Headlines Saturday 1st August 2009

Today beats Sunrise for the first time

AFTER six long years of bitter and bitchy breakfast wars, Nine’s Today show finally beat Seven’s Sunrise nationally yesterday. The only other time Today has come in ahead of Sunrise in the past six years was on Good Friday, which didn’t really count as it is a public holiday.

Take your time on climate, UN tells Rudd
UN CLIMATE change boss says no one will care if Australia delays its emissions trading scheme.

Rudd mopped his way to the top
The Prime Minister has revealed he once cleaned toilets at a saw mill as he urged Generation Y not......

Government says no to gay marriage
THE Rudd government has refused to budge on civil unions for same-sex couples as hundreds rally for change.

'Pantless prophet' jailed over orgy cult
The leader of an Indonesian cult who sermonised in his underpants and demanded that his acolytes.....

Islamic figure 'racist and offensive'
LITTLE doubt Keysar Trad's comments are offensive to "right-thinking Australians", judge rules.

Hobbits 'evolved separate to humans'
AUSTRALIAN research has thrown a question mark over long-held beliefs of human evolution thanks to never-before-tried technology on a set of "hobbit bones'' found in Indonesia.

Leftist Pest dies
FORMER Philippine leader and hero of democracy Corazon Aquino has died after battling cancer for more than a year.

Australian NAVY submarine breaks down
One of Australia's two active submarines has broken down. The Defence Department says the submarine - one of two active in a fleet of six - is being repaired in Adelaide.

Hack attack hits Aussie film festival
CHINESE hackers have forced a major Australian film festival to stop online ticket sales after booking out every session.

No radio safety net for Kyle and Jackie O
KYLE Sandilands and Jackie O reject seven-second delay button to achieve "better entertainment".
=== Journalists Corner ===
They're 20 and counting!
Life under one roof ... how do the Duggars do it?
Plus, the healthcare proposal -- is it bad medicine for seniors? John stossel explains!
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Cheers to Diplomacy?
The president tried to have them drink & make-up, but what was really said. Plus, is the race controversy still raging? Frank Luntz has insight!
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Inside Healthcare!
The Dems start to shape up on healthcare! But how is the GOP set to derail their plans? Karl Rove talks political strategy!
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A Geraldo Exclusive!
Michael Jackson's last moments with his kids and new details about Dr. Murray! MJ'S personal chef speaks out!
=== Comments ===
Trad has been trashed by justice
Piers Akerman
The barricade of political correctness which has protected Sydney’s self-proclaimed Islamic spokesman Keysar Trad for more than a decade has been dealt a mortal blow. - If I never hear another interview with Trad then the judgement will please me. I felt he was a dumb bore who never listened to questions but expostulated preposterously his insane views of the world. I never felt he represented a Muslim view and I am still appalled that some felt he legitimately did. I think the Islamic world require a spokesperson .. many of them .. expounding on the diverse views of Islamic peoples. I just don’t feel the views of Trad and his ilk apt. - ed.

Wazza replied to DD Ball
Fri 31 Jul 09 (08:02pm)
On what authority do you base your claim that you “never felt he represented a Muslim view and I am still appalled that some felt he legitimately did.”
How do you know what the Muslim view is?
Have you ever taken a poll?
For all you know,they think just like he does!
Wouldn’t that be just wonderful.

- DD Ball replied to DD Ball
Fri 31 Jul 09 (10:47pm)
Wazza, it is never easy to explain what judgement is to those who possess none. I have both empathy and sympathy for Islamic faith. I have been privileged to have taught many children who have professed Islamic faith and whom I have seen grow to be good citizens. The views of Keysar are occasionally similar to the views of some children .. but not the mature ones. The argument you give regarding authority is much the same as many of those who argued against opposing Nazis. I am a Christian, but I stand for what I believe to be right on issues that are not relevant to Christians. It is difficult for me to describe what that is like to someone who doesn’t know how to stand for anything. - ed.

Hadenough of Victoria
Fri 31 Jul 09 (06:51pm)
Why can’t these types of people have their citizenship revoked and be returned to their country of origin. Hasn’t any government got the gumption to legislate for this?

DD Ball replied to Hadenough
Sat 01 Aug 09 (08:50am)
I refuse to abrogate my responsibilities. If these thugs should go to jail then we should jail ‘em. If they lie, we should ignore them. But sending them to poorer nations because they are difficult is not the answer. Poorer nations already have to deal with the siren calls of liars who feel they can improve the world by hurting people.
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BLAIR SWITCH PROJECT
Tim Blair
It’s switching hour across Australia.
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JOCKS SHOCKED
Tim Blair
The Daily Telegraph‘s Holly Byrnes has the last word on Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O.
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AVOID THE HATE
Tim Blair
Academic beardos from a second-rate university outline why your children are better off without tertiary education.
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AUTOCIDE
Tim Blair
Cold-blooded engine murder carried out on behalf of the US government:

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FRIENDS!
Tim Blair
Peter Hartcher reports:
Barack Obama has a new best friend among world leaders. His name is Kevin Rudd.

A senior official in the Obama Administration said the President had bonded more closely with Mr Rudd than with any other leader.
Things have obviously improved since the pair met a few months ago:

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CAT INVESTIGATED
Tim Blair
Journalists sometimes miss obvious angles. Many years ago I found myself editing a million-word yawner about a team of Australian male strippers; it went on and on and on about nothing in particular, but at the very end included pre-stripping career details of the various performers.

It turned out that one of them had previously been employed as Fat Cat, a children’s TV entertainer:

We ran it on the front page. And now it emerges that Fat Cat (or another of the many people who inhabited Fat Cat’s furry costume) enjoyed other non-kitty activities, according to retiring South Australian detective Lester Martin:
“We charged Fat Cat with cultivating cannabis,” Sen-Sgt Martin said. “That would’ve been about ‘94 or ‘95.

“That was my first major investigation in the drug taskforce. At the end of the investigation we found out one of the persons we’d reported happened to be the original Fat Cat.”
Which explains why Fat Cat was both fat and disinclined to speak. That cat was baked.
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EVERYWHERE HAVE BLOOD
Tim Blair
A fifty-ton whale and a hot Taiwanese street. It’s an explosive combination.
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BUSIEST NEW SITE ON THE INTERNET
Tim Blair
“I lamented the non-existence of a good Biden gaffe agglomerator,” writes Jonah Goldberg. “Within three hours, JoeBidenSaidThat.com was born!”
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Yes, Virginia, there is a silent majority
Andrew Bolt
Checking the kind of people who hog the microphones at the public hearings into the Rudd Government’s proposed new human rights laws, we can only fear the worst. Why are such exercises inevitably a magnet for the unrepresentative Left?
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Gore frozen
Andrew Bolt

Nashville, the home of leading global warming prophet Al Gore, has enjoyed the coolest July 21 on record...
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What Rudd doesn’t understand (shorter version)
Andrew Bolt
From Julie Novak and Professor Sinclair Davidson comes a paper on Kevin Rudd’s 6000-word essay last week. The title:

Five and a half big things Kevin Rudd doesn’t understand about the Australian economy

In summary, Davidson and Novak correct Rudd’s biggest howlers:

1: The current economic crisis is due to regulatory, and not market, failure

2: The Premiers’ Plan helped Australia escape depression quicker

3: Our economic boom was much more than just mining and stockmarkets

4: Other countries have undergone a ‘building decade,’ and they didn’t work

5: Greater economic self sufficiency is a recipe for lower growth

And an honourable mention: Bureaucratic solutions are not the way to engender real jobs and growth
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Just what we need, right?
Andrew Bolt
Multicultural TV expands its blessings:

HEZBOLLAH’S TV station, twice banned in Australia for supporting terrorism, has been given permission to broadcast into this country after an investigation found it did not breach the anti-terrorism standard.

The Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) decision on the Lebanese-based al-Manar TV station, announced yesterday, outraged Jewish groups, which said they were less concerned with the station promoting terrorism than its ‘‘vicious anti-Semitism’’.

Hezbollah, a militant Lebanese Muslim party, is banned in the United States as a terrorist organisation, but only its armed wing is proscribed in Australia. Its TV programs endorse suicide bombers, call for Israel’s annihilation, and refer to Jews as the offspring of pigs and apes.

Of course, al Manar also has cheery little musical numbers:

Its children’s shows are also sweet:

Indeed, who can object to a TV station which urges children to follow their dreams?

Then there are fascinating news reports about people with socks on their heads:

No, really, who could object to TV station broadcasting such wholesome entertainment to youths in Lakemba with little to do, being unemployed, bored and in need of a little motivation?

UPDATE

Watch the clips, and then wonder by which legalistic interpretation ACMA arrived at this conclusion, instead:

While the ACMA found references in some program content to a designated terrorist organisation (Hezbollah), there was no content that could reasonably be construed to directly recruit people to join or participate in the activities of Hezbollah, or to solicit funds for (or assist in the collection or provision of funds for) Hezbollah. As a consequence, no breach of the Anti-terrorism Standard was found.

Was “directly” the sole sticking point? Or did the authority restrict its investigations far too far:

The ACMA collected and analysed Al-Manar TV transmissions covering the period from 28 August to 5 September 2008.

August 28 last year? What a lucky break that deadline was for A-Manar. That means its celebratory footage of a Hezbollah rally just a month earlier could be excluded from ACMA’s review:

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Unions given the government’s ear
Andrew Bolt
Warning! Here’s the resolution that Julia Gillard has agreed should be put today to the national Labor conference:

Accordingly, Labor in government will aim to include unions, along with business, community and other appropriate interests in constituted boards, committees and consultative bodies that provide advice to the government.

Unions have never been so weak in numbers. But, thanks to Labor, they haven’t been this strong in years.

UPDATE

Why do the union leaders get to barge ahead in the queue for a hearing?

Number of Australians who are Catholic:

5,001,624

Number of Australians who are trade unionists:

1,786,000
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Greens defied, humans helped
Andrew Bolt
A trees-before-humans green madness is rolled back (too late):

RESIDENTS in fire-prone areas across Victoria will be free to remove trees and native vegetation near their homes under a State Government strategy designed to avoid a repeat of February’s deadly Black Saturday bushfires.

Under new rules, property owners will not need a council permit to remove trees and vegetation within 10 metres of their homes. They will also be allowed to remove low-lying vegetation, such as shrubs and scrub, out to 30 metres from homes....

The Government is also moving to cut bureaucratic red tape to enable residents to collect firewood from roadsides, after authorities complained that their ability to tackle the February fires was hampered by undergrowth.

Remember the pre-fires madness, when people were fined for clearing trees around their homes, picking up dead sticks, and creating the fire breaks that saved their house?
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A plan that insisted on less for more
Andrew Bolt
A win for taxpayers, too:

A DISSIDENT primary school principal who blew the whistle on bungling within the government’s $14.7 billion Building the Education Revolution program has won his way.

The school, in Melbourne’s outer southeast, was originally offered a $3 million gym, even though it already had a gym. It was told to accept the gym or lose its share of money in the first funding round in March…

But now, after spilling the beans in The Australian, Berwick Lodge Primary School principal Henry Grossek says Victorian education authorities have caved in to his demands ... When his school was allocated $3m to build a second gym it did not want or need, Mr Grossek obtained an independent valuation that put its cost at $1.65m. He then told state officials the school wanted a library and some classrooms to the full value of the grant.
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Hypocrisy on wheels
Andrew Bolt
When the most fashionable faith is led entirely by sinners, who can be surprised by this/

ABOUT a third of Victoria Police’s top brass have defied their own road-safety messages and collected speeding fines.
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Rudd does an Arbib: not jobs, not new
Andrew Bolt
Employment Participation Minister Mark Arbib has been mocked and criticised even by his own Prime Minister for making a disaster of a defence of Kevin Rudd’s claim that he was creating 50,000 new green jobs and training positions.

But when Rudd himself is asked by Neil Mitchell to justify his fraud of a claim, he’s almost as hopeless (hear from just before half way through).

Fact is, Arbib was asked to sell a dead dog. These are not real jobs. And now Rudd - swallowing nervously - admits they are not new “jobs”, either.

Arbib is not to blame. Rudd is.
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Why Is the Far Left Saying America Is a Dumb Country?
By Bill O'Reilly
Leave it to Bill Maher, perhaps the most blunt left-wing guy in the country, to say what many far-left people really think, while talking about Sarah Palin:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think she has a future nationally as a presidential candidate?

BILL MAHER, HOST, "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER": I don't know about a presidential candidate, but I would never put anything past this stupid country.

BLITZER: So people are already complaining that you're calling the United States a stupid country and giving you a chance to clarify.

MAHER: I don't need to clarify. It is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

But why do uber-liberals believe the USA is a dumb country?

Gov. Palin is obviously a fuse on this. The left despises her. But the truth is the governor did a pretty good job in Alaska. Her approval rating when she left office was 54 percent, despite spending a lot of time outside the state. Mrs. Palin is portrayed by the left as dumb, but how does that square with her solid performance in office? No, she did not study at an Ivy League college, graduating from the University of Idaho. But again, she did the job she was elected to do.

So let's compare her to a darling of the left, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Barack Obama's good friend. Gov. Patrick has a law degree from Harvard, so he's a smart guy. But his approval rating now stands at an embarrassing 36 percent and the state is in chaos.

So Palin is dumb, but Alaska is running fine. And Patrick is smart, but Massachusetts is failing. Don't you hate it when the facts get in the way of stupid theory?

Eighty-seven percent of American adults ages 25 to 64 have graduated from high school or college, compared to 85 percent in Britain and 67 percent in France. Obviously, we, the people, are fairly well-educated.

The far left ignorance meter is simply driven by ideology. If you disagree with their polices, you're a moron. Some on the right do that as well.

I enjoy debating with Bill Maher, but sometimes he pontificates without knowing the facts, like when he said Iraq should be divided:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAHER: The partition is the most logical plan, the thing that could possibly get us out of there.

O'REILLY: OK, but in order to have the partition work, you'd have to keep U.S. troops there for probably three, four more years to supervise that kind of a partitioning of the nation.

MAHER: I don't know those kind of details. I don't think that would probably sail in this country since two-thirds of the country is already against us being there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Now, I would never say Mr. Maher is dumb, even when he's light on details, as Sarah Palin sometimes was. Maher is witty, often misinformed, sometimes simply wrong. But to question his intelligence would be unfair, just as he was unfair to call America a dumb country.

As President Obama might put it, he acted stupidly.