and Harry (aka LKY – right) discussing armed neutrality

621 thoughts on “Felines Furever!”

  1. Been away for most of the day but here’s some of my thoughts on what’s been happening.

    Dodgy Dick’s undeclared farm and underpaid au pairs: people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones should they Dick? and all of the twitter Green hacks are trying to explain it away when if it was a Labor MP they would all be on the SS condemnation.

    AFP raid: I have very little patience with conspiracy theories but there are things that don’t add up. Firstly, who tipped off sky news about the raids and, as this is related to an NBN leak that appeared in fairfax media, why haven’t fairfax’s offices been raided as well?

  2. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    Unfortunately our ADSL has been down since late last night and with this useless iPad and a mobile hotspot I will be unable to produce the curation this mornin.
    Sorry folks!

    • An unfortunate loss, BK. You don’t suppose the AFP wallopers have got to your ADSL?

      The incident of the night has actually raised that question in another sense. Was the aim of buggering up the NBN a cunning way of restricting the growth of social media, where the truth is mostly emerging these days?

      Anyways, no apologies needed because you provide such a sterling service for the rest of us looking for nuggets of truth between all the froth of MSM.

      Enjoy your small respite!

  3. BK

    I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m a bit over all the news at the moment. If there were at least some semblance of balance it maybe worth it, so enjoy your break. I’ll keep up with twitter and post anything I think may be relevant.

  4. Hey folks! Our ADSL has just chooffed into action so I’ll get started on the Dawn Patrol

  5. So now every parrot in the pet shop is squawking about their slow internet speeds.

    Well done AFP!
    Well done Malcolm!
    And well done to Soapy Brandis and Crackers Keenan, who must have ordered last night’s schemozzle.

    If Labor is not bringing forward the release of their communications policy then they should be.

  6. Every other parrot is squawking about the blown-out cost of Malcolm’s NBN mess.

    Is this what Malcolm hoped to achieve?

  7. I think this “raid” is part of a wider strategy. Pyne says the AFP. acted without their (the govt’) instructions..that would make the AFP. a “rogue” agency…I would understand they have the power to act independently in the case of national security risk, but THIS..?

    We saw how quickly and thoroughly Duncan Storrar was attacked and now we see ALP. staffers “attacked”…when there is just a sniff of opposition..so I would say we can expect more as this govt AND it’s “affiliated agencies” cannot really afford to lose this election.

    • Why would anyone believe anything Pyne said? In his case, you just believe the opposite of whatever comes out of his mouth.

    • One would have thought that Turnbull would have avoided the topic of the NBN during the election campaign at all cost. It can only damage him, it seems to me.

  11. Apologies again for the absence of the Dawn Patrol today. Our internet comes on for one minute and then falls out for 30.
    Grrr!!!

  12. Wixxyleaks reminds us of an AFP raid during the 2013 election, neatly timed to coincide with Abbott’s appearance at the NPC.

    Last election a raid was not only carried out during an election campaign, it appeared to be choreographed to occur during the Opposition Leaders campaign launch at the National Press Club.

    The opposition leader at the time was Tony Abbott, and the raid was on the electorate office and home of Craig Thomson, when he was arrested for charges he was later found Not Guilty of for the most part.

    Victorian Police were seen relaxing and killing time at their hotel where they had stayed overnight. Despite hanging around the Central Coast all morning, by “sheer chance” they actually raided Thomson’s office and made the arrest during Abbott’s speech. After a nod from a staffer Abbott broke the news of the raid to the nations press with a smirk on his face during his campaign launch.

    Some might call these events coincidence, I have my doubts.

    Just as I’m sure the film crews that were at the Conroy raid and Thomson’s arrest were only passing by at the time by complete coincidence

    http://wixxyleaks.com/plans-the-coalition-plan-is-not-one-for-the-country/

  17. Oh Gawd – here we go again.

    After much searching Bananas managed to find a sort-of Aussie on the lost Egypt Air plane.

  19. I’ll bet at least one of the AFP that raided the office probably “obtained” some campaigning documents as “evidence” to hand to his L/NP mates afterward.

    Everyone involved in this raid is a deplorable authoritarian pig.

  20. Had a lot of fun on the various twitter hashtags about the AFP raid. The most interesting theory is that Abbott, the AFP’s old barracks pal, might’ve handled the political bits. Certainly the attendance of SKY and the Murdoch troops encourages that theory. I didn’t think Abbott would be that clever, but maybe with a bit of help from Peta…

    AFP’s Colvin has denied any political involvement but you can take that with a grain of salt. Ever since Howard sorted out Mick what’s-his-name they’ve been at the beck and call of the Libs. And the way they’ve stone-walled on taking any action on Ashbygate over several years, contrasted with them acting promptly against Slipper pretty well confirms it.

    It is just possible that the ministry has distanced itself a little from the raid to insulate themselves from any backlash. But they’d have known for sure, if only to discuss how to handle the politics. And I’m pretty sure that either Soapy as A-G or Crackers as Minister for Justice would’ve had to authorise it.

  21. Whatever documents were seized have been sealed. Mark Dreyfus claimed parliamentary privilege because Conroy was on the NBN committee, so they are of no use to the aFP now.

    I wouldn’t be reading any plot to steal Labor campaign material into this. Whatever policies and plans Labor might have are hardly top secret.

    The big issue, really, is who leaked to the media. Camera crews were with the AFP, or waiting for them to arrive. That’s the big blow-up from all this.

    Either the AFP leaks like a sieve, or someone in government, despite all the ‘we knew nuffink about this raid’ rubbish, told the media. THAT is the issue.

    • Yes, this Keystone Cops raid and melodrama would be a perfect opportunity to highlight both the Trubull-Abbott savaging of a major infrastructure project, as well as relaunch their readjusted NBN program.

      And oh what karma that the man responsible for our current appalling broadband mess is now PM and answerable to the voters.

    • That was a typo, but perhaps a good one. “Trubull” suits very nicely.

  22. I’ve never bought into this ‘Abbott bunked with the AFP so he had influence’ business. It’s just nonsense.

    The AFP academy, where Abbott stayed, has quarters that can be used by politicians or anyone else who needs them. Security is easier to arrange there than it would be at a hotel. It’s not a bunk with the cadets, it’s not a spartan room with just a bed and a chair, it’s a proper flat. Julia Gillard once used it while she was PM. No-one has ever accused her of colluding with the AFP because of that.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-opts-for-modest-lodgings-20130915-2tsfw.html

    If Abbott had or still has any influence it’s got nothing to do with his sleeping arrangements and everything to do with Coalition governments politicising the AFP.

    • Leone…when you are barracking for your fav’ team..you never let “truth” get in the way of a good story.

    • Making up crap and passing on the nonsense that comes up all the time on Twitter will eventually come back and bite your team in the bum, no matter how much fun it might seem at the time.

      Remember how cross we all were when the MSM made up baseless crap about Julia Gillard?

  24. I’m starting to think the only objective for the raids was to create bad press for the ALP. I don’t think they were after anything, or intend to prosecute anybody. They’re just attempting to create uncertainty and suspicion around the ALP and that’s all.

    Of course it was ham-fisted, and of course the Liberals won’t be making any comments beyond the “Oh really? We knew nothing about it” variety. They just wanted the narrative switched and the momentum stalled. Pure kabuki. And they even planned to have a news team on hand so that there would be vision, otherwise it wouldn’t have nearly the same impact.

    The whole things reeks of “Oh my gawd, have you seen the internal polling?? DO SOMETHING! NOW!” And it’s all so typically short-term-thinking that they haven’t apprehended that Liberal figures will be on the back foot over it for most the election campaign. Minister already regarded with suspicion are going to have to close down pressers and refuse to answer questions. That’ll be a good look for them.

    • Everything they do seems to be a reaction to dismal polling. Chhoks with heads cut off keeps coming to mind.

      This time they really, really stuffed things up.

      Everyone is now looking at the cost blowout in Turnbull’s NBN, and the utter balls-up Mr ‘I invented the internet’ has made of it.

      I’m really hoping Labor leaps in with their communications policy ASAP now.

  25. Part of an interview with Shorten –

    Q: Are you saying that government agencies are politically compromised by virtue of being appointed by the government?

    Bill Shorten:

    I am saying Mr Turnbull is politically compromised by the poor performance of the NBN.

    Q: Are you saying the government has lent on the AFP to orchestrate these raids to throw your campaign off the rails?

    Bill Shorten:

    I’m saying that this is the Turnbull government embarrassed about the last 3 years of NBN – and who was the key minister in charge of the NBN for most of the last 3 years? None other than Malcolm Turnbull.

    This is about an arm of the government, the NBN, seeking an investigation to shut down the truth. Why is it that this government doesn’t want Australians to know information about the cost blowouts of the NBN? Why is it this government doesn’t want Australians to know that under Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership Australia has slipped from 30th position in the world to 60th? Why is it that Malcolm Turnbull is so determined to stop Australians finding out the truth or the media being able to publish the truth?

    Q: The level of the imputation you’re making here – drawing the government into this police action?

    Bill Shorten:

    Well, let’s be clear. The police have said that the NBN have asked them to launch this investigation last December. And let’s talk about the NBN. I don’t think Australia’s going to fall for the idea that the NBN lives on a different planet to Malcolm Turnbull. Malcolm Turnbull would have the happy snaps and the photos and the selfies and all the rest of the razzmatazz with the NBN. The NBN has two shareholder minister directors sitting on their board. The board is appointed by the government. It is funded by the government.

    Let’s be really clear about this. This is the Turnbull government embarrassed by the lack of performance by NBN, launching an investigation designed to go after the whistleblowers. If the government’s got nothing to hide, if the NBN is the success story that they say it is, why on earth are they going to such lengths to discourage the publication of the truth?

    Q: In that conversation did you convey any concerns about the timing of these raids given the election campaign and would you have appreciated prior – some prior warning from the AFP about them?

    Malcolm Turnbull:

    First of all, the commissioner tried to ring me at 4:02. I missed his call. I saw I had a missed call from him. I rang him at 5:00 or 4:55, thereabouts. We spoke for one minute. He indicated the fact that the AFP were going to visit the Senator’s office and that was the extent of the conversation.

    And I will not ever interfere with a police investigation and if I had asked some of the matters you were going to it wouldn’t have been appropriate for me to do.

    I will also make clear, Mr Turnbull has said that somehow Labor’s questioning the integrity of the AFP, I’m questioning Malcolm Turnbull’s integrity. We know what this is all about. This is about the right of the public to know and the media to publish. I believe that we need to get to the truth of what’s really happening in the NBN. I understand Mr Turnbull’s embarrassment that he doesn’t want the truth out, but I believe in an Australia where the media can publish, where journalists can do their investigations without fear or favour.

    That’s what we’re fighting for here

    There’s more –
    http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2016/may/20/australian-election-2016-afp-raid-labor-offices-over-nbn-leak-politics-live

    • Waffles and his crew can deny till they are blue in the face

      Q: Are you alleging the government has directly requested or asked NBN Co. To instigate this investigation? If that is what you are alleging do you have a shred of evidence to back it up?

      Bill Shorten:

      First of all I don’t accept the assumption of your question that there is the government and the NBN Co. You are making out that they’re two complete strangers. The truth of the matter is that NBN Co is a creature of government. And it is inconceivable that NBN Co would launch a police investigation and not make it clear to the owner of the company what is happening.

  29. Long piece on the raids from Josh Taylor, at Crikey.

    What you need to know about NBN raids — and why they could be good for Labor
    Why did the police suddenly raid a Senator’s office?

    The Australian Federal Police’s decision to raid the offices of former Labor communications minister Stephen Conroy and the home of a senior ALP staffer overnight has thrown the National Broadband Network directly into the 2016 election campaign for the first time.

    Late yesterday evening the Australian Federal Police raided offices in East Melbourne and a home in Brunswick as part of an execution of two warrants related to the investigation of a leak of sensitive documents from NBN.

    NBN referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police on December 3 last year, and it appears to be related to a leak, from late November, of a document outlining that Optus’ cable network — acquired by NBN as part of the so-called multi-technology mix — might be in worse condition than expected and NBN might need to roll out a new network in areas where the Optus cable network was in such poor condition.

    That document was first leaked to Fairfax, before being quickly trumpeted by opposition communications minister Jason Clare in a press release. A second leak was given to The Australian a week later, outlining that the cost to repair the legacy Telstra copper network for fibre-to-the-node services could be $640 million. Again, Clare issued a press release shortly after the news story was published. The leaked presentation in that release remained on Clare’s website this morning.

    The third damaging leak from NBN came in February, and it was leaked to Fairfax, which reported delays in NBN’s internal roll-out targets for fibre-to-the-node services. Yet another Clare release followed shortly after with a link to the document. This document is now no longer online.

    The fourth was given to Lateline in March, related to trials of fibre-to-the-distribution-point technology — believed to be the technology that would be a key component of Labor’s NBN policy.

    The warrant makes reference to stories in The Australian, the AFR, on the ABC, technology site Delimiter and in The Sydney Morning Herald and seeks access to emails, computers, phone records and official documents.

    As Crikey reported at the time, the leaks were highly damaging to NBN, and to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull — who was the communications minister for the majority of the past three years and spearheaded the controversial change in policy for the network from Labor’s 93% fibre-to-the-premises (FttP) to a mixture of FttP, fibre-to-the-node and cable.

    It’s unclear why the AFP waited more than six months from the first leak and two months since the most recent leak to conduct the raids on Conroy’s offices at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices in Melbourne and a staffer’s house — not to mention in the second week of an election campaign. The AFP this morning issued a press release claiming that its decision was “independent of government” and part of a “phased approach” the AFP had taken to the investigation:

    “The next phase of this investigation involves the examination and analysis of material collected during these search warrants. The federal government and opposition were appropriately notified and advised of operational activity regarding this matter after it commenced yesterday.”

    Crikey understands the timing has more to do with the AFP moving on preventing potential future leaks.

    The investigation is into whether there has been a breach of the Crimes Act by leaking documents of the Commonwealth.

    The two Labor staffers believed to be under investigation are Ryan Hamilton, Jason Clare’s media adviser, who is currently Labor’s campaign director, and Andrew Byrne, a policy adviser in Clare’s office, who used to work for Conroy. AFP officers left Byrne’s home at 5am today. The AFP confirmed that an NBN staffer was on site for the raids and was appointed as a constable assisting police during the raids.

    Crikey understands that more than a dozen NBN employees have been interviewed as part of the police investigation. AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin this morning refused to state whether metadata had been accessed as part of its investigation. NBN previously refused Crikey‘s freedom of information request into whether it had referred leaks to the AFP for investigation.

    Labor has argued that the documents in question are covered by parliamentary privilege because they are part of Conroy’s work on the Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network. Conroy often raised the leaked documents during committee hearings or when NBN appeared before Senate estimates hearings.

    AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin told journalists this morning that because parliamentary privilege had now been claimed, the documents were now sealed and it would be up to the Senate to decide whether the documents were subject to parliamentary privilege.

    This means, effectively, that the AFP cannot continue its investigation until after the election, when Parliament resumes.

    Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has also said the government needs to answer questions on whether it pressured NBN into referring the matter to the AFP for investigation. Coalition election spokesman Mathias Cormann ducked the question three times during interviews this morning. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he was only made aware of the investigation yesterday.

    Questions on whether other government ministers or staffers were aware of the investigation have so far gone unanswered by the Coalition’s campaign media team. NBN declined to comment.

    NBN CEO Bill Morrow told Crikey in March that he believed it was likely that the leaks were political.

    “Is this a function of someone who believes in one party or another and therefore wants to help them get back into office? I don’t know, but it would sure suggest that the volume going out near an election period that that’s more what this issue is than any sort of disgruntled nature,” he said. “I get the fact there are a lot of people who have a lot of belief systems, and I respect that. We have a policy when it is confidential, that you break that policy if you leak that sort of stuff, there’s some laws and some cases where you are breaking the law. We emphasise that.”

    He said that NBN had corporate security to try to ensure that leaked documents weren’t getting out.

    “And that’s all we are really doing to try and keep the attention and the awareness.”

    While the NBN has not been an election issue for quite a while, the AFP’s raids have put it front and centre. Labor is already making an issue of why the AFP raided Labor over this leak yet has not raided anyone else over the 20 or so leaks from the Coalition government over the past few years, including the leak of the draft defence white paper to The Australian. Colvin said that the AFP had not been selective in choosing which leaks to investigate.

    Colvin said that claims of political bias over the investigation of the leaks had been referred to the professional standards branch in the AFP for investigation

    • “Oh please, Brer Fox, please don’t throw me in the briar patch!”

    • Biggy’s complaining he has no Internet. I thought it was a gag, but he’s WA and I know they’ve been affected. I did say the upside was it was creating mountains of work for ASIO & AFP trawling through his metadata.

  33. Go on, Mesma, make my day!

    Julie Bishop’s office has brushed aside concerns raised by Liberal National party supporters about a $300 a head fundraiser to be held in a Brisbane restaurant owned by a convicted heroin trafficker with longstanding family links to the underworld.

    The foreign minister is billed as the special guest at the event next Tuesday at Mariosarti, owned by Daniel Milos, whose family history in the drug trade was widely reported when his brother Peter was murdered in 2014.

    http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/may/20/julie-bishops-office-dismisses-fears-over-event-at-restaurant-with-past-drug-links

  34. Aguirre

    I personally think it is to try and make Labor look like baddies. Only time will tell whom it hurts the most.

  38. Backburner

    The Australian Federal Police have executed two searches on ALP electoral offices over leaks relating to the National Broadband Network, with slow upload speeds allegedly forcing the officers to have to collect documents in person.

    While reports are still trickling in this morning, the AFP have claimed that the raids were in relation to the leaking of documents related to the underperformance of the NBN rollout – and while they would have loved to avoid a raid entirely, it was simply taking to long to sit around and wait for the files to upload.

    http://www.sbs.com.au/comedy/article/2016/05/20/slow-internet-forces-afp-collect-nbn-documents-person

  39. On the other hand, this afp raid couldn’t have been timed better, what with 5 states at the moment without internet, via telstra. Many people will be screaming today they can’t use their internet. 🙂

  40. Gravel,

    I certainly didn’t need an AFP raid and its consequent noisy outrage to tell me fraudband is as big a dud as the smarmy git himself. People around here have been complaining for months and I’m not the only one who has been expressing the desire to shove it down the git’s throat. Using the internet has become an exercise in frustration one only indulges in when it is absolutely necessary.

    • Waffles must have overlooked this little bit of trivia when he decided to go for an early election.

      Another day, another government stuff-up.

  42. My internet has been playing up but it was not my providers fault. I missed commenting on the incredible events over the last 36 hours.
    Who said pollyticks is boring?

  48. duck
    Shorter Cormann. “Jobs and Growth”.
    Longer Cormann. “Jobs and Growth. Jobs and Growth”.

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