Leaked footage from an upcoming video game shows terrorists shooting wounded civilians, sparking classifications controversy
Florida police urge public to be suspicious of changes in behavior, appearance of people they know — because one of them could be Somer Thompson's killer.
Teacher banned for kissing student, 12
A QUEENSLAND teacher who groomed 12-year-old students on social networking sites before kissing one in front of his class has been deregistered for the maximum five years. - he should have been banned forever for sending them the messages he sent. - ed.
Barrel twist in hunt for gran
POLICE probe links between the discovery of a body in a barrel and a missing grandmother.
Mum 'admitted' chopping baby
A WOMAN accused of murdering her baby confessed to cutting him in half, a court has heard.
Army 'knew of' armour risk to Diggers
DEFENCE chiefs were told last year about armour flaws worn by Diggers in Afghanistan.
$9m payout for boy sucked down drain
A DEAL looms for a boy who suffered horrific injuries when sucked down a school drain. - yet nothing for the parents of Hamidur Rahman .. ed
Carnage in Pakistan
Hillary Clinton vows U.S. support for Pakistan as car bomb strikes a busy market, killing at least 100
'Vulnerable woman slept with 14-year-old'
A 41-year-old woman allegedly drunk 18 cans of alcopop before having sex with teen boys.
Lost legal letter costs company $1.4bn
A FORGETFUL employee has cost a beverage giant big time in a battle over bottled water.
Hot pie advice turns cop into internet star
A KIWI cop's sage advice on "thermo-nuclear" pies has become a hit on the internet.
Boozy holiday behind footy pack-rape
A party-filled weekend led to the alleged pack rape of two women at a Phillip Island house.
Hollywood star 'burglary ring busted'
TEENS studied magazines, TV, before stealing luxury goods from the homes of Lohan, Fox, Hilton.
Is Harry in Retreat Mode?
Resistance to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's health care bill raises possibility that he'll scrap proposal
Boy 'stabbed brother over too loud music'
A REFUSAL to turn down music left a teen dead and his brother on a possible murder charge.
Sad home for state's first father
COVERED in a dirty tarp and surrounded by rubbish in Parliament House's basement, this is how the Government is treating one of the nation's great figures. The removal of Governor Macquarie has caused outrage in his homeland of Scotland and it has been raised at clan meetings and with Scottish politicians.
Merkel kicks off second term
GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has formally embarked on a second term at the head of a new coalition pledging to make Europe's biggest economy emerge stronger from the financial crisis.
HBO Calls Jesus Joke 'Playful'
Larry David, HBO find humor in urinating on painting of Jesus in episode of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'
Australia's best property bargains named
HERE are the cheapest suburbs tipped for the strongest capital growth over the next year.
The late Thriller singer - who died on June 25 - came third in Forbes.com's annual Top-Earning Dead Celebrities list.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Chaos in Afghanistan!
Is the increasingly violent war becoming a quagmire? Dennis Miller has reaction!
===
Grayson's Outburst
You won't believe the congressman's most recent controversial remark! Plus, why is he receiving praise from the White House? Michelle Malkin lets loose.
===
Guest: Rep. Mike Pence
How do Republicans plan to derail the Dems' latest push? Plus, what's their alternative for your cost and care?
=== Comments ===
Watch this space, Rudd’s plan will leave us all in a jam
Piers Akerman
FOLLOWING GroceryWatch, FuelWatch and RefugeeWatch, the Rudd Labor Government intends to launch CityWatch - a centralised city planning operation to develop state capitals.- The ALP will not do anything unless it is to line their pockets with cash or appear popular .. usually both. In Victoria, the ALP once ran with an election promise not to build a freeway "People, not houses, are important" said the premier wannabe. When elected, the wannabe built the road, but placed a traffic light in the middle, pointing out that the traffic light meant it wasn't a freeway. And the press bought it.
The press applauded Carr's vision of the future of Sydney, it didn't matter that that vision failed to account for the fact that no space had been allocated to burial space for dead people. But every single dollar spent would reward a developer who would kick back to the ALP. So that when one such developer was challenged regarding their links to the ALP, they claimed they had been a great benefactor of the Liberal party, having donated some $2.5k. To the ALP the same developer had given some $230k. Of course the difference could be explained, 'The ALP were in government.'- ed
===
What Do You Do With a Crazy Congressman?
By Bill O'Reilly
Last year, the good people of Orlando, Florida, elected Democrat Alan Grayson to serve them in Congress. Since that time, Mr. Grayson has developed a reputation as a nut. N-u-t, nut.
Here's why: The guy is simply out of control. We begin with Grayson calling Linda Robertson, an aide to Ben Bernanke, a whore:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ALAN GRAYSON, D-FLA.: Here I am the only member of Congress who actually worked as an economist, and this lobbyist, this K Street whore, is trying to teach me about economics.
The Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly. That's right. The Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick.
What the Republicans have been doing is an insult to America. They've been dragging their feet. These are foot-dragging, knuckle-dragging Neanderthals who think they can dictate policy to America by being stubborn.
I call upon all of us to do our jobs for the sake of America, for the sake of those dying people and their families. I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this Holocaust in America.
Fox News and the Republican collaborators are the enemy of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Grayson's spokesman told Politico the whore remark simply reflected the congressman's opinion that Ms. Robertson had sold her soul for financial gain. A lame excuse.
Monday night in Florida, President Obama said this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We've got some wonderful other elected officials that I want to acknowledge very briefly. Three outstanding members of Congress from Florida who are here: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Kendrick Meek, Alan Grayson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now, the president was playing politics, but Grayson is not an outstanding member of Congress; he's an embarrassment.
And this is the problem. The president doesn't seem to understand that radical people are not acceptable to most Americans. Paging Rev. Wright.
Judge Edward Chen, nominated for a lifetime federal judgeship by the president, is a far-left guy who has said some amazing things. Here's a sample.
After hearing the song "America the Beautiful," Chen said:
"Sometimes I cannot help but feel that there are too much (sic) injustice and too many inequalities that prevent far too many Americans from enjoying the beauty extolled in that anthem."
So maybe we should rename the song "America, the Unfair."
By the way, Judge Chen is a former staff attorney for the ACLU, an excellent credit in the age of Obama.
The White House gets furious with Fox News for reporting on far-left guys like Congressman Grayson and Judge Chen. We get it. They don't like it.
But radicalism seems to be acceptable to the president, and that is becoming a major problem.
===
'Special Report' Panel on U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan
This is a rush transcript of "Special Report With Bret Baier" from October 27, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We are finally getting Afghan policy right after long years of drift.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ.: The events of the last couple of days, I believe, lend some urgency to this process, and so I hope that the president will make the decision as rapidly as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRET BAIER, HOST: More U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan and there you see the numbers adding up — October, 55 deaths. This is now the deadliest month in Afghanistan since the beginning of the war in 2001.
And there you see 2009, 277 [deaths] so far. We're not even through November and December, as the president decides on whether he will answer the request of General Stanley McChrystal, the commander on the ground in Afghanistan.
Let's bring in the panel: Jeff Birnbaum, managing editor digital of The Washington Times; A.B. Stoddard, associate editor of The Hill, and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer.
Charles, this decision, as we've talked about, has been portrayed by the White House as thoughtful and not making the wrong decision at the wrong time to rush it. However, when days like today add up, you hear Senator John McCain and others speaking out.
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: It does, of course, impress us with the urgency of the matter and how it has to be decided.
But I want to point out one thing about what Obama had said when he talked about the long years of drift. There is something truly disgusting about the way he cannot refrain from attacking Bush when he is being defensive about himself. I mean, it is beyond disgraceful here.
He won election a year ago. He became commander in chief two months later. He announced his own strategy, not the Bush strategy, his strategy six months ago, and it wasn't offhanded. It was in a major address with the secretary of defense and the secretary of state standing with him. And now he is still talking about the drift in the Bush years.
What is happening today is not as a result of the drift so-called in the Bush years. It is because of the drift in his years. It is because of the flaws in his own strategy, which is what he is now reexamining.
He has every right as commander in chief to reexamine his own strategy, but he ought to be honest, forthright and courageous enough as the president to simply say I'm rethinking the strategy I adopted six months ago and not, once again, in a child-like way, attack his predecessor.
BAIER: A.B., I talked to General Bob Scales earlier in the show about the effect on military families who, some of them, have now been through five, six, even seven deployments. We are not just talking about a war-weary public but a war-weary military.
A.B. STODDARD, THE HILL: And a military that wants to give their soldiers more time off, a military that is depleted and strained and really may not be up to 44,000 or more troops in Afghanistan and additional commitments elsewhere and we don't know what could pop up.
But there is a very compelling case to not escalate in Afghanistan and increase our troop presence there, and there is a very compelling case for why we have to do so.
President Obama is going to make a decision. He is not going — it won't be an easy one. He will try to split the loaf, I believe. I believe that he is going to come out in early November, and I think he is going to make that troop request.
But I think he is going to try to make it somehow a new strategy by presenting some sort of end game. The left is demanding an end game. Everyone — the public is demanding an end game.
I think he is going to fulfill the recommendation of General McChrystal, but I think he is going to come out with something that looks slightly different and try to assuage Americans so concerned, from the military families to the members of his party to members of Congress in both parties, everyone across the spectrum, by saying we are going to see the end of this tunnel.
BAIER: Jeff, military folks — commanders, soldiers — they all say once the president comes out with a decision, they're going to obviously fall in line and they can handle anything that they're given. They just don't like the uncertainty.
Is this military a little different than it was three to four years ago when the Iraq surge first started?
JEFF BIRNBAUM, MANAGING EDITOR DIGITAL, THE WASHINGTON TIMES: That's right. And that is the way military people live, that is their credo, and it is important for them to follow their commander in chief.
If you speak though privately or off in a corner with military leaders in the Pentagon, you can hear the anguish. They are upset that the president is not moving quickly enough and they worry that the delay is really giving the president time to reduce the request that the commander that he put on the ground in Afghanistan, McChrystal, may not be fulfilled.
And also, interviews with rank and file soldiers from Afghanistan reveals more unease than we're used to hearing from military officials — military troops. That is, they are saying that they are worried that unless the president comes through that their actions and sacrifice may be in vain, and that is a very serious word.
BAIER: In fact, Charles, the front page of The Washington Post today had an article about a former Marine captain, Matthew Hough. He joined the foreign service earlier this year. He was actually stationed in a Taliban hotbed.
And here is what he said: "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan." He wrote this in a letter. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation," he resigned from his post, "is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end?"
And in this article, Charles, I was surprised to see officials like Richard Holbrooke says that letter really is affecting the internal debate, at least somewhat.
KRAUTHAMMER: And in fact, according to The Post, Holbrooke tried to recruit him to work on his staff.
And this is a man obviously of principle and courage, who's really sacrificed a lot. He has a perspective on Afghanistan, which is a significant one — he's been there; he was also in Iraq. And I can understand why Holbrooke would want someone like that on his team, with a lot of skepticism.
But if the skepticism is about why, I'm not sure that that is as mysterious as the how. "How" is the really difficult issue. The why is rather obvious: It is in the neighborhood with a nuclear Pakistan. If Afghanistan goes the fight is going to be in Pakistan. The stakes are going to be enormous. And Al Qaeda will be resurgent and their allies might get their hands on nukes. That is a strategic catastrophe. That's the why.
I think the real question is how and I'm not sure that Obama or his team have an answer to that yet.
BAIER: We will take a look at how next week's election is shaping up and what it means for President Obama when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Opportunity in every corner of Virginia, that's what matters to Creigh Deeds. That's what he will keep fighting for, for the people of Virginia, if you give him a chance.
LARRY SABATO, POLITICAL ANALYST: I don't think the Obama visit today is going to make the slightest difference. I think it's pretty much perfunctory. The White House has all but written-off Creigh Deeds.
And to be blunt about it, and I never like to call races before the voters do it on election day, but I suspect this will be not just a Republican victory but a Republican landslide.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: A big statement from Larry Sabato one week from election day, 2009. We will focus on a couple of races here with the panel.
First, as you heard there, the Virginia race. The latest polls, The Washington Post has the race at 55 percent for Republican Bob McDonnell and 44 percent for Creigh Deeds. Then you take the Real Clear Politics average and it is 50.8 to 40 — that's the average of all the polls on Real Clear Politics.
We're back with the panel, first about Virginia — A.B.?
STODDARD: You can see it in the candidate's face today in the open race in Virginia as the president came to try to give an 11th-hour boost. The White House last Friday in The Washington Post wrote this race off in what can only be called a "pre-mortem" descriptions of why —
BAIER: Anonymous officials quoted...
STODDARD: Exactly. No one went on the record, but they certainly gave their analysis of why Creigh Deeds made a mistake in not taking their recommendations about the kind of campaign that Barack Obama was able to wage in Virginia, turning it Democratic for the first time in a presidential race since 1964, and how he excited northern Virginia, got out the black vote.
Creigh Deeds is from rural Virginia and has failed to make inroads in rural communities in addition to exciting the liberal base in northern Virginia. He has run a poor campaign. It is very unusual for the White House to come out this early and dump him before the race. He is 11 points or more, as you pointed out, behind. You could just see it in his face for a while. Even two weeks ago, Deeds gave an interview describing why the national environment made it so tough for him. And I think they have known for some time it was over.
BIRNBAUM: That leak and others like it, statements, that's damage control from the White House because they know a defeat of Deeds in a state that Obama won notably last year will reflect badly on Obama and the Democrats, because the gubernatorial election in Virginia and also in New Jersey are kind of referendums on Obama. That's the way they will be looked at.
And so Deeds' loss will be Obama's loss and so the White House is trying to distance themselves from Deeds.
BAIER: Let's turn to the other big race, the governor's race in New Jersey. Take a listen to the two candidates there:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JON CORZINE, D-N.J.: Well, I think it's very helpful that a popular president believes that I can be a better partner with him than the other candidates in the race.
CHRIS CHRISTIE, REPUBLICAN N.J. GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: It is great to have the president here and the former president here, but in the end, it's me or Jon Corzine, and with his failed record as governor, I think people will turn and vote for me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: Here is one of the latest polls, the Suffolk University poll. This has Jon Corzine up 42-33 percent over Republican Chris Christie. And there you see the independent Chris Daggett is at 7 percent.
Again, there are a number of other polls, the Real Clear Politics average includes a Rasmussen poll that shows Chris Christie ahead, but this is the average, Corzine up just slightly.
What about this race — Charles?
KRAUTHAMMER: I think the wild difference, even in the latest polls, as you say, this one from Suffolk showing a 9-point lead for Corzine, the last two on Real Clear Politics showing that Christie is surging into the lead, is because no one knows what is really happening with Daggett, which is the third party vote.
If he polls high, the presumption is that it pulls away from the Republicans, and the Democrats win. But usually what happens when you have a third party, people will tell a pollster, I support him, but in the booth when it is about electing a governor and not stating a protest, the numbers will shrink.
And since nobody knows how that will end up, this is extremely hard to call.
BAIER: Speaking of third party candidates, A.B., you have New York's 23, the congressional race. And as this stacks up, the Republican Dede Scozzafava looks like she is trailing now Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party. The polls are all over the place, the Democrats up in one. Doug Hoffman is up in a couple lately.
Now you have the Democratic Campaign Committee coming out and saying this race, they believe, is a vote of confidence or would be a vote of confidence for President Obama and somehow a referendum, which is never what the White House says in these off-year elections.
STODDARD: I think they are ahead of themselves on this one, but certainly a Republican has held that territory since something like 1870. And if Bill Owens, the Democrat, pulls this out, you will hear much leaping up and down from the Democrats about why it was a referendum and a big stamp of approval for President Obama.
It might happen for Bill Owens if there is enough vote-splitting between the two Republican or conservative candidates.
But this race is a real trend to watch for next year, because it shows that if the establishment loses, that you can get — like Doug Hoffman has done as an outsider candidate — you can go to national party leaders like Governor Pawlenty and Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Fred Thompson and everyone, get their endorsements and take over.
BIRNBAUM: I think that's right. This could show a real problem for the GOP. Hoffman says he is fighting for the heart and soul of the Republican Party. He may actually be pulling out the heart of the Republican Party.
===
HOT CHUCKS
Tim Blair
Jo Blogs covers all the thrulls ind spulls of New Zealand’s Next Top Model:
The lesson this week? Densung! The style? Hup Hop! The level of ability? Shut!For previous NZNTM reviews – and much else, including the magic of office face – please click.
===
PEOPLE WITH SIGNS = POWER
Tim Blair
White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett declares:
We’re going to speak truth to power.The power to which she refers – a power more powerful, apparently, than the power of a US President:
People were coming down to town hall meetings and putting up signs … commercials go up on television …Video here.
===
COLONELS EVERYWHERE
Tim Blair
First they let Colonel Gaddafi address the general assembly, and now:
Red-faced United Nations officials on Monday admitted to a major security lapse after a UN guard helped Kentucky Fried Chicken’s “Colonel Sanders” gain access to restricted areas.This bogus Sanders better watch out. They don’t take kindly to outsiders round those parts.
The guard escorted the white-suited intruder past security barriers, where he got a handshake from the UN General Assembly president, Dr. Ali A. Treki of Libya.
The faux fast food chain founder also posed for a picture beneath the assembly’s giant UN logo, which overlooks the spot where world leaders address their international counterparts.
“It should not have happened – that I will stress, and very strongly,” said Michele Montas, spokeswoman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
===
EQUAL RIGHTS
Tim Blair
Oxford scholarships for Aboriginal students: a good thing. Oxford scholarships for Aboriginal students that require those students to meet Oxford’s own entry standards: an even better thing. As Helen Dale writes: “The people who take up these awards will be very talented individuals indeed.”
===
FROM “NO NUKES!” TO “WHY NO NUKES?”
Tim Blair
Steve Lewis confesses:
As a blindly naive 24-year-old in 1984, I cheerfully handed out how-to-votes for a neophyte Senate candidate running on an anti-nuclear ticket.Read on. In the same year that Steve was campaigning for Garrett, I think I went on my only protest march; from memory, it was about something nuclear. The point eluded me even at the time, as Australia – regrettably – has no nuclear power plants or weapons. Possibly a girl was involved.
His name was Peter Garrett and, like thousands of others, I was swept up in the mania of his candidacy for the Nuclear Disarmament Party.
I outed myself as an ex-campaigner for the NDP on Tuesday afternoon, as Garrett addressed the National Press Club in his current guise as Minister for the Environment and the Arts.
“And look at us both now,” Garrett retorted, to much laughter.
But here’s the serious point, folks. I am happy to admit I got it wrong.
Like countless others, I have changed my views on nuclear power.
===
DOUBLE DAFFYDS
Tim Blair
Daffyd lives in Wales.
The real-life Daffyd lives in New South Wales.
UPDATE. On kind-of-related themes, Claudia Rosett reports:
It’s bad enough that the War on Terror has been reduced to “Overseas Contingency Operations.” Now the UN has come up with a report urging us to fight terrorists with Overseas Gender Operations …
The author of this UN report, Finnish law professor Martin Scheinin, wants counter-terrorism policies replaced with gender-equality policies at all costs, such as loosening terror-financing restrictions to help organizations that promote gender equality. In Afghanistan, he wants an end to force and a new policy responsive to the concerns of “women, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex individuals in local contexts.”
===
IS IT COLD OUTSIDE? ASK A STATISTICIAN
Tim Blair
This is cute. All manner of claims have been made by warmenists over the years, yet few have ever been subject to serious media investigation. But when sceptics note a temperature decline, Associated Press calls in the statisticians:
The Earth is still warming, not cooling as some global warming skeptics are claiming, according to an analysis of global temperatures by independent statistics experts.Except that, as noted, it was hotter in 1998 than it is now – despite all the carbon. A longer AP piece on this is here.
The review of years of temperature data was conducted at the request of The Associated Press. Talk of a cooling trend has been spreading on the Internet, fueled by some news reports, a new book and temperatures that have been cooler in a few recent years.
The statisticians, reviewing two sets of temperature data, found no trend of falling temperatures over time.
UPDATE. Beyond temperature disputes, Jonah Goldberg asks:
What possible price would warmists agree is just too high? Right now, greens want to spend trillions of dollars and export our manufacturing base to China and India in a foolish attempt to slightly ameliorate global warming. But it certainly seems that that’s just the opening bid. If democracy is worth sacrificing, and dogs, cats, and unborn children are up for discussion, where is the line we will not cross?Not really. Both responses are driven by the same anti-Western impulse.
What is the price we can all agree just isn’t worth paying?
For eight years during the war on terror liberals routinely argued that if we made even the slightest changes to our lifestyles in response to a very real terror threat, “the terrorists will have won.” But altering or outright chucking overboard the core of our liberties and lives to fight global warming is progressive, smart and right. I find that baffling.
===
Of course there’s a link
Andrew Bolt
Greg Sheridan takes a deep breath, and begins:
A FEW weeks ago in London, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told me that 75 per cent of the terrorist plots aimed at Britain originated in the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan. Some 800,000 Pakistanis live in Britain.No wonder. Yet it may need to be done, even if I suspect Kevin Rudd is actually very keen to somehow regain control over this “immigration crisis” he so foolishly unleashed, and will in time stop the boats.
The vast majority, it goes without saying, are law-abiding citizens. But there is a link between uncontrolled Muslim immigration and terrorism.
The real historic significance of the illegal immigration crisis in our northern waters is that this could, if things go wrong, be the moment Australia loses control of our immigration program, and that would be a disaster.
It is extremely difficult to talk honestly about Muslim immigration...
(Note to readers. Keep comments below civil. Do not engage in unfair stereotyping. Argue with reason. Do NOT refer to any cases before the courts. Our moderators are fed up with haters of both sides and have long scissors.)
UPDATE
Former Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews agrees:
LIBERAL MP Kevin Andrews has called for a debate on Muslim “enclaves” in parts of Australia, blaming political correctness for a failure to discuss the issue.UPDATE 2
Mr Andrews, a former immigration minister who is heading the Coalition’s policy unit in the lead-up to the next election, told radio broadcaster Alan Jones this morning that to “have a concentration of one ethnic or one particular group that remains in an enclave for a long period of time is not good”.
And Mr Andrews told The Australian Online that it was clear that some Muslims were not “dispersing” into the community as other ethnic groups had in the past.
“ I don’t think it’s happening as rapidly as with other communities in the past. I think it’s desirable,” he said.
In Britain, even a former head of the Anglican Church now is worried:
In what will be seen as a very unhelpful intervention to the debate on immigration by many church campaigners for the rights of migrants and refugees, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, has called for a “clear cap” on population growth.I can understand why the long overdue debate on immigration is now raging in Britain, which is what I guess has triggered calls here for the same. But I’m a bit puzzled why it needs such urgent attention now in Australia, when it strikes me that prominent Muslim radicals are in retreat here, Muslim immigration has indeed been quietly reduced, and the media is now a lot less willing to give a pulpit to Muslim extremists such as Keysar Trad. No longer do we have a council of Muslim leaders advising the Prime Minister, let alone a council with the links of the pro-jihadist Sheik Hilali. How could John Howard have been so dumb?
In comments given to today’s News of the World he blamed an “open door policy on immigration” for the rise of the British National Party.
He also blamed a failure to “absorb” new communities and called for immigration to take centre stage at the next general election…
.
Carey told the News of the World: “The cowardly failure of successive governments to address our open borders is the reason the BNP has gained admittance to the political mainstream…
“It is asking a huge amount of the British public to accept an open-door policy on immigration. They have seen a massive influx of newcomers, they have seen their jobs hit, and they feel ignored. There have not been adequate resources to help [the] community adapt to these massive changes.
“Yet it is not only a question of resources but the failure to absorb and integrate new communities. The discredited policy of multiculturalism must be abandoned once and for all. Now a controlled approach to immigration is needed with clear caps set on population growth...”
I’m in favor of open debate, but still need persuading that we must all join in now - and urgently. I’d say one terror trial after another has sobered up plenty of people even of the Left that were only too likely before to scream “racist”, and what’s needed now is not this kind of shouty “consciousness raising”, but a calm discussion of what actually needs doing that isn’t already being done.
You want the borders kept tight? So does Rudd, who’s trying frantically to undo his mischief. You want Muslim immigration cut further? Tell us by how much more, and do you really mean to include Indonesian businessmen and Turkish academics?
But if you want a debate on multiculturalism, then bring it on. That truly is unfinished business.
===
No he can’t
Andrew Bolt
Ouch. It seems Americans need more from their president than some symbolism and talk:
While the stock market has picked up and the country appears to be pulling out of the recession, a majority of Americans - for the first time in the Obama presidency - says the U.S. is headed down the wrong track, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted Oct. 22-25. Fifty-two percent say the country is on the wrong track compared to 36 percent who say it is headed in the right direction ...
===
Singer’s sociopaths
Andrew Bolt
In a post below, I noted this bizarre abuse in a column today by Jill Singer:
IT takes a certain person to rejoice in the suffering of others. In the real world they’re called sociopaths - in politics, they’re called conservatives.As I said, the odd thing was that this comment actually appeared on top of a column which then railed at “Ruthless Rudd”. Apparently it is Singer’s argument that a nice man of the Left is merely forced to do evil by sociopathic conservatives.
Let’s leave aside Singer’s complete failure to produce a single example of a conservative “rejoicing” at someone’s suffering. And also leave aside for now this kind of argument-by-abuse - or, rather, this typically Australian argument-by-moral-grandstanding.
I have instead a little quiz. Regarding a rejoicing in the suffering of others to make a political point, guess - without clicking the links - which sociopath wrote this:
On the subject of Iraq, isn’t it time that Bush, Howard, Blair and their merry band of media propagandists get down on their knees and beg forgiveness?… America has lost 3000 soldiers, with many more maimed. Iraq has seen countless thousands of innocent citizens killed, injured and displaced.And this:
(Mexicans have) just elected a new conservative president and the burgeoning uber-rich of Mexico City are still celebrating with Moet, while the poor in states such as Oaxaca are screaming about increasing social inequity.... Apart from seeing at least 15 protesters killed, the Government clampdown has radicalised the teachers and seen various dissident groups join the protest. Never a dull moment here, I can tell you.And this:
DING dong, the witch is dead.... I’m not sure which I’d rather be now (after John Howard’s defeat), a fly on the wall at Kirribilli when Janette is forced to remove her clutches from the drapes, or over at the Liberals’ post-mortem. What a bloodbath that will be, full of recriminations and battles for supremacy.Here’s a hint. It’s the same person who wrote this:
The Vietnamese have discovered for themselves the advantages of capitalism and democracy.And this:
And why the relentless hubbub about Cuba’s refusal to embrace democracy and the rule of law when the US itself is imprisoning hundreds of men, including Australia’s David Hicks, at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba?And this:
(H)ow about the conservatives start asking why Cuba can deliver a good public health system.And this:
As for press freedom, the Vietnamese could show the West a thing or two.Or do all these comments actually belong in the category of ignoring the suffering of others to make a political point? Of ignoring the terrible consequences of your noble ideology, so better to parade your loudly beating heart?
Singer simply wants an excuse not to deal with arguments she has trouble dismissing with reason. Damning opponents as evil, on the basis of evidence she simply fabricates, suits not just her convenience, but her vanity.
UPDATE
Schopenhauer famously described the 38 best ways to win an argument when reason was not on your side. Guess where he ranked Singer’s tactic?
Read on for his acute analysis of the trick, and those who employ it:
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Arctic refuses to behave; predictions adjusted
Andrew Bolt
Two years ago Californian researchers warned the ice in the Arctic could vanish in 2012. Or thereabouts, agreed a NASA scientist. The US National Snow and Ice Data Centre claimed it could even be ice-free in 2008.
The Arctic ice in 2008 increased.
Oh. All right, so Al Gore in December 2008 adjusted his prediction of an ice-free Arctic to 2013:
Except the Arctic refreeze that winter was remarkably strong.
So early this year, Al Gore predicted the ice could vanish by 2014.
Yet the ice this year increased again.
Hmm. Britain’s Met Office now puts this catastrophism on ice - just for now:
Modelling of Arctic sea ice by the Met Office Hadley Centre climate model shows that ice invariably recovers from extreme events, and that the long-term trend of reduction is robust — with the first ice-free summer expected to occur between 2060 and 2080.UPDATE
Could the ABC’s Four Corners now update this scaremongering it perpetrated last year, when it warned “in 2012/13 we could have an ice-free Arctic”?
Reporter Marian Wilkinson then claimed:
If you want to see climate change happening before your eyes, scientists will tell you: “Go to the end of the earth”, and that’s why we’re here, in the Arctic Circle.Could you go back, then, Marian, and tell us what your eyes now tell you about climate change?
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More pain than they thought
Andrew Bolt
The clean coal dream is looking more like an expensive - and never-never - nightmare:
CLEAN coal power stations are not viable until the carbon price reaches a minimum of $60 a tonne - a level the Australian government does not anticipate until almost 2030 - according to an audit by the Rudd government’s own global carbon capture and storage institute.
The new $100million-a-year institute found the business case for clean coal technology could only work if governments helped build the first commercial-size CCS power plants on a “field of dreams”, or “build it and they will come”, basis…
The technology is central to the government’s plans to meet its emission reduction targets. In a recent speech, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said it was “becoming increasingly clear that no serious response to climate change can ignore the need to accept fossil fuels as part of our shared future”.
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A bastard or the people smugglers’ friend?
Andrew Bolt
This farce is reaching a climax:
THE Federal Government is not ruling out the forced removal of the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers from the Oceanic Viking to end a politically damaging stand-off off the coast of Indonesia.Kevin Rudd’s dilemma is this: he must order the Sri Lankans to be forcibly evicted off the ship and into Indonesian jails, thereby looking the utter bastard and hypocrite. Or he must relent and bring the asylum seekers to Christmas Island, signally to people smugglers everywhere that all they need do now to get here is to do as these boat people did - send out a distress signal when near some Australian ship, after first disabling their own boat.
However, the likelihood the Australian Customs ship and its human cargo would be redirected to Australia rose dramatically yesterday when Indonesian authorities said they would not force the asylum seekers to disembark in Tanjung Pinang.
Your predictions, please, both of the outcome and the spin Rudd will put on it.
UPDATE
The handicappers announce a relevant fact:
But it emerged yesterday that only 22 of the Oceanic Viking’s 41 crew were Customs staff - the rest being contracted civilians who could not rely on Australian Federal Police or Defence back-up in the event of a forced removal of asylum-seekers from the ship.UPDATE 2
Jill Singer lends her forensic skills as a political analyst:
IT takes a certain person to rejoice in the suffering of others. In the real world they’re called sociopaths - in politics, they’re called conservatives.Oddly, this comment appears on top of a column which then rails at “Ruthless Rudd”.
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Next week’s story is on Rudd, healer of the sick
Andrew Bolt
The 7.30 Report’s Kerry O’Brien gives Therese Rein the treatment he would have given Janette Howard, too. He files his report under this headline:
Therese Rein - passionate advocate for the disabled
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