=== Todays Toon ===
(Jackson carrying Van Buren into office)Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. Before his presidency, he served as the eighth Vice President (1833–1837) and the 10th Secretary of State under Andrew Jackson. He was a key organizer of the Democratic Party, a dominant figure in the Second Party System, and the first president who was not of British (i.e. English, Welsh, Scottish, or Irish) descent—his ancestry was Dutch. He was the first president to be born an American citizen (his predecessors were born British subjects before the American Revolution), and is also the only president not to have spoken English as a first language, having grown up speaking Dutch. Moreover, he was the first president from New York.
=== Bible Quote ===
“Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.”- Matthew 22:37-39=== Headlines ===
Nicole McCabe says her identity was stolen as probe reveals Kevin Rudd was briefed years ago over fears spies were harvesting Australian passports
Supreme Court rejects Suu Kyi appeal
BURMA"S Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Aung San Suu Kyi against her extended house arrest, her lawyer says, keeping her in detention ahead of elections promised by the junta this year. The 64-year-old opposition leader had her incarceration lengthened by 18 months in August after being convicted over a bizarre incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home in Rangoon.
Addict offered second transplant
TAXPAYERS may have to foot the bill for dying drug user's flight overseas for life-saving surgery.
'Hot chocolate' rapist finally confesses
SEX attacker used to go trawling nightclubs for victims with one of the country's worst rapists.
Killer whale attacked, drowned trainer
TRAINER'S ponytail proved too much for a killer whale that grabbed it before drowning her.
Scientists discover giant rubbish island
FLOATING tip that rivals the great Pacific garbage patch uncovered north of the Caribbean.
Johnny Depp and girlfriend smell - report
JOHNNY Depp and his model partner aren't big on personal hygiene and are hard "to be around."
Elin needs therapy, not Tiger, says guru Rael
FRENCH UFO guru Claude Vorilhon, alias Rael, advised golf superstar Tiger Woods in an open letter to divorce his wife and embrace multiple sexual partners. "Adultery is not mental disease but a very normal behavior among both humans and animals," said the leader of the atheist Raelian Movement, whose followers believe life on earth was created by extra-terrestrials.
Girls cut baby from teen's womb
TWO teenagers performed a crude cesarean operation to hide a miscarriage from a boyfriend.
'Fake' doctor busted at hospital
A MAN allegedly pretended to be a doctor at a major hospital for about six months before he was caught.
Crowbar brawl erupts over parking row
THREE men have been charged after a wild Sydney street fight over a parking row that led to threats of a crowbar bashing and several people being hurt.
Mohd Shah Saemin's lover faces court as son detained
THE lover of dead Malaysian consulate driver Mohd Shah Saemin was heard on police phone taps helping her son flee the country and asking a travel agent how to get an urgent plane ticket overseas, a court heard. Consulate accounts clerk Nita Eriza Iskandar, 46, is accused of lying to police about the wherabouts of her son Andrew Iskandar, 20, and helping him organise his flight to Singapore early on Wednesday.
Susan Templeman is Labor's Desperate Grasp to Retain Power
A WESTERN Sydney soccer mum looks set to become Labor's secret marginal seat weapon in NSW following a meeting today of the party's national executive. Susan Templeman will become the second working mum from NSW likely to be chosen to run for Federal Parliament, with the party expected today to drop its plans to install its own candidate for the Blue Mountains seat of Macquarie and let local branch members fight it out.
Baby boy crushed by London lamp post dies
A BABY boy hit by a falling lamp post in west London on Tuesday died today, Scotland Yard announced. The one-year-old, whose name was not released, was in his pushchair when the lamp post fell, crushing the baby inside. A 62-year-old woman, who was not related to the child, suffered back injuries but was later discharged from the hospital. At the time of the incident the child was with a female carer who was not hurt, local police said. - under UK Labor things have fallen apart - ed.
Police shot while serving arrest warrant
POLICE swarmed on Fresno, California today after two sheriff's deputies and a fire investigator were shot while serving a warrant in an arson investigation. The suspect remains at large.
Old Man Winter slams the weather-weary Northeast again, packing 55 mph winds and more layers of snow.
GOP Comes Out Swinging
House minority leader tells president he believes Dems' version of health care bill would 'bankrupt' country
Climate Summit May Rise From Grave
As U.N. bigwigs meet to discuss global environmental control, their plans sound awfully familiar
No F'ing Way!
California's state legislature passes a resolution calling for a statewide 'Cuss Free Week'
Rocket Engine Passes Fiery Final Tests
A Utah company that makes powerful booster rockets for space travel conducted its final ground test on Thursday for the nation's fading space shuttle program.
Giant iceberg 'could change weather'
A BILLION-TONNE iceberg could disrupt ocean currents that drive weather patterns, experts say.
=== Journalists Corner ===
As the president makes a big push for bipartisanship, what ideas will the GOP bring to the table?
Plus, are the Dems really willing to compromise to revive reform?
===
Advertising For Adolescents!
The culture warriors speak out on what type of TV ads are appropriate!
===
Guest: Sarah Palin
Health Care Summit aftermath! Sarah Palin reacts to the latest reform strategy on Capitol Hill.
===
Cancer, Heart Disease, Diabetes
FDA Regulations - Could they cost you your life? John exposes the deadly side effects of the drug administration.
===
Join us March 2nd from 9am-6pm in New York City for a historic tribunal on crimes against women in Burma or tune in live via webcast by clicking this link.
Women have been particularly impacted by the regime's crimes. They face sexual violence, forced labor, forced relocations and the loss of their family members to political violence. This, despite the fact that the Burma is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminations Against Women (CEDAW); legally obligating the military to respect women's rights.
The United Nations must wake-up and take action to end the crimes committed against women in Burma. That is why the Women's League of Burma and the Nobel Women's Initiative have teamed up for a tribunal that will make the voices of survivors loud and clear during the UN's Commission on the Status of Women.
Nobel Prize Laureates Dr. Shirin Ebadi, Jody Williams, and Adolfo Prez Esquivel will preside as judges to hear the testimonies of the survivors. More information below.
===
INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL ON CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN OF BURMA
The Tribunal is a women‐directed and women‐centered justice and advocacy initiative. Judges will hear testimony from several women of Burma who will share their personal stories of surviving human rights violations and crimes under military rule in Burma. Their voices, and the findings and recommendations of the judges, will be directed to the Burmese regime and the internal community. The Tribunal will provide a powerful spotlight on the oppression of women of Burma in order to support the development of a just and peaceful Burma.
Adjudicated by
Dr. Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize (2003), Iran
Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize (1997), USA
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize (1980), Argentina
Prof. Vitit Muntarbhorn, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Dr. Heisoo Shin, Former Expert, UN CEDAW, Republic of Korea
March 2, 2010
9 am ‐ 6 pm
Proshansky Auditorium
The Graduate Center
City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street)
New York City
To RSVP and for information:
+1 613 569 8400 ext. 116
tribunal@nobelwomensinitiative.org
Moderator
Charlotte Bunch, Founding Director and Senior Scholar Center for Women's Global Leadership
=== Comments ===
Creating Political Fear in AmericaBy Bill O'Reilly
Earlier this week, we had a lively discussion about whether or not President Obama is a socialist. You may remember radio guy Rush Limbaugh mocked me for not putting the s-word label on Mr. Obama. Also, Fox News analyst Newt Gingrich agreed with Mr. Limbaugh that the president is a socialist, at least philosophically.
We then spoke with Bernie Goldberg, who agreed with me that the socialist label might be very damaging to Barack Obama because it scares people.
Most Americans don't like socialism. If the s-word sticks to Mr. Obama, it will hurt him politically.
On the other side, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an admitted socialist, was ranting about the global warming situation the other day, actually comparing it to the Third Reich.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT.: The reason that this debate is so important is that it reminds me in some ways of the debate taking place in this country and around the world in the late 1930s. And during that period with Nazism and fascism growing, a real danger to the United States and democratic countries all over the world, there were people in this Congress, in the British Parliament, saying don't worry, Hitler is not real. It'll disappear. We don't have to be prepared to take it on. Global warming is real.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
I could be wrong, but I believe old Bernie is trying to scare us.
And then there is top presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett, who was asked about the Tea Party movement at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VALERIE JARRETT, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: It's always a lot easier, again, to scare people and to get them angry when they're already scared and they're already uncertain. I think that's what the Tea Party has tried to capture.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
All right. Now, unlike the statement from Sanders, Ms. Jarrett may have a point. Many Americans are frightened. They see the Obama administration spending record amounts of money, funds the country doesn't have. And there are controversies over terrorism, taxation and other things important to the folks. So yes, some Tea Party people are in the game because they're afraid. But "Talking Points" doesn't think that's a bad thing.
Fear is a tremendous motivator. If you think your roof's going to collapse and you build a stronger roof, that's positive, is it not?
It is a rational and distorted fear that is damaging, that can lead to violence and heartbreak. It can also paralyze people, making them incapable of correcting problems.
So fear is a double-edged sword, and there is no question it is being wielded all over the country these days.
===
A lot of cash for not much better
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd said in September that if we didn’t have an enormous stimulus package ”unemployment would be going through the roof”.
The IPA’s Professor Sinclair Davidson says the facts don’t seem to justify that:
UPDATE
Reader Grant:
The left hand graph needs clarification. If it is meant to say (which I think it is) that Australia’s unemployment rate has gone up roughly 1% from (say) 5% to 6% then it should be the percentage point increase in unemployment not the % increase.UPDATE 2
The latter for an increase from 5% to 6% would be 20% (ie 1/5)
Professor Davidson answers a reader’s query:
Unfortunately the OECD data source that I used for the Harmonised Unemployment Rate (basically to get the data a bit more comparible) doesn’t have complete data for New Zealand for 2009. If we look at the difference between the third quarter of 2009* (6.5%) and 2007 (3.7%) then their increase has been 2.8 percent. The OECD document that I relied on for the fiscal stimulus packages indicates that New Zealand’s package was 4.3 percent of 2008 GDP. So their increase in unemployment was higher than ours (1.2%), but their stimulus packgage on slight smaller than ours.* I suspect this might overstate the unemployment effect - it would for Australia.
===
Be warned
Andrew Bolt
We do our best to cut out the defamations, usually posted by cowards using false names. But every now and then one regretfully slips through in the daily flood of comments.
But by warned that it’s not just us who then may pay the price:
LEGAL counsel Martin Bennett has a short message for those who allow themselves to attack reputations over the internet, imagining they are safe under the cloak of anonymity. ‘’You can be hunted down and found,’’ he said yesterday.
Mr Bennett has done just that for a Perth client, winning $30,000 in damages and costs, an apology, and undertakings from a Colac man that he won’t post any more defamatory comments…
The action against Graeme Gladman began after highly uncomplimentary comments appeared last November under pseudonyms on the HotCopper website, a stockmarket forum.
UPDATE
A reader in comments below clears up an unfortunate confusion:
I know what it feels like to be defamed. My name is Graeme Gladman of Sydney and a Director of BrandQuest, and I have already fielded a number of calls on this subject.I am NOT the person referred to in the defamation case and would never - and have never - hidden behind the cloak of anonymity when posting on sites or blogs.I have no tolerance or sympathy for those who do - even my namesake!!!
===
CORRECT RESPONSE
Tim Blair
We live at a remarkable point of history, at which not only do eternal political divides reach moments of previously unknown volatility but the fates of humankind and the planet itself are believed to be at stake.
Financial, social and ecological systems are understood to be at the very brink of collapse. The most powerful nations on earth face deadly challenges that only decades ago would have been unimaginable. Many fear for their children and grandchildren, who may endure lives of torment and struggle the likes of which have not been known since the Dark Ages.
The proper response to these crises cannot be found in logic, for now even logic is a matter of dispute. Also, there is no sense pursuing reason in the viewpoints of those welded to fundamentalism of any stripe, for there is no reasoning to be had with those so afflicted.
Instead, we must seek a response reflecting the universal human condition; an unbiased, dual-gendered, multi-racial response drawing upon every tradition of communication, technology and art. From those combined forces a united and uniting voice will be heard. And it will be heard in song.
===
KEVNI v KERRY
Tim Blair
Lately demolished by children, Kevin Rudd is now dissected by Kerry O’Brien. When even the ABC isn’t picking up what Rudd is throwing down, the government is in trouble.
===
So where are all the triffids and dead consumers?
Andrew Bolt
How much has our superstitious bans on GM crops, still maintained in some states, cost us? How far do we now trail our competitors, both in the development of this science and in market share? The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Crops marks the rise and rise of the science-armed farmer:
2009 - Top 12 GM countriesTasmania and South Australia still maintain bans on GM crops, and Western Australia lifted its own (partially) only last month.
USA
64 (million hectares)
Soybean, corn, cotton, canola, squash, papaya, alfalfa (lucerne), sugarbeet
Brazil
21.4
Soybean, corn, cotton
Argentina
21.3
Soybean, corn, cotton
India
8.4
Cotton
Canada
8.2
Canola, corn, soybean, sugarbeet
China
3.7
Cotton, tomato, poplar, papaya, sweet pepper
Paraguay
2.2
Soybean
South Africa
2.1
Corn, soybean, cotton
Uruguay
0.8
Soybean, corn
Bolivia
0.8
Soybean
Philippines
0.5
Corn
Australia
0.2
Cotton, canola
===
Theo exposes the carbon capture con
Andrew Bolt
Theo Theophanous, John Brumby’s former energy minister, blows the whistle on the clean-coal technology that Labor claims will cut our emissions without huge job losses:
AUSTRALIA should debate going nuclear and Victoria should be prepared to host nuclear power stations, former state energy minister Theo Theophanous said yesterday.That would be more of your billions wasted:
In a dramatic final speech to Parliament, the retiring Labor heavyweight called on Kevin Rudd to lead a national debate on nuclear power.
Mr Theophanous said Australia could not afford to put all its eggs in the ‘’clean coal’’ basket because the ‘’Holy Grail’’ of storing carbon underground might never be viable.
Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson AM MP, has announced four projects which will move to the next stage of assessment in the $2 billion Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Flagships Program.
===
Fraser really was a trickster
Andrew Bolt
David Smith, once the official secretary to Governor General Sir Ninian Stephen, exposes a couple of , um, errors by the scheming Malcolm Fraser - and tells how the sneak tried to ambush Stephen, hoping to rush him into calling early election just to wrongfoot Labor.
How laughable for Fraser to now pose as the great moral sage of the Liberals, who so constantly disappoint his magisterial self.
===
Peer-reviewed abuse from Ove
Andrew Bolt
Professor Ove Hoegh-Gulberg, the prominent climate alarmist, writes a gentle reproof in comments to this post on declining faith in the warming scare:
Andrew, I guess that you believe that by trotting out the spin devoid of the facts that you’ll have us all believing in your BS. Unfortunately for you, truth is actually tougher to beat than the generation of a simple ad campaign. Those of us who believe in the truth are in it for long haul, so good luck!This, of course, is the more civilised, rational and just-the-facts kind of dialogue that fellow alarmist Clive Hamilton says wicked sceptics should try more often.
===
Madden’s spin unspun
Andrew Bolt
Shock! Proof that another spin-spin government never launches a “consultation” without having first made sure of the results:
BRUMBY government spin doctors have been caught out with plans to engage in contrived public consultations, setting up photo-opportunities to boost ministers’ local profile and leaking stories to the media.Here’s how Madden’s spinner put it:
In an email accidentally sent to the ABC, Planning Minister Justin Madden’s chief spinner detailed plans to use the cover of a public consultation to knock back plans to build a massive 25-storey tower as part of the Windsor Hotel’s re-build.
The spin doctor’s cheat sheet also included plans for Mr Madden to set-up a misleading association with Essendon Football Club to promote the government much-trumpeted respect agenda.
The former football champion is transferring to the seat of Essendon for November’s state election.
The document suggests the government release the report for public comment, and then use the reaction as a pretext for rejecting the project.Do think people are wising up to the spin merchants who have so debased the political process?
‘’Strategy at this stage is to release it [the report] for public comment as this affects the entire community and then use those responses as reason to halt it as we have listened to community views,’’ it says.
===
Gaddafi calls for jihad
Andrew Bolt
All Europe’s bribes to Gaddafi just made the monster stronger:
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi called on Thursday for jihad (holy war) against Switzerland over the ban adopted last year on the construction of minarets in the country.
“It is against unbelieving and apostate Switzerland that jihad ought to be proclaimed by all means,” Kadhafi said during a speech in the Mediterranean coastal city of Bengazi to mark the birthday of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed.
“Jihad against Switzerland, against Zionism, against foreign aggression is not terrorism,” Kadhafi said.
===
How desperate is Rudd?
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd’s media blitz this week shows just how rattled he is, and what previously shunned lengths he’s been forced to go to to stop the bleeding over the insulation scandal.
This week he swallowed his pride and for the first time asked if he could go on Alan Jones’ show. (Jones refused.)
He then asked to go on the 2GB show of Ray Hadley for the first time since he became Prime Minister. (Hadley agreed.)
He finally accepted a standing invitation to go on the ABC’s Insiders - for only the second time since he became Prime Minister.
And while he’s often been on the safer ground of the 7.30 Report, last night’s appearance was unusual in that Rudd this time went on to defend a disaster - a job he’s tended to leave to fall guys such as Penny Wong (the Copenhagen fiasco) and Peter Garrett (take your pick).
Rudd is fighting for his political life.
UPDATE
James Jeffrey:
IT seems like hardly any time since Kevin Rudd told Ray Hadley he wouldn’t go on the naughty 2GB broadcaster’s show until “you start behaving yourself”.And from the bookies:
Come to think of it, it is hardly any time: less than a fortnight. At the time, Hadley informed Strewth he had no intention of amending his ways, so a Hadley-Rudd interview seemed to be something you could safely file under “Tragically Unlikely”, alongside cold fusion and “Harry Jenkins 4EVA” tattoos.
Centrebet is offering $4 on Julia Gillard replacing Kev in the hot seat by the next election...
===
No thanks to Kerry
Andrew Bolt
Reader Arthur McArthur compares the end of previous interviews Kevin Rudd has done with Kerry O’Brien to the angry silence that ended last night’s:
28/1/10:
KERRY O’BRIEN: Kevin Rudd, thanks for talking with us,
KEVIN RUDD: Thankyou.
2/11/09:
KERRY O’BRIEN: Mr Rudd, thanks very much for joining us from Townsville tonight.
KEVIN RUDD: Thanks very much, Kerry.
22/6/09:
KERRY O’BRIEN: Kevin Rudd, thanks for talking with us.
KEVIN RUDD: Pleasure to be with you.
13/5/09:
KERRY O’BRIEN: We’re out of time. Kevin Rudd, thanks for talking with us.
KEVIN RUDD: Good to be with you.
7/4/09:
KERRY O’BRIEN: Kevin Rudd, thanks very much for talking with us.
KEVIN RUDD: Good to be with you.
4/3/09:
KERRY O’BRIEN: We’re out of time. Kevin Rudd thanks for talking with us.
KEVIN RUDD: Good to be with you.
11/12/08:
KERRY O’BRIEN: Same to you. Kevin Rudd, thanks for talking with us.
KEVIN RUDD: Thanks for having me on the program.
9/10/08:
KERRY O’BRIEN: Kevin Rudd, thanks for talking with us.
KEVIN RUDD: Good to be with you.
3/7/08:
KERRY O’BRIEN: Kevin Rudd we are out of time, thanks for talking with us.
KEVIN RUDD: Good to be with you.
21/11/07:
KERRY O’BRIEN: Kevin Rudd, we’re out of time, thanks for talking with it us.
KEVIN RUDD: Thanks for having me on the program, Kerry.
15/10/07:
KERRY O’BRIEN: Kevin Rudd, we’re out of time. But again, I look forward to our next interview, too, thank you.
KEVIN RUDD: Thank you, Kerry.
5/3/07:
KERRY O’BRIEN: Kevin Rudd, thanks for talking with us.
KEVIN RUDD: Thanks for having us on the program, Kerry.
And last night;
KERRY O’BRIEN: Kevin Rudd, thanks very much for talking with us.
(insert sounds of crickets chirping here)
===
If more Muslims are truly a problem…
Andrew Bolt
WE didn’t need the Rudd Government to tell us this week that, ahem, our own Muslim community is now a growing terrorist threat.
What we needed was to hear what the Government planned to do about it.
And the answers in its new White Paper on counter-terrorism?
Virtually zilch. Not even a word on whether it would be wise to cut immigration from Muslim nations, now running at about 28,000 a year.
Nor was there anything about ending the mad multiculturalism that rewards most those who integrate least.
Rather the reverse. The Government promised more of the stuff that’s clearly not doing the job - more of that “multiculturalism and respect for cultural diversity to maintain a society that is resilient to the hate-based and divisive narratives that fuel terrorism”.
Hey, guys. If multiculturalism has made us so “resilient to the hate-based and divisive narratives” of jihadism, why does your White Paper admit that “numerous terrorist attacks” have had to be “thwarted” in Australia since 2001, and that we now have 20 people jailed on terrorism charges, 38 people charged after anti-terrorism operations (presumably all, or mostly, Muslims, too) and 40 more denied passports?
That’s sure a lot of strife from just 340,000 Australian Muslims, as measured by the last census.
===
Making your house too good for you
Andrew Bolt
IT takes a special kind of madness to run out of land for houses in this huge and near empty continent.
And even more madness - of the finger-wagging sort - to have made our houses among the dearest in the world.
Yeah, sure, celebrate a small victory when the Legislative Council this week blocked a “development tax” the Brumby Government hoped to slap on new housing estates on the city’s fringe.
But did you know the Government plans three new bits of meddling legislation to make houses even pricier, including one to force builders to make every new house disabled-friendly?
True. Every new house could soon have to have wheelchair access, wider doors and corridors, and a toilet big enough for a wheelchair in order to allow “most (disabled) people to visit a home with dignity”?
Don’t have disabled visitors? Well, get some. Oh, and reinforce your bathroom walls with extra noggings so handrails can be fitted more cheaply for the day that you’re old, too, and need them.
Yes, I know the families out in those new estates actually tend to be young and fit - and short of the $4300 that the Housing Industry Association warns this latest social engineering will cost.
But there’s no cost too great when government moralists dream of ways to improve you.
It’s thanks to their sort that the latest annual Demographia study of housing affordability shows our houses are already far too expensive for most young couples just trying to get a start.
===
Our passports, but also our cause, too
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd is right to protest - up to a point:
AUSTRALIA yesterday warned Israel its standing as a friend would be jeopardised if it were found to have condoned the suspected theft of three Australian citizens’ identities by its Mossad spy agency to carry out a political assassination.But Greg Sheridan sums it up well:
As Kevin Rudd demanded answers over Israel’s role in the growing international scandal - and ASIO and the Australian Federal Police launched investigations - it was revealed that Australia had previously warned Israel not to use fake Australian passports for intelligence operations.
A diplomatic row broke out yesterday when three Victorians, all living in Israel, were confirmed among 26 people from four nations whose tampered passports were allegedly used by a team of suspected Israeli Mossad agents who assassinated Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month.
ISRAEL has every right to wage war against those who wage war against it but Israel certainly does not have the right to misuse the passports of innocent Australians in the process.
This was a very bad mistake by Jerusalem....
(But) let’s be clear what Israel deserves criticism for.
Israel has every right to defend itself against terrorists and murderers. The international community cannot condemn Israel for waging too indiscriminate a war against Hamas in Gaza, then condemn it all the more for a targeted strike against a key terrorist murderer.
Morally, there is no difference in Israel’s actions from those of the US when it targets al-Qa’ida and Taliban leaders in Afghanistan for strikes by unmanned drone aircraft.
===
But it was a great speech
Andrew Bolt
Yet another example of Kevin Rudd’s words being mightier than his deeds:
Australia’s largest city has recorded a 22 per cent increase in those sleeping rough.Wayside Chapel’s Graham Long defends his Prime Minister:
The rise comes more than a year after the federal government’s pledge to halve the number of homeless nationally by 2020.
… a lot of the talk is very good talk.UPDATE
Would any of those extra homeless be farmers?
THE Federal Government’s rush to buy water for the environment has cost regional Australia 5599 jobs in irrigated agriculture, according to the Victorian Farmers Federation.
(Thanks to readers and now and mh.)
===
O’Brien shows just why Rudd must go
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd last night was given his toughest interview yet on the 7.30 Report by Kerry O’Brien, whose controlled indignation was devastating.
What came out from Rudd was little but spin - how often was he going to “step up to the plate” - yet even so O’Brien managed to expose a central and defnining characteristic of this Chief Bureaucrat. O’Brien kept pointing out the devastating consequences of Rudd’s rushed insulation scheme, while Rudd kept defending the process. I’ve never seen this essential flaw in Rudd teased out so effectively.
Example:
KERRY O’BRIEN: But what went wrong, where did it go wrong?Example:
KEVIN RUDD: Well, compliance means that you have a compliance system within it which provides quality control and assessment of the installations which go into each home. The compliance…
KERRY O’BRIEN: Yes, I understand-I understand what the compliance is, I’m saying what went wrong with the compliance system? How did it fail?...
KEVIN RUDD: The Minister had established a series of risk management strategies across the program, mindful of the advice which had come forward from the risk assessors originally, but plainly the point.Example:
KERRY O’BRIEN: Okay, but it failed.
KERRY O’BRIEN: But who will take real responsibility for this failure? There were very clear early warning signs to your Environment Department from various authoritative resources very early - from industry, from various State and territory agencies. Quite bleak warnings, months before your program was rolled out.And especially this:
Despite all the steps your Department of Environment says it took and that Peter Garrett accepted as a result of those warnings, we now know that the very things warned against happened. There’ve been house fires, there’ve been deaths, there’ve been untold shoddy and unsafe installations. You’ve now been forced to collapse the scheme.
KEVIN RUDD: And what the document (prepared by Minter Ellison for the Government last year) demonstrates, as I have read it, is that the strategies put forward at that time were judged by Minter Ellison to be capable of managing the risk. That is…Game’s up. Someone has to be sacked. In my opinion it must be Rudd, since he’s demonstrated beyond question that the seeds of this disaster lie in him. A man still so satisfied with the process that actually produced a catastrophe is sure to produce yet more catastrophes still.
KERRY O’BRIEN: And that was presented to the Government on April 9 and on April 29, your Environment Department had a phone hook-up, as you’re well aware now, with all the State and Territory agencies that would have been involved in part at least in oversight of how this program was to be implemented in terms of things like quality control and health and safety requirements.
The very clear message that came from those State and Territory agencies was, it doesn’t matter how perfect your regulations are going to look on paper, we simply do not have the wherewithal, the manpower, the expertise to deliver on this. Because it is such a massive program and you are trying to do this too quickly.
KEVIN RUDD: What I would say in response to that, Kerry, is that the Minter Ellison report which you’ve just handed to me has about three specific sections which go to the question of safety and of quality control and the proper training of workers. Those three sections of the report, which you’ve actually just skipped over in what you’ve just said - the conclusion by Minter Ellison was that the strategies put in place by the Minister were either effective or capable of tolerably managing the risk.
KERRY O’BRIEN: But, Mr Rudd, you are ignoring the fact that this was on April 9, but on April 29, the people who would have been charged around this country via the States with the supervision of the regulations and the processes and the procedures, were yelling loud and clear that the risks were huge and that the regulations could not be enforced.
That was after you got this reassurance.
KEVIN RUDD: From the period when this report was delivered, which as you said was in April, and when the guidelines for the program were introduced at the end of June and early July, the Minister, I’m advised, received not just input from risk assessment documents, risk assessment meetings involving not just Minter Ellisons, but a whole range of other people, and the Department in response to that put together the guidelines for the program.
Now…
KERRY O’BRIEN: But the bottom line, Mr Rudd, is that those State agencies in that phone hook-up and the warnings they gave were right.
That is what’s happened.
KEVIN RUDD: Well, let me…
KERRY O’BRIEN: Their warnings came true.
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Gore’s Katrina con exposed
Andrew Bolt
Ever since Al Gore cynically exploited Hurricane Katrina to sell his warming scare, warming alarmists have claimed that global warming is making hurricanes and cyclones worse.
Most shamelessly, Gore even seized on the cyclone which devastated Burma in 2008 as proof of a warming world.
Yet the evidence for this scare has always been dubious at best.
And now the World Meteorological Organisation nails the exaggeration - or lie. Professor Roger Pielke Jr explains:
A team of researchers under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization has published a new review paper in Nature Geoscience (PDF) updating consensus perspectives published in 1998 and 2006…More at the link.
On North Atlantic hurricanes the paper states...:Hurricane counts (with no adjustments for possible missing cases) show a significant increase from the late 1800s to present, but do not have a significant trend from the 1850s or 1860s to present… Landfalling tropical storm and hurricane activity in the US shows no long-term increase…The paper’s conclusions about global trends might raise a few eyebrows.In terms of global tropical cyclone frequency, it was concluded25 that there was no significant change in global tropical storm or hurricane numbers from 1970 to 2004, nor any significant change in hurricane numbers for any individual basin over that period, except for the Atlantic (discussed above). Landfall in various regions of East Asia26 during the past 60 years, and those in the Philippines27 during the past century, also do not show significant trends....The paper states that projections of future activity favor a reduction in storm frequency coupled with and increase in average storm intensity, with large uncertainties:These include our assessment that tropical cyclone frequency is likely to either decrease or remain essentially the same. Despite this lack of an increase in total storm count, we project that a future increase in the globally averaged frequency of the strongest tropical cyclones is more likely than not — a higher confidence level than possible at our previous assessment.....What about more intense rainfall?. . . a detectable change in tropical-cyclone-related rainfall has not been established by existing studies.What about changes in location of storm formation, storm motion, lifetime and surge?There is no conclusive evidence that any observed changes in tropical cyclone genesis, tracks, duration and surge flooding exceed the variability expected from natural causes.Bottom line (emphasis added)?. . . we cannot at this time conclusively identify anthropogenic signals in past tropical cyclone data.
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