Headlines Sunday 1st June

Watching and waiting for revolution
Piers Akerman
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd promised an education revolution when he was campaigning last year, but his performance on fuel prices shows that he is sorely in need of a remedial learning program.

He has abandoned all the principles of good governance that he cited when he challenged the Howard government and he has pilloried the public service and ignored fact-based advice from four departments to champion his Cabinet’s own weakly researched, ill-founded views on an indifferent FuelWatch scheme.

After just six months in office, it’s no longer a question of “I will do what I say’’ with Mr Rudd; it is, ``I will do whatever buys me time.’’

And he hopes that the voting public will not have the intelligence to remember what he has promised when he changes the ground rules.
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Arts is only for artists
Andrew Bolt
It’s OK for the Sydney Morning Herald‘s John McDonald to criticise art. He’s part of the club, you see, and even a paid critic. But if anyone not a member of his club dare to criticise art - even sexually suggestive photographs of a 13-year-old girl - then McDonald hits the roof. How dare they speak out of turn
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Dropped like a Stone
Andrew Bolt
Anti-Americanism gets you world-wide fame. But speak stupidly on China....
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At war with Rudd
Andrew Bolt
When will the ACTU start running more of those ads about bastard bosses, like the ones it ran against Gentleman John Howard?
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But what if the troll is dad?
Andrew Bolt
Columnist Joe Hildebrand tries to deal with hate mail from his dad.
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Oakes concedes Nelson was right, after all
Andrew Bolt
Laurie Oakes says the leak to him of warnings to Kevin Rudd from four government departments that FuelWatch was a dud have exposed a seeming liar:

It totally undermined the Government’s claims about FuelWatch. Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen, for example, had written to opposition leader Brendan Nelson asserting: “There is simply no independent analysis that has reached the conclusion that there is any upward pressure on petrol prices through FuelWatch.”

It is hard to see that now as anything other than a lie.

And Oakes has the integrity that several colleagues in the Canberra press gallery lack, putting up his hand for having misjudged the man who’s first put Rudd under all this pressure:

The Liberal leader’s call for a 5c a litre cut in petrol excise was branded economically irresponsible by many commentators (this one included), but it is now glaringly apparent that it was clever politics… Nelson, it has to be said, capitalised on all this with aggression and grit. -Of course Mr Bolt has also been wide of the mark with his criticism of Dr Nelson too. I'm sure he will be honest in addressing that, too. - ed
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FoodWatch will be no better
Andrew Bolt
Glenn Milne:

With FuelWatch having become a debacle for the Government, the next shoe to drop will be grocery prices…

Rudd is already committed to setting up a FoodWatch website under (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) control, which will supposedly survey and publish the best available supermarket prices in real time.
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Let them shop Macy’s
Andrew Bolt
I’m not fussed if the Prime Minister has staff doing the drudgery, but I still don’t think this will go down well:

FACEBOOK photographs have emerged of Kevin Rudd’s taxpayer-funded butler partying in Times Square at 3am and shopping at Macy’s department store during the official 17-day world tour.

Meet “Jeeves”, the man paid $78,000 a year to fold the Prime Minister’s shirts, lay out his suits, carry his luggage and work as his travelling assistant.
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A nation, not United Nations, gets stuff done
Andrew Bolt
Simon Jenkins in the Guardian:

We are all still hardwired to treat international as a good thing. In the process we have abandoned the constitutionalism and accountability that should govern any form of government if it is not to run amok. The one facet of neoconservative America that I share is frustration with the UN and related organisations’ inability to walk the talk…
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China makes US see black
Andrew Bolt
The National Journal claims hackers from the Chinese army may have triggered the biggest power blackout in American history
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Bleeding stupid
Andrew Bolt
Memo to judge: your court is in France, and those are not date trees outside:

The annulment of a young Muslim couple’s marriage because the bride was not a virgin has caused anger in France, prompting President Sarkozy’s party to call for a change in the law.

If the judge wants to administer shariah law, let him migrate to where it exists.
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Doubters of the green faith are like pedophiles
Andrew Bolt
The Bishop would have been perfect for the Spanish Inquisition - or a Salem jury:

The Bishop of Stafford has compared people who ignore the effects of climate change to the Austrian child sex monster Josef Fritzl.