Sunday, August 28, 2011

News Items and comments

Dirty laundry black eye to workers Labor represents

Piers Akerman – Saturday, August 27, 11 (06:41 pm)

The problems besetting the stinking ruin that is Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s Labor-Independent-Green minority government all have their roots in Gillard’s personal lust for power.

DD Ball replied to John Jay
Sat 27 Aug 11 (10:45pm)

I feel it is a mistake to say that she is letting others direct her. I think Gillard is doing what she wants to. It is true that it is a betrayal of ALP values among the hubris that is her style, but I would also point out that she is not an ALP chick, but a radical lefty who has used the ALP to achieve her ambition.

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Craig Thomson fiasco an insult to HSU members

Miranda Devine – Saturday, August 27, 11 (06:56 pm)

Cena Krstevska is a cleaner at the Royal North Shore Hospital. She is 69 years old. Her legs ache from varicose veins brought on by a job, which has her on her feet eight hours a day. After 39 years, the Willoughby grandmother would like to retire but she can’t afford to.

Thomson is not accused of a crime in his use of Union expenses. But the cover up of it is. It extends beyond Thomson. It includes his ALP handlers.

I know many people covered by the HSU and they would be very let down. Thomson should pay the money back to them, with interest. But I suspect it doesn’t end with Thomson. And it won’t end with Thomson being booted from parliament.

DD Ball of Carramar/Sydney (Reply)
Sat 27 Aug 11 (10:56pm)
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The not very multicultural council

Miranda Devine – Sunday, August 28, 11 (06:26 pm)

WITH little fanfare last week Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced her new Multicultural Council. But a curious feature of an advisory body that is supposed to be a “socially inclusive” representation of multi-ethnic Australia was the fact that at least five of its 10 members are Muslims, and not one member has a Chinese or Indian background.

Lol, I am more multicultural than that committee. My ancestors include Aboriginal, Chinese, Dutch, Russian, Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Scottish, Irish, English and I was born in the US. - ed.
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Quotation of the Day…

by DON BOUDREAUX on AUGUST 28, 2011

in STATE OF MACRO

… is from Jim Buchanan’s 1987 essay “Keynesian Follies,” reprinted in Vol. 1 of Jim’s Collected Works (pp. 164-178):

Folly is defined as (1) lack of good sense or of normal prudence, (2) inability or refusal to accept existing reality or to foresee inevitable consequences. Both of these definitions convey something of the policy stance that I associate with the term Keynesian.

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SCHULOTTO

Tim Blair – Sunday, August 28, 11 (04:16 pm)

Michael Schumacher starts from 24th and last position in tonight’s Belgian Grand Prix following the loss of a wheel during qualifying:

“Well, obviously I would have wished for a different end to today’s qualifying, but it is difficult to drive on three wheels - even if I should have the experience to do so in Spa,” said Schumacher. “Seriously, this is certainly something that should not occur, but then this is also Formula One; we are working at the highest level but still things can happen.”

How many cars will he overtake by the end of the opening lap? First correct answer wins a fresh tube of carbon credits.

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FAIR AND AL BALANCED

Tim Blair – Sunday, August 28, 11 (02:31 pm)

Al Jazeera presents a reasonable and non-hysterical piece on Australia’s stupid carbon tax – featuring me and also a hippie who warns that his carbon haters are “taking the law into their own hands”.

UPDATE. In other me-related developments, Paco rounds up news and views from across the Blairosphere.

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And the answer is…?

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, August 28, 11 (05:54 am)

Can we have serious arguments from those who reject Ted Lapkin’s warning about legalising gay marriage?:

If restriction of marriage to male-female couples is the indefensible fruit of prejudice, isn’t it equally bigoted to impose arbitrary limits on the number of spouses one can take?

So if Adam Bandt is pushing for same-sex marriage to be legitimised by law, shouldn’t he be cheerleading for polygamy as well?

And then the next cab off the rank will surely be consensual sex between adult brothers and sisters, adult fathers and daughters or adult mothers and sons. After all, we’re told individual choice is Holy Writ in such matters. And if people over the age of 18 years freely want to indulge in incestuous pursuits, who are we to tell them they can’t do whomever they want to do?

So we should bear in mind that those guarantees about the buck stopping at same-sex marriage will, in reality, guarantee nothing. The floodgates will inevitably open to a further slide down the slippery slope of social disintegration.

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Independents cling even harder to Gillard

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, August 28, 11 (05:40 am)

The independents, too terrified to go to the polls, justify their self-interest with mock-horror at an alleged throwaway line from Tony Abbott a year ago:

THE way Tony Windsor recalls it, Tony Abbott begged crossbench MPs to make him prime minister, joking that ‘’the only thing I wouldn’t do is sell my arse - but I’d have to give serious thought to it’’.

In interviews with The Sunday Age to mark the anniversary of their decision to back Julia Gillard to run the country, independent MPs have revealed startling new details of their reservations about the Opposition Leader - including that joking plea....

Mr Windsor’s fellow crossbench MP Rob Oakeshott also recalls Mr Abbott begging for the job - ‘’yes he did’’ - but would not comment publicly about the gag that he would consider prostitution.

Prostitution? Are you kidding me?

Rather than hyperventilate over alleged joke a year ago, shouldn’t the independents reserve their horror for what’s unfolded since? Including allegations of the use of a union credit card by a Labor MP to engage the services of a realprostitute?

But, no, these turkeys will not vote for Christmas:

‘’The support of the four key crossbenchers is as solid as ever,’’ Mr Wilkie said. ... “I think their support for the government has strengthened, partly because they have been treated quite badly by the opposition.’’

Poor munchkins. And how has the country been treated by the Government?

UPDATE

Alan RM Jones observes a rewriting of history:

Tony Windsor as reported in the SMH today:

THE way Tony Windsor recalls it, Tony Abbott begged crossbench MPs to make him prime minister, joking ‘’the only thing I wouldn’t do is sell my arse - but I’d have to give serious thought to it’’.

Mr Windsor recalls feeling alarm and pity when Mr Abbott revealed the depth of his personal desire to become prime minister.

‘’I remember him saying: ‘Tony, I would do anything for this job. The only thing I wouldn’t do is sell my arse, but I’d have to give serious thought to it,’’’ he said.

September 2010:

I actually gained a much higher personal regard for [Tony Abbott] during that period of a fortnight…”

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Charity should extend it to Gillard

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, August 28, 11 (05:32 am)

The charity has no idea what damage it is recklessly doing to the Prime Minister and her office by asking her to let a man with underworld connections dine at the Lodge:

A CHARITY aided by Mick Gatto’s donation to The Lodge lunch fiasco says the money would have paid for a child’s prosthetic leg.

Children First Foundation (CFF), a charity earmarked to benefit from the lunch, said it was disappointed Prime Minister Julia Gillard had pulled the pin on the money-making meal.

Julie Webber, CFF fundraising and communications manager, said: “We bring children from developing countries to Australia for surgery.. Mr Gatto’s very generous donation of $10,000 would have paid for a prosthetic leg or an airfare.’’

Mr Gatto, a colourful Carlton identity and mediator, won a lunch at The Lodge with First Bloke Tim Mathieson at a charity auction.

Mr Gatto and mediation partner John Khoury bid $10,000 for the privilege.

But the prize was swiftly withdrawn by Ms Gillard’s office amid alarm at the political fallout from Mr Gatto being at the Prime Minister’s residence.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: “Mr Mathieson will seek to support the charities concerned in an alternative way.’’

But this is something Gillard does not need, not ever and especially not now. What was Mathieson thinking in offering such a prize at a low-rent event?

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Up the Labor ladder it goes

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, August 28, 11 (05:20 am)

Union figures are now gunning for Michael Williamson, senior vice president of the Labor party:

SENIOR union officials are demanding a police investigation into embattled federal MP Craig Thomson be widened to include the activities of the NSW office of the Health Services Union.

The NSW office, headed up by Labor heavyweight Mike Williamson, is the financial engine room of the powerful health union.

Unlike the national office, which has been the centre of a two-year Fair Work Australia investigation, the cash-rich NSW-registered office, called HSU East, has never been scrutinised by investigators.

The NSW office comes under the jurisdiction of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission. Senior union officials have told The Sunday Telegraph that the culture of misusing union membership fees also existed in the NSW branch, where Mr Thomson was also a member before he took on the role of national secretary in 2002.

“The NSW office is where all the money and secrets are,” a senior official said.

(No comments.)

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Labor spinner rewinds

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, August 28, 11 (12:21 am)

Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch Dog is struck by the political smarts of Lachlan Harris, former media advisor to then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd:

MWD was particularly impressed by Mr Harris’ view (in last week’s Sunday Telegraph) that “bad economic news” in the Northern Hemisphere is “good for the [Gillard] government”. How come? Try this for a reason:

…any movement of the debate away from the carbon tax is good for the government. The carbon tax has come to symbolise much of the confusion and weakness that Labor has displayed in recent years. Getting it off the agenda is a good thing for Labor.

Well, that’s pretty clear then. According to Lachlan Harris, getting carbon tax off the agenda would be good for Labor. But, hang on a minute. When Lachlan Harris appeared on Q&A;on 21 March 2011 – just after Julia Gillard had announced Labor’s carbon tax initiative – he said that putting the carbon tax on the agenda was good for Labor. Let’s go to the transcript:

Lachlan Harris : My view, and I’ve been arguing for a couple of weeks, is the carbon tax is the best decision Julia Gillard has made and not just for policy reasons, I think, on raw politics…. I think there’s no doubt that the early signs to me are people are listening to Gillard again and Abbott is now struggling to control the debate and the ball is back in her court.

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Private schools are essential for Australia. Were Australia to eliminate private schools she would not be able to afford education to the same standard for her other students she spends now.
www.news.com.au
VICTORIA'S richest private schools have posted seven-figure profits while reaping millions in government grants.
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The issue is not only Thomson and will not be quarantined to him. If they try, he can implicate the others.
www.news.com.au
THE federal government says it will not ask embattled MP Craig Thomson to quit the Labor Party amid the deepening scandal into allegedly misspent union funds.
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Windsor was a coward with Greiner, and behaved shamefully with Australia over an Abbott government. His legacy will be waste and ruin.
www.news.com.au
TONY Abbott's office has rejected a claim by Independent MP Tony Windsor that the opposition leader told him the only thing he would not do to become prime minister was "sell his a---".
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Daniel, we found you, and we found your killer. I am sorry you didn't have the life you deserved. But please take comfort you have not been forgotten and others will be safer for what has been found.
www.news.com.au
POLICE say DNA testing has confirmed that bones found during a search for Daniel Morcombe's body belonged to the missing teen.
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Amnesty International diverted money from prisoners of conscience to support David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib. But here we see what happens to those Amnesty forgot.
www.news.com.au
CHARRED skeletons of some 50 people have been found in a makeshift prison next to a Libyan military base abandoned by elite troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in southern Tripoli.
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Is NYT columnist plagiarising material again? NYT seem to have targeted a Republican for a Democrat style crime.
Rep. Darrell Issa, the powerful chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has declared war on the New York Times after the newspaper published a front-page story last week linking the California Republican’s business activities to his congressional duties.
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This is what random shootings can do.
Eleven people were injured in a shooting at a New York going-away party early Saturday, including a 15-year-old girl who was apparently left paralyzed, cops and residents said.
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‎@lionheartodd I am glad to see this comment .. it is a relief from the abuse. I don't seek to demonise liberalism, but I think a healthy evaluation of it involves acknowledging the past.
Source: www.youtube.com
Capture and execution The hunt for Guevara in Bolivia was headed by Félix Rodríguez, a CIA agent, who previously had infiltrated Cuba to prepare contacts with the rebels in the Escambray Mountains and the anti-Castro underground in Havana prior t...

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Just make it look like it was.
A SCULPTURE depicting ancient Greek gods Zeus and Hera has been removed from the Acropolis for safe-keeping.
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They have had twenty years, but they can't raise from the dead the one they killed. I think those cowards wouldn't have tried.
THREE men who assassinated Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 will be hanged next month.

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Another one bites the dust
AL Qaeda's operations chief Atiyah Abd al Rahman is believed to have been killed in Pakistan earlier this week, a US official confirmed.
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Getting closer to completing the picture
A WHITE car that may have been used to abduct Daniel Morcombe has been seized in a secret raid on Russell Island by detectives investigating the Sunshine Coast teenager's murder.
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ALP have a bad reputation. They earned it.
THE Office of Police Integrity is investigating several senior police officers over the handling of a flawed rape claim against former Labor minister Theo Theophanous.
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It isn't fun
A TEENAGE fight club organised by gangs who went to rival Sydney schools ended with one man in hospital and another charged with attempted murder.
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South West is good, if you excuse the shootings
SYDNEY'S western suburbs have become a hot spot for property investors following a spike in rental yields.

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Snaps a salute and holds it
THESE are the faces of our country's unsung heroes - police officers, nurses, teachers, volunteers and everyday Aussies who have made a lasting difference.
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If Spring is early it is the first time in many years.
SPRING has arrived early, promising a balmy September with clear skies, warm winds and unseasonably high temperatures.
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ALP have covered up their own mismanagement.
ENVIRONMENTALISTS have accused the state's pollution regulator of being a "toothless tiger" over Orica's history of pollutant breaches.
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This is the cost of having voted for the ALP
THE NSW police budget is in such a dire state that pens are being rationed and officers are being forced to wash their own patrol cars.
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It scares me.
MERRYLANDS is a suburb in fear - a no-go zone after a week of violence transformed the peaceful postcode into a battleground for warring families.
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Good to have them off the streets
FOUR men were arrested in a dramatic police sting as they allegedly planned a kidnapping and armed robbery.
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ALP seeking a distraction from bad news. They haven't supported our diggers
AUSTRALIAN soldiers serving in Afghanistan are to be issued with special silk underwear as part of a $5 million uniform overhaul.
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I am praying for you, Stacie
STACIE Hoomans was blessed with good genes, the stunning 25-year-old proud of her long, flowing locks and large breasts, which she often flaunted.
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Bad ALP policy takes lives
MANDATORY detention of asylum-seekers must be scrapped, says Peter Mitchell, a former immigration official who was central to the Howard government's hardline detainee policy.
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He isn't alone. He shouldn't be in pariament. His constituents have been lied to.
SENIOR union officials are demanding a police investigation into embattled federal MP Craig Thomson be widened to include the activities of the NSW office of the Health Services Union.
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One doesn't expect Greens to support good legislation. This shows the ALP at their worst.
PREMIER BARRY O'Farrell has declared war on the upper house MPs who have refused to pass his tough graffiti law, saying they were now responsible for every new spray-paint attack in the state.
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Bad ALP policy is causing this.
RESERVE Bank boss Glenn Stevens has issued a chilling warning to workers across NSW: job losses are not only a sign of the times, but a signal of worse still to come.
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He has children.
The odds, it would seem, are stacked against Steve Jobs. The famed Apple CEO - a man whose products are in almost every household and business in the western world and who has influenced modern popula...
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Imagine if a white dude said this. Oh the OUTCRY
www.youtube.com
‎"Felonious Munk speaks on the economic state of America and why we shouldn't pay our bills."


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What did teachers do before FB?
A Missouri judge has blocked a law restricting Internet communications between teachers and students from taking effect Sunday.
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I'm glad we don't rely on the UN ..
The U.S. and Israel are closely monitoring Syria's suspected cache of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), fearing that terror groups could take advantage of the revolt against President Bashar al Assad to obtain blistering agents, nerve gas and long-range missiles, according to officials from both countries.
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To be precise, this is awesome.
Source: www.youtube.com
1955 classic film The Court Jester. One of the funniest parts, featuring the pellet with the poison, the vessel with the pestle, the chalice from the palace, and the flagon with the dragon!

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