Headlines Thursday 30th April 2009

'Winter Dreams' Music Video Launch Night
2008 Miss Vietnam/Australia's Music Video Debut
Host: Rumble Pictures
Type: Party - Dinner Party
Date:Thursday, April 30, 2009
Time:7:00pm - 8:30pm
Location:Santos Restaurant
Street:231 Canley Vale Rd
Email: tim.ly@rumblepictures.com.au
rumblepictures.com.au
myspace.com/anhmaiho
vietlishentertainment.net

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Jailed drug dealer escapes in taxi
A jailed Sydney drug dealer has escaped from hospital, fleeing in a taxi after his guard let him leave to get a sandwich.

Pope laments church abuse of children
Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday lamented that Canadian Indian children suffered abuse and were made to feel ashamed of their heritage at Catholic Church-run boarding schools.

Two boats in one day too much: Oppn
The arrival of two more boatloads of suspected asylum seekers, one of which almost reached Darwin, strengthens the argument for an independent inquiry into people smuggling, the federal opposition says.

'We may not be able to stop swine flu'
Thermal scanners were deployed to airports around the nation on Wednesday, as the Rudd government admitted it's unlikely Australia will avoid a swine flu outbreak. - Reese says we are ready (in Sydney) for a flu outbreak. We are prepared, Mr Rees. Without notice we can black out the city. We can ground our ferry fleet. The trains will stop running. Public service will spring to inaction. Rees has someone to blame. The media can find barry O'Farrel at fault for something. Hospitals have practiced being over run with patients. Police know what to do when infrastructure fails. Emergency services will strictly follow procedure in prioritizing calls. We will never be more ready. - ed.

Fifth former Knox teacher arrested
A fifth former teacher from Knox Grammar School in Sydney's north has been arrested for child sex offences.

EnergyAustralia to sue clumsy contractor
EnergyAustralia will take legal action against the contractor whose boring machine cut a vital power cable and caused Sydney's CBD to suffer its third power blackout in a month.

US confirms first swine flu death
A 23-month-old child has died of swine flu in Texas, the first confirmed death in the United States as well as the first outside Mexico, the Centres for Disease Control said on Wednesday.
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The battle for Currawong has finally taken wing
Piers Akerman
AFTER years of complacency, Sydneysiders are finally fighting for their beaches.
After a 12-year struggle, Northern Beaches residents have finally convinced NSW Planning Minister Kristina Keneally to refuse an application to subdivide the historic Currawong site within Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, on Pittwater’s western foreshore. - Lead news on 2GB this morning was how Rees’ popularity had improved, along with the ALP in NSW. This is important as well federally as they need NSW so they may go to elections early, before bills come in. Radio DJ Chris Smith seemed to feel that the increase in popularity was due to residual from the handouts.
However, I would note that while 2GB can often correctly report news which has balance, they also often fail to report significant items critical of the ALP. So that I have been instructed that they will not allow me on talkback if I want to talk about my salient issues.
Garrett was never special. I acknowledge he has done some decisions completely in line with his political self interest and not expressed views, but that does not make him competent.
That the ICAC can ignore this too is nothing short of disturbing.
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MAGAZINE MINIMISED
Tim Blair
Mayhem at The Monthly, where deputy editor David Winter has resigned in sympathy with departed editor Sally Warhaft:
It leaves them with a staff of two: no editor, and no deputy.
It’s under Manned, you might say.
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JUST PLAIN OLD WEATHER AGAIN
Tim Blair
Hot weather in January was caused by …

… GLOBAL WARMING!

… EXTREME WEATHER!

… THE ENVIRONMENT FIGHTING BACK!

Cold weather in April is caused by …

… a dry air mass and clear skies.

… a cold front.

… nothing in particular.
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BECAUSE IT’S WRONG TO SAY DEMOCRATS
Tim Blair
Headline of the week:
Senator switches to Democratics
UPDATE. And another:
Hooker named Indoor Athlete of the Year
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CONSENSUS SHATTERED
Tim Blair
Dancin’ Pete causes an icy split within the Rudd government:
Federal government sources said Climate Change Minister Penny Wong was disappointed with the way her ministerial colleague, Peter Garrett, weighed into the debate about global warming, claiming sea levels could rise by 6m as a result of melting in Antarctica. Senator Wong yesterday pointedly refused to indicate whether she supported Mr Garrett’s view …

Senator Wong declined to nominate potential levels to which seas could rise.
She wouldn’t even nominate one millimetre? Could Penny Wong be another closet sceptic?
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MANHATTAN MYSTERY
Tim Blair
It’s a mystery why anyone would need to stage a photo opportunity involving one of the world’s most-photographed aircraft; it’s also a mystery why they needed to fly the thing around Manhattan when low-carbon technology exists to avoid that need.
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Glikson flicked
Andrew Bolt
Dr Andrew Glikson, the Australian National University warming alarmist who likens sceptics to ”parasites”, went through my 10 Global Myths to prove I was wrong, wrong wrong.

It was such a bizarrely weak effort that:

A. I relaxed, thinking that if this was the worst that could be said about my piece, I had nothing to fear.

B. I laughed, thinking that if this was the best that could be said about global warming theory by one of our leading alarmists, the whole house of cards was just one more puff from collapse.

I couldn’t be bothered replying to Glikson myself, thinking his failure to disprove me simply spoke for itself. But former MP Dr Jon Jenkins has not been so merciful. Read on for his forensic destruction of Glikson’s responses to the myths I’d identified, point by point. And ask at the end what it says about global warming and our universities that Glikson holds the position he does:
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Pratt did it. Get over it
Andrew Bolt
Terry McCrann has had it with the excuses - and some of those making them:

WITH friends like these . . . John Elliott obviously has not learned the first rule of holes. He went on the Neil Mitchell program yesterday morning with a very big shovel and set about using it with gusto.

In essence he said his great mate, the late Dick Pratt, lied when he ‘fessed up to price fixing. He only did it to save himself from a messy legal fight and a possibly much bigger financial penalty.

Pratt personally paid a record $36 million penalty. But according to Elliott, “the problem was” that if he’d gone to court it could have “cost him $150 million”. He made a conscious decision, according to Elliott, to take it on himself. “He told me he wasn’t guilty.”

Thanks, John. He was innocent but then he lied. But lied not to save but to trash his reputation! In order to save money.

When are the assorted ‘friends’ going to learn to stop it. That the ‘better’ version is to let his confession stand as the truth.

Nice sting at the end of McCrann’s piece, too. Whose money was that, John?
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Busier spending your money than returning it
Andrew Bolt
The Tax Office is so busy sending cheques to people who didn’t earn the money that it doesn’t have time to send refunds to those who did:

MILLIONS of taxpayers have been told not to hold their breath for their refund this year after the tax office became bogged down sending out cheques for the Government stimulus package.

That’s one stimulus delayed because another stimulus was pushed through. The country’s in great hands.
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If the world is warming, why are we so cold?
Andrew Bolt
The world, we’re told, has been warming dangerously. Yet here are our record temperatures:

HIGHEST RECORDED TEMPERATURE:

Oodnadatta, South Australia 50.7 C (123.3 F) on the 2nd January, 1960

LOWEST RECORDED TEMPERATURE:

Charlotte Pass, New South Wales -23.0 C (-9.4 F) on the 29th June, 1994

Yes, weather isn’t climate, but now:

The news came as Mount Hotham recorded the coldest temperature for April in Victoria of minus 8 degrees.

And:
Melbourne also had it’s fourth consecutive April day under 15 degrees yesterday — with a top of 13.8 degrees — the first time in 60 years.

And:
A new Australian record was set early this morning, a temperature of minus 13 degrees, at Charlotte Pass on the Snowy Mountains. This is the lowest temperature recorded anywhere in Australia in April ...

And:
The first snow of the season fell on NSW yesterday, the first time in 13 years ski resorts had experienced snow in April.

Discuss.

UPDATE

The IPA has had to book a bigger room to cope with the demand for places at the Melbourne launch of Professor Ian Plimer’s instant best-seller, Heaven and Earth. Global warming: the missing science. So best rush before that one’s booked out, too:

The launch will be held at The Hotel Windsor, 111 Spring Street, Melbourne on Wednesday 6 May 2009 from 5.30pm to 6.30pm.

The launch is free and open to the public, but because of the overwhelming interest in this event RSVPs are essential.
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Swine flew
Andrew Bolt
The start of a thousand jokes:

SIX Australian politicians, led by a senator named Hogg, who landed at the epicentre of Mexico’s swine flu crisis this week, have found themselves the centre of unwanted attention.

The Central Coast Labor MP, Belinda Neal, was among the group. She remained tight-lipped behind a face mask when a Herald reporter tracked the group down at a Mexico City hotel yesterday
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Emerson outs himself … forever as an idiot
Andrew Bolt
Days after being challenged here to come out of the closet, Craig Emerson peeks out:

FEDERAL Small Business Minister Craig Emerson has split from Kevin Rudd and ministerial colleagues by declaring science is undecided on key aspects of the global warming debate.

Dr Emerson yesterday became the first minister in the Rudd Government to cast doubt on the assertion that scientific evidence was conclusive for a catastrophic meltdown of the polar icecaps if global warming was not curtailed.

He said he would like to see scientists settle the question of what would happen to sea-level rises and the polar icecaps as a result of climate change.

Sadly, Emerson embarrasses himself - and will once day blush at his timidity - by still hiding behind this deceitful evasion:

“The science is in that we are experiencing climate change and we need to act to deal with it,” Dr Emerson told The Australian.

UPDATE

From the files: Kevid Rudd explains the evidence that convinces him the debate is over:

WELL, can I just say, the science is in. The icecaps are melting, the oceans are rising, temperatures are rising, we have the corals of the Great Barrier Reef beginning to be bleached. These are real environmental consequences now.

As I explained yesterday, all four of those claims are false. So what should Rudd now conclude?
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Why did Calma join a conference for racists?
Andrew Bolt
David Knoll should have gone in even harder, given Tom Calma’s committment to institutionalising racial divides and to witchhunts:

THE decision of Tom Calma to attend last week’s UN Durban II Conference in his capacity as race discrimination commissioner was controversial in more ways than one. The principal proponents of the conference, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and various rogue states, including some of the worst abusers of human rights on this planet, had two clear agendas.

Their first agenda was to achieve the UN’s imprimatur for a position that Islam in particular (but not exclusively) be shielded from criticism in the media and other areas of public life… The second agenda was to achieve that same imprimatur for demonisation of the Jewish nation, the state of Israel, with no other nation singled out for criticism…

The proponents of the conference will have noticed inevitably that Australia (along with the US, Israel, Canada, New Zealand, Italy, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany) publicly chose not to participate in a conference whose clear design, prepared during many months, was to promote a particular form of racism rather than to fight all forms of racism. Having an official as senior as the race discrimination commissioner attend as an observer could be perceived as a signal that Australia might in the future adopt some or all of the Durban II agenda.

Did Australia really oppose the conference or was Australia having a bet both ways? It is a pity that Calma did not follow Australian government policy and have no truck with racism of any hue.
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Worse than Bush
Andrew Bolt
The Washington Times cuts through the Kumbayahs:

President Obama’s media cheerleaders are hailing how loved he is. But at the 100-day mark of his presidency, Mr. Obama is the second-least-popular president in 40 years.

According to Gallup’s April survey, Americans have a lower approval of Mr. Obama at this point than all but one president since Gallup began tracking this in 1969. The only new president less popular was Bill Clinton, who got off to a notoriously bad start after trying to force homosexuals on the military and a federal raid in Waco, Texas, that killed 86.

The New York Post lists them:

100 DAYS, 100 MISTAKES

This latest doozy will take some explaining now that the panic is over and the hunt for the guilty is on:

Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay, but they still ordered the photo-op kept secret from the public.
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Please settle down
Andrew Bolt
Not just too much drink but too much panic:

Two men who had too much to drink caused 117 passengers on a flight from Mexico to Maryland to wait on board after landing while health authorities checked the two for symptoms of swine flu, officials said Tuesday.

The commotion began when AirTran Flight 85 from Cancun, Mexico, radioed ahead to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport that two passengers were had nausea and fever, said airport spokesman Jonathan Dean.

And this is right over the top, more likely to spread panic than stop a flu:

Australia’s government has approved tough new powers to detain and disinfect people suspected of carrying swine flu...

This when the confirmed death toll from the disease so far around the world stands at eight.
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More of Rudd’s boats
Andrew Bolt
How many more must arrive before Kevin Rudd admits he’s luring them in - some to their deaths?

AUTHORITIES released dramatic new photos of the interception of two “suspected illegal entry vessels” today.

The first boat had seven people on board and was intercepted one nautical mile north of Ashmore Reef, Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus confirmed.

The second was located 27 nautical miles west of Bathurst Island with about 72 people on board… There have been 17 vessel arrivals since August.

Which is around when Rudd weakened his laws against boat people. Since then 13 have died.

By the way, can we have a costing of how much all these new arrivals have cost taxpayers so far?
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Record temperature - on the day I said there were none
Andrew Bolt
Oops. I made a mistake in today’s column when I said that despite all this alleged global warming, Australia’s record temperatures had not been broken for decades. Reader Cameron says I’ve been proved wrong - and on the very day my column appeared:
A new Australian record was set early this morning, a temperature of minus 13 degrees, at Charlotte Pass on the Snowy Mountains. This is the lowest temperature recorded anywhere in Australia in April and is 13 below the average.

I stand both corrected and affirmed.
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Danby vs Jones
Andrew Bolt
Labor MP Michael Danby tackles Tony Jones over his airing on Q&A of a foul and baseless rumor about Israeli atrocities in Gaza - a rumor eagerly beaten up on the show by panellist Louise Adler. And he asks:

When does a monumental lie like this get examined by and refuted by your program?

Good question, and Danby has taken this to the ABC complaints tribunal.

There is one error in Danby’s letter, however. As I clearly recall, having been on that panel, most of the repudiation of Adler’s slur against Israeli troops was done by neither Greg Hunt nor Steve Conroy, but someone Danby thinks politic not to credit.
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Waiting for Rudd
Andrew Bolt
How self-centred and how spin-obsessed is our strange Prime Minister? Let’s rewind to last Friday.

Kevin Rudd had summoned a meeting of the National Security Council - comprising the most senior ministers and public servants involved in the security of this nation. It’s a meeting normally attended by the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the Defence Minister, the Minister For Foreign Affairs, as well as the heads of their departments and of all our main spy agencies. It’s meant to be a serious meeting of serious people with serious pressures on their time to discuss serious issues.

And so the summoned ministers, department heads and spy chiefs waited by their secure phones for Rudd to come on the line from Melbourne. And yet again they waited and waited… In fact, a very good source says, they waited two hours before Rudd finally joined them. And nine minutes later he hung up.

Nine minutes? What could they possibly have properly discussed in that short time?

Which makes today’s announcement by Rudd of 450 extra troops for Afghanistan - and of the thought that went into it - rather odd:
Mr Rudd said Australia’s commitment was discussed with US President Barack Obama last week following “extensive deliberations” by the National Security Committee of federal cabinet.

So what pressing engagement had Rudd once again keeping such senior people waiting like mere servants, and his jet waiting at the tarmac? Was it this?

Yesterday it was the turn of the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to visit Pratt’s bedside. A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said Mr Rudd had made a “a personal visit and the details will remain private”.

Rudd’s “private” visit to the bedside of dying billionaire Richard Pratt was itself odd. For many months Rudd had refused requests to see Pratt - presumably not wanting to be seen with a man facing criminal charges. But by Friday the papers were full of tributes to Pratt, and the line of dignitaries and stars wanting to say goodbye to him was very long, as we saw each night on television. Rudd decided to join them.

Meanwhile in Canberra, the most powerful figures in charge of our security waited and waited…

UPDATE

More information - the meeting was in part late because Rudd decided not to go to the phone arranged for him in Melbourne, but to first fly back to Canberra. He then did the hookup from the Lodge instead. Or so I’m told.
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More Outrage Over President Obama's Speech at Georgetown University
By Bret Baier
Blown Cover

Louisiana Republican Congressman John Fleming – on the House floor Monday — says he was "disturbed" when the White House covered a religious symbol which was part of the backdrop for President Obama's speech at Georgetown University earlier this month.

We reported that the monogram, "IHS," which comes from the Greek for Jesus, was covered with black-painted plywood. Fleming said Monday: "This administration has no problem spending money imprinted with the phrase, 'In God We Trust,' but won't have our president speak with any symbol of Christ in public view."

He then told Cybercast News: "I have a concern about the very sharp turn to socialism that's happening in our government... our president does not want to be associated with religious symbols, at least not Christian symbols."

The president is expected to wear a traditional robe featuring the cross and prayer of the Virgin Mary when he speaks at the university of Notre Dame next month.

Carbon Copy

You know the old saying, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." Now it seems President Obama's campaign slogan "Yes We Can," is being replicated by an unlikely figure.

The London Guardian reports Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is seeking re-election in June, is distributing a video that uses a strikingly similar slogan. The video's cover features a photo of Ahmadinejad pointing to the Farsi phrase for "We Can" on a classroom blackboard. The report suggests that Ahmadinejad is hoping to capitalize on his former role as a university lecturer.

In the Thick of It

A German radio station – Radio Bremen — is reporting that an expedition by 20 American, Canadian, Italian and German scientists has found that ice in parts of the North Pole is thicker than previously thought.

The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research says that earlier measurements had indicated what it called a strong decrease of ice thickness in the central Arctic. So the researchers expected the areas they were surveying, many of which had never been measured before, to be about two meters thick. But they discovered the ice was actually four meters thick.

The study's full results will be available in coming weeks.

Fair Game?

And finally, an Italian gaming company, Molleindustria (Molleindustria.org) has re-worked one of its online video games following complaints that it promoted religious intolerance. The game pitted religious figures such as Jesus, Mohammed, and Buddha against each other in combat. On it’s Web site, the game was described as: "The ultimate fighting game for these dark times... religious hate has never been so much fun."

But the Organization of the Islamic Conference called the game: "Incendiary in its content and offensive to Muslims and Christians."

So the company removed the game and uploaded a new one. According to Molleindustria’s Web site, gamers are now asked to "give love and respect" by clicking on the figures before they disappear. They vanish anyway, and the screen then displays a burning village and the message: "You didn't respect religion and now the world is a total mess."