Saturday, June 08, 2013

Sat Jun 8th Todays News

Happy birthday and many happy returns Lý Thành Tuấn and Gary Renouf. Born on the same day, across the years. A day in which, in 1856, descendants of Tahitians and the HMS Bounty mutineers settled on Norfolk Island, an abandoned British penal colony. In 1959, the U.S. Navy submarine USS Barbero fired a Regulus cruise missile, equipped with US Post Office Department containers, in an attempt to deliver mail via rocket. I guess rocket delivered mail is now routine. And you have had more than enough time with those Tahitian women. Enjoy the day.
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1 of 26

Tim Blair – Saturday, June 08, 2013 (6:25pm)

England and Australia will meet 26 times across all formats between tonight and February 2. 
Australia currently averages 4.3 across the three formats in global rankings; England is slightly better at 3.3. A running total here of runs scored will determine the Great War’s outcome.

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NIGHT STALKER DEAD

Tim Blair – Saturday, June 08, 2013 (6:21pm)

Richard Ramirez, captured by East LA civilians in 1985 after killing more than a dozen people, has died at 53. The murderer’s first words to police after they rescued him from angry residents: “Thank God you came.” Patt Morrisonrecalls
Other serial killers, their neighbors and friends often say, looked “so normal.” Not this one. 

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STEVIE HAPPY

Tim Blair – Saturday, June 08, 2013 (2:01pm)


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HIGH STEPPES

Tim Blair – Saturday, June 08, 2013 (1:38pm)

Ukrainian dancing:



(Via Bob G.) 

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ADULT STOLEN

Tim Blair – Saturday, June 08, 2013 (1:09pm)

According to the ABC’s biography of NSW deputy Labor leader Linda Burney: 
Linda grew up in Whitton, a small farming community near Leeton. One of the ‘Stolen Generation’ of Aboriginal children, she first met her father when she was 28 years old. 
But according to Burney herself
I’m not one of the stolen generation … 
And again
Burney is careful to make clear she was never a member of the stolen generation removed from her parents ... 
Looks like a job, as the Professor argues, for the ABC’s new fact-checker.

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Observe again the price of the Left’s “compassion”. More boat people drown

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (7:22pm)

It hasn’t been confirmed, but I’m told up to 150 boat people are feared missing:

Australian authorities were Saturday scrambling to locate an asylum-seeker boat feared to have sunk off the remote Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island, officials said.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the search, said a navy vessel and two merchant ships along with three aircraft were searching the area about 65 nautical miles northwest of Christmas Island following a tip-off from customs and border protection officials on Friday morning.
This government has been warned for four years its decision to weaken our border laws was luring people to their deaths. More than 1000 people have died already. Now this.
Shameful, shameful, shameful. This is the price of “compassionate” policies enacted without a thought to the consequences.
As for the Greens, which refuse even now to back tougher laws, they are beyond contempt. 

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Free speech is not for conservatives

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (12:47pm)

Free speech
Former deputy Liberal leader Neil Brown writing in the latest Spectator on the Eddie “King Kong” McGuire controversy:

Andrew Bolt, it will be remembered, had alleged that some white Australians had identified as black to leverage their career and social advancement, an opinion you could argue about from either side of the issue. But to label a black man as suitable to be paraded around town as a gorilla is blatant, crude and well within the ambit of what, today, is regarded as racism. Bolt was pilloried, hauled into court, found guilty of violating the Racial Discrimination Act and branded for evermore as a racist; the Left will never forgive him. But in Maguire’s case, his claim that the remark was a ‘slip of the tongue’ has been widely accepted; the football supremo Andrew Demetriou said the league would not punish Maguire; the board of his own club gave Maguire a unanimous vote of confidence; others claimed poor Eddie did not have a racist bone in his body and it emerged that he would end up with no greater punishment than counselling.
But then, Bolt writes for the wicked Murdoch press, supports freedom and self-reliance, does not pander to the darlings of the Left and was therefore fair game for stepping outside the politically correct safety zone of approved public discourse. Maguire, in contrast, is part of the republican, progressive, social push for whom there are, yet again, special rules and exemptions, and he is in no danger of being either sued or charged. So that is the result of Melbourne’s brush with two claims of racism: Bolt is taken to court; Maguire goes to counselling. I just wish we could have the same standards for all — and expect people to live up to them, no matter who they are. 

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Britons would pray for global warming

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (12:09pm)

It’s supposed to be global warming, but how often do warming alarmist seize on local weather to spread their fear? Two can play that game:

Britain has endured the coldest spring for more than 50 years with the mean temperature at a measly 6C, the Met Office has confirmed.
Oh, and remember this alarmist?

So even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems.
Yes, that was our Chief Climate Commissioner, Tim Flannery, in 2007. In fact, it’s rained plenty since. Take this month:

Melbourne has had the wettest start to winter in 150 years, with the first seven days of June seeing a record level of rainfall.
UPDATE
How could delegates to a UN global warming conference not even know of the pause in global warming?
More evidence that the global warming movement is a faith, not science.
(Via Catallaxy Files.) 

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Bolt Report tomorrow

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (12:04pm)

On Channel 10 at 10am:
Why have Labor MPs let Julia Gillard ruin Labor? And Kevin Rudd’s game.
My guest: Labor’s Richard Marles, who lost his frontbench job after backing Kevin Rudd.
The panel: Nick Minchin and Gary Johns.
The twitter feed.
The place the videos appear

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How unions profit from the asbestos scare

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (11:36am)

Another reason to be very suspicious about the NBN asbestos beatup:
Up until now, Telstra has avoided any of the blame for the NBN malaise. The work it has been contracted to do, including repairs to its older, asbestos-containing pits is running ahead of schedule. So far, some 30,000 pits have been remediated.
But then it emerged that contractors employed by Telstra working on the NBN had on more than one occasion mishandled deadly fibres – potentially putting workers and families at risk.
One intriguing subplot to the unfolding events this week concerns a power struggle between two factions of the CEPU – a turf war that also indirectly sheds light on the massive structural challenges facing the NBN.
While the communications division of the CEPU is responsible for all employees of Telstra and NBN Co, officials from the electrical division have played the most prominent role in attacking the telecoms giant and NBN Co in public over asbestos issues.
There have been suggestions both inside the union and externally that, while concerns about asbestos are very real, the ­electrical wing has seized on the issue as part of a membership drive and to assert control over the union.
The NBN has been a huge disappointment for unions, which saw the massive project as an opportunity to increase membership. That never transpired, mainly because much of the on the groundwork is subcontracted out to non-unionised ‘mum and dad’ operations, sometimes two and even three steps removed from NBN Co and Telstra.

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China and the rise of the mafia state

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (11:30am)

A farewell to China - and a warning to us - from the very fine Beijing correspondent John Garnaut:

In July I was in Xinjiang, covering an even bloodier round of race riots, when a contact rang to ask what had happened to a friend of mine, the Rio Tinto iron ore executive Stern Hu. I learnt he had been arrested and the iron ore wars had been elevated to a matter of Chinese national security. Australia was, again, the canary in China’s coalmine.
Each night my head reeled with the implications of information absorbed but not fully digested. Where was China going? Was I doing justice to the story and getting the balance right? Grey hairs appeared, the skin under my eyes grew darker and I found myself jolted wide awake, bathed in sweat, in the pre-dawn hours each morning. With every road trip and each deep interview, I discovered afresh how little I’d known before.
I had seriously underestimated the extent to which the Communist Party had inoculated itself against the values and institutions of the European Enlightenment that underpinned capitalism in the West. The webs of patronage, bribery and thuggery that had so shocked me in Beijing’s western hills extended deep into the political machine. The tools of coercion, co-option and censorship – so effective in revolution and keeping the party in power – were being deployed for the benefit of individuals within the elite.
Following the money in just one sector, coal, led to the mistress of a provincial governor, associates of a Politburo member, children of a premier and the son of a vice-president. I was drawn to the Yangtze River metropolis of Chongqing, where a maverick “princeling” politician, Bo Xilai, was waging a brutal war against the city’s mafia by making it his own. “China is on a path towards becoming a mafia state,” I wrote in a column of 2010 which, looking back, I’m a bit surprised I put in print.
When Chinese Australians with young families had their assets stripped and were put in jail, I did my best to make it harder for Canberra to pretend that these were mere “consular matters”. Yang Hengjun (Henry Yang), a former diplomat whose charisma and flair for words had earned him millions of fans on the Chinese-language internet, told me that if foreign governments could not fight to protect their own citizens, by pressuring Chinese officials to uphold their own laws, then what hope could Chinese citizens have?
When was the last time the words “Stern Hu” dropped from the lips of our obsequious Foreign Minister? 

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Bob Ellis: the authentic voice of Labor’s moral decline

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (10:19am)

image
Remember as you read this that Bob Ellis is a Labor speechwriter and friend of Foreign Minister Bob Carr. Such people pride themselves on their superior morality.
I don’t like people being sued for what they say (even though my wife wistfully contemplates what I could have earned by being touchy). That said, a writ from Tony Abbott would be no more than this slob deserves.
UPDATE
Reader doc:

Are they all this mad and bad, even evil and tolerant of criminal behaviour? Unbelievable! Is this the famed ‘labor values’ we keep having preached at us? This insane rant you point out is the stuff of a prison culture, the antithesis of Julia’s inferred moral superiority. Are they all entirely so sick and demented? Unbelievable!
(Thanks to reader Baden.)  

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NBN: spending billions on waiting for Godot

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (10:06am)

The NBN was always too expensive and now it’s too late:

THE rollout of the $37.4 billion National Broadband Network in South Australia has been hit by “significant delays”, forcing the state’s Labor government to dramatically recast connection projections in its budget. 

South Australian budget papers released on Thursday by Premier—and Treasurer—Jay Weatherill revealed the government had forecast that 10 per cent of all premises “would be connected to fibre broadband access by the NBN” in 2012-13.

However, the budget papers state the estimated result for the current financial year is just 0.21 per cent. The forecast for 2013-14 has been drastically revised to 2.5 per cent. “The 2012-13 estimated result is due to significant delays in the deployment of the NBN in SA,” the papers say.
(Thanks to reader Peter.) 

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What is Mark Scott’s excuse for the ABC’s bias now?

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (9:59am)

ABC managing director Mark Scott used to argue the ABC was balanced because its main current affairs shows - all hosted by Leftists - invited on token conservatives:

Mr Scott acknowledged that “there is now the expectation...that there is demonstrated plurality of opinion and perspective” within the ABC. Mark Scott praised the Insiders and Lateline programs for “ensuring a range of political perspectives on the issue of the day” (Insiders)...
Reader Peter of Bellevue Hill:

AB, the Insiders’ couch this Sunday has gone all left again, with Coorey, Taylor and Kenny.
The three-week absence of conservatives that began after Hendo’s 28 April appearance was broken briefly over the last fortnight (Savva followed by Hendo), but now we’re back to three love medialistas joining Love Media Chairman of the Board, Barrie Cassidy.
As an aside, I’ve found myself wondering when the long established Cassidy + two other leftists versus a single conservative became acceptable. Of course, there’s not a lot you can do about the host week-to-week, but surely if you have two guest leftists versus one conservative one week, shouldn’t it be two conservatives versus one leftist the next? Or, if we have three leftists as is the case this week, shouldn’t I be able to tune into the public broadcaster next week to see Hendo, Savva and Piers on the couch? Yes, I know: that’ll be the day.

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Labor MPs throw themselves over a cliff because faction bosses said so

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (9:54am)

Peter van Onselen discovers a remarkable tribute to the power of the faction heavies who have propped up the Prime Minister leading Labor to destruction:

Nevertheless, of the 50 or so lower house MPs for Labor who are strapped in and at serious risk of losing their jobs, remarkably about 35 of them would have voted for Gillard had there been a showdown earlier this year (according to a mash of numbers presented to me by both camps).
That is how much hold powerbrokers have over grateful Labor MPs.
UPDATE
The union bosses propping up Gillard would rather have an unelectable leader they control than a popular one they don’t.  They’d rather Labor be destroyed than recover without them.
Peter Hartcher:

One of the reasons Gillard is safe is that the big right-affiliated unions have fought staunchly to keep her in place. When Crean pressed Gillard to call a leadership spill and it seemed Rudd might challenge, two of the key union bosses lobbied their affiliated MPs to stick with Gillard.
She has delivered for us, and we have to be loyal to her, was the message from the Australian Workers’ Union’s Paul Howes and the Transport Workers Union’s Tony Sheldon. She continues to deliver for the unions, even if they’re giving up on her, and that’s why Rudd’s case is close to being terminal.
Would Gillard consider stepping aside for the good of the party?… Some bosses are immovable. Gillard is one of them.
The good of the party comes second. The good of the bosses comes first. 

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How Labor’s boat people stupidity opened the door to trouble

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (9:05am)

Greg Sheridan on how Labor’s boat people disaster is leaving with us with a dangerously unassimilated minority:

This boatpeople phenomenon is essentially a determined Muslim immigration....
The case of convicted Egyptian terrorist Maksoud Abdel Latif illustrates how the security system is overwhelmed by the present numbers, but it is not the key policy question.
Assume that 40,000 of those who have arrived so far are Muslims, mostly low skilled and with limited English. Assume that eventually they will all stay in Australia, which is the only rational assumption if policy doesn’t change radically. Then assume that, on a very conservative basis, each is responsible, eventually, for one family reunion immigrant, whether a spouse, fiance, parent or sibling. That is a cohort, so far, of 80,000 low-skilled Muslims with poor English predominantly from countries that have the most radical and extreme jihadist traditions in the world…

The Immigration Department’s figures, released last year, revealed that five years after arrival the rate of employment - not unemployment but employment - of Afghans was 9 per cent, while 94 per cent of Afghan households received Centrelink payments. From Iraq, 12 per cent were employed while 93 per cent of families received Centrelink payments. Overall, households that came under the humanitarian program had 85 per cent receiving Centrelink payments after five years…
We are allowing, indeed attracting, a huge cohort of unskilled Muslim immigrants who have not been chosen by Australian policy or process. But there are almost no unskilled jobs, which is why we stopped unskilled migration in the 1970s. If it follows even remotely the European pattern, this cohort will be characterised by high unemployment, intergenerational welfare dependency, high crime rates, social problems across a broad spectrum and a minority tendency to extremism.
Paul Kelly on the danger:
ASIO chief David Irvine told the joint committee on intelligence and security that vetting boatpeople involved a “very, very considerable allocation” of ASIO resources but this was “not a misallocation” since in the past two years it found 58 people who should not be allowed into Australia because of the potential security risk.
ASIO said plane arrivals were time-consuming but they have “a passport and at least they do not have four different dates of birth or three different names.”
How did Labor unleash all this - while luring 1000 boat people to their deaths?
Because it succumbed to the Left’s besetting weakness - to prefer seeming to achieving. To judge by intentions rather than consequences. To seize on public policy as opportunities to advertise their feelings, rather than consider the objective facts.
It fell for the rhetoric of the permanently irresponsible, as demonstrated on this week by ABC presenter - of course! - Jonathan Green:

We honour the now timeworn maxim: “we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come”. But surely we also sense the darker truth at the heart of this discussion: that there are votes in pandering to xenophobia and outright racist loathing and fear…
And all of this dark heat around an issue that is essentially a fabrication created for purely political purpose. The trickle of boat-borne arrivals does not by any objective international measure constitute a crisis. What it does constitute is an opportunity to rake fear in a sometimes xenophobic and insular public.
UPDATE
The rate of boat people arrivals in the past two months is astonishing - 100 a day - with no slowing this month. Reader Gab:

The first seven days of June and there’s no let-up. 10 boats with 817 “asylum” seekers have arrived.

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Fairfax ideologues try to punch Tony Abbott

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (8:56am)

Another attempt from Fairfax to smear Tony Abbott for what he might have done as a student 35 years ago:
Mr Abbott, then a firebrand conservative student leader, had wrested the presidency from a left-dominated student council.
Note: a conservative is a “firebrand”, but the radical Left is simply “Left”.
Now he was intent on ejecting his recalcitrant opponents and claiming his new domain.
That’s one way of putting it. How about this: “Now radical Left students were refusing to accept the majority will and hand over the offices peacefully to the newly elected president”?

The locks had been changed three times by the rival groups during the weekend, and Mr Abbott had camped at the offices to protect his beachhead.
Why the militaristic terms? Why not: “Abbott was forced to camp at the offices to stop militant radicals from seizing them by force”?
Entering the council’s complex from the rear, the then 25-year old (Peter) Woof stumbled into a melee.
“Stumbled”? Really? The much older Woof, a Leftist, just happened to wander in innocently?

Speaking publicly for the first time about the encounter, he recalls taking up a ‘’protective’’ position across an inner doorway.
What the hell does this even mean? He just “stumbles” in innocently, and immediately takes a “protective” position “across” a doorway? I suspect readers are being misled here.

Almost immediately, he says, an agitated Mr Abbott came up without warning and took a swing at him. ‘’I don’t think he meant to connect,’’ says Mr Woof. ...  ‘’I had to duck’’. 
So Abbott didn’t mean to connect and didn’t connect, yet this is still described as taking “a swing at” Woof? This account is a joke.

Mr Woof remained sufficiently aggrieved days later to go to the nearby Glebe courthouse and lay a previously unreported civil claim for assault against Mr Abbott.
“Aggrieved”? Or “politically motivated”?

‘’I didn’t think the bastard should get away with it,’’ says Mr Woof. ‘’He wasn’t a liked person … it wasn’t his politics, it was the way he implemented his politics.’’
Yeah, right… A Leftist complaining to Leftist journalists about a conservative student politician - almost an oxymoron in their world, and certainly sinister.
After giving evidence to the magistrate and being asked to call witnesses, Mr Woof decided his cause was doomed in the face of this firepower, and withdrew. ‘’One way or another, I could see I would be outmanoeuvred.’’
What is it about this punishment-by-process that reeks of the Left? And how can you be “outmanoeuvred” if truth is on your side?

He left Sydney the next year to join the anti-whaling organisation Sea Shepherd ...
Gosh, what a surprise. And such a gentle organisation, knowing nothing of acts of violence itself.

Memories of his encounter with Mr Abbott have been stirred by the resurfacing of 35-year-old contemporaneous accounts of the fracas and events leading to it, which Fairfax Media has obtained.
Good old Fairfax. Such dogged determination to uncover the facts about this, but not about something far more disturbing and recent involving Gillard.

One leaflet is headed ‘’President’s report: Left clings to power’’, apparently written and signed off by Mr Abbott.
‘’Unfortunately one Peter Woof, claiming to have business with Honi [Honi Soit, the student paper] in fact proved interested only in opening the door to his confreres outside.
‘’I had to restrain him from doing so,’’ wrote Mr Abbott. ‘’I also had to restrain [then SRC electoral officer] David Patch from closing the front office in my face.’’…
Mr Woof says he had come to the SRC offices alone and was neither trying nor able to let others in when Mr Abbott took a swing at him.
One story sounds to be to ring far more true than the other.
Next from Fairfax: What Tony Abbott once said to a kid in grade three.

Three things. First, Abbott strikes me from this anecdote to have been a determined young man, standing tall against Leftist thuggery and abuse. Good on him.
Second: is this trash really all the Left has got left?
Third: why this interest in what innocuous thing a 20-year-old Abbott did 35 years ago, when Fairfax ran dead on what highly suspect things Gillard, then a law partner in her thirties, did not 20 years ago?
Final Fairfax touch? The headline:

Swings and arrows of Abbott’s outrageous uni life
“Outrageous”? This is not reporting but smearing. 

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No teleprompter, no president

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (8:42am)

Nothing really to say:

President Obama strolled out to the podium today in San Jose, CA and was immediately at a loss for words. Not only did the President not have teleprompter, his aides forgot his speech.
“My remarks are not sitting here,” the President declared awkwardly.  “I’m uhhh….people….oh goodness….uhhhh...folks are sweating back there right now.”

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Kevin Rudd on tour to show he’s PM material

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (8:27am)

It is Kevin Rudd’s last push to be leader again:

More than 32 sitting Labor MPs and candidates who fear losing their seats have asked for Mr Rudd to campaign in their electorates.
However, Rudd-backers yesterday revealed the tour was about testing the waters for a final push to retake the leadership by proving that he alone had the popularity to win in September.
How many Labor MPs would want Gillard to campaign in their electorates? 

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Will Labor accept Tony Abbott’s mandate to axe the tax?

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (12:09am)

Carbon tax
With Labor certain to be thrashed at the election, time to ask the kind of question normally reserved for after a defeat.
Would Labor accept Tony Abbott’s mandate and let him repeal the carbon tax?
Here’s why voters should be told before the election: if Labor insists on voting for their tax, the Liberals must win very big to get enough seats in the Senate to repeal it. Otherwise, the Liberals will call another double dissolution election within a few months to get rid of it.
Who wants a second election? The cost, the uncertainty, the months more of politicking.
So Labor must let voters know: does it have to be really smashed in September or can waverers still trust them with their vote?
How badly does Labor need to be beaten for the carbon tax to be scrapped?
UPDATE
And, of course, a double dissolution could well hand the Coalition control of the Senate, robbing Labor the chance of teaming with the Greens to help union mates, union thugs and union extremists:

THE cornerstones of Tony Abbott’s workplace policy, including an assault on unions and increased criminal penalties for unlawful conduct, will be blocked after the Greens declared they would use their balance of power to oppose the changes.
Deputy leader Adam Bandt said the Greens, who will hold the balance of power in the Senate until at least July next year, would not support four key elements of the Coalition’s workplace policy, including changes that would allow workers to trade off conditions, such as penalty rates, more easily…
Newspoll chief executive Martin O’Shannessy said yesterday that based on current opinion poll results, it was not likely the Coalition would “get control of the Senate very easily” after July 1.

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Do the Janoskians really represent the Sony brand?

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (12:03am)

Would Sony really keep supporting ferals seemingly bred in some swamp?

MUSIC giant Sony looks set to dump Melbourne boy band The Janoskians.
Crisis talks erupted at the label after an online video, in which The Janoskians simulate sex acts before horrified onlookers, including a mother and baby, sparked outrage…
The Melbourne band was unrepentant about filming and posting the clip, gloating on their Twitter account: ‘’Don’t give a f--- if you hate it or like it.’’
Wonder if Sony puts money before reputation? And what would its decision say about its general approach to business?
Does this video really represent the Sony brand?
And where are the parents? What excuse do they have? 

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Not quite the terrorist behind the pool fence

Andrew Bolt June 08 2013 (12:01am)

Labor won’t want to publicly argue the toss over “terrorist” - given the company this boat person kept - but nor should the Coalition call him a convicted murderer:
Sayed Abdellatif, an Egyptian asylum seeker who arrived in Australia in May 2012, has been labelled a “convicted jihadist terrorist” by the opposition leader, Tony Abbott, and in numerous media reports. Last Thursday Australian federal police deputy commissioner Peter Drennan told a Senate estimates committee that Abdellatif had been convicted of premeditated murder and possession of explosives…
The furore over the case has plagued the prime minister over the past week in Canberra, with opposition politicians scathing about the fact that the immigration minister, Brendan O’Connor, was not told that Abdellatif had been housed in low-security detention up until August…
But ... Abdellatif’s Cairo lawyer, Muntassir al-Zayyat, said that his client was not accused or convicted of murder or bomb charges at the 1999 trial. ..
“Not at all. The accusations were only joining a secret organisation and being party to a criminal agreement to topple the regime [of Mubarak, who was later overthrown in the 2011 Egyptian uprising]. There was no killing mentioned at all."…
The court documents ... show that Abdellatif was charged in May 1999 for “joining a group that was established against the rules of law [and] held leadership in it”, and “participating in a criminal agreement”. Further documents appear to show that Abdellatif successfully overturned the charges of “criminal agreement” years later. Abdellatif is understood to be challenging his conviction for being a member of an extremist group…
Abdellatif was convicted as a member of “Jihad Tanzim” or Egyptian Islamic Jihad, an Egyptian terror group. On Friday Fairfax media revealed Abdellatif had worked as an accountant for the Kuwait-based Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage, an organisation that was blacklisted in 2002 by the US for its links to al-Qaida. Ian Rintoul, an advocate working for Abdellatif in Sydney told Fairfax that Abdellatif had been working for the group years before it was deemed a threat.
UPDATE
Reader DenO:

Well, if you can’t trust an Egyptian lawyer and a journalist (from the Guardian mind you) who can you trust?

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4 her
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Big birthday wishes also go to Carole Ann Ford, who played the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan.
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Dreaming of a holiday away from the cold? One bite of our exotic Chocolate Cinamon Babka will transport your senses.
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After the election Julia Gillard walks into the unemployment office.
She bypasses the queue and marches straight up to the counter and says, "Hi! I want to apply for the dole, I hate being on this welfare government pension and I'd much rather have a job but I have looked everywhere and just can't find anything."
The clerk behind the Centrelink desk says, "Your timing is excellent. We just got a job opening from a very wealthy old man who needs a chauffeur/bodyguard for his two twin 35 year old Lesbian daughters. You'll have to drive them around in his Mercedes to their Fabian Society meetings, but he'll supply all of your clothes. You'll have a three-bedroom apartment above the garage. Because of the long hours, meals will be provided. You'll be expected to escort his daughters on their frequent overseas holidays to Tahiti and the Bahamas. The starting salary is $250,000 a year".
Julia Gillard says, "No way misogynist, you've got be lying to me???"
The Centrelink officer says, "Yeah, well ranga, you started it"...

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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin'
When Fear Knocks on the Door,Fight Back.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.(Ephesians 6:12, NIV)
Fear will come knocking at the door, telling you the worst case scenario. Fear tells you, “You’re going to lose your job. Your marriage is over.Your relationship is over. Your business is falling apart. Your child is done. It’s all downhill from here.” When those thoughts come, you don’t have to accept . Here’s the key: when fear knocks, let faith answer the door. Don’t give those thoughts of fear the time of day. Don’t let them intimidate you.Fight back. Answer back with faith. “Lord, You said the number of my days You would fulfill. God, You said Your plans for me are for good and not evil. God, You said what’s meant for my harm You would turn around and use to my advantage.”
If you’ll keep an attitude of faith and expectancy, it’s like keeping the door locked on an intruder. Fear has no right in the life of a believer. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. Remember, the battle is in your mind. The enemy is after your thoughts. Don’t give him the time of day; and when fear knocks, let faith answer the door.God bless you.

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A sunset worth capturing! Taken a few months ago while teaching an Aperture Academy workshop. 
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Finish this Dr. Phil quote: The best predictor of future behavior is ______ ________
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Israelis satirical humour takes a while to tune into.
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DOJ & FBI Raid News Media Offices After Releasing an Alarming Story on President Obama!

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SUPPORT ISRAEL Buy and use these products and companies. Stop Hatred and Terrorism.
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Kerry quietly approves $1.3 billion in arms to Egypt

US secretary of state waives congressional restrictions on aid meant to promote democratic reforms -The Times of Israel 
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You are In Demand.
Don't let the devil deceive you.If you allow fear to come in and take root in your thinking, it becomes a stronghold that affects every part of you. But when thoughts of fear comes,don't sign the package. Instead of activating fear by meditating on it, activate your faith. How do you activate faith?
Activate faith by speaking the Word of God. Let it sink down inside of you and transform your being. Always remember that His Word is alive, His Word is truth, His Word is your weapon. So take hold of His promises and find where it is written and speak it out.Instead of going through the day worried, thinking about how it’s not going to work out, start meditating on what God says.
Pray. Father,I thank You for Your Word which lights my path and transforms my life. I choose today to turn my thoughts toward You. I choose today to meditate on Your Word and Your promises so that I can be empowered to live in the victory You have prepared for me in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Stalagmites in a tropical island cave provide a 100,000-year climate record rivaling that of Greenland's pristine ice cores, scientists say, and by studying these stalagmites in Borneo, researchers at Georgia Tech now know how the tropics responded to the sudden climate shifts.http://oak.ctx.ly/r/60kg

Below, the Secret Chamber inside of Clearwater Connection cave in Gunung Mulu National Park in Borneo, where scientists study climate records in stalagmites.

  • David Daniel Ball All that information .. and still they embrace AGW myth

    • Jay Kanta Sad little denier. It has been explained to you many times. It is YOU that embraces your willful ignorance.

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Tonight, like every Friday night, people are gathering at the Western Wall in Jerusalem to welcome in Shabbat. They are here thanks to our brave soldiers, who liberated this ancient site 46 years ago today. Shabbat Shalom. 
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Lawrence O’Donnell: How many firefighters were killed on 9/11 by Rudy Giuliani? ==>http://twitchy.com/2013/06/06/lawrence-odonnell-how-many-firefighters-were-killed-on-911-by-rudy-giuliani/
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Pastor Rick Warren
Great opportunities are often disguised as small acts of service.

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C. H. Spurgeon's status.
If your persecution were to cease, it might be the worst thing that could happen to you.

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The evidence keeps mounting against global warming extremism.

Award-winning NASA climate scientist Dr. Roy Spencer posted this graph which shows 73 climate computer models projecting a warmer Earth than real world observations from satellite and weather balloons show. 

Share this important information with everyone who needs the facts on global warming (including delegates to the UN climate conference in Bonn):http://www.cfact.org/2013/06/06/no-one-told-the-un-conference-that-theres-been-no-warming-for-16-years/

Details from Dr. Spencer at: http://www.drroyspencer.com/2013/06/still-epic-fail-73-climate-models-vs-measurements-running-5-year-means/
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We've just seen this picture on Twitter of students in a lock down following reports on US news outlets of a shooting at a Santa Monica college - 3 people alleged to have died and President Obama believed to be in the area. We're chasing details now.
"3 people alleged to have died" I don't see anyone prosecuting them .. ed
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Mo Gelber
When I see lovers' names carved into a tree I don't think it's cute, I just think it's strange how many people take knives on a date.

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Mare Island, CA. Shot along with my friend Miguel.— at Mare Island.
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Hezbollah-backed Syrian troops seize central villages: Assad’s forces face little resistance as they press on with an offensive on the country’s opposition heartland. 

Read more at http://toi.sr/16PEJz9
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Tel Aviv celebrates gay pride festivalhttp://toi.sr/ZwMHI0

Photo by Debra KaminThe Times of Israel

Were you at Tel-Aviv 2013 Gay pride parade? Send your pictures to social@timesofisrael.com.
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Today you choose! Choose joy over sorrow; choose peace over chaos & stress; choose victory over defeat; choose to walk in the authority that your Heavenly Father has given to you. You are more than a conqueror; fearfully and wonderfully made; the head and not the tail. You are whole in every area of your life. Refuse to accept any negative report. Believe the report of The Lord and let his promises shine over your problems! Have a blessed Saturday Holly 
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
God desires for us to be at peace. Dismiss, destroy and cancel anything that disturbs your peace of mind. You were not supposed to live life in a miserable state of mind. I pray that God releases his joy, strength, divine favor, abundant blessings and sweet peace upon you even at his very hour. Amen.
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Friend,
It's been more than seven months and we still don't have answers about what happened in Benghazi, Libya where four brave Americans were killed on September 11, 2012.  
While the White House is doing its best to quietly and purposefully sweep this tragedy under the rug, we at Patriot Voices are refusing to back down.
Today we are releasing this compelling video that demands answers from administration officials, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, about what happened that tragic night.
Benghazi_3
We refuse to back down, particularly as two key players in the cover up - Susan Rice and Victoria Nuland - are set to receive promotions within the Obama administration. 
We refuse to back down until former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton comes out of the dark and starts answering the important questions about who knew what and when.
Last January, former Secretary of State Clinton asked "what difference, at this point, does it make?"  It makes a big difference.  The truth matters, and the victims' families as well as the American people deserve to know what happened.  Watch this video and help us demand that Hillary Clinton come clean on the following:
  • Who knew what and when?
  • Why were warnings ignored?
  • Was there a cover up?
  • Why were the talking points changed 12 times?
  • Why did her spokesperson delete critical facts regarding the attacks?
Watch this video now and forward this email to five of your friends who share our belief that we must get the truth about what happened in Benghazi.
For Liberty,
Rick Santorum signature 

Rick Santorum
Donate Today button

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Today: Take Part in the Kachin Global Day of Action




This weekend marks the 2nd anniversary of the Burmese military's breaking of the 17-year ceasefire with the Kachin in northeastern Burma. Two years later, the war continues. Its toll on the Kachin people is devestating: sexual violence, extrajudicial killings and arrests, torture, forced portering, use of villagers as human shields and landmine sweepers, land seizures, denial of humanitarian aid, and human trafficking.

Exacerbating the suffering of the Kachin who have had to flee their homes and live in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps on the Burma-China border, the US government has not provided humanitarian assistance to the more than 70,000 IDPs who need it the most - shameful!

Take part in today's Kachin Global Day of Action with us! Please:
Despite their suffering, the Kachin have held strong to their desire for a durable peace through the establishment of a federal democratic union. Today, US Campaign for Burma and 59 other community organizations and advocacy groups from 21 nations are calling for the establishment of a federal democratic Burma to guarantee a durable peace.

Kachin community organized relief committees are doing all they can to assist their people, but they desperately need more supplies and assistance. Preventable illnesses and deaths caused by lack of food, medicine, unsanitary conditions, and exposure to the elements are taking their toll on these IDPs. On June 5, the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand released its report Pushed to the Brink, exposing how the Burmese government’s war against the Kachin has increased the risk of human trafficking on the China-Burma border.

Please tell USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah to urgently provide humanitarian assistance to the Kachin community-based relief groups so that they can carry on their work and save the lives of Kachin who have already had to endure 2 years of displacement and hunger. Aid to Kachin community relief committees will ensure immediate and effective delivery to the communities who desperately need it but have no other way of getting assistance.

The international community desperately wants to believe Burma’s regime is sincere about reform and reward them for it. We have a responsibility to ensure that international engagement does not come at the expense of the lives of the Kachin people.

In solidarity,

Rachel Wagley, USCB

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michelle at garden of the gods
Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for June 7th. Enjoy!

From the Blog

Lying liar Anthony Weiner’s underage girl problem

Touchy, touchy...

HuffPo: George W. Obama

First “Eric Holder should resign,” and now this?

Turned tables: Darrell Issa accuses IRS of being ‘effectively guilty of tax evasion’

On the upside for the involved IRS employees, they can be comforted by the fact that this accusation will not adversely affect any chance they may have of becoming the next secretary of the Treasury...

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This is the IRS.

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And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

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Liberals are all about respect.

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Regulus cruise missile

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