Headlines Thursday 25th February 2010

=== Todays Toon ===

James Monroe (April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831) was the fifth President of the United States (1817–1825). His administration was marked by the acquisition of Florida (1819); the Missouri Compromise (1820), in which Missouri was declared a slave state; the admission of Maine in 1820 as a free state; and the profession of the Monroe Doctrine (1823), declaring U.S. opposition to European interference in the Americas, as well as breaking all ties with France remaining from the War of 1812. Monroe was the last U.S. President to wear a powdered wig and knee breeches according to the men´s fashion of the eighteenth century
=== Bible Quote ===
“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”- Jeremiah 29:11-13
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On the eve of Obama's most aggressive push yet to pass a national health care plan, a 50-year-old audio recording of Ronald Reagan speaking out against 'socialized medicine' has become a million-hit YouTube sensation

Toyota Chief 'Deeply Sorry'
Akio Toyoda apologizes for accidents and recalls during grilling on Capitol Hill, vows to correct problems

Ft. Hood Attack Finally Called 'Terrorism'
Janet Napolitano becomes first official to publicly describe deadly shootings at Ft. Hood, Texas as terrorist act

Whale Kills Trainer After Accident
Fla. officials say veteran trainer at SeaWorld was fatally injured by whale when she slipped and fell in its tank

Teachers' Lap Dance Video Sparks Uproar at Canadian High School

Two teachers' performance of a dirty dance at a Canadian high school rally has led to their suspension without pay, The Globe and Mail reported. After footage of the graphic lap dance was posted online, the Winnipeg School Division launched an investigation into the incident at Churchill High School.


Hunt is on for a brunette travelling as Nicole Sandra McCabe, one of the three "Australians" suspected of taking part in the killing of a top Hamas chief

Criminals get it too easy - judge
ONE of the nation's most experienced judges attacks courts for being "too soft" on criminals.

Teacher dies after nude Facebook photos
WOMAN feared she would be jailed over photos her ex-boyfriend is accused of posting on the net.

Fed-up fans bail on woeful Whitney
FANS leave in droves as singer's performance goes downhill after a 13-minute costume change.

Dad fights for life after saving baby
BURGLARS repeatedly stabbed a young father who was shielding his four-month-old daughter.

Estate agent made a real killing
IT was a grave attempt at humour that buried the crafty marketing trick of this Sydney real estate agent and killed off two homeowners - at least in print anyway. See what he did.

Aussie mum charged with murdering sons
A WOMAN has been charged with murdering her sons after their bodies were found in the bath

Child sex anti-smoking ads cause uproar
A SERIES of deliberately shocking anti-smoking adverts that compare nicotine addiction to sexual abuse sparked lively debate in France today. The images, published earlier this week, show a man pushing a kneeling child's face towards his crotch. Two feature boys and one a girl. In each, the children look fearfully up at the man, holding in their mouths a cigarette that appears to protrude from his groin. Under the image runs the slogan, "Smoking makes you a slave to tobacco".

Cannibal star devouring planet
LIKE the Roman god Saturn who ate his own children, a star 600 light years from Earth is slowly gobbling up one of its own planets. The planet, whose discovery was reported last year, is a "gas giant" with a mass about 40 per cent greater than that of Jupiter, the biggest planet of our Solar System, and with a radius 79 per cent bigger, according to a study published today in Nature.

MP Ian West muscled up to me too, says NSW Speaker Tanya Gadiel

THE state MP accused of assaulting a property executive was allegedly also physically restrained by colleagues during an incident with a female Labor MP. Police yesterday served a notice to Upper House Labor MP Ian West to appear in Burwood Court on April 13 on an assault charge. Police also served the former union official with an interim personal violence order. As the court order was served fresh allegations emerged about Mr West's behaviour yesterday.
=== 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?
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Toyota's Auto Union Impact!
Will the company's latest struggles accelerate the market for union-heavy U.S. car makers?
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Tiger's Sorry Story!
It's a "Body Language Breakdown" as our expert analyzes Woods' apology!
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Guest: Newt Gingrich
An even bigger health plan? Newt takes you inside the president's proposal!

=== Comments ===
Get Ready for Higher Taxes
By Bill O'Reilly
President Obama says his health care initiative will cost almost a trillion dollars over the next 10 years, but some analysts believe the cost will be double that. And because the USA is nearly bankrupt now, higher taxes are coming.

The group Americans for Tax Reform estimates that over the next 10 years, the feds will raise nearly $750 billion in new taxes. That, of course, will affect everybody, not just the rich. So get ready.

Already some states are taxing car accidents. If you have one, you could pay for the cleanup.

Also, some places want 911 calls taxed. You make one, you pay. If police or firefighters respond to your emergency, you could be taxed. The government calls this a fee for services.

President Obama wants to tax tanning salons. And you can expect higher taxes on everything that might not be good for you like Frosted Flakes, Haagen-Dazs and gummy bears.

Here in New York state, they are now charging sales tax when you buy stuff out of state. So if I'm down in Florida and New York state people find out I buy a boat there, they'll come after me.

In addition, expect higher tolls on roadways, higher fees for licenses, registrations, inspections and just about anything else the government can think of.

So the big government expansion President Obama wants will affect every American. We will all pay a lot more money to the government.

The question then becomes: Is a health care entitlement, or increased aid to the poor, or more money to the Pentagon worth the toll, pardon the pun, it will take on working Americans?

"Talking Points" believes we are taxed to the max right now. Just look at every bill you get. There is a tax included, and those taxes are going up, and no one will tell you that.

Obamacare is perhaps the biggest entitlement expenditure in America's history. It will bring relief to Americans who do not have health insurance, but it will also punish working Americans who are barely getting by right now.

So Americans need to wise up and figure this out. It's not all about illness. A big part of this is government control, the ability to spread the wealth around.

We have put forth common sense solutions to getting health care premiums down, but they are not included in the president's latest bill, things like tort reform and interstate insurance company competition.

President Obama has never denied that he believes in income redistribution, and that's what's underway right now: taking more of your money to fund programs. Is that healthy? You make the call.
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Teaching us how to waste billions
Andrew Bolt
A builder writes to me of another scandalous waste of money by the rush-rush-Rudd Government:

You touched on the BERS (the $15 billion Building the Education Revolution) programme. If anyone could be bothered to investigate, consult and pursue this sham like the insulation was pursued, it won’t take long to find out about the hundreds of millions of dollars ( if not billions) of tax payer money pissed down the drain by a process that was ill conceived from day one. Read fraud and rip offs like never seen before in this country.

The limited group of Architects and consultants and government appointed project managers skimmed all the cream off the top before a sod was turned and bragged about it. The big Multi nationals came out the big winners because they were the ones with the capacity to service ludicrous tender times and packages of twenty schools at a time.

The problem is, there is no hope these Companies can operate efficiently and economically to service a sector that is traditionally serviced by second and third tier builders. These large companies have completely drained the resources for the rest of us and you watch, they will dump everyone without blinking an eyelid the minute this whole sham ends.
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Flannery’s mates clean up with Garrett’s help
Andrew Bolt
One company got very lucky in the Rudd Government’s Green Loans scheme that’s since all but collapsed:

THE federal government’s Green Loans scheme was in further crisis last night over allegations of preferential treatment, failure to set minimum training standards and late payments.

About 143,000 Australian households that have had environmental assessments are still waiting to receive $50 reward cards promised by the government to buy items such as low-flow shower heads and energy-saving light bulbs, seven months into the scheme…

However, the Environment Department has been accused of giving the NSW-based company Field Force preferential treatment by giving an IT link to the department to make bookings.

Last night it was revealed that 30 per cent - or 61,500 assessments - of all assessment bookings so far have been allocated to Field Force. Field Force has 385 assessors on its books, or 7.7 per cent of all assessors in the scheme

Which company is this Fieldforce exactly?

Why, the one that’s got Tim Flannery as its front man for Green Loans business.

And, my goodness, is Flannery sure lucky for some green companies with a hand out for Rudd dollars:

2007 - We learn of a vested interest:

High profile Geodynamics shareholder and Monash University geology graduate, Tim Flannery, was named Australian of the Year on Thursday 25th January, obviously in recognition of his support of geothermal energy.

...November 2009 - We learn that Geodynamics gets yet another big grant from the Rudd Government, regardless (of the failure of its test plant), this one for $90 million for a demonstration plant.

Ah, the profits of doom. But, it must be stressed, all honestly earned.

(Thanks to reader Peter.)
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TWENTY TEN TENDULKAR
Tim Blair
Former Australian captain Steve Waugh once predicted that brother Mark would be the first player to hit 200 runs in a 50-over game. But the younger Waugh never quite made it; his 50-over peak was 173. And now India’s Sachin Tendulkar claims that double-hundred milestone, 126 years after the same mark was first reached in Tests. Remarkably, Tendulkar’s 200 came off one delivery fewer than Waugh faced in compiling his highest score …

UPDATE. Highlights:

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OUR JOB IS TO CHANGE REALITY
Tim Blair
Joe Hildebrand analyses a remarkable Cate Blanchett speech. SMH readers also attempt to work it out.
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HIGH FLYER
Tim Blair
We haven’t heard much about sensitive former Age editor-in-chief Andrew Jaspan since he was fired a couple of years ago. You can’t keep a good midget down, however. Our little mate has recently been occupied at something called Kite Mag, the “quarterly magazine for Australia’s thriving kite surfing community”:

Andrew Jaspan (Editor - digital & conversations): Andrew is a former editor in chief of The Age (2004-08). He formerly edited the prestigious British national broadsheet The Observer and is a well-respected and influential journalist and media commentator.

Next for Jaspan, according to VexNews, is a similarly high-profile role running an academic blathersite for Melbourne University. If he adds just one more micro-publication to his roster, Jaspan might overtake his former newspaper’s readership level.
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Bucks stop with Gillard, instead
Andrew Bolt

Julia Gillard discovers for herself how Kevin Rudd can promise the world, but delivers only bills and hangovers:

KEVIN Rudd may claim the buck stops with him, but apparently not when it comes to footing a $1800 bill for champagne and canapes.

The bill - for a party celebrating Labor’s new workplace relations system - went unpaid for months after the Prime Minister’s office and that of his deputy, Julia Gillard, bickered over who was meant to pay.

About 75 people whooped it up with 29 bottles of wine, beer and snacks in Ms Gillard’s ministerial suite on March 20 last year, at a cost of $1767.

The catering was ordered by Mr Rudd’s office as a “gesture of thanks for all the hard work that went into this reform”, The Canberra Times reported today.

Hounded for payment, Ms Gillard’s office was forced to email Mr Rudd’s people in September, reminding them the Prime Minister had promised to pick up the cheque.

But his office refused, with a government source claiming a reluctance to being seen as having hosted an indulgent party at the height of the global financial crisis.

Ms Gillard’s department ended up paying the full amount, marking it down as a “portfolio-related expense”.

Mind you, once again it’s us who must pay.

(Thanks to readers Bonnie and John.)
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Tell me exactly how bad the ABC is
Andrew Bolt
Er, what headline exactly was Lateline angling for with its last two questions last night to business chief Heather Ridout?

TONY JONES: The Opposition has called for big downscaling or winding back of the stimulus spending. Clearly, you don’t agree with that?

HEATHER RIDOUT: Look, we’re quite comfortable with the process of winding down the stimulus package. We’re already seeing interest rates go up, which is putting a further withdrawing the stimulus.

TONY JONES: A final and very quick question - we are nearly out of time. But, essentially, the call is “keep the stimulus going”. That’s the call from business.

HEATHER RIDOUT: The stimulus - the call from business is, we support the current program for the withdrawal of stimulus.

(Thanks to reader Arthur.)
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What trash did Rudd buy with our billions?
Andrew Bolt
As I said when Barnaby Joyce’s loose talk on Australia going bankrupt had him scolded around the country, what would Keating have done? Back off, or go in harder?

It’s a bit late now for the Opposition’s finance spokesman to attack, when his own team (notably shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey) have already made clear he goofed.

Yet I think his piece today is the start of a campaign on this Government’s frittered-away debt that could really cut through:

Debt is less of a problem when it is backed by an asset that is readily exchangeable to restore the wealth of the public coffers. However, I do not know how exchangeable the ceiling insulation will be when we need to repay the debt.

I’m not quite certain what the international market is like for second-hand school halls if we need to send them back. I suppose we could have a crack at getting the $900 cheques off the public, but I don’t like our chances.

We have, approximately, a $90bn package of eclectic economic trinkets, noted as stimulus, that would look good hanging from any rear-vision mirror in a car doing hot laps on a Friday night in downtown Dubbo.

Did we get something substantial, clearly identifiable in the form of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, or inland rail or massive water infrastructure to alleviate the problems of future droughts? Did we invest in a method to encourage people in a growing population to settle away from the crowded capitals of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane? No, we didn’t.

What we did get were big contracts to big firms with big price tags, to make big statements that didn’t deliver big outcomes.

What we got was appalling management of programs and costs as seen in the ceiling insulation fiasco, the biggest flop since the Leyland P76.
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This isn’t the gas that Gillard’s laws should be cutting
Andrew Bolt
Business is getting snippier with Kevin Rudd the more he weakens and the more it sees what he’s wrought:

WOODSIDE chief executive Don Voelte has called on the Rudd government to toughen up laws to deal with illegal strikes.

He declared the resource giant’s timetable for shipping the first gas from its $12 billion Pluto liquefied natural gas project was contingent “on a productive industrial relations environment”.

While Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard has repeatedly labelled wildcat strikes by Pluto workers as unacceptable, Mr Voelte said the laws should be changed to ensure employees returned to work sooner once their action was deemed illegal.

“It’s like a pendulum swung it too far one way with Work Choices. We’re concerned maybe we swung it a little too far the other way,” he said.
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Labor expected to be a dominant force in Tassie - with greens.
Andrew Bolt
Tasmanians must pray that Labor and Liberal know that madness lies in joining with the Greens, rather than each other:

LABOR is heading for a wipeout at the March 20 Tasmanian election, with its support now level-pegging with that of the Greens, the latest opinion poll shows…

The EMRS poll suggests the Liberals would win most seats, 10, to Labor’s nine and the Greens’ six. This would result in a minority Liberal government reliant on Labor or the Greens for its survival and ability to pass legislation.
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Einfeld suffers the presidential disease
Andrew Bolt
That’s nothing. I know even world leaders who suffer this mental illness, too:

IT was about the time former judge Marcus Einfeld claimed he had found the solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict that his psychiatrist was convinced he suffered from “hypomania”, a mental disorder...

Doctor, doctor, we have another patient in the next ward:

Barack Obama on Monday pressed a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict...
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Rudd weakens. He’ll be on Insiders
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd must be panicking. Not only did he try to get onto Alan Jones’ show this morning (Jones knocked him back), but he’s ended his ban on Insiders.

He’ll appear on the show on Sunday. I won’t.

UPDATE

Rudd in his interview on Sydney’s 2GB this morning called Ray Hadley “mate” 10 times. In his interview on Melbourne’s 3AW he did not call Neil Mitchell “mate” once.

Maybe chameleon Rudd knows that mate-mate-maaaate is a Sydney thing.
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The climate faith crumbles
Andrew Bolt
Doubts are rising fast not just here, but in Britain:

Reports yesterday said the proportion of adults who believed climate change was “definitely” a reality dropped by 30 per cent over the past year, from 44 per cent to 31 per cent, in the latest survey by Ipsos Mori.

Overall, about nine out of 10 people questioned still appeared to accept some degree of global warming, The Guardian reported. But the steep drop in those without doubts raised fears that it would be harder to persuade the public to support actions to curb the problem, particularly higher prices for energy and other goods, the paper said.

When doubts are allowed again, faith vanishes and evidence once more becomes king. That is what makes this change so profound.
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Bolt Backs Gillard on this
Andrew Bolt
Julia Gillard’s extravengant spending on computers and schools halls will prove a terrible waste of money and opportunity. But her more conservative and cheaper initiatives deserve support:
THE Education Minister, Julia Gillard, has flagged the possibility of sending in inspectors as part of a second wave of reforms to fix underperforming schools.

Speaking at the National Press Club yesterday, Ms Gillard said she would examine ways to provide the support and scrutiny necessary to drive schools to improve, which could include ‘’physical inspections’’ or ‘’quality audits’’.

‘’I believe that you’ve got to have the doors open,’’ she said.

‘’Gone are the days when we could have teachers in classrooms with the door closed.
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A reporter’s reason is buried with the medicine man
Andrew Bolt
The Australian’s Nicolas Rothwell pays tribute to Aboriginal medicine man Jackie Giles, but with a disturbing lack of the respect for facts and reason that should be the hallmarks of good journalism - and our civilisation:

Mr Giles also displayed the gifts of insight and intuition that lie at the heart of traditional healing: while still young he was marked out for training in this field and embarked on a series of ordeals and vision quests designed to hone his skills. These were protracted affairs; they involved solitary journeys, encounters with spirit beings and the acquisition of acute sensory powers. He could see distant locations, he was attended by dreamtime dog familiars on long leashes that he could dispatch afar; above all, he was able to detect the body auras of troubled patients and soothe and calm their sufferings.

All this rhapsodising cannot completely blind Rothwell to the fact that Giles’s magical and tribal ways led only to disaster, and that in the end even he relied on the Western medical tradition to ease the pain that no Aboriginal magic could ever touch:

Mr Giles’s last months were bleak. Success in the art world had enabled him to buy a fleet of Toyota troop-carriers for his children and relatives. These vehicles translated into access to distant towns such as Kalgoorlie and Alice Springs, with their drinking camps, courts and jails. The influx of money helped to empty out Patjarr community, which is barely functioning today.

Mr Giles himself suffered the familiar medical collapse of old desert people caught up in the cycles of modern community life. What ailed him was not traditional: he could not heal himself. He lived his closing days in Warburton; the onset of diabetic symptoms triggered a general physical and sensory collapse. One afternoon he walked on to a smouldering fireplace; the resulting injuries resulted in a medical evacuation to Royal Perth Hospital where, sedated, far from his country, trapped in a foreign world, he died.

Note that rather than draw the obvious moral, Rothwell prefers to suggest that what hurried Giles to his death was not Aboriginal culture but the white which rendered his magic impotent:

What ailed him was not traditional: he could not heal himself.
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Honest analysis, but too timid solution
Andrew Bolt
Greg Sheridan says Kevin Rudd’s new white paper on counter terrorism is much better than its many critics claim:

For example, have you heard Hezbollah terror groups are operating in Australia? It’s in the white paper, but not the media.

Have you heard the government has declared the level of terror threat a society faces depends on the size and composition of its Muslim minority? It’s in the white paper but not the media....

For example, the white paper states of violent jihadism: “The scale of the problem will continue to depend on factors such as 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.”

This is a statement of the obvious but it is normally not allowed to be said. It begs the question: is it necessary for a liberal Western society to encourage immigration from predominantly Muslim countries with histories of significant minority support for extremism, when it is obvious such immigration will lead to big problems?

So far I’m with Sheridan. But I can’t quite buy his defence to the most obvious criticism - that a paper which announces the real threat now comes from within the Muslim community in Australia prompts measures almost entirely aimed at stopping boat people and visiting jihadists instead.

First, Sheridan caricatures the argument, and draws a false analogy with a country facing a far bigger and more entrenched Muslim minority, drawn from a more radicalised part of the globe, and brought into a country without our strong immigrant tradition:

Two chief lines of criticism of the government have emerged. One is that because the white paper and Kevin Rudd’s remarks concentrate on the growing home-grown terror threat, he should have announced millions of dollars for domestic counter-radicalisation programs, as is done in Britain. This would be a catastrophe… Britain’s anti-radicalisation program is a cross between a fiasco and a disaster. It has empowered extremists, defined extremely conservative Islam as mainstream and demoralised moderates.

And he draws also a false distinction between Australia’s society and Britain’s in suggesting an alternative solution:

The best counter-radicalisation program is a good, open decent society. Our settlement model is infinitely better than Britain’s.
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Me? A Sydney operation?
Andrew Bolt
It seems the new station that will broadcast from 1377 I’m joining has some people spinning like Rudd:

Already, senior staff at 3AW and 774 ABC are falling over themselves to portray it as a Sydney operation in Melbourne clothing.

Boys, boys, boys. The only two confirmed signings are Steve Price, who was 3AW’s program director and drive host, and me, who for years has been on 3AW and on 774 ABC before that. The other big name I’ve heard discussed for the station is thoroughly Melbourne, too.

Why were we very Melburnian when we were on 3AW, but very Sydney when we’re somewhere else? Someone seems too scared to make sense.
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What did Rudd know of this boat and when did he know it?
Andrew Bolt
Already the 15th boat to arrive just this year, lured by Kevin Rudd’s weakening of our boat people laws:

Australian authorities have intercepted another boat carrying asylum seekers off the Western Australia coast. It is believed 47 people were on board the boat stopped by an Australian Customs ship near Ashmore Islands this morning

The red dot marks the date Rudd said he go soft:

And why did this spin-mad Government delay telling us about this latest boat?

THE Rudd government denies it is playing politics by delaying news of asylum boat arrivals, despite Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor taking more than 10 hours to announce the latest interception…

The 15th asylum-seeker boat to be stopped this year, it was intercepted at 10.45am AEDT. Mr O’Connor’s office normally issues a press release within three to four hours of a boat arrival, but yesterday’s was not notified until shortly before 9pm, about 10 hours after the boat was stopped.

The interception occurred as the government sought to emphasise its security credentials, particularly in border security.

After its counter-terrorism white paper, released on Tuesday, the government spent much of yesterday promoting new laws that would allow ASIO to focus on people-smuggling… The Rudd government has been accused of playing politics with national security, with the white paper having been extensively redrafted on orders from the Prime Minister’s office.
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Rudd pays to fix what he paid to break
Andrew Bolt
Astonishing. A $2.5 billion scheme to put people into work is so bungled that Kevin Rudd must pay another $60 million to fix up the unemployment he’s caused:

KEVIN Rudd has announced a $41.2 million package to soften the blow of job losses in the insulation industry as a result of his government axing its free installation scheme.

Businesses will be offered funding to keep workers on until June when a new scheme starts or help them find another job.