The political implications loom large for both parties: A victory for Republicans could begin a rebound in Congress while Democrats need to hold onto Kennedy's seat to maintain a filibuster-proof majority. - I'm thinking Gore is fat enough to fill that pork Barrel. - ed.
Premier breaks his silence: I won't resign
NSW Premier Nathan Rees has broken his holiday silence to declare in five simple words that he won't be going anywhere. - he is still on vacation and while he is NSW is seen to be running more smoothly. - ed.
Troops killed in ambush, Obama election legacy
AT least two Peruvian army troops have been killed in an ambush by Shining Path rebels while on patrol in the country's mountainous south, the army says. - The Shining path have been emboldened by the election win of Obama. -ed.
Three men charged for huge weapons haul
Police raids and an undercover operation have netted more than 100 illegal firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition in a crackdown on an alleged Wollongong-based gun trafficking network.
Life sentence sought for bikeway rapist
Prosecutors have asked for a life sentence for a Brisbane father whose two-year spree of sexual assaults on women exercising along bikeways triggered one of Queensland's biggest police operations.
Price of alcohol, tobacco to rise under government blueprint
THE price of alcohol and cigarettes would rise and glitzy marketing campaigns pitched at teenagers would be curbed under a radical blueprint to make Australians healthier and leaner.
Drunk mums 'pickle kids in womb'
EXPERT warns the next stolen generation will be children with fetal alcohol syndrome.
Man forced to 'dig his own grave'
The sons of a Gold Coast millionaire will stand trial in Brisbane District Court next February over allegations they made a man dig his own grave before shooting him in the hand.
Hundreds fined over fake street sign
As many as 200 motorists are thought to have been fined over a fake street sign planted in Sydney's north.
Hot August nights fuel our warmest winter
AREAS of Australia experienced their hottest day of the year this month, and it's not over yet. - highly misleading headline .. the nights have been cold .. even colder than normal. The day time temps have been fuelled by clear skies and winds from the North. - ed.
Vatican paper slams pro-choice Kennedy
THE Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano has paid homage to the late US Senator Edward Kennedy but criticised his championing of abortion rights.
Astronomers discover gigantic planet spiralling toward star
Astronomers have found what appears to be a gigantic suicidal planet.
Missing newlywed found after three days
A man who's been missing in north Queensland bushland for three days has been found.
Microsoft apologises for racial editing
Some racially motivated photo editing has landed Microsoft in hot water, with the offending image doing the rounds on social networking sites.
Boy stabs mother's partner in the face
A teenage boy used a kitchen knife to stab his mother's "intoxicated and obnoxious" partner in the face, a court has been told.
AFL grand final could face cancellation
The AFL grand final could be postponed or even cancelled after MCG security guards won the right to strike on the sport's showcase day, their union says.
Man wrestles kangaroo
A man has suffered cuts as he wrestled a large kangaroo that attacked him as he took a morning walk, in the third such attack in the Sunbury area in the past year. - the man took ridiculous risks. Kangaroos respect Queensbury rules, although you got to watch for the head butt - ed.
=== Journalists Corner ===
White House vs. CIA!
Could a major shake-up cause heads to roll? 'The Factor' has it covered!
===
Guest: Sen. John McCain
John McCain reflects on the life of his colleague, Senator Ted Kennedy.
===
Prognosis Negative!
Can Obama recover, or has his reform already flatlined? Karl Rove reveals the Dems' true concern!
=== Comments ===
Powerful arguments for Rudd to go underground
Piers Akerman
NEWS broadcasts yesterday headlined reports of power outages across Victoria which left thousands of homes without electricity. - For some reason many in the press seem to admire policy failure by ALP governments. Adding to your list, Piers, is the deaths related to public transport whenever the ALP are in power. These are essentially related to the constipating of private transport, funneling people into a straining public transport .. resulting in a Granville or Berala style disaster which happens regularly under the ALP .. overworked and tired train drivers being placed in impossible situations. Sure the ALP splash around a lot more money, but it is spent so inefficiently and people die.
Or, take the corruption and nepotism related to ALP endeavors. So that crime figures cannot be trusted and processes are bodgied under apparently corrupt praxis. So that apparently corrupt action cannot be prosecuted by watchdogs because they just can’t work out what happened.
Ted Kennedy died at last, and may the US never again have such a powerful force for corruption eating away at their public institutions. - ed.
===
YOU CAN’T PREDICT THE FUTURE
Tim Blair
Tim Flannery, March 2008:
The water problem is so severe for Adelaide that it may run out of water by early 2009.
And Flannery in 2007:
Adelaide is our most water-stressed capital.
Not any more. Adelaide is now water-relaxed:
More water has flowed into Adelaide’s reservoirs in the past eight weeks than the whole of last year.
The total capacity of the city’s 10 reservoirs is now 76.4 per cent, compared to 64.6 per cent at the same time last year when water was being pumped from the River Murray.
As Flannery said in 2005:
Well, you can’t predict the future; that’s one of the things that you learn fairly early on …
===
BROTHER PROTECTED
Tim Blair
Banned in Egypt, welcome in Australia:
A follower of a radical Islamic movement that seeks to introduce sharia law and has been linked to terrorist groups is being granted asylum in Australia.
The Refugee Review Tribunal has recommended a protection visa for an Egyptian man, who is a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic political group with links to al-Qaida.
The Muslim Brotherhood has been outlawed in several countries, including Egypt …
The Egyptian man initially was denied a protection visa by the Department of Immigration, but the decision was overturned by the tribunal.
The man’s connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, among other things, actually helped his case:
The tribunal is of the opinion that there is a real chance that this could place the applicant at risk of facing arrest, detention and ill-treatment [in Egypt].
A full visa is still subject to investigation.
===
DOMINICK DUNNE
Tim Blair
Author and columnist Dominick Dunne has died at 83.
===
NEW SPARKY
Tim Blair
In Australia:
A man was engulfed in flames after a police Taser hit him on the bridge of his nose while they were investigating claims of petrol sniffing.
And in the US:
A homeless man caught fire after U.S. police shocked him with a Taser gun, it has been revealed.
Daniel Wood, 31, was allegedly sniffing gas from an aerosol can as he ran through traffic when he was chased by two officers in Lancaster, Ohio.
===
GOMBIE DAWN
Tim Blair
According to advanced computer modelling, this will cause Gore zombies – Gombies – to forget all that stuff about isolated weather events not being anything to do with long-term climate trends and suddenly begin shrieking about global warming again.
These people lead stressful lives. Mark Steyn:
I’d be willing to bet that by the end of this century the anguished western liberal environmentalist will be on the endangered species list.
It could happen, simply due to exhaustion, but probably not unless our economies completely tank. Extreme western greenism is a disease of affluence.
UPDATE. The headline won’t lower warmy anxiety:
Australia enjoys warmest winter ever
We did, too. A friend just got back from Fiji, complaining that the weather there was colder than in Sydney.
===
GLOBAL TILTING
Tim Blair
We’re all tilters now:
Warming oceans could cause Earth’s axis to tilt in the coming century, a new study suggests.
If it tilts the right way, this remarkable tilt cat might finally have a straight head:
UPDATE. A 24-year-old boygirl – and obvious tilter – trashes Colorado’s Democrat HQ in an apparent attempt to implicate opponents of Obamacare. It’s turning out to be a great year for fakes.
===
Leadership and President Obama
By Bill O'Reilly
Unless you are a hardcore Obama-hater, you've got to feel a bit sorry for the president. On his first day of vacation, his attorney general announces an investigation of the CIA, something Obama has publicly stated he does not want. Then the administration announced the deficit is $2 trillion more than the White House thought it was. All of this within 24 hours of Mr. Obama arriving on Martha's Vineyard.
And there's more. Stratfor reports things are now going badly in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and some analysts believe the president has not only lost control of the health care situation, he's lost control of just about everything. That's not exactly fair, but what is true is that President Obama's leadership is being tested in a major way, and Americans know it.
Let's take the CIA deal first. ABC News is reporting that CIA chief Leon Panetta screamed at a top Obama official in the White house, using profanity. Mr. Panetta is a dedicated liberal Democrat, but does understand that an investigation into the CIA for alleged abuse after the 9/11 attacks harms the country today because it makes intelligence gathering much more difficult, as foreign nations who might cooperate with us do not want to be caught up in any public controversy. And there are folks who believe the president secretly wants an investigation to placate the far left and divert attention away from the health care debacle. Of course, that is pure conjecture.
On the money front, after the president appointed Ben Bernanke on Tuesday for another term at the Fed, FOX News business guy Stuart Varney said this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STUART VARNEY, FOX NEWS BUSINESS ANCHOR: This is a deliberate — what you just saw from the president is a deliberate attempt to bury bad news. The Bernanke announcement diverts attention from this massive increase in the federal budget deficit that we are now looking at. It also diverts attention from the fact that the president's previous economic forecast have been very, very wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Again, that is Stuart's opinion, but it is shared by many.
So what we have here is a crisis of leadership, there is no question. Health care is in chaos, Afghanistan and Iraq are getting worse, the deficit is $2 trillion more than anybody thought, and Gallup reports Tuesday that consumer confidence in the economy continues to drop.
Seems to me it would be very hard to relax on vacation with all that staring you in the face.
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