Agmates

G’day Agmates, here is episode 1 (and may be the last) of Agmate TV.

Today -- The Victorian Fires Royal commission ‘Whitewash’ …  NSW Landholders revolt…  Turnbull & Asylum Seekers …  Peter Garrett drowned by dodgy data …  Rudd ‘Fair Work’ rough justice for our kids …  Obama Book …  Agmates E-traders.

Headlines:

• THE Victorian bushfires royal commission began its formal proceedings yesterday amid sharp criticism that victims had been denied adequate representation.

• A MEETING of angry landowners tonight at the Memorial Hall in the country town of Yass outside Canberra will throw the spotlight on another crisis for the beleaguered NSW Labor Government.

• MALCOLM Turnbull’s aggressive attack on the Rudd Government’s asylum policy has failed to boost his party’s stocks or his own flagging popularity, and a majority of Australians reject the Opposition Leader’s contention that tougher immigration laws would reduce asylum-seeker arrivals.

• Peter Garrett, on ABC1’s Lateline on April 6, has sea levels rising way over his head, aided and abetted by Tony Jones

• THE OECD has warned that the rollback of the Howard government’s Work Choices industrial relations laws may result in higher youth unemployment, as Kevin Rudd conceded for the first time that recession in Australia was inevitable.

Currently reading:

A “political biography that concentrates on the senator’s core values,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

The New York Times noted that “Mr. Obama’s new book, ‘The Audacity of Hope’ … is much more of a political document. Portions of the volume read like outtakes from a stump speech, and the bulk of it is devoted to laying out Mr. Obama’s policy positions on a host of issues, from education to health care to the war in Iraq”.

The Chicago Tribune credits the large crowds that gathered at book signings with influencing Obama’s decision to run for president.

Former presidential candidate Gary Hart describes the book as Obama’s “thesis submission” for the U.S. presidency: “It presents a man of relative youth yet maturity, a wise observer of the human condition, a figure who possesses perseverance and writing skills that have flashes of grandeur.”

Reviewer Michael Tomasky writes that it does not contain “boldly innovative policy prescriptions that will lead the Democrats out of their wilderness,” but does show Obama’s potential to “construct a new politics that is progressive but grounded in civic traditions that speak to a wider range of Americans.”

Currently working On:

Agmates E-trader - We are just finished a major upgrade of what we used to call or Agmate Business page. Agmates E-trader is now a unique, one of a kind fully functioned e-commerce ready web site for business. Businesses can be online and conducting e-commerce business within hours.

For a business to build and establish its own web site that has the power and features of their E-trader page would takes hundreds of thousands of dollars and at least 2 years development. Here are just some of the features:

1. Fully Search engine optimized. We reveal by video to our E-traders the ‘The Agmates SEO Secrets’. The video reveals how E-traders can get their business to the top of the search engine in less than 24 hours. Les than 1% of every web site ever build has made it to the 3rd page of a web search let alone number 1 on page 1, even after years of trying and tens of thousands of dollars spent.

2. Fully E-Commerce ready. E-traders can run unlimited Classifed  -- Free. E-traders can conduct unlimited online auctions Free. E-traders can operate a virtual online store with unlimited Buy Now items -- Free.

3. Direct online Commerce -- Sell direct from your E-trader page, using Buy Now. Seller pays you direct and you dispatch the goods after payment.

4. All E-traders classifieds, Auctions and Buy Now items appear on their E-trader page underneath their fixed Gallery photos. The E-trader page is paginated to handle 1,000’s of listings from the E-trader.

5. E-traders are now featured on every page of the site including the Agmates News through the E-trader tab.

6. E-traders get access to the latest internet marketing information and education through the Agmates E-marketing News letter. -- Free.

7. E-traders can now pay their annual subscription by monthly instalment to help with their cash flow.

and much more ….

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END

Have Your Say! P.S. Be kind … it is live TV and it is the first broadcast.

We want our Agmates to know what is really going on in the world. Most of the time it is not what we are spun by our mainstream media.

Next week Prime Minister Kevin Rudd heads off to the G-20 meeting in ‘lock-step’ with US president Barack Obama. There they will join British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Our media is trying to convince us that the strategy that the USA, Australia and Great Britain are pursuing is working. That strategy is:

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“spend your way out of recession and borrow your way out of debt.”

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Below is British MEP Daniel Hannan addressing an EU meeting two days ago. By the looks of this video the EU thinks about as much of the Obama, Rudd, Brown plan as we do.

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Wow -- Don’t be so diplomatic Daniel, tell us what you really think.

Rudd & Obama’s meeting in the USA yesterday was hailed as a ‘meeting of the minds’. Note, it did not say ‘great minds’.

Have your say!

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is in the US. He and US president Barack Obama are busy congratulating each other on their debt laden stimulus packages and are urging the world in the lead up to next weeks G-20 summit to follow suit.

But the EU and now Britain are not so convinced the US & Australian policy is the way to go.

On the eve of the G-20 summit the Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King has told British PM Gordon Brown to stop spending.

In a move that puts him at odds with British PM Brown King warns Britain cannot afford a second round of economic stimulus.

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“It would be sensible to be cautious about going further in using discretionary measures to expand the size of those deficits.”

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EU countries lead by the worlds leading export nation Germany have flatly rejected calls for a further massive stimulus package.

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The London (G-20) meeting risks being overshadowed by a dispute between Europe and the US over public spending. A series of leaders at an EU summit led by Angela Merkel, the Germany Chancellor, refused yesterday to go along with American calls for greater borrowing and spending by Europe.

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Meanwhile US treasury secretary Tim Geithner’s career is riding on the outcome of the US$1 trillion toxic debt buyback. After printing US$1 Trillion out of thin air last week, the Obama administration is trying to lure private investors into the rescue deal.

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The Obama administration has concluded it needs the private sectorto play a central role in fixing the economy. But according to The Wall Street Journal, weeks of searing criticism by politicians and the public had left bankers leery of working with the US Government.

Embattled US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner unveiled the massive plan allowing private investors to buy toxic US mortgages using funds from the US taxpayer at a rate of $US6 of cheap government debt against $US1 in equity.

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Leading Economist and investor Marc Faber believes that the USA will eventually default on its debts. The only thing that will save it is hyperinflation. He says they have adopted the Zimbabwe model -- If something goes wrong just Print.

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Have Your Say!

I contacted one of our USA Agmates Joel Gill to ask him what rural & regional Americans were thinking / feeling about the Obama Presidency.

We have seen a huge amount of optimism expressed by the mainstream media, bordering on hype, so I wanted to know what grass roots Americans were feeling / expecting.

Agmate Joel Gill Speaking at last weekends 10th Annual R-CALF Confernce

Joel writes:
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These views reflect the input collected at the R-CALF USA 10 nth annual convention held this past weekend in Rapid City, SD. It’s not a “scientific” poll, but it does reflect completely the feelings in the hearts and souls of those US citizens who are hopeful for a change to the failed policies of the past.

USA Farmers & Ranchers at Last weekends 10th Annual Conference R-CALF USA Conference

The United States agricultural community mostly welcomes the appointment of Tom Vilsack as USDA Secretary. Even though he is a former Governor (chief executive) of the State of Iowa (a major farming State in the US)

Mr. Vilsack is actually an attorney (barrister) with extensive ties to the Monsanto company as well as several other companies responsible for genetically modified crops (crops not generally met with favor ability anywhere in the world.

Our new President Obama has put forth a very promising agricultural agenda that could restore profitability to independent producers across the United States if implemented as outlined. In as much as the Secretary of Agriculture serves at the pleasure of the President and could be replaced at any time, Mr Vilsack is being given an optimistic “pass” on his former positions while the citizens of the US wait to see if our new President lives up to his promises.

The active phrase is truly “hope springs eternal” as we await the unfolding of future events. If President Obama and by extension, Sec. Vilsack will work to

• restore competition by asking for a ban on packer (abattoir) ownership of cattle that harms regular producers by reducing market access,
• implement a meaningful Country of Origin law,
• a meaningful interstate shipment of state inspected meat program (currently if meat is not federally inspected, it cannot be shipped across state lines but it is safe enough to be sold within the borders of that state)
• and the stopping of NAIS …, the US’s NLIS counterpart,

independent producers across the US will rejoice.

If not, rural America will question, Is President Obama sincere or will he bow and eventually succumb to the power, money, and influence of those companies interested only in profits, not the well being of any nation?

Your Ag Mate on the other side of the big pond, Joel.

END

Update

In todays Australian Media -  US cracks down on farm payments

The United States’ new Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, has ordered tougher scrutiny of American farm subsidies.

Have Your say!

Barack Obama Inauguration Speech

If you have not seen the entire Obama inauguration speech you should. It is inspirational.  I’m hoping our own Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will take a leaf out of the Obama book.

Barack Obama in my mind has the potential to be a once in a  lifetime, world leader.

At the end of the video a pop up will appear “Click here to watch part 2″. Click on that to see the second half.

Agmates Video Gallery

Have your say!

National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) President David Crombie [pictured] writes:

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GLOBAL trade reform probably isn’t occupying much of the new President’s thoughts, but it should (be).

With world economies in freefall and the international food crisis ever-present, leading the charge in trade reform to open up markets could be a key element to solve many of his biggest Presidential headaches.

The Doha Round of trade reform has repeatedly broken down due to a lack of political will of key players, including the European Union, the United States and big developing countries such as India.

Such inaction this week opened the door for the EU to blunder its way into the global meltdown by re-instating export subsidies for its dairy producers.

It’s a retrograde, knee-jerk move that makes a mockery of their G20 rhetoric late last year to fast-track trade liberalisation, and only compounds the garbled economic signals besetting world markets as countries attempt to correct the economic downturn.

President Obama has a unique opportunity to do what no other US leader has ever done… lead the way on trade reform. In doing so, drag delinquent nations back to the World Trade Organisation to wrap up Doha and eliminate trade distorting barriers once-and-for-all.

Breaking down the artificial barriers of tariffs, subsidies and quotas would be a fillip to economies the world over – including the floundering US economy – giving new impetus to world markets.

At the same time, it would enable farmers across the world to appropriately respond to, and meet, the global food shortage. Ironically, in the current world trade environment, farmers who can produce more food are actively prevented from doing so due to antiquated policies steeped in protectionist dogma.

Like many people watching the inauguration this morning and considering the unprecedented problems the new President faces, I thought “who’d want to be Barack Obama?”

Then I thought again, this President – like no world leader before him – has the opportunity, and mandate, to make sweeping changes.

President Obama has the chance few have had. The expectations are enormous, but so are the rewards. We would strongly urge the new President to be bold and lead from the front on trade reform.

END.

Source

Professor Bob Carter is an adjunct professor of geology at James Cook University and studies ancient climate change.He tells us that the world is cooling:

THE National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that October in the US was marked by 63 record snowfalls and 115 lowest-ever temperatures.

Over the past few years, similar signs of colder than usual weather have been recorded all over the world, causing many people to question the still fashionable, but now long outdated, global warming alarmism. Yet individual weather events or spells, whether warmings or coolings, tell us nothing necessarily about true climate change.

Nonetheless, by coincidence, growing recognition of a threat of climatic cooling is correct, because since the turn of the 21st century all real world, long-term climate indicators have turned downwards.

Global atmospheric temperature reached a peak in 1998, has not warmed since 1995 and, has been cooling since 2002. Some people, still under the thrall of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change’s disproved projections of warming, seem surprised by this cooling trend, even to the point of denying it. But why?

Despite this incoming US President Barack Obama is ready to meet the Global warming crisis head on:

“Let us resolve that all nations will act with seriousness of purpose, and reduce the carbon we send into our atmosphere. This is the moment to give our children back their future. “- Barack Obama, Berlin Germany, July 24, 2008

“My presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process.” – President-elect Barack Obama, Global Climate Summit, November 18, 2008 (video).

“The time for delay is over. The time for denial is over. We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now, that this is a matter of urgency and national security and it has to be dealt with in a serious way. That’s what I intend my administration to do.” Barack Obama, after meeting former Vice President Al Gore in Chicago, December 9, 2008.

All of this is of course music to Australian prime Minister Kevin Rudds ears. As Bob Carter puts it.

Introduction of a carbon dioxide tax to prevent (imaginary) warming, euphemistically disguised as an emissions trading scheme, is a politician’s, ticket clipper’s and mafia chief’s dream.

All will welcome a new source of income based on an invisible, colourless, odourless, tasteless and often unmeasurable gas. No commodity changes hands during its trading, and should carbon dioxide emissions actually decrease because of the existence of a carbon dioxide market (which is highly unlikely), the odds are that it will have no measurable effect on climate anyway.

Nonetheless, the glistening pot of gold which beckons to be mined from the innocent public is proving nigh irresistible, and it is going to need a strong taxpayer revolt to stop it in Australia.

The present global financial crisis should be inducing politicians not to squander money on non-solutions to non-problems. Yet to support their plans for emissions taxation Western governments, including ours, are still propagating scientifically juvenile greenhouse propaganda underpinned only by circumstantial evidence and GCM computer gamesmanship.

Perhaps a reassessment will finally occur when two-metre thick ice develops again on Father Thames at London Bridge, or when cooling causes massive crop failure in the world’s granary belts.

The emissions trading scheme will be the greatest tax generator any federal government has ever introduced. Try and talk them out of that idea.

Have your say!

All major metropolitan newspapers are running hot with Obama coverage in the lead up to this weeks Presidential inauguration.

News Limited’s Brisbane Courier Mail ran this as a half page news piece in its Sunday mail on page 18. Sunday 18th Jan 2008.

Most of you in QLD probably saw it and were like me mightily impressed that the new first couple would be furnishing the White House with IKEA goods.

In fact I joked to my princess that it reminded me of the Beverly Hillbilly's .

The Courier Mail just could not work out why the Swedish retail giant would not have delivered the items for the Obama’s, but as they wrote -

“it perfectly illustrates the sweeping changes in America this week as the US prepares for the inauguration of the 44th President, Barack Obama.”

This was so cute that we went online to the Courier Mails site to find it and bring it to the Agmates readers attention. Trouble was it was not anywhere to be found.

So the princess Googled IKEA Presidential Limo

Look what we found – very first entry of many

IKEA Presidential Motorcade Travels D.C.

16:59 EST Wednesday, January 14, 2009

‘EMBRACE CHANGE ‘09′ COMES TO NATION’S CAPITAL -

Mock Motorcade with IKEA Furnishings Strapped to Roof Simulates Change Moving into White House

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ –

WHAT: As a part of the IKEA “Embrace Change ‘09″ campaign and representative of the philosophy that “Change Begins at Home,”

IKEA has created a mock Presidential Motorcade
with IKEA boxes strapped to the roof and furniture
protruding from the trunk of a limo and two Suburbans.
Beginning at the Lincoln Memorial on January 15th at
10 a.m., the motorcade will travel around the D.C. Metro
area on Thursday and Friday, passing more than 40 of the
most historical sites in Washington, D.C.

If you’re like me, you are a hardened cynic when it comes to what we read in the newspapers, but I just could not believe my eyes.

I could be very cynical and say that the story was a tremendous FREE plug for IKEA who just happen to take regular full page ads in the Courier Mail. But I won’t.

There is no way that the Courier Mail could NOT have known that this whole article was a complete fabrication. The article is not attributed to any reporter so the responsibility has to go to the news editor.

As far as rating on our Agmates Bullshit scale 10/10,  an absolute howler. Next time you read the Courier Mail – just remember, you are reading an absolute rag.

Have Your say.

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Does anybody else struggle to comprehend this. The USA government is mobilizing a small army to make sure some nutter does not assassinate Barack Obama, the most popular President Elect ever.

As many as 2 million people — double the number for any previous inauguration — are expected to fill the Mall on Jan. 20 to witness the swearing-in of the first black president.

While officials said they haven’t received any credible threats, they have prepared an unprecedented security effort. It will be overseen by the U.S. Secret Service and will include 7,500 active-duty soldiers, 10,000 National Guard troops and 25,000 law-enforcement officers, security officials said.

Well maybe they should be a little concerned:

Man Charged With Threatening Obama On Website:

Authorities on Friday arrested a U.S. man on suspicion of threatening to kill President-elect Barack Obama based on statements he posted on a website about UFOs and aliens, the Justice Department said.

White supremacists watched in lead up to Obama administration:

The inauguration of the nation’s first minority president increases any potential threat, “particularly stemming from individuals on the extremist fringe of the white supremacist movement,” said a recent intelligence assessment by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.

Bloody hell, who would want to live in such a scary place? Give me our laid back Australian lifestyle any day.

Have Your say.

Either I or James Hansen has completely lost our minds.

President Has 4 Years To Save Earth

Barack Obama has only four years to save the world. That is the stark assessment of Nasa scientist and leading climate expert Jim Hansen who last week warned only urgent action by the new president could halt the devastating climate change that now threatens Earth. Crucially, that action will have to be taken within Obama’s first administration, he added.

Soaring carbon emissions are already causing ice-cap melting and threaten to trigger global flooding, widespread species loss and major disruptions of weather patterns in the near future. “We cannot afford to put off change any longer,” said Hansen. “We have to get on a new path within this new administration. We have only four years left for Obama to set an example to the rest of the world. America must take the lead.”

However, Hansen said feedbacks in the climate system are already accelerating ice melt and are threatening to lead to the collapse of ice sheets. Sea-level rises will therefore be far greater – a claim backed last week by a group of British, Danish and Finnish scientists who said studies of past variations in climate indicate that a far more likely figure for sea-level rise will be about 1.4 metres, enough to cause devastating flooding of many of the world’s major cities and of low-lying areas of Holland, Bangladesh and other nations.

Time will tell ifs it me or Hansen who’s barking mad – just 4 years in fact. I’m feeling pretty good. As my mum use to say,

“the whole worlds mad except thee and me, and I’m not real sure about Thee.”

Have your Say.