Sunday, May 31, 2009
Rush Limbaugh: How Do You Get Promoted in the Obama Administration? By Hating White People
Rush Limbaugh on Sonia Sotomayor: " How Do You Get Promoted in the Obama Administration? By Hating White People"
Obama says she chose her words poorly and was taken out of context.
it'll grow on you
communitychannel
December 21, 2008
Honestly, it doesn't matter how many times i try things, i consistently dislike the same foods/drinks and no amount of "growing" changes that.
Hope you're all well and I hope you guys had a lovely weekend. Here's to the start of a new week
===
From the big 'hi' in the start of each video, through the slow beat of comment time, you grow on me, Nat.
Headlines Sunday 31st May 2009
Woodward Plots to Capture Obama White House in Next Book
Beltway insiders say the White House appears to be taking pains to avoid leaks to the Washington Post icon, who is working on a new book about the administration
Corbys want Rudd to deliver on promise
SCHAPELLE Corby and her family say Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a deal to help them.
Health Care Ad Battle
Major campaign backed by one of the men behind 'Swift Boat' attacks could put a dent in Obama's health reforms
British Space Scientist Killed as Hot-Air Balloons Collide in Turkey
A leading British space scientist was killed Friday, and nine other tourists injured, when two hot-air balloons collided over the mountains of eastern Turkey.
Bollywood star threatens Aussie snub
AMITABH Bachchan may reject an honorary doctorate from an Australian university in protest against Indian student attacks.
N Korea warned, US troops at the ready
The United States is warning it will take action against North Korea if there is any threat to itself or its Asian allies.
Vic doctors low on medical supplies
There are now fears doctors at the epicentre of the swine flu outbreak in Melbourne are running out of vital supplies.
Uighurs welcome, says Amnesty
Amnesty International has called for the Rudd Government to accept the Guantanamo detainees and end human rights violations
Cruise ship clear of flu, for the moment
Pacific Dawn to arrive in Sydney, no passengers tested positive to swine flu.
Gitmo Detainees: Opposition says 'No'
The Federal Opposition says it wants more answers from the United States as to why Australia has been asked to accept former Guantanamo Bay prisoners.
=== Comments ===
Language of diplomacy eludes our PM
Piers Akerman
ONE of candidate Kevin Rudd’s big selling points - other than that he was not John Howard - was his experience as a diplomat. - It sounds weird to say it, but none of the world leaders seem to want to be Rudd’s bitch. Mr Howard never required one to effectively prosecute his agenda, but Rudd seems really desirous of one. Yet Rudd is spurned. Not the girl at Scores. Not his wife, who maintains her own business. Swan seems to be content with accepting the spit jobs of announcing bad news .. with Gillard, but both keep their distance, leaving the popular ideas to Rudd. Rudd is looking really panicky these days, since his election. Firstly, Rudd felt the Australian budget inadequate and thought there was a need to hike up interest rates. Then Rudd declared that the world was going to end, and so interest rates didn’t need to be so high. Europeans don’t like Rudd, nor Asians. Once can find no reasons why indigenous peoples should support Rudd either .. until the recent decision to ignore the decision to stop Mr Howard’s intervention. Maybe we really need a bill of rights ,, make Rudd leave RIGHT now - ed.
===
TRICKY OLD SUN
Tim Blair
Let down by wayward computer modeling, an international panel of experts changes its solar activity predictions:
The latest forecast revises an earlier prediction issued in 2007. At that time, a sharply divided panel believed solar minimum would come in March 2008 followed by either a strong solar maximum in 2011 or a weak solar maximum in 2012. Competing models gave different answers, and researchers were eager for the sun to reveal which was correct.
“It turns out that none of our models were totally correct,” says Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA’s lead representative on the panel. “The sun is behaving in an unexpected and very interesting way.”
I blame solar warming.
===
GET BACK
Tim Blair
A positive development in an area of England familiar with Islamic protest:
The Muslim community turned on extremists in their midst yesterday, telling them they were ‘sick and tired’ of their behaviour …
Passing traffic ground to a halt as the large group of moderates confronted about a dozen extremists.
As the radical Muslims began to set up their stall, they were surrounded by a crowd shouting ‘we don’t want you here’ and ‘move on, move on’.
Interesting reaction from the extremists:
Angry words were exchanged and scuffles broke out between members of both groups, with the extremists shouting ‘Shame on you’ and ‘Get back to your synagogue’.
Isn’t that some form of hate crime in modern Britain? Or is it a hate crime to suggest that hating Jews is a hate crime? You never know with British law. Happily, an unlikely group has taken over from Brit cops:
Farasat Latif, of the Islamic Centre in Luton, which was firebombed after the protest against the soldiers, said moderate members of his community took action because police had failed to move the group on.
===
THANKS REFERRED
Tim Blair
Frank McKenna, Canada’s former ambassador to the US, tells ex-Prez Bush “the world owes you a debt of gratitude” for massive anti-AIDS drug programs in Africa. Bush’s response:
“To whom much is given, much is required. Don’t thank me, thank the taxpayers of the United States of America.”
Politicians who know from whom the money comes; there aren’t enough of them.
===
WE ARE POWERFUL
Tim Blair
Warmenists cool their heels in a West Virginia prison:
Environmental group Mountain Justice says six people arrested on trespassing charges during a coal mining protest are still jailed.
The group said Sunday the six have been unable to raise $2,000 cash apiece to make bail.
Seeing as these stupid hippies were only doing his bidding, why didn’t Al Gore wire them some cash? Instead, five of the trespassers were rescued by mysterious powerful forces:
The money was raised by hundreds of people chipping in. A little adds up to a lot! We are powerful!
They raised enough money to buy a Lada. Power! Also, they stopped the warmening:
Cool air will continue to stream into New England and New York on Sunday, which will cause more showers and thunderstorms to form. Also, an unseasonable chill in the air will be felt. Expect some SNOWFLAKES to mix in across the higher elevations of the Adirondack, Green and White Mountains on the last day of MAY!!!
===
MEDIA MYOPIA
Tim Blair
Reason‘s Cathy Young:
To some on the left, any mention of Islamic extremism is a bigoted right-wing scare tactic. On his blog, Nation magazine columnist Robert Dreyfuss dismisses the New York terror plot as “bogus” and asserts that every alleged plot by Muslim terrorists on U.S. soil after the World Trade Center attack has been “nonsense” cooked up by the FBI: “Since 9/11 not a single American has even been punched in the nose by an angry Muslim, as far as I can tell.” (Tell that to the victims of Mohammed Taheri-azar, who plowed a Jeep into a crowd of students at the University of North Carolina in 2006 and later told authorities that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of September 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and “avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world.")
Noting that “anti-Muslim hysteria on the right is no myth, either,” Young nevertheless concludes:
Leaving aside debates about whether there is something in the Muslim religion that inherently and uniquely lends itself to a violent, extremist interpretation, the reality is that an extremist and violent strain is present in modern-day Islam to a far greater extent than in other major religions …
To ignore or downplay these alarming facts is myopic. If the mainstream media continue to do so out of misguided sensitivity, it will only undermine their credibility when it comes to battling real bigotry.
It’s plenty undermined already.
===
FUNNIER THAN THE SHOW
Tim Blair
An Australian version of jumped the shark:
Instead of referring to the waning days of American sit-com Happy Days and the episode where Fonzie jumped a shark, only to see the show sink further and further into irrelevance and low ratings, it refers to the opening episode of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC’s) 2009 return of comedy show “The Chaser,” where the “edgy” comedians go to the Vatican City to abuse nuns and fly a blimp with foul anti-Catholic slogans past the Pope in the Vatican.
Marked the beginning of the end for the ABC’s “The Chaser.”
And an example of the new phrase in use:
“Jeez, I used to think they were so edgy and funny, but now they’ve just flown the Vatican.”
===
FEAR THE OBAMONSTER
Tim Blair
If Barack Obama’s presidency were a foetus, it would barely be out of the first trimester. Unhinged leftist Ted Rall calls for a termination:
Obama is useless. Worse than that, he’s dangerous. Which is why, if he has any patriotism left after the thousands of meetings he has sat through with corporate contributors, blood-sucking lobbyists and corrupt politicians, he ought to step down now — before he drags us further into the abyss …
Obama has revealed himself. He is a monster, and he should remove himself from power.
Last year, Rall wanted George W. Bush arrested. His suggestions do tend towards the drastic. Rall’s dismayed ideological brethren at Democratic Underground respond.
===
BAD BUSINESSMAN
Tim Blair
Age headline:
Ex-CEO avoids jail for child porn
Age story:
A former ACTU research officer and ALP policy committee president who pleaded guilty to possessing and accessing more than 4000 images and videos of child pornography has avoided an immediate jail sentence.
Stephen de Rozairo turns out to have been the chief executive of a western suburbs-based youth training organisation. A previous Age headline is more accurate.
===
THEME UNDETECTED
Tim Blair
Following confusion in Adelaide, further ad trouble in Pennsylvania.
UPDATE. “It could have been worse,” writes Glenn Reynolds. “It could have said “Snipers Wanted.”
UPDATE II. In other Obama news, the US government is so big that entire agencies remain unknown to the President.
===
PHELPS FUELLED
Tim Blair
The Daily Telegraph‘s James Phelps is currently in Tasmania, covering motor racing. Yesterday he pulled into a service station to refuel his rental car. Getting out, Phelps saw someone fiddling with the filler lid.
“What are you doing?” asked James, imagining the fellow was some kind of Tasmaniac petrol bandit.
“I work here,” came the reply.
This is the first time that Phelps – who has been driving for 15 years – has encountered a service station with actual service. Almost entirely unknown on the mainland, they live on in Tasmania. Even there they are under threat, according to the attendant; of all the stations in Launceston, only a “dozen or so” still have filler staff.
===
KOWLEDGE
Tim Blair
A comment from Crikey editor Jonathan Green:
It’s just, you kow, who wants to take credit. So gauche.
Meanwhile, here’s Crikey crank Guy “Sydney harba” Rundle – who doesn’t know that rugby and rugby league are different codes – in a recent subscriber-only piece:
I could be wrong. But let’s face it; compared to Greg [Sheridan] and Planet [Janet Albrechtsen], who have been ever-reliably wrong for the last five years, I’m usually right.
From the same item:
Yesterday, Barack Obama gained some much-needed kudos from the left by putting up Sonia Sotomayer as a nominee for the Supreme Court … Sotomayer hits three targets … Sotomayer is on record … Sotomayer’s remarks … there’s no guarantee that Sotomayer … Sotomayer is a middle of the road judge …
Her name is Sotomayor.
===
A sugar rush never cost this much
Andrew Bolt
I am no economic guru, yet in February could write this:
We actually have time, after all, to spend those billions on productive investments such as rail, airports, internet, ports and tax cuts, rather than the quick-quick sugar rush of pink batts, public housing, free cash handouts and school halls.
Which is a view an economic tsar now echoes:
World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned policy makers that fiscal-stimulus plans are insufficient to turn around the “real economy” and rising joblessness threatens to set off political unrest across the globe. “While the stimulus has given an impulse, it’s like a sugar high unless you eventually get the credit system working,” Zoellick said...
Question: what collective madness inspired the Rudd Government and Treasury to embark on a wild free-cash spendathon, to the applause then of so many economists and commentators? Should we add that madness to these from our past?
===
Sotomayor’s sin
Andrew Bolt
Charles Krauthammer on the real case against ”wise Latina” Sonia Sotomayor - and for confirming Barack Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court:
Obama and Sotomayor draw on the “richness of her experiences” and concern for judicial results to favor one American story, one disadvantaged background, over another. The refutation lies in the very oath Sotomayor must take when she ascends to the Supreme Court: “I do solemnly swear that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich. . . . So help me God.”
When the hearings begin, Republicans should call Frank Ricci as their first witness. Democrats want justice rooted in empathy? Let Ricci tell his story, and let the American people judge whether his promotion should have been denied because of his skin color in a procedure Sotomayor joined in calling “facially race-neutral.”
Make the case for individual vs. group rights, for justice vs. empathy. Then vote to confirm Sotomayor solely on the grounds—consistently violated by the Democrats, including Sen. Obama—that a president is entitled to deference on his Supreme Court nominees, particularly one who so thoroughly reflects the mainstream views of the winning party.
Elections have consequences. Vote Democratic and you get mainstream liberalism: a judicially mandated racial spoils system and a jurisprudence of empathy that hinges on which litigant is less “advantaged.”
===
Rudd was once a conservative - and Schapelle supporter
Andrew Bolt
Jailed drug trafficker Schapelle Corby and her sister Mercedes believed in Kevin Rudd’s pre-election spin, too:
“I am very disappointed because I believed while Mr Kevin Rudd was in Opposition he was caring and compassionate to Schapelle’s plight and all correspondence to both myself and supporters alike was answered,” Mercedes Corby said.
“But now he is in a position of power and has the ability to do something, we can’t even get a reply to a letter.”
Ms Corby said when her sister was convicted of drug trafficking, Mr Rudd put out press releases and wrote letters to the family and supporters calling on the then Government to help her.
===
No scalpel could cure them
Andrew Bolt
Former patients of Monash Medical Centre’s Gender Dysphoria Clinic say they should never have been given gender reassignment surgery, and they aren’t the only ones to doubt that mutilating a body is the way to heal a troubled mind:
A review of more than 100 studies of post-operative transsexuals by the University of Birmingham found there was no evidence that surgery was effective and in many cases patients were left more distressed. Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore - which had one of the pioneer gender clinics - no longer performs sex-change surgery due to such concerns. A recent British review found suicide rates of up to 18 per cent post-surgery.
Doctors from London’s Portman Clinic say they see many patients who feel trapped in “no-man’s land” after surgery.
Given these doubts, how doubly wrong does this appear:
The Family Court has treated the troubled mind of a 17-year-old girl by letting her cut off her breasts.
UPDATE
Was the 17-year-old a patient of this clinic?
AUSTRALIA’S only sex-change clinic has been temporarily shut down and its controversial director forced to quit amid growing claims that patients with psychiatric problems have been wrongly diagnosed as transsexuals and encouraged to have radical gender reassignment surgery.
===
Pinching Sydney’s women
Andrew Bolt
When the mayor of Mt Isa tried this last year, he was denounced as a redneck. But on second thoughts, says Tourism Victoria…
STEALING the most eligible women in NSW is the aim of an underground campaign funded by the Victorian Government. Tourism Victoria’s bold new message is that single Sydney females should head south if they want to meet men with style and substance.
The viral online campaign, titled Melbourne Match, features videos of actors playing four Sydney stereotypes “auditioning” for dates with women. There’s a surfie who hoots and toots about wanting a long-term relationship over winter, a muscle-bound big mouth still living with his mum, an effeminate fashion worker who likes being “out” and a corporate stiff obsessed with status symbols…
Campaign publicist Belinda Aucott said the idea was a light-hearted play on the perceived “man recession” in Sydney.
“There is definitely an inference, especially across the viral campaign, that there tends to be a higher gay population here in Sydney and that the men here can tend to be a little bit more focused on business and finance,” Ms Aucott said.
I’m not sure I actually approve of two of these ads, and I wonder what Tourism Victoria boss Greg Hywood would have said of them were he still the editor of the very righteous Age:
===
How much more punishment can 46% take?
Andrew Bolt
The Liberals should be amazed by this poll from NSW:
Preferred premier: Barry O’Farrell 50%, Nathan Rees 33%
Labor’s experiment with its new kid-on-the-block premier has been a disaster with Nathan Rees failing to win support and stop the party falling into oblivion… Just one-third of voters rank Mr Rees above Mr O’Farrell in the preferred premier category, with half favouring Mr O’Farrell… The Opposition is still in a comfortable election-winning position, with the poll showing it would claim victory 54-46 on a two-party preferred basis.
I mean, nearly half the NSW electorate would like more of Labor?
===
Slapping dad and his works
Andrew Bolt
Leftist Nicholas Kristoff has a test to divide the Left and conservatives:
Would you be willing to slap your father in the face, with his permission, as part of a comedy skit?
He might be onto something.
===
Calling time on Laurie, Michelle and Paul
Andrew Bolt
A former senior staffer to a former Liberal Prime Minister and two Premiers (who wishes to stay anonymous) says time is up for the old guard in the parliamentary press gallery:
The real political succession story in Canberra is not who will succeed Malcolm Turnbull, Kevin Rudd or Bob Brown. The real story is who will succeed Laurie Oakes, Michelle Grattan, Paul Bongiorno and some of the other senior political journalists.
Some of these guys have been around for more than thirty years. They happily brand politicians who stay that long as out of touch and past their prime, but they don’t apply the same measures to themselves.
Back in the seventies and eighties, political journalism was the top of the tree. To be lead political reporter for a major newspaper or a television channel was to be a superstar. Not any more. Now it’s the lifestyle reporters who command the largest audiences and highest salaries. Even gardening programs are considered more interesting.
Could this be because our political reporters have somehow failed to maintain the interest of their audiences?
Working in the parliamentary press gallery has never been like working in the real world, but sometimes it seems many of those who do are more out of touch than the MPs they report on. And when did they last get a scoop?
===
No longer their own school
Andrew Bolt
In Britain, a church is forbidden the right to uphold the teachings even in its own schools:
Lawyers have told the Roman Catholic Church that it cannot sack a Catholic headmaster who has entered a civil partnership with a male teacher.
And a headmaster feels no shame in enjoying the privileges of employment at the school of a church whose teaching he openly rejects.
===
Obama attacks his own judicial pick
Andrew Bolt
Now even Barack Obama is repudiating the “wise Latino” boast of his Latino pick for the Supreme Court:
President Barack Obama on Friday personally sought to deflect criticism of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who finds herself under intensifying scrutiny for saying in 2001 that a female Hispanic judge would often reach a better decision than a white male judge. “I’m sure she would have restated it,” Obama flatly told NBC News, without indicating how he knew that.
Really? Then let us hear it from her. But in the meantime let us hear from Obama how he came to pick someone with such racist views - and such a bizarre notion of how ethnicity determines views of the law. And to remind of which notion that is:
She said in 2001: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” The remark was in the context her saying that “our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging."…
She also said, for example: “Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.”
“My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas in which I am unfamiliar,” she said. “I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage.”
===
10 Reasons Why We Are Losing Role Models
By Bill Shuler
As Brooke Shields laments not having lost her virginity earlier, and Mel Gibson admits to fathering a child with a woman other than his wife, a question begs to be asked…What happened to role models? There was a day when being a public personality carried with it a certain standard of conduct. But of late, the bar of behavior seems to have been set quite low.
The following could be 10 reasons why we are losing role models:
1. Honorable people are sometimes demonized for taking a stand for morality and values in the public arena.
2. High profile scandals in sports, politics and religion have jaded us.
3. Fewer dads are present in the home.
4. For so many of us, success in our culture has been defined as fame, fortune and power.
5. Image often trumps character.
6. Indulgence replaces sacrifice.
7. Self-discipline is a less-practiced art.
8. Self-seeking is an over-practiced art.
9. Some find “Family values” to be a political code word rather than an ideal to be embraced.
10. Good people with deep convictions remain silent.
Being beautiful, uninhibited or rich has become a cheap substitute for courage, decency and selflessness. Before the American role model becomes an endangered species, we must challenge the notion that by meeting low standards we are attaining success. A new generation is looking, not for perfection, but for honesty and authenticity in its leaders. The future of America depends on those who will have the courage to live by example and call a new generation to achieve lives of moral excellence and noble service.
Beltway insiders say the White House appears to be taking pains to avoid leaks to the Washington Post icon, who is working on a new book about the administration
Corbys want Rudd to deliver on promise
SCHAPELLE Corby and her family say Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a deal to help them.
Health Care Ad Battle
Major campaign backed by one of the men behind 'Swift Boat' attacks could put a dent in Obama's health reforms
British Space Scientist Killed as Hot-Air Balloons Collide in Turkey
A leading British space scientist was killed Friday, and nine other tourists injured, when two hot-air balloons collided over the mountains of eastern Turkey.
Bollywood star threatens Aussie snub
AMITABH Bachchan may reject an honorary doctorate from an Australian university in protest against Indian student attacks.
N Korea warned, US troops at the ready
The United States is warning it will take action against North Korea if there is any threat to itself or its Asian allies.
Vic doctors low on medical supplies
There are now fears doctors at the epicentre of the swine flu outbreak in Melbourne are running out of vital supplies.
Uighurs welcome, says Amnesty
Amnesty International has called for the Rudd Government to accept the Guantanamo detainees and end human rights violations
Cruise ship clear of flu, for the moment
Pacific Dawn to arrive in Sydney, no passengers tested positive to swine flu.
Gitmo Detainees: Opposition says 'No'
The Federal Opposition says it wants more answers from the United States as to why Australia has been asked to accept former Guantanamo Bay prisoners.
=== Comments ===
Language of diplomacy eludes our PM
Piers Akerman
ONE of candidate Kevin Rudd’s big selling points - other than that he was not John Howard - was his experience as a diplomat. - It sounds weird to say it, but none of the world leaders seem to want to be Rudd’s bitch. Mr Howard never required one to effectively prosecute his agenda, but Rudd seems really desirous of one. Yet Rudd is spurned. Not the girl at Scores. Not his wife, who maintains her own business. Swan seems to be content with accepting the spit jobs of announcing bad news .. with Gillard, but both keep their distance, leaving the popular ideas to Rudd. Rudd is looking really panicky these days, since his election. Firstly, Rudd felt the Australian budget inadequate and thought there was a need to hike up interest rates. Then Rudd declared that the world was going to end, and so interest rates didn’t need to be so high. Europeans don’t like Rudd, nor Asians. Once can find no reasons why indigenous peoples should support Rudd either .. until the recent decision to ignore the decision to stop Mr Howard’s intervention. Maybe we really need a bill of rights ,, make Rudd leave RIGHT now - ed.
===
TRICKY OLD SUN
Tim Blair
Let down by wayward computer modeling, an international panel of experts changes its solar activity predictions:
The latest forecast revises an earlier prediction issued in 2007. At that time, a sharply divided panel believed solar minimum would come in March 2008 followed by either a strong solar maximum in 2011 or a weak solar maximum in 2012. Competing models gave different answers, and researchers were eager for the sun to reveal which was correct.
“It turns out that none of our models were totally correct,” says Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA’s lead representative on the panel. “The sun is behaving in an unexpected and very interesting way.”
I blame solar warming.
===
GET BACK
Tim Blair
A positive development in an area of England familiar with Islamic protest:
The Muslim community turned on extremists in their midst yesterday, telling them they were ‘sick and tired’ of their behaviour …
Passing traffic ground to a halt as the large group of moderates confronted about a dozen extremists.
As the radical Muslims began to set up their stall, they were surrounded by a crowd shouting ‘we don’t want you here’ and ‘move on, move on’.
Interesting reaction from the extremists:
Angry words were exchanged and scuffles broke out between members of both groups, with the extremists shouting ‘Shame on you’ and ‘Get back to your synagogue’.
Isn’t that some form of hate crime in modern Britain? Or is it a hate crime to suggest that hating Jews is a hate crime? You never know with British law. Happily, an unlikely group has taken over from Brit cops:
Farasat Latif, of the Islamic Centre in Luton, which was firebombed after the protest against the soldiers, said moderate members of his community took action because police had failed to move the group on.
===
THANKS REFERRED
Tim Blair
Frank McKenna, Canada’s former ambassador to the US, tells ex-Prez Bush “the world owes you a debt of gratitude” for massive anti-AIDS drug programs in Africa. Bush’s response:
“To whom much is given, much is required. Don’t thank me, thank the taxpayers of the United States of America.”
Politicians who know from whom the money comes; there aren’t enough of them.
===
WE ARE POWERFUL
Tim Blair
Warmenists cool their heels in a West Virginia prison:
Environmental group Mountain Justice says six people arrested on trespassing charges during a coal mining protest are still jailed.
The group said Sunday the six have been unable to raise $2,000 cash apiece to make bail.
Seeing as these stupid hippies were only doing his bidding, why didn’t Al Gore wire them some cash? Instead, five of the trespassers were rescued by mysterious powerful forces:
The money was raised by hundreds of people chipping in. A little adds up to a lot! We are powerful!
They raised enough money to buy a Lada. Power! Also, they stopped the warmening:
Cool air will continue to stream into New England and New York on Sunday, which will cause more showers and thunderstorms to form. Also, an unseasonable chill in the air will be felt. Expect some SNOWFLAKES to mix in across the higher elevations of the Adirondack, Green and White Mountains on the last day of MAY!!!
===
MEDIA MYOPIA
Tim Blair
Reason‘s Cathy Young:
To some on the left, any mention of Islamic extremism is a bigoted right-wing scare tactic. On his blog, Nation magazine columnist Robert Dreyfuss dismisses the New York terror plot as “bogus” and asserts that every alleged plot by Muslim terrorists on U.S. soil after the World Trade Center attack has been “nonsense” cooked up by the FBI: “Since 9/11 not a single American has even been punched in the nose by an angry Muslim, as far as I can tell.” (Tell that to the victims of Mohammed Taheri-azar, who plowed a Jeep into a crowd of students at the University of North Carolina in 2006 and later told authorities that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of September 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and “avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world.")
Noting that “anti-Muslim hysteria on the right is no myth, either,” Young nevertheless concludes:
Leaving aside debates about whether there is something in the Muslim religion that inherently and uniquely lends itself to a violent, extremist interpretation, the reality is that an extremist and violent strain is present in modern-day Islam to a far greater extent than in other major religions …
To ignore or downplay these alarming facts is myopic. If the mainstream media continue to do so out of misguided sensitivity, it will only undermine their credibility when it comes to battling real bigotry.
It’s plenty undermined already.
===
FUNNIER THAN THE SHOW
Tim Blair
An Australian version of jumped the shark:
Instead of referring to the waning days of American sit-com Happy Days and the episode where Fonzie jumped a shark, only to see the show sink further and further into irrelevance and low ratings, it refers to the opening episode of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC’s) 2009 return of comedy show “The Chaser,” where the “edgy” comedians go to the Vatican City to abuse nuns and fly a blimp with foul anti-Catholic slogans past the Pope in the Vatican.
Marked the beginning of the end for the ABC’s “The Chaser.”
And an example of the new phrase in use:
“Jeez, I used to think they were so edgy and funny, but now they’ve just flown the Vatican.”
===
FEAR THE OBAMONSTER
Tim Blair
If Barack Obama’s presidency were a foetus, it would barely be out of the first trimester. Unhinged leftist Ted Rall calls for a termination:
Obama is useless. Worse than that, he’s dangerous. Which is why, if he has any patriotism left after the thousands of meetings he has sat through with corporate contributors, blood-sucking lobbyists and corrupt politicians, he ought to step down now — before he drags us further into the abyss …
Obama has revealed himself. He is a monster, and he should remove himself from power.
Last year, Rall wanted George W. Bush arrested. His suggestions do tend towards the drastic. Rall’s dismayed ideological brethren at Democratic Underground respond.
===
BAD BUSINESSMAN
Tim Blair
Age headline:
Ex-CEO avoids jail for child porn
Age story:
A former ACTU research officer and ALP policy committee president who pleaded guilty to possessing and accessing more than 4000 images and videos of child pornography has avoided an immediate jail sentence.
Stephen de Rozairo turns out to have been the chief executive of a western suburbs-based youth training organisation. A previous Age headline is more accurate.
===
THEME UNDETECTED
Tim Blair
Following confusion in Adelaide, further ad trouble in Pennsylvania.
UPDATE. “It could have been worse,” writes Glenn Reynolds. “It could have said “Snipers Wanted.”
UPDATE II. In other Obama news, the US government is so big that entire agencies remain unknown to the President.
===
PHELPS FUELLED
Tim Blair
The Daily Telegraph‘s James Phelps is currently in Tasmania, covering motor racing. Yesterday he pulled into a service station to refuel his rental car. Getting out, Phelps saw someone fiddling with the filler lid.
“What are you doing?” asked James, imagining the fellow was some kind of Tasmaniac petrol bandit.
“I work here,” came the reply.
This is the first time that Phelps – who has been driving for 15 years – has encountered a service station with actual service. Almost entirely unknown on the mainland, they live on in Tasmania. Even there they are under threat, according to the attendant; of all the stations in Launceston, only a “dozen or so” still have filler staff.
===
KOWLEDGE
Tim Blair
A comment from Crikey editor Jonathan Green:
It’s just, you kow, who wants to take credit. So gauche.
Meanwhile, here’s Crikey crank Guy “Sydney harba” Rundle – who doesn’t know that rugby and rugby league are different codes – in a recent subscriber-only piece:
I could be wrong. But let’s face it; compared to Greg [Sheridan] and Planet [Janet Albrechtsen], who have been ever-reliably wrong for the last five years, I’m usually right.
From the same item:
Yesterday, Barack Obama gained some much-needed kudos from the left by putting up Sonia Sotomayer as a nominee for the Supreme Court … Sotomayer hits three targets … Sotomayer is on record … Sotomayer’s remarks … there’s no guarantee that Sotomayer … Sotomayer is a middle of the road judge …
Her name is Sotomayor.
===
A sugar rush never cost this much
Andrew Bolt
I am no economic guru, yet in February could write this:
We actually have time, after all, to spend those billions on productive investments such as rail, airports, internet, ports and tax cuts, rather than the quick-quick sugar rush of pink batts, public housing, free cash handouts and school halls.
Which is a view an economic tsar now echoes:
World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned policy makers that fiscal-stimulus plans are insufficient to turn around the “real economy” and rising joblessness threatens to set off political unrest across the globe. “While the stimulus has given an impulse, it’s like a sugar high unless you eventually get the credit system working,” Zoellick said...
Question: what collective madness inspired the Rudd Government and Treasury to embark on a wild free-cash spendathon, to the applause then of so many economists and commentators? Should we add that madness to these from our past?
===
Sotomayor’s sin
Andrew Bolt
Charles Krauthammer on the real case against ”wise Latina” Sonia Sotomayor - and for confirming Barack Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court:
Obama and Sotomayor draw on the “richness of her experiences” and concern for judicial results to favor one American story, one disadvantaged background, over another. The refutation lies in the very oath Sotomayor must take when she ascends to the Supreme Court: “I do solemnly swear that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich. . . . So help me God.”
When the hearings begin, Republicans should call Frank Ricci as their first witness. Democrats want justice rooted in empathy? Let Ricci tell his story, and let the American people judge whether his promotion should have been denied because of his skin color in a procedure Sotomayor joined in calling “facially race-neutral.”
Make the case for individual vs. group rights, for justice vs. empathy. Then vote to confirm Sotomayor solely on the grounds—consistently violated by the Democrats, including Sen. Obama—that a president is entitled to deference on his Supreme Court nominees, particularly one who so thoroughly reflects the mainstream views of the winning party.
Elections have consequences. Vote Democratic and you get mainstream liberalism: a judicially mandated racial spoils system and a jurisprudence of empathy that hinges on which litigant is less “advantaged.”
===
Rudd was once a conservative - and Schapelle supporter
Andrew Bolt
Jailed drug trafficker Schapelle Corby and her sister Mercedes believed in Kevin Rudd’s pre-election spin, too:
“I am very disappointed because I believed while Mr Kevin Rudd was in Opposition he was caring and compassionate to Schapelle’s plight and all correspondence to both myself and supporters alike was answered,” Mercedes Corby said.
“But now he is in a position of power and has the ability to do something, we can’t even get a reply to a letter.”
Ms Corby said when her sister was convicted of drug trafficking, Mr Rudd put out press releases and wrote letters to the family and supporters calling on the then Government to help her.
===
No scalpel could cure them
Andrew Bolt
Former patients of Monash Medical Centre’s Gender Dysphoria Clinic say they should never have been given gender reassignment surgery, and they aren’t the only ones to doubt that mutilating a body is the way to heal a troubled mind:
A review of more than 100 studies of post-operative transsexuals by the University of Birmingham found there was no evidence that surgery was effective and in many cases patients were left more distressed. Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore - which had one of the pioneer gender clinics - no longer performs sex-change surgery due to such concerns. A recent British review found suicide rates of up to 18 per cent post-surgery.
Doctors from London’s Portman Clinic say they see many patients who feel trapped in “no-man’s land” after surgery.
Given these doubts, how doubly wrong does this appear:
The Family Court has treated the troubled mind of a 17-year-old girl by letting her cut off her breasts.
UPDATE
Was the 17-year-old a patient of this clinic?
AUSTRALIA’S only sex-change clinic has been temporarily shut down and its controversial director forced to quit amid growing claims that patients with psychiatric problems have been wrongly diagnosed as transsexuals and encouraged to have radical gender reassignment surgery.
===
Pinching Sydney’s women
Andrew Bolt
When the mayor of Mt Isa tried this last year, he was denounced as a redneck. But on second thoughts, says Tourism Victoria…
STEALING the most eligible women in NSW is the aim of an underground campaign funded by the Victorian Government. Tourism Victoria’s bold new message is that single Sydney females should head south if they want to meet men with style and substance.
The viral online campaign, titled Melbourne Match, features videos of actors playing four Sydney stereotypes “auditioning” for dates with women. There’s a surfie who hoots and toots about wanting a long-term relationship over winter, a muscle-bound big mouth still living with his mum, an effeminate fashion worker who likes being “out” and a corporate stiff obsessed with status symbols…
Campaign publicist Belinda Aucott said the idea was a light-hearted play on the perceived “man recession” in Sydney.
“There is definitely an inference, especially across the viral campaign, that there tends to be a higher gay population here in Sydney and that the men here can tend to be a little bit more focused on business and finance,” Ms Aucott said.
I’m not sure I actually approve of two of these ads, and I wonder what Tourism Victoria boss Greg Hywood would have said of them were he still the editor of the very righteous Age:
===
How much more punishment can 46% take?
Andrew Bolt
The Liberals should be amazed by this poll from NSW:
Preferred premier: Barry O’Farrell 50%, Nathan Rees 33%
Labor’s experiment with its new kid-on-the-block premier has been a disaster with Nathan Rees failing to win support and stop the party falling into oblivion… Just one-third of voters rank Mr Rees above Mr O’Farrell in the preferred premier category, with half favouring Mr O’Farrell… The Opposition is still in a comfortable election-winning position, with the poll showing it would claim victory 54-46 on a two-party preferred basis.
I mean, nearly half the NSW electorate would like more of Labor?
===
Slapping dad and his works
Andrew Bolt
Leftist Nicholas Kristoff has a test to divide the Left and conservatives:
Would you be willing to slap your father in the face, with his permission, as part of a comedy skit?
He might be onto something.
===
Calling time on Laurie, Michelle and Paul
Andrew Bolt
A former senior staffer to a former Liberal Prime Minister and two Premiers (who wishes to stay anonymous) says time is up for the old guard in the parliamentary press gallery:
The real political succession story in Canberra is not who will succeed Malcolm Turnbull, Kevin Rudd or Bob Brown. The real story is who will succeed Laurie Oakes, Michelle Grattan, Paul Bongiorno and some of the other senior political journalists.
Some of these guys have been around for more than thirty years. They happily brand politicians who stay that long as out of touch and past their prime, but they don’t apply the same measures to themselves.
Back in the seventies and eighties, political journalism was the top of the tree. To be lead political reporter for a major newspaper or a television channel was to be a superstar. Not any more. Now it’s the lifestyle reporters who command the largest audiences and highest salaries. Even gardening programs are considered more interesting.
Could this be because our political reporters have somehow failed to maintain the interest of their audiences?
Working in the parliamentary press gallery has never been like working in the real world, but sometimes it seems many of those who do are more out of touch than the MPs they report on. And when did they last get a scoop?
===
No longer their own school
Andrew Bolt
In Britain, a church is forbidden the right to uphold the teachings even in its own schools:
Lawyers have told the Roman Catholic Church that it cannot sack a Catholic headmaster who has entered a civil partnership with a male teacher.
And a headmaster feels no shame in enjoying the privileges of employment at the school of a church whose teaching he openly rejects.
===
Obama attacks his own judicial pick
Andrew Bolt
Now even Barack Obama is repudiating the “wise Latino” boast of his Latino pick for the Supreme Court:
President Barack Obama on Friday personally sought to deflect criticism of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who finds herself under intensifying scrutiny for saying in 2001 that a female Hispanic judge would often reach a better decision than a white male judge. “I’m sure she would have restated it,” Obama flatly told NBC News, without indicating how he knew that.
Really? Then let us hear it from her. But in the meantime let us hear from Obama how he came to pick someone with such racist views - and such a bizarre notion of how ethnicity determines views of the law. And to remind of which notion that is:
She said in 2001: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” The remark was in the context her saying that “our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging."…
She also said, for example: “Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.”
“My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas in which I am unfamiliar,” she said. “I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage.”
===
10 Reasons Why We Are Losing Role Models
By Bill Shuler
As Brooke Shields laments not having lost her virginity earlier, and Mel Gibson admits to fathering a child with a woman other than his wife, a question begs to be asked…What happened to role models? There was a day when being a public personality carried with it a certain standard of conduct. But of late, the bar of behavior seems to have been set quite low.
The following could be 10 reasons why we are losing role models:
1. Honorable people are sometimes demonized for taking a stand for morality and values in the public arena.
2. High profile scandals in sports, politics and religion have jaded us.
3. Fewer dads are present in the home.
4. For so many of us, success in our culture has been defined as fame, fortune and power.
5. Image often trumps character.
6. Indulgence replaces sacrifice.
7. Self-discipline is a less-practiced art.
8. Self-seeking is an over-practiced art.
9. Some find “Family values” to be a political code word rather than an ideal to be embraced.
10. Good people with deep convictions remain silent.
Being beautiful, uninhibited or rich has become a cheap substitute for courage, decency and selflessness. Before the American role model becomes an endangered species, we must challenge the notion that by meeting low standards we are attaining success. A new generation is looking, not for perfection, but for honesty and authenticity in its leaders. The future of America depends on those who will have the courage to live by example and call a new generation to achieve lives of moral excellence and noble service.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
hand gestures
communitychannel
May 30, 2009
you know it.
Let me know some challenges you'd like to see which don't involve dance or public acts of humiliation lol.
Hope you guys are enjoying a great weekend and that you're all well and happy.
x
n
===
Your mum's challenge to me .. just be ewe.
Headlines Saturday 30th May 2009
Western Distributor: head on collision
Police are asking for witnesses to come forward after a man fled following a serious head on crash in Sydney.
National swine flu toll hits 209
A cruise-ship, with swine-flu passengers, will stop in Queensland today as the national toll hits 209
Deceased recieve $900 stimulus
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull trade blows over stimulus payments to dead people.
Wealthy rort Rudd's tax bonus handout
RICH taxpayers are claiming multiple $900 bonus payments while battlers are missing out.
US asks Rudd to take Gitmo detainees
A new request from the United States to resettle Guantanamo detainees will be considered by the Rudd government
Private school girls told to cover up
STUDENTS ordered to wear leggings at functions to reduce the risk of sexual assault.
Ad called for Obama assassination
A NEWSPAPER says an ad calling for the murder of Barack Obama was an "honest mistake".
Rapists have had phones in jail 'for years'
THE two mobile phones the rapist Skaf brothers were found with in a high security prison were used to call friends and family.
Nadal makes short work of Hewitt
Australia's Lleyton Hewitt has been knocked out of the French Open by the irrepressible world No.1 Rafael Nadal in their marquee third-round encounter.
=== Comments ===
DICK DICK BOOM
Tim Blair
It’s another instant web fame moment.
===
APEDOWN
Tim Blair
Natalie performs the Hoedown Throwdown. In a monkey outfit:
In this instance, I'm a furvert. - ed.
===
Who better to help strip NSW bare?
Andrew Bolt
The sacking was an absurd overreaction to start with, but the revelations since make the Rees Government look even more ridiculous:
THE senior policy adviser whose allegations of harassment brought down a minister was a London lap dancer before rising through the ranks of the NSW Government, she told friends. Tina Sanger, whose accusations of bullying and touching against Labor MP Tony Stewart led to his dismissal last year, also told them she was a former lap dancer at the exclusive men’s club Spearmint Rhino in Melbourne…
An investigation by The Daily Telegraph has also revealed that Ms Sanger did not hold the qualifications she relied on to get a government job. Salford University in the UK has confirmed Ms Sanger does not have a science degree - or any degree - as claimed in her CV.
Who vets these people?
===
They want to be remembered for spending this much?
Andrew Bolt
The trouble with losing billions is that you no longer care about wasting millions:
MORE than $3.6m is to be spent buying plaques and signs to ensure Australian schools display their gratitude to the Rudd Government for its education building blitz.
===
Fitzgibbon was a Chinese target: claim
Andrew Bolt
You’d be astonished, of course, that the Defence Minister’s landlady didn’t decide all by herself to lavish cash and attention on her tenant, and introduce him to 60 Chinese generals:
ASSOCIATES of the businesswoman Helen Liu claim Chinese intelligence services asked them to cultivate a relationship with Joel Fitzgibbon and his father, Eric Fitzgibbon, after they were flown first-class to China in 1993. Sources with close ties to the company that paid for the trip also allege that Chinese agents had electronically monitored the pair during their visit.
Regardless of the truth of these particular claims, Joel Fitzgibbon is such a naif that he cannot be allowed to serve as the Minister in charge of our security. The very idea is a joke.
===
Gillard spares waiters
Andrew Bolt
Julia Gillard concedes a principle to save thousands of jobs threatened by her pro-union plans:
RESTAURANTS and cafes will be spared paying large wage rises to staff as part of the Rudd Government’s rewrite of industrial laws after Julia Gillard, bowing to employer pressure, moved to create a separate award for the industry.
Michael Stutchbury approves but wonders why only the restaurant sector is spared this job-killer:
But this still concedes a principle that challenges the whole award “modernisation” program she has outsourced to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission: that work and pay conditions should be tailored to the varying needs of different industries… Other industries hit by award modernisation, including fast-food operators, pharmacies and many other retailers, should now demand work and pay rules that suit them rather than unions and industrial judges.
===
We’re now the uncivilised
Andrew Bolt
When Australia is too brutal for India to tolerate, and our police too ineffectual, what on earth must we conclude about ourselves? It’s a remarkable inversion of perceptions from the days I was a boy.
UPDATE
If only our own authorities were as horrified as Indian diplomats by our slide into brutality:
A FORMER ACTU research officer and ALP policy committee president who pleaded guilty to possessing and accessing more than 4000 images and videos of child pornography has avoided an immediate jail sentence.
Australian Federal Police seized a computer, an external hard drive and several CDs and DVDs containing child pornography after a raid last year on the home of Stephen de Rozairo, who was the chief executive of a western suburbs-based youth training organisation at the time.
The Victorian County Court heard yesterday that officers found 4282 images, three-quarters of which were cartoons, and 53 videos involving children between one and 16 years old, some of whom were gagged or bound.
===
Rudd can’t say “billion”, Oakes can’t say “spin”
Andrew Bolt
Laurie Oakes explains away the most bizarre spin of Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan:
Rudd and Wayne Swan played into Turnbull’s hands when they botched the post-Budget sales pitch through an apparent reluctance to use the figures - a deficit of $57.6 billion and debt peaking at more than $300 billion.
“Apparent” reluctance? Judge how merely “apparent” it was in this interview and this. Yet Oakes insists:
But those pundits who put this down to misguided “spin” are off the mark. It is the result of old-fashioned, unadulterated incompetence.
The advice of the spin-doctors - accepted by the Prime Minister and the Treasurer - was that the Government should embrace the numbers, not run away from them.
Swan did not leave the deficit figure out of his Budget speech deliberately. It was supposed to be there. Stuff-up, not spin, was the explanation.
Really? Then how odd it was that this “stuff up’’ was repeated in Swan’s Budget speech to the National Press Club, where once again the only figure he failed to give was for the deficit. And that in later interviews he baulked again and again at giving the figure. Can Oakes seriously claim this was not spin, but a mere oversight?
Apparently yes:
And when Rudd kept saying that the debt would peak at “around 300” - without using the words “dollar” or “billion” - it was not a cunning ploy to avoid giving the Liberals a line they could use in their election commercials.
The PM is simply a sucker for jargon. Saying “300” instead of “300 billion dollars” is Treasury-speak. Having sat around with Treasury boffins for weeks preparing the Budget, Rudd started talking like them.
And if you believe that, Oakes has another line to sell you - that the Opposition is bungling by linking the wild spending of Rudd to that of Gough Whitlam:
Whitlam, Labor’s 92-year-old folk hero is such a loveable, great-grandfatherly figure these days, and his period in office was so long ago, that using him to frighten the horses just doesn’t work.
What on earth has got into Oakes?
===
Pearson: Kerry will have to quit
Andrew Bolt
Christopher Pearson draws conclusions from the alleged tequila talk - post-Budget - of the ABC’s Kerry O’Brien:
In reply to one (Liberal) staff member’s remark that he had a high regard for Peter Costello, O’Brien reportedly said: “Well, good luck to you then ... I don’t. He doesn’t like politics; he has always been the first one out of here (Canberra) on Thursday. Peter Costello does not have the nation’s interests at heart; he is only in it for himself, always has been, always will be ... He needs to get out ... He is a sponge… Costello was lazy, he simply rode on the consequences of the Keating and Hawke wave of economic reform.” ...
Before the group dispersed, one of the staff members tells me O’Brien offered them “a group hug” but they politely declined…
Throughout the life of the previous government, Coalition MPs from John Howard down tended to assume that an interview on O’Brien’s program (7.30 Report) was bound to be hostile. On the strength of these reported remarks, that assumption appears warranted…
(O’Brien’s) reported remarks about Costello would suggest partisan bias and possibly contempt. Laziness and being in politics only out of self-interest are grave accusations. Indifference to the nation’s interests is graver… If the member for Higgins were ever to return to a leadership role in his party, some Liberals would expect O’Brien to stand down from his position.
===
SUV beats Prius
Andrew Bolt
Bad news for Monk, and worse for Prius in this epic clash of motoring values (pic here):
AUSTRALIAN actress Sophie Monk was taken to hospital today by paramedics after she was in a car crash in Hollywood. TMZ reports she was driving through Hollywood in a black Prius when a collision occured with another driver of an SUV… The driver of the other vehicle did not appear to be injured, it was reported.
===
25 now dead since Rudd became “kinder”
Andrew Bolt
Another seven people lured to their deaths since Kevin Rudd introduced “kinder” policies on boat people:
A WOODEN boat that sank off the coast of Indonesia, killing at least seven passengers, was carrying Afghans who were on their way to Australia, an official says.
This now makes 25 people at least who have died trying to reach Australia since Rudd softened our laws. Is kindness best measured by intentions or results?
===
All about how whites feel
Andrew Bolt
Is nothing to be asked of Aborigines, then?
The raison d’etre of Reconciliation Victoria was to improve the lives of Aboriginal Victorians by changing, through education, the attitudes of the 99 per cent of the population who are non-indigenous.
And is it really true that Aborigines are simply held back by the bad thoughts of whites? In this way the reconciliation is not just useless, but entrenches the very divisions it claims to deplore.
===
Then the peacock said to the parrott…
Andrew Bolt
I can’t say, it having been a private meeting, just how Kevin Rudd greeted me when we last met, but the man has a very telling habit of choosing to be addressed as Mr Prime Minister while asserting his superior position by bestowing nicknames on those he addresses. For instance:
Alan Jones must have been thrilled to see the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, making his way towards him at a cocktail function he was MC’ing at Parliament House on Wednesday night - until the PM opened his mouth to greet the radio host… But we can only speculate as to what flashed through the mind of Jones when Rudd smiled widely and greeted him as “the Parrot”.
What is one to say in return without diminishing of the office of Prime Minister? I’ve said before that power and self-assertion is Rudd’s essential motivation in public life. Hence the spin, of course.
===
No reporting is misreporting
Andrew Bolt
From The Age’s “sensitive” coverage you’d assume the attacks here on Indians and Bangladeshis were just one more expression of the appalling racism of mainstream Australia:
THE Indian Government has demanded that Australian authorities do more to protect Indian students after a series of brutal attacks in Melbourne that have left victims in hospital…
In the latest assault, four students were attacked with a screwdriver by gatecrashers at a party in Hadfield, in Melbourne’s north, on Saturday night… On Monday, Baljinder Singh, 25, a student, was stabbed in Carnegie as he walked alone at night… Earlier this month, Sourabh Sharma, 21, was bashed and robbed on a train and last year two students working as taxi drivers were assaulted.
The attacks have received widespread publicity in India, adding to foreign scrutiny of Australia’s record on racial tolerance following claims of racism levelled this week by former Telstra chief Sol Trujillo.
“Australia, land of racism’’ said a headline in the influential Economic Times. News blog sites were also swamped with comments accusing Australians of racism, and the story has featured prominently on Indian television news.
Notice that while the ethnicity of the victims is freely mentioned, that of the attackers is not? All we can gather is that the attackers must be Australians of the kind also responsible for insulting Trujillo and our “record” on racial tolerance.
Indeed, the Sydney Morning Herald confirms exactly that impression:
Andhracafe.com, a website in Mr Theerthala’s home state, said, ”Westerners are not as competitive as Indians, and so resort to violence to show their frustration at being academically overshadowed.”
But would you leap to that (false) conclusion if Australian reporters were as frank and informative as those of the Beyond India Monthly, which published this witness statement from yet another attack in Sunshine?
Tanveer and Nusrat…
4th of Jan Sunday Night at 11.30 pm…
When i turned on anderson road i saw 4 black men standing over there . They were blocking my way i requested them way they started abusing me and my wife nasir . I kept low i preffered to step on the road and go around them as i walked bit further one of them came running behind us and hit me with the stick . Then they started hitting my wife . And man handeled her my wife escaped and ran for help on the road while they were beeting me .... I want action against those african guys . I want them arrested and punished So that they dont touch any lady again.
===
ABC “balance” is when it’s 2 to 1
Andrew Bolt
The ShadowLands runs a ruler on the ABC’s Q&A, which is said to have tried especially hard to be balanced. Leaving aside the obvious political leanings of its host, Tony Jones, we find this:
* 42 out of 80 guests were lefties (52.5 %)
* 27 out of 80 guests were righties (33.75%)
* 11 out of 80 guests were of indeterminate political persuasion (13.75%)
* Excluding the two Federal politicians from opposing sides who appeared each week, 27 guests were lefties, 12 were righties and 11 were of indeterminate political persuasion.
* Three Islamic representatives were given the chance to speak for the Islamic world, but no Jewish people were given a similar opportunity any week. One Jewish person who did appear, (Louise Adler) spread vile falsehoods about Israel that the show has yet to correct.
* Only one vocal AGW climate sceptic appeared, namely Andrew Bolt...
Go to the link for more analysis and to discover who ShadowLands has tagged as a “rightie” or “indeterminate”. You’ll find he’s been quite generous, yet the results still don’t flatter Q&A, which seems to operate on the usual ABC principle applied to the token conservatives the broadcaster deigns to invite: Be glad we let any of you speak at all.
UPDATE
Speaking of balance and token conservatives, I’ll be on Insiders on Sunday.
===
Our cash could just sweeten Holden’s sale
Andrew Bolt
But, but, but:
Holden may be sold by General Motors even if the parent company avoids bankruptcy expected this week, some car industry experts believe.
But what about the $149 million of our money that Kevin Rudd sunk into Holden just last year? More handouts to the dead?
===
Name 10 of the people global warmed to death
Andrew Bolt
Which people were killed directly by global warming? Where? Name, say, 10:
CLIMATE change kills about 315,000 people a year through hunger, sickness and weather disasters, and the annual death toll is expected to rise to half a million by 2030.
Not a single reputable climate scientist, I’d wager, would guarantee the truth of that wild claim. So who actually made it?
A study commissioned by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum...
Oh, and which reputable climate scientist fronts it?
“Climate change is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time, causing suffering to hundreds of millions of people worldwide,” Kofi Annan, former UN secretary-general and GHF president, said.
Oh dear. And what does Annan want, as if I couldn’t already guess?
To avoid the worst outcomes, the report says efforts to adapt to the effects of climate change must be scaled up 100 times in developing countries. International funds pledged for this purpose amount to only $400 million ($510 miilion), compared with an average estimated cost of $32 billion ($40 billion) annually, it notes.
For $40 billion, even I might be tempted to peddle such despicable nonsense.
UPDATE
Professor Ian Plimer explains why the academics attacking his bestseller Heaven and Earth - which explains the case against catastrophic man-made warming - have been so short on science and so long on personal abuse:
Green politics have taken the place of failed socialism and Western Christianity and impose fear, guilt, penance and indulgences on to a society with little scientific literacy. We are now reaping the rewards of politicising science and dumbing down the education system. If book sales, public meetings, book launches, email and phone messages are any indication, there is a large body of disenfranchised folk out there who feel helpless. I have shown that the emperor has no clothes. This is why the attacks are so vitriolic.
And he has a suggestion for seven of our most strident warming preachers:
In a wonderful gesture of public spiritedness, seven academics who include three lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a former director of the World Climate Research Program wrote to Australian power generating companies on April 29 instructing them to cease and desist creating electricity from coal....
“The warming of the atmosphere, driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases, is already causing unacceptable damage and suffering around the world.”
No evidence is provided for this statement and no signatory to this letter has published anything to support this claim. These university staff are unctuously understanding about the plight of those who face employment extinction in the smokestack towns of Australia.
They write: “We understand that this will require significant social and economic transition that will need to be managed carefully to care for coal sector workers and coal-dependent communities.”. This love for fellow workers brings tears to the eyes.
The electricity generating companies should reply by cutting off the power to academics’ homes and host institutions, forcing our ideologues to lead by example.
===
Australia comes after Iceland
Andrew Bolt
All those calls Kevin Rudd boasted of having made to his pals in the Obama administration, and then this:
The US President yesterday announced a swath of new ambassadors, from Iceland to India. Despite not having had a US ambassador in Canberra since Mr Obama’s inauguration on January 20, Australia did not figure in the 12 new US ambassadors nominated yesterday.
===
Gender and Racial Politics Take Center Stage
By Bill O'Reilly
The nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has focused the country once again on race and gender, a political discussion that can get very nasty. Listen to this exchange on NBC News:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAT BUCHANAN: He got down to four women. Not a single white male. All women and then we're going to pick the Hispanic.
NORA O'DONNELL, NBC NEWS: Did it ever occur to you, Pat, maybe there weren't any white men who were qualified?
BUCHANAN: Yes — no, it did not occur to me. You mean there are no white males qualified? That would be an act of bigotry to make a statement like that.
O'DONNELL: In the past there have been no women that have been qualified.
BUCHANAN: They certainly have been qualified in the past.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
So I guess according to Ms. O'Donnell, it's payback time.
No matter how you feel about Judge Sotomayor, you should understand that there is a double standard when it comes to evaluating political people. If you are a woman or a minority, you will be treated differently, especially in the liberal press. The left sees white men as a problem. They believe women and minorities in power is a solution to that problem. That is called gender and race politics.
With minority voters now able to swing presidential elections, gender and racial situations become extremely important.
This morning I received an interesting letter from Eileen Mullan, who lives in Weston, Wisconsin: "Bill, you state the GOP will alienate Hispanic voters if they fight against Ms. Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court. Perhaps you are right, but I don't think you understand how many of us voting citizens are sick of the political games."
I am very aware of voter anger, Eileen. And the Republican Party should challenge the judge, but in a meaningful way. Calling her names will damage the party. Respectful debate will not. That's my point.
Of course, it is true that the liberal media was vicious towards Judge Clarence Thomas and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, and the Democratic Party does not seem to have paid a price for that, as blacks and Hispanic-Americans continue to support the Dems in large numbers.
But the media spin is this: If conservatives go after women or minorities, they are seen as bullies. If liberals attack minorities who are conservative, they are still seen as champions of the underdog. That is brutally unfair, but when has the media ever been fair?
So President Obama shrewdly nominated a judge who will most likely be confirmed and whose presence could damage the Republican Party in the process. Another big time political move from Mr. Obama, who certainly learned his Chicago lessons well.
Police are asking for witnesses to come forward after a man fled following a serious head on crash in Sydney.
National swine flu toll hits 209
A cruise-ship, with swine-flu passengers, will stop in Queensland today as the national toll hits 209
Deceased recieve $900 stimulus
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull trade blows over stimulus payments to dead people.
Wealthy rort Rudd's tax bonus handout
RICH taxpayers are claiming multiple $900 bonus payments while battlers are missing out.
US asks Rudd to take Gitmo detainees
A new request from the United States to resettle Guantanamo detainees will be considered by the Rudd government
Private school girls told to cover up
STUDENTS ordered to wear leggings at functions to reduce the risk of sexual assault.
Ad called for Obama assassination
A NEWSPAPER says an ad calling for the murder of Barack Obama was an "honest mistake".
Rapists have had phones in jail 'for years'
THE two mobile phones the rapist Skaf brothers were found with in a high security prison were used to call friends and family.
Nadal makes short work of Hewitt
Australia's Lleyton Hewitt has been knocked out of the French Open by the irrepressible world No.1 Rafael Nadal in their marquee third-round encounter.
=== Comments ===
DICK DICK BOOM
Tim Blair
It’s another instant web fame moment.
===
APEDOWN
Tim Blair
Natalie performs the Hoedown Throwdown. In a monkey outfit:
In this instance, I'm a furvert. - ed.
===
Who better to help strip NSW bare?
Andrew Bolt
The sacking was an absurd overreaction to start with, but the revelations since make the Rees Government look even more ridiculous:
THE senior policy adviser whose allegations of harassment brought down a minister was a London lap dancer before rising through the ranks of the NSW Government, she told friends. Tina Sanger, whose accusations of bullying and touching against Labor MP Tony Stewart led to his dismissal last year, also told them she was a former lap dancer at the exclusive men’s club Spearmint Rhino in Melbourne…
An investigation by The Daily Telegraph has also revealed that Ms Sanger did not hold the qualifications she relied on to get a government job. Salford University in the UK has confirmed Ms Sanger does not have a science degree - or any degree - as claimed in her CV.
Who vets these people?
===
They want to be remembered for spending this much?
Andrew Bolt
The trouble with losing billions is that you no longer care about wasting millions:
MORE than $3.6m is to be spent buying plaques and signs to ensure Australian schools display their gratitude to the Rudd Government for its education building blitz.
===
Fitzgibbon was a Chinese target: claim
Andrew Bolt
You’d be astonished, of course, that the Defence Minister’s landlady didn’t decide all by herself to lavish cash and attention on her tenant, and introduce him to 60 Chinese generals:
ASSOCIATES of the businesswoman Helen Liu claim Chinese intelligence services asked them to cultivate a relationship with Joel Fitzgibbon and his father, Eric Fitzgibbon, after they were flown first-class to China in 1993. Sources with close ties to the company that paid for the trip also allege that Chinese agents had electronically monitored the pair during their visit.
Regardless of the truth of these particular claims, Joel Fitzgibbon is such a naif that he cannot be allowed to serve as the Minister in charge of our security. The very idea is a joke.
===
Gillard spares waiters
Andrew Bolt
Julia Gillard concedes a principle to save thousands of jobs threatened by her pro-union plans:
RESTAURANTS and cafes will be spared paying large wage rises to staff as part of the Rudd Government’s rewrite of industrial laws after Julia Gillard, bowing to employer pressure, moved to create a separate award for the industry.
Michael Stutchbury approves but wonders why only the restaurant sector is spared this job-killer:
But this still concedes a principle that challenges the whole award “modernisation” program she has outsourced to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission: that work and pay conditions should be tailored to the varying needs of different industries… Other industries hit by award modernisation, including fast-food operators, pharmacies and many other retailers, should now demand work and pay rules that suit them rather than unions and industrial judges.
===
We’re now the uncivilised
Andrew Bolt
When Australia is too brutal for India to tolerate, and our police too ineffectual, what on earth must we conclude about ourselves? It’s a remarkable inversion of perceptions from the days I was a boy.
UPDATE
If only our own authorities were as horrified as Indian diplomats by our slide into brutality:
A FORMER ACTU research officer and ALP policy committee president who pleaded guilty to possessing and accessing more than 4000 images and videos of child pornography has avoided an immediate jail sentence.
Australian Federal Police seized a computer, an external hard drive and several CDs and DVDs containing child pornography after a raid last year on the home of Stephen de Rozairo, who was the chief executive of a western suburbs-based youth training organisation at the time.
The Victorian County Court heard yesterday that officers found 4282 images, three-quarters of which were cartoons, and 53 videos involving children between one and 16 years old, some of whom were gagged or bound.
===
Rudd can’t say “billion”, Oakes can’t say “spin”
Andrew Bolt
Laurie Oakes explains away the most bizarre spin of Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan:
Rudd and Wayne Swan played into Turnbull’s hands when they botched the post-Budget sales pitch through an apparent reluctance to use the figures - a deficit of $57.6 billion and debt peaking at more than $300 billion.
“Apparent” reluctance? Judge how merely “apparent” it was in this interview and this. Yet Oakes insists:
But those pundits who put this down to misguided “spin” are off the mark. It is the result of old-fashioned, unadulterated incompetence.
The advice of the spin-doctors - accepted by the Prime Minister and the Treasurer - was that the Government should embrace the numbers, not run away from them.
Swan did not leave the deficit figure out of his Budget speech deliberately. It was supposed to be there. Stuff-up, not spin, was the explanation.
Really? Then how odd it was that this “stuff up’’ was repeated in Swan’s Budget speech to the National Press Club, where once again the only figure he failed to give was for the deficit. And that in later interviews he baulked again and again at giving the figure. Can Oakes seriously claim this was not spin, but a mere oversight?
Apparently yes:
And when Rudd kept saying that the debt would peak at “around 300” - without using the words “dollar” or “billion” - it was not a cunning ploy to avoid giving the Liberals a line they could use in their election commercials.
The PM is simply a sucker for jargon. Saying “300” instead of “300 billion dollars” is Treasury-speak. Having sat around with Treasury boffins for weeks preparing the Budget, Rudd started talking like them.
And if you believe that, Oakes has another line to sell you - that the Opposition is bungling by linking the wild spending of Rudd to that of Gough Whitlam:
Whitlam, Labor’s 92-year-old folk hero is such a loveable, great-grandfatherly figure these days, and his period in office was so long ago, that using him to frighten the horses just doesn’t work.
What on earth has got into Oakes?
===
Pearson: Kerry will have to quit
Andrew Bolt
Christopher Pearson draws conclusions from the alleged tequila talk - post-Budget - of the ABC’s Kerry O’Brien:
In reply to one (Liberal) staff member’s remark that he had a high regard for Peter Costello, O’Brien reportedly said: “Well, good luck to you then ... I don’t. He doesn’t like politics; he has always been the first one out of here (Canberra) on Thursday. Peter Costello does not have the nation’s interests at heart; he is only in it for himself, always has been, always will be ... He needs to get out ... He is a sponge… Costello was lazy, he simply rode on the consequences of the Keating and Hawke wave of economic reform.” ...
Before the group dispersed, one of the staff members tells me O’Brien offered them “a group hug” but they politely declined…
Throughout the life of the previous government, Coalition MPs from John Howard down tended to assume that an interview on O’Brien’s program (7.30 Report) was bound to be hostile. On the strength of these reported remarks, that assumption appears warranted…
(O’Brien’s) reported remarks about Costello would suggest partisan bias and possibly contempt. Laziness and being in politics only out of self-interest are grave accusations. Indifference to the nation’s interests is graver… If the member for Higgins were ever to return to a leadership role in his party, some Liberals would expect O’Brien to stand down from his position.
===
SUV beats Prius
Andrew Bolt
Bad news for Monk, and worse for Prius in this epic clash of motoring values (pic here):
AUSTRALIAN actress Sophie Monk was taken to hospital today by paramedics after she was in a car crash in Hollywood. TMZ reports she was driving through Hollywood in a black Prius when a collision occured with another driver of an SUV… The driver of the other vehicle did not appear to be injured, it was reported.
===
25 now dead since Rudd became “kinder”
Andrew Bolt
Another seven people lured to their deaths since Kevin Rudd introduced “kinder” policies on boat people:
A WOODEN boat that sank off the coast of Indonesia, killing at least seven passengers, was carrying Afghans who were on their way to Australia, an official says.
This now makes 25 people at least who have died trying to reach Australia since Rudd softened our laws. Is kindness best measured by intentions or results?
===
All about how whites feel
Andrew Bolt
Is nothing to be asked of Aborigines, then?
The raison d’etre of Reconciliation Victoria was to improve the lives of Aboriginal Victorians by changing, through education, the attitudes of the 99 per cent of the population who are non-indigenous.
And is it really true that Aborigines are simply held back by the bad thoughts of whites? In this way the reconciliation is not just useless, but entrenches the very divisions it claims to deplore.
===
Then the peacock said to the parrott…
Andrew Bolt
I can’t say, it having been a private meeting, just how Kevin Rudd greeted me when we last met, but the man has a very telling habit of choosing to be addressed as Mr Prime Minister while asserting his superior position by bestowing nicknames on those he addresses. For instance:
Alan Jones must have been thrilled to see the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, making his way towards him at a cocktail function he was MC’ing at Parliament House on Wednesday night - until the PM opened his mouth to greet the radio host… But we can only speculate as to what flashed through the mind of Jones when Rudd smiled widely and greeted him as “the Parrot”.
What is one to say in return without diminishing of the office of Prime Minister? I’ve said before that power and self-assertion is Rudd’s essential motivation in public life. Hence the spin, of course.
===
No reporting is misreporting
Andrew Bolt
From The Age’s “sensitive” coverage you’d assume the attacks here on Indians and Bangladeshis were just one more expression of the appalling racism of mainstream Australia:
THE Indian Government has demanded that Australian authorities do more to protect Indian students after a series of brutal attacks in Melbourne that have left victims in hospital…
In the latest assault, four students were attacked with a screwdriver by gatecrashers at a party in Hadfield, in Melbourne’s north, on Saturday night… On Monday, Baljinder Singh, 25, a student, was stabbed in Carnegie as he walked alone at night… Earlier this month, Sourabh Sharma, 21, was bashed and robbed on a train and last year two students working as taxi drivers were assaulted.
The attacks have received widespread publicity in India, adding to foreign scrutiny of Australia’s record on racial tolerance following claims of racism levelled this week by former Telstra chief Sol Trujillo.
“Australia, land of racism’’ said a headline in the influential Economic Times. News blog sites were also swamped with comments accusing Australians of racism, and the story has featured prominently on Indian television news.
Notice that while the ethnicity of the victims is freely mentioned, that of the attackers is not? All we can gather is that the attackers must be Australians of the kind also responsible for insulting Trujillo and our “record” on racial tolerance.
Indeed, the Sydney Morning Herald confirms exactly that impression:
Andhracafe.com, a website in Mr Theerthala’s home state, said, ”Westerners are not as competitive as Indians, and so resort to violence to show their frustration at being academically overshadowed.”
But would you leap to that (false) conclusion if Australian reporters were as frank and informative as those of the Beyond India Monthly, which published this witness statement from yet another attack in Sunshine?
Tanveer and Nusrat…
4th of Jan Sunday Night at 11.30 pm…
When i turned on anderson road i saw 4 black men standing over there . They were blocking my way i requested them way they started abusing me and my wife nasir . I kept low i preffered to step on the road and go around them as i walked bit further one of them came running behind us and hit me with the stick . Then they started hitting my wife . And man handeled her my wife escaped and ran for help on the road while they were beeting me .... I want action against those african guys . I want them arrested and punished So that they dont touch any lady again.
===
ABC “balance” is when it’s 2 to 1
Andrew Bolt
The ShadowLands runs a ruler on the ABC’s Q&A, which is said to have tried especially hard to be balanced. Leaving aside the obvious political leanings of its host, Tony Jones, we find this:
* 42 out of 80 guests were lefties (52.5 %)
* 27 out of 80 guests were righties (33.75%)
* 11 out of 80 guests were of indeterminate political persuasion (13.75%)
* Excluding the two Federal politicians from opposing sides who appeared each week, 27 guests were lefties, 12 were righties and 11 were of indeterminate political persuasion.
* Three Islamic representatives were given the chance to speak for the Islamic world, but no Jewish people were given a similar opportunity any week. One Jewish person who did appear, (Louise Adler) spread vile falsehoods about Israel that the show has yet to correct.
* Only one vocal AGW climate sceptic appeared, namely Andrew Bolt...
Go to the link for more analysis and to discover who ShadowLands has tagged as a “rightie” or “indeterminate”. You’ll find he’s been quite generous, yet the results still don’t flatter Q&A, which seems to operate on the usual ABC principle applied to the token conservatives the broadcaster deigns to invite: Be glad we let any of you speak at all.
UPDATE
Speaking of balance and token conservatives, I’ll be on Insiders on Sunday.
===
Our cash could just sweeten Holden’s sale
Andrew Bolt
But, but, but:
Holden may be sold by General Motors even if the parent company avoids bankruptcy expected this week, some car industry experts believe.
But what about the $149 million of our money that Kevin Rudd sunk into Holden just last year? More handouts to the dead?
===
Name 10 of the people global warmed to death
Andrew Bolt
Which people were killed directly by global warming? Where? Name, say, 10:
CLIMATE change kills about 315,000 people a year through hunger, sickness and weather disasters, and the annual death toll is expected to rise to half a million by 2030.
Not a single reputable climate scientist, I’d wager, would guarantee the truth of that wild claim. So who actually made it?
A study commissioned by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum...
Oh, and which reputable climate scientist fronts it?
“Climate change is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time, causing suffering to hundreds of millions of people worldwide,” Kofi Annan, former UN secretary-general and GHF president, said.
Oh dear. And what does Annan want, as if I couldn’t already guess?
To avoid the worst outcomes, the report says efforts to adapt to the effects of climate change must be scaled up 100 times in developing countries. International funds pledged for this purpose amount to only $400 million ($510 miilion), compared with an average estimated cost of $32 billion ($40 billion) annually, it notes.
For $40 billion, even I might be tempted to peddle such despicable nonsense.
UPDATE
Professor Ian Plimer explains why the academics attacking his bestseller Heaven and Earth - which explains the case against catastrophic man-made warming - have been so short on science and so long on personal abuse:
Green politics have taken the place of failed socialism and Western Christianity and impose fear, guilt, penance and indulgences on to a society with little scientific literacy. We are now reaping the rewards of politicising science and dumbing down the education system. If book sales, public meetings, book launches, email and phone messages are any indication, there is a large body of disenfranchised folk out there who feel helpless. I have shown that the emperor has no clothes. This is why the attacks are so vitriolic.
And he has a suggestion for seven of our most strident warming preachers:
In a wonderful gesture of public spiritedness, seven academics who include three lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a former director of the World Climate Research Program wrote to Australian power generating companies on April 29 instructing them to cease and desist creating electricity from coal....
“The warming of the atmosphere, driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases, is already causing unacceptable damage and suffering around the world.”
No evidence is provided for this statement and no signatory to this letter has published anything to support this claim. These university staff are unctuously understanding about the plight of those who face employment extinction in the smokestack towns of Australia.
They write: “We understand that this will require significant social and economic transition that will need to be managed carefully to care for coal sector workers and coal-dependent communities.”. This love for fellow workers brings tears to the eyes.
The electricity generating companies should reply by cutting off the power to academics’ homes and host institutions, forcing our ideologues to lead by example.
===
Australia comes after Iceland
Andrew Bolt
All those calls Kevin Rudd boasted of having made to his pals in the Obama administration, and then this:
The US President yesterday announced a swath of new ambassadors, from Iceland to India. Despite not having had a US ambassador in Canberra since Mr Obama’s inauguration on January 20, Australia did not figure in the 12 new US ambassadors nominated yesterday.
===
Gender and Racial Politics Take Center Stage
By Bill O'Reilly
The nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has focused the country once again on race and gender, a political discussion that can get very nasty. Listen to this exchange on NBC News:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAT BUCHANAN: He got down to four women. Not a single white male. All women and then we're going to pick the Hispanic.
NORA O'DONNELL, NBC NEWS: Did it ever occur to you, Pat, maybe there weren't any white men who were qualified?
BUCHANAN: Yes — no, it did not occur to me. You mean there are no white males qualified? That would be an act of bigotry to make a statement like that.
O'DONNELL: In the past there have been no women that have been qualified.
BUCHANAN: They certainly have been qualified in the past.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
So I guess according to Ms. O'Donnell, it's payback time.
No matter how you feel about Judge Sotomayor, you should understand that there is a double standard when it comes to evaluating political people. If you are a woman or a minority, you will be treated differently, especially in the liberal press. The left sees white men as a problem. They believe women and minorities in power is a solution to that problem. That is called gender and race politics.
With minority voters now able to swing presidential elections, gender and racial situations become extremely important.
This morning I received an interesting letter from Eileen Mullan, who lives in Weston, Wisconsin: "Bill, you state the GOP will alienate Hispanic voters if they fight against Ms. Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court. Perhaps you are right, but I don't think you understand how many of us voting citizens are sick of the political games."
I am very aware of voter anger, Eileen. And the Republican Party should challenge the judge, but in a meaningful way. Calling her names will damage the party. Respectful debate will not. That's my point.
Of course, it is true that the liberal media was vicious towards Judge Clarence Thomas and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, and the Democratic Party does not seem to have paid a price for that, as blacks and Hispanic-Americans continue to support the Dems in large numbers.
But the media spin is this: If conservatives go after women or minorities, they are seen as bullies. If liberals attack minorities who are conservative, they are still seen as champions of the underdog. That is brutally unfair, but when has the media ever been fair?
So President Obama shrewdly nominated a judge who will most likely be confirmed and whose presence could damage the Republican Party in the process. Another big time political move from Mr. Obama, who certainly learned his Chicago lessons well.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Carrie Prejean Joins FOX and Friends
Miss California Carrie Prejean joined FOX and Friends this morning. She was a huge hit.
hoedown with nat. challenge #1
communitychannel
May 28, 2009
yeah son, what's next ? HUH? What's the next challenge? Comment that shiz down
The music is rewritten hence different (to avoid copyright)
Normal video up in two days.
Have a smashing weekend guys,
x
n
===
I'd love to do a duet with ya, Nat. Maybe some Sonny and Cher, Kenny Rogers or Kiki Dee.
Headlines Friday 29th May 2009
Nathan Rees accused of covering up Orkopoulos scandal
The NSW Premier has been shouted down and accused of covering up a child sex scandal at a forum in Newcastle.
Nathan Rees returned to the Hunter region to provide answers but faced more questions at the second in a series of community meetings.
The woman at the centre of the Milton Orkopoulos child sex scandal accused the Premier of blocking an inquiry into the incident.
Gillian Sneddon was locked out of former Aboriginal Affairs Minister's office when they learned she was helping police investigate claims made against him.
She has been unemployed ever since and says she has been punished by the government for blowing the whistle on her boss.
She said she was not paid during Orkopoulos's trial and had not received any assistance from the government to find new work.
A frustrated Ms Sneddon was cheered as she called on Mr Rees to explain her treatment.
"Of course you didn't know anything did you Nathan?" she said.
"Because you ran, you scurried like a rat, to Premier Iemma's office because you didn't want to get tainted by the allegations."
Premier Rees urged Ms Sneddon to again follow the formal process for proper hearing. - I have every reason to believe some of my grief has been connected to this issue .. indirectly. As a person who responsibly reported a child abuse allegation and saw it covered up when senior ALP got involved .. and later a cover up of Hamidur Rahman's death through legal technicalities (open finding by coroner). I feel I can shed light on this issue. Having reported this issue to all the appropriate bodies, I am free to speak about them. I don't know I have witnessed crimes. I know I have witnessed cover ups which deserve to be investigated .. not the least because Hamidur Rahman's parents deserve justice and not to be partly blamed for their child's death. - ed.
+++ + +++
Bellevue Hill Public School closed due to crater - major traffic diversions
Residents in Bellevue Hill are waking up to a giant crater after a burst water main triggered a landslide. Laura Tunstall is on the scene.
Third schoolgirl arrested over fight
A third schoolgirl has been arrested over a pre-arranged fight on Sydney’s northern beaches, which left a 15-year-old with facial injuries.
Aust to contribute ship, aircraft to anti-piracy fight Somalia
Australia is sending a warship and a surveillance aircraft to help fight piracy in waters off Somalia.
+++
Couple Ordered to Stop Holding Bible Study at Home Without Permit
Pastor David Jones and his wife Mary have been told that they cannot invite friends to their San Diego, Calif. home for a Bible study — unless they are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to San Diego County.
"On Good Friday we had an employee from San Diego County come to our house, and inform us that the Bible study that we were having was a religious assembly, and in violation of the code in the county." David Jones told FOX News.
"We told them this is not really a religious assembly — this is just a Bible study with friends. We have a meal, we pray, that was all," Jones said.
+++
Hotels to evict swine flu sufferers at toll hits 147
Swine flu sufferers are facing the prospect of being kicked out of their hotels, because of fears of bad publicity, as the national toll hits 147.
Dodgy $2 coins in circulation after alleged laundering scam
Police are warning people to look out for mutilated $2 coins after arresting a man for laundering the damaged currency through Sydney vending machines.
Pregnant teen 'pays man to kill foetus'
US prosecutors say a 17-year-old girl allegedly paid a man to beat her up so she would have a......
Guilty thief returns $10,000 cash
A thief who stole more than $10,000 from a butcher has returned most of the money a week later......
Fittler vows to fight for his career
Under-siege Sydney Roosters coach Brad Fittler has vowed to see out the season with the struggling NRL club despite reports claiming he was ready to throw in the towel.
US govt to own 72% of GM
The US government would own 72.5 per cent of General Motors under a proposed bankruptcy reorganisation that now has support of GM bondholders, a regulatory filing showed on Thursday.
Susan Boyle 'considered quitting show'
Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle has considered quitting the British TV talent show that brought her worldwide fame, show judge Piers Morgan said.
=== Journalists Corner ===
=== Comments ===
IT’S OFTEN NOT THAT FUNNY
Tim Blair
Lots of viewers for the latest Chaser series, but – in comments at that link – very few positive reviews.
UPDATE. Age readers weren’t amused, either:
Oh dear - I love The Chaser but last night they were woefully unfunny.
===
NOT THE FINGER
Tim Blair
French President Nicolas Sarkozy aims to appoint a freethinker:
Claude Allègre argues that global warming is not necessarily caused by human activity. Putting him in charge of scientific research would be tantamount to “giving the finger to scientists”, said Nicolas Hulot, France’s best-known environmental activist.
Mr Sarkozy wants to bring Mr Allègre, 72, a freethinking, former socialist education minister, into the government in a reshuffle after next month’s European parliamentary elections.
Free thought can lead to unconventional conclusions:
Claude Allegre, one of France’s leading socialists and among her most celebrated scientists, was among the first to sound the alarm about the dangers of global warming.
“By burning fossil fuels, man increased the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which, for example, has raised the global mean temperature by half a degree in the last century,” Dr. Allegre, a renowned geochemist, wrote 20 years ago …
With a wealth of data now in, Dr. Allegre has recanted his views. To his surprise, the many climate models and studies failed dismally in establishing a man-made cause of catastrophic global warming.
But what about the funding?
UPDATE. Rare mockery of greenism in the Age:
In the 1950s some academic psychologists studied a group of religious fanatics who believed that the world would end on December 21, 1954. Prior to this dramatic event, the group foretold that angels in flying saucers from the Planet Clarion would arrive on earth to save the believers. I kid you not. Flying saucers were big in the fifties. When the date with destiny came and went with no saucers from Clarion (and no end of the world), the group’s belief in the prophecy actually increased! They had invested so much of their lives in their idiosyncratic faith that evidence repudiating the prophecy could not be digested.
Wait; it’s not about greens. It’s about property development.
===
A more civilised White House now
Andrew Bolt
How many hoops would President George Bush have to jump through to explain throwing a black reporter off his plane?
===
Don’t speak ill of the Rudd
Andrew Bolt
Can Kevin Rudd’s spin be any more craven?
KEVIN Rudd has chastised the Opposition for ridiculing the sending of stimulus cheques to dead people, saying the mocking tones risked offending the loved ones of the deceased.
===
Teach up, not down
Andrew Bolt
EVER felt as if you’re in a deep pit, and someone’s just pulled up the ladder?
Twice I had that feeling in the out-bush schools I went to about four decades ago. Now I’d like that ladder put back.
Those my age or older may remember the Let’s Make Music lessons we learned at school, gathered around a radio tuned to the ABC.
The program’s aim was to teach us not just music, but Western culture.
It certainly wasn’t to teach us just what was immediately relevant to us, as children of farmers, police, Aboriginal laborers or immigrants, but what was the best and the ageless. To teach what linked us not only to other Australians, but to the greatest minds of our past.
So we learned scraps of the classics, including Beethoven and Mozart, and of opera, such as Brother Come and Dance With Me, from Hansel and Gretel.
We learned songs about Australia, of course, also ageless folk songs from Britain, such as the Skye Boat Song and Men of Harlech, and from other cultures, too, from the Czech Andulko the Goose Girl to Japan’s Sakura.
We learned it all together, with the imprimatur of the then venerable ABC making clear that this was a grounding not just in music, but in civilisation.
I loved it, and still remember many of the songs. I also remember when, almost overnight, that music stopped.
===
Swine oil sold
Andrew Bolt
It’s precisely how global warming is exploited, too, by carpet baggers who profit from the panic they help to whip up:
The former ACT chief minister, Kate Carnell, now CEO of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, knows a thing or two about putting some distance between yourself and a dangerous situation. But a press release issued yesterday has taken the notion of opportunism to a new level. ”Ensure your cupboard isn’t bare during a quarantine,” a press release issued yesterday advises in the wake of estimates that up to 4 million Australians could contract the swine flu virus. “Australians should assess the amount of food and essential household items available in their pantries in the wake of quarantines being imposed for people diagnosed with swine flu, the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) warned today”.
===
An important film
Andrew Bolt
SAMSON and Delilah checks all the boxes I’ve come to associate with our terrible Australian films.
Taxpayer funded? Check.
Grim? Check. The very first scene shows an Aboriginal boy sniffing petrol.
Feted by the guilty-rich elite? Check that, too, after the Cannes Film Festival last weekend gave its prize for a first-time director to Warwick Thornton, an Aborigine from Alice Springs.
And did it get five stars from the ABC’s preachy David Stratton?
Oh, yes. Check again. Full house.
In fact, this low-budget film has extra warning lights I’d never dreamed of.
Its director seems a blame-whitey type, for instance, who insists “the Stolen Generation, that’s me”. So you can well guess what his film is like.
In fact, I went to a near deserted screening of it this week and can tell you. It’s great.
===
Was Borrowman’s real sin a failure to speak “yes”?
Andrew Bolt
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith announces his pick as ambassador to Sweden:
Educated at the Australian National University, Mr Borrowman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Asian Studies and a Graduate Diploma in International Law. He has qualifications in German, Mandarin, French and Swedish languages.
Pardon? Hugh Borrowman has qualifications in German?
But what reason did Prime Minister Kevin Rudd give for blocking the appointment of Borrowman, formerly head of his international division, as ambassador to Berlin?
The Prime Minister said Mr Borrowman was rejected for the Berlin post because his German skills were sub-standard. “When it comes to foreign diplomatic appointments, I do place priority on languages, as does the minister. And last time I looked at Germany, they speak German,” Mr Rudd told the ABC on Tuesday.
Will Rudd give us the real reason for blocking the promotion of a diplomat recommended by his Foreign Minister? Is it true that Borrowman’s real sin is that he did not fawn but gave independent, fearless advice - as is his duty as a public servant?
===
Republicans and Judge Sotomayor
By Bill O'Reilly
Once again, President Obama has pulled off a shrewd political move by nominating a Latina, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, to the Supreme Court.
There are about 12 million Hispanic-Americans who voted last time around, and 67 percent of them went for Obama. By contrast, just 53 percent voted for John Kerry when he ran against President Bush. So Hispanic voters actually put Barack Obama in the White House, and the GOP needs some of them back, thus Republicans face a quandary.
This morning on ABC, conservative Ann Coulter pretty much defined the problem:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANN COULTER, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: Saying that someone would decide a case differently, better in fact, because she is a Latina rather than a white male, I mean, that statement is by definition racist. I'm not saying she's a racist, but the statement sure is.
DIANE SAWYER, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA" CO-HOST: Were you moved by the Hispanic breakthrough, Ann?
COULTER: Why aren't Democrats — why aren't they choking up over Clarence Thomas or Miguel Estrada? I mean, you know, come on, why are we all supposed to weep only when it's a liberal Hispanic or a liberal black?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Ms. Coulter's point is true. Liberals gleefully attacked Clarence Thomas and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, but the media is now lurking, looking to pound any conservative who goes after Ms. Sotomayor. So the Republicans have a tough situation on their hands.
The judge is vulnerable, especially on affirmative action, and her racial tone on who has a better outlook on the law, minorities or whites. But to the Hispanic-American community, that might not matter much, especially considering the judge's background:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: The president believes that her life story is a compelling one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her great life story, amazing life story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not to mention her life story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A compelling personal story.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Did someone say compelling?
Politics is all about perception. Right now, the Republican Party is perceived to be the domain of rich, white guys. Of course, that's not entirely true, but very often perception trumps reality.
America needs two, maybe three, strong political parties so the country can have healthy debate. We also need voters to be open-minded, not ideological Kool-Aid drinkers.
The Republicans can only get back in the game if they widen their appeal and appeal for common sense. For example, Dick Cheney may be winning the national security debate because he is talking facts, while President Obama talks theory. Fair-minded Americans want to be protected and facts are more compelling — sorry — than lofty rhetoric.
But if the GOP alienates Hispanic-Americans and they begin to vote in blocks like African-Americans do, then the Republican Party is doomed. So Republicans would be wise to watch the rhetoric in assessing Judge Sotomayor.
===
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid of the Obama Administration’s Scary Trial Balloon
By Phil Kerpen
In today’s Washington Post, the White House floats a really scary trial balloon—a new national Value-Added Tax (VAT) to pay for out-of-control spending and a Washington take over of health care. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad appears to be on board. So does Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel, who has been hired by the White House budget office to help design the health care plan and whose book on health care uses a VAT to fund the new government program. Obama economic adviser Paul Volcker is also on-board the VAT-train.
What is the VAT? It’s a type of national sales tax that is collected in pieces throughout the production chain, instead of being collected all at once at the cash register like a retail sales tax. In theory, sales taxes like the VAT are pretty good taxes because they are broad-based, difficult to evade, and minimize economic distortions. In practice, they are the ATM machine for runaway government growth, because they are largely invisible to the public and they can raise huge amounts of money in very small chunks, thus minimizing the effective political opposition that generally keeps taxes in check.
A couple of years ago Dan Mitchell wrote a great summary of the VAT experience in Europe that explains how the VAT was the key policy change that moved Europe to a much higher level of taxes and spending than the U.S. Because the tax is difficult for the public to see, it’s very easy for politicians to raise, and VAT rates in Europe have steadily increased since the tax was first introduced. With the VAT tax weapon in hand, European governments have grown to more than 40 percent of GDP, a level unknown in the United States outside of world wars. Now that scary scenario could, unfortunately be in store for us if the White House pursues a VAT in the U.S.
The U.S. tax system is clearly a mess, and badly in need of meaningful tax reform. That reform, however, needs to in the direction of simplicity and lower rates. Many conservatives believe, with good reason, that we should abolish the IRS, end income taxation, and adopt a national sales tax of some kind—most would prefer a national retail sales tax, which is the heart of the Fair Tax proposal. Some, perhaps, would be happy with a VAT, which functions much like a sales tax. Such a proposal is not without its virtues, but the enormous risk associated with it is that we end up with a national sales tax on top of our existing income tax system.
Based on the European experience, accepting a VAT in exchange for reductions in taxes on income and capital would be a foolish bargain, because once politicians have all the taxes on the books they would steadily increase the rates over time, leading to a much higher overall level of taxes and spending than would otherwise have been possible. We need to draw a clear line in the sand that no new national taxes will be put in place without eliminating—not cutting, but permanently eliminating—our existing income tax.
Trillions of dollars of bailouts, stimulus, spending, unfunded entitlement obligations, and an appetite for a Washington takeover of health care have us on a collision course for a national bankruptcy unless we adopt a huge new tax (cap-and-trade is another one, by-the-way, although the VAT could be even more expensive) or finally start to get a handle on runaway spending. The current tax system simply will not bear enough revenue to pay for these trillions of dollars of obligations. If we don’t want to accept a European-style nanny state and the lower standards of living that come with it, we need to cut all this spending and forget about a Washington takeover of health care. And we need to shoot this VAT trial balloon down, quickly.
The NSW Premier has been shouted down and accused of covering up a child sex scandal at a forum in Newcastle.
Nathan Rees returned to the Hunter region to provide answers but faced more questions at the second in a series of community meetings.
The woman at the centre of the Milton Orkopoulos child sex scandal accused the Premier of blocking an inquiry into the incident.
Gillian Sneddon was locked out of former Aboriginal Affairs Minister's office when they learned she was helping police investigate claims made against him.
She has been unemployed ever since and says she has been punished by the government for blowing the whistle on her boss.
She said she was not paid during Orkopoulos's trial and had not received any assistance from the government to find new work.
A frustrated Ms Sneddon was cheered as she called on Mr Rees to explain her treatment.
"Of course you didn't know anything did you Nathan?" she said.
"Because you ran, you scurried like a rat, to Premier Iemma's office because you didn't want to get tainted by the allegations."
Premier Rees urged Ms Sneddon to again follow the formal process for proper hearing. - I have every reason to believe some of my grief has been connected to this issue .. indirectly. As a person who responsibly reported a child abuse allegation and saw it covered up when senior ALP got involved .. and later a cover up of Hamidur Rahman's death through legal technicalities (open finding by coroner). I feel I can shed light on this issue. Having reported this issue to all the appropriate bodies, I am free to speak about them. I don't know I have witnessed crimes. I know I have witnessed cover ups which deserve to be investigated .. not the least because Hamidur Rahman's parents deserve justice and not to be partly blamed for their child's death. - ed.
+++ + +++
Bellevue Hill Public School closed due to crater - major traffic diversions
Residents in Bellevue Hill are waking up to a giant crater after a burst water main triggered a landslide. Laura Tunstall is on the scene.
Third schoolgirl arrested over fight
A third schoolgirl has been arrested over a pre-arranged fight on Sydney’s northern beaches, which left a 15-year-old with facial injuries.
Aust to contribute ship, aircraft to anti-piracy fight Somalia
Australia is sending a warship and a surveillance aircraft to help fight piracy in waters off Somalia.
+++
Couple Ordered to Stop Holding Bible Study at Home Without Permit
Pastor David Jones and his wife Mary have been told that they cannot invite friends to their San Diego, Calif. home for a Bible study — unless they are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to San Diego County.
"On Good Friday we had an employee from San Diego County come to our house, and inform us that the Bible study that we were having was a religious assembly, and in violation of the code in the county." David Jones told FOX News.
"We told them this is not really a religious assembly — this is just a Bible study with friends. We have a meal, we pray, that was all," Jones said.
+++
Hotels to evict swine flu sufferers at toll hits 147
Swine flu sufferers are facing the prospect of being kicked out of their hotels, because of fears of bad publicity, as the national toll hits 147.
Dodgy $2 coins in circulation after alleged laundering scam
Police are warning people to look out for mutilated $2 coins after arresting a man for laundering the damaged currency through Sydney vending machines.
Pregnant teen 'pays man to kill foetus'
US prosecutors say a 17-year-old girl allegedly paid a man to beat her up so she would have a......
Guilty thief returns $10,000 cash
A thief who stole more than $10,000 from a butcher has returned most of the money a week later......
Fittler vows to fight for his career
Under-siege Sydney Roosters coach Brad Fittler has vowed to see out the season with the struggling NRL club despite reports claiming he was ready to throw in the towel.
US govt to own 72% of GM
The US government would own 72.5 per cent of General Motors under a proposed bankruptcy reorganisation that now has support of GM bondholders, a regulatory filing showed on Thursday.
Susan Boyle 'considered quitting show'
Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle has considered quitting the British TV talent show that brought her worldwide fame, show judge Piers Morgan said.
=== Journalists Corner ===
=== Comments ===
IT’S OFTEN NOT THAT FUNNY
Tim Blair
Lots of viewers for the latest Chaser series, but – in comments at that link – very few positive reviews.
UPDATE. Age readers weren’t amused, either:
Oh dear - I love The Chaser but last night they were woefully unfunny.
===
NOT THE FINGER
Tim Blair
French President Nicolas Sarkozy aims to appoint a freethinker:
Claude Allègre argues that global warming is not necessarily caused by human activity. Putting him in charge of scientific research would be tantamount to “giving the finger to scientists”, said Nicolas Hulot, France’s best-known environmental activist.
Mr Sarkozy wants to bring Mr Allègre, 72, a freethinking, former socialist education minister, into the government in a reshuffle after next month’s European parliamentary elections.
Free thought can lead to unconventional conclusions:
Claude Allegre, one of France’s leading socialists and among her most celebrated scientists, was among the first to sound the alarm about the dangers of global warming.
“By burning fossil fuels, man increased the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which, for example, has raised the global mean temperature by half a degree in the last century,” Dr. Allegre, a renowned geochemist, wrote 20 years ago …
With a wealth of data now in, Dr. Allegre has recanted his views. To his surprise, the many climate models and studies failed dismally in establishing a man-made cause of catastrophic global warming.
But what about the funding?
UPDATE. Rare mockery of greenism in the Age:
In the 1950s some academic psychologists studied a group of religious fanatics who believed that the world would end on December 21, 1954. Prior to this dramatic event, the group foretold that angels in flying saucers from the Planet Clarion would arrive on earth to save the believers. I kid you not. Flying saucers were big in the fifties. When the date with destiny came and went with no saucers from Clarion (and no end of the world), the group’s belief in the prophecy actually increased! They had invested so much of their lives in their idiosyncratic faith that evidence repudiating the prophecy could not be digested.
Wait; it’s not about greens. It’s about property development.
===
A more civilised White House now
Andrew Bolt
How many hoops would President George Bush have to jump through to explain throwing a black reporter off his plane?
===
Don’t speak ill of the Rudd
Andrew Bolt
Can Kevin Rudd’s spin be any more craven?
KEVIN Rudd has chastised the Opposition for ridiculing the sending of stimulus cheques to dead people, saying the mocking tones risked offending the loved ones of the deceased.
===
Teach up, not down
Andrew Bolt
EVER felt as if you’re in a deep pit, and someone’s just pulled up the ladder?
Twice I had that feeling in the out-bush schools I went to about four decades ago. Now I’d like that ladder put back.
Those my age or older may remember the Let’s Make Music lessons we learned at school, gathered around a radio tuned to the ABC.
The program’s aim was to teach us not just music, but Western culture.
It certainly wasn’t to teach us just what was immediately relevant to us, as children of farmers, police, Aboriginal laborers or immigrants, but what was the best and the ageless. To teach what linked us not only to other Australians, but to the greatest minds of our past.
So we learned scraps of the classics, including Beethoven and Mozart, and of opera, such as Brother Come and Dance With Me, from Hansel and Gretel.
We learned songs about Australia, of course, also ageless folk songs from Britain, such as the Skye Boat Song and Men of Harlech, and from other cultures, too, from the Czech Andulko the Goose Girl to Japan’s Sakura.
We learned it all together, with the imprimatur of the then venerable ABC making clear that this was a grounding not just in music, but in civilisation.
I loved it, and still remember many of the songs. I also remember when, almost overnight, that music stopped.
===
Swine oil sold
Andrew Bolt
It’s precisely how global warming is exploited, too, by carpet baggers who profit from the panic they help to whip up:
The former ACT chief minister, Kate Carnell, now CEO of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, knows a thing or two about putting some distance between yourself and a dangerous situation. But a press release issued yesterday has taken the notion of opportunism to a new level. ”Ensure your cupboard isn’t bare during a quarantine,” a press release issued yesterday advises in the wake of estimates that up to 4 million Australians could contract the swine flu virus. “Australians should assess the amount of food and essential household items available in their pantries in the wake of quarantines being imposed for people diagnosed with swine flu, the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) warned today”.
===
An important film
Andrew Bolt
SAMSON and Delilah checks all the boxes I’ve come to associate with our terrible Australian films.
Taxpayer funded? Check.
Grim? Check. The very first scene shows an Aboriginal boy sniffing petrol.
Feted by the guilty-rich elite? Check that, too, after the Cannes Film Festival last weekend gave its prize for a first-time director to Warwick Thornton, an Aborigine from Alice Springs.
And did it get five stars from the ABC’s preachy David Stratton?
Oh, yes. Check again. Full house.
In fact, this low-budget film has extra warning lights I’d never dreamed of.
Its director seems a blame-whitey type, for instance, who insists “the Stolen Generation, that’s me”. So you can well guess what his film is like.
In fact, I went to a near deserted screening of it this week and can tell you. It’s great.
===
Was Borrowman’s real sin a failure to speak “yes”?
Andrew Bolt
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith announces his pick as ambassador to Sweden:
Educated at the Australian National University, Mr Borrowman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Asian Studies and a Graduate Diploma in International Law. He has qualifications in German, Mandarin, French and Swedish languages.
Pardon? Hugh Borrowman has qualifications in German?
But what reason did Prime Minister Kevin Rudd give for blocking the appointment of Borrowman, formerly head of his international division, as ambassador to Berlin?
The Prime Minister said Mr Borrowman was rejected for the Berlin post because his German skills were sub-standard. “When it comes to foreign diplomatic appointments, I do place priority on languages, as does the minister. And last time I looked at Germany, they speak German,” Mr Rudd told the ABC on Tuesday.
Will Rudd give us the real reason for blocking the promotion of a diplomat recommended by his Foreign Minister? Is it true that Borrowman’s real sin is that he did not fawn but gave independent, fearless advice - as is his duty as a public servant?
===
Republicans and Judge Sotomayor
By Bill O'Reilly
Once again, President Obama has pulled off a shrewd political move by nominating a Latina, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, to the Supreme Court.
There are about 12 million Hispanic-Americans who voted last time around, and 67 percent of them went for Obama. By contrast, just 53 percent voted for John Kerry when he ran against President Bush. So Hispanic voters actually put Barack Obama in the White House, and the GOP needs some of them back, thus Republicans face a quandary.
This morning on ABC, conservative Ann Coulter pretty much defined the problem:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANN COULTER, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: Saying that someone would decide a case differently, better in fact, because she is a Latina rather than a white male, I mean, that statement is by definition racist. I'm not saying she's a racist, but the statement sure is.
DIANE SAWYER, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA" CO-HOST: Were you moved by the Hispanic breakthrough, Ann?
COULTER: Why aren't Democrats — why aren't they choking up over Clarence Thomas or Miguel Estrada? I mean, you know, come on, why are we all supposed to weep only when it's a liberal Hispanic or a liberal black?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Ms. Coulter's point is true. Liberals gleefully attacked Clarence Thomas and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, but the media is now lurking, looking to pound any conservative who goes after Ms. Sotomayor. So the Republicans have a tough situation on their hands.
The judge is vulnerable, especially on affirmative action, and her racial tone on who has a better outlook on the law, minorities or whites. But to the Hispanic-American community, that might not matter much, especially considering the judge's background:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: The president believes that her life story is a compelling one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her great life story, amazing life story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not to mention her life story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A compelling personal story.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Did someone say compelling?
Politics is all about perception. Right now, the Republican Party is perceived to be the domain of rich, white guys. Of course, that's not entirely true, but very often perception trumps reality.
America needs two, maybe three, strong political parties so the country can have healthy debate. We also need voters to be open-minded, not ideological Kool-Aid drinkers.
The Republicans can only get back in the game if they widen their appeal and appeal for common sense. For example, Dick Cheney may be winning the national security debate because he is talking facts, while President Obama talks theory. Fair-minded Americans want to be protected and facts are more compelling — sorry — than lofty rhetoric.
But if the GOP alienates Hispanic-Americans and they begin to vote in blocks like African-Americans do, then the Republican Party is doomed. So Republicans would be wise to watch the rhetoric in assessing Judge Sotomayor.
===
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid of the Obama Administration’s Scary Trial Balloon
By Phil Kerpen
In today’s Washington Post, the White House floats a really scary trial balloon—a new national Value-Added Tax (VAT) to pay for out-of-control spending and a Washington take over of health care. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad appears to be on board. So does Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel, who has been hired by the White House budget office to help design the health care plan and whose book on health care uses a VAT to fund the new government program. Obama economic adviser Paul Volcker is also on-board the VAT-train.
What is the VAT? It’s a type of national sales tax that is collected in pieces throughout the production chain, instead of being collected all at once at the cash register like a retail sales tax. In theory, sales taxes like the VAT are pretty good taxes because they are broad-based, difficult to evade, and minimize economic distortions. In practice, they are the ATM machine for runaway government growth, because they are largely invisible to the public and they can raise huge amounts of money in very small chunks, thus minimizing the effective political opposition that generally keeps taxes in check.
A couple of years ago Dan Mitchell wrote a great summary of the VAT experience in Europe that explains how the VAT was the key policy change that moved Europe to a much higher level of taxes and spending than the U.S. Because the tax is difficult for the public to see, it’s very easy for politicians to raise, and VAT rates in Europe have steadily increased since the tax was first introduced. With the VAT tax weapon in hand, European governments have grown to more than 40 percent of GDP, a level unknown in the United States outside of world wars. Now that scary scenario could, unfortunately be in store for us if the White House pursues a VAT in the U.S.
The U.S. tax system is clearly a mess, and badly in need of meaningful tax reform. That reform, however, needs to in the direction of simplicity and lower rates. Many conservatives believe, with good reason, that we should abolish the IRS, end income taxation, and adopt a national sales tax of some kind—most would prefer a national retail sales tax, which is the heart of the Fair Tax proposal. Some, perhaps, would be happy with a VAT, which functions much like a sales tax. Such a proposal is not without its virtues, but the enormous risk associated with it is that we end up with a national sales tax on top of our existing income tax system.
Based on the European experience, accepting a VAT in exchange for reductions in taxes on income and capital would be a foolish bargain, because once politicians have all the taxes on the books they would steadily increase the rates over time, leading to a much higher overall level of taxes and spending than would otherwise have been possible. We need to draw a clear line in the sand that no new national taxes will be put in place without eliminating—not cutting, but permanently eliminating—our existing income tax.
Trillions of dollars of bailouts, stimulus, spending, unfunded entitlement obligations, and an appetite for a Washington takeover of health care have us on a collision course for a national bankruptcy unless we adopt a huge new tax (cap-and-trade is another one, by-the-way, although the VAT could be even more expensive) or finally start to get a handle on runaway spending. The current tax system simply will not bear enough revenue to pay for these trillions of dollars of obligations. If we don’t want to accept a European-style nanny state and the lower standards of living that come with it, we need to cut all this spending and forget about a Washington takeover of health care. And we need to shoot this VAT trial balloon down, quickly.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Senator Orrin Hatch Talks About Sotomayor's Controversial Statements
Senator orrin Hatch was on Hannity and brought up some nutty quotes by Judge Sotomayor.
===
In all likelihood Obama will be a one term president. He will likely lose the congress halfway through. Activist judges who care about their cause must consider going now, to allow Obama to replace them, and not some future Republican President who will no doubt try to choose someone competent.
does this hurt?
communitychannel
December 19, 2008
i don't go up and slap people in the face and ask if it hurts. Mainly because my slap is weak. You get my drift
hope you're well
x
===
Now I know where your mum gets it from ..
Headlines Thursday 28th May 2009
67 Australians confirmed with swine flu with 'significant' rise expected
Swine flu in Australia is unlikely to be contained, experts warn, with official numbers of infected to blow out from 67 today.
$40m wasted on stimulus payments to dead people, expats
As many as 16,000 dead people and 27,000 expatriate Australians have received a total of $40 million worth of federal government stimulus payments.
Shotguns fired during hold-up in Epping
There are reports shots have been fired during the armed holdup of a Chubb security van at Epping, in Sydney’s north.
Disabled woman's cliff death fall was an accident: coroner
A Coroner has found the death of a disabled woman who fell from a cliff at the Blue Mountains in NSW, was a tragic accident.
Clare Werbeloff may be new presenter on Channel Nine
You may not have seen the last of 'chk-chk boom' girl Clare Werbeloff – with claims Channel Nine is considering giving the Sydney teen an ongoing role on A Current Affair.
Sonny Bill Williams beats Gary Gurr by TKO in second round
Sonny Bill Williams made a perfect - but brief - start to his professional boxing career in Brisbane on Wednesday night, stopping New Zealand's Gary "The Baboon" Gurr in the second round.
US banks turn profit after record loss
America's banks turned a profit in the first quarter, but the number of troubled banks jumped to the highest level in 15 years and tough conditions persist for the industry, the government said on Wednesday.
Chris Brown: I ain't a monster
Crooner Chris Brown has finally broken his silence about his alleged assault of former girlfriend Rihanna, telling fans that he "ain't a monster."
=== Comments ===
Trading our future away with very poor politics
Piers Akerman
CLIMATE Change Minister Penny Wong says the Federal Government is determined “to keep, continue to press forward” on emissions trading legislation because “it is the right thing to do”. - It is disturbing that the government found itself elected on this policy. It was one of the few actual policies which it presented to the electorate. It is called a wedge issue because it differentiates political groupings .. and the politics of the conservative parties have had to address the fact that people voted for this policy. I support Turnbull’s proposals not because I believe in climate change .. I don’t. I support Turnbull’s policies because I believe that a federal conservative government would not make the mistakes of the ALP.
However, the issue should not be this insane wedge, but poor ALP governance. In the wake of Sol Trujillo’s departure, things have been said, and Rudd was observed to wave and give an ‘adios.’ Sol has correctly said that Australia’s future lies in maintaining a presence on the world stage which is commensurate with ‘foreigner’s bringing their expertise here and trading on it. It is wrong to say that Rudd was despising the nationality of Sol. In fact, Rudd was despising the independence of Sol, and Rudd’s wave was a warning to all CEO’s in Australia of what can happen to them if they don’t toe his line. It is the poor governance of the ALP, not their expressed racism and not their failed policy which is the greatest threat to Australia’s future. - ed
===
HOPE, CHANGE, MILLARD
Tim Blair
Rather than use planet-wrecking jets, the Obama administration employs a new way of transporting officials to important carbon talks:
The US has sent a caravan of top officials to Beijing to secure a deal with China.
===
AT LEAST HE DIDN’T BASH THEM
Tim Blair
Lawyers sometimes wonder why they’re held in low public esteem. Perhaps they should consider the arguments offered by Sydney lawyer Clive Steirn in defending a multiple rapist:
Taxi driver Hassan Nagi should not receive a harsh sentence for raping three women as he suffered a condition called “Don Juanism” which made him addicted to sex, his barrister said yesterday.
Clive Steirn SC also urged a District Court judge to spare the sex predator a “crushing” sentence because he never bashed his victims while he was raping them. - Tim masterfully tells this story. I have left much out. Please click on the link - ed.
===
WHITE SUPREMACIST
Tim Blair
One of the world’s greatest minds comes up with one of the world’s greatest ideas:
Steven Chu, the Nobel prize-winning physicist appointed by US President Barack Obama as Energy Secretary, wants to paint the world white.
A global initiative to change the colour of roofs, roads and pavements so that they reflect more of the Sun’s light and heat could play a big part in containing global warming, he said yesterday.
It would be interesting to get Chu’s estimate on the percentage of the earth’s surface that is covered by roofs, roads and pavements.
===
One in five? Pigs
Andrew Bolt
Can this be remotely true? From the front page of The Age:
SWINE flu is expected to infect one in five Australians, threatening lives and costing the economy double the price of seasonal flu, authorities said yesterday… Victoria’s acting chief health officer, Rosemary Lester, said the virus could infect 20 per cent of the population, or about four million people.
If 4 million Australians get swine flu, that on its own will be 300 times more than the total number of people around the world who have caught it now:
The WHO said worldwide there are are 13,398 confirmed cases of the flu.
It will be 880 times more people than caught the flu even in Mexico, which has more than five times our population and has been hit hardest by the virus.
Or put it this way: .004 per cent of Mexicans have caught swine flu. But we are being told 20 per cent of Australians may, too.
Really? Let’s see.
===
Save the planet! Bonk a prostitute
Andrew Bolt
When I say that global warming is the first faith led entirely by sinners, I wasn’t thinking about these emissions at all:
The global climate challenge may have been on the daytime agenda during the recent World Business Summit climate conference in Copenhagen, but in the evenings many businessmen, politicians and civil servants are reported to have availed themselves of the capital’s prostitutes.
Exciting work, saving the planet.
===
Rudd runs out of masochists
Andrew Bolt
You’d also wonder what calibre of people do agree to work for him:
ONE of the most prestigious diplomatic jobs in Australia - foreign policy mandarin in the Prime Minister’s Department - has been vacant for months because no one approached so far is willing to take the post, which involves working closely with Kevin Rudd....A former senior foreign affairs official with a close knowledge of the post told The Australian nobody of any seniority wanted the job because of Mr Rudd’s micro-management.
Apologists will say that this micromanagement, a persistent criticism of Rudd from colleagues and public servants, is just a way of running things that can be fixed. In fact, I suspect it’s unfixable because it’s drive by his character - his great fear of failure, and his manic need to control and assert himself.
===
Prove it, Julia
Andrew Bolt
This would be a test worth getting Julia Gillard to sit. She could either prove that fears of her workplace changes are unfounded, or learn that she really is about to make a terrible mistake and put thousands of Australians out of work:
JULIA Gillard is ignoring a request by a cleaning company for her to personally explain how the federal Government’s awards modernisation program will not increase business costs.
South Australian family-owned Longford Cleaning, which employs about 70 permanent part-time and casual staff, yesterday told The Australian the changes could result in it losing up to half its clients when a 25 per cent spike in wage costs is passed on from January 1 .
The Workplace Relations Minister earlier yesterday defended the Government’s new modern awards process, telling ABC radio: ”I could sit and work it all through with (Longford Cleaning) very specifically … with all of the time and wages sheets, to say whether I agree with the calculations or don’t agree with the calculations."…
Longford manager Dominic Gibbie told The Australian yesterday the company would be interested in taking up Ms Gillard’s offer to “sit down and work it all through”. But a spokeswoman for Ms Gillard last night refused to answer specific questions from The Australian, including whether Ms Gillard was prepared to meet the company...
If Gillard is right, what does she have to fear from the test? - Gillard ignored my challenge, and now the situation has arisen in which, as with Mallard in WA, I can never get justice from parliament. I might, possibly, get an ex gratia payment down the track, but my issue is now dead. The result is the family of Hamidur Rahman may never have justice, after the coroner apportioned some blame on them for their son’s death. I have not only lost my career in speaking out on conscience, but I have been threatened and have lost a substantial amount of my superannuation. This is the result of Gillard .. and her IR laws. I have done nothing wrong. - ed.
===
Defence boosted. Rudd says “bang”
Andrew Bolt
Yet more Rudd spin, this time on our defence:
DEFENCE planners have been “deliberately vague” about the nation’s long-term military plans, raising doubts about the affordability of a 20-year build-up of air and naval power, a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has found.
The government-funded, independent institute has released a scathing assessment of the secrecy surrounding the funding plans for the Rudd Government’s defence white paper, saying the “absence of dates and figures cannot be an accident”.
It says this month’s federal budget deferred the benefits of a new funding scheme and “reneged” on a spending promise made only 10 days earlier by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, at the white paper’s launch.
”We risk adopting a defence posture that is more talk than action,” says the report.
I may have noted this myself:
Rudd’s promise this month of the biggest defence build-up since World War II? Not an extra dollar for defence can be found in this Budget, in net terms, over the next four years.
Manana, manana. If promises were tanks, we’d be invincible. And if Rudd ever keeps his, we’ll be even broker than we are.
===
Biden mocks the tele-prompted Pres
Andrew Bolt
Even Joe Biden is laughing at Obama. Or maybe it’s yet more proof that it’s Biden who’s the joke. - Joe Biden is a very clever man. He likes to keep in touch with the American people. To achieve that end he watches every late night comedy program broadcast in the US. Because they have been highlighting the teleprompter issue, Joe made his funny comment. It wasn’t meant to be denigrating of Obama. It is just that Joe is a complex person and sometimes gets lost in the maze. He thinks of things even he can’t figure out. Like global warming. Joe won’t buy a Prius. He can build a caravan. He can walk to China with his caravan. Because, by god, nothing else that the white house has tried in the last few months works. - ed.
===
Green is now a joke
Andrew Bolt
Green has gone from omm to ha ha. America’s ABC presents a new animated sit-com, The Goode Family, which mocks this most earnest new faith of the guilty class.
Of course, the BBC tried more gentle (and I suspect funnier) mockery of such greens three decades ago in The Goode Life, before the green lifestyle became a tiresome religious mission.
Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger say the green bubble has burst:
Gestures that were once mundane--bringing your own grocery bags to the store, shopping for secondhand clothes, taking the subway--were suddenly infused with grand significance… What downscalers offered was not a better way to reduce emissions, but rather, a way to reduce guilt. In 2007, we asked environmentalists in focus groups about green consumption. None thought that consuming green would do much of anything to address a huge challenge like global warming. They did it anyway, they said, because it made them feel better… Apocalyptic fears meld seamlessly into utopian hopes. The end of the world is near--unless we heal all that divides us…
(W)hile utopianism has a bright side–it is a way of imagining a better world–it also has a dark side characterized by escapism and a disengagement from reality that marks all bubbles, green or financial…
And then, almost as quickly as it had inflated, the green bubble burst. Between January 2008 and January 2009, the percentage of Americans who told the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press that the environment was a “top priority” dropped from 56 percent to 41 percent.... Whatever romanticized vision of a simpler life that might have existed a year or two ago has largely been replaced by a fearful vision of a life of poverty or, at least, greater insecurity.
UPDATE
But some climate preachers still act like extras on a vicious green-baiting satire:
GIVE up lamb roasts and save the planet. Government advisers are developing menus to combat climate change by cutting out “high carbon” food such as meat from sheep, whose burping poses a serious threat to the environment. Out will go kebabs, greenhouse tomatoes and alcohol…
“Changing our lifestyles, including our diets, is going to be one of the crucial elements in cutting carbon emissions,” said David Kennedy, chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change. Kennedy has stopped eating his favourite doner kebabs because they contain lamb.
And:
Steven Chu, the Nobel prize-winning physicist appointed by President Obama as Energy Secretary, wants to paint the world white. A global initiative to change the colour of roofs, roads and pavements so that they reflect more sunlight and heat could play a big part in containing global warming, he said yesterday.
===
Useless payment spent uselessly
Andrew Bolt
That’s actually a lot of money, even if it’s now dwarfed by the $315 billion of debt Kevin Rudd is contracting:
THE Rudd Government has wasted $40 million by paying the $900 stimulus bonus to tens of thousands of dead people and expats.
And all of this money is borrowed.
===
Rundle’s licence to hate
Andrew Bolt
Beck is right. Guy Rundle is projecting, not attacking. For a start, he’s having just far too much fun indulging in hate speech that’s simply disgusting. What a hate-filled man.
===
Back us or we’ll take your compo
Andrew Bolt
This is blackmail:
The Rudd government is warning industry it could end up with an inferior assistance package if the emissions trading scheme has to go back to the drawing board.... Greg Combet, the parliament secretary for climate change, ... urged business to consider the ramifications, considering billions of dollars worth of assistance were involved…
“This is something that all industries receiving assistance should think very carefully about when they consider their approach to proposals to delay the scheme,” Mr Combet said.
Grubby and desperate.
===
Smarter than any white colleague on the court
Andrew Bolt
Sonia Sotomayor, Barack Obama’s affirmative action pick for the Supreme Court, reaches a conclusion that proves her conclusion is false:
I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.
Not only is this racist and foolish, it fundamentally misunderstands the role of a judge, which is to uphold the law, not pass on the lessons of her personal experiences. Be afraid that Obama finds this fine.
===
Has Oakes lost it?
Andrew Bolt
For Laurie Oakes the biggest story in Canberra today is that Malcolm Turnbull is rich, and should be ashamed of it.
Apparently it’s more shameful to have an Opposition Leader who makes millions than a Prime Minister who blows billions.
===
President Obama vs. Dick Cheney
By Bill O'Reilly
n one of the most important debates in U.S. history, the president and former vice president are lined up against each other on the vital subject of national security. So I am here to give you some no spin perspective. If you hate the president or Mr. Cheney, this analysis is not for you, so don't waste your time.
We begin with President Obama, who believes that after the 9/11 attack the Bush administration compromised some of America's core values, putting the country in even more danger:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Unfortunately, faced with an uncertain threat, our government made a series of hasty decisions. I believe that many of these decisions were motivated by a sincere desire to protect the American people. But I also believe that all too often our government made decisions based on fear rather than foresight, that all too often our government trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
But isn't Mr. Obama doing the same thing? His left-wing base despises the War on Terror, believing the USA brought much of the Muslim hatred on itself. And while campaigning for the presidency, Mr. Obama gained liberal votes by softening the War on Terror rhetoric.
Then the President got specific:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I know some have argued that brutal methods like waterboarding were necessary to keep us safe. I could not disagree more. As commander in chief, I see the intelligence, I bare the responsibility for keeping this country safe, and I categorically reject the assertion that these are the most effective means of interrogation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
That is a bit of verbal sleight of hand. By all accounts, enhanced interrogation methods like waterboarding were rarely used. It is the president's opinion, not a fact. They were not necessary.
Mr. Obama continued about the dangers of rough interrogations:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: They serve as a recruitment tool for terrorists and increase the will of our enemies to fight us while decreasing the will of others to work with America. They risk the lives of our troops by making it less likely that others will surrender to them in battle, and more likely that Americans will be mistreated if they are captured.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
A theory but probably true to some extent. Any aggressive action the USA takes will lead to more terrorists signing up. Does Mr. Obama believe that sending more troops to Afghanistan is not helping Taliban recruitment? Come on, you don't fight a war fearing the enemy will get angrier. You fight to win.
As for U.S. troops being mistreated, everybody knows the terrorists don't need a reason to murder. They do it everyday. On this issue, the president sounds naive.
Mr. Obama then addressed closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Rather than keeping us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security. It is a rallying cry for our enemies. It sets back the willingness of our allies to work with us in fighting an enemy that operates in scores of countries.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Again, the theme of giving terrorists recruitment tools and alienating so-called allies like Spain and other European countries, who are now refusing to help Mr. Obama in Afghanistan. But the president is correct when he states that Gitmo has become a symbol of anti-American feeling. However, closing the prison does not guarantee anything. If you hate America, you'll find other symbols.
President Obama then addressed where the captured terrorists will go:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We will seek to transfer some detainees to the same type of facilities in which we hold all manner of dangerous and violent criminals within our borders. Namely, highly secure prisons that ensure the public safety.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Well here's a bulletin for the world. The detainees are far better off inside Gitmo than they will be inside a supermax American prison. I've been to Gitmo twice. Cooperative detainees have amenities, good food and all the fresh air they want. At a supermax they will be locked down solo because other inmates would kill them. So liberal Americans, including the president, should wise up about that. If I'm a terrorist, I want Gitmo all day long.
More than halfway through his speech, the president changed the tone, beginning with his support for military tribunals:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: They allow for the protection of sensitive sources and methods of intelligence gathering. They allow for the safety and security of participants. And for the presentation of evidence gathered from the battlefield, they can not always be effectively presented in federal courts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Mr. Obama is absolutely correct on this. He's also right about the photo controversy:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I recently opposed the release of certain photographs that were taken of detainees by U.S. personnel between 2002 and 2004. Individuals who violated standards of behavior in these photos have been investigated, and they have been held accountable. It was my judgment informed by my national security team that releasing these photos would inflame anti-American opinion and allow our enemies to paint U.S. troops with a broad, damning and inaccurate brush, thereby endangering them in theaters of war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
That decision hammers the Obama-haters who believe the president is weak. Left-wing loons desperately want to diminish America with those pictures. The president is standing tall on this one.
By the way, any media that puts out leaked pictures will pay a huge price. Trust me on that.
Finally, the president predicted the future:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I do know with certainty that we can and will defeat Al Qaeda, because the terrorists can only succeed if they swell their ranks and alienate America from our allies. And they will never be able to do that if we stay true to who we are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Let's pray he's right.
But Dick Cheney is not optimistic. In his reply to the president he began by defining his dissent:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FORMER VP DICK CHENEY: When President Obama makes wise decisions, as I believe he has done in some respects on Afghanistan and in reversing his plan to release incendiary photos, he deserves our support. And when he faults or mischaracterizes the national security decisions we made in the Bush years, he deserves an answer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Fair enough. Mr. Cheney then listed all the terror attacks leading up to 9/11, pointing out that standard diplomacy did little to blunt the growing problem of Al Qaeda. The historical record proves that, as does North Korea launching missiles over the weekend.
Then Mr. Cheney got pithy about the Bush post-9/11 strategy:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: Our government prevented attacks and saved lives through the terrorist surveillance program, which let us intercept calls and contacts between Al Qaeda and persons inside the United States. The program was top secret and for good reason until the editors of The New York Times got it and put it on the front page.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
The former vice president obviously indicting the ultra-liberal newspaper in a major way.
Mr. Cheney then went to the alleged torture deal:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: The interrogations were used on hardened terrorists after other efforts had failed. They were legal, essential, justified, successful, and the right thing to do. The intelligence officers who questioned the terrorists can be proud of their work, proud of the results, because they prevented the violent death of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people. Yet somehow, when the soul searching was done, and the veil was lifted on the policies of the Bush administration, the public was given less than half the truth. The released memos were carefully redacted to leave out references to what our government learned through the methods in question. Other memos laying out specific terrorist plots that were averted apparently were not even considered for release. For reasons the administration has yet to explain, they believe the public has a right to know the method of the questions, but not the content of the answers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
That is Dick Cheney's strongest point. It is impossible for we the people to make a rational decision on interrogation without knowing the full extent of the situation. If President Obama does not release all the information on the subject, he will never win the historical debate.
Mr. Cheney continued pressing his point:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: It is a fact that only detainees of the highest intelligence value were ever subjected to enhanced interrogation. You've heard endlessly about waterboarding. It happened to three terrorists. One of them was Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, who has also boasted about his beheading of Daniel Pearl. We had a lot of blind spots after the attacks on our country, things we didn't know about Al Qaeda. We didn't know about Al Qaeda's plans, but Khalid sheik Mohammed and a few others did know. And with many thousands of innocent lives potentially in the balance, we did not think it made sense to let the terrorists answer questions in their own good time, if they answered them at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
It is here where Americans must make their own judgment. I've made mine. I would have waterboarded Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
Finally, the former vice president put the president on the spot:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: To completely rule out enhanced interrogation in the future is unwise in the extreme. It is recklessness cloaked in righteousness and would make the American people less safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
That is a blunt warning. And if the USA is attacked again, President Obama will hear that echo.
So there you have it. The president believing his strategy will make the world more inclined to help America defeat the terrorists. Dick Cheney believing Mr. Obama is damaging national security.
As always, you make the call. My job is to present the issue in a fair way, and I believe I have.
Swine flu in Australia is unlikely to be contained, experts warn, with official numbers of infected to blow out from 67 today.
$40m wasted on stimulus payments to dead people, expats
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Shotguns fired during hold-up in Epping
There are reports shots have been fired during the armed holdup of a Chubb security van at Epping, in Sydney’s north.
Disabled woman's cliff death fall was an accident: coroner
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Clare Werbeloff may be new presenter on Channel Nine
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Sonny Bill Williams beats Gary Gurr by TKO in second round
Sonny Bill Williams made a perfect - but brief - start to his professional boxing career in Brisbane on Wednesday night, stopping New Zealand's Gary "The Baboon" Gurr in the second round.
US banks turn profit after record loss
America's banks turned a profit in the first quarter, but the number of troubled banks jumped to the highest level in 15 years and tough conditions persist for the industry, the government said on Wednesday.
Chris Brown: I ain't a monster
Crooner Chris Brown has finally broken his silence about his alleged assault of former girlfriend Rihanna, telling fans that he "ain't a monster."
=== Comments ===
Trading our future away with very poor politics
Piers Akerman
CLIMATE Change Minister Penny Wong says the Federal Government is determined “to keep, continue to press forward” on emissions trading legislation because “it is the right thing to do”. - It is disturbing that the government found itself elected on this policy. It was one of the few actual policies which it presented to the electorate. It is called a wedge issue because it differentiates political groupings .. and the politics of the conservative parties have had to address the fact that people voted for this policy. I support Turnbull’s proposals not because I believe in climate change .. I don’t. I support Turnbull’s policies because I believe that a federal conservative government would not make the mistakes of the ALP.
However, the issue should not be this insane wedge, but poor ALP governance. In the wake of Sol Trujillo’s departure, things have been said, and Rudd was observed to wave and give an ‘adios.’ Sol has correctly said that Australia’s future lies in maintaining a presence on the world stage which is commensurate with ‘foreigner’s bringing their expertise here and trading on it. It is wrong to say that Rudd was despising the nationality of Sol. In fact, Rudd was despising the independence of Sol, and Rudd’s wave was a warning to all CEO’s in Australia of what can happen to them if they don’t toe his line. It is the poor governance of the ALP, not their expressed racism and not their failed policy which is the greatest threat to Australia’s future. - ed
===
HOPE, CHANGE, MILLARD
Tim Blair
Rather than use planet-wrecking jets, the Obama administration employs a new way of transporting officials to important carbon talks:
The US has sent a caravan of top officials to Beijing to secure a deal with China.
===
AT LEAST HE DIDN’T BASH THEM
Tim Blair
Lawyers sometimes wonder why they’re held in low public esteem. Perhaps they should consider the arguments offered by Sydney lawyer Clive Steirn in defending a multiple rapist:
Taxi driver Hassan Nagi should not receive a harsh sentence for raping three women as he suffered a condition called “Don Juanism” which made him addicted to sex, his barrister said yesterday.
Clive Steirn SC also urged a District Court judge to spare the sex predator a “crushing” sentence because he never bashed his victims while he was raping them. - Tim masterfully tells this story. I have left much out. Please click on the link - ed.
===
WHITE SUPREMACIST
Tim Blair
One of the world’s greatest minds comes up with one of the world’s greatest ideas:
Steven Chu, the Nobel prize-winning physicist appointed by US President Barack Obama as Energy Secretary, wants to paint the world white.
A global initiative to change the colour of roofs, roads and pavements so that they reflect more of the Sun’s light and heat could play a big part in containing global warming, he said yesterday.
It would be interesting to get Chu’s estimate on the percentage of the earth’s surface that is covered by roofs, roads and pavements.
===
One in five? Pigs
Andrew Bolt
Can this be remotely true? From the front page of The Age:
SWINE flu is expected to infect one in five Australians, threatening lives and costing the economy double the price of seasonal flu, authorities said yesterday… Victoria’s acting chief health officer, Rosemary Lester, said the virus could infect 20 per cent of the population, or about four million people.
If 4 million Australians get swine flu, that on its own will be 300 times more than the total number of people around the world who have caught it now:
The WHO said worldwide there are are 13,398 confirmed cases of the flu.
It will be 880 times more people than caught the flu even in Mexico, which has more than five times our population and has been hit hardest by the virus.
Or put it this way: .004 per cent of Mexicans have caught swine flu. But we are being told 20 per cent of Australians may, too.
Really? Let’s see.
===
Save the planet! Bonk a prostitute
Andrew Bolt
When I say that global warming is the first faith led entirely by sinners, I wasn’t thinking about these emissions at all:
The global climate challenge may have been on the daytime agenda during the recent World Business Summit climate conference in Copenhagen, but in the evenings many businessmen, politicians and civil servants are reported to have availed themselves of the capital’s prostitutes.
Exciting work, saving the planet.
===
Rudd runs out of masochists
Andrew Bolt
You’d also wonder what calibre of people do agree to work for him:
ONE of the most prestigious diplomatic jobs in Australia - foreign policy mandarin in the Prime Minister’s Department - has been vacant for months because no one approached so far is willing to take the post, which involves working closely with Kevin Rudd....A former senior foreign affairs official with a close knowledge of the post told The Australian nobody of any seniority wanted the job because of Mr Rudd’s micro-management.
Apologists will say that this micromanagement, a persistent criticism of Rudd from colleagues and public servants, is just a way of running things that can be fixed. In fact, I suspect it’s unfixable because it’s drive by his character - his great fear of failure, and his manic need to control and assert himself.
===
Prove it, Julia
Andrew Bolt
This would be a test worth getting Julia Gillard to sit. She could either prove that fears of her workplace changes are unfounded, or learn that she really is about to make a terrible mistake and put thousands of Australians out of work:
JULIA Gillard is ignoring a request by a cleaning company for her to personally explain how the federal Government’s awards modernisation program will not increase business costs.
South Australian family-owned Longford Cleaning, which employs about 70 permanent part-time and casual staff, yesterday told The Australian the changes could result in it losing up to half its clients when a 25 per cent spike in wage costs is passed on from January 1 .
The Workplace Relations Minister earlier yesterday defended the Government’s new modern awards process, telling ABC radio: ”I could sit and work it all through with (Longford Cleaning) very specifically … with all of the time and wages sheets, to say whether I agree with the calculations or don’t agree with the calculations."…
Longford manager Dominic Gibbie told The Australian yesterday the company would be interested in taking up Ms Gillard’s offer to “sit down and work it all through”. But a spokeswoman for Ms Gillard last night refused to answer specific questions from The Australian, including whether Ms Gillard was prepared to meet the company...
If Gillard is right, what does she have to fear from the test? - Gillard ignored my challenge, and now the situation has arisen in which, as with Mallard in WA, I can never get justice from parliament. I might, possibly, get an ex gratia payment down the track, but my issue is now dead. The result is the family of Hamidur Rahman may never have justice, after the coroner apportioned some blame on them for their son’s death. I have not only lost my career in speaking out on conscience, but I have been threatened and have lost a substantial amount of my superannuation. This is the result of Gillard .. and her IR laws. I have done nothing wrong. - ed.
===
Defence boosted. Rudd says “bang”
Andrew Bolt
Yet more Rudd spin, this time on our defence:
DEFENCE planners have been “deliberately vague” about the nation’s long-term military plans, raising doubts about the affordability of a 20-year build-up of air and naval power, a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has found.
The government-funded, independent institute has released a scathing assessment of the secrecy surrounding the funding plans for the Rudd Government’s defence white paper, saying the “absence of dates and figures cannot be an accident”.
It says this month’s federal budget deferred the benefits of a new funding scheme and “reneged” on a spending promise made only 10 days earlier by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, at the white paper’s launch.
”We risk adopting a defence posture that is more talk than action,” says the report.
I may have noted this myself:
Rudd’s promise this month of the biggest defence build-up since World War II? Not an extra dollar for defence can be found in this Budget, in net terms, over the next four years.
Manana, manana. If promises were tanks, we’d be invincible. And if Rudd ever keeps his, we’ll be even broker than we are.
===
Biden mocks the tele-prompted Pres
Andrew Bolt
Even Joe Biden is laughing at Obama. Or maybe it’s yet more proof that it’s Biden who’s the joke. - Joe Biden is a very clever man. He likes to keep in touch with the American people. To achieve that end he watches every late night comedy program broadcast in the US. Because they have been highlighting the teleprompter issue, Joe made his funny comment. It wasn’t meant to be denigrating of Obama. It is just that Joe is a complex person and sometimes gets lost in the maze. He thinks of things even he can’t figure out. Like global warming. Joe won’t buy a Prius. He can build a caravan. He can walk to China with his caravan. Because, by god, nothing else that the white house has tried in the last few months works. - ed.
===
Green is now a joke
Andrew Bolt
Green has gone from omm to ha ha. America’s ABC presents a new animated sit-com, The Goode Family, which mocks this most earnest new faith of the guilty class.
Of course, the BBC tried more gentle (and I suspect funnier) mockery of such greens three decades ago in The Goode Life, before the green lifestyle became a tiresome religious mission.
Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger say the green bubble has burst:
Gestures that were once mundane--bringing your own grocery bags to the store, shopping for secondhand clothes, taking the subway--were suddenly infused with grand significance… What downscalers offered was not a better way to reduce emissions, but rather, a way to reduce guilt. In 2007, we asked environmentalists in focus groups about green consumption. None thought that consuming green would do much of anything to address a huge challenge like global warming. They did it anyway, they said, because it made them feel better… Apocalyptic fears meld seamlessly into utopian hopes. The end of the world is near--unless we heal all that divides us…
(W)hile utopianism has a bright side–it is a way of imagining a better world–it also has a dark side characterized by escapism and a disengagement from reality that marks all bubbles, green or financial…
And then, almost as quickly as it had inflated, the green bubble burst. Between January 2008 and January 2009, the percentage of Americans who told the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press that the environment was a “top priority” dropped from 56 percent to 41 percent.... Whatever romanticized vision of a simpler life that might have existed a year or two ago has largely been replaced by a fearful vision of a life of poverty or, at least, greater insecurity.
UPDATE
But some climate preachers still act like extras on a vicious green-baiting satire:
GIVE up lamb roasts and save the planet. Government advisers are developing menus to combat climate change by cutting out “high carbon” food such as meat from sheep, whose burping poses a serious threat to the environment. Out will go kebabs, greenhouse tomatoes and alcohol…
“Changing our lifestyles, including our diets, is going to be one of the crucial elements in cutting carbon emissions,” said David Kennedy, chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change. Kennedy has stopped eating his favourite doner kebabs because they contain lamb.
And:
Steven Chu, the Nobel prize-winning physicist appointed by President Obama as Energy Secretary, wants to paint the world white. A global initiative to change the colour of roofs, roads and pavements so that they reflect more sunlight and heat could play a big part in containing global warming, he said yesterday.
===
Useless payment spent uselessly
Andrew Bolt
That’s actually a lot of money, even if it’s now dwarfed by the $315 billion of debt Kevin Rudd is contracting:
THE Rudd Government has wasted $40 million by paying the $900 stimulus bonus to tens of thousands of dead people and expats.
And all of this money is borrowed.
===
Rundle’s licence to hate
Andrew Bolt
Beck is right. Guy Rundle is projecting, not attacking. For a start, he’s having just far too much fun indulging in hate speech that’s simply disgusting. What a hate-filled man.
===
Back us or we’ll take your compo
Andrew Bolt
This is blackmail:
The Rudd government is warning industry it could end up with an inferior assistance package if the emissions trading scheme has to go back to the drawing board.... Greg Combet, the parliament secretary for climate change, ... urged business to consider the ramifications, considering billions of dollars worth of assistance were involved…
“This is something that all industries receiving assistance should think very carefully about when they consider their approach to proposals to delay the scheme,” Mr Combet said.
Grubby and desperate.
===
Smarter than any white colleague on the court
Andrew Bolt
Sonia Sotomayor, Barack Obama’s affirmative action pick for the Supreme Court, reaches a conclusion that proves her conclusion is false:
I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.
Not only is this racist and foolish, it fundamentally misunderstands the role of a judge, which is to uphold the law, not pass on the lessons of her personal experiences. Be afraid that Obama finds this fine.
===
Has Oakes lost it?
Andrew Bolt
For Laurie Oakes the biggest story in Canberra today is that Malcolm Turnbull is rich, and should be ashamed of it.
Apparently it’s more shameful to have an Opposition Leader who makes millions than a Prime Minister who blows billions.
===
President Obama vs. Dick Cheney
By Bill O'Reilly
n one of the most important debates in U.S. history, the president and former vice president are lined up against each other on the vital subject of national security. So I am here to give you some no spin perspective. If you hate the president or Mr. Cheney, this analysis is not for you, so don't waste your time.
We begin with President Obama, who believes that after the 9/11 attack the Bush administration compromised some of America's core values, putting the country in even more danger:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Unfortunately, faced with an uncertain threat, our government made a series of hasty decisions. I believe that many of these decisions were motivated by a sincere desire to protect the American people. But I also believe that all too often our government made decisions based on fear rather than foresight, that all too often our government trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
But isn't Mr. Obama doing the same thing? His left-wing base despises the War on Terror, believing the USA brought much of the Muslim hatred on itself. And while campaigning for the presidency, Mr. Obama gained liberal votes by softening the War on Terror rhetoric.
Then the President got specific:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I know some have argued that brutal methods like waterboarding were necessary to keep us safe. I could not disagree more. As commander in chief, I see the intelligence, I bare the responsibility for keeping this country safe, and I categorically reject the assertion that these are the most effective means of interrogation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
That is a bit of verbal sleight of hand. By all accounts, enhanced interrogation methods like waterboarding were rarely used. It is the president's opinion, not a fact. They were not necessary.
Mr. Obama continued about the dangers of rough interrogations:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: They serve as a recruitment tool for terrorists and increase the will of our enemies to fight us while decreasing the will of others to work with America. They risk the lives of our troops by making it less likely that others will surrender to them in battle, and more likely that Americans will be mistreated if they are captured.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
A theory but probably true to some extent. Any aggressive action the USA takes will lead to more terrorists signing up. Does Mr. Obama believe that sending more troops to Afghanistan is not helping Taliban recruitment? Come on, you don't fight a war fearing the enemy will get angrier. You fight to win.
As for U.S. troops being mistreated, everybody knows the terrorists don't need a reason to murder. They do it everyday. On this issue, the president sounds naive.
Mr. Obama then addressed closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Rather than keeping us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security. It is a rallying cry for our enemies. It sets back the willingness of our allies to work with us in fighting an enemy that operates in scores of countries.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Again, the theme of giving terrorists recruitment tools and alienating so-called allies like Spain and other European countries, who are now refusing to help Mr. Obama in Afghanistan. But the president is correct when he states that Gitmo has become a symbol of anti-American feeling. However, closing the prison does not guarantee anything. If you hate America, you'll find other symbols.
President Obama then addressed where the captured terrorists will go:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We will seek to transfer some detainees to the same type of facilities in which we hold all manner of dangerous and violent criminals within our borders. Namely, highly secure prisons that ensure the public safety.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Well here's a bulletin for the world. The detainees are far better off inside Gitmo than they will be inside a supermax American prison. I've been to Gitmo twice. Cooperative detainees have amenities, good food and all the fresh air they want. At a supermax they will be locked down solo because other inmates would kill them. So liberal Americans, including the president, should wise up about that. If I'm a terrorist, I want Gitmo all day long.
More than halfway through his speech, the president changed the tone, beginning with his support for military tribunals:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: They allow for the protection of sensitive sources and methods of intelligence gathering. They allow for the safety and security of participants. And for the presentation of evidence gathered from the battlefield, they can not always be effectively presented in federal courts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Mr. Obama is absolutely correct on this. He's also right about the photo controversy:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I recently opposed the release of certain photographs that were taken of detainees by U.S. personnel between 2002 and 2004. Individuals who violated standards of behavior in these photos have been investigated, and they have been held accountable. It was my judgment informed by my national security team that releasing these photos would inflame anti-American opinion and allow our enemies to paint U.S. troops with a broad, damning and inaccurate brush, thereby endangering them in theaters of war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
That decision hammers the Obama-haters who believe the president is weak. Left-wing loons desperately want to diminish America with those pictures. The president is standing tall on this one.
By the way, any media that puts out leaked pictures will pay a huge price. Trust me on that.
Finally, the president predicted the future:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I do know with certainty that we can and will defeat Al Qaeda, because the terrorists can only succeed if they swell their ranks and alienate America from our allies. And they will never be able to do that if we stay true to who we are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Let's pray he's right.
But Dick Cheney is not optimistic. In his reply to the president he began by defining his dissent:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FORMER VP DICK CHENEY: When President Obama makes wise decisions, as I believe he has done in some respects on Afghanistan and in reversing his plan to release incendiary photos, he deserves our support. And when he faults or mischaracterizes the national security decisions we made in the Bush years, he deserves an answer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Fair enough. Mr. Cheney then listed all the terror attacks leading up to 9/11, pointing out that standard diplomacy did little to blunt the growing problem of Al Qaeda. The historical record proves that, as does North Korea launching missiles over the weekend.
Then Mr. Cheney got pithy about the Bush post-9/11 strategy:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: Our government prevented attacks and saved lives through the terrorist surveillance program, which let us intercept calls and contacts between Al Qaeda and persons inside the United States. The program was top secret and for good reason until the editors of The New York Times got it and put it on the front page.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
The former vice president obviously indicting the ultra-liberal newspaper in a major way.
Mr. Cheney then went to the alleged torture deal:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: The interrogations were used on hardened terrorists after other efforts had failed. They were legal, essential, justified, successful, and the right thing to do. The intelligence officers who questioned the terrorists can be proud of their work, proud of the results, because they prevented the violent death of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people. Yet somehow, when the soul searching was done, and the veil was lifted on the policies of the Bush administration, the public was given less than half the truth. The released memos were carefully redacted to leave out references to what our government learned through the methods in question. Other memos laying out specific terrorist plots that were averted apparently were not even considered for release. For reasons the administration has yet to explain, they believe the public has a right to know the method of the questions, but not the content of the answers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
That is Dick Cheney's strongest point. It is impossible for we the people to make a rational decision on interrogation without knowing the full extent of the situation. If President Obama does not release all the information on the subject, he will never win the historical debate.
Mr. Cheney continued pressing his point:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: It is a fact that only detainees of the highest intelligence value were ever subjected to enhanced interrogation. You've heard endlessly about waterboarding. It happened to three terrorists. One of them was Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, who has also boasted about his beheading of Daniel Pearl. We had a lot of blind spots after the attacks on our country, things we didn't know about Al Qaeda. We didn't know about Al Qaeda's plans, but Khalid sheik Mohammed and a few others did know. And with many thousands of innocent lives potentially in the balance, we did not think it made sense to let the terrorists answer questions in their own good time, if they answered them at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
It is here where Americans must make their own judgment. I've made mine. I would have waterboarded Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
Finally, the former vice president put the president on the spot:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: To completely rule out enhanced interrogation in the future is unwise in the extreme. It is recklessness cloaked in righteousness and would make the American people less safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
That is a blunt warning. And if the USA is attacked again, President Obama will hear that echo.
So there you have it. The president believing his strategy will make the world more inclined to help America defeat the terrorists. Dick Cheney believing Mr. Obama is damaging national security.
As always, you make the call. My job is to present the issue in a fair way, and I believe I have.
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