Ashley Dupre, the high-priced call girl who brought down New York governor Eliot Spitzer (inset), has found a new line of work as a newspaper advice columnist - press seem to despise those who bring down corrupt lefties. - ed.
Obama's controversial 'safe schools' czar Kevin Jennings is under new attack after it emerges that the pro-gay group he headed until last year recommended books his critics say are pornographic.
Climate talks resume after boycott
THE Copenhagen climate summit is in chaos after developing nations staged a walkout.
Nike stands by Woods, wife less sure
JUST do it, key sponsor Nike tells troubled Tiger, as wife Elin is spotted without wedding ring.
Young Aussies 'cashing in on drug prices'
AUSSIE backpackers are bringing home more than just souvenirs, stories and happy snaps.
Judo champ a ruthless gang enforcer
A FORMER Olympic judo star was jailed after a court heard how he gruesomely tortured victims.
Foul-mouthed Irish MP no feckless fellow
AN MP's outburst revealed the F-word is not on the Irish Parliament's list of banned terms.
Diggers return to drug and alcohol battle
DIGGERS are turning to illicit drugs and alcohol as combat stress takes a rising toll on troops serving overseas.
Top cop declared he knew Buck
CHILD sex claims against swimming coach Terry Buck caused NSW's second most senior detective to disclose a potential "conflict of interest" in the case.
Graham Richardson is still a figure of influence
LABOR heavyweight Graham Richardson revealed himself as an unpaid policy adviser to Premier Kristina Keneally's Government yesterday.
PM to take weeks to recover from attack
ITALY'S Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been badly shaken by an assault that left him bloodied.
Obama to Bank Bosses: We Helped You — Now Help Us
President calls on Wall Street to make 'extraordinary' effort to boost economy in return for last year's bailout
Not So Private Property?
Overhaul of Clean Water Act ripped by opponents as one of the boldest land-grab attempts ever
Lieberman Under Attack (Mrs., that is)
Web site wants celebs to goad cancer foundation to dump Hadassah Lieberman as 'global ambassador'
Australians get their say on video game ratings
THE Australian public will finally be able to have its say the issue of an R18+ rating for video games. The Federal Attorney-General's department has released a public discussion paper on the issue - a move that was first announced in March last year. - a ridiculous position by the government, which is asking the public permission for either censoring material or releasing porn to children. Of course, they might just choose to govern appropriately instead, but that isn't on offer. - ed.
As Toyota bears the brunt of a public backlash against its latest ad, a billboard showing topless women in jeans has been named the most complained about ad for 2009
Hitman's daughter found dead
KATIE Peirce, charged over a meat cleaver attack in a pub, has been found dead in her home.
McDonald's scene of third pervert's kiss
MAN believed to be targeting McDonald's restaurants after another child was attacked.
Edelsten crash-lands chopper at airport
AFL identity crashes on first solo flight only weeks after marrying a woman 40 years his junior
Australians face Christmas travel misery
THOUSANDS of Aussies in Christmas chaos as British Airways crew vote to go on strike.
Killer mates get 43 years in jail together
TWO childhood friends have been jailed for the "barbaric" murder of teenager Damien Everett outside a primary school in Victoria.
Ex-Bega doc gets bail on sex claims
FORMER doctor Graeme Reeves has been granted continuing bail after being charged with a further 52 offences including sexually assaulting patients.
Climate ninjas scale Opera House as part of treaty protest
CLIMATE change protestors dressed like ninjas have today scaled the Sydney Opera House and unravelled a banner on one of the sails in a massive security breach at the world famous landmark. The protestors, dressed in black had been stopped by police rescue officers who were forced to scale the Opera House sails to detain them - ninja are a powerful force for good in our community. It is despicable Greenpeace use their image for their ends. - ed.
=== Journalists Corner ===
John McCain Speaks Out!
He's one of the GOP's biggest opponents to the Dem's health care agenda. Now, the senator reveals his strategy to stop the bill on the hill!
Big Bank Shakedown?
Obama meets with financial chiefs for more loans and support, but is it too soon to press the recovering sector?
===
Poking fun at the President?
Obama takes his licks from late-night comedians, but does it pale in comparison to the Bush bashings?
===
A Close Call?
Is America's health care overhaul about to go through? Greta gets the answers!
=== Comments ===
Kernot’s ex chequered path to the chancellor
Piers Akerman
STUDENTS at the Australian National University can next year look forward to some fascinating tutorials with their new chancellor, the former attorney-general and former foreign minister Gareth Evans. - It would be tragic to sweep the disgraceful decisions made by Evans under the rug. I’m sure he was just following orders, but even so, the highly rewarded Evans is undeserving and his actions prove it. On the other hand, the largely despised (by the media) Mr Ruddock made the case for Vietnamese refugees against the wishes of the ALP, who now enjoy Vietnamese community support. It is all very well spotlighting the failures of Evans as he enjoys great rewards, but their are many, like Mr Ruddock, who have done much in faithful service to the community and been despised. - ed.
===
Columnist Proposes One-Child Policy to Battle Climate Change
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," December 11, 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 "Culture War" segment tonight: a shocking proposal to save the earth from climate change. A columnist for one of Canada's largest newspapers wants the whole world to adopt China's one child per family policy:
"Humankind has not yet recalibrated its behavior to account for the fact that the world can only accommodate so many people, especially if billions get indoor plumbing and cars. The fix is simple. It's dramatic. And yet the world's leaders don't even have it on their agenda in Copenhagen."
The writer of that controversial piece, Diane Francis, joins us now from Toronto. Ms. Francis is an editor at large for the National Post.
Diane, I'm reading your piece, and I'm thinking you're extolling the virtues of China's one-child policy, and I'm wondering how you enforce that in a place like the United States of America or even Canada. - the one child policy is a means of controlling people in China, why would it be different elsewhere? - ed.
===
BELIEVE YOUR ICE
Tim Blair
A hockey stick in history:
(Via Watts Up With That)
UPDATE. Mr Bingley emails: “Dude, we really were ahead of the curve in this thread. It’s held up a lot better than the hockey stick.”
===
HERMAN’S RETURN
Tim Blair
The Pee-wee Herman sex scandal of 1991 seems positively quaint in light of subsequent celebrity antics – the guy wasn’t even married; in fact, no actual people were involved – but it’s taken actor Paul Reubens 18 years to revive his character in a stage show. The opening credits of Playhouse are still fantastic:
===
FLORIDA UNVISITED
Tim Blair
Thousands of Britons may be stuck in their freezing nation over Christmas due to an airline strike. The downsides are obvious, but on the upside: much less child abuse.
===
IRON RON
Tim Blair
Classic Barassi, from the mid-70s:
He’s a little calmer these days. Do hit that link, if you’ve some time to spare.
===
GREEN MAN’S BURDEN
Tim Blair
Following Sunday’s day off, an overnight walkout and Al Gore’s arrival, here’s a roundup of views on and from chilly Coldenhagen, beginning with Tim Wilson:
The biggest opponents of a broad, sweeping international agreement aren’t business but poor countries because they know they cannot afford the green man’s burden.
===
LET FREEDOM RING
Tim Blair
Robert James Taylor of the National Black News Journal:
Blacks should not join the global warming battle or accept new taxes or restrictions on their lives until the truth about global warming is actually known.I dream of a day when this freedom is also granted to whites.
===
Palin: laughing with, not at
Andrew Bolt
Legal Insurrection:
Sarah Palin’s appearance on the Conan O’Brien late night show generated huge positive buzz. Even (some of) the Palin haters were hard-pressed to come up with a negative about it…
Usually, late night references to Palin are of the demeaning variety, most notably David Letterman’s near continuous anti-Palin jihad and the Saturday Night Live Tina Fay skits mocking Palin…
Palin’s appearance on Conan’s show was very, very different on a variety of levels. Most obviously, Palin was presented in a sympathetic, humorous manner…
Perhaps even more important was the context. The segment started out with Palin being mocked, mildly, by William Shatner, in the manner of making sentences from Going Rogue seem so silly when presented in Shatner’s signature style… By bringing Palin onto the stage with Shatner, and having Palin mock sentences from Shatner’s own book, the show sent an enormous subliminal message: Perhaps some of the mocking of Palin that goes on in the entertainment media was not justified since anyone could be the subject of such mockery…
Palin’s appearance on the Conan show may mark a turning point. The mainstream media, very begrudgingly and in small steps, is shifting its approach to Palin as polls show Palin’s popularity rising.
===
TOES FROZE
Tim Blair
Al Gore arrives in Copenhagen, immediately gets things wrong, then unleashes the Gore Effect upon his followers:
Hundreds found themselves waiting in near-freezing cold on Monday to collect passes for the UN climate talks, as the sheer volume of people overwhelmed staff at the conference venue.Time‘s Bryan Walsh was among the frozen:
The queue snaking outside the convention center was savagely long, stretching as far as one could see, but I figured I’d spend an hour, two at most, out here in the bitter Danish cold.Now Walsh knows how his readers feel. Meanwhile, inside the venue:
I nearly froze my toes off …
What followed for us — the journalists, activists and academics who had descended on the city over the weekend to attend the second week of climate negotiations — was a six-hour ordeal of blind waiting and misinformation.
[Energy Secretary Steven] Chu and the other Obama officials are giving their public presentations at a high-tech U.S. pavilion that is equipped with a giant interactive globe—created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—that shows animated images of melting glaciers and red-hot continents. There is also free coffee.Hot, toasty US government coffee. Let’s hope it was instant.
===
HAIL THE VANQUISHING
Tim Blair
For once, Tim Flannery was right:
“In 2005 the liars about climate change were winning. Today they’ve been vanquished, I believe, once and for all.”Well, not entirely, but the polls are all heading in the right way.
===
SUSTAINABILITYVILLE
Tim Blair
Byron York visits a futuristic wonderworld:
In the high desert of central Arizona, more than five thousand miles from the global-warming summit in Copenhagen, sits an aging and unfinished vision of the enviro-friendly, sustainable life that some climate change activists foresee for us all. It’s called Arcosanti, created in 1970 by the Italian architect Paolo Soleri, and it is the prototype of a green community of the future.Nothing green ever does, from lightbulbs and economy contests to hybrids and geothermal energy. Yet in its early years, this eco-paradise was thought as crucial as Copenhagen is said to be today:
The only problem is, it doesn’t work. And it never did.
“As urban architecture, Arcosanti is probably the most important experiment undertaken in our lifetime,” wrote Newsweek in 1976.
===
Gore’s deceits catch up with him
Andrew Bolt
The old fraud gets caught out again spinning whoppers and misrepresenting the science:
Mr Gore, speaking at the Copenhagen climate change summit, stated the latest research showed that the Arctic could be completely ice-free in five years.This, by the way, is the third different date Gore has given for an ice-free Arctic as the ice stubbornly refuses to melt. His previous guesses were 2013 and 2014.
In his speech, Mr Gore told the conference: “These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.”
However, the climatologist whose work Mr Gore was relying upon dropped the former Vice-President in the water with an icy blast.
“It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at,” Dr Maslowski said. “I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this.”
Mr Gore’s office later admitted that the 75 per cent figure was one used by Dr Maslowksi as a “ballpark figure” several years ago in a conversation with Mr Gore.
Why does anyone still believe a word this carpetbagger says?
===
Fox on real leadership
Andrew Bolt
Trucking tycoon Lindsay Fox tells Sunday Business on Sky we could learn from a certain unnamed German government of the 1930s:
Look at Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s in America and the New Deal. There was an example of leadership, where he took ‘em out of Depression by building up big projects.
During the ‘30s in Europe the leadership of the country (sic) at that time, took ‘em into building the autobahns.
===
Try telling Women’s Weekly it can’t have King William
Andrew Bolt
Republicans have said that the Queen’s death will revive their cause
The architect of 1999’s failed republican referendum says the Queen would have to die or abdicate before Australians would vote out the monarchy forever. Malcolm Turnbull ... (said) the Queen’s departure from the throne would be a “watershed event that would galvanise the population” into debating what type of head of state they wantedOr ask Greg Barns:
One of the reasons why Australians voted against the proposition advocated by the republican cause in 1999 was because of an enduring admiration and affection for the Queen Mother and the current Australian Head of State – Elizabeth.... Last year in the north-eastern Victorian town of Corryong a group of women in their 60s and 70s gathered in the main street for their morning ‘cuppa.’ I was introduced to them and we began to talk about the republic. All six of these women told me that they would vote for a republic once the Queen Mother had died and Elizabeth had also died or abdicated in favour of Charles.Dream on, comrades:
The Queen is to hand over a substantial part of her public duties to Prince William to help him prepare for the day when he becomes King, according to a confidential document obtained by The Mail on Sunday… The leak will add to speculation that the Queen believes William, rather than Charles, represents the best long-term interests of the monarchy, and will raise new questions about the timing of William’s long-anticipated engagement to his girlfriend Kate Middleton.Do you really think the women of Australia will vote to get rid of King William?
===
As unprecedented as the rising sun
Andrew Bolt
How “unprecedented” is this warming? Check for yourself. Sources, explanations and caveats here.
UPDATE
JoNova adds to the basic education by explaining that ice cores show CO2 rising AFTER past warming events, which tends - if anything - to cast even more doubt on the man-made warming theory:
===
Rudd believes whatever suits him best
Andrew Bolt
As I’ve said before, Kevin Rudd will be whatever you want him to be:
A BISHOP yesterday accused Kevin Rudd of “a certain fluidity” in his religious affiliations after the Catholic-turned-Anglican reverted to his old faith and attended mass on Sunday in the chapel where the Blessed Mary MacKillop is interred.And to think Laurie Oakes believes it’s Tony Abbott that actually needs grilling about injecting faith into politics:
With Vatican officials expected to announce the canonisation of Mother MacKillop within days, the Prime Minister conducted an impromptu doorstop outside the MacKillop shrine in North Sydney, prompting a warning from Tony Abbott not to politicise the announcement of Australia’s first saint.
Robert Forsyth, the Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, told The Australian: “The Prime Minister affects a certain fluidity which perhaps church leaders wouldn’t like to see."…
Asked about his faith yesterday, Mr Rudd’s office said: “The Prime Minister was brought up as a Catholic but now usually attends Anglican services."…
One church leader yesterday described the Prime Minister’s attitude to religion as “rather postmodern,” saying ”he just belongs to everything”.
LO: I don’t want to turn this into a religious inquisition so to speak, but I’d like to ask you one question. Do you believe in evolution?Still waiting, Laurie.
TA: Yes, but I don’t want to turn into a religious inquisition either.
Lo: That’s my only question, my only religious question.
TA: But Laurie, look you’re asking me religious questions, you’ve never asked Kevin Rudd that question, have you?
LO: No, but it’s an idea.
TA: But why not? Because I mean, Kevin Rudd’s religious views are not so different from mine.... But the point I’m making Laurie is my religious views, are A, they’re personal, they’re not out there in the political market place, and they’re very similar…
LO: Except to the extent you’ve put them out there.
TA: Well I don’t do doorsteps in front of church Laurie. I mean, if there’s one person who’s put religion front and centre in the public square, to use his phrase, is Kevin Rudd, so please, next time Kevin’s here, grill him on evolution and all these other subjects.
LO: I’ll certainly ask him the question.
===
A nice little earner for the IPCC chief, and Rudd chips in
Andrew Bolt
The head of the IPCC, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, sure makes a good living from the great global warming scare. But with so many business ties with the alarmism industry, isn’t he too hopelessly compromised to be at the head of the United Nation’sclimate change organisation?
Oh, and don’t think Kevin Rudd has missed the opportunity to steer some business Pachauri’s way, which might prove coincidentally to be a useful investment in Rudd’s ambitions to become UN secretary general:
Australian Prime Minister Mr. Kevin Michael Rudd announced $1 million contribution to The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) for the project between CSIRO and TERI, aiming to develop a zero emissions solar cooling system for use in remote rural communities in un-electrified areas.... Reciprocating to the Australian premier..., Dr R K Pachauri, Director General TERI, and Chair Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), said “Our aim is to broaden this interaction over the coming years...”(Thanks to readers PlatoSays and Fiona.)
===
Smacking around an old woman
Andrew Bolt
It’s hard to believe we share the same planet:
HUMAN rights watchdog Amnesty International has called on Saudi Arabia to stay a sentence of 40 lashes handed down against a 75-year-old woman for breaching the kingdom’s sex segregation rules.Polite requests that the regime refrain from beating a 75-year-old woman may be sent to the Ambassador, Hassan Talat Nazer here: amb.auemb@mofa.gov.sa. Remember, abuse is counterproductive and the sign of a self-indulgent mind.
“The minister of the interior (Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz) is reported to have ordered the immediate detention and flogging of a 75-year-old woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, along with two Saudi Arabian men known only as Fahad and Hadyan,” the London-based watchdog said.
===
You can lead a horse to a cold blast…
Andrew Bolt
For a second I thought Lenore Taylor would have burst out of that bubble herself:
THE media pack waiting for Climate Change Minister Penny Wong in an upstairs room at an inner city hotel was entirely in the Copenhagen bubble.Did that suddenly remind the journalists that cold, not warming, was mankind’s greater threat? Did they suddenly think to check the satellite data - and discover (Good God!) that the planet hasn’t warmed since at least 2001:
Had the environment ministers’ meeting at the weekend broken the negotiating deadlock? What was happening with the rules on accounting for emissions from land use change?
And then someone opened the window… The air rushing in was bitterly cold...
Alas, no. For Taylor, it wasn’t the cold that prodded her at all:
Directly below, in Copenhagen’s famous Tivoli Gardens, a children’s choir was singing carols… Christmas barely registers at this conference… But a dose of reality is just what these talks need. It’s not about negotiating success for the sake of it, nor the triumph of national interests. This is one situation where in the end it is only the collective human interest that counts.MEANWHILE, the US sets fresh records for snow and cold:
There are now more than 40,000 people gathered in Copenhagen for the summit… Almost every one of those 40,000 people wants to be home with their family for Christmas.
And in Victoria:
Victoria’s Mount Baw Baw saw a light dusting of snow, and it’s already two weeks into summer.
===
Rudd has no answer to your ETS bill
Andrew Bolt
Thanks to Tony Abbott, the heat is at last on Kevin Rudd - and you can smell the sudden singeing:
KEVIN Rudd has refused to directly address Tony Abbott’s claim that Labor’s proposed carbon emissions trading system will cost average Australian families $1100 a year…Next question: Mr Rudd, how many millions will you pay to the United Nations as our “carbon debt”, to hand to countries such as China?
In a television interview yesterday (on Sky News), Mr Rudd was asked three times to respond to Mr Abbott’s $1100 claim, which has been at the centre of the Opposition Leader’s political attack since he won the Liberal leadership a fortnight ago.
Each time, he refused to address the figure.
===
Change the government and not just the premier
Andrew Bolt
Funnily enough, voters aren’t fooled so easily:
LABOR’S tumultuous changes in NSW over the past month, including the axing of Nathan Rees in favour of Kristina Keneally, have done nothing to steer the state government away from electoral oblivion.
Just more than a quarter of voters continue to support the NSW Labor government, according to the latest Newspoll… At 26 per cent, Labor’s primary support has plunged back to the all-time low for any incumbent government in NSW, recorded over the same period last year, in the immediate aftermath of the political execution of Mr Rees’s predecessor, Morris Iemma…
Asked to rate (Keneally) against Mr Rees, 24 per cent of voters said she was a better leader, 16 per cent said worse, 45 per cent said about the same and 15 per cent were uncommitted.
The two-party-preferred split, favouring the Coalition by 59 per cent to 41 per cent for Labor, also returns to the all-time low for Labor recorded in November and December of last year.
===
Let them first save humanity from themselves
Andrew Bolt
Saving the planet are tyrants from whom people need saving:
Iranian Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe plan to address negotiators at international climate talks in Copenhagen next week… The assistant president of Sudan, Nafie Ali Nafie kicks off the speeches at noon on Wednesday.
===
Not reason, but faith
Andrew Bolt
The Sydney Morning Herald’s alarmist Marian Wilkinson is awed by a religious ceremony that should have the rational either laughing ... or scared::
SLOWLY, carefully, the Reverend Tofiga Falani, from the tiny nation of Tuvalu, walked down the long aisle of the Copenhagen Cathedral, holding in his arms a piece of bleached dead coral from the Pacific Ocean. With him came the Reverend Suzanne Matale from Zambia clutching dried-up maize from Africa and Bishop Sofie Petersen, from Greenland carrying stones uncovered in the melting glaciers of her ice-capped home.This invention of new rites of neo-paganism is oddly familiar:
As a thousand worshippers sang All Creatures of Our God and King, the three religious leaders from far-flung corners of the world joined scores of bishops and priests who gathered in Copenhagen’s most famous church on Sunday to pray for the planet and for the politicians who are disputing its fate.
1000 of our “best and brightest” flew to Canberra to tell the Rudd Government precisely how to run our country… Indeed, you could almost hear their group omming from the moment the summit opened, as a sacred ice cube from deep Antarctica was presented for worship while didgeridoos groaned.
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