Headlines Sunday 2nd November

Taxpayers prop up Labor bank
Piers Akerman
THE Rudd Labor Government has pumped half a billion dollars into the unlisted trade union bank Members Equity, as Melbourne’s LEK Consulting finalises a report on the bank’s sustainability and possible sale.
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Rudd no diplomat
Andrew Bolt
Glenn Milne says Australia will pay for Kevin Rudd’s gloating leak of his private chat with George Bush:

After the call, on the evening of Friday, October 10, Mr Rudd reportedly told guests he had insisted to Mr Bush that the G-20 was the appropriate vehicle to co-ordinate a response to the ongoing crisis affecting world markets.

“What’s the G-20?’’ Mr Bush reportedly replied.

That remark, and the notion Mr Bush had not already been considering the G-20’s role have been denied by a US national security official who monitored the 30-minute conversation.

Senior diplomats at the highest levels of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) have confirmed to The Sunday Telegraph that Mr Rudd’s indiscretions have put at risk Australia’s alliance with the US.
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Macintyre’s red face
Andrew Bolt
Keith Windschuttle settles scores with Professor Stuart Macintyre, the long-time communist and consummate networker who helped drive conservative Professor Geoffrey Blainey from Melbourne University:

Beyond academic history and left-wing politics, Macintyre’s name is little known. Outside courses for captive student audiences, his work is largely unread. Informed Australian readers know Blainey well; very few have read anything by Macintyre. In the annals of his profession, the latter’s place is already fixed. He will be remembered as one of the main activists, the most public apologist and the chief beneficiary of the campaign to extinguish the academic career of one of Australia’s few great historians.
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Ove and out on dying reef
Andrew Bolt
Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg is the world expert in forecasting warming doom for the Great Barrier Reef - crying wolf again and again. Now some of his colleagues have had enough:

University of Queensland marine biologist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg said yesterday that sea temperatures were likely to rise 2C over the next three decades, which would undoubtedly kill the reef.

But several of Professor Hoegh-Guldberg’s colleagues have taken issue with his prognosis.
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THE A-Z OF THE US ELECTION
Tim Blair
• In the late 60s and early 70s, when John McCain was being treated to free holistic therapy at an exclusive Viet Cong health spa, William AYERS and his Weathermen pals were attempting to overthrow the US government. Ayers subsequently became a friend of Barack Obama.

• The 2008 race will be determined by BATTLEGROUND states. Wouldn’t it be a whole lot cheaper to restrict the entire election to these contested regions? After all, California is always going to vote Democrat and the Republicans have a lock on Utah. Why not let, say, Ohio or Florida decide who wins the nation?
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OCEANS TO KEEP RISING
Tim Blair
The de-Jesusing of Obama is underway:

Barack Obama’s senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week’s election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harboring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.

They’ve been told to “believe”. And now it’s their fault?

The sudden financial crisis and the prospect of a deep and painful recession have increased the urgency inside the Obama team to bring people down to earth, after a campaign in which his soaring rhetoric and promises of “hope” and “change” are now confronted with the reality of a stricken economy.

Or “reality”, as it is otherwise known.
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JANE FONDA CRIED ALL NIGHT
Tim Blair
“It seems,” writes Jason Horowitz, “that the final days of the presidential campaign have made Erica Jong and her friends more than a little anxious.” For the sake of a personal challenge, try not to laugh as you scan these quotes from the frightened feminist:
“My friends Ken Follett and Susan Cheever are extremely worried. Naomi Wolf calls me every day. Yesterday, Jane Fonda sent me an email to tell me that she cried all night and can’t cure her ailing back for all the stress that has reduces her to a bundle of nerves.”

“My back is also suffering from spasms, so much so that I had to see an acupuncturist and get prescriptions for Valium.”

“If Obama loses it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me. And it’s not a coincidence that President Bush recalled soldiers from Iraq for Dick Cheney to lead against American citizens in the streets.”
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FIELDS OF FAME
Tim Blair
Sarah Palin isn’t backing down, writes Traceeee Hutchison:
Far from retreating to Wasilla’s world-famous hockey fields …
Ice hockey is generally played indoors, at a rink.
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OBAMA GLAMOUR
Tim Blair
She’s the opposite of Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher. Meet Hayden “Claire the Bennett” Panettiere:
“I don’t know if anyone would complain about under-taxing to be completely honest,” Panettiere told CNSNews.com. “Personally, I’d rather have higher taxes and help other people who need those tax breaks more.”