=== Todays Toons ===
Thomas Nast, ca. 1888. “$10,000 compliments of Pious John to help carry Indiana.” Nash suggest that department-store magnate “Pious John” Wanamaker gave away some of his fortune to support the campaign of candidate Benjamin Harrison, who is wearing the too-large hat of his grandfather, President William Henry Harrison.
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was the ninth President of the United States, an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office. The oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, and last President to be born before the United States Declaration of Independence, Harrison died on his thirty-second day in office of complications from a cold – the shortest tenure in United States presidential history. His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis, but that crisis ultimately resolved many questions about presidential succession left unanswered by the Constitution until passage of the 25th Amendment.
=== Bible Quote ===
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”- 1 John 4:9
=== Headlines ===
Climate guru Al Gore was quick to take the stage to grab his Nobel and Oscar for sounding an alarm on global warming — but now that the entire science behind climate change is under fire, why's Al so quiet?
'Crash-gate' Official to Quit
White House social secretary who took blame for a security breakdown at a state dinner last year will resign
Obama Shows Testy Side at Summit
Between roles of moderator and deal-maker at health summit, Obama dresses down classroom of GOP critics
SeaWorld Stands by Killer Whale
Aquarium officials affirm giant orca won't be punished for killing trainer, but will review procedures
Paterson Expected to Drop Election Bid Amid Scandal Over Aide
New York Gov. David Paterson has decided not to seek election to a full term amid a roiling scandal over whether he and his troopers intimidated a woman who'd reported domestic violence against one of his top aides, The New York Post reported Friday. Paterson has communicated to top advisers and supporters that he will pull the plug on his campaign Friday, multiple sources said. He's expected to make a statement at between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. ET Friday. Paterson, who took over the state's top spot when Eliot Spitzer resigned because he had sex with a prostitute, is expected to say he won't resign. On Thursday night Paterson said he intended to continue his campaign. But he also said he would talk to fellow Democrats about his future.
Child sex abuse map tracker
NEW, live aerial snapshot software tracks paedophiles' electronic file sharing activity.
Education shakeup for kindy kids
PRIMARY pupils will learn about Sorry Day under a new draft national curriculum revamp. - I think it is harsh telling children Rudd's lies, but so be it. -ed.
New gadget to beat speed cameras
MOTORISTS can now get legal speed camera and red traffic light alerts put on their phones.
Stampede to buy 'botox' in a bottle
A NEW product's just been released that claims to reduce wrinkles in just 90 seconds.
Solo sailor Jess set to make millions
JESSICA Watson could be one of the nation's richest teens with multi-million-dollar sponsorships awaiting her return to dry land.
Government bid to curb cyber creeps
AN online watchdog could soon be trawling social networking sites to combat cyber vandalism and crime. - or maybe they will target whistle blowers who embarrass the government. -ed.
Multinational unit to hunt hit squad
DUBAI police say they now have fingerprint DNA traces of one of the killers of top Hamas militant leader Mahmud al-Mabhuh. - Dubai should never have protected the terrorist. -ed
Fourth man charged, 'up to 16' footballers in alleged Phillip Island pack rape
A FOURTH man has faced court over an alleged pack rape by a group of Melbourne suburban footballers. Jack Reade, 20, of Montmorency, in the city's northeast, is charged with six counts of rape, four counts of indecent assault and single counts of unlawful imprisonment, recklessly causing injury and assault. It is alleged he was among one of up to 16 Under-19s players from suburban Montmorency Football Club who took part in the attack on Phillip Island on October 10 last year.
=== Journalists Corner ===
A quiz for America!
Do you really know where you fit in the political spectrum?
===
Guest: Bill Bennett
Republicans spoke out! But, will the Dems really listen? Bill Bennett weighs in!
===
Talk About Transparency!
Florida is letting taxpayers see exactly where their money is going ... So, why isn't Washington? Plus - comedian Jeff Garlin cracks up the governor!
===
Live from the Middle East!
Israel, the Palestinian territories, even Syria - could these be the next big investment opportunities for America? Cheryl Casone gets answers!
=== Comments ===
Bloviating Gone Wild
By Bill O'Reilly
You can look at the health care summit on Thursday in two ways. First, that it was a civil, patriotic exercise designed to deal with a problem vital to Americans. Or, it was politics as usual, bloviating beyond belief.
"Talking Points" is leaning toward the latter. For example, President Obama said his plan will bring down the health care cost. The Republicans, of course, say costs will go up.
Does your head hurt?
So let's get down to basics. Each side has one strong point.
The Democrats rightly say that medical costs are out of control and many Americans are getting hurt. That is absolutely true. And costs will continue to rise if nothing is done.
Republicans say the enormous federal intrusion into the health care system could bankrupt the country and will lead to even more chaos. That is very likely true as well.
According to public records, profits for the top five health insurance companies rose 56 percent last year. However, the profit margin in this industry is just 2.2 percent. Not big.
Another however: According to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, some health care bigshots are doing very well. At WellPoint, for example, 39 executives are paid more than a million dollars a year. And last year the company spent $27 million on lavish retreats for top brass.
In a time when many folks are suffering, that is a tough pill to shallow, pardon the pun. So the president does have ammunition when he says the system must be reformed.
A third however: Mr. Obama has no explanation for his apathy about stopping irresponsible lawsuits against medical personnel or setting up a more competitive interstate insurance system. Also, Mr. Obama cannot explain his continuing opposition to expanding privately funded health care accounts.
Now, conservatives believe the president has little interest in those things because he wants a big federal power grab, and it is hard to refute that. I believe the free marketplace could reform some health care wrongs, but Mr. Obama doesn't even want to try.
So what it comes down to is money and philosophy. Committed liberals like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid want the nanny state to provide, therefore making Americans more dependent on government.
Staunch Republicans like John McCain and Lamar Alexander want competition to lead the way and shudder at a big government health care scenario.
So it looks like the two sides are not going to meet on this thing.
Finally, "Talking Points" believes the USA is now heading towards bankruptcy and that would make every citizen sick. There's no way America can afford another multi-trillion dollar entitlement.
So health care reform, yes, but it has to be smaller and more marketplace driven.
===
GARRETT PUNTED
Tim Blair
Or so says a text message from a Canberra pal. Nothing confirmed yet.
UPDATE. It’s just a gentle little semi-punting:
Peter Garrett was today demoted by the Prime Minister over the housing insulation debacle …He’s now on full-time Lizard Watch.
Mr Rudd said Mr Garrett’s passion lay with the protection of Australia’s natural resources and his reduced range of responsibilities would be more suited to him
===
RATTLED RUDD
Tim Blair
Finally, a promise from the Prime Minister that is actually believable:
KEVIN RUDD: That is - that is correct, but I’m saying, even prior to this, the Employment Minster, for example, Mark Arbib, had in place a range of transitional training programs to take these workers from where they are now into a new set of skills and on to long term unemployment.(Via Andrew R.)
===
THREE STEPS TO WEALTH
Tim Blair
1. Hitch your insurance company to the climate change panic wagon.
2. Increase insurance premiums due to impending climate disasters.
3. Profit!
===
THINGS SCIENTISTS SAY VIII
Tim Blair
Another scientific harvest from the NYT’s mighty archives …
• 1953: “A natural sciences group tonight called upon scientists everywhere ‘to strengthen the spirit of free inquiry by clear and courageous public expression.’ Scientists were urged to lose their fear of being ‘labeled’ for saying things they believed.”
Such as being labeled a denier for believing that global warming is rubbish. Speaking of which:
• 1961: “After a week of discussions on the causes of climate change, an assembly of specialists from several continents seems to have reached unanimous agreement on only one point: it is getting colder.”
Hmmm. Sounds like some kind of consensus.
• 1969: “A close adviser of President Nixon was told by scientists this weekend that the official Federal notion of limiting population by voluntary birth control was ‘insanity,’ and birth control would have to be made compulsory to avert the chaos of threatened global overpopulation.”
Scientists really do have something against babies, don’t they? They might get over it once they discover how they’re made.
• 1972: “Thirty-three leading scientists warned today that to avoid a world environmental catastrophe Britain must soon stop building roads, tax the use of power and raw materials and eventually cut her population by half.”
Britain’s population in 1972 was about 56 million. Currently it’s above 61.3 million. No “world environmental catastrophe” has happened yet, but if 30 million Brits need killing, well, we have to do what we have to do.
• 1975: ”Scientists Ask Why World Climate Is Changing; Major Cooling May Be Ahead; Scientists Ponder Why World’s Climate Is Changing; a Major Cooling Widely Considered to Be Inevitable.”
That consensus sure seemed solid. I wonder how it was ever overturned.
• 1977: “A group of scientists opposing nuclear power plants said today that the Government’s basic safety estimates were far too optimistic and that reactor accidents might kill thousands of people by the year 2000.”
Then again, maybe not.
• 1992: “With the cold war over, many scientists are converting both their professional skills and their activist convictions from national security and nuclear weapons to other issues, particularly the environment. This intellectual shift is driven variously by principle, by a growing interest in the environment among younger scientists, by the hunger for new challenges and – not least – by the search for new sources of financial support.”
Finally, a prediction that you could take to the bank.
===
MANNE DENIED
Tim Blair
Robert Manne introduces a speech by Clive Hamilton in 2009:
Scepticism is in general, as it should be, a positive word, denoting scientific or humanistic curiosity and in particular the presence of an open mind. That is not the mindset of those who are now denying the reality of climate change.Cliave Hamilton in 2010:
Denialism, a concept that was first widely used, as far as I know, for those who claimed that the Holocaust was a fraud, is the concept I believe we should use.
Using the term “denier” does not equate climate denial with Holocaust denial.
===
Come in and help yourself
Andrew Bolt
Some border protection we’ve got there:
A boat carrying 45 asylum seekers has been intercepted off Australia’s north west coast.So what’s that navy boat we’ve got there? It doesn’t look like a tug...:
Border protection authorities found the boat about five nautical miles west of Christmas Island overnight.
===
How to turn McGuire into a martyr
Andrew Bolt
Spare me. Public opinion has already done to McGuire all that needs doing. It’s offensive to have some anti-dscrimination tsar now butt in to declare some speech not merely rude but unlawful:
EDDIE McGuire and Mick Molloy will be investigated over their allegedly homophobic mocking of male ice skaters during the Nine Network’s coverage of the Winter Olympics.
The NSW Anti-Discrimination Board will examine the comments after a complaint made against the presenters by Sydney gay rights activist Gary Burns.
===
Rudd demotes a "first-class minister"
Andrew Bolt
February 11:
… the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, stood by Mr Garrett, calling him a ”first-class minister ‘’.February 26:
Kevin Rudd announced today that he had told Mr Garrett that he had been demoted.I’m confused. What has Garrett done in the past two weeks that turned him from a first-class minister to a dud?
UPDATE
Why is Garrett the one who’s demoted, when only yesterday Rudd said he himself was to blame:
I intend to accept responsibility for what’s gone wrong here - and a fair bit has...So shouldn’t Rudd be demoted instead?
===
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.
UPDATE
It’s a poor workman who blames his tools:
The media adviser to the Planning Minister, Justin Madden, drafted the document which outlines plans to deceive the public with a false consultation process about a development behind Melbourne’s Windsor Hotel.So what about the politicians who order and implement such advice?
The adviser, Peta Duke, has now been demoted and moved out of planning.
===
PRAY FOR THE LITTLE CREATURES
Tim Blair
“Peter Garrett’s job is now to look after fluffy animals,” reports Phillip Hudson. Bad luck for them. Let’s hope Garrett pays closer attention to any emails from his new Department of Animal Fluffiness:
Demoted environment minister Peter Garrett ignored hundreds of emails from his own department warning the home insulation program was deadly and could not be rolled out in time.When it comes to job creation, Garrett is the prime beneficiary:
But they were repeatedly told job creation was the primary aim and safety was of secondary importance.
Peter Garrett remains a Cabinet minister earning $226,044 a year despite being stripped of all responsibility for the bungled home insulation scheme.What happened to the old ideal of the fair go? It’s a victim of compromisin’ Kev:
But replacement Greg Combet, who will have to fix the mess, will be paid almost $20,000 less.
Kevin Rudd has finally been through all the old Paul Keating and John Howard chapters on crisis management and, being Kevin, has opted for a page that falls cautiously between the two.Neither one thing nor the other; that’s our Prime Minister. The Age‘s Michelle Grattan:
Garrett is too incompetent to be left with roofs but safe enough when it comes to whales. And OK to be in the select ranks of the cabinet. But Combet, the insulation fixer, is not yet considered ready to join that top grade.Demoted further? Rudd’s already had to invent a whole new department to hide him; where else is there to go? Incidentally, Grattan’s piece covers much the same thematic ground as today’s Daily Telegraph editorial. Rudd is bringing Australians together. Why, even the Prime Minister himself is reaching out:
It doesn’t make a lot of long-term sense. Assuming Rudd wins a second term, Garrett could expect to be demoted further and Combet elevated.
For two years Rudd has treated [Ray] Hadley, who runs a highly influential political program, as an irrelevance. The message was obvious: Rudd didn’t need Hadley and he didn’t need Howard’s obsolete media mates. It was not until the home insulation crisis when, finally, he could ignore Hadley no longer. The word from Labor is that Rudd went to Hadley because the announcer had been running on the insulation crisis for so long and Rudd wanted to report directly to Hadley’s audience.Jones, luckless in securing a Rudd interview since late 2007 – “Labor insiders boasted last year that Jones’s political clout was being marginalised because Rudd didn’t need him” – declined the offer. But Rudd still has questions to answer:
This needs to be decoded: Hadley has been tearing Peter Garrett apart on this issue day after day for weeks. It has been a full-scale political slaughter, testimony to the power of talkback. Incredibly, the Rudd government has offered virtually no defence. It was missing in action, and losing by default.
At 6.30am the same day a most unusual event occurred. The Alan Jones breakfast program took a call from Rudd’s press office offering the Prime Minister for an interview about 7.30am on Australia’s highest rating breakfast show, Sydney-based but extending into other states. Rudd’s office was most anxious; yes, the Prime Minister would appear even after 8am if that suited.
Four deaths are associated with the insulation scheme. Did the Prime Minister seek a briefing about what was going wrong out there in the roofs? Apparently not.And the scamming continues:
Several electricians told The Weekend Australian they had been contacted by insulation companies offering to sell their customer lists for $50 to $100 per name in an attempt to profit from the inspection program after the insulation scheme was suspended.Just call it “job creation”.
===
BURGERS ARE NECESSARY
Tim Blair
Harrison Ford – a driving presence in George Lucas’s only good movie – is in trouble with the activity police:
Environmental activists have blasted Harrison Ford for making “unnecessary” trips by air, following revelations he once made a jet journey to buy a cheeseburger.The late, great Frank Devine once flew all the way to the US for a hamburger. This is the mark of an advanced consciousness.
The “Indiana Jones” star began flying when he was 52. After receiving his license, he went on to purchase several aircraft, which he keeps at Santa Monica Airport in California.
He recently revealed in an interview the extent of his love for piloting, telling Britain’s Live magazine, “Learning to fly was a work of art. I’m so passionate about flying I often fly up the coast for a cheeseburger. Flying is like good music; it elevates the spirit and it’s an exhilarating freedom.”
But the 67-year-old has come under fire from experts at Carbonfootprint.com over the comments, who are outraged he would make an airplane journey for such an “unnecessary” trip.
UPDATE. Oh no. It turns out that Ford – unlike burger-rejoicing Frank – is just another do-as-I-say carbon hypocrite. American burgermen should refuse to serve him.
===
REVEAL NOTHING
Tim Blair
Tell-all Twittery tendencies tip off thieves:
Describing itself as ‘listing all those empty homes out there’, Please Rob Me publishes a constantly updated stream of what it calls ‘opportunities’ - giving the names of Twitter users, and details of when they left home and where they are now.This has been a public service announcement from The Blog That Cares™.
All of the information was already given out by the Twitter users themselves. Please Rob Me doesn’t actually tell prospective thieves where the users’ homes are - but if users haven’t been careful enough about protecting their personal details, an enterprising criminals could potentially be able to track down a user’s home address.
===
Harrison Fraud
Andrew Bolt
Harrison Ford will do something as spectacularly useless as get his chest waxed to save the planet from global warming, but won’t give up something that might actually make more of a difference:
Learning to fly was a work of art. I’m so passionate about flying I often fly up the coast for a cheeseburger.
===
Institute of Physics damns the Climategaters’ “science”
Andrew Bolt
The Institute of Physics, representing 36,000 members, submits a devastating assessment of Climategate to the British parliamentary inquiry into the scandal:
2. The CRU e-mails as published on the internet provide prima facie evidence of determined and co-ordinated refusals to comply with honourable scientific traditions and freedom of information law. The principle that scientists should be willing to expose their ideas and results to independent testing and replication by others, which requires the open exchange of data, procedures and materials, is vital…This submission in effect warns that this recent warming may not be unprecedented, after all, and those that claim it is may have been blinded by bias or simply fiddled their results and suppressed dissent.
3. It is important to recognise that there are two completely different categories of data set that are involved in the CRU e-mail exchanges:
· those compiled from direct instrumental measurements of land and ocean surface temperatures such as the CRU, GISS and NOAA data sets; and
· historic temperature reconstructions from measurements of ‘proxies’, for example, tree-rings.
4. The second category relating to proxy reconstructions are the basis for the conclusion that 20th century warming is unprecedented. Published reconstructions may represent only a part of the raw data available and may be sensitive to the choices made and the statistical techniques used. Different choices, omissions or statistical processes may lead to different conclusions. This possibility was evidently the reason behind some of the (rejected) requests for further information.
5. The e-mails reveal doubts as to the reliability of some of the reconstructions and raise questions as to the way in which they have been represented; for example, the apparent suppression, in graphics widely used by the IPCC, of proxy results for recent decades that do not agree with contemporary instrumental temperature measurements.
6. There is also reason for concern at the intolerance to challenge displayed in the e-mails. This impedes the process of scientific ‘self correction’, which is vital to the integrity of the scientific process as a whole, and not just to the research itself. In that context, those CRU e-mails relating to the peer-review process suggest a need for a review of its adequacy and objectivity as practised in this field and its potential vulnerability to bias or manipulation.
7. Fundamentally, we consider it should be inappropriate for the verification of the integrity of the scientific process to depend on appeals to Freedom of Information legislation. Nevertheless, the right to such appeals has been shown to be necessary. The e-mails illustrate the possibility of networks of like-minded researchers effectively excluding newcomers...
I’ll repeat: Climategate reveals the greatest scientific scandal of our lifetime.
(Thanks to reader Realist.)
===
Where did Melbourne go?
Andrew Bolt
My city is going feral. At least nine stabbings last weekend, and now:
TWO men were stabbed in separate incidents in different parts of Melbourne overnight.Time for the Labor Government to issue another press release?
UPDATE
Reader DJN:
Andrew, Have you considered an FOI application to obtain the country of birth information of the offenders? Particularly in relation to the Indian attacks. I am a retired detective sergeant and the claim that the police do not have this information is utterly false. (Major Crime) This information is REQUIRED by state and fed governments. It is part of the apprehension report and is a required field. You know the type. The computer refuses to continue until you put something in there. The media is being lied to.
===
Fraser did a Garrett on refugees
Andrew Bolt
Miranda Devine on another moralising politician who ignored warnings of a lethal problem:
Among other things, the (Rudd Government’s new) white paper (on counter terrorism) states the scale of the threat of home-grown terrorism depends on ‘’the size and make-up of local Muslim populations, including their ethnic and/or migrant origins, their geographical distribution and the success or otherwise of their integration into their host society’’.(Thanks to reader David.)
This is something that is rarely discussed… But we have vivid evidence of the consequences of poorly managed immigration in the disproportionate number of problems that have emerged from some Lebanese families who arrived in 1977 and integrated poorly into south-west Sydney.
The prime minister of the time, Malcolm Fraser, has been out and about lately, accusing the modern Liberal Party of extreme conservative tendencies, while promoting his new book. But he has never adequately explained why he ignored warnings from his immigration department that relaxing normal eligibility standards to accept thousands of Lebanese Muslims escaping the civil war was problematic.
As cabinet documents from 1976 revealed, he was warned that too many of the new arrivals were unskilled, illiterate and ‘’of questionable character’’, and there was a danger ‘’the conflicts, tensions and divisions within Lebanon will be transferred to Australia’’.
The consequences of poor integration today include social unrest, which culminated in the Cronulla riots and their violent aftermath.
And some of our worst home-grown terrorists have come from that community. They include M, the 44-year-old ringleader of the five men convicted of preparing a terrorist act this month, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
UPDATE
Speaking of Lebanese immigrants:
Michael Darwiche went on trial last week, and it did not look good. On March 19 police stopped him in a car that contained three crucial items. These were a list of addresses of people with the same surname as the man who had allegedly shot and killed his brother five days earlier, a street directory and a loaded Glock pistol. His brother’s alleged killer, Mohammed ‘’Blackie’’ Fahda, was still at large.Darwiche was this week acquitted, so must of course be presumed innocent of these charges. Anyone claiming the opposite will be snipped by me.
The police thought about this. They knew some of the Darwiches and the Fahdas (and their allies, the Razzaks) were serious drug dealers, and had been involved in a long feud, in which drive-by shootings and revenge killings were common. They had heard that a few days previously the former crime boss Adnan Darwiche had issued a message to his brother’s killer from Goulburn Supermax: ‘’I’m going to kill you, even if it’s kids, I don’t care.’’
Threats from Adnan were taken seriously. He had been forced to cut short his haj a pilgrimage to Mecca in 2003 to resolve business issues back home. In the following six months there were 18 drive-bys and murders across south-eastern Sydney, leaving six dead and five wounded.
UPDATE 2
How grotesque has Fraser’s moralising become? Judge from his condemnation of Israel’s suspected hit on Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the supplier of arms for Hamas terrorists:
Mr Fraser said the Jewish state could no longer use the Holocaust as an excuse to justify state-sanctioned murder, and criticism of its policies should not be dismissed as anti-Semitism.The first thing to say about Fraser’s claim is that it’s false. If Israel killed Mabhouh, it was not because of the Holocaust but because of the threat he posed to the lives of Israelis today. The second thing to say is that given this undoubted fact, Fraser’s suggestion that Jews are just trading on the Holocaust dead is morally despicable, and bordering on anti-Semitism.
===
Just following orders
Andrew Bolt
Peter Garrett was demoted for doing precisely what rush-rush-Rudd demanded - and for which Rudd even claims to take responsibility:
Early yesterday, a Senate committee heard that Mr Rudd never raised safety concerns as the insulation program began to run off the rails.That’s even after the first three installers had died. If Garrett deserves demotion, what does his boss deserve even more?
Safety was the responsibility of Mr Garrett and the environment department which was administering the scheme.
Mike Mrdak, a former Commonwealth co-ordinator-general, said Mr Rudd’s interest was confined to the rollout of the stimulus measures and whether they were meeting deadlines.
===
So Barrie turns to Rudd and says…
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd, desperate to talk his way out of trouble, has scrapped his ban on Insiders and will appear on tomorrow’s show for only the second time in more than two years.
So Barrie turns to him and his first question is…
UPDATE
Paul Kelly on Rudd’s sudden willingness to be interviewed by those he once banned - Ray Hadley, Alan Jones and Barrie Cassidy (love that bracketting, Barrie?):
The message this week was that Rudd saw there was a demographic he needed to urgently reach and had overlooked.Er, “overlooked” is not quite the right word. “Spat on” might be closer. From the same piece:
It was unusual because Rudd has not appeared on the Jones show since he became Prime Minister and has given not the slightest interest in doing so. Indeed, some Labor insiders boasted last year thatJones’s political clout was being marginalised because Rudd didn’t need him.
“When I was told it was the PM’s office I assumed it was a hoax call,” Jones tells Focus. “Rudd refused to come on the program for much of the 2007 election campaign. After he became Prime Minister, we asked him on. After all, he is the Prime Minister. He had a million and one invitations. But they weren’t even acknowledged...”
This follows a recent Hadley-Rudd exchange at a fundraising auction Hadley conducted before the All Stars Rugby League match on the Gold Coast. When Hadley saw Rudd sitting in front of him in the audience, he said: “PM, nice to see you here, we must talk on air one day.” Rudd’s reported reply was: “We’ll talk when you start behaving yourself.”
===
The death of reason
Andrew Bolt
Mark our intellectual decline, thanks to cultural relativism, that our schools must now prefer myths to science:
SCHOOL students will learn about Aboriginal Dreamtime stories, Chinese medicine and natural therapies but not meet the periodic table of elements until Year 10 under the new national science curriculum.Good feelings and no brains.
The curriculum, obtained by The Weekend Australian, directs that students from primary school through to Year 10 be taught the scientific knowledge of different cultures, primarily indigenous culture, including sustainable land use and traditional technologies…
The periodic table of elements is not introduced until Year 10, when the curriculum is packed with scientific ideas including DNA, genetics, evolution, the universe and plate tectonics.
“Specific knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is incorporated where it relates to science and relevant phenomena, particularly knowledge and understanding of nature and of sustainable practices,” it says. “For example, systematic observations by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures over many generations of the sequence of various natural events contribute to our scientific understanding of seasons in Australia.”
Primary students will look at traditional bush tucker and natural remedies used in indigenous cultures as well as the use of fire to promote new plant growth and their strategies for finding water. For Year 4 students, the curriculum says they should research “historical examples of different cultures’ knowledge about the national environment and living things (e.g. Aboriginal peoples’ Dreamtime stories that explain significant characteristics of the Earth’s surface and interactions between living things)”.
UPDATE
And kindergarten children must be taught one of the most destructive and brazen myths of all - that of the ”stolen generations” that no one can actually find:
KINDERGARTEN students will be told about the importance of Sorry Day and will be required to learn about indigenous societies by the end of Year 4 under the Federal Government’s draft national curriculum.(Thanks to reader LH.)
===
Useless global warming plan wastes yet more of your dollars
Andrew Bolt
Yet more rorting of yet another green scheme set up by Kevin Rudd with millions of your dollars:
There has been an eightfold rise in complaints about home solar energy systems in the past six months amid claims of dodgy installations, higher bills and unpaid rebates on electricity that has been fed back into the grid.
Before he was stripped of his responsibilities for energy efficiency yesterday, Environment Minister Peter Garrett revealed his department would launch an inspection program of households that had received the $8000 government grant for installing a solar system.
===
Rudd: legitimate to ask why he hasn’t done more
Andrew Bolt
The most poll-driven Prime Minister “confesses” to one of the most sympathetic reporters. In other words, what Laurie Oakes passes on is what the focus groups have told Kevin Rudd:
THE debate over the insulation scheme, he acknowledges, “reflects a wider disappointment in the community about what the Government has done” since taking office in 2007.And that is precisely where the Liberals must and will hit him.
“I thought we’d be much further along the road towards delivering two years into our term than we’ve been able to get,” he said.
“Some say that’s easily explicable because of the global financial crisis and the fact that we had to keep the economy afloat for a year.
“But ultimately that doesn’t wash with people, rightly or wrongly. The expectation of the public is that we still deliver on the key reforms in health, in climate change, in education and elsewhere.
“So people will be raising, legitimately, a whole series of questions about delivery...”
I think Rudd is in a lot more trouble than the polls yet show, and switching abruptly to the old Peter Beattie we’re-sorry-we-stuffed-up playbook is a sign of it. His leadership is on the line, and he has few friends in Labor who will want to save him when his magic fades.
(Thanks to readers Nettie and Pira.)
===
Break a taboo, and you lose your brakes
Andrew Bolt
Exactly what’s the bottom line with this movement?
A group of older Dutch academics and politicians have launched a petition in support of assisted suicide for the over-70s.If you agree to that, what’s the logic in denying assisted suicide to those under 70? Or 30?
They hope to attract over 40,000 signatures, enough to get the issue debated in parliament under citizens’ initiative legislation.
Under Dutch law, euthanasia can only be practised if the patient is suffering ‘unbearable pain’. The doctor must be convinced the patient is making an informed choice and a second doctor must also give his or her opinion.
But the new lobby group say people aged over 70 who are tired of life should also have the right to professional help in ending it.
(Thanks to reader Michael.)
===
And take the Nobel off him and his discredited outfit
Andrew Bolt
Less than three years after receiving a Nobel Prize for terrifying people:
Rajendra Pachauri, the controversial Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is to face an international inquiry into the performance of his organisation.(Thanks to readers Alex and Marty.)
Environment and Climate ministers meeting in closed session in Bali last night insisted that an independent review should be carried out following the publicising of mistakes in its last report, and a row surrounding Dr Pachauri’s robust response to his critics. If his management is found to be at fault his position could become untenable.
Participants in the unprecedented meeting – held at the annual assembly of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Governing Council in Bali – were sworn to secrecy over the decision and it is only expected to be announced after its detaled scope and composition have been worked out by UNEP and the World Meteorological Organisation, the two UN agencies that oversee the IPCC’s work.
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Even Rudd’s fix is rorted
Andrew Bolt
The great insulation fiasco rolls on, with every new truckload of Rudd’s free cash filling the pockets of an army of spivs:
DODGY insulation companies have been accused of rorting the government’s $19 million program to check 48,000 homes with foil insulation…I challenge anyone to nominate a government program since World War 2 that’s been so every-which-way bungled, and has wasted so much on so little.
The government ordered electrical safety checks of 48,000 homes with foil insulation more than two weeks ago, in response to fears that inept installers could have caused about 1000 roofs to become “live”.
In the meantime, householders have been able to hire electricians to check their homes and claim a $400 government refund.
Yesterday, several electricians told The Weekend Australian they had been contacted by insulation companies offering to sell their customer lists for $50 to $100 per name in an attempt to profit from the inspection program after the insulation scheme was suspended.
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