Queensland has outlasted New South Wales 28-18 in an action-packed State of Origin series opener at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.
The Chaser slammed as 'sick' and 'disgusting' after making fun of terminally ill children
The Chaser’s War on Everything is under heavy fire after a skit making fun of terminally ill children went to air last night.
Joel Fitzgibbon stands down
The Prime Minister is on the hunt for a new Defence Minister, after Joel Fitzgibbon resigned following a wave of scandals.
Turnbull questions Rudd's car gift
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has questioned whether it's appropriate for the prime minister to get a free vehicle from a car dealer seeking finance from a taxpayer-funded company.
RBA governor sees scope for rate cuts
Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Glenn Stevens has reiterated that the central bank remains prepared to cut interest rates further to help secure a "durable upswing" in the economy.
Google flu tracking spreads to Australia
Australia has followed only the US and Mexico in rolling out a new Google service which can track in "near real time" the spread of the flu. -
NSW childcare centre closed after swine flu case
The first childcare centre in New South Wales has been closed pending swine flu tests after a girl at the centre tested positive for the virus.
Mum 'fed sick toddler faeces'
A mother in the US is facing life in prison - accused of smearing human faeces in her three-year-old daughter’s intravenous feeding line (IV).
Kerry Packer threatened to kill me over Fairfax fallout: Turnbull
Malcolm Turnbull says the late Kerry Packer threatened to kill him in a falling-out over a business deal.
Stosur into French semi-finals as dream run continues
Samantha Stosur has seized a spot in the semi-finals of the French Open after defeating Romania's Sorana Cirstea in straight sets.
GDP growth: No recession, but...
Some commentators have likened Australia and its economy to Goldilocks: not too hot, not too cold.
Angelina Jolie dethrones Oprah Winfrey as world's most powerful celebrity
Superstar actress and humanitarian advocate Angelina Jolie has unseated talkshow diva Oprah Winfrey as the world's most powerful celebrity in a new survey published by Forbes magazine Wednesday.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Tonight on Primetime
Rush lets 'er rip!
From his feud with Powell to the Sotomayor selection, the conservative king sounds off!
It's a Hannity exclusive with Rush Limbaugh from Florida!
=== Comments ===
Tiananmen a dark stain that will not wash away
Piers Akerman
EVERY global analysis nods to China’s economy but there is rarely discussion of China’s Communist Government—the same government that 20 years ago today murdered hundreds of civilians. - It is a good article. Thing is that "for evil to succeed, good men do nothing" applies here, as elsewhere. I haven't forgotten, but many of my cohort have either forgotten or never knew. I remember at the time that Bob Hawke was quick to suggest he was impotent and helpless .. and so burst into tears, undermined immigration policy and then endorsed China's leadership. Hawke was to joke, years later, that when he worked up the courage to timidly and privately ask the Chinese leadership if they couldn't allow their more troublesome citizens to migrate rather than be executed he was cowed by the reply "How many million do you want?"
What many confuse is abrogation of responsibility with leadership. The Chinese government were not being strong when they sent in their tanks. Nor are they being responsible when they cover it up. But then neither is Amnesty International being responsible or sensitive when they divert funds meant to support prisoners of conscience to people like David Hicks. - ed.
===
H2OBAMA
Tim Blair
Drink the Kool-Aid:
Barack Water retails for only $15 per sixpack. It’s sort of like a bargain, except … it’s just water with Barack Obama’s picture on it.
===
CATAAN
Tim Blair
Lolcats are so yesterday. Hail trollcats, including this delightful conspiracy kitty:
===
Does this crawling work?
Andrew Bolt
Barack Obama’s latest genuflection to the Muslim world has Melanie Phillips wondering:
A statement—or an aspiration?
Obama has now announced, on the eve of his pilgrimage to make obeisance to the entire Islamic world, that the US can be seen as a Muslim country:
‘And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world,’ Mr. Obama said.
Uh? Here are some statistics of the number and percentage of Muslims in various countries:
Indonesia: 207,105,000 (88.2%);
Pakistan: 167,430,801 (95%);
India: 156,254,615 (13.4%);
Turkey: 70,800,000 (99%);
Egypt: 70,530,237 (90%);
Nigeria: 64,385,994 (45%);
Iran: 64,089,571 (98%);
Algeria: 32,999,883 (99%);
Morocco: 32,300,410 (99%);
Afghanistan: 31,571,023 (99%)
Saudi Arabia: 26,417,599 (100%)
USA: 4,558,068 (1.5%)
Just what planet is this US President on? Or is this not a statement but an aspiration?
===
Fitzgibbon quits
Andrew Bolt
One scandal too many - and Kevin Rudd loses his first Minister:
JOEL Fitzgibbon has resigned as Defence Minister over a series of meetings involving his brother Mark, the head of health insurance company NIB, US health giant Humana, and the Government.
In a letter to Kevin Rudd, Mr Fitzgibbon said he could not be “satisfied” that he had “entirely conformed with your ministerial code of conduct”....
In the letter, Mr Fitzgibbon said: “You will be aware of a question in Senate estimates last night regarding meetings between Humana, my brother and the Ministers for Veterans’ Affairs and the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel… I am not satisfied that contact between the various parties leave it clear that I have entirely conformed with your ministerial code of conduct.
“In particular, I have learned that one meeting between the parties was held in my ministerial office. Further, I understand that members of my staff sat in on a number of meetings ...
“On that basis, and to protect the integrity of the Government, I have decided to resign as a member of the Executive, effective, immediately.”
I thought Fitzgibbon’s bizarre links to a Chinese businesswoman who sponsored him, rented a house to him and introduced him to 60 Chinese generals was a more serious disqualification, but I guess this was just the last straw on a donkey’s haystack. The issue:
DEFENCE Minister Joel Fitzgibbon is under renewed pressure after revelations that an army general was instructed to attend meetings with the minister’s brother at which defence health contracting was discussed.
Major-General Paul Alexander, who is in charge of defence health services, told a parliamentary committee that staff of a junior minister and defence staff told him to attend the meetings attended by Mark Fitzgibbon, the chief executive of insurer NIB Health…
Last night General Alexander said he attended one meeting with officials of US health insurer Humana on August 27 last year in the office of the Minister of Defence Science and Personnel, Warren Snowdon. Mark Fitzgibbon was at the meeting and appeared to “sponsor” Humana officials, General Alexander said. “The discussion was whether Humana had some possible interest, or whether they had the potential to be engaged in business in Australia,” he said.
Opposition defence spokesman David Johnston asked: “And to provide services to the ADF?” General Alexander said: “Well, that was obviously the reason why they came to see me, why the meeting occurred.
UPDATE
Now the Opposition is trying to tar - or merely smear - Kevin Rudd with the same brush:
Malcolm Turnbull asked Kevin Rudd in question time today whether his office made representations to Treasury to allow the Queensland car dealer (John Grant), who provides him with a free car, access to a Government fund set up to provide financing for car dealers. The Prime Minister confirmed John Grant motors provided him with a free electric car, but he said he was not aware of whether any representations had been made by a member of his office over providing the dealer with access to the fund.
===
Now they’re laughing at dying kids
Andrew Bolt
I knew the Chaser was struggling when it went to so much trouble to mock the (safe) Pope rather than some (very unsafe) Islamist. Then came the lousy reviews for its first show, and now this reaction to its second:
The ABC was inundated with callers outraged by the “Make a Realistic Wish Foundation” skit in which Andrew Hansen and Chris Taylor ask actors playing hospital bed-ridden children what they wish for. When one little girl asked to meet Hollywood actor Zac Efron, she was handed a stick instead, with Taylor asking “why go to any trouble when they’re going to die any way”.
Another who said she wanted to go to Disneyland was given a pencil case.
Taylor said the “foundation’s” purpose was about “helping thousands of kids to lower their extravagance and selfishness in the face of death”.
Angry callers swamped the ABC switchboard, describing it as “the most disgraceful thing I’ve ever seen on TV”, “sick” and “disgusting”, The Daily Telegraph reports.
One father was left to console his seven-year-old terminally ill son after watching the skit.
The art of the shock is belatedly running out of steam, and of room to keep shocking. Also interesting is that the more money the ABC lavishes on the Chaser, the less amusing it is. Correlation or causation?
UPDATE
Reader Chris says there is a joke somewhere in that setup, but Chaser sure didn’t find it. The Onion, however, did:
===
Rudd saved us? More spin
Andrew Bolt
Terry McCrann explains why we really are having the recession Kevin Rudd claims he’s spared us:
THERE was one big factor and a second smaller one which combined to give us growth in GDP in the March quarter - otherwise we would have had a fall every bit as big as that of the battered US economy.
We sharply cut our imports - of both consumer goods and business capital equipment. That’s hardly a sign of a healthy, far less a booming economy.
And secondly, the rest of the world, spelt C-H-I-N-A, lapped up more of our exports. Again, that’s more a sign of economic health somewhere else than back here. Although obviously it does - did - help us.
But in short, importantly and ominously, neither had much to do with either the Reserve Bank cutting interest rates or the Government putting cheques in the mail…
The key number in the figures yesterday was the 1.1 per cent fall in national expenditure. That ‘announces’ the recession was nowhere near as mild as the GDP figure suggested.
===
Fielding now doubts
Andrew Bolt
Family First Senator Steve Fielding exposes himself to the other side of the global warming debate, and suddenly isn’t so sure any more:
We’ve all bought this idea that man is the problem with carbon emission and therefore man has to change what they do with carbon emissions. That’s where we’re at the moment. But there are some questions now being asked: is man the problem? And if not, then what are we doing?
That may be one less vote for Kevin Rudd’s plan to force billions of dollars on taxes on business to cut emissions that may well not be causing the world to warm.
How many others with an open mind would find their convictions shaken if likewise exposed to a debate on, say, the ABC? It would be a very interesting test for the ABC to hold a three-against-three debate by experts on what it would claim is the greatest issue now facing humanity.
But we know how reluctant the national broadcaster has been to allow doubt.
UPDATE
But, good heavens, is Tony Jones cross with Fielding on Lateline for daring to keep an open mind.
===
They won’t put up with what we will
Andrew Bolt
It’s not that we’re racist - it’s just that we’re too feral for foreigners, whether Indian or Chinese:
THE future of the $15.5 billion overseas student industry is under threat after the Chinese Government went public with concerns about violence against its students in Australia....
Chinese embassy counsellor Liu Jin yesterday said his Government was intervening to ensure the safety of Chinese nationals.
“There are over 130,000 Chinese students in Australia,” he said. “They have, on the whole, had a good study and living environment in Australia, but attacks on Chinese students also occurred in recent years.
“The Chinese embassy and consulates in Australia attach high importance to the safety of Chinese students … It is hoped that the Australian Government will provide better protection to international students from China and other countries and ensure their legitimate rights in Australia.”
UPDATE
That said, is there any irony in the fact that the Chinese Government is complaining about our alleged meanness to its students on the 20th anniversary of its own slaughter of hundreds of them?
===
Homes for trees, not Aborigines
Andrew Bolt
I had no idea northern Queensland was down to its last few trees:
A $15 MILLION Howard government project to enable Aboriginal people on Cape York to build their own homes has been stalled for more than two years because the Queensland Government is insisting that trees in the vast unpopulated region cannot be cleared.
===
Whose party is it?
Andrew Bolt
ERIC Dearricott turns up at Labor headquarters on renewal deadline day to watch exactly how hundreds of party “members” have their dues paid for them, and by whom.
===
Bowing to Obama
Andrew Bolt
Just how subservient is the US media to Barack Obama?
===
Costello stirs
Andrew Bolt
Movement at the station:
Mr Costello, who normally keeps a low profile in question time, perked up at government remarks on recent economic history.
“You’re a moron,” he heckled (Treasurer Wayne) Swan.
Later, (Prime Minister Kevin) Rudd said he was watching with interest to see if Mr Costello would seek preselection for his seat of Higgins, because this would reveal the former treasurer’s political ambitions.
“Squirm,” Mr Costello yelled in response. He then accused Mr Rudd of being “nasty”.
“You dope,” he interjected repeatedly as Mr Rudd tried to speak.
===
The Murder of Private William Long
By Bill O'Reilly
Monday night we told you about the murder of George Tiller, the late-term abortion doctor in Kansas shot dead by an anti-government militant while he attended church last Sunday. We also told you that NBC News and other ultra-liberal outlets were blaming me and FOX News for inciting the killer.
Now we have the murder of 23-year-old William Long, an Army private allegedly murdered by a Muslim militant in Arkansas. Police say 24-year-old Abdulhakim Muhammad, aka Carlos Bledsoe, a convert to Islam, told the cops he killed Private Long and wounded another soldier because of what the military had done to Muslims.
So here is my question: Is NBC News complicit in the murder of Private Long? After all, that network has relentlessly branded the United States as a torture nation, a country run by human rights violators. Didn't NBC News incite Mr. Muhammad to kill the soldier?
The answer is no. The killer is a loon. The media had nothing to do with it. That is the truth.
However, Private Long's situation will not be heavily debated on NBC News because they're not much interested in the truth. Brian Williams is a big problem here. Monday night, as managing editor of the "Nightly News," he allowed a correspondent to highlight me as a villain in the Tiller situation. Williams takes his orders directly from NBC president Jeff Zucker, a committed liberal who has completely ruined the news operation, turning it into the most far-left outfit in the history of broadcasting. Zucker has also destroyed NBC's prime-time entertainment lineup.
Now if you saw the hate MSNBC spewed Monday night, there can be no question that NBC News is now totally out of control. Remember, NBC has never, ever said a negative word about Tiller's activities, which include aborting an estimated 60,000 fetuses, many of them viable. Tiller became a millionaire doing this, earning the disdain of millions.
In fact, according to Gallup, 72 percent of Americans object to late-term abortion. Thirty-six states have laws against it. Only three clinics in the entire country destroy fetuses after 21 weeks. But you'll never hear any of that on NBC News.
The blame once again falls on General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, the overall boss of NBC. Immelt is using his news operation to promote the Obama administration and liberal activities, while seeking billion-dollar government contracts from the president. But what Mr. Immelt may not know is that federal authorities have developed information about General Electric doing business with Iran, deadly business. "The Factor" is now vetting the information. If we can confirm the data about roadside bombs, we will present it to you.
in the meantime, here is Mr. Immelt's e-mail address: jeffrey.immelt@ge.com. It's easy: jeffrey.immelt@ge.com. The mailing address is General Electric Company, 3135 Easton Turnpike, Fairfield, Connecticut, 06828. Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric, Easton Turnpike, Fairfield Connecticut, 06828.
In light of the Tiller situation, other hateful attacks from NBC News, I would like you to write a respectful note to Immelt — respectful note — letting him know exactly how you feel because he is the man in charge. All of NBC's misdeeds are on him. If we get 100,000 notes to Immelt, maybe he'd wise up. And again, we'll post Immelt's address on BillOReilly.com if you didn't get it.
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