MURDERED Sydney businessman Michael McGurk feared for his life because he had a tape recording of a conversation capable of bringing down the NSW Government, one of his former business associates says.
Premier Nathan Rees says he had no knowlegde of alleged Michael McGurk tape
NEW South Wales Premier Nathan Rees says he had no knowledge of an audio tape allegedly containing revelations of the bribing of state and federal Labor politicians. - Rees is puzzled by water going down drains - ed.
NSW paralysed
NSW is today a state in paralysis. The Rees Government is being held to ransom by two men who got just 0.61 per cent of the vote - The Shooters Party's Robert Brown and Roy Smith.
Belinda Neal quiet on Della Bosca
DISGRACED ex-health minister John Della Bosca's wife Belinda Neal has refused to speak unkindly of him despite his affair.
Polls show Rudd can still gloat
POLLS show Kevin Rudd has voter support no previous Labor prime minister has enjoyed.
Ruthless lenders move to evict late payers
CUSTOMERS who are as little as one repayment behind on their mortgages are being evicted.
Stimulus won't be withdrawn early: Swan
Now is not the time for a premature withdrawal of the government's economic stimulus package, Treasurer Wayne Swan says. - when is the time for a premature withdrawal? - ed.
Drunk chess player passes out during top tournament
A top-rated French chess player had to concede a game at a major tournament when he dozed off during a match after reportedly showing up drunk, local media said on Friday.
ADF members kicked refugees: report
Afghan refugees attempting to climb aboard inflatable rescue boats after their boat burst into flames were allegedly kicked by ADF members, a report says.
Cougar fears shut popular Seattle park
With a cougar possibly on the prowl, Seattle's largest park remained off-limits to holiday weekend revellers as state wildlife agents tried to trap the elusive animal. - shut down the local bar, too - ed.
Man dragged along road after attack
A man was dragged along the road when his arm became trapped in a car during a car-park attack in Sydney's southwest, police say.
Transsexual locked up in women's prison
A British court has issued a landmark ruling allowing a transsexual prisoner serving life for manslaughter and attempted rape to be transferred to a women's prison.
Human flesh find could belong to teacher
Police are waiting on forensic tests to confirm if suspected human flesh found on a beach by a......
Sony TV throws down 3D gauntlet
Sony set the stage for a new battle this week with the unveiling of a 3D television, hoping to get......
Billionaire gored by beserk elephant
Silicon Valley billionaire Tom Siebel is recovering from broken ribs and legs afterbeing gored by......
=== Comments ===
PRIUS OR KLAUS
Tim Blair
A proud day for Toyota, maker of the Prius and other soulless hybrid transportation pods:
Toyota Motor Corporation announces today that global cumulative sales of its hybrid vehicles have topped the 2-million mark, with more than 2.01 million units sold worldwide.
All those Priuses mean great big carbon cuts:
As of August 31, 2009, TMC calculates that TMC hybrid vehicles, since 1997, have led to approximately 11 million fewer tons of CO2 emissions – considered to be a cause of global warming – than would have been emitted by gasoline-powered vehicles of similar size and driving performance.
Eleven million tons, eh? Sounds impressive. But according to German government climate protection adviser Hans Joachim Schellnhuber:
An average German emits about 11 tons per year …
Consider the effort involved in selling two million hybrids worldwide. To begin with, before the first vehicle is even on the road, there would be years of research and development, market testing and international compliance analysis. Then there’s the construction of prototypes, real and simulated driving tests, subsequent re-engineering of certain components and budget reviews. Next: plant building, hiring or re-training of production line staff and trial production runs. Total cost to this point, still prior to the first sale: an estimated $1 billion. Finally, you’ve got advertising programs, freighting vehicles to their thousands of global sales points and establishment of service regimes.
All that work, when massively greater carbon reductions could have been achieved by simply killing—or carbon-neutralising—a few million Germans. Like this one, for example.
UPDATE. Last paragraph altered to repair mathematical error and kill more Germans.
===
VETTED BY LEO
Tim Blair
Plump actor Leonardo DiCaprio is apparently an expert on White House appointments:
When Van Jones was tapped to serve as special adviser on green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality earlier this year, the appointment was heralded as a significant development for the green movement. And for good reason.
As Jones himself might now ask: “How’s that good reason working for ya?”
===
THEY’RE LIKE CHILDREN
Tim Blair
Further evidence, if further evidence be needed, that green types are markedly prone to exaggeration.
UPDATE. Thomas Fuller notes the cynical and poor behaviour of certain climate scientists: “Honor once lost is not easily reclaimed.”
===
WHITE IS THE NEW BLACK
Tim Blair
Change comes to Seth Efrica:
A white South African man has been granted refugee status in Canada after an immigration board ruled that his “fear of persecution by African South Africans” was justified.
Brandon Huntley, 31, who grew up in Mowbray, Cape Town, made his refugee claim in April last year.
He was represented by an Efrican escapee of an earlier era:
Huntley’s lawyer, Russell Kaplan, said that he is a human-rights lawyer who emigrated to Canada 20 years ago to escape the apartheid government’s discrimination against black South Africans.
The Canadian government is set to challenge the Huntley decision, which South Africa describes as racist.
===
CLEAN GREENS
Tim Blair
“Looks like everyone’s coming clean,” reports Gothamist. Well, not everyone, but let’s read on:
Yesterday the WWF admitted that the controversial 9/11-themed ad was probably cleared by someone at the organization, and now AdAge is reporting that “after initially lying about it, DDB Brasil now admits it created a video version of the Brazilian print ad ‘Tsunami,’ and entered both ads in the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in June” …
The One Club—who told us earlier this week that the ad didn’t win an award, despite their website showing the ad and declaring it an award winner—has also made some new comments.
Greenists lied, pandas cried.
===
UNITER DIVIDES
Tim Blair
Finally, the UN takes steps against the Swiss menace:
Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi is set to ask the United Nations to ‘abolish’ Switzerland and share the land among its neighbouring countries …
Gaddafi is set to present his bizarre plan when Libya takes over the General Assembly presidency on September 15.
It’s likely not an original idea, but as a starting point to reform the UN perhaps voting rights should be denied to nations that deny the vote to their own citizens.
UPDATE. Gaddafi is now a car designer, whose vehicle apparently features marble. Possibly in its drivestones.
===
HEADLINE OF THE WEEK
Tim Blair
Problem: old fireworks. Solution: burn them. Result:
Northern Territory authorities are ‘a bit embarrassed’ after their efforts to destroy old fireworks ignited a large bushfire.
Plumes of smoke clogged the sky at Hidden Valley, where staff from Northern Territory Worksafe were getting rid of flares, and confiscated and out-of date crackers on Wednesday …
The flare ignited a ‘big fire’ that took five hours to put out and destroyed 40 hectares of scrub.
Oh, and the headline:
Crazed crackers ignite bushfire in NT
Unfair. All the crackers I know are exactly the opposite of crazed.
===
BRITISH RACING GREEN
Tim Blair
He might be all eco-conscious and sustainable, but Kevin McCloud can drive:
There’s barely any attitude on that car at all. Not easy in a low-powered front-driver.
===
'Factor' Victory: New Charges Brought Against Oklahoma Child Rapist
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," September 3, 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 "Factor Follow-up" segment tonight: a victory for the good guys. "The Factor" has reported extensively on the case of a 65-year-old convicted child rapist, David Earls, who was scheduled to be released from jail in two weeks after being sentenced to one year in jail with seven months knocked off for time served for raping a 4-year-old girl. Unbelievable. Well now, after our series of investigations, the state attorney general has stepped in to bring new molestation charges against Earls. He's being held on $400,000 bond until a new trial. Joining us now from Tulsa, radio talk show host Pat Campbell, who has been covering this story.
PAT CAMPBELL, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Hi, Laura.
INGRAHAM: Pat, I think people across this country are breathing a bit of a sigh of relief here, thinking we can't have yet another freak rapist released who shouldn't be released into the population at large. Tell us the latest.
CAMPBELL: Well, it's an outrageous case, and you know, we've got to give kudos and plaudits to Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera, because if it hadn't been for them and the national attention they brought to this case, this guy would have been released. He would have been walking the streets September 24. He would have had the chance to destroy yet one more child's life. But because Bill O'Reilly was so adamant about going after this case and putting David Earls' picture on FOX News, we started to have people coming out who had been abused by him in the past, including his daughter, Denise Earls. People who lived in other states for that matter.
I had a lady by the name of Lori Foster (ph). Her mother was married to David Earls back in the mid '80s, and he molested her and her two sisters when they lived around Oklahoma City at the time. And we were able to establish a pattern this was not an isolated incident. This guy is a serial pedophile with a history going back 30, 35 years. And he's the last person we need back on the streets.
Now the district attorney, Jim Bob Miller in McAllister, and the judge involved, Bartheld, really dropped the ball on this case. They — they were — the case — there was little or no physical evidence. And they were concerned that the children — there was a brother involved, too — would make unreliable witnesses in the courtroom. So rather than risk acquittal, they decided to go for a plea bargain, and they figured that something was better than nothing. But the something that they settled for was a 20-year sentence: one year in jail, in county jail, not even state penitentiary. And then a 19-year suspended sentence, which was an absolute joke. Now Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo got all over this. Geraldo came here, tried to speak with the judge, the district attorney, and these clowns actually hid from Geraldo, which only — was like pouring gasoline on the fire.
INGRAHAM: I loved that.
CAMPBELL: And Bill wanted to get the judge removed from the bench, wanted to get him impeached. And we wanted to get the district attorney removed. So that's where I got involved and got some local legislators, including Dr. Michael Ritz, who's a state representative and state Senator Randy Brogdon involved. And they got the legislative ball moving, because the legislature in the United States has the power to actually impeach a sitting judge.
Now, what's interesting here, Bill activated the, you know, the O'Reilly viewers, some 5 million, and people started calling our governor, Brad Henry, and the attorney general, Drew Edmondson. But they weren't doing anything.
Now, what's really interesting, the last time I was on with Bill, Drew Edmondson the very next day announces that he wants to be the governor of the great state of Oklahoma. So I got news for Mr. Edmondson: There's no way you're going to be elected if you're perceived to be soft on pedophiles.
INGRAHAM: All right. Let's fast forward. We're almost out of time. Let's fast forward, Pat, to the new charges that are being brought now against Mr. Earls. Another charge that involves this — the brother of this 5-year-old, now 5-year-old girl. Tell us.
CAMPBELL: Edmondson convened a grand jury. Again, he is the attorney general. And they have come up with additional charges against the same two children, the girl and the boy. These charges happened on a different date. So it's not a double jeopardy thing. These are charges that weren't made in the past.
INGRAHAM: Right.
CAMPBELL: And now we're going with these other witnesses who are coming forward. It's going to be easy for them to establish a pattern. Look, this is an ongoing problem. The attorney general himself...
INGRAHAM: Well, you know what we know now? You know what we know now? We know, after the Phillip Garrido, heinous, heinous situation, what he did to Jaycee Dugard. We know that lives are ruined by rape. These people never get over it. I don't know what's going to happen to this poor little girl. My heart breaks for her. But this simply cannot happen. And I'm glad the district attorney and this particular judge are not involved in this new case. This can't happen in the United States.
CAMPBELL: No. They're not going to be involved.
INGRAHAM: Well, Pat, we appreciate the update here. And this is — I mean, this is just one of those things that it's hard to take in.
CAMPBELL: It's a victory for "The O'Reilly Factor," and I can't thank Bill and Geraldo enough. Thank you, Laura. I appreciate it.
INGRAHAM: They did great work on this.
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