Harrowing hyperbole - first the floods, now Yasi UPDATE 2

Listening to the reports from 'journalists' on cyclone Yasi is truly painful. If you thought that they couldn't pump up the hyperbole any more after the Toowoomba, Lockyer Valley, Ipswich, and Brisbane floods you were mistaken!

"The biggest cyclone ever to hit Australia" was one I heard tonight. Stern anchorblondes babbling, just to talk. Like the descriptions of the water during the flood reports, many are giving the cyclone anthropomorphic traits.

Anna Bligh is doing a marvellous job talking, I suppose the shock and awe of the Queensland natural disasters of early 2011 are lending a bit of sincerity to her speeches. I hope that this doesn't whitewash all the let downs of the ALP in Queensland over the past many years.

Bunker down? WTF? Here, read this for a laugh - don't miss the link to Urban Dictionary. My reaction to the stupid term is the same. Surely the term should be that everyone is embunkered?

Watching the news and seeing the same footage of a huge wave washing over a woman standing at a fence by the beach... interspersed with images of the reporter who is on the phone, and iPhone by the looks of it. Gripping TV. And it's been going for half an hour.

Reporters are renowned for cocking up the facts. I know many stories which have been reported and the facts have been so screwed up that anyone with any knowledge of the subject knows that the whole story is just incorrect. It's happened to me with an ABC reporter. Couldn't get the facts straight. The reporter stuck a microphone in my face and just expected me to speak - I don't speak in public like that usually, I was expecting to be asked questions about what I was involved in. The newspaper reporter was better, but still buggered up the details.

John O'Dougherty needs to get new contacts, his going to blink himself to death - or is it another semaphore secret message like Gillards flapping hands?

And do we really need a pep talk from Julia?

One thing is for sure, after the floods and the cyclone Australians mostly won't be whinging about noone helping them or saving them.

Update:
And now a report from Ingham, where the core of the cyclone has hit.
Core? Core of the cyclone? Don't they mean the cyclone proper?

Reports of an 18m wave at Townsville is inaccurate as waves are breaking over the measuring buoy and it is turning upside down so the wave measurements are inaccurate.

Update 2:
Check this comparison out at Zoe Brain's, what would Yasi look like if it was headed for the US?

Heard yesterday - AM again, sorry missed these Barnaby gems

Okay.

Barnaby is getting bombarded by the leftist bastards.

08:00 31/03/2010
Joyce backtracks on toilet paper quip
Fresh in a new Opposition shadow portfolio Senator Barnaby Joyce has already found it necessary to explain some of his more colourful and controversial comments. Senator Joyce, the Opposition spokesman for water had said he planned to use the latest Productivity Commission report on water, due out today, as toilet paper. Since then Senator Joyce has climbed down a little, saying his comments were said in irony but he maintains his line that a pipeline that carries no water would be more productive spending than the Government outlays on primary school buildings. More

and

08:03 31/03/2010
School groups criticise Joyce's schools building program critique
Groups representing all types of schools have condemned Barnaby Joyce's criticism of the Federal Government's schools building program. The former Opposition finance spokesman says the scheme has delivered $16-billion of glorified garden sheds, but the school representatives say he's out of touch. More

At least Robb's sticking up for him... sorta...

08:06 31/03/2010
Barnaby has his own style: Robb
The man who replaced Barnaby Joyce as the Opposition's finance spokesman, Andrew Robb, has distanced himself from the National Senator's dismissive view of the Productivity Commission. Mr Robb says the economic advisory body set up by the Howard government plays an important role. But Mr Robb says Senator Joyce has his own style that can be useful in politics. More