Headlines Friday 17th October

Rudd rules, OK?
Andrew Bolt
How Kevin Rudd’s ministers can work with him beats me:

STEPHEN SMITH’S office is being bypassed by foreign embassies in Canberra - and the role of his department diminished - and there is a widespread perception that Kevin Rudd, the nation’s first diplomat prime minister, is the real foreign minister.

Mr Rudd has kept firm control over foreign affairs and launched far-reaching policies with minimal consultation in a move that has demoralised a chronically underfunded diplomatic service and downgraded the role of his Foreign Minister, Mr Smith.
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Palin framed again
Andrew Bolt
The media all agree so it must true: that Sarah Palin so whipped up hate against Barack Obama that a supporter shouted: “Kill him!”

Why, even Obama himself has repeated the damaging claim:

OBAMA: I mean, look, if we want to talk about Congressman Lewis, who is an American hero, he, unprompted by my campaign, without my campaign’s awareness, made a statement that he was troubled with what he was hearing at some of the rallies that your running mate was holding, in which all the Republican reports indicated were shouting, when my name came up, things like “terrorist” and “kill him,” and that you’re running mate didn’t mention, didn’t stop, didn’t say “Hold on a second, that’s kind of out of line.”

Terrific smear. But the fact is there seems to be no truth to it:
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Luhrmann sells Australia short
Andrew Bolt
ITS no-spin name spells it out: Tourism Australia is meant to sell Australia to tourists. Lots of them.

But now check Tourism Australia’s new Come Walkabout ads: it’s decided instead to sell spiritual therapy to urban salvation-seekers.

These two commercials, released this week and destined for screening in 22 countries, are invitations to a church, not a holiday. And to a very exclusive, family-unfriendly church, with not even the hint this time of Lara Bingle’s famous bouncing breasts.

Sigh. Loosen up, guys.

Once again, the taxpayer-funded Tourism Australia has fallen to the modern temptation to preach, rather than please. Forgetting its last disaster, it’s spending $40 million to advertise not Australia, but its own chic, green-tinged sensibilities.
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The crucifixion of the bankers
Andrew Bolt
THIS week is the closest some of our bankers will ever come to Jesus.

Now they know what it’s like to be crucified for the sins of others.

Of course, I shouldn’t be so quick to defend bank bosses from the Prime Minister, who is now vowing to “rein in any executive greed”.

Greed and “extreme capitalism” had caused this financial collapse, Kevin Rudd stormed, with talkback callers shrieking in approval, and we needed new capital adequacy rules to rein in banks that paid their executives too much to take big risks.

In fact, Rudd would sick the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority on to them right now.

Naturally, I should be cheering with the mob. I mean, look at all the newspaper stories yesterday that picked up on Rudd’s call, and ran salivating stories about the obscene fortunes paid to our top bankers.
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Liberals can’t be carbon copies
Andrew Bolt
Tom Switzer, who was senior advisor to then Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson, gives the Liberals very useful advice:

(C)onservatives won’t be able to attack effectively the government’s global warming scheme if they remain carbon copies of Labor. When all is said and done, Turnbull and his shadow environment minister Greg Hunt agree with virtually everything that Rudd and his climate change minister Penny Wong say about taxing industry and redistributing the proceeds at potentially huge cost to the economy.
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Bash the greedy scapegoat
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd goes for a crowd favorite - greedy bankers:

KEVIN Rudd stands accused of bank-bashing after vowing to penalise financial institutions that lavish executives with multi-million-dollar pay packages without requiring them to follow responsible investment practices…

Mr Rudd has asked the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority to prepare rules penalising banks that reward risky behaviour by requiring them to have greater capital reserves than those with more responsible investment practices.
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Eating the host out of house and home
Andrew Bolt
News from France’s undeclared civil war:

Any football match in France before which the country’s national anthem is booed will now be “immediately stopped”, French Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot said Wednesday after meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
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Change you can bank on
Andrew Bolt
But he’s a Democrat, so it’s fine:

Democratic vice-presidential candidate Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. has paid more than $2 million in campaign cash to his family members, their businesses and employers over the years, a practice that watchdogs criticize as rife with potential conflicts of interest.
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Too smart for an activist
Andrew Bolt
Good to see the police actually taking the threat of Leftist violence and law-breaking seriously in Victoria, after so many police have been hurt:

VICTORIA Police’s secret intelligence unit has infiltrated Melbourne’s activist and community groups for two years to gather information on protests against the Iraq War, Japanese whaling and a weapons exhibition.
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Canadians cool on warming politicians
Andrew Bolt
Canada, at least, sticks to the conservatives:

CANADIAN Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the first major world leader to face voters since the global financial meltdown, led his Conservative Party to victory in a general election yesterday…

And a big factor in the win:

Opinion polls indicated Mr Harper had shored up support in the past week as he argued he was the best candidate to manage the economy and that a proposed carbon tax from Mr Dion would hurt the economy.
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INCONVENIENT DECLINE
Tim Blair
The Gore Effect writ large:
Globally averaged temperatures have gone down approximately .38° F. since Al Gore released An Inconvenient Truth at the Sundance Film Festival on January, 24, 2006.