LABOR is believed to have begun secret polling in safe seats over new fears the State Government's appalling standing may trigger a voter tsunami in the 2011 election. - it is really concerning that this corrupt and inept government may yet be voted back in. - ed.
Murder linked with McGurk case
HOMICIDE detectives have reopened their investigation into the murder of a Sydney fruiterer who owned land now linked to the execution of businessman Michael McGurk. Joseph Logozzo was shot dead during a bungled home invasion in Sydney's southwest seven years ago. Fourteen months after his murder, Mr Logozzo's 40 hectares at Badgerys Creek was sold for $4.85 million to brothers Joe and Daniel Damjanovich - now business associates of developer Ron Medich. - and where are the ALP in all of this? - ed.
Burma's political prisoner numbers double
IN two years since a crackdown on protests following Cyclone Nargis, numbers of political prisoners in Burma have doubled. - yet Rudd approves of the administration there. - ed.
Father 'could be worse than Fritzl'
A VICTORIAN man who allegedly raped his daughter almost daily for 30 years, kept her as a virtual prisoner and fathered her four children, has been charged by police.
Peter Dupas murder conviction quashed over Halvagis' death
PETER Dupas will face a fresh trial over the stabbing death of Mersina Halvagis in Fawkner Cemetery in 1997. Dupas had appealed his conviction over the killing of 25-year-old Ms Halvagis, arguing that the judge erred in some of his directions during the trial.
Brimble accused 'living a nightmare'
TAPED phone conversations reveal Mark Wilhelm's "anguish" over Dianne Brimble's death in his cabin onboard a cruise ship
Right to bag your boss could become law
A GROUP of outspoken prison officers wants to be able to criticise their boss on Facebook. - currently the NSW Dept of Ed. can bully and harass teachers who point out illegal departmental activity. - ed.
Fat from burgers, ice cream 'sends signals to brain'
A US study has found that fat from certain foods such ice-cream and burgers heads to the brain, so that tub of ice cream really can control your brain and say "eat me."
Same lotto numbers in consecutive draws
REVIEW ordered after the same six numbers appear in straight draws of national lottery.
Super-Earth shortens odds on finding life
DETAILED data about the first planet made out of rock found outside our solar system suggests it is a "super-Earth" world very like our own, shortening the odds of scientists finding extraterrestrial life, European astronomers say.
Heath's ex single and focused on Matilda
MICHELLE Williams says new love Spike Jonze couldn't heal the pain of Heath Ledger's death.
Shock jock dodges second bullet
BREAKFAST radio host Kyle Sandilands will keep his day job, but must undergo counselling.
Women thought I was gay, says Nelson
DURING his farewell speech to Parliament, Brendan Nelson says some people had trouble trusting a man with an earring.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Choice, Quality & Cost!
When it comes to solving health care's greatest challenges, Michael Steele says the president's plan just doesn't cut it! So, what's his solution?
===
A New Financial Crisis?
Why some experts say it's coming and we are not prepared - So what is it & how will it impact you?
===
Outrage Over ACORN!
Which Senate members want to keep giving government grants to the controversial group? The "Factor" names names!
===
Guest: Paul Rodriguez
Farmland destroyed ... Over 30,000 left without work - So why is the government turning a blind eye?
=== Comments ===
How Labor let a killer and torturer escape
Piers Akerman
ACCUSED East Timorese war criminal Guy Campos slipped out of Australia without fanfare on Monday morning, leaving in his wake an expensive if fruitless 12-month investigation by the Australian Federal Police War Crimes Unit and the stench of hypocrisy lingering over the Rudd Labor Government. - The ALP have long been supporters of regimes that torture. Their one eyed supporrters are firmly fixated on actions taken during the President Bush's administration, or Mr Howard's, but they don't seem to notice atrocities if they are committed by friends of the ALP. The ALP get a free pass, while law abiding actions under conservatives are inflated and restated into unrecognizable dimensions. So that a tragedy not involving Australia, except as a destination with SIEV X is somehow said to be Mr Howard's fault, while the political assassination of Timor's Alfredo Reinado by a Rudd inspired bungled sting goes unexamined.
Yet we know Rudd policy has led to the deaths of asylum seekers.
So a faked photo of a broken ambulance leads to calls around the world for atrocities to be committed in payback as the press inflate the forgery beyond all recognition because it looks bad for President Bush or Mr Howard, but an actual atrocity known to be committed gets ignored if it seems to embarrass an indulgent Rudd.
Campos is neither the first nor the last torturer the ALP have given free passes to. Australians tortured by the Khmer Rouge, Vietnam, North Koreans or Japanese have all been given special privileges under ALP government. - ed.
===
FLAVIO HITS THE WALL
Tim Blair
The Renault sideshow might be over:
One of the worst examples of pre-meditated cheating in the history of professional sport went from being lurid allegations to fact this afternoon when the Renault Formula One team sensationally stated they would not dispute claims made against its conduct at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.
In a short statement the team said “it will not dispute” the allegations that Nelson Piquet Jr, its former driver, was asked to crash his car on purpose at the race, a scheme designed to help his team-mate Fernando Alonso, win the Grand Prix.
Flavio Briatore, who only last week claimed Renault had been blackmailed, is gone:
The team also disclosed that both Flavio Briatore, the managing director, and Pat Symonds, the highly respected director of engineering, have left. It did not say whether they have been sacked.
Congratulations to Nico Rosberg, who may just have won his first Grand Prix – one year after it happened.
===
The Collapse of ACORN
By Bill O'Reilly
Let's take the story step by step.
ACORN is a nationwide activist organization that has reportedly received $53 million in federal tax money since 1994 and millions more in state and local grants. ACORN is set up to help poor Americans buy homes, and it also registers folks to vote, almost always for the Democratic Party.
As of September 10, nine states have charged ACORN employees with crimes. There have been at least 30 convictions.
In the year 2000, ACORN discovered that one of its members, Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN leader Wade Rathke, had embezzled close to $1 million from the organization. ACORN declined to press charges, an incredible occurrence.
Click here to watch Bill's "Talking Points."
"The Factor" and the Glenn Beck program traced millions in ACORN donations and grants to an abandoned funeral home in New Orleans. Based on information we provided to Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, a state investigation is now underway.
That's the background. Now for the latest scandal.
Because federal authorities have not done much policing of ACORN, two private citizens, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, launched an undercover sting operation themselves. The two posed as a prostitute and a pimp and asked a number of ACORN officials to help them get housing for a prostitution enterprise. The latest sting was in California, where an ACORN employee engaged the young woman posing as a prostitute:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ACORN WORKER: How long have you been doing it? Can I ask?
HANNAH GILES, UNDERCOVER "PROSTITUTE": Since I was 14.
ACORN WORKER: And how old are you?
GILES: 20.
ACORN WORKER: OK, so that's some background.
GILES: Yeah.
ACORN WORKER: So do you know how you want to run it?
JAMES O'KEEFE, UNDERCOVER "PIMP": Yes.
ACORN WORKER: If you had a place, if you had a building?
GILES: I was thinking — I mean, OK, first I'll say that I would maybe want to do it under the cover of a spa.
ACORN WORKER: Yeah.
GILES: The guy that I'm supposed to be working for here just got a shipment of 12 El Salvadoran girls.
ACORN WORKER: Oh, really?
GILES: They're between the ages of 12 years old and 15.
O'KEEFE: So basically we want a house to put them in and we — we've been trying to go through the other authorities, but they have been unhelpful with us because of, you know, they don't want to deal with these…
ACORN WORKER: No.
O'KEEFE: ...sex girls coming in…
ACORN WORKER: Right.
O'KEEFE: …performing sex. They think we don't want to have anything to do with them.
ACORN WORKER: Well, they'll be a client, but they don't want to set you up.
GILES: Right.
O'KEEFE: Yeah, isn't that ridiculous? I mean.
ACORN WORKER: Yeah, it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
So there you have an ACORN employee having a conversation about setting up a house full of child prostitutes. It doesn't get much worse than that.
Similar stings have been conducted in New York, D.C. and Maryland, and a few ACORN employees have been fired. But ACORN officials don't seem very repentant:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT LEVENSON, ACORN SPOKESMAN: It says to me that a multinational entertainment agency that disguises itself as a news agency, FOX, has spent millions of dollars of resources, time to go after an organization that they don't like. It's clearly an individual who collaborated and cooperated with FOX entertainment under the guise of creating news. This is "Borat"-like journalism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Levenson is correct in directing his ire toward FOX News. According to information developed by the Beck program, as of last night, FOX News has done more than 300 reports on ACORN over the past 20 months. CNN did 90, MSNBC 10, NBC and ABC News two, and CBS News just one.
ABC anchor Charles Gibson was asked about ACORN on the radio:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DON WADE, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: We have the embarrassing video of ACORN staffers giving tax advice on how to set up a brothel with 13-year old hookers. It has everything you could want: corruption and sleazy action at tax-funded organizations. It's got government ties. But nobody is covering that story? Why?
CHARLES GIBSON, ABC NEWS: I don't even know about it, so you've got me at a loss. I don't know. But my goodness, if it's got everything including sleaziness in it, we should talk about it this morning.
ROMA, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: This is the American way.
GIBSON: Or maybe that's one you just leave to the cables.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
But why would you do that? Political corruption should be a major story in America. Taxpayer money should be protected. Or am I wrong?
Over at NBC they are actually making excuses for ACORN:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it should be noted, to be fair though, that this might be viewed as entrapment, that some conservative activists used hidden cameras in order to get this stuff on camera. You might see this too as sort of a larger effort to undermine the biography of President Obama. Now here's what I'm saying here. Obama does not have any direct relationship with ACORN, but it is the association of community organizers. And I think by demeaning community organizers, it's once again an effort to demean part of President Obama's biography.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Well as long as she brought it up, let's take a look at the ACORN-Obama connection.
Shortly before ACORN endorsed him, Barack Obama issued this statement:
"I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran the Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work."
But now ACORN has been badly damaged and most politicians, even very liberal ones, are running for the hills.
Monday night the Senate voted 83 to 7 to deny ACORN federal funding. The seven senators supporting ACORN are Leahy and Sanders of Vermont, Durbin and Burris of Illinois, Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Gillibrand of New York and Casey of Pennsylvania.
Do these senators understand that an ACORN employee was caught on tape discussing child prostitution? Do these senators understand ACORN is in big financial trouble and at least 30 of its employees have been convicted of crimes?
Wednesday we will report on the senators supporting ACORN, because it is unbelievable.
Finally, ACORN is a tax-exempt organization that should immediately lose that status, and Attorney General Holder should begin an intense investigation. It should be noted that ACORN openly operated under the Bush administration as well and little was done to rein them in. But now their cover has been blown and the feds must act.
Political corruption on this scale cannot be tolerated in the United States of America.
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