===
- 1898 – The United States Navy battleship USSMaine exploded and sank in Havana, Cuba(wreckage pictured), killing more than 260 people and precipitating the Spanish–American War.
- 1949 – Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vauxbegan excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves in the West Bankregion of Jordan, the location of the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
- 1965 – Canada adopted the Maple Leaf flag, replacing the Canadian Red Ensign.
- 1979 – Don Dunstan resigned as Premier of South Australia, ending a decade of sweeping social liberalisation.
- 2003 – In one of the largest anti-war rallies in history, millions around the world in approximately 800 cities took part in protests against the impending invasion of Iraq.
===
Events
- 590 – Khosrau II is crowned king of Persia.
- 1113 – Pope Paschal II issued a bill sanctioning the establishment of the Order of Hospitallers.
- 1493 – While on board the Niña, Christopher Columbus writes an open letter (widely distributed upon his return to Portugal) describing his discoveries and the unexpected items he came across in the New World.
- 1637 – Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1764 – The city of St. Louis, Missouri is established.
- 1804 – The Serbian revolution begins.
- 1835 – The first constitutional law in modern Serbia is adopted.
- 1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant attacks Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
- 1879 – Women's rights: American President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
- 1898 – Spanish-American War: The USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor in Cuba, killing more than 260. This event leads theUnited States to declare war on Spain.
- 1909 – The Flores Theater fire in Acapulco, Mexico kills 250.
- 1933 – In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead shoots Chicago mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds on March 6, 1933.
- 1942 – World War II: The Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrenders. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdomand Australian soldiers become prisoners of war, the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.
- 1944 – World War II: The assault on Monte Cassino, Italy, begins.
- 1946 – ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, is formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
- 1949 – Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux begin excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves, where they will eventually discover the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
- 1952 – King George VI is buried in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.
- 1954 – Canada and the United States agree to construct the Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic regions of Canada and Alaska.
- 1961 – Sabena Flight 548 crashes in Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team, several coaches and family members.
- 1965 – A new red-and-white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada, replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.
- 1970 – A Dominican DC-9 crashes into the sea during takeoff from Santo Domingo, killing 102.
- 1971 – The decimalisation of British coinage is completed on Decimal Day.
- 1972 – Sound recordings are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.
- 1972 – José María Velasco Ibarra, serving as President of Ecuador for the fifth time, is overthrown by the military for the fourth time.
- 1976 – The 1976 Constitution of Cuba is adopted by national referendum.
- 1979 – Don Dunstan resigns as Premier of South Australia, ending a decade of sweeping social liberalisation.
- 1982 – The drilling rig Ocean Ranger sinks during a storm off the coast of Newfoundland, killing 84 workers.
- 1989 – Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.
- 1991 – The Visegrád Agreement, establishing cooperation to move toward free-market systems, is signed by the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland.
- 1996 – At the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China, a Long March 3 rocket, carrying an Intelsat 708, crashes into a rural village after liftoff, killing many people.
- 1999 – Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, is arrested in Kenya.
- 2000 – Indian Point II nuclear power plant in New York State vents a small amount of radioactive steam when a steam generator fails.
- 2001 – First draft of the complete human genome is published in Nature.
- 2003 – Protests against the Iraq war take place in over 600 cities worldwide. It is estimated that between 8 million to 30 million people participate, making this the largest peace demonstration in history.
[edit]Births
- 1458 – Ivan the Young, Ruler of Tver (d. 1490)
- 1471 – Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici, Italian ruler (d. 1503)
- 1564 – Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and physicist (d. 1642)
- 1571 – Michael Praetorius, German composer (d. 1621)
- 1612 – Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, French military officer (d. 1676)
- 1620 – François Charpentier, French archaeologist (d. 1702)
- 1705 – Charles-André van Loo, French painter (d. 1765)
- 1710 – King Louis XV of France (d. 1774)
- 1725 – Abraham Clark, American founding father (d. 1794)
- 1734 – William Stacy, American Army officer and pioneer (d. 1802)
- 1739 – Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, French architect (d. 1813)
- 1748 – Jeremy Bentham, English philosopher (d. 1832)
- 1759 – Friedrich August Wolf, German archaeologist (d. 1824)
- 1760 – Jean-François Le Sueur, French composer (d. 1837)
- 1761 – Jacob Kimball, Jr., American composer (d. 1826)
- 1792 – Floride Calhoun, Second Lady of the United States (d. 1866)
- 1797 – Henry E. Steinway, German piano maker (d. 1871)
- 1809 – André Dumont, Belgian geologist (d. 1857)
- 1809 – Cyrus McCormick, American inventor (d. 1884)
- 1811 – Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Argentine writer and politician, (d. 1888)
- 1812 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, American jeweler (d. 1902)
- 1820 – Susan B. Anthony, American suffragist (d. 1906)
- 1825 – Carter Harrison, Sr., American politician (d. 1893)
- 1835 – Demetrius Vikelas, Greek author (d. 1908)
- 1835 – Nguyen Khuyen, Vietnamese Confucian scholar, poet and teacher (d. 1909)
- 1840 – Titu Maiorescu, Romanian Prime Minister (d. 1917)
- 1841 – Manoel Ferraz de Campos Salles, Brazilian politician (d. 1913)
- 1845 – Elihu Root, American statesman, Nobel laureate (d. 1937)
- 1847 – Robert Fuchs, Austrian composer (d. 1927)
- 1849 – Sir Rickman Godlee, English surgeon (d. 1925)
- 1856 – Emil Kraepelin, German psychiatrist (d. 1926)
- 1861 – Charles Edouard Guillaume, French physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1938)
- 1861 – Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician and philosopher (d. 1947)
- 1866 – Edward William Exshaw, British sailor (d. 1927)
- 1869 – Cormic Cosgrove, American soccer player (d. 1930)
- 1873 – Hans von Euler-Chelpin, German chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1964)
- 1874 – Sir Ernest Shackleton, Irish explorer (d. 1922)
- 1877 – Louis Renault, French automotive executive (d. 1944)
- 1882 – John Barrymore, American actor (d. 1942)
- 1883 – Sax Rohmer, English author (d. 1959)
- 1890 – Robert Ley, Nazi official (d. 1945)
- 1891 – Dino Borgioli, Italian lyric tenor (d. 1960)
- 1892 – James Forrestal, American politician, Secretary of the Navy (d. 1949)
- 1893 – Walter Donaldson, American songwriter (d. 1947)
- 1895 – Earl Thompson, Canadian athlete (d. 1971)
- 1896 – Arthur Shields, Irish actor (d. 1970)
- 1897 – Gerrit Kleerekoper, Jewish - Dutch gymnastics coach (d. 1943)
- 1898 – Totò, Italian actor and composer (d. 1967)
- 1898 – Allen Woodring, American runner (d. 1982)
- 1899 – Georges Auric, French composer (d. 1983)
- 1899 – Gale Sondergaard, American actress (d. 1985)
- 1904 – Antonin Magne, French cyclist (d. 1983)
- 1905 – Harold Arlen, American composer (d. 1986)
- 1906 – Jan Pijnenburg, Dutch track cyclist (d. 1979)
- 1907 – Jean Langlais, French composer and organist (d. 1991)
- 1907 – Cesar Romero, American actor (d. 1994)
- 1908 – Sarto Fournier, Canadian politician (d. 1980)
- 1909 – Miep Gies, Dutch biographer (d. 2010)
- 1909 – Guillermo Gorostiza Paredes, Spanish footballer (d. 1966)
- 1910 – Irena Sendler, Polish social worker (d. 2008)
- 1911 – Leonard Woodcock, American labor union official and diplomat (d. 2001)
- 1912 – George Mikes, Hungarian-born British author (d. 1987)
- 1913 – Erich Eliskases, Austrian chess player (d. 1997)
- 1914 – Hale Boggs, American politician (d. 1972)
- 1914 – Kevin McCarthy, American actor (d. 2010)
- 1916 – Mary Jane Croft, American actress (d. 1999)
- 1916 – Jack Hanlon, American actor (d. 2012)
- 1918 – Allan Arbus, American actor
- 1918 – Hank Locklin, American singer and songwriter (d. 2009)
- 1920 – Endicott Peabody, American politician (d. 1997)
- 1921 – Radha Krishna Choudhary, Indian historian and writer (d. 1985)
- 1922 – John B. Anderson, American politician
- 1923 – Yelena Bonner, Russian activist, widow of Andrei Sakharov (d. 2011)
- 1926 – Bubba Harris, American baseball player (d. 2013)
- 1927 – Harvey Korman, American actor and comedian (d. 2008)
- 1928 – Norman Bridwell, American author and cartoonist
- 1929 – Graham Hill, English race car driver (d. 1975)
- 1929 – Kauko Armas Nieminen, Finnish physicist
- 1929 – James Schlesinger, American politician
- 1930 – Nico Minardos, American actor (d. 2011)
- 1931 – Claire Bloom, British actress
- 1931 – Geoff Edwards, American television game show host
- 1932 – Troy Kennedy Martin, Scottish film and TV screenwriter (d. 2009)
- 1934 – Graham Kennedy, Australian actor (d. 2005)
- 1934 – Niklaus Wirth, Swiss computer scientist
- 1935 – Susan Brownmiller, American feminist writer
- 1935 – Roger Chaffee, American astronaut (d. 1967)
- 1935 – Gene Hickerson, American football player (d. 2008)
- 1937 – Gregory Mcdonald, American author (d. 2008)
- 1937 – Coen Moulijn, Dutch footballer (d. 2011)
- 1939 – Gerd Bohnsack, German football manager
- 1939 – Ole Ellefsæter, Norwegian cross-country skier
- 1939 – Robert Hansen, American serial killer
- 1940 – John Hadl, American football player
- 1940 – Hamzah Haz, Indonesian politician
- 1941 – Florinda Bolkan, Brazilian actress
- 1941 – Brian Holland, American songwriter and producer
- 1943 – Griselda Blanco, Colombian drug lord (d. 2012)
- 1944 – Mick Avory, English drummer (The Kinks)
- 1945 – John Helliwell, English musician (Supertramp)
- 1945 – Douglas Hofstadter, American academic and writer
- 1946 – Esko Seppänen, Finnish politician
- 1947 – John Coolidge Adams, American composer
- 1947 – Marisa Berenson, American actress
- 1947 – Rusty Hamer, American actor (d. 1990)
- 1947 – Ádám Nádasdy, Hungarian linguist and poet
- 1948 – Ron Cey, American baseball player
- 1948 – Tino Insana, American voice actor
- 1948 – Art Spiegelman, American cartoonist
- 1949 – Ken Anderson, American football player
- 1949 – Hans Graf, Austrian conductor
- 1949 – Francisco Maturana, Colombian footballer and manager
- 1950 – David Brown, American musician (Santana) (d. 2000)
- 1950 – Hark Tsui, Hong Kong director
- 1951 – Melissa Manchester, American singer (Harlettes)
- 1951 – Jane Seymour, English actress
- 1951 – Markku Alén, Finnish World Rally driver
- 1953 – Tony Adams, Irish film producer (d. 2005)
- 1954 – Matt Groening, American cartoonist
- 1954 – Armand Parmentier, Belgian athlete
- 1955 – Janice Dickinson, American supermodel
- 1955 – Christopher McDonald, American actor
- 1956 – Hitoshi Ogawa, Japanese racing driver (d. 1992)
- 1957 – Steve Farhood, American boxing historian and analyst
- 1957 – Jimmy Spencer, American race car driver
- 1957 – Gul Mohammed, Indian primordial dwarf (d. 1997)
- 1958 – Chrystine Brouillet, Canadian novelist
- 1958 – Tony McKegney, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1958 – Matthew Ward, American singer (Second Chapter of Acts)
- 1959 – Ali Campbell, English singer-songwriter (UB40)
- 1959 – Guy de Alwis, Sri Lankan cricketer (d. 2013)
- 1959 – Brian Propp, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1959 – Hugo Savinovich, Ecuadorian wrestler
- 1960 – Mikey Craig, English musician (Culture Club)
- 1960 – Darrell Green, American football player
- 1960 – Roman Kostrzewski, Polish musician (Kat and Kat & Roman Kostrzewski)
- 1961 – Cheam Channy, Cambodian politician
- 1964 – Chris Farley, American actor and comedian (d. 1997)
- 1964 – Leland D. Melvin, American astronaut
- 1964 – Daniel Poudrier, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1964 – Mark Price, American basketball player
- 1965 – Bruce Bell, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1967 – Jane Child, Canadian musician
- 1967 – Kelley Menighan Hensley, American actress
- 1967 – Syed Kamall, British politician
- 1967 – Craig Simpson, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1968 – Angelica Bella, Hungarian pornographic actress
- 1968 – Axelle Red, Belgian singer and songwriter
- 1968 – Mieke Suys, Belgian triathlete
- 1969 – Josh Marshall, American journalist
- 1969 – Bryan Williams, American record executive and rapper
- 1971 – Renée O'Connor, American actress and director
- 1971 – Ray Sefo, New Zealand kickboxer
- 1972 – Jaromír Jágr, Czech hockey player
- 1973 – Alex Borstein, American actress
- 1973 – Kateřina Neumannová, Czech cross country skier
- 1973 – Amy Van Dyken, American swimmer
- 1973 – Sarah Wynter, Australian actress
- 1974 – Miranda July, American performance artist
- 1974 – Gina Lynn, American pornographic actress
- 1974 – Tomi Putaansuu, Finnish singer (Lordi)
- 1974 – Ugueth Urbina, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1974 – Alexander Wurz, Austrian race car driver
- 1975 – Serge Aubin, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1975 – Annemarie Kramer, Dutch sprinter
- 1975 – Brendon Small, American comedian and animator
- 1976 – Brandon Boyd, American musician (Incubus)
- 1976 – Óscar Freire, Spanish cyclist
- 1976 – Giorgos Karagoutis, Greek basketball player
- 1976 – Ronnie Vannucci Jr., American musician (The Killers)
- 1977 – Brooks Wackerman, American musician (Bad Religion)
- 1978 – Kimberly Goss, American singer and musician (Sinergy)
- 1978 – Tuan Le, American poker player
- 1978 – Yiruma, South Korean pianist
- 1979 – Chantal Janzen, Dutch actress, musical star
- 1979 – Alenka Kejžar, Slovenian swimmer
- 1979 – Josh Low, English footballer
- 1979 – Scott Severin, Scottish footballer
- 1979 – Gordon Shedden, Scottish race car driver
- 1980 – Conor Oberst, American singer and songwriter (Bright Eyes)
- 1980 – Josh Sole, New Zealand-born Italian rugby player
- 1981 – Heurelho Gomes, Brazilian footballer
- 1981 – Matt Hoopes, American musician (Relient K)
- 1981 – Diego Martínez, Mexican footballer
- 1981 – Jenna Morasca, American model
- 1981 – Olivia, American singer
- 1982 – Shameka Christon, American basketball player
- 1982 – Tahesia Harrigan, Virgin Islander sprinter
- 1982 – Alex Nodari, Italian footballer
- 1983 – Don Cowie, Scottish footballer
- 1983 – Philipp Degen, Swiss footballer
- 1983 – David Degen, Swiss footballer
- 1983 – Russell Martin, Canadian baseball player
- 1983 – Ashley Tesoro, American actress and singer
- 1984 – Erik Cadée, Dutch discus thrower
- 1984 – Doda, Polish singer (Virgin)
- 1985 – Serkan Kırıntılı, Turkish footballer
- 1986 – Valeri Bojinov, Bulgarian footballer
- 1986 – Gabriel Paletta, Argentine footballer
- 1986 – Amber Riley, American actress and singer
- 1987 – Jarrod Sammut, Australian rugby player
- 1988 – Jarryd Hayne, Australian rugby player
- 1988 – Hironori Kusano, Japanese singer (NEWS)
- 1988 – Tim Mannah, Australian rugby player
- 1990 – Dejan Lazarević, Slovenian footballer
- 1990 – Charles Pic, French racing driver
- 1990 – Erwin Sak, Polish footballer
- 1990 – Stephanie Vogt, Liechtensteiner tennis player
- 1991 – Ángel Sepúlveda, Mexican footballer
- 1991 – Panagiotis Tachtsidis, Greek footballer
- 1992 – Greer Grammer, American actress
- 1998 – Zachary Gordon, American actor
[edit]Deaths
- 1145 – Pope Lucius II
- 1621 – Michael Praetorius, German composer (b. 1571)
- 1637 – Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1578)
- 1738 – Matthias Braun, Czech sculptor (b. 1684)
- 1775 – Peter Dens, Flemish theologian (b. 1690)
- 1781 – Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German author and philosopher (b. 1729)
- 1818 – Friedrich Ludwig, Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, Prussian general (b. 1746)
- 1835 – Henry Hunt, English politician (b. 1773)
- 1839 – François-Marie-Thomas Chevalier de Lorimier, Canadian notary (b. 1803)
- 1842 – Archibald Menzies, Scottish naturalist and surgeon (b. 1754)
- 1844 – Henry Addington, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1757)
- 1847 – Germinal Pierre Dandelin, Belgian mathematician (b. 1794)
- 1848 – Hermann von Boyen, Prussian field marshal (b. 1771)
- 1849 – Pierre François Verhulst, Belgian mathematician (b. 1804)
- 1857 – Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer (b. 1804)
- 1869 – Mirza Ghalib, Indian poet (b. 1796)
- 1905 – Lew Wallace, American general and novelist (b. 1827)
- 1911 – Theodor Escherich, German pediatrician (b. 1859)
- 1919 – André Prévost, French tennis player (b. 1880)
- 1924 – Lionel Monckton, English composer (b. 1861)
- 1928 – H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1852)
- 1932 – Minnie Maddern Fiske, American actress (b. 1865)
- 1933 – Pat Sullivan, Australian cartoonist, animator and producer (b. 1887)
- 1939 – Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Russian painter (b. 1878)
- 1948 – Subhadra Kumari Chauhan Indian poet (b.1904)
- 1953 – Oskar Goßler, German rower (b. 1875)
- 1953 – Karl Staaf, Swedish athlete (b. 1881)
- 1956 – Vincent de Moro-Giafferi, French attorney (b. 1878)
- 1959 – Owen Willans Richardson, British physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1879)
- 1961 – Bradley Lord, American figure skater (b. 1939)
- 1961 – Laurence Owen, American figure skater (b. 1944)
- 1964 – Robert L. Thornton, American businessman and politician (b. 1880)
- 1965 – Nat King Cole, American singer and musician (b. 1919)
- 1966 – Camilo Torres Restrepo, Colombian priest, guerrilla (b. 1929)
- 1966 – Gerard Ciołek, Polish architect (b. 1909)
- 1970 – Sir Hugh Dowding, English RAF commander (b. 1882)
- 1971 – Dimitrios Loundras, Greek gymnast (b. 1885)
- 1973 – Wally Cox, American actor (b. 1924)
- 1973 – Tim Holt, American actor (b. 1919)
- 1974 – Kurt Atterberg, Swedish composer (b. 1887)
- 1981 – Mike Bloomfield, American musician (Electric Flag) (b. 1943)
- 1981 – Karl Richter, German conductor (b. 1926)
- 1984 – Ethel Merman, American singer and actress (b. 1908)
- 1988 – Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1918)
- 1990 – Michel Drach, French film director and producer (b. 1930)
- 1992 – María Elena Moyano, Peruvian activist (b. 1960)
- 1992 – William Schuman, American composer (b. 1910)
- 1996 – Lucio Agostini, Canadian composer and conductor (b. 1913)
- 1996 – Tommy Rettig, American actor (b. 1941)
- 1996 – McLean Stevenson, American actor (b. 1929)
- 1998 – Martha Gellhorn, American writer (b. 1908)
- 1998 – Georgios Mylonas, Greek politician (b. 1919)
- 1998 – Louie Spicolli, American wrestler (b. 1971)
- 1999 – Henry Way Kendall, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1926)
- 1999 – Big L, American rapper (b. 1974)
- 2000 – Angus MacLean, Canadian politician (b. 1914)
- 2002 – Howard K. Smith, American journalist (b. 1914)
- 2002 – Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor (b. 1963)
- 2004 – Jens Evensen, Norwegian minister and jurist (b. 1917)
- 2004 – Jan Miner, American actress (b. 1917)
- 2005 – Pierre Bachelet, French singer and songwriter (b. 1944)
- 2005 – Samuel T. Francis, American journalist (b. 1947)
- 2007 – Walker Edmiston, American actor (b. 1926)
- 2007 – Ray Evans, American songwriter (b. 1915)
- 2008 – Ashley Callie, South African actress (b. 1976)
- 2008 – Amnon Netzer, Iranian-Israeli historian (b. 1934)
- 2009 – Joe Cuba, Puerto-Rican musician (b. 1931)
- 2009 – Dr. Diether H. Haenicke, American university president (b. 1935)
- 2010 – Jeanne M. Holm, American Air Force general (b. 1921)
- 2011 – Fadhel Al-Matrook, Bahraini protester killed by security forces (b. 1979)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Candlemas (Eastern Orthodox Church)
- Christian Feast Day:
- Liberation Day (Afghanistan)
- John Frum Day (Vanuatu)
- National Day (Serbia)
- National Flag of Canada Day (Canada)
- Parinirvana Day, also celebrated on February 8. (Mahayana Buddhism)
- Susan B. Anthony Day (United States)
- The third and final day of Lupercalia, also known as Februa. (Roman Empire)
- Total Defence Day (Singapore)
===
A new video I made for my friend, the incredibly talented Joshua Cole. The song is called Out In The Waves. This video is my anti-MTV music vid.
===
Packer looks to Labor for spin
Piers Akerman – Friday, February 15, 2013 (7:32am)
GAMBLING mogul James Packer has had the Aussie equivalent of an Oprah moment - a teary-eyed baring of the soul interview with local father/confessor figure Mike Willesee.
It would be hard to find a journalist with longer links to the Packer family. Willesee started working at Channel 9 42 years ago (when James was three and still Jamie) and stayed until the 1990s.
He worked for James’s father Kerry and grandfather Sir Frank. The interview was a superb piece of magazine television.
Those who recall Kerry’s forthright exchanges with the press and politicians and his often abrasive public persona would have found it difficult not to empathise with James as he spoke movingly of his father’s love and the deathbed telephone call he made to reach out to his son just 24 hours before he died on Boxing Day, 2005.
Compare Willesee’s interview with the one James gave to Nine’s Karl Stefanovic last May.
It seemed to lack the deeply personal touch the masterly Willesee was able to evoke but it did highlight Packer’s goal to build casinos for Chinese gamblers.
The Willesee interview was cathartic with just a mention of the development of the $2 billion Barangaroo project Packer wants to build in Sydney. In the Stefanovic piece, gambling was front and centre and the personal was kept to a discreet minimum.
As a publicity exercise for the Packer interests, the Willesee interview could not have been more fulsome but it left many questions unanswered. As mature as the relationship between James Packer and his partner in the Macau-based City of Dreams casino project Lawrence Ho was portrayed, there was no mention of the cloud that hangs over Ho’s father Stanley Ho, or his sister Pansy Ho, both deemed “unsuitable” to be engaged in casino activities in the US by law enforcement authorities.
In a 2009 report, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission cited numerous sources including a US Senate committee, several governmental and regulatory agencies, a private investigative firm hired by MGM Mirage in 2001, and an unidentified US law enforcement official asserting Stanley Ho has ties to the mainland’s organised crime.
“The character and reputation of Stanley Ho, the father of MGM’s joint venture partner, precludes any finding other than that he is unsuitable,” the gaming enforcement division wrote. “MGM (Mirage) senior executives conceded his unsuitability during this investigation.”
Though neither Ho has been charged with or convicted of any crime, they have not been permitted to invest in casinos in the US. The 2009 report found that: “Pansy Ho’s extensive and continuing personal, financial and professional relationship with her father directly affect her individual suitability and leave her vulnerable to his potential influence. Her interactions with other persons associated with Asian organised crime also call into question her individual suitability.”
There is no doubt that Sydney needs revitalising and that Barangaroo provides an opportunity, but I question whether another casino is the way this city or this nation needs to go.
In writing about his interview for The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, Willesee raised another concerning issue.
He said: “Mark Arbib, formerly of the Labor Party, was there in some sort of advisory or counselling role, and he checked everything we were doing
“But he didn’t really interfere and James didn’t actually spend much time with him.”
Arbib is entitled to work wherever he wants to but it is where he has worked in the recent past that is interesting.
He was secretary of the NSW branch of the ALP from 2004 to 2007, a rather inglorious period in Labor Party politics and one which is now being put under some scrutiny by ICAC.
Arbib’s particular skill lay in raising money from business for Labor and he was rewarded with the No.1 position on Labor’s Senate ticket at the 2007 federal election.
After being one of the principal players in deposing prime minister Kevin Rudd in June, 2010, he was rewarded by Prime Minister Julia Gillard with plum positions which included the sports ministry and later, the assistant treasurer spot.
He quit his seat after Rudd’s unsuccessful challenge for the leadership last year and was succeeded by former premier Bob Carr.
Arbib is enmeshed in the mire that remains of the NSW Labor Party. He was responsible for its direction during some of its most noxious years, indeed he was praised for his skills.
That he was advising or counselling Packer and “checked everything we were doing” during the Willesee interview should not be surprising. He is a masterful manipulator.
One wonders whether he has been advising Packer on how to play the public since he joined him, given that James Packer’s appearances seem to be marked by the same techniques of emotional appeal as those made by a string of Labor leaders.
Packer has also hired Karl Bitar, Arbib’s successor as NSW ALP secretary and a former national ALP secretary and campaign director. Arbib and Bitar have been intimately associated with an organisation that is on the nose.
When Packer’s tears dry, the people of Sydney must ask themselves whether they believe that a new casino is the sole answer to the state’s lack of economic drive.
The glamour of high-roller gambling can also have a nasty downside as the US authorities acknowledge.
There are many types of tourism in the world. Thailand has sex tourism, for example, parts of Africa have enjoyed safaris.
In the US, Las Vegas, with its casinos and swarms of prostitutes, is a magnet for tourism but it is rivalled by Orlando, home to Disneyworld in Florida.
Can we be so sure that the benefits of a new casino, despite the obvious and welcome architectural bonus, will be worth the potential cost?
===
NOTES HIT
Tim Blair – Friday, February 15, 2013 (4:06pm)
Tony Abbott presents some detail:
‘’We will trim back the Commonwealth public sector, not because we fail to respect the work of public servants … but there’s 20,000 more in the Commonwealth public sector than there were five years ago and there hasn’t been a commensurate increase in service delivery or efficiency.’’Mr Abbott called the school kids’ bonus ‘’a cash splash with borrowed money that has nothing necessarily to do with education’’ and said increasing the refugee intake ‘’would send the wrong signal to the people smugglers’’.‘’And in any event,’’ Mr Abbott said, ‘’at the moment the people smugglers are determining that intake’’.
So far, so good.
UPDATE. On the other hand:
TONY JONES: The Government gave the ABC a $10 million funding boost for its news and current affairs division last week. Do you support that?MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well I don’t need to support it, but I welcome it.TONY JONES: Do you endorse it? Do you think it’s a good idea?MALCOLM TURNBULL: I am a great supporter of the ABC.
===
IPADS OF OBLIVION
Tim Blair – Friday, February 15, 2013 (3:59pm)
The Age‘s Mark Kenny:
In Parliament, Labor’s despair is palpable.After one barely convincing defence from Swan at the dispatch box, not a single ‘’hear-hear’’ was uttered as government MPs stared at their iPads.
Perhaps they were reading about a rumoured poll involving David Bradbury.
Meanwhile, Kevin Rudd dismisses the latest leadership speculation:
Meanwhile, Kevin Rudd dismisses the latest leadership speculation:
I am wearing a blue tie today. It has got ladybirds on it. I’m told there is a comet passing Sydney next week. There is bound to be astrological significance in that in terms of future leadership. Give us a break! It’s not happening.
Whatevs, Kev.
===
MARXISTS AGAINST MARX
Tim Blair – Friday, February 15, 2013 (3:53pm)
Some editorial attention for Sarah Hanson-Young:
Yesterday’s Daily Telegraph exclusive on the Coalition’s draft paper calling for more dams prompted an editorial prediction. We foresaw that it would provoke anti-dam hysteria among environmentalists whose campaigns have resulted in a lamentable end to dam construction across Australia.We claim no great predictive abilities, for these groups routinely oppose any form of material progress. Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young led the charge, claiming that the Coalition’s dam-building ideas were “poorly thought through and environmentally reckless”. The South Australian senator continued: “This is a pie-in-the-sky plan based on 19th century thinking.”If that is the case, then the Greens should be the first to applaud. Practically all of their policies are based on 19th century thinking – specifically, the 19th century thinking of Karl Marx.
Poor old Karl. He’s probably only two or three losses away from becoming British food.
===
APPEAL NARROWED
Tim Blair – Friday, February 15, 2013 (3:41pm)
Fairfax may have secured the flying female demographic, but they’ve lost readers, the Guardian, and now Peter Costello:
Fairfax has lost star columnist Peter Costello after the publisher told the former treasurer he would appear in the opinion pages only once a month, rather than his usual once a fortnight.Costello told Capital Circle he had rejected the proposed change and decided to end his four-year relationship with The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.“I enjoyed putting a contrary view to the prevailing political opinion and editorial line of the paper. The Age should try to broaden its appeal to people who live outside the inner-city suburbs.”
Too late.
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FIGHTING QUALITIES
Tim Blair – Friday, February 15, 2013 (2:53pm)
Accused girlfriend killer Oscar Pistorius has some local support:
Canberra Paralympic legend Michael Milton says Oscar Pistorius’ arrest on murder charges is a huge blow to disability sport …“Those fighting qualities we’ve seen, the determination of him growing up as a double leg amputee, those have made him a mentally tough person,” Milton said.“Hopefully it will put him in good stead to face the challenges that are going to await him.”
Initial reports that Pistorius had mistaken girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp for a burglar have now been dismissed by police. The athlete seems an interesting character.
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Deficit blowing out fast
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(7:06pm)
The Gillard Government seems set to post a deficit that will stain Labor’s reputation for economic management for many years to come:
The Australian government’s monthly financial statement ... showed a $3.85 billion shortfall in underlying cash receipts in the six months to December, compared with the budget update, while spending was $1.414 billion less over that period…The government originally forecast a $1.077 billion surplus for 2012/13.
Don’t expect a fast recovery:
Figures out this week have revealed that the Japanese, German and French economies all shrank in the final three months of 2012.
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The one rigged game was the press conference
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(4:28pm)
Former Labor Senator John Black is rightly suspicious of the press conference that launched the astonishing smear of Australian sport:
JOHN Black, the former Labor senator who in the late 1980s chaired the first government-appointed inquiry into drugs in sport in Australia, has labelled the present Australian Crime Commission investigation as “amateur hour"…The Black inquiry, conducted nearly a quarter of a century ago, covered virtually the same ground being explored by the ACC…But he has little regard for the way the present investigation has been handled and sympathises with innocent athletes and sports angered by the fact they have been embroiled in what he views as a fairly cynical political exercise.“Well, why the hell wouldn’t they (be angry)?” he asked. “It was just amateur hour. You looked at it and you thought, ‘Oh my god, this is going to end in tears.’ But it kept the Eddie Obeid (ICAC) inquiry off the front pages for a week, so that was the purpose of it.
One more allegation - raised in the media following the press conference fronted by two Gillard Government ministers - is just a farcical blunder:
CONCERNS $40 million was wagered on an A-League game by Asian punters have been put to rest after Football Federation Australia revealed the figure was in fact eight times less…And the discrepancy was blamed on the media, which ”reported the estimated figure in Australian dollars instead of the correct denomination of Hong Kong dollars”.
Even the classified version of the ACC report has nothing police feel worth investigating:
THE Australian Crime Commission did not gather any new information about organised crime or doping in sport through telephone taps as part of its 12-month intelligence operation, which Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay says has not provided any basis for a criminal investigation…The lack of specific, suspected crimes documented within the classified version of the ACC report has prompted Mr Lay to seek more information from the federal agency. Mr Lay said Victoria Police had examined both the published and unpublished versions of the report and not found any information on which to base a criminal investigation…“The advice available to us is there is little for us to investigate,” Mr Lay told Radio 3AW’s Neil Mitchell.
This is amazing.
I repeat: the five sports chiefs who were dragooned into Labor’s press conference to smear Australian sport should call another press conference to clear it.
UPDATE
Who goofed? Here’s the how the farcical match fixing claim started:
A former FIFA executive has revealed Asian gamblers bet almost $50 million on an A-League match between the Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United in December.Fairfax Media reported that FIFA’s former head of security, Chris Eaton, said a Hong Kong bookmaker took bets worth $49 million on the December 7 2012 A-League game in Adelaide…Mr Eaton, who last year became the director of integrity for the International Centre for Sports Security, said it highlighted how Asia’s betting market is increasingly turning to Australian soccer.
UPDATE
More farce. The head of anti-doping agency admits “there is not a positive test anywhere in any of this”:
Yet more farce - and what sounds to me too much like a bit of guessing-as-we-go-along:
ASADA chief executive Aurora Andruska estimated that up to 150 players and officials across the codes would be interviewed as part of the investigations but she admitted that figure was only an educated guess.‘’A lot of pressure has been put on me in recent times to try and come up with a number, particularly from the media, so I decided to come up with some number that was realistic with the information that I had at the time,’’ she said.‘’When I have come up with that number I have taken into account that we would need to talk to administrators and players and others that would be associated with whatever was going on so at this early stage of the investigation that is my best estimate.‘’Having said that it could widen because I am reading things in the media about people admitting to taking performance-enhancing drugs that I was not even aware of...”
When the 150 figure came out it was reported as if that’s how many athletes and staff were potentially guilty. Now it’s a guess at how many people may be asked about stuff that might not be a problem anyway.
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Government’s excuse blown
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(4:07pm)
Treasurer Wayne Swan in Parliament blamed a fall in commodity prices - and not his own incompetence - for his mining tax raising only 10 per cent of what he expected and has already spent:
Mr CIOBO (Moncrieff) (14:32): ... Given the mining tax has raised just $126 million in its first six months of operation, when will the Treasurer face the fact that all his revised tax has achieved is that his credentials have indeed been shot to pieces?…Mr SWAN (Lilley—Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer) (14:33): It is the case that, in the second half of last year, which coincided with the first two quarters of the MRRT, there was a huge crash in resource prices. The consequence of that has been less revenue… All of our profit based taxes—company tax, capital gains tax, superannuation tax, resource rent taxes—have taken a very substantial hit from global volatility at the end of last year.
Julia Gillard in Parliament blamed the failure on state governments which increased mining royalties, taking money that would otherwise go to the Gillard Government:
Ms GILLARD (Lalor—Prime Minister) (14:04): ... we have been critical of the reckless approach of state governments to royalties. Interestingly enough, the opposition that has always criticised an efficient profits-based tax in the minerals sector has gone tick, tick, tick to Liberal royalty increases around the country. We have been concerned about increases in these inefficient taxes and we have asked the GST Distribution Review to look at the matter.
But Swan’s own Treasury secretary has now contradicted the Government. No, the tax failed because of Swan’s own mistakes:
TREASURY secretary Martin Parkinson has admitted the design of the mining tax is responsible for its failure to generate revenue, not the falling commodity prices, higher currency and state royalties blamed by the government.In explosive testimony to the Senate economics committee yesterday, Dr Parkinson said ... when Treasury lowered its forecast for first-year revenue from the MRRT from the $3bn predicted in last May’s budget to $2bn in the October update, it had taken into account falling commodity prices, the high value of the Australian dollar and increases in state government royalties…Dr Parkinson said the two big variables it did not take into account - and which resulted in the tax raising only $126 million in its first six months - were the value that the mining companies put on their assets (the starting base for the tax) and the share of the profits that is attributable to downstream operations not covered by the mining tax…Dr Parkinson’s testimony highlights the concessions given by Mr Swan and [Resources Minister Martin] Ferguson, and signed off by the new Prime Minister, when they renegotiated the tax one week after the overthrow of Kevin Rudd in mid-2010.Where the original resource super-profits tax proposed by the Rudd government had required mining companies to value their projects at their written-down book value, the new tax allowed them to use the market value of their assets at March 2010 and then claim depreciation.An assessment by investment bank UBS compared the book value of BHP’s Queensland Coal mines of $3.7bn with its market value of almost $18bn.With a higher value, the companies can make bigger tax deductions for depreciation.The revised tax also applies only to profits derived from mining, not from processing, transporting and shipping minerals. Dr Parkinson suggested the mining companies may be attributing more profit to these downstream activities than Treasury expected.
UPDATE
The Australian:
UPDATE
As if Labor wasn’t in enough despair over Swan:
For a government with a solid story to tell on the economy, Wayne Swan’s refusal to rule out income tax rises in the budget (since ruled out), and his ‘’mistake’’ in quoting the unemployment rate as 5.1 per cent instead of 5.4, sent government morale further south…In Parliament, Labor’s despair is palpable.
After one barely convincing defence from Swan at the dispatch box, not a single ‘’hear-hear’’ was uttered as government MPs stared at their iPads.
No wonder. Here’s just some of Swan’s day yesterday...
First, he raises fears of income tax rises in the next Budget, refusing to rule them out:
FRAN KELLY: Can you guarantee Australians there’ll be no income tax increases?WAYNE SWAN: I don’t in the lead-up to any budget, Fran, this year or any of my five budgets go into that sort of rule-in, rule-out routine and I’m not doing it today.
Hours later, a backtrack, with Swan ruling out what he wouldn’t:
TONY ABBOTT, OPPOSITION LEADER: [Can the Treasurer] absolutely guarantee to the Australian people that the tax burden will be less under a Coalition government…WAYNE SWAN: We will not be increasing personal income taxes.
Then this:
WAYNE SWAN: We stand here with an unemployment rate of 5.1!
Followed by this:
JOE HOCKEY, SHADOW TREASURER: Would the Treasurer advise the House what the actual current unemployment rate is?WAYNE SWAN: Yes, I do think it’s important and it is 5.4 and I did make a mistake.
UPDATE
Chaos:
On Sky News this morning, (Regional Australia Minister Simon) Crean said there was a “design flaw” in the tax that the government was seeking to address.“We’re seeking to actually now change the design because of the way the states, without any criticism from Tony Abbott, have put up their taxes on mining and they themselves become a deduction under the agreement that we reached,” Mr Crean said.Then, at a doorstop interview this afternoon, Mr Crean said the tax would not be overhauled, confirming any change to the regime would be the result of negotiation with the states.“I didn’t say it was being redesigned. Go back and have a look at the transcript. Let’s get your facts right,” he told reporters.
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Muslims liked Bush better
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(2:10pm)
A “new beginning”? Well, that went well. Pakistan’s Muslims preferred George Bush’s America to Obama’s:
After four years of Barack Obama’s diplomatic ‘leadership’ and billions of dollars in attempted friendship aid, a new public opinion poll reveals that 92% of Pakistanis now disapprove of the United States…That’s the lowest favorable rating Pakistan’s citizens have ever given their ostensible North American ally.
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Reconciliation event has Rudd at Gillard’s throat
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(9:56am)
KEVIN Rudd was left out of a key event marking the fifth anniversary of his historic apology to the Stolen Generations and the annual Closing the Gap report that he initiated.The Australian can reveal that Mr Rudd did not receive an invitation to a Reconciliation Australia dinner attended by Julia Gillard and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin on the eve of the Closing the Gap statement last week.Mr Rudd also believes he was not invited to attend a special concert at Parliament House in Canberra on the night of the fifth anniversary of the apology, although the Healing Foundation, which organised the concert, said Mr Rudd was one of many MPs from both sides of politics who were invited.Ms Macklin went to the concert, and her department provided logistical support for it.Mr Rudd attended the event after his office saw a public notice about it. He was mobbed by indigenous attendees when he arrived.
I’ve always said reconciliation events are more for white politicians, making sonorous speeches, than for Aboriginal communities lost in despair.
UPDATE
Strange. I was told it was racist and unlawful to suggest people of mixed ancestry had a choice in defining their “race”. But then come statistics...:
The Australian indigenous population surged 20 per cent to 550,000 in the five years to the 2011 census. But indigenous fertility is only marginally higher than non-indigenous fertility. The increase was due to large numbers of working Australians in cities and towns taking pride in their indigenous heritage and for the first time identifying as Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.The indigenous population of Canberra, for example, grew by 34 per cent.
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McClelland may force by-election on Gillard. UPDATE: No
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(9:54am)
I wasn’t the only person to suspect this was one reason the Prime Minister set an election date so far into the future:
The former federal attorney-general is likely to win a job with the NSW Industrial Relations Commission. Prime Minister Julia Gillard is expected to argue the resignation would be too close to the September 14 election date for a by-election to be necessary, further fuelling speculation the poll decision was simply a strategy to defend that position.Labor holds the southern Sydney seat by 6.9 per cent but internal polling has the party worried they could lose it. .
The real injury which would worry Gillard would be to her leadership.
UPDATE
But if Gillard thought a September 14 election would let her dodge the embarrassing release of Treasury figures on the deficit, forget it:
Appearing before the Senate’s economics committee, Treasury head Martin Parkinson promised to reveal details of the final deficit or surplus for 2012-13 before the September election although he was not legally obliged to.The election is due on September 14. The Treasury’s pre-election financial statement is due on August 22, but the final budget outcome is not due until September 30. Dr Parkinson said that although he would not have all the figures ready before the election he should be able to produce a final figure for the underlying cash balance - the most-watched measure of surplus or deficit - well ahead of the pre-election outlook.‘’Nobody will be under any illusions, or shouldn’t be under any illusions, that they won’t know the underlying cash balance number in time for the election,’’ he said.
UPDATE
A by-election in western Sydney is the last thing Gillard can afford. Simon Benson says the anti-Labor feeling in seats out that way is poisonous:
Senior Labor MPs are now talking about secret union polling over the past month that reveals the seat of Lindsay could return a swing against Labor of more than 20 per cent - which would set a Federal election record.Labor sources in NSW claim knowledge of a recent poll conducted by the Queensland branch of the Liquor, Hospitality & Miscellaneous Workers Union, taken in the key seat… The figures are hard to believe: Labor on a primary vote of just 22 per cent.There is some dispute, however, over the poll’s legitimacy. The “missos” claim they aren’t their numbers. They have done polling ... in Lindsay but claim the results are consistent with national polling trends. But several top Labor sources insist that the polling is real and are putting the numbers around caucus.If the poll is genuine, it would mean a 20 per cent plus swing against sitting member David Bradbury, an outcome rivalled only by the Bass by-election in 1975 ...
But Benson discovers even a Rudd supporter has little faith in Labor’s only hope:
This is an edited version of an unsolicited phone call to me yesterday from a fuming Rudd supporter who fears that the circus tent is about to collapse around the entire Labor Party.“There are two things operating here. One is that Rudd is insane, and the second is that NSW will blow this show up,” the MP said.
UPDATE
No by-election:
(Thanks to reader Peter.)
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Bad timing
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(9:52am)
FORMER Speaker Peter Slipper will face court next month on three charges of dishonesty relating to hire car trips he allegedly took to Canberra wineries.The man who stood down from Parliament’s highest office last October after graphic text messages were published, was summonsed to appear at the ACT magistrates court, where his lawyer Peter Russo secured an adjournment to March 25.
(No comments.)
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Kennett isn’t criticising Baillieu. Just, sadly, describing
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(8:46am)
Jeff Kennett is, sadly, saying no more than has been blindingly obvious for many, many months:
JEFF Kennett has slammed Ted Baillieu’s leadership style - with his stinging criticism endorsed by members of the Premier’s own Cabinet…“One of the responsibilities of government and leadership is actually taking the people with you, giving them a sense of buzz.”He criticised the Government for “reacting rather than leading”.“It comes to a broader point, and that is the ability of the Government to sell its message. And I’ve got to say to you,I think that is far from good enough. I don’t think they are good communicators,” he said.
UPDATE
A pity for Labor:
The former minister in the Bracks and Brumby governments was widely seen as the man best equipped to succeed Labor leader Daniel Andrews.But his power in the party diminished due to a split in the Victorian Right.
UPDATE
Baillieu hits back, but in a Jeff vs Ted contest there can be only one winner:
Baillieu hits back, but in a Jeff vs Ted contest there can be only one winner:
“Jeff was a great premier, did great things for this state… but he hasn’t been premier for a fair while,” Mr Baillieu told 3AW.
“He is not always right. I think you have got to let go.”
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Fairfax papers lose another one in seven sales
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(7:49am)
Worrying news for all newspapers, but disastrous for the Fairfax-owned Age and Sydney Morning Herald:
In the three months to December 2012, the entire newspaper market fell 8.1%, according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, which measure the average per-issue paid print sales…In keeping with the trend of recent circulation results, Fairfax saw a 14.8% decline overall in print sales, while News Limited dropped 5.3%…In NSW, the weekday edition of News Limited’s Daily Telegraph fell 2%, compared to the weekday edition of the Sydney Morning Herald which declined 14.5%. The largest decline across all metro newspapers was seen by Fairfax’s Sun-Herald, falling 22.9%.In Victoria, Fairfax’s The Age dropped 14.5% in its weekday edition, while News Limited’s Herald Sun fell 4.7%. Similar differences were seen in the Saturday and Sunday editions.
Yes, there is some glimmer of hope - or a mirage:
Combined average daily sales of the weekday digital editions of News Limited’s The Australian and Fairfax Media’s The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age rose by 13.4 per cent in the period, compared with the September quarter, and Saturday digital sales were up 19 per cent.
Yes, that’s good. But digital subscriptions don’t bring in the money that print sales do. More readers can still leave mastheads with less money.
News Ltd mastheads still sell so many papers that they have time to figure out ways to fully monetise their on-line offerings. But The Age and Sydney Morning Herald are now falling so fast that their weekday print editions may well be out of business within five years. Or even sooner.
UPDATE
Reader Bruce:
The 14.5% fall in sales of the Sydney Morning Herald occurred before they raised the price from a $1.70 to $2.00. My local newsagent tells me that the drop off in sales has accelerated.
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Richardson is right: more ministers should argue with sceptics
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(7:21am)
I wish more ministers would listen to warmist Graham Richardson, the former Labor power broker, and argue their global warming beliefs on radio:
Talkback radio is fast becoming the wholly owned domain not simply of conservative presenters but of conservative beliefs and values. Too many ministers in this government have simply wimped out on the task of taking on the presenters…What really irritates me is that this absence leaves a vacuum crying out to be filled. The climate change deniers have more than succeeded in this endeavour. I can’t remember the last time I heard a climate scientist speak up. Their silence is just as frustrating as that of the ministers.
Well, Graham, one reason warmists - particularly in Government - hate arguing the science is that it contradicts them.
Another reason may be that they know that they will be asked a question to which there is no answer that doesn’t expose the lunacy of their carbon tax and $10 billion clean energy fund: by how much will all this cut the world’s temperature by 2100?
Others would be too embarrassed to be asked about previous predictions - on droughts and empty dams, for instance - that have since proved bogus.
That’s why there’s a silence. And believe me, Graham, I wish that boycott of the sceptics would end, too - but for the very opposite reason you do.
As for this:
Why is it that Barack Obama is able to declare in his State of the Union address that he will, if necessary, act on climate change in defiance of his congress?
There are three answers. First, too few journalists are prepared to call out Obama on hisexaggerations and false claims, or can get close enough to him to confront him with the science.
Second, Obama doesn’t face re-election any more. He can say what the hell he likes.
Third, Obama can promise, but delivery is another thing completely. Ask Gillard.
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A sign of the Left’s hypocrisy
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(6:49am)
This sign, at a rally against Julia Gillard’s carbon tax which was addressed by Tony Abbott, was denounced as shocking, sexist and vile, and was said to be proof of Abbott’s misogyny:
Here are some signs, at a rally yesterday of teachers against Victorian Premier Ted Ballieu’s education budget:
The rally was addressed by Victorian Labor leader Daniel Andrews:
Will Andrews be condemned as was Abbott? Are Labor leaders held to the same standard as Coalition ones?
Can we have a comment from Gillard on those signs?
(Thanks to reader Victoria 3220.)
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My argument in a picture so even Emerson understands
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(12:08am)
Trade Minister Craig Emerson on our 2GB show this week again tried to deny there had been a 16-year pause in global warming.
His argument was bizarre - that there cannot have been such a pause because the average temperature of the past decade was higher than of the decade before.
I was cross with myself for not being able to make Emerson understand the fallacy of that argument. I used an analogy - that my 18-year-old son stopped growing a year or two ago, but his average height over the past couple of years is still greater than his average height before then.
But Emerson refused to understand the point.
Forensic accountant Terry was equally frustrated with the mathematical ineptitude of a senior minister of the government which gave us a carbon tax on the assumption the world was warming fast.
So Terry has produced a graphic which surely even Emerson can understand:
As I tried to tell Emerson, to say the past decade was warmer than the one before is true - but still does not contradict the fact that for 16 years there has been no warming of any statistical significance.
Now, finally, will Emerson retract and apologise?
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Public servants complain even Rudd wasn’t this bad
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(12:02am)
[A former Rudd Government insider], who operated in a key role and observed much of the discussion and decision making, says ... “the Rudd Government was never, and could never have been, a functional government because of the man who ran it"…There is a section on “the culture of blame and fear throughout the government”, claiming that Rudd’s angry treatment of staff and public servants was very calculated…The paper says Rudd was a poor Cabinet chairman who rarely arrived on time for meetings, leaving ministers and officials twiddling their thumbs...
But there is one word beginning to be used by people in and around the Government: chaos…Key decisions are not being made…A senior Labor figure who has until now been a strong Rudd supporter predicted the public service would begin leaking against Rudd because of his treatment of them…Insiders say that barely a day seems to go by when the Prime Minister’s office is not derailed by an ultra-sensitive leader who abandons his program at a whim…One senior government staffer said: “You’ve got no idea of the level of paranoia in Rudd’s office at the moment.
The truth is, Rudd was impossible to work with. He regularly treated his staff, public servants and backbenchers with rudeness and contempt…He made crushing demands on his staff, and when they laboured through the night to meet those demands, they received no thanks, and often the work was not used. People who dared to stand up to him were put in “the freezer” and not consulted or spoken to for months…He seemed to feel that everyone was always letting him down....Vital decisions were held up while he struggled to make up his mind, frequently demanding more pieces of information that merely delayed the final result.
High-level public servants across several departments have told The Canberra Times they believe the government to be in ‘’bunker mode’’ and fearful of leaks against it.
‘’Trust with the bureaucracy has evaporated and relations between ministers and departments are at their lowest since Labor came to office,’’ one said....‘’The release of the September 14 election date has only served to elevate the level of panic within government,’’ one said.
‘’Staff in ministers’ offices are just being outright rude to staff in the departments. And some of the ministers are just as bad, if not worse.’’
Others spoke of workloads becoming ‘’ridiculous’’, ‘’over the top’’ and ‘’unsustainable’’.
‘’They want it yesterday and they want more of it than ever before,’’ one said…‘’There is zero consultation on policy and announcements, which means there is a last-minute scramble to do their bidding once they’ve decided on a course of action.’’
This sounds very much like the last days of the Rudd regime, too.
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Labor’s excuse exposed: it simply spent too much
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(12:01am)
Reader Jonathan from Michael Smith’s blog on the real cause of Labor’s record deficits:
What the attached document shows is that Labor’s claim that their record deficits result from falling revenue is absolute garbage.You will see if they kept average spending as a percent of GDP to the average of the last 5 Coalition budgets they should have delivered surpluses in 3 out of 4 budgets. Instead they have increased expenditure as a percent of GDP by 3.85%…Why a member of the Press Gallery has not taken the time to do this basic research task is beyond me.
Another of Michael’s readers describes the problem like this:
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Will Dr Karl be corrected?
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY152013(12:01am)
Following my post yesterday, reader Jamie submits a complaint to both the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the ABC to test their impartiality:
Dear ACMA,I would like to lodge a formal complaint in regards to misinformation supplied to me via a Twitter exchange on January 29, 2013.My complaint extends to Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, a presenter of Science on the ABC, BBC and Twitter.Dr Karl has a broad and extensive following through his exposure to ABC, BBC and Twitter media, where he has over 177,000 followers, including impressionable minors.I am a ‘follower’ of @DoctorKarl and routinely absorb some interesting facts as presented by Kruszelnicki. I put a question to @DoctorKarl via my handle (see timeline in link below) @JWSpry on the 29th January, querying whether the MET Office UK had correctly supplied information to me and others of ‘statistically-insiginficant’ global warming for the last ~ 16 years.Dr Karl’s reply stipulated that in fact this was wrong and the “world has warmed 0.3C in last 16 years.”I have checked the MET office data and they report a trend of about “0.03C/decade warming” So Dr Karl has exaggerated the science by a factor of 10.Kruszelnicki has refused to correct his error…As Doctor Karl has such a wide audience of over 177,000 Twitter followers and countless ABC & BBC listeners/viewers, I feel it necessary for a ‘Scientist’ of his status and fame to respect and uphold a higher set of scientific rigour in the pursuit of delivering science facts as they are empirically derived.A formal retraction, correction or explanation of the incorrect information supplied to me by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki would therefore be dutifully expected to resolve this matter.Yours Faithfully, Jamie S***
For anyone else thinking of complaining, I would note two things.
First, Dr Karl was actually out by a factor of six, not 10. The trend noted by the Met of 0.03C/decade warming actually works out to 0.05 degrees of warming over 16 years, rather than Dr Karl’s claimed 0.3.
Second, ACMA may be more interested in a radio broadcast than in a tweet. A reader yesterday reported that Dr Karl this week (on Wednesday, I believe) made the same false claim on 1062 ABC Riverland, and refused to retract it when challenged by a listener.
I did not hear that exchange so do not know if it was accurately reported to me.
I’m sick of seeing sceptics punished for minor, inadvertent errors while warmists seem free to push incorrect data and wild scares with impunity.
Make a stand against the scaremongers. Time to hold some to account.
UPDATE
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Beloved, no matter what kind of situation you are in today, I encourage you to see yourself in Christ. All that He is and has applies to you, right now in this world (1John 4:17)!
And where is Jesus today? Ephesians 1:20–23 tells us that He is seated at the Father’s right hand, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named.
So as Jesus is far above every principality and power, so are you! As He is far above every disease and physical condition, so are you! As He is far above every kind of fear, depression and addiction, so are you!http://josephprince.com/
Speak God’s blessings over your family and children, and watch them rise up to be winners in the fight of life! Check out today's devotional. Be sure to click "like" to help spread the word! Thanks, all! http://bit.ly/WlCnyh
Beloved, there are essentially two ways to live life. The first is to depend on and trust entirely in the Lord’s unmerited favor, while the other is to depend on your self-efforts to strive for success.
If you depend on your self-efforts, you will most likely end up stressed, with no quality time for your family. You may even experience poor health. But God’s ways are higher. When you depend on Him, He will cause you to not only accomplish much, but be relaxed, have time to spend with your family and experience divine health.
So beloved, I encourage you to choose God’s way. In all that you do, place your trust not in your good works, your efforts and your abilities, but in His unearned and undeserved favor that is upon you, and watch Him bring you to a place of good success that no amount of self-effort can ever achieve! http://josephprince.com/
You might think that nobody knows what you are going through today. Jesus knows because He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother and He is right there with you to help you.
Establish your heart in righteousness, and you shall be far from oppression for you shall not fear, and from terror for it shall not come near you (Isaiah 54:14). Check out today's devotional. Be sure to click "like" to help spread the word! Thanks, all! http://bit.ly/WlDsGd
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Teachers Make My Day
On a history test we were asked, "Who was Michelangelo?"
I answered, "Renowned artist/Ninja Turtle. Wore an orange headband. Weapon: daggers." My teacher marked this wrong and wrote back, "Weapon: nunchucks. Check your facts".
Teenage Mutant Ninja Teacher? Awesome.
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4 TMN
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Free Wallpaper on Valentines Day! Have a wonderful Valentines my friends. Tell your loved ones what they mean to you.
I call this image Colorado Bliss.
Image size is 1920x1080. Right click to save to your HD.
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4 TMN
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