Headlines Thursday 21st January 2010

=== Todays Toon ===

=== Bible Quote ===
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
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As Haiti slowly recovers from earthquake, millions have been donated by foreign countries — but not by oil-rich nations like Saudi Arabia and Iran, and even Hollywood stars have given more.

Brown-Out in White House?
Obama administration lowering expectations of passing health care reform on heels of Scott Brown's decisive Senate win in Massachusetts

Obama Policy: No Major Wins, Losses
After a year of foreign policy maneuvers, the president wins rare bipartisan praise for immediate response in Haiti

Saudi Teen Lashed for Phone in Class
A 13-year-old girl is sentenced to 90 lashes and two months in prison for taking a cell phone to school

Powerful new quake jolts Haiti
ANOTHER earthquake shook Haiti overnight, further diminishing hopes of finding survivors.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. find out what it means to me
POLITICIAN becomes first ever minister for respect in face of drunkenness and violent assaults.

Brave Max dreams of an ordinary life
HE is the little boy blue. Max, eight, has to spend up to 10 hours a day under blue light to stay alive.

Aussies desert super, invest elsewhere
EXTRA payments into super dry up after the market crash destroyed faith in retirement funds.

Conman poses as female swimsuit model
A CONMAN posed as a female swimsuit model to trick males into sending him gifts and money.

Amazon hikes Kindle royalty payments
AMAZON have offered a higher royalty payment to authors and publishers who use a self-publishing platform on its Kindle electronic book reader.

No early vote on republic, says Gillard
JULIA Gillard rejects early vote on republic, as Prince William heads to bushfire-ravaged Victoria.

Keneally's railway to re-election
THE NSW Government is fast-tracking the $8 billion West Metro to be completed within six years in a bid to salvage credibility ahead of the election.

Are these the ghosts of a boy and girl who died 60 years apart?

DOES this photo show the figures of two children, born more than half a century apart, walking in their paranormal playground?

Spooky picture taken by a family appears to show the ghosts of children who died half a decade apart, with legends saying they haunt the local cemetery. Picture: Renee English


'Drunk' crashes at teen's funeral
DRIVER nearly six times over the limit nabbed outside the funeral for one of five men killed in a crash.

Stabbed Indian cabbie vows never again
A CABBIE who was attacked by an armed robber says he's too traumatised to work again.

Confirmed. Channel 7 is Rudd's Bitch.
KEVIN Rudd set to return to morning show Sunrise where he will answer carefully screened questions.
=== Journalists Corner ===

For coverage of the critical Massachusetts senate race - More Americans turned to Fox!
Experience - The Smartest Insight - The Most Powerful Analysis
The only place for fair and balanced political coverage is Fox!
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Guest: Sarah Palin
The public stories about Sarah are everywhere! But what is Palin's private life like?
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Exclusive: Sen. John McCain
President Obama's first year is over. How did the president do and what's next?
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Guest: Sen. Lindsey Graham
How bad is Brown's win for the Dems and could it hurt health care?

=== Comments ===
Obama’s Senate loss should sound alarm for PM
Piers Akerman
BARACK Obama’s chances of winning a second term nosedived yesterday when the Democrats lost the Massachusetts Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy for the past 47 years and his brother John F. Kennedy for 10 years before that. - I cheered and laughed with the result. It was wonderful when a few hours earlier I’d read Obama’s democrat emergency plan of ‘nuclear option for health’ should Scott win. And to have heard Scott say he would oppose the mad spending program which was one enormous Democrat pork barrel and unlikely to benefit anyone in need. Still, it is still insider politics as usual in Washington, and the Democrats are still way too big. - ed.
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Commonsense Reagan vs. Elitist Obama
By Craig Shirley
During the 2008 election, then-candidate Barack Obama shocked the liberal establishment (and infuriated Bill Clinton as a pleasant byproduct) by calling Ronald Reagan’s 1980 election and presidency monumental. In other words he was a “game changing” leader, if you will.

Obama knew what he was doing, even as many suspect he is at best only a mediocre student of American presidential history.

To wit, he almost never quotes previous chief executives or cites American historical precedents to support his Jacobinistic policies.

Perhaps it is because no previous chief executive ever attempted to make Americans wholly depended upon Big Government.

Clearly, President Obama and his supporters want historians -- and indeed all Americans -- to see his presidency by the same light as Reagan’s; that his time of office will also be recorded as a political upheaval. This remains to be seen, but it is instructive to recall that Clinton was also obsessed with his place in history --calling in historians late in his second term-bewailing the fact that he never had any big crisis to confront, like some of his predecessors and thus, his eight years would not get the due he felt it deserved. (read more at the link)
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Palin on Mass. Senate Shocker: 'The Status Quo is Not Acceptable'

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," January 19, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Right now, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin joins us by phone. She's the author of the mega-best seller "Going Rogue" and a Fox News political contributor.

Governor Palin, nice to hear from you. And Governor, as you listened to the concession stand (ph) of the attorney general here in Massachusetts, what'd you think?

SARAH PALIN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ALASKA, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR (Via telephone): Oh, this is -- this is huge. You just witnessed a wicked political pivot across our country, and I think this victory of Brown's can't be overstated -- not just Brown, too, but look at the recent developments in New Jersey and Virginia, now Massachusetts. This is a tidal wave that's sweeping the country that's telling politicians in D.C. the status quo is not acceptable.

VAN SUSTEREN: From a purely strategic point of view, why do you think this happened? What -- did she have a misstep? Or what happened? (read more at the link)
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DAN OBSERVES
Tim Blair
“Lifelong Massachusetts resident and longtime political observer” Dan Kennedy, one week ago:

Are Americans so angry with Barack Obama and the Democrats that voters in liberal Massachusetts would hand the late Ted Kennedy’s senate seat over to a conservative Republican who vows to destroy healthcare reform?

Almost certainly not.

Well, we all make mistakes. But Dan really went to town with it:

My gut tells me [Coakley’s] going to win by a comfortable margin and become the state’s first female senator. Though her candidacy has been weighed down by her cautiousness …

Her cautiousness? If that was caution, Coakley unleashed would truly have been something to behold. Perhaps she might even have run some of Iowahawk’s campaign ads – except that she basically did. Next, Dan whines about “the conservative blogosphere” and media types writing about the chance of a Coakley defeat:
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NAME IS DESTINY
Tim Blair
Besides the gappy teeth, this is exactly how my life turned out.
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BROWNFALL
Tim Blair
Besides St Choke (warning: bad words) this is now the global Downfall champion:

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BOOK TOSSED
Tim Blair
It’s our old pal Graham Readfearn, apparently auditioning for a role hosting children’s TV:

Strange that Graham moved to sunny Queensland from chilly England. He may be a fan of local warming (or “warmin’”, as Graham would say). In other crucial climate developments:

Australia’s peak science agency, the CSIRO, has backed away from attributing a decade of drought in Tasmania to climate change, claiming ‘’the jury is still out’’ on the science …

One of the report’s co-authors, hydrologist David Post, told The Canberra Times there was ‘’no evidence’’ linking drought to climate change in eastern Australia, including the Murray-Darling Basin … ‘’The science is not sufficiently advanced to say it’s climate change, one way or the other.’’

Someone isn’t happy:

Australian Greens leader, Bob Brown has accused CSIRO of ‘’caving in to political pressure’’ to soften its stance on climate change in the lead-up to this year’s federal election.

Interesting.