Headlines Wednesday 18th March 2009

Jail inmates to reap Rudd's $900 handout
First it was Australians who had died, and those living overseas, now it's been revealed criminals will also get the Rudd Government stimulus handouts....
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Death threat text sent to Darwiche's killers: reports
An ominous text message has reportedly been sent by the brother of a murdered Sydney crime figure, vowing revenge....
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Della Bosca sues over Iguanagate coverage
New South Wales Health Minister John Della Bosca is suing Nationwide News for depicting him as drunk, abusive and threatening in its coverage of the so-called Iguanagate scandal.... - Even if it was only his wife holding court, he stood by. As a minister, he should be responsible - ed.
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Lewis Moran's brother dodges a bullet
The brother of Melbourne gangland patriarch Lewis Moran has dodged a bullet when a shot was fired into the car he was sitting in outside his house in Melbourne....
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Alcopops tax comes down to 'impossible' Fielding
The government has delayed a Senate vote on the controversial alcopops tax hike as the fate of the bill falls to "impossible" Senator Steve Fielding....
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Sharks halfback under investigation for drunkeness
Sharks halfback Brett Seymour is under investigation for his behaviour while intoxicated at a Cronulla nightclub on Sunday evening. ..
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It's official: China becomes America's top creditor
China consolidated its position as the top creditor to the United States, with $US739.6 billion ($A1.12 trillion) in US Treasury bond holdings as of late January, US government data showed...
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Michael Jackson wants a new face for London
Michael Jackson wants to change his face before he starts shows in London so he looks his best on stage....
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Family of chimp attack victim seeks $75.8m in damages
The family of a Connecticut woman mauled by a chimpanzee last month has filed preliminary legal papers seeking $US50 million ($A75.8 million) in damages against the primate's owner.
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Missing sisters found safe and well
Two girls who went missing from the Hunter Valley over the weekend have been located safe and well. - they had not been anywhere near Michael Jackson. - ed
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Fritzl receiving psychological care
Fritzl forced to watch daughter testify
Roosters refuse to stand down drink driving player
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Gangland activity should be despised, not glamourised
Society seems to have given a collective shrug to the brutal slaying of drug boss Abdul Darwiche. But Alan Jones argues we should never be desensitised to crime and violence. - Underbelly is an interesting program highlighting things that have not been in the open for a long time .. possibly because of press sensitivities. Why haven't the press questioned Mr Hawke for placing protection orders relating to corrupt colleagues of his for some fifty years? What did Murray Farquar do and why did the ALP governments of the day condone it? This gangland hit highlights the need for the public to know why they are in danger .. and why press won't flag it. - ed.
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Jobs, jobs, jobs? Let's have some policy to back it
The government says the priority is jobs, but their policies don't bear out the rhetoric, according to Alan Jones.
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FEAR BLOGGERS
Tim Blair
They can destroy whole cities:
In her final State of the City address, Salisbury Mayor Barrie Parsons Tilghman warned residents of what she sees as a great danger to the city: malicious bloggers.

Tilghman said in her address Thursday that over the last five years, the presence of a small group of suspicious, mean-spirited people focused on the negative has grown, endangering the city’s vitality.
Trembly Mayor Tilghman happens to be a Democrat, of course, a fact not mentioned in the above-linked report.
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CHE NEEDS FOOD
Tim Blair
“We were a moody, disconsolate bunch as we sat around the campfire,” writes Che Guevara, in his lost Bolivian diaries:
An outsider might have thought that we were weighed down by the revolution’s lack of military success, or by the paucity of new recruits, or even by the fact that the last shipment of supplies from our Bolivian communist allies consisted of a fruit crate filled, not with ammunition or medicines or even fruit, but with yellowed old paperback copies of Das Kapital (Thanks, comrades! Just what the world’s preeminent – and starving – Marxist revolutionary needed).

But the proximate cause of our unhappiness was lunch.
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THE SOUND DESK OF STUPID
Tim Blair
Stupidity at the launch of British climate change activism movie The Age of Stupid angers Stupid media producer and animator Leo Murray:
The only other thing that went wrong was the monkey manning the sound desk in the Solar Cinema tent displaying all the technical expertise of an amateur DJ at a sixth-former’s house party. I wondered if perhaps a local drunk had wandered past security and just sat down at the desk, put the headphones on and started cranking the knobs like he knew what he was doing. Luckily Franny and Lizzie turn out to be natural professionals at this public speaking malarkey and just placidly ignored the hissing, buzzing, feedback and echoes that plagued the first half of the Q&A.
Let’s hope the sound desk “monkey” wasn’t a technician of colour. Now observe as Stupid actor Peter Postlethwaite – cunningly disguised as Catweazle – participates in a bizarre condemnation of British Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband, who at times seems almost aware of the vast idiocy confronting him:

A highlight from that clip: Postlethwaite vows to hand back his OBE unless the government yields to his carbon demands.

UPDATE. A review, via Jo of Canberra:
The film is so cretinous it makes Michael Moore look like a modern-day Bergman; so scientifically vacuous it makes Lysenko look like Einstein; so achingly middle-class it makes The Good Life look like a kitchen-sink drama about miners’ wives.

Indeed, the film’s only virtue – and admittedly this is a big plus in its favour – is that it has exposed finally, beyond all reasonable doubt, the ugly elitism and end-of-days mania of the environmentalist movement.
Seems so. Just click around on the film’s website for further evidence.

UPDATE II. Check the trailer. Las Vegas buried beneath sand, the Sydney Opera House on fire, London boiling …

This is insane.

UPDATE III. Those behind this project think it a good idea that supporters carry banners reading “NOT STUPID”. Well, if you’ve got to tell people …
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DUAL CRAB
Tim Blair
One half steamed and one half fried tempura-style. “This is what they’re doing to Hokkaido king crab legs in Melbourne!” emails gourmand JM:
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DAMN THE SCAM
Tim Blair
Steel cities call for the emissions trading scam to be delayed:
The mayors of three of the nation’s biggest mining cities have demanded Kevin Rudd delay introducing carbon emissions trading, warning it will smash jobs and seriously damage key regional areas.

The mayors of the traditional Labor strongholds of Newcastle, Gladstone and Mount Isa have called for the emissions trading scheme to be put off.

And the managing director of Frontier Economics, Danny Price, who conducted still-secret modelling for the NSW Treasury on the Rudd Government’s plan, said the impact of the scheme across industrial regions, including central Queensland, the Hunter and Illawarra in NSW and Victoria’s Gippsland, would be “very high” and “very severe” …

The growing opposition to the Rudd Government’s ETS came as the Opposition intensified its attack on the scheme as a job destroyer, with Malcolm Turnbull declaring the Coalition would not vote for the ETS in its current form.
That’s not really strong enough from Turnbull. An actual conservative leader might be able to make a little more political headway out of this, don’t you think?
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ALWAYS BET ON THE BIG GUY
Tim Blair
The larger the nerd, the more likely he will feature in an online controversy.
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WHAT ABOUT COMPUTER MICE?
Tim Blair
An important legal matter clarified:
INTERVIEWER: What is the position in Islamic law with regard to mice?

SAUDI CLERIC MUHAMMAD AL-MUNAJID: The Sharia refers to the mouse as “little corrupter” and says it is permissible to kill it in all cases. It says mice set fire to the house and are steered by Satan. If a mouse falls into a pot of food, if the food is solid, you should chuck out the mouse and the food touching it. And if it is liquid you should chuck out the whole thing. Because the mouse is impure. According to Islamic law, the mouse is a repulsive, corrupting creature. How do you think children view mice today - after Tom and Jerry? Even creatures that are repulsive by nature, by logic and according to Islamic law have become wonderful and are loved by children. Even mice. Mickey Mouse has become an awesome character, even though Mickey Mouse should be killed in all cases.
Poor Farfour. He never stood a chance.
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Gone, if China closes its wallet
Andrew Bolt
Former foreign minister Alexander Downer is alarmed by China’s warning that America is borrowing too much to “rescue” its economy:

(The Obama administration is) adding to America’s already huge debts trillions of dollars of additional debt. The worry is, where are they going to get the money from? The answer: China… The U.S. has depended on China and the oil-rich kingdoms of the Middle East buying U.S. Treasury bonds…

I woke up with a start on Friday morning when I heard China’s Premier Wen Jiabao expressing concern about China’s huge investments in American bonds. The Premier said: “I’d like to take this opportunity here to implore the United States . . . to honour its words, stay a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets.”

The media didn’t much focus on this telling phrase… But this was a massive warning. China, worried about the amount of American debt it already holds, is hardly likely to be keen to lend the trillions of dollars of extra debt the American, British and now, tragically, the Australian governments, want to borrow for their own recent fiscal frolics.

If China doesn’t lend the money there are only two options: Either those countries will suffer big increases in the cost of their massive borrowings or they’ll print money and cause hyper-inflation. It’s a horrific prospect either way.
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Ruddernomics explained
Andrew Bolt
US vice president Joe Biden explains how the Obama administration’s stimulus package can help a woman who had to lay off most of her staff:

(I)t may very well be that she’s in a circumstance where she is not able, her customers aren’t able to get to her, there’s no transit capability, the bridge going across the creek to get to her business needs repair, may very well be that she’s in a position where she is unable to access the - her energy costs are so high by providing smart meters, by being able to bring down the cost of her workforce.
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Garrett grows up
Andrew Bolt
THE more Peter Garrett grows up, the more the media mocks him. The cult of the adolescent rules.

On Saturday Garrett stopped being Environment Minister and once more pogoed the stage as a Midnight Oil rocker at the Sound Relief benefit.

The MCG crowd was euphoric, and cried hosannas to the Garrett they thought had died in a Labor suit.

Even media heavies rhapsodised over this man reborn as a child, praising what they should deplore.

“Garrett, ... full of life and passion, was a far cry from the colourless, cautious figure we have got used to in Parliament House,” marvelled Channel 9’s Laurie Oakes. “He used to be somebody - now he’s a politician.”

Actually, Laurie, he used to be a rocker, but now he’s an adult. - and the ETS is a grown up Garret - ed.
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Green mafia hoovers your wallet
Andrew Bolt
IT’S the green mafia at work. The Brumby Government forces you to pay extra to prop up wind farms owned mostly by union-backed funds.

Next it could force you to pay even more to prop up a $3.1 billion desalination plant financed mostly by another union-backed super fund.

This Labor-union link in “green” projects is a conflict of interest that could cost us millions - and stop Labor from giving us the dam we badly need.

The conflict arises because wind farms and the planned desalination plant at Wonthaggi are overpriced and uncompetitive, and cannot make money without government support.

And if Labor ministers don’t give it, the investors - including leaders of Victoria’s most militant unions - could theoretically threaten their careers. Even their party preselections.

Already the Government has passed a law to make Victoria’s power retailers buy expensive “green” electricity, almost all of which is generated by the wind farms of Pacific Hydro.
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Pacific Hydro confirms: Rudd’s mad green scheme helps them
Andrew Bolt
As if to confirm my column above on how Labor’s mad schemes help the uneconomic green investments of union-backed funds:

RENEWABLE energy company Pacific Hydro has challenged claims the Government’s climate change policies will cost jobs, saying it will create at least 1200 new positions at Hydro over the next five years if they are implemented. Pacific Hydro chief executive Rob Grant told The Age any potential job losses in coal mining would be offset by the construction and operation of four wind farms once legislation for an emissions trading scheme and a 20 per cent renewable energy target were passed.
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Rudd turns ambassadors into halo-polishers
Andrew Bolt
Our embassies have become vanity publishing agents for the Prime Minister:

The Prime Minister decided his 7700-word essay on the origins of the global financial crisis deserved a world audience before the G20 financial summit in London next month.

The essay, which argues for more global regulation of financial markets and says capitalism is “cannibalising itself”, is being distributed around the world through Australian embassies and high commissions.

It’s embarrassing that a work so intellectually bankrupt, dangerous and dishonest is not being hidden but flaunted as the thinking of this country.

(This is also another sign, incidentally, that Rudd is already angling for a career in international politics, where Leftist and statist views are a decided advantage. As I’ve said from last year, my own tip is that he wants to be UN Secretary General.)

UPDATE

Our embassies can promote the Prime Ego, but not our real interests:

A damning examination of the operations of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade by an expert panel, which includes two former departmental heads, concludes that DFAT is badly underfunded and lacking in the skills needed to report on and deal with serious international issues.
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Who made unions the police?
Andrew Bolt
It is crazy that the Rudd Government is resisting amendments to its workplace laws that will save jobs:

JULIA Gillard’s attempt to woo independent senators with seven concessions to her industrial relations laws, including tightening right of entry and access to employee records, has failed, with senators insisting they will fight for a change in the definition of a small business....

The independent Senators are particularly worried that the Government’s regulations apply to small businesses with as few as 16 employees, and want the exemption raised from 15 to 20. But why stop there, if they really think these regulations kill jobs? Why not a threshold of 50? 100?

There is also haggling over the right of union officials under these new laws to enter workplaces to inspect the employee records of companies without a single worker of that union:

The Government has also indicated it will support an amendment from Senator Fielding on right of entry that will prevent unionists from inspecting documents relating to employees who are not members of the permit holders’ union without written permission from the worker or the approval of Fair Work Australia.

Excuse me, but if there is policing to be done, why is it privatised to union officials? Isn’t this the job of the government? Shouldn’t Fair Work Australia send out its own inspectors instead?
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Prisoners stimulated
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd’s free cash to “stimulate” the economy isn’t just going to dead people and 60,000 Australians living overseas:

MURDERERS, rapists and drug dealers stand to reap $900 payments from taxpayers in Kevin Rudd’s economic rescue package… Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen’s office said jail inmates could qualify for the payments like any other taxpayer.

Every $900 given to a crook is $900 taken from an honest worker.
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Tell yourself not to notice
Andrew Bolt
But what if their name is as gender-specific as “Mary”?

The European Parliament has banned the terms ‘Miss’ and ‘Mrs’ in case they offend female MEPs. The politically correct rules also mean a ban on Continental titles, such as Madame and Mademoiselle, Frau and Fraulein and Senora and Senorita.

Guidance issued in a new ‘Gender-Neutral Language’ pamphlet instead orders politicians to address female members by their full name only.

Some officials have way too much time on their hands, and way too much of a totalitarian itch.
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Bryce in danger, warns Neil Brown
Andrew Bolt
Neil Brown QC, the former deputy Liberal leader, tells me that by lobbying for African votes for Kevin Rudd’s UN seat, Quentin Bryce is overstepping her role as Governor General by even more than I think:

My view is that it is unwise for the Governor General to be lobbying in this way. Although the seat on the Security Council is not a major issue between the parties , it is a partisan issue because the Opposition has opposed the idea and accordingly she should not be lobbying for one side or the other.

But more importantly, I know from my own experience that when you go asking for a vote ( I was at the UN as a Parliamentary representative) there is always something the target wants in return. There is no such thing as a free vote. So , when the GG asks for the vote of the Republic of, say, Plaza Toro, its President will say to her:

“ Well, Excellency, we will consider your esteemed request. While we have the honour of hosting Your Excellency on this historic visit and noting the unrestrained adulation with which the people of Plaza Toro have greeted Your Excellency, might we take this opportunity of suggesting that you promote closer relations between our two countries by Australia considering the importation of more of our production of dessicated coconut.”

What he does not say is that he owns the dessicated coconut factory.

She is then obliged to take up the issue and before you can say ‘scandal’ she is involved in lobbying for a corrupt dictator and also promoting a policy inimical to the Australian coconut industry and contrary to the declared policy of the Australian Coconut Producers Council, but supported by The Australian Committee for Free Trade in Coconut. Then she is involved in a political issue even if she was not so before.

So it is best if GGs keep out of these things so there is no chance that they are touched by either the scandal or the promotion of controversial issues.

When I asked Neil if I could publish this on my blog, he added this postscript:
Actually, it is a true story as President Marcos tried the dessicated coconut trick on me in Manila during an imperial audience I was granted and I was told .... that he, Marcos, owned the local dessicated coconut factory.
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Rudd buys a bomb
Andrew Bolt
Oliver Hartwich says the Rudd Government’s plan to save our car industry by giving it $6.2 billion will fail:

The drama surrounding Holden’s US parent, GM, makes the Government’s plan look ridiculous. What’s the point in planning the long-term future of a sector when one of the biggest players may go under next week? ...

European politicians were far quicker to realise a GM insolvency would render their local GM subsidiaries unviable. In Germany and Britain, the homes of GM’s Opel and Vauxhall, they feared a collapse of GM would lead to the collapse of the local car industry… An insolvency would almost inevitably trigger the liquidation of GM’s foreign assets, including Vauxhall, Opel and Holden....

So the taxpayer subsidies Rudd is giving Holden may end up in the coffers of its ailing parent in Detroit…

When Rudd finally realises the dire straits Holden is in, he will probably nationalise it faster than you can say Commodore. So, after the Rudd Bank prepare for the Rudd Car.... Committing $100,000 of taxpayer money to saving each job in the car industry was already a prodigious waste of money but this will look cheap compared with the cost of nationalising Holden.