Sen. Lindsey Graham accuses attorney general of 'making bad history' in decision to send Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-conspirators to New York for trial in civilian court, as Holder defended his choice.
Israeli Settlement-Building 'Dangerous,' Obama Says
President says in Fox News interview that Israeli plans for 900 new apartments in Jewish settlement harmful to security in Middle East
The deadly war in Afghanistan was all a bit of a yawn for MP Fran Bailey as she enjoyed one last free trip on the taxpayer at a NATO Assembly in Edinburgh - and slept through the speech
Australia, NZ unite in booze blitz
THOUSANDS of extra police will flood the streets in a two-day crackdown on drunken thugs.
Pirates Attack U.S. Ship... Again
Somali pirates again attack Maersk Alabama, the scene of dramatic hijacking and rescue mission last spring
Who's Got the Safest Ride?
Insurance industry ranks the safest new vehicles for 2010 — but did any of the Big 3 make the cut?
NASA's shuttle Atlantis docks with International Space Station, reporting 'We're crashing the party' on approach to waiting station crew 220 miles above Australia.
Bushfire fear hits so be prepared ... to go
RESIDENTS told to be ready to take action in case of fire as temperatures set to soar today.
'Cosmic rays' may have hit Qantas plane
PARTICLES from outer space may have been responsible for near-disaster off Australia's coast.
Tuckerbox dog move a bone of contention
HE'S always been five miles from Gundagai but now our most famous dog could hit the road.
Tough times set to hit Christmas cheer
AUSSIES will spend less this Christmas, with workmates the first to be dumped from gift lists
Positive signs for Trishna and Krishna
GUARDIAN says "raspberry" kiss from separated twin is her way of saying everything is fine.
Air force under fire over 'no babies' rule
AIR Force draws flak after suggesting it might allow female pilots to fly fighter jets - but only if they promise not to have babies.
Adam's death leaves many questions
ADRIAN Salter phoned triple-0 out of sheer terror about 8.40am yesterday as his 36-year-old son Adam started to stab himself. But what happened next?
Another delay for Nathan Rees' rail project
THE $5.3 billion CBD Metro that Premier Nathan Rees has hung his premiership on is under a cloud, with the state's top transport bureaucrat unable to say if it will go ahead.
Black magic rape a cure, court hears
THEY were told to bring clippings of body hair to prayer sessions in hotel rooms, where self-professed angel "King Russell" was to rid them of an evil curse that hung over their families. But the two women were not to tell the angel's wife or anyone else about the secret healing sessions, which he said had to occur while they were naked.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Obama sits down with Major Garrett --
It's the interview America's waited for!
===
Guest: Senator Coburn
He wants the health care bill read on the Senate floor...every word of it. How will Dems respond?
===
Terror Trial Controversy!
New outrage over a New York trial for alleged terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Dick Morris and Karl Rove react!
===
Guest: Sarah Palin
Inside stories from the campaign, why she really decided to resign, and whether politics is in her future!
===
Email Congress today and ask them to support House Resolution 898!
This week, President Obama made his first visit to Asia and publicly called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, one principle of his new Burma policy. The Obama administration's Burma policy has four pillars which the U.S. will work toward:
* Ensuring the unconditional release of all political prisoners, including Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.We support the principles outlined in President Obama's new Burma policy. However, the Obama administration has yet to provide a mechanism to hold the junta accountable for their human rights violations including attacks against ethnic minority groups.
* Pressing for an end to conflicts with ethnic minority groups.
* Securing genuine tripartite dialogue between the ethnic nationalities, the democracy movement, and the military government.
* Holding the Burmese junta accountable for human rights violations.
Resolution 898 fills this gap by calling for the Administration to support a UN Security Council Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the junta.
Crimes against humanity have escalated as the Junta tries to consolidate power before the sham election planned for 2010. In the past few months, the regime has displaced more than 50,000 people from eastern and northern Burma, sending tens of thousands of refugees over the border into China and Thailand.
Email your member of Congress today to ask them to support this resolution so that the Obama Administration continues to remain strong on Burma.
Then amplify our voice by asking your friends and family members to support Resolution 898, which was introduced by Representative Joe Crowley (D) and Representative Peter King (R) last week.
=== Comments ===
Skewered Rudd fries in his own fat over refugees
Piers Akerman
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has been skewered by his own sense of self-importance in foreign policy matters. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has torn up plans to visit Australia this weekend and address Federal Parliament, largely due to Rudd’s mismanagement of the Sri Lankan asylum seekers on the Oceanic Viking. - It comes as no surprise that Rudd, who has based his career around asking himself questions and then answering them, should set himself a test which he fails. - ed.
===
Why the Left Fears Sarah Palin
By Bill O'Reilly
Gov. Palin and I talked on camera for about an hour Tuesday afternoon. We'll show you that interview Thursday, Friday and next Monday, and I think you'll find it interesting.
But what I find fascinating is the bashing the governor continues to receive. Here's what was said on CNN Monday night:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAOMI WOLF, AUTHOR: She wasn't just doing what the McCain team wanted. She was carrying water for policies of Rove and Cheney and Bush, including policies on torture — bear with me — and history has seen plenty of examples of a cabal, a group of people who get into power and choose a telegenic, charming, Evita-type front person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Notice the Evita reference. She was Eva Peron, a populist in Argentina loved by the folks who achieved big-time power.
Far-left pundit Eugene Robinson picked up the theme in The Washington Post: "No force on Earth can stop Sarah Palin from becoming our very own 'lite' version of Eva Peron, a glamorous and tragic legend."
Now, what are the odds that Naomi Wolf and Eugene Robinson, who operate worlds apart, come up with the Eva Peron comparison at exactly the same time? I think slim and none would be the answer to that question.
So the left is now peddling Sarah Palin as a shallow demagogue who would lead us to tragic circumstance, and fear is driving that point of view.
A study last year by the Culture and Media Institute, a conservative group, examined network news coverage of Mrs. Palin from September 29 to October 12 as she campaigned. There were 69 stories about the governor: 37 of them were negative, 30 neutral and just two — two — positive. Twenty-one of the stories portrayed Sarah Palin as unintelligent and unqualified. Eight stories used clips from "Saturday Night Live" to ridicule her. ABC News was hardest on Mrs. Palin, closely followed by NBC News.
Again, is that kind of presentation an accident? No.
So what is the left frightened about when a CBS poll shows just 23 percent of Americans have a favorable view of her?
Well, potential, that's what.
The same CBS poll shows 37% of Americans are basically undecided about Governor Palin, so she has the potential to persuade millions of voters that her vision for the country is worthy.
Mrs. Palin is the only Republican who is a genuine star, a media phenomenon. If she can recapture credibility, she can rise fast. Today, folks are getting fed up with government intrusion, political correctness and murky policies that drain personal freedom.
Polls show President Obama slipping in job approval. If that continues, a populist like Sarah Palin might well emerge as a serious contender for power. That is why the attacks on her keep coming. The left fears Sarah Palin.
===
Deceived again #3: more proof that Wong faked her sea scare
Andrew Bolt
As we noted yesterday, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong this week released a suspiciously-timed report claiming 250,000 Australian homes could be drowned by rising seas by 2100, thanks to global warming.
Her much-publicised report claimed warming could cause the seas to rise not by the 59cms that the most gloomy IPCC model put as the upper limit, but by 1.1 metres - or even 1.90 metres.
Yesterday, with the help of reader Lazlo, I showed how Wong’s report, produced by her own department, in fact actually told untruths about the IPCC predictions and relied on a discredited paper to justify its much more alarmist figure.
Then in a second post, Kris Sayce, editor of Money Morning, showed even more flaws: the misrepresention and use of Bureau of Metereology data which the bureau itself said was unreliable, the use of data guaranteed to exaggerate recent rises in sea level, and a false claim that these recent rises were unprecedented.
Now reader Cohenite points out yet more flaws which turn Wong’s report into a farce:
The misrepresentation by Wong is actually worse than Andrew’s article shows; the Sayce comment about the modern satellite data showing an increased rate of ~3mm compared to the ~1.7mm over the rest of the 20thC is not complete because those satellite measurements have been reviewed in these two papers.
The Ablain et al and Cazenave et al papers which I link to above have looked at these measurements and factored in the latest thermosteric and mass measurements. The 2008 Cazenave paper looks at the period from 2003-2008 and finds a decomposed [into the steric and mass components] sea level rate of increase of ~2.3mm pa. The 2009 Ablain paper looks at the period from 2005-2008 and finds a rate of increase of ~1.3mm pa.
During the 20thc the rate of sea level increase was ~ 1.8mm pa. But there were periods when the rate was more and when it was less, even negative, arguably in correlation with PDO phase shifts. This is exactly what we are seeing since 1992. From 1992-2003 we saw a rate of increase greater than average; from 2003 we have seen a rapidly decreasing rate of increase, again arguably in correlation with PDO phase shift.
It is simply incorrect to say there is a rapidly increasing rate of sea level increase. In fact the rate is normal and decreasing in the short term.
From the Ablain paper:
Thermosteric sea level increase is from ocean heat expansion; this hasn’t been happening since ~2003 as measures of Ocean Heat Content show a cooling sea [OHC is different from sea surface temperature which has not been showing any upward trend in any event]…(I have merged Cohenite’s two comments into one, edited it and added the graphic.)
The ramifications for Wong are this; she is a minister; she has a duty to the public to present the best and most reliable information; she has ignored the above 2 papers and a host of other relevant information. She should resign.
===
Obama convicts, but the jihadists will still win
Andrew Bolt
Barack Obama makes a farce of the civilian trial he foolishly ordered for the sake of “justice”:
A TOUGH-TALKING President Barack Obama went on the offensive today, saying that accused September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be convicted and executed… In interviews with NBC and CNN during his trip to Asia this week, Mr Obama said those offended by the legal privileges afforded to Mohammed by granting him a civilian trial, rather than a military one, won’t find it “offensive at all when he’s convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him”.“When”? So already this trial is delegitimised.
Charles Krauthammer explains why the circus of a civilian trial is exactly what Mohammed will love anyway, allowing him to broadcast his message to the world to the joy of jihadists everywhere:
Not surprisingly:
A new survey indicates U.S. President Barack Obama’s approval rating has fallen below 50 percent for the first time in his presidency. The poll, released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University in the northeastern state of Connecticut, shows Mr. Obama’s approval rating at 48 percent among registered voters, down two points from last month.UPDATE
In praise of Krauthammer.
===
Peak rock
Andrew Bolt
Overthinking IT says the decline in oil discoveries in the US helps to explain why rock music isn’t half as good as it was:
===
And children and little puppies, too
Andrew Bolt
Talk about climbing onto bandwagons and appealing to the old victimologies:
WOMEN are more vulnerable to climate change than men and will continue to bear the brunt of extreme weather conditions unless more is done to educate and empower them, a report has found.All right: without peeking at the link, guess how the UNFPA tried to rationalise its claim.
The State of World Population 2009 report, released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) today, says women have been overlooked in discussions on how to combat rising seas, drought and melting glaciers.
===
Piling on Palin
Andrew Bolt
Age correspondent and Obama barracker Anne Davies always was only too ready to retail and excuse the foulest lies about Sarah Palin. For instance:
“So Sambo beat the bitch.” The internet has been aflame over the weekend after liberal internet columnist Charley James reported on LA Progressive that the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, had uttered these words while dining at a restaurant just after the primaries season.Today Davis seems to have unconsciously let the most vicious of those smears affect her reporting on Palin’s latest TV appearance:
She [Palin] also had harsh words for the father of Bristol’s baby, Levi Johnson, whom she mocked as ‘’an aspiring porn star’’ after an appearance in Playgirl.Actually, Anne, Trig is Sarah Palin’s own child. Disregard those astonishingly cruel claims that Palin was just pretending Trig was hers to save her daughter from shame.
Mrs Palin said Levi had not spent much time with his son, Trig, lately.
And, yes, I’m sure the mistake was just a slip.
Meanwhile Newsweek resumes hostilities with this patronising, misogynist cover:
Palin responds:
The choice of photo for the cover of this week’s Newsweek is unfortunate. When it comes to Sarah Palin, this ‘news’ magazine has relished focusing on the irrelevant rather than the relevant. The Runner’s World magazine one-page profile for which this photo was taken was all about health and fitness — a subject to which I am devoted and which is critically important to this nation. The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now. If anyone can learn anything from it: it shows why you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, gender, or color of skin. The media will do anything to draw attention - even if out of context.James Lewis on the Palin witchhunt:
I felt real pain when Governor Sarah Palin was trashed over and over again by hateful screaming libs last year—just to demonstrate their vaunted compassion and tolerance, docha know? So they roundly assaulted her Down Syndrome child, her pregnant daughter, exploited her daughter’s sleazeball boyfriend, ginned up false accusations in Alaska, and somebody burned down her church in Wasilla. Raging feminists around the country were ready to tear Sarah’s hair out by the roots. A real media lynch mob.===
It just proves beyond a shadow of doubt how the Left keeps boiling over with hatred and bigotry against normal, decent people. So-called “progressives” are just today’s Stalinists. Not really nice people, you might say. More like fascist haters.
Obama detained
Andrew Bolt
It sounded so good in a speech, and made George Bush look so wicked. But the childishness of Barack Obama’s promise could not survive contact with the reality that Bush at least acknowledged:
US President Barack Obama has for the first time admitted that the US will miss the January 2010 deadline he set for closing the Guantanamo Bay prison…Yes, but that was always the problem. So at what stage do we call an utterly unrealistic promise a lie?
He said he was “not disappointed” that the deadline had slipped, saying he “knew this was going to be hard”.
Officials are trying to determine what to do with some 215 detainees still held at the US prison in Cuba.
===
Boat people think Rudd lied, too
Andrew Bolt
Even boat people in Indonesia know Kevin Rudd lied when he said he offered no “special deal” to the passengers refusing to get off the Oceanic Viking:
INDONESIA and Australian officials worked through the day yesterday transferring the 56 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers still on board the Oceanic Viking to the Tanjung Pinang detention centre.Meanwhile, Rudd ducks and weaves:
The Sri Lankans, along with 22 who disembarked on Friday, will be segregated from the more than 80 other detainees at the Australian-built centre.
Amongst these other inmates, however, there is growing anger at the special deal done to get the Tamils off the Oceanic Viking, including resettlement in Australia within a month for those who qualify as refugees.
”We feel jealous because of what’s going on,” said one, a young Afghan man who asked to be identified only by the pseudonym “Zulfiqar” for fear of violent reprisals from the Australian-trained guards at the centre.
“We’ve been here seven months, and some of the boys have only now been registered (with the UNHCR), and half of the people have not been interviewed, but in less than one week (the Oceanic Viking Sri Lankans) have been interviewed and registration is going on. So everyone is feeling jealous.”
KEVIN Rudd is refusing to say who on his staff attended key committee meetings at which a deal preferential to the 78 asylum-seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking was hammered out.===
With the standoff drawing to a close last night, the Prime Minister’s office yesterday refused to give details about the high-level border protection committee of cabinet, which set the terms of the deal that will see successful refugees resettled within four to 12 weeks.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly denied any prior knowledge of the deal, although he has acknowledged his staff were represented at the committee meetings that considered it.
Yesterday, Mr Rudd refused to say who the staff were.
Gases up again, temperature not
Andrew Bolt
You’d have expected the planet to have noticed - if our emissions really were heating the world so dangerously:
Despite the economic effects of the global financial crisis (GFC), carbon dioxide emissions from human activities rose 2 per cent in 2008 to an all-time high of 1.3 tonnes of carbon per capita per year, according to a paper published today in Nature Geoscience.===
It’s us versus us
Andrew Bolt
Here is the headline above a demand in the Sydney Morning Herald from Professor Larissa Behrendt, described as “a Eualeyai-Kamillaroi woman”, for cash for the ”stolen generations”:
Show us the money for the first apologyWhich “us” are you, Larissa?:
This us-against-them is rather artificial and unnecessary, isn’t it, when based on supposed racial differences impossible to detect with the naked eye?
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