Big Business Is Often Bashed, But Is Not Always Bad - Vanderbilt. Source of cartoon: online version of the NYT "Cartoon bashing Cornelius" Democrats and ALP are big business, but against small business.
=== Bible Quote ===
“[Thanksgiving and Prayer] We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.”- 2 Thessalonians 1:3
===
This Valentine's Day, Republicans are hoping to one-up Hallmark by crafting a series of E-Cards that mock Obama and Dems while also raising funds for the GOP.
A new Australian report says women, especially those married to working husbands, were much better off in the 1950s compared with now in 2010
It's 3,000 acres of pristine Caribbean beachfront, and the House of Representatives wants it for $50 million — but most Americans couldn't visit.
Pleading for Bipartisanship
President calls for end to grandstanding, says it's time for Dems, Republicans to 'transcend petty politics'
Toyota Issues Worldwide Prius Recall
In another blow to the world's largest carmaker, Toyota announces 437,000 hybrids recalled over brake problems
The case of a woman who gave her daughter a lethal dose of an ADHD drug has sparked debate over whether it's approriate to diagnose such disorders in children / AP
Clinton Hostage-Taker Now a Fugitive
Man who took hostages at Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign office in 2007 cuts off his monitoring bracelet
Mystery Solved? Ad Firm Says 'Anonymous' Business Owners Behind Bush Billboard
Mystery solved? A Minneapolis-based advertising firm has cleared the air, sort of, surrounding a mysterious billboard that went up in Minnesota featuring a picture of former President George W. Bush with the words "Miss Me Yet?" Bev Master, office manager with Schubert & Hoey Outdoor Advertising, said the billboard -- which the firm owns -- was rented out by a "group of small business owners and individuals who just felt like Washington was against them." "They thought it was a funny way to get out their message," she added. However, Master told FoxNews.com the ad buyers wish to "remain anonymous."
Saturn's Moon Does Harbor an Ocean, New Evidence Suggests
cy plumes of water vapor erupting from Saturn's moon Enceladus have left scientists divided over whether a liquid ocean lies hidden beneath the icy surface. Now evidence from a 2008 plume fly-through by NASA's Cassini spacecraft has turned up short-lived water ions that suggest liquid water does indeed exist inside the moon. Negatively charged ions represent atoms that have more electrons than protons, and they seem relatively rare in the solar system. Scientists have found negative ions only on Earth, Saturn's moon Titan, the comets and now Enceladus. But negative water ions appear on Earth's surface only where ocean waves or waterfalls keep liquid water in motion — a suggestive hint of liquid water also in motion somewhere inside Enceladus. Cassini's plasma spectrometer also turned up negatively charged ions of hydrocarbons, or compounds made entirely of hydrogen and carbon.
Diggers' uniforms made in China
NEW uniforms raise national security concerns, and could put hundreds of jobs at risk.
'Predator' loses bid to dump confessions
ACCUSED Australian pedophile can't throw out taped confessions Texan authorities say he made.
Toyota could now face Corolla probe
DRIVERS report that power steering problems in its 2009-10 Corolla have caused accidents.
Stay out of roof, electricians' warn
GUTTERS, taps and stormwater dripping from live roofs could prove lethal for residents.
Men in love have no idea about partner
A COUPLE might face each other at the table each day but he often knows very little about her.
Call for Rockefeller witnesses continues
INVESTIGATORS are needed to help solve millionaire swinger Herman Rockefeller's murder.
Hospital bed situation critical
HOSPITALS across NSW would need thousands more beds if a bold national plan to slash waiting times in the state's emergency departments is to succeed.
Haitian 'survived 27 days' in rubble
DOCTORS treating an emaciated 28-year-old Haitian man today said they believed he survived 27 days buried in rubble after the January 12 earthquake. The man, named as Evans Monsigrace, told doctors at a University of Miami field hospital in Port-au-Prince that he had been buried by the quake while cooking rice. "Amazingly he got out after 27 days. It's amazing and we are p roud to have him here," said doctor Dushyantha Jayaweera, the chief medical officer at the centre. DrJayaweera said his patient was stable. "Today he is alert, oriented," he said. "His prognosis is very good."
Not for My School - principals threaten to withdraw from pupil testing
SMALL schools are fighting to get their test results removed from the Federal Government's new My School website. The schools are lobbying local MPs claiming students' literacy and numeracy scores from national tests have been presented on the website in a "misleading and inaccurate" way. Some parents, horrified at seeing poor results when they looked up their school's performance online, have either removed their child or threatened to. The results of some schools, where as few as six children took the tests, are skewed compared to those of larger groups of pupils elsewhere in the state.
Kick 'silenced mum's screams'
A WOMAN was betrayed by her trusted son in a "meticulously planned" murder, a court heard.
Illegal driver kills young mate
A 15-year-old is fighting for his life after he crashed his mother's car, killing a teenage passenger
Star exposes risks of 'naked scanners'
ACTOR handed printed image of his full-body scan, highlighting the privacy risks of the new devices.
Millionaire gives away 'miserable' money
BUSINESSMAN gives up fortune to help orphans - because money never made him happy.
Gunman foiled by first-day attendant
A GUNMAN fled empty-handed when an attendant didn't know how to open the store's till.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Al Qaeda ... Afghanistan ... terror around the globe!
Greta asks the tough questions, and gets real answers!
===
Brown's Critical Vote for Jobs
How will the GOP's 41st seat impact the Senate's labor confirmation hearing and the future of the job market?
===
Is Ronald in Hot Water?
McDonald's is sued for selling scalding cups of joe! "Is It Legal?" investigates!
===
Palin for President?
She isn't saying, but is she using the words that work to get into the White House? Frank Luntz reveals all!
=== Comments ===
A War Breaks Out Over the Tea Party
By Bill O'Reilly
As you may know, the Tea Party held a convention in Nashville over the weekend. Sarah Palin was the keynote speaker and spent some time defining the movement, beginning with President Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN: There are many things that he is doing today that cause an uneasiness in many, many Americans. I'm one of those who looks at the way that he is treating the trials of these terrorists kind of as, gosh, they're on a crime spree right now. No, we are in war. These are acts of war that these terrorists are committing. Please hear us. Congress, you have constitutional limits, and we want you to adhere to those. We have free market principles that built our country. Mr. President, we want you to remember those.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Well it took just moments after that before the left-wing media replied, hammering Governor Palin:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB SHRUM, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: What we heard tonight was more a masterful exercise, masterful in paranoid politics. I mean, she came across to me as a merchant of hate with an "oh gosh" smile.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now, all of this is utterly predictable. The Tea Party people do not like the liberal vision of big government and want a tougher strategy on terrorism. The far-left media despises that. Therefore they must attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL SAMMON, FOX NEWS WASHINGTON MANAGING EDITOR: The mainstream media hates the Tea Party movement almost as much as it hates Sarah Palin, and the reason is simple. That's because both are a threat. Palin is a threat down the road, whether it be in 2012 or beyond. The Tea Party is a threat because it is galvanizing Republicans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
What Bill Sammon said is absolutely true. Of course, he was attacked.
NBC News correspondent Chuck Todd said: "Come on, Bill Sammon, an absurd attack and you know it, that [the mainstream media] hates tea party movement? Please. Didn't expect a shot like that from u."
After reading Mr. Todd's statement, "The Factor" began to research the mainstream media's coverage of the Tea Party. We found only two – two — positive comments amidst thousands of reports: one by The Detroit News, the other by the Associated Press.
I mean, this is stunning. The establishment media cannot even admire the spirit of the movement, that is Americans getting involved and trying to improve their country.
Look at it this way. You can disagree with the Tea Party people, but the spirit of honest citizen involvement in government is noble. Is it not?
Yes, the Tea Party deal has elements of extremism in it. For example, I think folks who push the birther nonsense are very misguided and some of those people embrace the Tea Party.
But the American media will never embrace the Tea Party. Why? Well, generally speaking, they look down on the folks. They think you are dumb.
But the Tea Party is around, and it's only going to get stronger.
===
CAPTURE STAGED
Tim Blair
It’s the greatest Gitmo-themed theatre production since those high-stepping David Hicks Dancers thrilled local audiences:
Mamdouh Habib is taking to the stage to relive his three-year ordeal at Guantanamo Bay because he says the media is uninterested in his story.The set must be sensational. How do they fit the Electrified Treadmill of Tormentulation up there?
Waiting For Mamdouh, starring Mr Habib as himself, opened Tuesday night at the NIDA Theatre in Sydney …
Mr Habib says it is tough for him to relive his experiences on stage.
[Writer and director Kuranda Seyit] says the play will be confronting for audiences.AC/DC, Britney Spears, the Bee Gees … what a show!
“We blind them with light and blast them with sound, just like they did in Guantanamo Bay,” he said.
Mr Habib’s wife Maha and daughter Hajer make cameo appearances in the play.No appearance from Moustafa Habib, the family’s finest actor? What a rip. Anyway, let’s hope that The Mamdouh Monologues doesn’t fall victim to timing problems.
===
THEY KNOW NUANCE
Tim Blair
Jere P. Surber, professor of philosophy at the University of Denver, explains the politics of his kind:
It is because we liberal-arts professors … have carefully studied the actual dynamics of history and culture; and we have trained ourselves to think in complex, nuanced, and productive ways about the human condition that so many of us are liberals …David Thompson translates: “In short, if you haven’t reached a similarly leftwing conclusion, you haven’t achieved sufficient complexity and nuance in your thinking, you peasant. Luckily, we can count on Professor Surber and his peers to guide us to the light, such is their benign magnificence.” Locally, enlightened leftists at Media Watch carry the load.
We’re here and mostly liberal by practical deliberation, factual investigation, and rational and moral conviction.
===
MORE TROUBLE FOR THE IPCC
Tim Blair
It just keeps getting worse:
Trees will not uproot themselves and embark on blood-soaked killing sprees by 2035, global warming experts have admitted.Meanwhile – in actual IPCC news – the New York Times has finally deigned to examine this scandal-poxed bunch of self-rewarding climate gumbies, as Mark Steyn reports.
The International Panel on Climate Change confirmed the evidence had not been peer-reviewed and will now amend the section of its 2007 report devoted to ‘killer trees’ …
The killer tree scandal is the latest embarrassment for the IPCC which has also been forced to withdraw claims that global warming will cause elephants to grow to more than 200ft tall and develop an extra pair of massive tusks after sceptics pointed out it was obviously from Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King
===
SUE-PER MARIO
Tim Blair
Brisbane man James Burt, 24, learns about copyright law:
A man who bragged about illegally uploading a Super Mario Bros computer game to the internet yesterday agreed to pay manufacturer Nintendo …Ten grand? Fifty? One hundred thousand? Half a million? Keep going:
… $1.6 million in a landmark anti-piracy court settlement.If hurt Burt pays Nintendo $100 per week, he’ll have cleared his debt by October 4, 2316.
===
POLICIES TO LIVE BY
Tim Blair
It’s very well for us pundits to sit around during an election year and criticise policies. We don’t have to do the hard work of coming up with any policies in the first place.
I mean, there’s poor Kevin Rudd just bashing away at new policies day and night, running them by focus groups, checking them with factions, maybe consulting Little Gracie of Canberra – the six-year-old who informed Rudd’s Copenhagen kindergarten speech – for final approval.
It isn’t easy. And then, if the policy turns out to be pointless or wrong, like most Rudd policies, he has to go to all the trouble of reversing it or pretending it never existed.
And what if you’re Tony Abbott? Having previously (and accurately) described global warming as “crap”, he’s since had to devise a policy on it. A crap policy, as it happens, but a policy nonetheless. Next he has to come up with a bunch of policies on economics, despite not caring much about the subject.
After all their exhaustive policy-making, Rudd and Abbott get to watch their policies get torn to bits by us journalists who in most cases have never composed a policy in our lives. It isn’t right and it isn’t fair.
So here follows a brace of my own policies, submitted for public approval. They haven’t been entirely costed yet and several would guarantee a single-digit vote – they’re slightly idealistic and Green in that regard – but they are copyright-free and any party wishing to adopt them wholly or in part is welcome to. Onward, Australians, to the future!
===
HUNDREDS MUTILATED
Tim Blair
Some 180 words into an ABC piece on female genital mutilation in Australia, this paragraph appears:
Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital says it is seeing between 600 and 700 women each year who have experienced it in some form.And that’s just in Melbourne. What about Sydney? Adelaide? Perth? What the hell is going on here? The hospital’s Zeinab Mohamud tries to explain:
“Some people when they hear they say, ‘how can that happen?’ It’s when something is cultural and the people have been doing it for so long, it’s not easy to either eliminate it or to say, ‘you have got a bad culture’,” she said.You have got a bad culture. It’s not that difficult to say. Dr Ted Weaver, of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, is similarly delicate:
Dr Ted Weaver agrees and he says ordering people against the practice would be inappropriate.No. Weaver’s response is inappropriate. Recall the words of Kevin Rudd from last September:
“Silence is tantamount to tacit approval,” he said …Further from Weaver:
“We cannot afford to be silent … We have a responsibility to speak up and say ‘I swear never to commit violence against a woman’.
“I swear never to excuse violence against women and I swear never to remain silent about violence against women, and this is my solemn oath as a man, that is the oath to which all men of Australia should adhere to and swear.”
“If we try and dictate and pontificate about this and not provide culturally appropriate care, we’ll further disenfranchise those women,” he said.Forget disenfranchised. They’re disfigured.
===
New study: could the sun have warmed the world?
Andrew Bolt
Yet another paper questioning the theory that man is behind the warming of the earth over the past half-century:
The notion that scientists understand how changes in Earth’s orbit affect climate well enough for estimating long-term natural climate trends that underlie any anthropogenic climate change is challenged by findings just published.Why is Rohling’s research interesting? Because the IPCC’s argument that man’s gases have caused most of the post-war warming is based not on proof that those gases did indeed do that, but on an inability to think of any other cause. Rohling suggests he may just have found that alternative explanation, or part of it.
The new research was conducted by a team led by Professor Eelco Rohling of the University of Southampton’s School of Ocean and Earth Science hosted at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton…
According to the ‘anthropogenic hypothesis’, long-term climate impacts of man’s deforestation activities and early methane and carbon dioxide emissions have artificially held us in warm interglacial conditions, which have persisted since the end of the Pleistocene, about 11,400 years ago....
The researchers found that the current interglacial has indeed lasted some 2.0-2.5 millennia longer than predicted by the currently dominant theory for the way in which orbital changes control the ice-age cycles. This theory is based on the intensity of solar radiation reaching the Earth at latitude 65 degrees North on 21 June, the northern hemisphere Summer solstice.
But the anomaly vanished when the researchers considered a rival theory, which looks at the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth the same latitude during the summer months. Under this theory, sea levels could remain high for another two thousand years or so, even without greenhouse warming.
“Future research should more precisely narrow down the influence of orbital changes on climate,” said Rohling: “… And that is essential for a better understanding of any potential long-term impacts on climate due to man’s activities.”
And, he adds, our long-tern future looks chilly.
===
Q&A students just gave Rudd the A
Andrew Bolt
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Eric Jensen on the beating Kevin Rudd got from students on the ABC’s Q&A:
In just over an hour Kevin Rudd did more to alienate young voters than he has in more than two years of government…UPDATE
Six minutes into Q&A on ABC TV, came the first question to unsettle the Prime Minister: ‘’Mr Rudd, I’d like to know how you expect us to trust you...Our generation are the ones that got behind you in the Kevin 07 and now you expect us to trust you on everything you’re saying. And you broke promises like the laptops ones and the health ones and all the ones that are important to our generation.’’
This was the tenor of the evening - a Prime Minister criticised by young people, responding to them as he would journalists, looking all the more unattractive for it. You could see Rudd expected it to be easy, but once it started he oscillated between aggression and condescension…
As one Twitter user wrote: ‘’Kevin Rudd is ripping into the sort of girls who denied him sex in high school.’’ Unfortunately, there were moments when that was exactly how it looked.
Peter van Onselen agrees:
THE performance of Kevin Rudd on Monday night’s ABC TV program Q&A was nothing short of embarrassing…Er, actually, Prime Minister it’s not. The Australian has fact-checked a list of Rudd’s wilder claims to the school children, who were right to disbelieve:
As Rudd was taken to task by the youngsters for failing to deliver on his election commitments, he became increasingly surly, lecturing them with glib uses of political spin. The audience was having none of it (neither was Jones).
At one point, Rudd almost lost his temper with a girl all of 16 years of age, who shook her head at his answer on school laptops, telling her with a sharp look and tone in his voice: “You’re shaking your head. Can I just say that is a fact, and if you ring up principals from around the country, it’s happening.”
What Rudd said on Q&A versus reality -----Continue reading 'Q&A students just gave Rudd the A'RHETORIC: “Laptops, which is computers in schools, we said we would have a computer for every young person at secondary school from Year 9 and above by, I seem to recall, 2013 or thereabouts.”
REALITY: The original 2007 election commitment was for the laptops to be rolled out in four years (by 2011).
----------------------------------------
RHETORIC: “We are on track to doing that. We have about 260,000 computers out there in schools now ... can I just say that is a fact.”
REALITY: According to Senate estimates, 154,000 of the one million promised laptops are in operation.
===
Media Watch guru: sure, ABC staff are Leftists. They’re educated
Andrew Bolt
David Salter, former producer of the ABC’s Media Watch, insists that Leftist bias must be expected from the ABC:
You should expect no other than there is a sympathy to a liberal human(ist) approach.Indeed, this is not the first time that Salter has not just welcomed the overwhelmingly Leftist leanings of the ABC staff, but hailed it as proof of their fine education, since everyone knows that conservatives are just undereducated bums.
Salter’s former Media Watch colleague, presenter David Marr, has likewise defended Leftism as not just normal but desirable:
The natural culture of journalism is kind of vaguely soft-Left inquiry sceptical of authority. I mean, that’s just the world out of which journalists come. If they don’t come out of that world, they really can’t be reporters.Yet when accused of using Media Watch to preach Leftist politics and persecute conservatives for thought crimes, how they howled, and howled again at any accusation of ABC bias. And when even Jonathan Holmes, the best of the recent hosts, resumes the same witchhunt, who - alas - can be surprised.
You should expect no other...(No link to Salter’s chat on ABC Melbourne 774 with ABC Leftist Jon Faine.)
===
Rudd pays (off) Big TV
Andrew Bolt
Kochie will be grateful:
THE $250 million handout from the Rudd government to Australia’s television oligarchy will flow almost directly to the profits of the networks’ owners because there are no conditions that it be used for local content.(Thanks to reader CA.)
The decision to slash the licence fees paid by the commercial networks to the government, which was made just weeks after a series of meetings between television bosses and the government, including one with Kevin Rudd just before Christmas, yesterday drew fire from critics who questioned the policy of handouts to powerful TV networks in an election year.
UPDATE
This should ensure that Rudd’s mate ”Kochie” will still not tell the kind of jokes about him that he freely told about John Howard:
UPDATE 2
Still on dinosaur communications, while Kevin Rudd still ploughs on with his planned $43 billion broadband network, without even a cost-benefit analysis, reader Terry notes yet another exciting development in what’s looming as a much more flexible and cheaper option.
===
Gibbs writes words on his ham fist
Andrew Bolt
Barack Obama’s press secretary isn’t doing his own notoriously autocue-dependent boss any favors with his mockery of Sarah Palin:
Robert Gibbs showed the words “hope” and “change” on his hand as he started his daily briefing with reporters on Tuesday. Many in the room, where President Barack Obama had spoken just moments before about the need for bipartisanship, groaned at the political shot.And what did happen to all that hope and change...?
===
They all look the same, anyway
Andrew Bolt
Queensland’s future in their hands...
Step one:
Mr Palmer and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh on the weekend announced what they said was an agreement for China Power International Development to buy $US60 billion ($68.8bn) worth of coal over the next 20 years from the Galilee Basin in central Queensland.Oops. Step two:
China Power International Development, a listed company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, issued a statement yesterday in which it denied it had reached such an agreement.Oops again, Step three:
Mr Palmer then issued a statement in which he said a mistake had been made and the agreement his company, Resourcehouse, had reached was with China Power International Holding, a Chinese government-owned enterprise based in Beijing.Triple oops. Step four:
China Power International Holding’s senior vice-president instead described the agreement as a “framework agreement”, forcing Mr Palmer into desperate damage control as he flew back to Australia from China.
===
Should we be nervous about nervous Kate?
Andrew Bolt
Readers tell me I wasn’t the only one to notice how badly Kate Ellis‘s voice shook when she gave some answer in Question Time yesterday. I know she’s usefully photogenic, but is she really up to the job as Minister for Early Childhood Education, Child Care and Youth and Minister for Sport?
===
The end of certainty
Andrew Bolt
Paul Kelly in 2007:
Accepting the 2007 election settlement on industrial relations and climate change is essential for the Liberals.Paul Kelly in 2008:
Any prudent Australian government should move to put an emissions trading scheme in place. Both Rudd and (Opposition Leader Brendan) Nelson remain committed to this concept… Emissions trading looms as Nelson’s ultimate test: it is either the path to a stronger Coalition performance or the issue on which it blows out its political brains.Paul Kelly in 2009:
By that I mean that I believe that the (Liberal) party room will endorse a series of amendments (to the Government’s emissions trading scheme) which will be the basis for negotiation with the Rudd Government. I mean frankly if they oppose that, that would be signing their own political death warrant… This raises the prospect that the legislation won’t pass and that the election next year will see climate change as a frontline issue. Now this will be a mortal political threat to the Opposition.Paul Kelly in 2010:
The pivotal question, inconceivable a few months ago, is unavoidable: does Rudd stay the path with a double dissolution on his emissions trading scheme, or does he search for a fall-back to avoid the wild and populist confrontation that awaits his government.Beware the conventional wisdom on anything. Oh, and about Kelly’s claim that it was “inconceivable” until a few months ago that Rudd would be in such strife with his scheme, I respectfully point out that it was indeed both conceivable years ago - and conceived.
Senior Labor figures are divided on the best tactic, an ominous sign. Labor’s policy is in trouble. It is exposed by a rapidly shifting electoral sentiment; and it faces in Tony Abbott a re-energised Coalition machine capable, for the first time since the 2007 poll, of hurting Rudd Labor.
===
Expensive savings
Andrew Bolt
I’d have told them for free how to save $750,000:
THE Rudd government has paid more than $750,000 to a consultant to tell it how to cut the air travel costs of parliamentarians.
===
Greens smash your food bowl
Andrew Bolt
I ONCE asked the boss of a big Australian company working on Hong Kong’s new airport what he’d advise young engineers back home.
“Leave,” he snapped.
Our culture had gone sour. Development was now a sin. If you wanted to build stuff, forget Australia.
In fact, Hong Kong showed it could squash an island into a giant landing strip and build a huge bridge, underwater rail link and massive airport in the time it took in Australia to get an environmental effects statement for an extension to a milk bar.
Actually, the truth is more serious - and this week showed just how much.
It’s already a criminal betrayal of our future that we’ve had governments ban genetically modified crops, new uranium mines and nuclear waste facilities for purely superstitious or rabble-rousing reasons.
It’s already beyond reckless that not a single state capital has built a new dam since 1983, which is the real reason for years of water restrictions in Melbourne.
But what we’ve seen this week from the Government now beats all that for sheer, mindless stupidity, as deep-sigh green dreaming triumphs over jobs, trade and the spirit of adventure.
I’m talking about the report the Government released that declared an end to any dream of turning the nation’s vast north into a food bowl.
===
Governor, quit politics or quit your job
Andrew Bolt
VICTORIAN Governor David de Kretser must give up his political activism ... or resign.
On Sunday, this supposedly bipartisan official will launch a divisive “civil campaign” with radical green activists and Marxists.
That campaign is explicitly political, with organisers declaring on their website they will be ”targeting individuals, community organisations, business and government”.
Has de Kretser forgotten he has a day job? For him to help whip up a political campaign against politicians is an astonishing breach of a governor’s duty to stay above politics and remain a neutral “umpire”.
As former governor, Labor stalwart and judge Richard McGarvie wrote, a governor or governor-general must be a “respected person who remains entirely above partisan politics and exerts a unifying influence”.
Yet de Kretser is listed as keynote speaker at a “mass convergence” at the Melbourne Town Hall organised by the Transition Decade Alliance, a collective of four far Left and radical green groups, including the Climate Emergency Network.
The word “convergence” and the plethora of new and grand-sounding organisations behind it are in fact the calling cards of anti-capitalist groups behind such often violent demonstrations as the S11 blockade of the World Economic Forum in 2000 and the demonstrations against George Bush and George W. Bush. Their aim is to suck in more reputable groups in a “convergence” which they then try to take over.
And, indeed, the Climate Emergency Network’s members include the usual Marxist and revolutionary Left parties, such as Resistance, Socialist Alliance, Socialist Alternative and Solidarity, as well as law-breaking green protest groups such as Greenpeace and Rising Tide, behind the illegal blockade of coal trains at Newcastle.
===
“No scientific merit” to IPCC document, says Hansen colleague
Andrew Bolt
James Hansen is perhaps the most radical and high-profile warmist scientist. He advises Al Gore and is head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, one of the four main bodies (and the most controversial) which calculate global temperatures.
His building, incidentally, is above the cafe shown in Seinfeld as the hang-out for Jerry and his friends. And Bishop Hill now reveals that one of Hansen’s own colleagues thinks the chapter of the IPCC 2007 report than blames man for recent warming is just another show about nothing.
While perusing some of the review comments to the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report, I came across the contributions of Andrew Lacis, a colleague of James Hansen’s at GISS. Lacis’s is not a name I’ve come across before but some of what he has to say about Chapter 9 of the IPCC’s report is simply breathtaking…
Remember, this guy is mainstream, not a sceptic, and you may need to remind yourself of that fact several times as you read through his comment on the executive summary of the chapter:
There is no scientific merit to be found in the Executive Summary. The presentation sounds like something put together by Greenpeace activists and their legal department. The points being made are made arbitrarily with legal sounding caveats without having established any foundation or basis in fact. The Executive Summary seems to be a political statement that is only designed to annoy greenhouse skeptics. Wasn’t the IPCC Assessment Report intended to be a scientific document that would merit solid backing from the climate science community – instead of forcing many climate scientists into having to agree with greenhouse skeptic criticisms that this is indeed a report with a clear and obvious political agenda. Attribution can not happen until understanding has been clearly demonstrated. Once the facts of climate change have been established and understood, attribution will become self-evident to all. The Executive Summary as it stands is beyond redemption and should simply be deleted.I do not think “consensus” means what the warmists say it means.
UPDATE
Pick how many of these 10 captions on a News Ltd slideshow to illustrate “climate change” are actually false or deceptive. And nominate the most deceptive of the lot. (I exclude caption 10 because confusing CO2 and water vapor with “smoke” is just a gimme.)
(Thanks to reader Gregory.)
UPDATE 2
The email box of organisers of Lord Monckton’s debate at Friday lunchtime at the Sydney Hilton got clogged. For those still wanting to register (essential if you wish to attend), email cool@exemail.com.au or fax (02) 4861 2029
===
Bigot vs free speech. No contest
Andrew Bolt
The discrimination police are so short of business that they’ll take up the complaint of the very hate-merchants they’re meant to police. Janet Albrechtsen:
In January last year, 4BC Queensland radio broadcaster Michael Smith said he thought it dangerous to allow the burka in certain public places because it had been used as a disguise by criminals. He also said he thought the burka impedes vision in a car. Days later, a listener, Omar Hassan, wrote to 4BC and complained to the Australian Communications and Media Authority that Smith had breached the code by vilifying, inciting hatred and discriminating against Muslims.We’re mad, of course. We’re actually funding an Anti-Discrimination Commission that cannot recognise the real bigot even when it shoves its manifesto in its face.Result: free speech becomes that much less free,
Last year, ACMA tossed out the complaint. No matter. Hassan also lodged a complaint with Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Commission. And the ADC accepted the complaint.
Never mind that countries such as France and Denmark are having robust debates about banning the burka for all sorts of reasons… (T)he purveyors of acceptable thoughts at the ADC now require Smith to attend a three-hour “mediation” session with Hassan.
Call it a hunch, but I’m guessing mediation won’t satisfy Hassan. In his 15-page letter to 4BC, he described Australia as a “racist country . . . No. 1 on the world list for the violation of human rights”. He said Fairfax radio is a “human zoo owned by . . . pigs and monkeys”. He said of Smith - a former policeman - that “being a cop would write you off as a decent human being for life as you can never recover from that disease of being a cop, as once a cop, the dirt and filth stick to you forever and could never be removed”.
And he had plenty to say about women in short skirts. He expressed his disgust at being “forced to look at the backside of a woman who bends over in front of me in supermarket to pick an item off a bottom shelf”. It is a health hazard, he says. “Non-Muslim women do not use water to clean themselves when they go to the toilet.” Thus, bending over in a supermarket could cause serious health risks, Hassan wrote, especially for little children who “because of their height, may have such [a] scene right in their face”.
Instead of dismissing this barrage of invective from Hassan, the ADC has decided that Smith has a case to answer.
(Thanks to reader CA,)
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A 240 volt shock is sure some stimulus
Andrew Bolt
This insane waste of money hasn’t just had untrained fitters killed and houses burned. Now:
HUNDREDS of homes that have been fitted with foil insulation under the Rudd government’s stimulus program have been turned into potential death traps because installers have laid the insulation over live wires or used metal fasteners, causing it to become electrified.He’s Kevin, and he’s here to help.
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It’s the violence, stupid, not the racism
Andrew Bolt
Another day, and yet more violent attacks on Melburnians walking on one of the city’s busiest streets and travelling on one of its trains.
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Just happened to catch the magpie eye of the IPCC
Andrew Bolt
The IPCC does it again. This time it cites a three-page document by Green by Design as some peer reviewed “study” into greener flying.
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Hand it to Palin: her haters are insane
Andrew Bolt
Sarah Palin is photographed with crib notes for a speech written on her hand.
This shocking development is denounced by the Left. News networks analyse what it says about a politician that she needs a few prompting words when delivering a speech. A US News and World Report columnist denounces the notes as ”alarming, embrassing”. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann does a riff on how brainless she must be to need any prompts at all. Chris Matthews says she must be a ”balloon head”, and sneers: “What do we think of a would-be political leader who does it to look like she`s speaking without notes?”
Or, let’s rephrase, what do we think of a president so lost without a script - forget just a few notes on a hand - that he needs an autoprompt even when talking at a primary school:
What do we think a President who needs his own prompts so badly that he can’t keep speaking when they freeze:
Palin has the last laugh:
Yes, that’s now “Hi Mom” on her palm.
Power Line:
It’s Palin’s secret weapon: she brings out the stupidity in her political opponents.
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Swedes smell a warming rat
Andrew Bolt
Warming alarmism is melting even in the Euro-socialist paradise, and even in the Left-leading Aftonbladet, Sweden’s biggest-selling afternoon paper:
To translate: this readers’ poll (caution!) shows what nearly 100,000 Swedes think of the global warming threat:
23,4 % it is very dangerousFor every Swede who thinks global warming is very dangerous, there are at least two who think he’s been conned.
17,2 % it is to early to have an opinion
34,9 % it is exaggerated
24,6 % it is a bluff
UPDATE
Meanwhile, the warmist National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has an announcement to make about its new climate service:
More and more, Americans are witnessing the impacts of climate change in their own backyards, including sea-level rise, longer growing seasons, changes in river flows, increases in heavy downpours, earlier snowmelt and extended ice-free seasons in our waters. People are searching for relevant and timely information about these changes to inform decision-making about virtually all aspects of their lives.NOAA could have used some of that “timely information” to inform its own decision making. Washington Wire reports:
Earlier snowmelt? That would be nice.Earlier snowmelt? That would be nice.
Turns out the release was planned prepared ahead of the snowstorm, which shut federal agencies today and forced its senders to hold a press conference by telephone instead of at the National Press Club.
Turns out the release was planned prepared ahead of the snowstorm, which shut federal agencies today and forced its senders to hold a press conference by telephone instead of at the National Press Club.
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Now, how about my little mate?
Andrew Bolt
How to get a job from Kevin Rudd:
Of all the Rudd Government’s ambitious ‘’nation building’’ plans, its scheme to plough billions of dollars into building a superfast communications network is the most risky and dubious…I’m told Kaiser is a nice bloke - and clearly nicely connected - but this must nevertheless be noted:
The latest instance of the government’s erosion of the normal processes of policy-making and public administration is the appointment of Mike Kaiser as a senior executive with NBN Co.
A highly-regarded Labor political strategist, Kaiser was appointed last November to the $450,000 a year position as head of government relations and external affairs for NBN Co, the government-owned company which is to build the $43 billion broadband network.
Now we have learnt that there was a singular lack of process around this hiring - and apparently around many of the hirings at NBN Co.
In response to Opposition questions at a Senate estimates hearing on Monday, NBN Co’s chief executive Mike Quigley said it was Communications Minister Stephen Conroy who had suggested Kaiser for the position… Kaiser was hired after two interviews, one with Quigley, and reference checks. The job was not advertised. There was no executive search process. No other candidates were short-listed.
Yet Quigley insisted this was an appropriate selection processs
Kaiser is a former ALP state secretary in Queensland. He was forced to resign as a state MP after revelations about branch-stacking in Queensland Labor.Something else has just been stacked.
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A dam fix
Andrew Bolt
This Rudd Government report stank of a green fix yesterday, as I reported, and stinks even more today:
A RESEARCH report that found there was insufficient water to make northern Australia a food bowl for the nation did not consider building dams because it was against Labor policy.Your future is being locked away by green ideologues.
The Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce relied heavily on the work done by the CSIRO’s Northern Australia Sustainable Yields project, whose scientists were told not to worry about investigating dams.
The CSIRO’s Richard Cresswell said: “At the time of the study, all jurisdictions (the West Australian, Queensland and NT governments) had a no-dams policy, and therefore we did not investigate the opportunities for dams in the north.
“We weren’t asked not to investigate them, but we were told it wasn’t necessary to investigate them,” Dr Cresswell said.
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The UN’s climate of cash
Andrew Bolt
Claudia Rossett, who helped to expose UN corruption in the oil-for-food scandal, now turns her attention to the UN warmists. One in particular:
With UN climate guru Rajendra Pachauri under fire for alleged conflicts of interest and the purveying of flawed “science,” another United Nations eco-official is stepping forward to defend UN climate findings.Green is the colour of the cash.
His name is Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Program, or UNEP, based in Nairobi. If you are curious about potential conflicts of interest among the UN climate crowd, Steiner, along with Pachauri, is someone to watch.
Like Pachauri, Steiner is still talking about “overwhelming evidence” supporting the findings of Al Gore’s co-Nobelist Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — despite the growing body of evidence that the IPCC’s findings were more a product of UN politics than of science. In recent remarks featured as a top item on the UN’s official news site, Steiner has just praised the IPCC and re-issued the UN’s usual apocalyptic warnings: “Any delay… risks of a magnitude…urgent international response” — etc.
Who is Achim Steiner? A German, born in Brazil, he is a longtime environmentalist, former head from 2001-2006 of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN....
Anyway, in December, 2005, Achim Steiner served as a judge on a panel in Dubai that awarded a $500,000 environmental prize to then-Secretary-General of the UN, Kofi Annan. With a big smile, at a banquet in Dubai, Annan — then the UN’s top official — accepted this six-figure purse for his personal use. About three months later, Annan named Steiner, one of the judges who picked Annan for the prize, to head UNEP.
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IPCC warmist draws on his favorite peer reviewer: himself
Andrew Bolt
Marc Sheppard says it’s bad enough that the IPCC bought the theory of warmist Professor David Karoly that man-made warming was causing the higher temperatures and evaporation in the Murray Darling basin.
After all, new research suggests almost the very opposite - that the higher temperatures come from a natural fall in cloud cover, and a lack of rain and a subsequent lack of evaporative cooling. Drought causes higher temperatures, and not vice versa.
But Sheppard notes that Karoly’s theory was heavily relied upon in a chapter the IPCC’s alarmist 2007 report that was supposed to be reviewed by ... Karoly himself:
But amazingly, the story doesn’t end with how wrong the chapter was. Professor Franks also pointed out that ... David Karoly, whose work was also heavily cited in WG1 Chapter 9, was its Review Editor.Fabulous peer reviewing, guys. The man in charge of the reviewing supervises reviews of his own theory.
Is this the kind of thing that Climategate ringleader Phil Jones meant when he once boasted he’d ”redefine what the peer-review literature is”?
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