Headlines Saturday 29th August 2009

Newspapers conspicuously silent on Reese' activity. Who will replace the replacement? Will they also be linked to a pedophile?
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Top officer says US bungling Muslim outreach

The US military is bungling its efforts to win over Muslim friends and squandering goodwill by failing to live up to its promises, the nation's highest-ranking military officer says. - Obama has CHANGED effective policy to bad policy. - ed.

52 asylum seekers stopped off WA
A boat believed to be carrying 52 suspected asylum seekers has been intercepted off Australia's northwest coast.

North Korean ship seized laden with arms bound for Iran

The United Arab Emirates has seized a cargo ship bound for Iran carrying a cache of banned rocket-propelled grenades and other arms from North Korea, the first such seizure since sanctions against North Korea were ramped up, diplomats and officials say. - they weren't carrying refugees, so Rudd isn't interested. - ed.

Kidnap victim feels guilt over captor
Jaycee Lee Dugard was bound to Phillip Craig Garrido for 18 years. Now that the bond has been broken, she feels guilty about it, her stepfather said on Friday.

Accused kidnapper says he controls sound
The California man accused of abducting a schoolgirl and keeping her prisoner for 18 years claimed on his internet site that he could control sound with his mind.

Staff locked in cold room during robbery
Staff at a western Sydney hotel have been locked in a cold room during a robbery, police say.

Prayers, song and jokes at Kennedy wake
Edward Kennedy's family and an eclectic mix of friends gathered on Friday around the senator's coffin for an Irish-style wake featuring prayer, song and humour.

'No proof' to link Hambali, Bali bombing
It's been revealed that Hambali, the terrorist mastermind believed to be behind the Bali bombings, is set to escape justice for his role in the 2002 attacks.

Taxi driver catches drunk driver
A taxi driver is being credited with preventing a tragedy after stopping a drunk driver who was......

Cheaper books split federal cabinet
The federal cabinet is split over an upcoming decision that could lower the price of overseas books.....

DJ AM found dead in New York: report

DJ AM, the sought-after disc jockey who became a celebrity in his own right with high-profile romances and a glamorous lifestyle and survived a plane crash just months ago, was found dead on Friday at his apartment. He had a history of drug problems.

Australian workers prepare to dump jobs
WORKERS are disgruntled and gearing up to change jobs when the economy improves.

'Equality' G-G joins single-sex club
QUENTIN Bryce, a former sex discrimination commissioner, joins an exclusive women's club.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Friday at 7p et: As Washington's elite pay their respects, we're there for the wake of Senator Ted Kennedy.

Saturday at 10a et: As Mass is held for the senator and President Obama takes the podium for a special eulogy, we're live on the scene!

Saturday at 5p et: Join Chris Wallace for special live coverage from Arlington National Cemetery as the senator is laid to rest.
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Guest: Jon Voight
The Oscar winner on what health care reform would mean for your finances and freedom.
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Crunching the Numbers!
Government run health care with billions of tax dollars at stake. Does a reform really add up? We get answers!
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Dick Cheney Exclusive!
As the justice department steps up its investigation, the former VP speaks out on the CIA's interrogation tactics!
=== Comments ===
Controversy Over Obama Administration's 9/11 Plans
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," August 27, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET!

LAURA INGRAHAM, GUEST HOST: In the "Unresolved Problem" segment tonight: A controversy is brewing over President Obama's decision to remember 9/11 as a National Day of Service. Some critics believe that marking 9/11 as a day for volunteerism demeans the memory of the thousands who were killed by Muslim extremists on that fateful September morning. Joining us now from New York, FOX News analyst and my old friend, Alan Colmes.

Now, Alan, I knew it was going to be something like this when you and I were back on television together. It was one of these raw meat subjects. And look, the 9/11, the day of volunteerism, on the surface, that's fine, you know. Volunteering, isn't that great? But when I looked at the groups involved on this teleconference call they had to organize, get everything in place for the day of service, it's ACORN, AFL-CIO, the Color of Change group — the group that's boycotting Beck, or trying to — the Community Action Partnership. These are all a bunch of left-wing crazy groups, are they not?

ALAN COLMES, FOX NEWS ANALYST: Your argument is...

INGRAHAM: What does it have to do with 9/11?

COLMES: Let me get this straight. So your argument is — it's actually a day of service and remembrance, which was put together by David Payne of a group that includes 22 different organizations, which consist of families of those who lost loved ones on 9/11 and responders who were lost on 9/11. That's who really put this together. Obama did sign a bill having to do with this initiative by a nonprofit group that was not done by the government, and you want to single out — you're quoting from a Spectator article by Matthew Vadum, who was on the radio show two nights ago, who can't think of one liberal he likes, by the way. And...

INGRAHAM: I like you.

COLMES: And he's upset because of a conference call. On that call were the groups you mentioned plus a number of other groups which are not necessarily liberal.

INGRAHAM: Right. Yes.

COLMES: And then — who was on that conference call is not what this is about. This is about a day of service and remembrance, and that was initiated by a nonprofit group that was not a governmental group. Go ahead.

INGRAHAM: How is ACORN remembering...

COLMES: It has nothing to do with ACORN.

INGRAHAM: ...the Islamic jihadists, what they did to our people on that day?

COLMES: This has nothing to do with ACORN. This was initiated...

INGRAHAM: They're involved in this coalition. They're involved in the day of volunteerism and remembrance.

COLMES: It was initiated by — many groups are involved in this. If you want to extrapolate one group…

INGRAHAM: Right. Every one that I'm looking at — every one that I'm looking at is ridiculous. Rainbow/Push Coalition. Oh, come on.

COLMES: All right. Let me also mention some of the other groups in here which you don't happen to like. National Black Police Association. National Coalition of Black Civil Participation. 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs.

INGRAHAM: Right. I'm sure.

COLMES: Those are some of the other groups. They're all a bunch of lefties.

INGRAHAM: Right.

COLMES: You want to just see a couple of...

INGRAHAM: What I don't — what I don't understand, Alan...

COLMES: This is just an amalgam of groups, a number of people who are coming together to make it a day of remembrance and service. This is what this is about.

INGRAHAM: What I don't understand is what does this have to do with the fact that we had these fanatics who took it upon themselves to try to bring down the mighty United States of America on that day? They hate our freedom. They hate our way of life. They hate who we are. They hate our liberty. They hate our liberal ideas with a capital "L." That's what they hate about us.

COLMES: All right. They...

INGRAHAM: Why — this day of volunteerism and remembrance, that might be fine to have. But on 9/11, that just doesn't seem to — the connection, I don't get it.

COLMES: I disagree with you and, in fact, I disagree with your run-up and your question why we were attacked on 9/11 in the first place. In fact, as was said, they hate us because of what we do, not because of who we are. And that's what was said by Anonymous, who wrote that CIA book, the head of the bin Laden unit, Michael Scheuer. But the fact of the matter is that to remember 9/11 and to make it a day of service to your country, I can't think of a better way to honor 9/11. Why don't — what is your problem, Laura, with making it a day of service and remembrance.

INGRAHAM: What I think — what I think would be nice...

COLMES: What is your problem with that?

INGRAHAM: What I — well, what's obvious is that, you know, a smattering of left-wing groups is trying to co-opt 9/11 and make it their day.

COLMES: But it's not just left-wing groups. It's a number of other groups that I just mentioned, Laura. You are only mentioning those groups you don't agree with. Why do you have a problem with a day of service and remembrance?

INGRAHAM: Well, first of all, I just said that I don't. What I am saying is that it blurs the importance of what happened on that day. And what I think would be really helpful is if we actually spent the day educating our young people on the threats to freedom and liberty, representative democracies that exist around the world, to women and gay people and all these, you know, all these minorities who are threatened on a daily basis by the Islamic jihadists.

COLMES: You educate people by service and remembrance. That's exactly what this day is. That's exactly what's going to happen here.

INGRAHAM: All right. Alan, we appreciate it, as always.

COLMES: Thanks for having me.
===
FLUSH WITH CASH
Tim Blair
The great Cuban toilet paper shortage rolls on, leading to an outbreak of capitalism:
A Cuban retiree says the country’s toilet paper shortage has created a lucrative business for seniors – buying and reselling newspapers as an alternative.
Key fact: the newspapers are worth 1,014,185 per cent more as toilet paper than as sources of information.
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BEARS IMPROVED
Tim Blair
Global warming is causing poley bear shrinkage:
Scientists in Denmark are warning that polar bears are getting smaller. The researchers say the reduction is linked to climate change …
Score this as a clear win. See, your modern full-sized poley bear is a human-chomping, truck-molesting brute:

But squinch ‘em down a little – thanks to the warmening – and they become ever so cute:

If this delightful trend continues:

UPDATE. Buy your polar bear slippers here. Or, if you’d prefer just the paws …

UPDATE II. Coquimbojoe notes: “But the polar bears are getting fatter." And from Lyle:

Bob the Canadian Polar Bear Addresses the Head-Tilters:

I’ve been looking anorexic
And I guess I’m eating less,
And my coat has lost its lustre,
Which I think is due to stress.

But I’ve got to laugh at people
So concerned about my fate
While they’re buying semen takeout
From the lower forty-eight.
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FAT AND STUPID IS NO WAY TO GO THROUGH LIFE
Tim Blair
Back in January, Britain’s climate-frightened Met Office bought itself a genuine carbon monster:
It has spent £33m on a new supercomputer to calculate how climate change will affect Britain – only to find the new machine has a giant carbon footprint of its own.

“The new supercomputer, which will become operational later this year, will emit 14,400 tonnes of CO2 a year,” said Dave Britton, the Met Office’s chief press officer.
This Gore-capacity beast has since become operational:
It is capable of 1,000 billion calculations every second to feed data to 400 scientists and uses 1.2 megawatts of energy to run – enough to power more than 1,000 homes.
One thousand homes? What a terrible waste of resources. Owen Glubiak will be shocked and stunned.
The machine was hailed as the ‘future of weather prediction’ with the ability to produce more accurate forecasts and produce climate change modelling.

However the Met Office’s HQ has now been named as one of the worst buildings in Britain for pollution – responsible for more than 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

It says 75 per cent of its carbon footprint is produced by the super computer meaning the machine is officially one of the country’s least green machines.
And the big dumb ‘puter still can’t predict the weather.
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FROZEN NORTH
Tim Blair
Mark Steyn: “Canada’s future is now in American hands.”

UPDATE. “Yeah, right,” comments Lyle. “Exactly how am I going to write a nice, clean, family-oriented poem about this?”
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LIGHT NON-WORKERS
Tim Blair
Blessed be the bulbmakers, who now face economic darkness:
“Government did us in,” says Dwayne Madigan, whose job will terminate when General Electric closes its factory next July.

Madigan makes a product that will soon be illegal to sell in the U.S. – a regular incandescent bulb.
Madigan and his 200 co-workers weren’t done in solely by government. General Electric itself supported the bulb ban, seeking green cred, among other things:
The workers don’t buy the green arguments, pointing to the mercury gas that’s in the fluorescents. “It’s illegal to dump mercury in the river, but not in the landfill,” two of them say in unison—it’s become a dark joke at the factory.

Robert Pifer, who will also be laid off in July if he doesn’t find a new job by then, has an explanation for GE’s support of the light-bulb law and its shift to the more expensive fluorescents. “Are they not just trying to force-feed people stuff they don’t want to buy?”
Pifer has just described the core mission of the entire green movement. Read on.
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MEDIA HERO OUT
Tim Blair
The last word on Ted Kennedy, by Daniel J. Flynn.
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RICH WHITE GUY TRASHES POST-RACIAL PREZ
Tim Blair
John Pilger suggests that Barack Obama – President of the “land of slavery” – might have been a CIA-assisting stooge (from the 1:40 mark):

There’s also this hint from Pilger that Obama, vile lackey of corporate America, is an Uncle Tom: “What matters, I believe above all, is the class one serves.” Really, John? Or does it matter more what one is served in business class?
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STATUS: UNLIKELY
Tim Blair
Phillip Garrido predicts:
“You are going to be completely impressed.”
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LAST SONG
Tim Blair
Nick Tabakoff, soon to join us at The Daily Telegraph, farewells his colleagues at The Australian:

People said we were cruel and wrong to enforce a zero-tolerance singing policy at the Telegraph. They’re not saying it now.
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TERROR CELL
Tim Blair
A phone bomb in Saudi Arabia:
A suicide bomber detonated explosives hidden inside his mobile phone on Friday in an attempt to assassinate the head of Saudi Arabia’s antiterrorism efforts, the official news agency reported from the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, lately stomping down hard on Al Qaeda, survived. Phone boy is with the virgins.