Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Headlines Wednesday 21st January 2009


Bush didn't even say goodbye: Rudd
Outgoing US President George W Bush did not include Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on his list of final calls to world leaders before handing over to president-elect Barack Obama. - If Rudd had been a better diplomat, he would've have done better. - ed.
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'Hypocrite' PM hands staff more pay
KEVIN Rudd has secretly paid two advisers - including his "boy wonder" - top-ups to bolster their $200,000-plus incomes.
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Wall Street plunges despite Obama optimism
US stocks plunged on Tuesday as renewed fears about the global banking sector offset optimism surrounding the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States....
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CBD Metro could cripple Cityrail
The head of Railcorp has warned the proposed Sydney CBD Metro could permanently cripple Cityrail....
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Police praised for life-saving NYE heroics
Police have been praised for saving the life of young boy after carrying him, unconscious, for more than a kilometre through heaving New Year's Eve crowds.
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Bouncer jailed again for manslaughter
A hotel security guard who killed a patron by holding him in a headlock for more than five minutes has, on appeal, been sentenced for a second time.
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President Obama prepares to step into hot seat
Barack Obama's inauguration will be a defining moment in US history, but the newly elected President will have no time to rest on his laurels. - problem being that President Bush was so good that it seemed easy. - ed.
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More families face eviction over Rosemeadow violence
At least 12 families have been ordered to leave a troubled public housing estate in Sydney's south-west over a brawl that put six people in hospital with gunshot and stab wounds.
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Drug dealer dismemberment linked to string of underworld murders
The gruesome murder of a drug dealer has been linked to the deaths of nine other people, leading police to launch the biggest murder investigation since the Ivan Milat backpacker killings.
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Employers urged to hold onto staff
Pricey diesel driving up cost of living: Truss
Jailed writer's family blames Rudd govt
Wine turned doctor into a werewolf
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Miley Cyrus gets textual in church
Miley Cyrus was lectured by her church pastor for sending text messages to her boyfriend during the service. - she is a young kid, a normal kid, but not an average kid. She has done nothing wrong, but the press don't respect her values. She was at the service, which is more than Obama could say .. - ed.
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the oaf of office
Ann Althouse:
The Chief Justice in fact screwed up the oath. The Constitution requires:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Roberts left out the word “faithfully.” (He also said “President to the United States.") Obama saw the mistake and stopped himself to give Roberts a chance to fix it. Roberts redid the line, remembering to throw in “faithfully,” but putting it in the wrong place — after “President of the United States” — and, this time, Obama went along with the wording. Close enough, I guess he figured …

Let no one think Barack Obama made the mistake.
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INAUGURATIONARAMA 2009
Tim Blair
2.02 Let’s get this party started! We’re on the Nine network here, taking the live feed from US ABC. Please secure your boats in case of any unscheduled ocean depletion.

2.04 ABC’s man on the ground, Bill Weir: “Distance means nothing here this morning.” Obama compresses space! Weir mentions that the crowd is particularly dense, which is undeniable, even in normal spatial circumstances.

2.09 Muhammad Ali very slowly makes his way to a seat. He’s finally arrived for the Million Man March.

2.12 Young Obama fans in the National Mall seem confused by the brightly-coloured fabric hanging from nearby poles. Perhaps they’d recognise the US flag if it was set on fire. - did anyone stay up to watch him turn into a beam of pure energy? - ed.
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THEY PLEDGE
Tim Blair
Celebrity pledgophiles pledge it up big time. I made it to 3.20, before the Red Hot Chili Pepper guy kissing his own arms in celebration of Obama made me turn away. Iowahawk watched the whole thing.
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GET OOT
Tim Blair
Obama career assistant William Ayers tried to skip the country during inauguration week, but Canada – Canada! – turned him away:
William Ayers, the 1960s radical whose ties to President-elect Barack Obama caused trouble for his campaign, was turned away from Canada Sunday night as he tried to enter the country for a series of educational events.

Jeffrey Kugler, the executive director for the Center for Urban Schooling at the University of Toronto, said Ayers was deemed not admissible after being pulled aside by Canadian immigration officials while trying to clear customs at the Toronto airport …
Ayers, a co-founder of the violent Weather Underground group and current education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told the Toronto Star that he didn’t know why he had been turned away.

He then returned to Chicago, where standards aren’t so high.
update
Even George Washington has caught inauguration fever:
Beautiful Sunset
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HEMI PRESIDENT
Tim Blair
Before he realised the planet was too hot and the oceans needed fixing, hybrid advocate Barack Obama apparently owned a mighty Chrysler 300C, complete with pimpin’ chrome wheels:
Beautiful Sunset
The Obamobile (powered by an earth-changing 5.7 litre Hemi V8) is now for sale on eBay. Latest bid: $US220,100 – or more than $A330,000.
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MOST PEOPLE COMPLIED
Tim Blair
Leftist reader Milly reports on Sunday’s Hamas rally, at which certain views were expressed:
I was at the protest. I saw this placard held up for a very brief time before the family was approached by a woman selling a socialist newspaper. Words were said, and the placard was torn in half.

It would be wrong to assume that there weren’t elements of the protest that were antisemitic, people who showed placards or tshirts that were offensive were asked to remove them or get rid of them. Most people complied.

I can’t help but wonder why this photo has been posted here, a person interested in showing the truth would have shown that placard torn in half about 30 seconds after.

This is a dishonest representation of what went on, and its purpose was to paint the whole crowd as antisemitic.
Given that several other people displayed signs or wore t-shirts that were “offensive”, it doesn’t seem a dishonest representation at all. Rather, it illustrates the feelings of a significant number at the rally.

Meanwhile, Jeremy asks that we note “the thousands of people not carrying pro-Nazi signs”. What a grand accomplishment for the left; they’ve held a rally where only a minority openly supported genocidal tyranny. Kudos, progressives!
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B-TEAM BLAMED
Tim Blair
The Age apologises:
The editorial team at The Age has offered an unreserved apology to the Jewish community for the controversial Michael Backman column that appeared in last Saturday’s newspaper.

A formal apology appeared on page two of Tuesday’s edition (January 20) of the newspaper, with The Age editor Paul Ramadge telling The AJN that the anti-Semitic views expressed by Backman “have no place at The Age. We completely reject his views”.

“We fully accept that the article has caused hurt and distress to the Jewish community and we apologise without reservation,” he said.

Ramadge said the story was published while he and other senior editors were on leave.

“We have a different crew editing the paper during the holiday period,” he said.

Ramadge would not comment on whether any Age employees would lose their jobs over the publication of the story, but did admit that more than one Age staffer were guilty of “errors of judgement”.

“We have taken steps to ensure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again,” he said, adding that the staffer was being dealt with internally.
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NEW RULES
Tim Blair
Spending money on inaugurations used to be bad. Then everything changed.

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