Sunday, June 28, 2009

Headlines Sunday 28th June 2009

Hockey dismisses leadership rumours - no news on possible Rudd replacement
Opposition Treasury spokesman, Joe Hockey, has dismissed claims he is angling for the leadership position following the fallout from the Utegate affair.


Fears for missing North Coast teen
There are fears for the safety of 15-year-old Samiya Raya who has been missing for two days.

China quarantines Aussie students
Fifteen Victorian students have been quarantined in Shanghai because of a swine flu alert.

Swine flu toll reaches five, none of whom have died from it, but with it
A Perth woman has become Australia's fifth swine flu victim.

Jackson family anger mounts
MICHAEL Jackson's family may seek an independent autopsy amid anger over his final hours.

King of Pop's ex-wife to fight for kids
MICHAEL Jackson's ex-wife is likely to gain custody of his two older children, despite not having seen them for ten years.

Bullying bosses return as downturn bites
THE domineering bosses of the 1950s have reappeared in Australian workplaces because of recession pressures.

Telstra loans girl couple's phone porn
TELSTRA has been forced to apologise after a sexually explicit photo of a couple ended up on a 13-year-old girl's rental phone.

Lebanon's new PM named
SAAD Hariri, who heads the Sunni Future movement and is the son of a slain billionaire, has been named Lebanon's new PM.

Paralysed Iemma fights to walk again, in NSW Hospital Care
FORMER New South Wales premier Morris Iemma is undergoing intensive physiotherapy to regain movement in his legs after being struck down by a potentially fatal brain virus.
=== Comments ===
Turnbull will survive utegate
Piers Akerman
THOSE who claim utegate or mategate has cut off Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull at the knees are indulging their fantasies. - Turnbull has been damaged in perceptual terms thanks to the tireless work of media ALP supporters. It was clear from the beginning that Rudd was compromised, not least because the behavior matches that which we know Rudd operates. The ALP seem protected by an opaque shell refusing to allow transparency of operation .. so that when Swan is asked to account for what is known to be his work, he diverts with ‘but one email is questionable’ and the press run with it. Similarly, Rudd got a free run last election .. perception can beat the best government.
On the ABC we were treated to headlines which relentlessly put forward the furphy that the government had no case to answer, that Turnbull was weakened and might expect to be challenged by someone. If this is the beginning of politics without Costello then Rudd is doomed. Red Kerry similarly appallingly assaulted Mr Turnbull and laid a red carpet for Rudd and Swan. On Seven, Sunrise Rudd acolytes spoke at length about Turnbull’s alleged shortcomings using time, rather than information, to put forward the image that Rudd is desperate to project. Channel 9 interviewer Oakes just becomes unwatchable as his questions and direction seem to read from an ALP dirty tricks playbook. It has been more than a decade since Oakes got away with asking Keating what he meant by saying he wished he had spent more in office, rather than leave anything for the Libs .. Oakes never followed up the revelation that may have damaged his precious ALP brand.
But the truth is the ALP are damaged by this, even if the perception of the casual news follower (fewer as news gets worse, spruiking for the ALP and not reporting the news) does not match the reality. Rudd. Swan, Tanner and Gillard are damaged by the event .. and there is more to follow. The event would have holed any conservative party ship. The ALP manage to float in their own corruption. - ed.

===

HEADS UP
Tim Blair
I’m on The Insiders tomorrow morning. Subjects for discussion may include Godwin Grech; just guessing. - I noticed on Insiders that a lot of the conversation was on Turnbull. Yet Turnbull has many times demonstrated that there is a case for the government to answer regarding Swan .. and that simply was not addressed as airtime was taken up by those jerks repeating their thoughts about Turnbull.
Rudd was shown as if he were accurately accusing Turnbull of making mistakes, but the references were out of context. Turnbull is correct in saying that Rudd has lied over the issue of his government's patronage of wealthy creditors. Meanwhile Rudd is making out that Turnbull has claimed Turnbull was wrong to say such .. claiming that a faked email exhonerates Rudd from the rest. If that is the case then where s the evidence that Rudd didn't fake it?
In short, the coverage of the issue by the insiders was appallingly biased and misleading. That cartoonist missed all the action of the weak, but still prosecuted a boring ALP line. - ed.

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