WHICH WITCH: The sad truth behind the fake name of Greens Senator-Elect Lee "Rhiannon"

NSW Greens Senator-Elect Lee Rhiannon changed her surname from her married name O’Gorman to “Rhiannon” in honour of a Welsh “witch” warrior.

The “witch” – commemorated in a hit Fleetwood Mac song – is a well-known figure in Welsh mythology.

The revelations confirm fears at the highest level in the Greens party that the Senator-Elect. a domineering figure and numbers-boss in their NSW branch is a troubled and extreme character who will not easily be turned on issues like the Greens boycott of Israel and other mad policies that have nothing to do with the environment like shutting zoos, imposing death taxes and taking an axe to independent schools.

The Greens party’s aging leader Senator Bob Brown has been trying to publicly shame her into silence but party insiders are saying to all who listen that this is just the beginning of an epic struggle between Brown, the many young dilettantes on his staff, “blue-Greens” and those who like “Rhiannon” come from the extreme-left part of politics that like the extreme-right has been a historical safe-haven for anti-Semitic bigotry.

Choosing the name of a witch – whether honoured in verse or not – is curious conduct indeed, even by the occasionally eccentric standards displayed by Greens party militants.

This week, founders of the Greens have told the press they are worried the party has strayed into becoming an ultra-left movement and is neglecting environmental protection.

“Rhiannon” might have been prompted to adopt a false name after abandoning her former married name because her parents Bill and Freda Brown are infamous Stalinist communists who supported the former Soviet Union’s worst atrocities.

The Senator-Elect has been trying to scrub their memory clean despite not being willing to bear their name. The wonderful Gerard Henderson who doesn’t let political extremists forget their past chronicled:

On 28 July the Sydney Morning Herald carried a letter from Ms Rhiannon in which she wrote, inter alia:

Neither my parents nor I were Stalinists.  The crimes committed under Stalin were horrific and I and Greens members certainly condemn them. For the record I joined the 1968 protest against the invasion of Czechoslovakia.

What a load of tripe. And now for some facts:

Bill Brown (1917-1992) joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1940.  Freda Brown (1919-2009) joined the CPA in 1936.  During this period one or more of the Browns – usually both – supported the following acts of the leadership of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, headed by the totalitarian dictator Josef Stalin.

â–  The Forced Famine in Ukraine
â–  The purges and show trials of the 1930s
â–  The Nazi Soviet Pact of 1939-1941, which effectively commenced the Second World War following the decision reached by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and communist dictator Josef Stalin to divide Eastern Europe between the Soviet Union and Germany.
â–  The crushing of Eastern Europe by the Red Army after the Second World War and the establishment of totalitarian Soviet satellites in the Baltic States, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany and Romania.
■ The suppression of workers’ uprisings in East Germany and Poland in the early 1950s.
■ The anti-semitic “Doctors’ Plot” of the early 1950s which was instigated by Stalin.

Josef Stalin died in 1953. Some of his crimes were denounced by his replacement Nikita Khrushchev in 1956.  But until at least 1956, contrary to Lee Rhiannon’s claim, all communists were Stalinists – and all Stalinists were communists.  This included Mr and Mrs Brown who were to have a lovely daughter named Lee.

In any event, the Browns did not denounce Stalin or his heirs in 1956.  Based on the “whateverist principle” – meaning that good communists followed whatever dictator was in charge in Moscow – the Browns supported the Soviet Union’s invasion of both Hungary (in 1956) and Czechoslovakia (in 1968). When the CPA opposed Moscow’s suppression of what was called the Prague Spring in 1968, the Browns quit the CPA and joined the Socialist Party of Australia (SPA) which received funds from Moscow.

And what about Lee Rhiannon (nee Brown)?  Born in 1951, Lee joined the CPA as a teenager and left the party in 1970/71 with her parents – in protest at the CPA’s opposition to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia.  She joined the SPA – the continuing Stalinists – which supported the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia.

In short, Bill Brown and Freda Brown were Stalinists – without question.  And Lee Brown supported the Stalinists who backed Moscow’s suppression of the Prague Spring – without question.  A “little bird” has advised MWD that – when named Lee O’Gorman – Ms Rhiannon edited the SPA’s journal Survey.  Apparently, Lee Brown/O’Gorman/Rhiannon edited Survey during its final years – the magazine went out of business as a consequence of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

All good things must come to an end.

But sadly for the Greens party, this “Rhiannon” nightmare is just beginning. The witch is not dead, she’s just about to start her six-year flight of fancy.

TOTALLY ROYALLED: VEXNEWS opens London bureau in time for Royal Wedding

In a crazy experiment that will no doubt plumb new depths of taste and good judgment, VEXNEWS has established a London bureau to ensure the highest quality of steamy coverage of the forthcoming Royal Wedding and possibly beyond.

Our newly appointed and remarkably poorly paid London correspondent David Saunderson will be filing regular – and possibly disturbing – reports and pics from London during Royal Wedding mania over the next month. We have also offered the fearless investigative journalist a bounty for the most tacky Royal Wedding souvenir and also for pictures at his local Maccas of the apparently increasingly corpulent Aussie exile in a dirty-old-man overcoat Crikey’s Guy (pronounced ‘Gee’) Rundle, a London-based Marxist blogger whose vigorous attacks on and repeated identifying of the alleged victims of the alleged rapist publisher Julian Assange could perhaps entitle him to high office in the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Grunge-meister Rundle has little connection with matters regal unless you count his fine collection of Prince Alberts so VEXNEWS readers can really look forward to a broad range of reporting from one of the world’s most exciting cities.

When not hunting down ‘Gee’ Rundle, our intrepid Saunderson – formerly an employee of internationally renowned Geelong Advertiser before going to a series of ever more spectacular election wins on the Geelong council – will bring an enlightened sensibility to Royal Wedding coverage touched only occasionally by the cynicism built up over years in the dreary Addy newsroom and Geelong clowncil chamber.

As a pre-game warm-up, Saunderson has already been reporting on matters of moment relating to the Royal Wedding to his adoring followers on his own site which we demanded be called “A Piece of Work” but he has so far stubbornly persisted in calling the slightly less provocative “A Work in Progress.” Please make the newest member of the famed VEXNEWS Investigations Unit stable welcome.

And we also commend the fine work of the Nine Network whose Royal Wedding promo knows no peer.

NOT COOL: Fairfax Radio senior executive revels in nickname "Himmler"

Politically correct publisher Fairfax Media – proprietor of the nation’s most lefty preachy newspapers – also owns some ill-fitting yet tidily profitable radio stations, none more successful than the oldies’ fave Melbourne’s 3AW.

Despite a format that is largely unchanged since Derryn Hinch’s legendary flared-pants days working over the expense account and the frequently-soiled office couch, the talk-station continues to do well, getting record ratings in the most recent survey.

On that occasion, various Fairfax Radio chaps had a little tweet-celebration amidst air-punches, with one observing that their boss Clark Forbes was very pleased. The station’s official tweet account observed: “Clark Himmler just fainted” indicating his pleasure at how well they were all doing.

An informant thought that was an unusual appellation for 3AW’s long-time Programme Director Clark Forbes to bear, with subsequent inquiries revealing to the famed VEXNEWS Investigations Unit that Forbes actually delights in the troubling ‘nickname’ “Himmler.”

Heinrich Himmler was of course a Reichsfuhrer of the SS who – in that capacity – oversaw concentration camps responsible for the murdering of six million Jews.

Holocaust humour is not usually the stuff of watercooler jesting, even at Fairfax Radio…

Holocaust humour is not usually the stuff of watercooler jesting, even at Fairfax Radio which so often employs useless, venal, greedy, loud, red-faced, angry, menopausal blokes of a certain age often with an enormous sense of entitlement, a wallet stuffed with cash-for-comment loot and a four-hour-a-day workload who can usually thunder on for at least an hour without interruption about society’s bludgers and wastrels and crooks. In some cases on Fairfax Radio, it’s no doubt a case of it taking one to know one.

‘’Himmler’ though is a remarkably unpleasant nickname for anyone and one that Forbes has revelled in for years, sources tell VEXNEWS.

While adopting an infamous Nazi mass-murderers’ nickname is clearly in poor taste and potentially very offensive to Melbourne Holocaust survivors, sources close to Forbes insist it is a description of his feisty and assertive personal style not a reference to genocidal tendencies or his politics.

Politically, some think he is quite progressive by the asylum-seeker-hunting standards 3AW has aspired to maintain, although it is a pal

3AW employee – and son of former Treasurer Peter Costello who enjoyed close relations with Melbourne’s Jewish community – Seb Costello chirpily retweeted the “Clark Himmler” reference back on 29th of March.

Boys will be boys but VEXNEWS hears that there is much tut-tutting and naysaying about the Fairfax bunker relating to the 3AW folks’ “yobbish” behaviour more generally. They are an alien life-force in the lefty high-church of judgmental sanctimony at Media House, observers have explained.

BY GEORGE: PM chooses her Mr Wright

In a courageous political move, Prime Minister Gillard has somewhat unilaterally exercised a prerogative to appoint a remarkably obscure outsider to the party to run its national organisation as National Secretary. The lucky one, George Wright, currently the chief spinner for the National Australia Bank, apparently took some persuading before agreeing to take on the role.

He was second choice after the first one, the somewhat less obscure former PM Chief of Staff Amanda Lampe, was ruled out after revered Labor Right chieftain Joe de Bruyn said what everyone else was thinking about her candidacy. A newly designated mum of two, she apparently didn’t want the job but was willing to obey the PM’s marching orders should they arrive. Commendable loyalty.

PhD FROM THE RUDD ACADEMY
Wright’s pedigree is that he hails from the Finance Sector Union before going to the ACTU and being one of many who now claim credit for their Your Rights At Work campaign against WorkChoices. Wright is a graduate of the notoriously effective but occasionally counter-productive Rudd spin-machine. A good spinner never becomes the story.

He is considered to be especially close to self-anointed leadership aspirant Greg Combet, who is keenly aware that time is probably not on his side. Nothing wrong with a bit of ambition, we say. The PMO’s intervention on Wright’s behalf could well be seen as a pivotal moment in Combet’s progression. “They are political soul-mates,” one insider remarked. Fascinating.

KA-CHING
Delighted with the appointment will be the ACTU’s favoured communications provider Essential Media who stand to make millions from having their chum George Wright large and in charge at the National Secretariat. He will be keen to bring them in to manage all aspects of the next election campaign and will be ditching long-time pollster John Utting and other non EMC types. EMC’s interesting polling on the public regard for Foreign Minister Rudd has recently raised eyebrows, with some wondering whether Rudd has dusted off his anti-Beazley playbook where Rudd had privately funded polling comparing his greatness with KB’s prolix ways. Greg Sheridan, wise in all things except his affection for the dreaded Rudd, was even quoting Essential’s silly Rudd-spruiking polling in a column today most assuredly inspired directly from the FORMIN from hell. Tsk. Tsk. How EMC deals with the straddling of such a barbed-wire fence is a question that could only be answered with many hours deep reflection after re-watching every episode of ‘Absolute Power‘ in a weekend marathon.

The Your Rights at Work campaigners think they ran an Obama-style campaign of absolute and unparalleled genius in 2007 and that they will be keen on lending some of that magic to the 2013 re-election bid. Some in the National Right are more than a little sceptical of this but many are keen to see it in action because it could be good for a laugh.

IT’S GUY FAULKS
Further potential amusement – of the gallows’ humour variety – could arise when John Faulkner’s proposed NSW-Right-busting moves come to be considered later in the year. Rules changes, national intervention and other carnal delights dreamed up by Albo, Faulks and others over high tea at the SCG will all apparently be enthusiastically embraced by the new party secretary designate.

While Wright is regarded as a bold choice, some say his role as a spinner for NAB’s bank fees and interest fee policy equips him well in the art of defending the indefensible.

Some see the carbon tax as approaching that level of difficulty although we suspect rolling back the tax and its compensations is going to be just as fraught with danger for the Coalition, emboldened as they currently are and buoyed by Newspolls.

CHINESE-STYLE DEMOCRACY SERVED PIPING HOT IN SUSSEX STREET
Nominations for the position are expected to open tomorrow with Mr Wright considered likely to be the only nominee, in the spirit of democratic openness encouraged by John Faulkner, presumably after a junket to Beijing.

The PM’s public declaration of support for him was clearly calculated to ensure that he was the only candidate and because “disunity is death” in politics as John Howard famously declared it seems likely the old trick will succeed.

The only reason the situation arose, of course, was that the dominant moderates made an absolute debacle of selecting and getting behind one candidate. The withdrawal of one, the failure to get behind another, a willingness to be seen to disagree, all contributed to what amounts to be a very, very sorry state of affairs for the folk who are meant to supply the pragmatic, “whatever it takes” smarts of Australia’s centre-left party. We honour many of them for being the best and brightest but this was not their finest hour. It’s fair to say also that the Prime Minister has also not been seen to honour the strong support given to her by Labor’s moderates. This seems most unwise to us.

Whether having a Prime Minister’s Office lackey in the Nat Sec job will help her party succeed in winning the next incredibly difficult federal election remains to be seen. Similar case studies in other jurisidictions are not encouraging. Many observers were left wondering this evening “Can a man with no base in the party be a successful party secretary?” They’re about to find out.

OINK: Greens hate Israel so much they oppose young Israeli troops being protected from bullets

Two Greens Senators have been exposed today as supporting Greens Senator-Elect Lee Rhiannon’s anti-Israel boycott policy.

One of them, Senator Scott Ludlam, even went so far as to oppose Australian supply to Israel of body armour (like bullet-proof vests) that is used to protect the lives of young Israeli soldiers from bullets and bombs. We’re unaware of such protective gear ever taking a life, they are designed to protect the lives of the twenty-somethings and teenagers who are obliged by law to join the army for usually three years to take part in defending the Jewish state from its many sworn enemies.

Ludlam’s view is so obviously disgusting that it’s little wonder he wore sunglasses to shield his eyes from view during his remarks.

Another, former Goth, SA Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, known to harbour leadership aspirations in the radical left party, was also pictured addressing a similar rally where attendees urged Israel’s destruction through boycotts.

At both rallies, the standard chant from the ultra-left group organisers, echoed through the crowd “Israel out of Palestine.” They don’t mean Israel out of Gaza (which it already is) or the West Bank (where similarly the Palestinian Authority run the place, not especially well), they mean Israel should be wiped from the map.

It’s particularly interesting that these two Senators, one of them (Ludlam) thought to be quite close with Brown, frequent and support such extremist gatherings. We note WA Labor Senator Louise Pratt attended too. It’s just as inappropriate, even though she wasn’t demanding boycotts. No wonder Labor in WA barely has a pulse if she’s the best they can do.

Brown recently condemned the few anti-Liberal loons who attended the No Carbon Tax rally in Canberra because of their foolish, nasty and misogynist signs directed at the Prime Minister.

And yet that didn’t stop him from employing a comedian as an economic adviser (oddly appropriate for the Greens, we know).

“Dolly Putin” (aka Naomi  Edwards) has an act where at one stage she brought a pig on-stage in her live show ‘Dolly goes down on the farm’. She called the pig “Amanda Vanstone” much to the amusement of her politically correct inner-city crowd who’d be convulsed in horror if any of the three little anti-Israel pigs of the Greens party were so described.

SWITCHING OFF LAMPE: Democratic uprising in ALP prompts re-think about National Secretary

Phil Coorey put the cat among the pigeons when he broke the interesting story this morning about Amanda Lampe, the former Gillard Chief of Staff, emerging as the next ALP National Secretary. A prestigious job that is regarded as being particularly tricky at the best of times, without looming Lefty demands for “reforms” championed by John Faulkner who wants to seize an historic opportunity to shaft his old foes in the NSW Right when they are at their weakest and the next federal election described politely as “challenging” even assuming the formidable conservative Liberal leader Tony Abbott is necked by the majority moderate forces and replaced by Joe Hockey, Julie Bishop or even a revived Malcolm Turnbull.

STRANGE DAYS INDEED
The Lampe story followed a day of high drama in National ALP circles as Queensland State Secretary Anthony Chisholm suddenly withdrew his name from consideration for reasons that seemed to primarily relate to the job being based in Canberra. What is it about boring company towns with nothing-to-do that alienate potential newcomers and their spouses?

Anyway, few could blame Chisholm at a personal level even though politically he’s managed to annoy some non-Queenslanders in the National Right caucus and the PMO who were willing to back him in and had publicly done so. Some were puzzled by an article that appeared in The Australian yesterday where he seemed to be planning on running the National Secretariat from Brisbane, while simultaneously running the Anna Bligh’s state campaign.  We’ve lived in Queensland before and entirely understand those who don’t wish to depart. God’s own country. Others thought it all a bit indulgent.

Meanwhile, in response to this vacuum created by Chisholm, the Prime Minister’s Office were putting up names left, right and centre before apparently settling on Amanda Lampe, who had given up the COS job to the well-regarded Ben Hubbard who along with the arrival of battle-tested Greens-busters from Victoria is already putting a bit of stick about including barbs aimed at the dominant Zimmer-frame faction of the Greens party, in the form of old man Bob Brown and his nasty old sister-comrade Senator Lee Rhiannon. Like good atheists, they have nothing to which they can look forward.

Lampe isn’t especially well-known in ALP moderate circles despite her previous high office at the PMO and history with NSW Right ministers for whom she was a long-time staffer. We suspect her absence of much active involvement in the party will count against her. It’s a valid criticism. Running the party is not for enthusiastic amateurs and know-all staffers in sharp suits. Lampe isn’t either but nor is she active within the ALP, that we are aware. Some say she doesn’t even want the job, with two new kids to supervise.

PATH TO HELL PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS
Far from being a hostile or ill-intentioned or factionally motivated scheme, those in the PM’s office talking her up have been trying to rescue the National Executive from the situation of not having a candidate. But not everyone has been pleased with the intervention, pointing to Victoria and WA as an example of what can go wrong when the party leader meddles too much in the composition of party administration at Head Office. Even with the best of intentions and personnel, this is seen not to work out very well, as a general rule.

The dominant view among many senior ALP figures is there needs to be some creative tension between the Leader’s office (who exist to promote the leader’s interest) and the Party which has its own interests too, which would only very rarely be different. One example cited is the 1996 election where Paul Keating was large and in charge as PM but due to meet the outer burbanites waiting for him with baseball bats who clashed wildly with then party boss Gary Gray over campaign spending.

Gray thought prudence was the order of the day. Keating thought every last dollar should begged, borrowed and stolen to be thrown at a multi-million dollar extravaganza of TVCs he’d personally crafted with images of his clocks, set to the tune of his favoured pianist. Or so the legend goes. With someone as great an eminence as PJK sometimes the stories do get embellished, sometimes for him, sometimes agin’ him. We’ll remain a fan forever, he inspired our interest in politics and of most Labor and Liberal folk we know, of a certain age. But love Keating or not, the point is the Leader’s interest can – ever so occasionally – diverge from the Party’s interest and as a result the party needs to appoint its own management, not delegate it to the Leader’s office, for the good of everyone, including the Leader.

TAILGUNNER JOE
The head of the SDA, Joe de Bruyn has since come out and said that he thought Amanda Lampe was from the Left and wasn’t a “suitable candidate.” A pretty tough criticism but many seemed relieved today that he made it. And it seems that she’s not really from the Left, she’s not really been active in any faction or at any level within the Party. Perhaps that counts as a qualification these days.

Not everyone agrees with de Bruyn in the national Right on a variety of issues but we’ve yet to encounter anyone who doesn’t respect his judgment or take him very seriously. He picks his moments pretty carefully and his intervention is widely presumed to be going – at the very least -  to have the effect of delaying a decision on the national secretary so that a wider group of candidates from moderate ranks can be considered. Contrary to common conception, there are plenty of good names from the party organisation in a number of states and many National Executive members are keen to have a good look at them, we hear, before making a crucial decision that will impact on the next election campaign and the internal dynamics of the party going forward.

The current Assistant Secretary Nick Martin is a slick and sneaky character, who hails from the Left. Sadly for him, his history of factional atrocity has caught up with him and the one thing the occasionally fractious Right appear to agree on is that the smooth operator won’t be being promoted because he’d get up to all manner of no good in the organisationally pivotal role.

Because he’s been around as the Assistant for a time, and spent much more time in Canberra than Karl Bitar, he has been carrying on as if he’s already in charge and he has some serious backing from the NSW Left who’d like him to wield the scalpel on their foes in the NSW Right by changing the Rules in an attempt to obliterate them. With the government fighting for its life, there is no time for that kind of indulgence and factional square-up, most think. Hands-on campaign experience on the ground and at a strategic level, a long history of active participation at senior level in the party organisation and a broad sympathy with Labor’s moderate majority are surely the criteria the National Executive will consider.

Heaven help them all, if they don’t.

"THESE JEWS": Greens MP Jamie Parker won't publicly deny anti-Semitic outburst

Newly elected NSW Greens MP Jamie Parker is reputedly a factional rival of anti-Israel bigot Senator-Elect Lee Rhiannon. A “blue-Green,” a small-businessman who was not beyond associating with car re-birthers and vitamin shonks and slagging off hard-working unionists as “union hacks”. While he once worked for Rhiannon, they hate each other, legend has it. He’s a slick, reformed fast-buck artist and she’s an old Stalinist with a bad haircut.

So the weekend’s revelations by AWU National Secretary Paul Howes that he’d been told by Parker that some seriously unpleasant patronising anti-Semitic hate-speech he’d been quoted as using by anti-Israel zealot Antony Loewenstein in a lefty online publication was something of a relief. It meant there was some hope that not all of the NSW Greens had been contaminated by views and attitudes that belong on the ethnic-hatred-promoting fringe of politics, on its far-left and far-right.

When we heard prior to the weekend that Parker was privately denying the remarks, we quickly updated our story and waited patiently for a public disavowal of his “these Jews” commentary.

It didn’t come.

Despite news of his election win – by 200 votes or so – over Verity Firth and a usually very active Twitter account, Jamie Parker has not denied Loewenstein’s quotes.

And VEXNEWS hears there’s a reason for that. Loewenstein kept an audio recording. And as a self-described “independent journalist” he won’t cop having his bona fides directly challenged in such a serious way. It seems Loewenstein as a solidarity gesture with his fellow extremist will tolerate Parker’s back-door denial but no more than that.

Howes took Parker at his word. He assumed he wouldn’t falsely deny the Loewenstein quotes.

It seems Howes was wrong. Seeing the world through an ALP prism leaves one desperately looking for moderates amidst the maddies and assuming that the person you’ve known for some time – and known to be committed to winning elections – mustn’t be the mad bigot presented in some silly article by a low-rent unemployable “journalist” in an online publication notable for never breaking news and limping along financially. It was a reasonable mistake. He’s a “blue green” is the comforting line of reassurance. They’re not all that bad, good people tell themselves.

We’re not so sure.

He wanted to make the point that Loewenstein has an unethical history as a “journalist” and that’s certainly true.

Our view is not optimistic about the extreme-left Greens party. Its retirement-age “calculating politician” leader Bob Brown last week ran a mile from Rhiannon’s feral anti-Israel policies, only because they appeared to cost votes, not because they are founded in bigotry.

The Greens are not moderates in any respect, as any careful examination of their policies reveals. They are though very cynical and have a cadre of pragmatists in Bob Brown’s office who are forever having to crack down on the public indiscretions of their latest loud-mouthed loon. They usually get their way.

So far, Jamie Parker has ignored countless media inquiries on the subject.

He hopes it will go away. We can promise him it won’t.

UPDATE: Sure enough, the VEXNEWS Investigations Unit appears to have been proven right once again. Loewenstein hasn’t referred to sneakily made audio recordings but does insist he had detailed notes confirming Parker’s quotes and even told the financially troubled New Matilda audience of the background of how he came to quote the Greens MP’s anti-Semitic tirade:

In the case of Parker, I read back his quotes to confirm what he said. He was happy for me to publish them.

You can therefore imagine my surprise when I read in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph a piece by union leader Paul Howes that claimed Parker had denied making this quote, which I had attributed to him in my original piece:

“These Jews provide cover for extreme actions if they occur. If there’s a sniff of you being critical of Israel, such Jews will attack you and cut you loose.”

Again, context is important (and Howes doesn’t provide any). When Parker said this, he was referring to the silence among the local Jewish community when the Greens suffered death threats, hate calls and Nazi swastikas on their signage during the campaign because of BDS.

I stand by my article and Parker’s quotes and I have the notes to back this up.

In the days after my New Matilda piece on the Greens ran, Parker called me a few times to discuss the Middle East and BDS and did not dispute the accuracy of my article. In fact, he said he liked it and wanted it to be widely read.

In a statement to New Matilda today, Parker says:

“An article published in New Matilda last week by independent journalist Antony Loewenstein outlined my experience during the recent NSW election campaign. Certain quotes are attributed to me which do not reflect the language that I have always used in relation to the conflict in the Middle East.”

Parker does not deny the quotes. He is, however, clearly keen to distance himself from the issue.

Parker and Loewenstein are quite the pair. Inner-city leftistes united in hatred for Israel and by their willingness just to make up any old falsehood to assist their vile cause. Loewenstein’s orginal article was inadvertent friendly fire that could only damage the NSW Greens and their newly elected dunder-headed MP who consorts with fraudsters and anti-Semites.

The dynamic duo were eventually forced to come clean, with Parker issuing one of the sleaziest non-denial denials we’ve read in a long time. We even feel a bit sorry for Loewenstein who, while certainly a grub, emerges from the unpleasant affair slightly less soiled than his interlocutor. He didn’t fabricate the quotes and he is so numb to reporting maliciously on the Jewish community and Israel that he didn’t even seem to have the sense to know he was going to land his comrade in serious trouble.

From this sorry saga, we are left with facts indicating that Mr Parker has the morals of a Mercedes Benz driving vitamin fraudster and car re-birther (his business associates). The NSW Greens in recent times have enjoyed the great triumph of electing Senator Lee Rhiannon to the Senate and now him to the NSW Legislative Assembly. The fruits of these victories will surely be ashes in their mouth.

HATED: Ad agency ditches Fairfax over video autoplay deception

Ad industry website Mumbrella reports that a leading agency “UM” has banned their clients’ ad from appearing on Fairfax websites because the company lied about whether users hate the incredibly annoying, inconvenient and disrespectful “autoplay” of videos when pages load.

The decision will hit the Fairfax bottom-line because UM’s clients are some of the biggest spending in online advertising including the big-spending Federal Government, Coles, Microsoft and Sony Pictures.

Most reputable sites do not autoplay videos as it seen as discourteous and presumptuous.

Fairfax has been caught out blatantly lying to advertisers about the user response to this disrespectful autoplay impertinence. This could potentially damage significant relationships for the listed company, already the most shorted stock on the Australian Stock Exchange with many in the market believing the conglomerate will be broken up, with the profitable red-neck radio business being spun off and regional print monopolies going to private equity who’ll love the steady and predictable returns that at least for now aren’t going to be eaten alive by online competition. Its daily newspapers, with the possible exception of the Fin Review, are doomed.

So the company has been trying to squeeze every last penny out of online, blasting internet users with screeching online ads and video reports they haven’t asked to watch, regardless of the time or place.

But it’s the lying about the reaction that is causing a massive industry backlash.

When Mumbrella editor Tim Burrowes interviewed Fairfax Digital’s MD of media Pippa Leary about the issue last year she claimed: “What’s amazing is 75% of people who come to the site watch those videos to completion. We test it constantly. We ask them those questions – overwhelmingly they come back and say no, we prefer to stop it.”

…UM’s own research also directly contradicts Fairfax’s claims. The agency surveyed a sample of 500 people who regularly visit Fairfax sites. It said that 96% of people found the practice “annoying”. And in a finding bringing into question the effectiveness of video ads in that environment,  44% of respondents saying they always muted their computer when videos played.

In damning research, UM found some 25% ditch the page completely when they get an autoplay video, 61% feel negatively towards companies with autoplay ads,

According to UM:

“This research contradicts a study presented to media agencies in 2010 by Fairfax stating autoplay was not as widely disliked as people thought.”

No-one likes being lied to and obviously Fairfax have played ad agencies for suckers on this for some time, chewing up lots of their clients’ money while making users hate the brands tainted by association with the annoying, unethical and disreputable Fairfax practice.

EARLY POLL: Abbott won’t rule out no-compete deal with Oakeshott

Earlier this month, being first with the worst, VEXNEWS reported that “enterprising National party strategists” were contemplating an arrangement with country members Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor where they withdrew their support for the government, brought on an early election to settle the issue of whether we should have a carbon dioxide tax in return for the Nats agreeing to not oppose them in their seats.

At last weekend’s NSW state election, despite the carbon tax not being a state election issue directly, the Nats did extremely well in the area including Oakeshott’s seat and very well in the state seats in Tony Windsor’s New England seat.

Peter van Onselen, the dashing and erudite political analyst at The Australian, reports today that Tony Abbott was asked directly on the weekend whether he would “rule out” such an accommodation:

On Sunday, Tony Abbott refused to rule out doing a deal with Oakeshott, offering not to run a Coalition candidate in his seat if he switched sides. That’s a remote prospect now, but if Labor’s position doesn’t improve, Oakeshott may become nervous enough to be amenable to such an offer.

Canberra can be dull outside the confines of a couple of bars on a Wednesday parliamentary sitting night but at the moment the drama is nearly worthy of a day-time soap-opera.

ALL HAT NO CATTLE: Tassie media darling turned politician exposed

Tasmania’s Legislative Council was first created in 1825, making it considerably older than some of Australia’s oldest and mightiest institutions, including, for example, the Essendon Football Club, which was originally formed in 1871 before going on to win 16 /VFLAFL Premierships, the highest number in the competition. (Essendon is also currently top of the AFL ladder) But we digress.

In the nation’s most picturesque state, they are on the verge of having Legislative Council elections, something that usually grips the island as they resolve the vexed issue of which lucky 15 Taswegians get to sit in the historic chamber that cannot block supply and cannot force the government to election.

Even though the first Speaker of the chamber was Sir Richard Dry, MLCs in Tasmania have been known to enjoy a tipple to relieve the monotony of life on the red couches.

THE NOT FAMOUS FIFTEEN
There are fifteen members. Candidates can only spend ten grand on their campaigns and no other person or party is allowed to spend money promoting their favoured.

Currently the quirky chamber has three ALP members, a solitary Lib and eleven Independents at various points along both the ideological and mental health spectrum(s).

They are all single member electorates too.

One of the seats – Rumney – sees current Education Minister and former special needs teacher Lin Thorp being challenged by a former childrens’ commissioner Paul Mason who is known for talking a good game with scribes while actually not doing a great deal.

CARPET-BAGGER ARRIVES
Scandalising locals about his candidacy isn’t the fact that he does not live in the seat and knows very little of it at all, according to VEXNEWS Investigators familiar with his activities.

They note that the only reason he’s running is that he’s all bitter and twisted about not being reappointed as Kiddies Commissioner last year.

It has come out that in fact an independent selection panel made up of luminaries such as the Police Commissioner and the NSW Childrens’ Commissioner ranked incumbent Mason as second last out of five applicants. Not a good look for any incumbent. In the language of the Nine Network he was “boned”.

MEDCRAFT OF THE SOUTH
In protesting the grave injustice that cut Mr Mason from the keenly-sucked public-teat he has projected himself as a champion of the disadvantaged and all-round do-gooder, locals report.

And yet it appears – in an astonishing instance of political sleaze – that he is willing to accept anonymous political donations, a practice the Federal Government is attempting to outlaw.

Locals complain that while Mason bleats over the injustices done to him that he could well be perpetrating a grave injustice on the community by accepting money from illegitimate sources.

ANONYMOUS DONATIONS AND LUNAR VIEWS
His website proudly declares – in a blatant solicitation – that “donations can be made anonymously” which has prompted concerns that all sorts of worrying rogues, including for example wealthy mass-murderers, pimps, drug dealers or Mercury editor Garry Bailey could be assisting his cause, under a cloak of secrecy or cone of silence. While unlikely examples the media tart would have no way of knowing because he says he accepts anonymous donations.

The sanctimonious rent-a-quote Mason – a former ambulance chasing lawyer – has views that cross the border at zany and enter the Tasmanian territory of certifiable. Highlights of his less than brilliant career:

■ A sharia-style ban on women “of child-bearing age” drinking alcohol in case they fall pregnant telling the Mercury "Theoretically no women of child-bearing age should drink alcohol, full stop, no matter how unfair that sounds”;

■ A demand that roads be replaced with dead-end ‘cul-de-sacs’ and new homes be built with bigger front yards to ensure children could mix a bit more.

â–  Pushing for a requirement that the customers of prostitutes be required to have a medical certificate before they purchased whatever services they desired; and

■ Giving advice to an abused 12-year-old that she ought to wait an adult before suing the state government. Many say this is dud advice because she’d be outside the statute of limitations, potentially massively adding to her legal costs.