Headlines Saturday 4th October

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
Tim Blair
David Marr possibly imagined his piece in yesterday’s SMH might help redeem Bill Henson and put an end to simmering controversy over the photographer’s child-leering “art”. Instead:
Bill Henson’s claim that he had a principal’s approval to scout for young models in a Victorian primary school was met with outrage yesterday.
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WINK WINS
Tim Blair
From Stephen Green’s excellent live call of the VP debate:
Biden is good selling his biography. As a special added bonus, I’m almost certain that tonight the biography he’s selling is his own.
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POPULATION REDUCED
Tim Blair
The Age‘s Traceeee Hutchison compounds an economic error
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GAFFO JOE
Tim Blair
Joe Biden’s claim:
Along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon.
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DEATH ANNOUNCED
Tim Blair
Crikey spots a sick Google ad:
The Sydney Morning Herald’s google advertisements pre-empt Kevin Rudd’s demise.
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PROMISES MERKELED
Tim Blair
The Economist reports:
Just 18 months ago the European Union promised to save the world from climate change. A final plan to deliver on those promises must be finished soon. But it is in deep trouble …
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SAME MONEY, DIFFERENT MONTHS
Tim Blair
Recent Obama fundraising was big news worldwide:
Barack Obama’s campaign announced on Sunday a record fundraising haul of $66 million in August, amassing a big advantage over John McCain in the closing stretch of the White House race.
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SMOKING GUN
Tim Blair
Legal liability and local lardmunch Irfan Yusuf finally holds a winning hand in his battle with Daniel Pipes. The Islamic apologist has discovered that a cartoonist who once composed an image for a website run by an organisation headed by Pipes told a reader of his blog that “Hamas and a number of other terrorist groups have endorsed [Obama] and even contributed money to his campaign. Clearly, they think that the election of Barack Obama is good for Islamic terrorism.”
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COOLING IT TO THE WHITE HOUSE
Tim Blair
Charles Krauthammer foresees an Obama victory:
In the primary campaign, Obama was cool as in hip. Now Obama is cool as in collected. He has the discipline to let slow and steady carry him to victory. He has not at all distinguished himself in this economic crisis—nor, one might add, in any other during his national career—but detachment has served him well. He understands that this election, like the election of 1980, demands only one thing of the challenger: Make yourself acceptable. Once Ronald Reagan convinced America that he was not menacing, he won in a landslide. If Obama convinces the electorate that he is not too exotic or green or unprepared, he wins as well …

Obama has shown that he is a man of limited experience, questionable convictions, deeply troubling associations (Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, Tony Rezko) and an alarming lack of self-definition—do you really know who he is and what he believes? Nonetheless, he’s got both a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament. That will likely be enough to make him president.
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Joe Biden and his IQ

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RAZER SLASHED
Tim Blair
An unexpected cut at the ABC
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“THEY CAN’T GET OUT OF THEIR OWN WAY”
Tim Blair
For a celeb, country singer Toby Keith is unusually sensible:
Keith said the Democratic party no longer represents his views.

“I’ve been a lifetime Democrat, and I’m re-registering this year as an independent,” he said. “It’s strictly [because] my party, that I’ve been affiliated with all these years, doesn’t stand for anything that I stand for anymore. They’ve lost any sensibility that they had, and they’ve allowed all the kooks in, so I’m going independent.”
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Here is P Diddy's take ..

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US House of Reps approves bailout deal
George Bush has signed an economic rescue bill just hours after the US House of Representatives approved the historic $US700 billion Wall Street bailout. - democrat feeding troughs were also approved. - ed.