Friday, January 22, 2010

Headlines Friday 22nd January 2010

=== Todays Toon ===

Some "Obamisms":

"No, no. I have been practicing...I bowled a 129. It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something."

"I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any seances."

"I'm here with the Girardo family here in St. Louis." --speaking via satellite to the Democratic National Convention, while in Kansas City, Missouri, Aug. 25, 2008

"Just this past week, we passed out of the out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee -- which is my committee -- a bill to call for divestment from Iran as way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don't obtain a nuclear weapon." --referring to a committee he is not on, Sderot, Israel, July 23, 2008

"Let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel's. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under a McCain...administration. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under an Obama administration. So that policy is not going to change." --Amman, Jordan, July 22, 2008

"How's it going, Sunshine?" --campaigning in Sunrise, Florida
=== Bible Quote ===
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that naturewill reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”- Galatians 6:7-8
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Ten thousand victims buried in one day as conditions spark concerns of disease

Ex-US senator admits to lovechild
FORMER US Senator John Edwards admitted today to fathering a lovechild with campaign aide Rielle Hunter, according to reports. The former Democratic presidential candidate and North Carolina senator said he was taking responsibility for his daughter, two-year-old Frances Quinn Hunter, in a written statement to NBC news. - the news wouldn't report this when they found out at the time. Instead they chose to inflate lies about President Bush. -ed.

Everything's In Play
Fox News Poll: Americans deeply divided on whether to re-elect Congress, Obama — or vote everyone out

Brown Makes Rounds on Hill
Republican senator-elect from Massachusetts arrives in D.C. to meet with Senate leaders

Taking the Bible Out of the Rifle
Contractor stops stamping Bible references on guns for U.S. military over concerns they break troop preaching ban - it didn't make a substantial difference for Cromwell at Drogheda - ed.


Aborigines will protest to the Russian ambassador over an "offensive" ice skate routine to be performed by Russia's world champions at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver - I have both Aboriginal and Russian ancestry. I want the performance to proceed. - ed.

Bouncer guilty of beating death
ZAMMIT family slams court after two men convicted of Australian tourist's death are granted bail.

Aussie soldiers in 'biblical' weapons row
AUSTRALIAN soldiers are using gunsights with biblical references as they fight the Taliban.

Wills 'can make Aussies love royals again'
JASON Donovan reckons Prince William can reinvigorate the royal family for all Australians.

More than 10,000 skimmed cards blocked
MORE than 10,000 cards have been blocked in just over a week by one of the biggest banks.

'Big Brother' test for Twitter, Facebook
FIVE journalists to be locked up with only Facebook and Twitter to test the quality of social news.

Toddler saves brother from dog attack
NEW pet dog bites six-year-old boy on the face less than an hour after family brings it home.

Schools bonuses for parents are adding up

PARENTS of more than one million school students are eligible for back-to-school bonuses of hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars, but few know they are entitled to the money.
=== Journalists Corner ===

"Even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man." ~ Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

The mechanisms of oppression and exclusion in Burma may be exceedingly harsh, but they do not deter Burma's youth from challenging the military junta in new and creative ways.

On Burma's 62nd Independence Day (January 4th), residents of Mon and Shan states woke up to find anti-regime graffiti sprawled across the main roads and public spaces: the work of brave Mon and Shan youth. In another part of the country, a group of young Burmese artists, called Generation Wave, use hip-hop and graffiti to inspire the youth to stand up to authority. Such acts of defiance can lead to arrest, torture, and lengthy jail sentences.

Despite this reality, Burma's youth continue to dare to do what is right for their country, unfazed by the enormity of the risks involved. The destruction of villages, systematic rape against ethnic women, forced labor, forced conscription, and arbitrary killings by the Burma Army are an everyday reality for many of these youth.

Show your solidarity with these brave youth by supporting international action to end mass atrocities in Burma. One way to help halt the violence is to establish a UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.

Email your Representative and urge them to co-sponsor House Resolution 898, which calls on the Obama administration to take concrete action on Burma by establishing a UN Commission of Inquiry. The culture of impunity in Burma needs to end! Do your part to make it happen!
===

Guest: Rep. Nathan Deal
He wants lawmakers to cut their own pay to cover deficit spending! Will they do it?
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Guest: Newt Gingrich
Health care heartache? Newt has the very latest on the debate!
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Guest: Mike Huckabee
Will Scott Brown kill the Democrat's health care plan? And, what is their next move?
=== Comments ===
President Obama Losing Power
By Bill O'Reilly
If you strip away all the partisan blather, one very important thing emerges from the Republican victory Tuesday night in Massachusetts: President Obama has lost momentum.

The president took a gamble last Sunday traveling to Massachusetts to support Martha Coakley. It did not work. The largely Democratic state rejected the president, Ms. Coakley and liberal politics.

Now, Obamacare is in jeopardy. There is no question independent Americans do not like the administration's policies. And you can forget about cap-and-trade and all of that stuff. It's finished.

But the big issue is the president himself. He has lost power. There's no question about it.

And here's something very interesting. After the Christmas Day bombing attempt, "Talking Points" said that Americans were becoming disenchanted with Mr. Obama's war on terrorism strategy. I said it was becoming a major issue.

Well, Scott Brown's internal polling showed that in Massachusetts, independent voters cited the president's soft approach to terrorism and Al Qaeda thugs being tried in civilian courts as two reasons Mr. Brown won.

And Wednesday, the president's own director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, told Congress he was not even aware that the underwear bomber would not be questioned by high-level federal interrogators. He wasn't even consulted about Attorney General Holder putting the bomber in civilian hands.

Mr. Blair's statement is embarrassing. Once again, the Obama administration looks chaotic in the face of terrorism.

Going forward, President Obama must stop the liberal nonsense. The American people want to be protected, they want the economy to get better, and they don't want a trillion-dollar health care plan that nobody can understand. This isn't complicated.

Independent voters, who will decide most elections in the future, are simply angry that far-left policies are in play. If you don't believe me, just look at the far-left media outlets. They're all dying. People have had enough.

If President Obama wants to make a comeback, he must simplify health care, he must cut spending, he must cut taxes to stimulate job creation, and he must get tough with Al Qaeda and other terrorists.

If he does not do that, he will continue to lose power, Republicans will regain Congress, and Mr. Obama will join Jimmy Carter in the land of unfulfilled promise.
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NO BEMOANING
Tim Blair
In praise of Australia Day. For the benefit of any foreign types happening by, describe your own Australia Day plans here.
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VOTE NOW
Tim Blair
Should South Australia get more water? I say no! (Scroll down for the poll.)
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INDUSTRY OF HYPE
Tim Blair
The UK Telegraph‘s Richard North and Vijay Kumar Raina deal with Rajendra Pachauri and the IPCC – on Indian TV. Kevin Rudd has a walk-on role.

(Via Wand)

UPDATE. An apology from the IPCC:
The UN’s top climate change body has issued an unprecedented apology over its flawed prediction that Himalayan glaciers were likely to disappear by 2035.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said yesterday that the prediction in its landmark 2007 report was “poorly substantiated” and resulted from a lapse in standards. “In drafting the paragraph in question the clear and well-established standards of evidence, required by the IPCC procedures, were not applied properly,” the panel said. “The chair, vice-chair and co-chairs of the IPCC regret the poor application of IPCC procedures in this instance.”

The stunning admission is certain to embolden critics of the panel, already under fire over a separate scandal involving hacked e-mails last year.
(Via handjive)

UPDATE II. In other non-melting developments, the sea kittens are dying, Barbra, but not because of global warming:
Everywhere he steered his skiff last week, Pete Frezza saw dead fish.

From Ponce de Leon Bay on the Southwest Coast down across Florida Bay to Lower Matecumbe in the Florida Keys—day after day, dead fish. Floating in the marina at Flamingo in Everglades National Park alone he counted more than 400 snook and 400 tarpon.

“I was so shook up, I couldn’t sleep,” said Frezza, an ecologist for Audubon of Florida and an expert flats fisherman. “Millions and millions of pilchards, threadfin herring, mullet. Ladyfish took it really bad. Whitewater Bay is just a graveyard.”

Fish in every part of the state were hammered by this month’s record-setting cold snap.
Also troubled in Florida: iguanas.

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