Headlines Saturday 28th March 2009

Nick D'Arcy escapes jail sentence
Nick D'Arcy will be handed a suspended sentence of 14 months and 12 days for attacking fellow swimmer Simon Cowley.
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Notorious president disputes drugs links
The head of the feared Notorious bikie gang has disputed claims they are involved a drug war with other bikies, saying the club has a strict no-drugs policy.
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Hells Angels join Bandidos to farewell Anthony Zervas
Anthony Zervas, the victim of Sunday's terrifying bikie brawl, has been laid to rest, with dozens of Hells Angels gang members donning their ‘colours’ to pay their respects.
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Defence formally denies spying on Fitzgibbon
The Defence Department has formally denied ever spying on its own minister over his relationship with a Chinese-born friend.
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Screaming, bum-flashing lecturer jailed
A Japanese law lecturer who bared her bottom to a judge and had to be removed from her own trial for incessant screaming has been jailed for contempt.
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Sydney tree loses the shirt off its bark
A giant t-shirt fitted to a tree in Sydney parklands to promote Earth Hour has disappeared, leaving park staff and police baffled.
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Power company could switch off TV, aircon
AN electricity company plans to install a device to switch off appliances and ration power use. - in NSW we call them the 'Government.' - ed.
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'Italy's Fritzl' held for rape, incest
POLICE say they have arrested a man for holding his daughter captive and raping her and his son faces similar charges.
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Strike Force Raptor launched as back-up bikies are called in
Strike Force Raptor has been officially launched today to crack down on outlaw bikie gangs, with......
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Financial crisis caused by "people with blue eyes": Brazilian President
The global financial crisis was caused by "white people with blue eyes", says Brazilian President......
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DNA test proves 13-year-old Alfie's not a dad
A DNA test has proven baby-faced Alfie Patten, who supposedly impregnated his girlfriend at the age......
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Pakistan bleeding
Andrew Bolt
Pakistan may soon make Iraq seem a picnic:

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a packed mosque in northwest Pakistan at Friday prayers, killing 48 people and wounding dozens in one of the deadliest attacks in the nuclear-armed nation… A spate of militant attacks across Pakistan from extremists opposed to the Government’s decision to join the US-led war on terror after the September 11, 2001, attacks, has killed more than 1600 people in less than two years.

Note AFP’s spin, twice inserted in its report, that the Islamist challenged to secular rule is in fact no more than another protest against US foreign policy.
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How much influence does China have on Rudd’s team?
Andrew Bolt
Did the Chinese Government ultimately pay for Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon’s free - and undisclosed - travel?

THE Chinese businesswoman who paid for trips to China by Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon accompanied him on the visits and introduced him to political officials.

Mr Fitzgibbon yesterday confirmed that Helen Liu had played a central role during two China trips, after he was forced to apologise for failing to declare that they had been paid for by the businesswoman...Her role in introducing Mr Fitzgibbon to Chinese political officials, as well as paying for his trips, indicates she is well-connected to the Chinese Government.

Indeed, did the Chinese Government also ultimately pay for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s many free trips?

To summarise - a Chinese Government-owned company shares the address, phone number and line of business of a company which in turn runs the website of the mysterious company which sponsored Kevin Rudd’s trips.

Meanwhile, more covert lobbying by China:

THE propaganda chief of the Chinese Communist Party visited the country farm of ABC chairman Maurice Newman during his mysterious visit to Australia. The next day, Li Changchun lobbied ABC managing director Mark Scott over the broadcaster’s coverage of Tibet, saying he wanted the Chinese Government’s views fully represented.

However, Kevin Rudd’s office yesterday moved to shut down any further disclosures about the movements of China’s fifth-most powerful man during his Australian visit this week… Mr Rudd’s office last night refused The Weekend Australian’s request that it release the full itinerary of Mr Li’s five-day, taxpayer-funded official visit, which ended on Tuesday.

Rudd is now spinning frantically in reverse to avoid the Manchurian Candidate tag:
CHINESE-OWNED Minmetals has been blocked from acquiring the key asset in its $2.6 billion bid for OZ Minerals because the South Australian gold and copper mine was too close to a sensitive Australian defence facility.

But Dennis Shanahan urges caution:

But ill-timed bumbling doesn’t mean Labor is handing over Australian sovereignty to China nor that Rudd is the Manchurian candidate with a Chinese chip in his neck and Harold Holt in the backyard of The Lodge…

As China undoubtedly becomes more aggressive economically and militarily in a world it is increasingly going to influence, there are legitimate concerns about putting Australia’s security - national, resource or economic - at Beijing’s beck and call.

The Prime Minister and Wayne Swan both know they face a diabolical dilemma in choosing to accept much-needed Chinese investment while trying to keep China from controlling resource production in Australia and, hence, prices for our exports through state-owned companies or investment funds.

But I’m concerned that to the Chinese, silence from potential partners on some issues is golden. And I’m also concerned that Rudd is personally very ambitious to be such a partner, for political and post-politics positioning, as much as for any consideration of the national interest.

UPDATE

Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey attacks:

I’m concerned about, you know, the pattern of behaviour at the moment. Kevin Rudd received free trips when he was in Opposition, from Chinese interests. Wayne Swan the Treasurer received these trips; Tony Burke the Agriculture Minister. Now we hear about the Defence Minister receiving free trips from China.

At the same time, we learn today that the Australian Government is borrowing around $500 million a week from the Chinese Government… And you know, then we discover that Kevin Rudd had a meeting with the Chinese Propaganda Minister and didn’t tell the Australian media. I mean, what’s going on?

Reporter Lenore Taylor’s verdict?

...dog whistling to the xenophobics among us. - Lateline's reporting was typically one sided. Turnbull's picture was calm and assured as he called for the sacking of Fitzgibbon and gave valid, cogent reasons. The voice over described it as 'desperate.' Preceding that image was a sweating spinning Rudd furtively licking lips and looking for all the world out of his depth saying he was disappointed, but would do nothing. The voice over assured us things were happening, but the infringement was minor. Then, in an interview with Alexander Downer, the interviewer interrupted him and demanded he address a false dichotomy suggesting Turnbull's leadership was in trouble. The masterful Downer calmly handled that lousy interviewer. The issue, as I see it, is that the ABC is so partisan that the threat of a failing government covering up international indiscretions goes unexamined. - ed.
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Jail, Einfeld style
Andrew Bolt
Porridge is for the poor:

THE former judge Marcus Einfeld requested a private psychologist and masseuse during his first week in jail - and that his cell door be left open at night.
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Their new Australian home
Andrew Bolt
As I said:

THE head of Sydney’s newest and most-feared bikie gang last night revealed membership is growing rapidly - mainly young men of Middle Eastern heritage who don’t all ride motorbikes.

Allan Sarkis, named publicly yesterday as the president of Notorious, made no apologies for his gang’s reputation and said they would not be dictated to by traditional bikies.

“We’re not following anybody’s existing rules,” Sarkis said.

But they say they’re not breaking those rules.

UPDATE

Academics challenge the stereotype of the bikies’ moll:

Studies conducted between 1980 and 1992 concluded that women who associated with outlaw motorcycle clubs believed they “deserved to be treated as people of little worth"… In recent years though, bikie experts have begun questioning the validity of previous research...

The Daily Telegraph does up-to-date research among the women in a court-room hearing of their bikie partners, dropping in on their conversation:
“I want a cigarette, but I’m too scared to go outside because I don’t want my face on TV,” she whispers. “He said he’d kill me, my grandmother, everyone.”
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Earth Hour starts early
Andrew Bolt
I’m guessing the gases saved will match those saved in Sydney on Earth Hour itself.

A fault at a sub-station has cut power to about 50,000 homes and businesses in southern Sydney.
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Her lectures would be interesting
Andrew Bolt
Southern Cross University thought Megumi Ogawa had just the talents to be an associate lecturer in its School of Law and Justice. Yesterday she demonstrated some of her skills in a courtroom:

A JAPANESE law lecturer who bared her bottom to a judge and had to be removed from her own trial for incessant screaming has been jailed for contempt....Judge Durward charged Ogawa with contempt just moments after a jury found her guilty of two counts of each of using a carriage service to harass and using a carriage service to threaten to kill Australian Federal Court officials in 2006… Ogawa had to be carried into the dock by three corrective services officers who had to hold her down as she was sentenced.
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UN declares: don’t criticise Muslims
Andrew Bolt
The United Nations has confirmed it is now a threat to your rights, not a safeguard of them:

The U.N.’s top human-rights body approved a proposal by Muslims nations Thursday urging passage of laws around the world to protect religion from criticism.

The proposal put forward by Pakistan on behalf of Islamic countries - with the backing of Belarus and Venezuela - had drawn strong criticism from free-speech campaigners and liberal democracies.

A simple majority of 23 members of the 47-nation Human Rights Council voted in favor of the resolution. Eleven nations, mostly Western, opposed the resolution, and 13 countries abstained.

That joke of a council is chaired by Nigeria. A list of its members - including Cuba, China, Djibouti, Egypt and Saudi Arabia - is here. The resolution it approved associates criticism of religion with violence:

The resolution urges states to provide “protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general.”

“Defamation of religions is the cause that leads to incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence toward their followers,” Pakistan’s ambassador Zamir Akram said.

But which one faith is actually responsible for so much of that violence, and therefore in most need of criticism? Which one faith is instead singled out as needing this protection? And if violence is the problem, why attack free speech instead?

Muslim nations have argued that religions, in particular Islam, must be shielded from criticism in the media and other areas of public life. They cited cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as an example of unacceptable free speech.

“Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism,” the resolution said.

Cartoons are more of a threat to Islam’s image than is the terrorism waged in response? And so the UN brings us one more step to self-destruction - silencing our protests as some militant followers of a new faith seek our destruction. And that’s just the kind of free speech the UN’s Human Rights Council seems now eager to ban.

No doubt Kevin Rudd will stand up to the UN and Africa on this issue. Any day now.

MEANWHILE in other terrorism-related news today:

Corporal Mathew Hopkins, the ninth Australian soldier to be killed in Afghanistan, has been described at his funeral in Newcastle as a lovable larrikin and devoted family man.

Are we allowed now to mention the faith of the terrorists who killed him?
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Louise addled
Andrew Bolt
There seemed on Q&A last night a great eagerness - especially from Louise Adler, the Melbourne University Press publisher - to condemn Israel for war crimes in Gaza, on the basis of allegations which seemed at least questionable, as I tried to point out:

LOUISE ADLER: I think they are devastating and testimonies and I think it’s quite interesting that those testimonies were delivered in the context of returning Gazan - soldiers from Gaza to new recruits in a military college called Oranim in Israel… I think they’re devastating reports and they speak to the dehumanising kind of atmosphere that I think we get from years of occupation… So they are symptoms, if you like, of people, 18 year old children, being sent to monitor, man checkpoints, go into Gaza, and those kids are then - how on earth is one to empathise? How on earth is one to feel a sense of humanity in relation to those people that you’re meant to protect and control and repress from your society?...

SUSAN CARLAND: I agree. I think obviously these images, these words, the t-shirts are horrendous and very distressing but, honestly, they’re not surprising. I think we’re seeing ugly things like that coming from both sides. It’s a really ugly situation and the t-shirts and the comments are simply a manifestation of exactly what’s going on over there…

ANDREW BOLT:...Tony, as you know there are so many allegations made against Israel and then treated as fact, like the Jenin Massacre. You remember that. You know the bombed ambulance. You remember that. And again and again - the bombed school in the last offensive… You remember that. And then we later find out the facts are slightly different. Let’s wait for the facts.

Now those facts are indeed starting to emerge, and it seems Adler was far, far too eager to believe the worst. Melanie Phillips unpicks the allegations at length, and concludes:

There are precisely two charges of gratuitous killing of Palestinian civilians under allegedly explicit orders to do so. One is what even Ha’aretz made clear was an accidental killing, when two women misunderstood the evacuation route the Israeli soldiers had given them and walked into a sniper’s gunsights as a result. Moreover, the soldier who said this has subsequently admitted he didn’t see this incident - he wasn’t even in Gaza at the time - and had merely reported rumour and hearsay.

The second charge is based on a supposedly real incident in which, when an elderly woman came close to an IDF unit, an officer ordered that they shoot her because she was approaching the line and might have been a suicide bomber. The soldier relating this story did not say whether or not the woman in this story actually was shot. Indeed, since he says ‘from the description of what happened’ it would appear this was merely hearsay once again.

Herb Keinon notes in the Jerusalem Post:

It is important to note that none of the testimony was about what the soldiers did themselves, but rather of what they heard or saw other soldiers do. It is also important that what was reported seems to fall within the realm of aberrations by individuals during war against a cruel enemy hiding behind civilians, not a systematic loss by the army of its moral compass.

More from Honest Reporting UK.

The Israeli newspaper Maariv interviews soldiers who deny the allegations that Adler seemed to eagerly believe (translation by CAMERA):

Two central incidents that came up in the testimony, which Danny Zamir, the head of the Rabin pre-military academy presented to Chief of Staff Gaby Ashkenazi, focus on one infantry brigade. The brigade’s commander today will present to Brigadier General Eyal Eisenberg, commander of the Gaza division, the findings of his personal investigation about the matter which he undertook in the last few days, and after approval, he will present his findings to the head of the Southern Command, Major General Yoav Gallant.

Regarding the incident in which it was claimed that a sniper fired at a Palestinian woman and her two daughters, the brigade commander’s investigation cites the sniper: “I saw the woman and her daughters and I shot warning shots. The section commander came up to the roof and shouted at me, ‘Why did you shoot at them?’ I explained that I did not shoot at them, but I fired warning shots.”

Officers from the brigade surmise that fighters that stayed in the bottom floor of the Palestinian house thought that he hit them, and from here the rumor that a sniper killed a mother and her two daughters spread.

The other claim, that a sniper killed an elderly woman, may also be untrue:

Regarding the second incident, in which it was claimed that soldiers went up to the roof to entertain themselves with firing and killed an elderly Palestinian woman, the brigade commander investigation found that there was no such incident.
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Did Carland come clean on Q&A?
Andrew Bolt
On Q&A last night I challenged Muslim convert and academic Susan Carland when she claimed Muslims were just being “demonised” as Italian and Greek immigrants had been before, and for just as little reason.

“It’s just the Muslims’ turn now,’’ she claimed. No different.

I said there was indeed something very different this time around with Muslim immigrants - a “rejectionist strand” - and I noted that she’d conceded herself in an interview in Malaysia’s Star newspaper that she’d come under a lot of pressure from the community to cut off non-Muslim friends and withdraw from society and all that was haram. This wasn’t something she’d shared with the ABC audience.

Caught off guard, Carland replied:

There is a very small minority of people within the Muslim community that are reluctant to engage with the wider community.

And when I pointed out that in her interview she’d actually spoken not of a “very small minority”, but a majority, she denied having suggested any such thing:

Maybe your translation from the Malay...

The Star is in fact an English-language paper, and I’ll let you judge now from its report who best summed up what Carland in fact said - and whether she did admit to a Malay audience (but not an ABC one) that there is a strong rejectionist strand in our Muslim community:
Speaking at a dinner talk during the conference, organised by the Muslim Professionals Forum and the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, Carland, who was named Australian Muslim of the Year in 2004, was brutally honest about the treatment of converts at the hands of “born” Muslims.

“Lifting the Veil” (as her talk was aptly titled), what she had to say certainly made many cringe.

Barely have the last words of the shahada (proclamation of faith) left the lips of new converts, she said, they find themselves bombarded with rules to adhere to.

“Never mind that the sister doesn’t know how to pray. She is told she must get rid of all her old clothing, because it is too Western and thus unIslamic and put on the hijab (head scarf) immediately.

“Don’t worry that our new brother has only been a Muslim for three minutes. He’s already been told that he has to throw out all his music and get rid of his dog or he’d be committing a big sin.”

The list of unreasonable pressures on converts includes telling converts to leave their so-called haram jobs immediately, even if the person had no other source of income.

The newbies are asked to give up hobbies like painting, photography, dancing or playing instruments. They’re advised to move out and sever ties with their kafir (infidel) family and non-Muslim friends, while female converts are urged to get married as soon as possible. They are often expected to give up their own cultures and take on Arab, sub-continental, Malay or other cultures because these are deemed to be more “Islamic”. ...

Carland also takes the Muslim community to task for having an almost schizophrenic attitude towards converts.

On one hand, she pointed out, Muslims liked converts because they made them (the Muslims) feel good about themselves and their faith. But on the flip side, converts were often made to feel inferior by those born Muslims…

On mosques, Carland said these institutions were just not supportive enough of new converts.

”Female converts report being shouted out, criticised and, worse, simply ignored by both other women and men, the first time they nervously enter a mosque. Often they report leaving in tears,” she disclosed… She cited an incident in which the father of her close Chinese friend in Malaysia had gone to a mosque here to convert, but was told to leave instead....

UPDATE

Susan Carland’s Facebook community isn’t doing much to prove me wrong, or her the face of a religion of peace:

12:31pm ... did you just wana punch his face in?

10:50pm ... next time could you just smack Bolt in the face? What a tool!

8:55pm ... susan, that was awesome. Still can’t quite grasp the concept of you not reaching a mere foot to throttle the idiot - but all props to you! The part where he pretty much debased your being a Muslim and wouldn’t let the ‘recently converted’ (note dear shitty Bolt, it is revert you islamophobe rag columnist) thing go near drove me to tears.

8:44pm ...Susan that was funny, I thought you were going to thump mr Bolt.

8:37pm ... Andrew Bolt is an Islamophobic biggot that needs to face his own racism, he was so intimidated by you, I found his performance pathetic. You have support from all round Susan, good work!
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Blaming whitey
Andrew Bolt
Racism is fine, as long as the Brazilian president directs it at whites:

Standing next to British prime Minister Gordon Brown at a news conference in Brasilia, Silva again pointed a finger, saying the financial crisis was caused by ”white people with blue eyes” - and that the world’s poorest nations should not have to pay for a crisis they did not create.

Fine, but only if we extend this principle. The world’s poorest nations should also not have to accept aid money they did not earn, medicines they did not invent, computers they did not build, cars they did not design, science they did not work out....
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Hillary Clinton Blames America for Some of Mexican Drug Chaos
By Bill O'Reilly
Speaking to the press in Mexico, Secretary Clinton said this:
HILLARY CLINTON, SEC'Y OF STATE: It is drug demand in the United States which drives the drugs north across our border. If there were not such a high level of demand, it wouldn't be so profitable and you wouldn't have these drug gangs fighting for territory because they make so much money selling drugs to Americans.

And you know what? Mrs. Clinton is mostly correct. Without the American drug market, the cartels would be far less powerful.

However, Mexico would still be corrupt because that country has never been able to develop a vibrant middle class or build a solid economic base, and that's all on Mexico. We have nothing to do with that failure.

But back to the drugs. The baby boomers are mostly responsible for the drug problem in the USA. The Woodstock generation thought it was cool to get stoned, and that has carried over and gotten even worse in our permissive society.

The far left wants to legalize drugs, even though that policy has failed everywhere it's been tried. Go visit Holland and find out. The far left also wants to allow many drug criminals to evade prison. They consider selling heroin, cocaine and meth a "non-violent crime," even though those drugs enslave and kill.

So there are very mixed messages on the drug front in America, and millions of folks buy and use illegal narcotics, a selfish act that helps killers.

Secretary Clinton also mentioned gun smuggling from the USA to Mexico. There are about nine guns for every 10 people in this country because of our tradition of self-reliance. The Second Amendment rightly gives Americans the right to defend themselves.

Take it from me: The authorities cannot protect you from harm. Just look at what happened in New Orleans after Katrina. Anyone caught in that town without a weapon was in grave danger from roving criminals.

And there is no question that thugs are using guns to do an enormous amount of damage, so here is the solution that Hillary Clinton should embrace:

1: All gun crimes should be federal. Anyone committing a crime with a gun or smuggling guns faces a minimum 20 years in prison. That will make the risk-reward on gun crimes very tough.

2: The National Guard should finally be stationed on the Mexican border in force to assist the Border Patrol. That would immediately make it far more difficult to smuggle drugs in and guns out.

3: A national media campaign using President Obama as a spokesperson should inform Americans that buying illegal drugs is self-destructive and un-American. Since President Obama has some drug experience, he is the right person to get this message across, especially to young people.

As for Mexico, President Calderon is a brave man who is trying to defeat these vicious drug lords. The USA should stand with him.
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Outcry Against U.S. Budget Heard Around Globe
from interview. This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 26, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Mr. President, while you are answering questions about marijuana on the Internet, and your treasury secretary is busy devaluating the dollar, people are suffering both here and abroad. And that is our headline this Thursday night, day number 66 of false hope, loose change, "The World is Watching."

They are watching as your Cabinet can't get your policy straight. They're watching while members of your party dismember your own budget. They're watching as you continue to push for the greatest expansion of government that this nation has ever seen. And they're watching, Mr. President, and they don't necessarily like what they are seeing. Now just ask our first guest tonight.

He is a British member of the European parliament who turned heads when he excoriated Prime Gordon Brown and his economic agenda that is very similar to what is happening right here in our country.
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DANIEL HANNAN, MEMBER OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: The truth, Prime Minister, is that you have run out of our money. The country as a whole is now in negative equity. Every British child is born owing around 20,000 pounds. Servicing the interest on that debt is going to cost more than educating the child.

Now once again today you tried to spread the blame around. You spoke about an international recession, international crisis. We are now running a deficit that touches 10 percent of GDP in almost unbelievable figure.

Now, it's not that you're not apologizing. Like everyone else I've long accepted that you're pathologically incapable of accepting responsibility for these things. It's that you're carrying on willfully, worsening our situation, wantonly spending what little we have left.

Last year, in the last 12 months, 100,000 private-sector jobs have been lost, and yet, you created 30,000 public sector jobs.

Prime Minister, you cannot carry on forever squeezing the productive bit of the economy in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit. You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt, and when you repeat in that wooden and perfunctory way, that our situation is better than others, that we're well placed to weather the storm, I have to tell you, you sound like Brezhnev-era apparatchik giving the party line.

You know and we know and you know that we know that it's nonsense. Everyone knows that Britain is worse off than any other country as we go into these hard times.
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HANNITY: And Mr. Hannan, he joins us tonight from London.

Mr. Hannan, thank you for being with us. I got to — do you realize how your message is resonating loudly and clearly in American tonight and how inspired people are by your words?

HANNAN: And you say the nicest things. Listen, I'm happy to come on this show anytime you want me. I'm pretty perplexed by the whole thing. I'm trying to think of, if you could come up with the most boring phrase to enter into a Google search engine, and I thought, speech to the European parliament, so I am completely bowled over by what you said.

HANNITY: Yes, well — look, go over every line. We now are adding, by the year 2019, we're going to have nearly $900 billions just on interest on the debt with what Obama is spending. He's spending more than every president from George Washington to George W. Bush in terms of the debt he's accumulated here.

And as you point out, you can't spend your way out of recession, borrow your way out of debt. Do you think the world is making a mistake and that we're really all collectively going to suffer these consequences?

HANNAN: We're all collectively going to suffer the consequences. I mean it's not our mistake. The mistake is being made by a small number of political leaders and the small number of their advisers. You know it's a common sense that when you're in debt, you spend less. Now anybody except a politician can see that. Anyone can see that in their private life.

You've run up too big a debt, you've run up too big a mortgage which you try and sort it out, because if you're either a banker or a politician, you have a different take on these things. Because, of course, it isn't your money.

You know, that great phrase of Milton Friedman. There's only two kinds of money in this world, it's your money and it's my money, in a way. We're very careful about the second of those. But of course, for politicians, it's all your money.
(Interview continues at link, above)