James Madison (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was an American politician and political philosopher who served as the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817) and is considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The "Father of the Constitution," he was the principal author of the document. In 1788, he wrote over a third of the Federalist Papers, still the most influential commentary on the Constitution. The first president to have served in the United States Congress, he was a leader in the 1st United States Congress, drafting many basic laws, and was responsible for the first ten amendments to the Constitution (said to be based on the Virginia Declaration of Rights) and thus is also known as the "Father of the Bill of Rights". As a political theorist, Madison's most distinctive belief was that the new republic needed checks and balances to protect individual rights from the tyranny of the majority.=== Bible Quote ===
“Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness.”- Proverbs 14:22
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A 20-year-old man faces court today over the death of eight-year-old Trinity Bates whose body was found in a drain after she was taken from her family home / The Courier-Mail
Alleged killer of schoolgirl Trinity Bates behind bars
A MAN accused of killing Bundaberg schoolgirl Trinity Bates has faced court in prison clothes and handcuffs. Allyn John Slater, 19, of the Queensland town of Bundaberg, sat with his head bowed after police escorted him into the Bundaberg Magistrates Court this morning. Once inside, Mr Slater's legal aid lawyer, Thomas Bray, immediately asked magistrate Jennifer Batts to hear an application for his case to be heard in a closed court. But the magistrate later dismissed the application. Mr Slater was remanded in custody for committal mention on May 17.
Rudd's home-grown terrorism risk is overstated
A LEADING security expert says the focus on the threat from home-grown terrorism in the Government's long-awaited Counter-Terrorism White Paper is overstated. In releasing the document yesterday, Rudd warned the threat from terrorism was "permanent'' and "persistent''. Rudd said home-grown terrorism was also an increasing threat. "Another apparent shift has been the increase in the threat from people born or raised in Australia, who have become influenced by the divisive narrative espoused by al-Qaeda,'' Rudd said. But Professor Hugh White, a former deputy defence secretary and professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University, says the focus on home-grown terrorism appeared to be exaggerated.
'Drunk mother threw baby on ground'
SHOCKING footage shows a mother "dropping" her baby after an argument with her partner.
Westmead Children's Hospital charging $16 for parking
PARENTS of sick kids will be charged $16 to park their car at a major children's hospital, abolishing a scheme which allowed families of seriously ill youngsters to park free. The money grab by the Children's Hospital Westmead comes more than a year after the State Government intervened after desperate parents contacted The Daily Telegraph. The hospital yesterday quietly released a statement announcing it planned a "moderate" increase to the daily rate, lifting it by $4. Hospital spokeswoman Leonie Leonard said the increase was necessary to "maximise the amount of parking available to parents and to maintain the multi-level carpark". Not only will casual parkers be charged more, a new concession system will also be introduced to replace the existing Bear Pass - which provided parents of long-term seriously ill children free parking. - thank you Rudd and Kristina - ed.
Fatter pay packets on the way
MOST bosses plan to increase workers' salaries over the next 12 months as economy rallies. - rubbish, inflation will eat away any possible gains .. always happens under the ALP. - ed.
Boy, 11, charged with assault and attempted robbery in Surry Hills
AN 11-year-old boy and his teenage companion have been charged with assault and attempted robbery of a Sydney man who they mocked during the alleged attack. Police say a 20-year-old man was walking along Prince Alfred Park around 11.40am yesterday in the inner-city suburb of Surry Hills when the boy and his 17-year-old companion set upon him, grabbing his satchel. The older boy allegedly joined in and laughed at him as the man was kicked in the thigh when he tried to resist the attack. Both boys moved on but the victim telephoned police and followed the pair before officers in the immediate vicinity arrested them.
Stabbed 15 times for a mobile phone
A SYDNEY female student has been stabbed 15 times by a man who stole her mobile phone and another man is fighting for his life after a mysterious attack. The 33-year-old woman was walking along East Street, Lidcombe, about 8.15pm on Monday, when she was attacked from behind and repeatedly stabbed in the back, neck and chest. Police believe the attacker stole the woman's mobile phone and fled the area where a University of Sydney campus and a TAFE facility are located. Moments later a passing motorist stopped to help the woman before rushing her to Concord Hospital where she underwent emergency surgery. She remains in hospital in a serious but stable condition.
US would lose cyberwar, says security chief
THE United States would lose a cyberwar if it fought one today, a former US intelligence chief has warned. Michael McConnell, a retired US Navy vice admiral who served as ex-president George W Bush's director of national intelligence, also compared the danger of cyberwar to the nuclear threat posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. "If we went to war today in a cyberwar, we would lose," Mr McConnell told a hearing on cybersecurity held by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. "We're the most vulnerable, we're the most connected, we have the most to lose. "We will not mitigate this risk, and as a consequence of not mitigating this risk, we are going to have a catastrophic event."
Ancient Wall Possibly Built by King Solomon
A section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C. (between 1000 BC and 901 BC), possibly built by King Solomon, has been revealed in archaeological excavations. The section of wall, about 230 feet long (70 meters) and 19 feet (6 meters) high, is located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Cuban Political prisoner dies in hunger strike
A CUBAN political prisoner has died after an 85-day hunger strike to demand better prison conditions, a human rights group said. Orlando Zapata Tamayo, 42, died at a Havana hospital where he had been receiving fluids intravenously in an attempt to keep him alive, Elizardo Sanchez of the independent Cuban Human Rights Commission said. Mr Sanchez said Cuban authorities should have force-fed Zapata, a plumber from the eastern province of Holguin, to prevent his death. Mr Zapata had been in prison since 2003 serving a sentence of at least 25 years for the crimes of disrespect, public disorder and resistance against the communist government of the Caribbean island, according to Amnesty International, which listed him as one of 58 "prisoners of conscience" in Cuba.
Diggers denied the chance to be dads
ARMY turns its back on soldiers fighting in Afghanistan by scrapping frozen sperm service.
News.com.au finds out how the mobile phone is replacing wallets, and if this technology is headed for Australia.
Doctor accused of molesting 103 children
MAN accused of raping young patients may be the worst paedophilia case in US history.
Ask a duly sworn member of the United States House of Representatives to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at a public meeting, and most Americans would expect a patriotic hand-over-heart response — then there's Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., and his good friends at the Service Employees union.
Toyota's U.S. Execs Sorry, But There's a 'Sticking' Point
Big wigs at troubled automaker apologize for acceleration and safety issues as they face grilling on Capitol Hill
Give Modern Climate Data a Do-Over?
After firestorm of Climate-gate, Britain's Meteorological Office calls for climatologists to start over
Family Says Cheney Had Heart Attack
Tests on former vice president show he suffered mild heart attack, family says he is resting comfortably
Is this the slowest bus in Australia?
PASSENGER says it's quicker to walk home than riding bus that takes 35 minutes to travel 3.5km.
Having 53X with an umfriend all the rage
TEENAGERS invent new slang words to confuse parents who have cracked their texts.
Aussie pies in mad cow disease risk
HEALTH fears as import ban on meat from infected countries to be overturned.
English the most understaffed subject
ENGLISH has topped the list of the most understaffed subjects, with new figures revealing the true extent of the state's teacher vacancy rate.
'Shoved onto rail track over smoking row'
WOMAN who complained she didn't like the smell of cancer landed near 750-volt line after push, court told.
$10,000 to save this drunken idiot
A NIGHT of drunken skylarking has left a Ukrainian tourist with a hangover he will always remember - and taxpayers with a huge bill. After a night on the drink, the 19-year-old man scaled down a cliff near Manly but got stuck half way and passed out.
Online masturbating priest 'knew' 13-year-old girl was fantasy
A SYDNEY priest who used a webcam to broadcast himself masturbating to a person he believed was a 13-year-old has told a court it was all part of a fantasy world. Robert MacGregor Fuller, 54, has pleaded guilty to grooming and procuring a child under the age of 16. During online chat sessions the priest, who served for some six years at All Saints church in the Sydney suburb of Liverpool, used a webcam to show himself masturbating to a police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl. Fuller told his sentencing hearing at Parramatta District Court the chat rooms were part of a fantasy world and he did not truly believe the person watching was a pre-pubescent girl.
=== Journalists Corner ===
It's the film hailed at the last national tea party!
This explosive documentary argues how 40 years of liberal policies have led to America's financial collapse.
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Toyota's Capitol Grilling
The CEO heads to the Hill! How will he answer for the company's current safety issues and will Congress buy it?
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Education Espionage
Schools spying on kids over the internet! Our "Is it Legal" team investigates
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Health Care Summit
As the president makes a big push for bipartisanship, what ideas will the GOP bring to the table, & are the Dems really willing to compromise to revive reform?
=== Comments ===
Thunder on the Right
By Bill O'Reilly
Last week we debated the tactic of Obama-bashing with a variety of guests. My conclusion was that criticism of policy must be made.
Obviously we are having big problems in the country, but personal attacks are useless. The point was made that vicious far-left personal attacks on President Bush hurt him, so President Obama is fair game. You make the call on that.
Well, those debates continued outside this program, and on Friday Rush Limbaugh spoofed me, saying this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUSH LIMBAUGH: I am Bill O'Reilly. What do you think of me? Tell me where I've gone wrong today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, he does say that a lot.
LIMBAUGH: Well, no, look, all I'm telling you is that we've got to give socialism a fair shake for the folks. I'm not going to sit here and condemn it like these really right-wingers are. We've got to give socialism a fair shake. And we here at "The Factor" are going to give socialism, even communism, a fair shake. We'll do an in-depth investigation. We'll report back, because we're not knee-jerk, and we are looking out for you, the folks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
I have no problem with that riff. Mr. Limbaugh is entitled to his opinion, and he's not alone in his fear about socialism.
As we reported, a Gallup poll says 36 percent of Americans now believe socialism is OK, including 53 percent of Democrats.
From the beginning, "The Factor" has criticized Mr. Obama for his socialist tenets, primarily that of income redistribution. When I interviewed then-Senator Obama on the campaign trail in September 2008, the subject came up:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL O'REILLY: You're taking the wealthy in America and the big earners, OK?
BARACK OBAMA: Right.
O'REILLY: You're taking money away from them, and you're giving it to people who don't. That's called income redistribution. It's a socialist tenet.
OBAMA: Bill, Bill…
O'REILLY: Come on, you know that. You went to Harvard.
OBAMA: Teddy Roosevelt supported a progressive income tax.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
The question becomes: Is the president a socialist? Remember, the definition of socialism is that the government controls property and commerce. Does Mr. Obama want to seize your house? I say no; others say yes.
But there is no question the president wants income redistribution and more government control over things like health care.
On Sunday, Mr. Obama put forth that the feds should be able to regulate insurance companies when they want big premium increases, like Blue Cross does in California. Some conservatives howled, but 29 states currently oversee health insurance rate hikes.
Is that socialism? Again, you have to decide.
"Talking Points" believes that the feds should have some oversight on health insurance companies, but prices can be driven down if the companies are allowed to compete nationwide. Why doesn't the president try that before he sets up another Big Brother operation in Washington?
Look, these things are complicated. To call Obama a socialist or communist is oversimplifying the situation.
Americans need health care relief. There's no question about that. But it can be done using competition and common sense like tort reform, where lawsuits against medical personnel are scrutinized.
As we said last week, name-calling gets us nowhere. Good solutions to complicated problems will rule the day.
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Media Watch impugns Oakes
Andrew Bolt
Media Watch presenter Jonathan Holmes seems to think Channel Nine’s Laurie Oakes is the kind of person who lets a personal grudge infect his reporting.
Even more, Holmes criticises not that sin, but the Opposition Leader who risks being a victim of it. Observe:
A cosy, secret deal (by the Rudd Government), handing back perhaps a quarter of a billion dollars of government revenue to the free-to-air commercial networks. A good get by The Oz…So Oakes would do what unprofessional thing, Jonathan? Explanation, please.
The ABC was happy to jump onto the story. But not a word about it on the commercial TV news, until Opposition Leader Tony Abbott came out with his ‘election year bribe’ taunt.
That brought Nine’s big gun - an indignant Laurie Oakes - into the fray:Laurie Oakes: Well Peter, my message to Tony Abbott is this: When Kerry Packer owned the Nine Network, he knew that he couldn’t tell me what to say, so the bunch of private equity investors who own it now have got no chance Peter.Annoying the redoubtable Mr Oakes might not be the smartest move for the opposition. After all, it is an election year.
— Channel Nine News, 17th February, 2010
(Thanks to reader Mark.)
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Dear Hitler. Since we’ve now disarmed, it’s only fair that you….
Andrew Bolt
Age diplomatic editor Daniel Flitton says all the West need do to disarm Iran is to lay down its own weapons. Sweetness and light will then break out:
...the spread of nuclear weapons should be urgently resisted, with abolition the ultimate aim. And the way to achieve this is to avoid public posturing of the type Clinton is engaging in, instead applying maximum quiet pressure, backed up with disarmament by the countries that already possess nuclear arsenals. In such circumstances, nuclear weapons could suddenly lose their persuasive appeal.Absolutely! China, for instance, will decide that since the US has thrown all its nukes into the sea, it would only be fair to do the same. Iran, seeing Israel destroy its nuclear warheads, would realise it’s a bit mean to attack a helpless enemy.
Can’t think why no leader of a nuclear-armed country hasn’t thought of this already.
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The list of actors who died for their craft is long
Andrew Bolt
Cate Blanchett makes acting sound so, so dangerous:
We change people’s lives, at the risk of our own.I’d love a for-instance, but Blanchett is now in another dimension:
We change countries, governments, history, gravity.UPDATE
Hmm. Maybe Blanchett is right, after all. Here’s one actress who has indeed changed gravity:
(Thanks to readers David and MD.)
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WHERE IS CRAIG?
Tim Blair
July, 2009:
Senator Arbib urged his audience to follow the lead of Craig, from the Central Coast, who had finished his building apprenticeship, but was laid off because his boss did not have enough work.February, 2010:
Inspired by the Government’s insulation package, he started his own business, and now has so much work he has employed his girlfriend and is looking to employ more staff.
The office of Senator Mark Arbib, former Parliamentary Secretary with responsibility for co-ordinating stimulus spending, admitted it had lost contact with the young Central Coast man named Craig who Mr Arbib held up as an example of one of the unemployed people who would gain work under the rebate scheme.
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DEATH BY DIVERSITY
Tim Blair
The Boston Globe‘s Bryan Bender:
Army superiors were warned about the radicalization of Major Nidal Malik Hasan years before he allegedly massacred 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, but did not act in part because they valued the rare diversity of having a Muslim psychiatrist, military investigators wrote in previously undisclosed reports.More about this from Mark Steyn ("‘diversity’ is not a virtue; it’s morally neutral") and Anthony Kang ("politically-incorrect conservatives were right all along”).
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NO TOOLS OF FUEL
Tim Blair
Now three-fifths of the way through his five-part ABC anti-sceptic whining epic, Clive Hamilton’s paranoia seems to have declined:
The army of denialist bloggers and cyber-bullies is sometimes accused of being the tool of fossil fuel companies. Although there is certainly a concordance of interests, that is as far as the relationship goes.This better not mean the end of my Exxon cheques. Those yachts won’t gold-plate themselves, you know. Further from Clive:
The bloggers are motivated not by financial gain (indeed, their activities may have a financial cost) but by political grievances and an anti-elite worldview at odds with the mainstream.Leftoids used to think that was a good thing.
UPDATE. Warming explained … “all of you will get dead”:
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URBAN INCIDENT
Tim Blair
A detailed analysis of two wild minutes aboard an Oakland, California, bus. They should sell tickets. Oh, wait …
(Via Adrian the Cabbie)
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CEILING KEV TAKES THE FALL
Tim Blair
Daily Telegraph editorial:
Now that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced he will take full responsibility for the national insulation debacle, it is only fair that The Daily Telegraph withdraw its demand that Environment Minister Peter Garrett resign over his role in the scandal.Seems right.
Instead, it is Mr Rudd who should resign. After all, he’s the one responsible.
UPDATE. During the worst week of his Prime Ministership, Kevin Rudd appears on Good News Week:
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Africa might actually love that warming rain
Andrew Bolt
Yet another climate alarmist on Jon Faine’s ABC Melbourne morning show was allowed this morning to claim, unchallenged, that global warming would cause devastating droughts in Africa.
No sooner claimed than disproved:
Desertification, drought, and despair—that’s what global warming has in store for much of Africa. Or so we hear.(Thanks to reader John.)
Emerging evidence is painting a very different scenario, one in which rising temperatures could benefit millions of Africans in the driest parts of the continent.
Scientists are now seeing signals that the Sahara desert and surrounding regions are greening due to increasing rainfall. If sustained, these rains could revitalize drought-ravaged regions, reclaiming them for farming communities.
This desert-shrinking trend is supported by climate models, which predict a return to conditions that turned the Sahara into a lush savanna some 12,000 years ago... Images taken between 1982 and 2002 revealed extensive regreening throughout the Sahel, according to a new study in the journal Biogeosciences.
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The ABC hands a new soap box to the Left
Andrew Bolt
The ABC’s new blog site has been captured by the Left - and especially by the angry Crikey branch of it. Gavin Atkins demonstrates:
It’s been less than three months since the editor of Australia’s left wing gossip website, Crikey, Jonathan Green was appointed to head up the ABC online site, The Drum…===
In just the past seven weeks we have seen columns from crikey darlings, Scott Bridges, Greg Barns, Simon Chapman, Jeff Sparrow, Melissa Sweet, Mungo Maccallum, John Quiggin, Clive Hamilton, Ben Sandilands, Pamela Curr and Ben Pobjie. Every one of these people is a left-wing mate of Green’s from his days at Crikey…
In case any of us are unsure what to think, Green has started up a special Twitter round-up on ABC online while Question Time is on in the House of Representatives.
Those who took part in a recent twitter event included former Crikey editor, Jonathan Green; Crikey’s Canberra correspondent, Bernard Keane; Crikey cartoonist, First Dog On The Moon; and Crikey blogger, Possum Comitatus…
But can we demonstrate that this has otherwise affected the content at ABC online?
Let’s have a look at one hot issue, for example – anthropogenic global warming…
During January and February, we have been treated to columns on ABC online by Alex Cook, John Hewson, David Horton, Christine Milne, David Shearman, Clive Hamilton (soon to be a set of five articles over five days), Arek Sinanian, Kellie Tranter and Malcolm Turnbull - that’s 13 articles with very similar points of view about global warming.
Over the same period there have been precisely no articles by anthropogenic global warming skeptics.
The disgrace is not the dodgy science but the exposing of it
Andrew Bolt
The real sin isn’t the fraud, exaggeration, bullying, cherrypicking and stifling of dissent that went into producing the great global warming scare.
No, our university chiefs agree. The real sin is that all this has been exposed by the nasty tabloids:
UNIVERSITY leaders are pressing for a public campaign to restore the intellectual and moral authority of Australian science in the wake of the climate wars.I think some people are about to reinforce the very cynicism they deplore. A little less elitism may suit them better, just for a start.
Peter Coaldrake, chairman of Universities Australia and vice-chancellor of Queensland University of Technology, told the HES yesterday he was “concerned about the way the climate change debate has flowed”, and would address the role of science in the formation of public policy at his National Press Club address next week.
“It worries me that this tabloid decimation of science comes at a time when we have a major national issue in terms of the number of people taking science at university,"Professor Coaldrake said.
Margaret Sheil, chief executive of the Australian Research Council, said she was deeply concerned about the backlash generated by emails from the East Anglia Climate Research Unit, the criticisms of Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, head of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, and poor research on the rate of glacial melting in a 2007 UN report on climate change.
Professor Sheil said she feared that these black marks would spread to a “broader negative public perception” of science…
Ian Chubb, vice-chancellor of the Australian National University, said some populists had found it easy to denigrate science because many scientific conclusions in the field of climate change rested on a balance of probability rather than incontestable proof.
“What concerns me is when you get people who are purporting to comment on the science and all they’re doing is seeking to turn themselves into celebrities.” he said.
(Thanks to reader Tony.)
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Whale of a blunder
Andrew Bolt
Philip Bowring advertises our embarrassment in the International Herald Tribune:
It must count as one of the more bizarre bits of diplomacy in recent times. Last week, on the eve of a visit by Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia threatened to take Japan to the International Court of Justice if it did not stop whaling in the Southern Ocean, the part of the Indian Ocean south of Australia…(Thanks to reader Murf Oscar.)
Harpooning whales may be cruel and does excite emotions even among those who regularly eat red meat. But Australia is in scant position to complain when it shoots upward of 3 million wild kangaroos a year to protect crops and grazing for sheep and cattle ..
Australia’s elevation of its selective emotion into a diplomatic feud with its major Asian ally is nothing short of ridiculous.
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iTunes presents warming for dummies
Andrew Bolt
ITunes comes to the rescue of all those believers now finally being asked just why they assumed man was heating the world to hell:
Ever heard someone claim Global Warming isn’t happening? Did their explanation seem wrong but you didn’t know why?Then click on its app:
Oddly enough, iTunes offers no such help to the sceptic.
(Thanks to reader Newt.)
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It’s Rudd who batts badly
Andrew Bolt
Terry McCrann agrees that the insulation fiasco is actually emblematic of a bigger Rudd disaster:
(T)he insulation debacle raises much broader and deeper questions about the government’s hurried, even panicked, fiscal pump-priming to ‘fight’ the Global Financial Crisis.The Daily Telegraph calls on Rudd to resign:
Indeed, it poses the question whether such pump-priming, even if well-designed and executed, - which this most decidedly was not - would still be fundamentally flawed.
Because of the distortions it causes. In setting out to ‘save the economy’ the government has succeeded in destroying the insulation industry, killing good businesses and real jobs.
Think of the bitter irony. Kevin Rudd and Ken Henry’s “Go early. Go Hard. Go Households” multi-billion dollar fiscal spending splurge was supposed to fight the bust after the financial bubble burst.
And how did it seek to do so? By creating a new bubble, and not just in insulation but building more generally - with the first home-owners grant and the rush to put a Julia Gillard hall in every school yard.
And now that we have a new bust, but with yet more waste and debt, we are surprised?
Now that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced he will take full responsibility for the national insulation debacle, it is only fair that The Daily Telegraph withdraw its demand that Environment Minister Peter Garrett resign over his role in the scandal.But Good News Week did indeed have some good news for Rudd, who performed much better in front of a friendly audience, and when fed friendly questions by a friendly panel, than he did on Q&A:
Instead, it is Mr Rudd who should resign. After all, he’s the one responsible.
UPDATE
On the other hand, some Labor voters were much less impressed:
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd was yesterday invited to Borroloola - to learn how to pronounce the name of the township and be told that its good citizens don’t vote for the “Country” Party.(Thanks to reader Bernie.)
Mr Rudd made a hash of trying to get his tongue around the name on national television. “Brrr-lll-rrr-rrr,” was the best he could come up with.
When it was suggested that his mumbling blooper would could cost him the seat at the next election, he replied: ”Judging by the name, it’s probably in a Country Party seat.”
In fact, Borroloola - pronounced Bo’-rro-loo-la - is a Labor Party stronghold. Federally, it is part of Lingiari, one of the safest ALP seats in Australia.
And in the Territory political make-up, the township is part of Barkly, which is held by Labor Cabinet Minister Gerry McCarthy.
===
Put Gore in the dock
Andrew Bolt
Al Gore must indeed be held to account:
Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) today asked the Obama administration to investigate what he called “the greatest scientific scandal of our generation” — the actions of climate scientists revealed by the Climategate files, and the subsequent admissions by the editors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4).
Senator Inhofe also called for former Vice President Al Gore to be called back to the Senate to testify.
“In [Gore’s] science fiction movie, every assertion has been rebutted,” Inhofe said. He believes Vice President Gore should defend himself and his movie before Congress.
Just prior to a hearing at 10:00 a.m. EST, Senator Inhofe released a minority staff report from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, of which he is ranking member. Senator Inhofe is asking the Department of Justice to investigate whether there has been research misconduct or criminal actions by the scientists involved, including Dr. Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University and Dr. James Hansen of Columbia University and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
===
Blame not Garrett but Rudd
Andrew Bolt
KEVIN Rudd’s refusal to sack Peter Garrett is now the greatest threat to his survival as Prime Minister.
But that’s not just because keeping Garrett on as Environment Minister keeps alive the story of the most colossal government mismanagement since at least the days of Gough Whitlam.
It’s because Rudd may have truly meant it when he praised Garrett last Friday as his idea of a “first-class minister”.
You see, this scandal is not just about the every-which-way bungling by Rudd’s “first-class minister” of a $2.5 billion free-insulation scheme that has since killed four people, set fire to more than 90 homes, and left 1000 more with lethal faults in their ceilings.
Nor is it just about a mad money-shovelling plan to stimulate local business and fight “global warming” that wound up doing almost nothing it was meant to achieve, instead blowing up to $400 million on dangerous or useless insulation for some 240,000 homes, and buying shiploads of dodgy batts and foil from foreign makers with dollars meant for spending right here.
Nor is it even just about the farce of having a make-work scheme that ends with the Government spending another $10 million to “retrain” 2000 of the people it’s just thrown out of work.
Step back. The fact is this catastrophe is not the making of one hapless minister, but the inevitable and predicted result of rush-rush-Rudd’s entire style of governing.
Garrett, this “first-class minister”, did no more than Rudd’s will, and in Rudd’s way. And the results are little different to what we’ve seen - or will keep seeing - from so many other areas under the control of this Prime Minister.
Sack Peter Garrett? But then Rudd would have to sack himself.
Let’s first identify just what created this particular epic failure.
===
Flogging thugs with press releases
Andrew Bolt
HOW good is this bloke? The minute we learned another seven Victorians were stabbed last weekend, Premier John Brumby took action.
Well, he announced new advertisements. Same diff.
Here’s how we broke the news in the Herald Sun:
The Brumby Government is planning a shock TV campaign aimed at young males who think it is cool to carry knives.Bound to work, of course. Many shiv merchants just needed an ad to teach them it’s naughty to stab people.
So I predict this campaign will work as brilliantly as every other one Brumby has announced each time there’s more blood in the streets.
In fact, so effective have Brumby’s campaigns been, and so ungrateful has been The Alfred hospital by bitching instead about a 70 per cent rise in stabbed patients this year, that it’s only fair in this election year to remind voters of all that their Premier has done to make their streets, nightclubs and railways stations so safe as they are.
Right from the very start of his time in the top job, Brumby was issuing press releases to keep the thugs in their place. Here’s a beauty from August 30, 2007:
The Premier, John Brumby, today announced new legislation would be introduced this year to address a rise in assaults in and around licensed venues.Hot stuff. And there was more just like it the following May:
Premier John Brumby says Victoria’s binge-drinking problem justifies a ban on drinkers entering Melbourne city bars, pubs and clubs after 2am.Brumby was now on a roll, and last April did his some of his best work:
Victorian Premier John Brumby has pledged to bring Melbourne’s mean streets under control by early next year.In fact, if press releases could stop crime, Brumby had the problem licked just three months later:
Following another spate of alcohol-fuelled violence in the CBD, Mr Brumby ... said the Government was tackling the problem through more police, tougher liquor licensing controls and beefed-up police powers.
===
Moscow buried in the snows that were meant to vanish
Andrew Bolt
It’s weather, not climate, which we should also remember the next time alarmists scream that some snow failed to fall:
Thousands of snow-clearing machines have been working to dig the Russian capital Moscow out of a record-breaking fall of 63cm (nearly 25 inches).Meanwhile the warmist scientists at Britain’s Met concede that not even the temperature data is settled, let alone the science:
After a weekend of heavy snow showers, the regional weather centre announced that the previous record of 62cm, set in 1966, had been broken.
At a meeting on Monday of about 150 climate scientists, representatives of Britain’s weather office quietly proposed that the world’s climatologists start all over again to produce a new trove of global temperature data that is open to public scrutiny and “rigorous” peer review.Yes, the Met is sure the records won’t change much, but this time they hope the data will be believable.
After the firestorm of criticism called Climate-gate, the British government’s official Meteorological Office apparently has decided to wave a white flag and surrender.
At a meeting on Monday of about 150 climate scientists in the quiet Turkish seaside resort of Antalya, representatives of the weather office (known in Britain as the Met Office) quietly proposed that the world’s climate scientists start all over again on a “grand challenge” to produce a new, common trove of global temperature data that is open to public scrutiny and “rigorous” peer review.
(Thanks to reader Steve.)
===
The rising cost of Garrett’s failure
Andrew Bolt
This is utterly crazy. A big-money government makework program collapses, returning the once-unemployed to unemployment yet again.
Only this time the Rudd Government writes out a huge cheque as a sorry - and a shut-up:
A CHARITY in Victoria says it will have to retrench 67 workers tomorrow following the closure of the federal government’s home insulation program.First they spend billions to make work, then millions more to say sorry for failing. All this is with your money, folks.
Try Youth and Community Services is appealing to the government for an emergency grant to keep its workers employed in Melbourne and the La Trobe Valley… The majority of them were previously long-term unemployed....
A spokeswoman for Senator Arbib said the department of employment was in the process of forwarding the charity a $250,000 milestone payment from the government’s Jobs Fund to help the group with its cash flow.
(Thanks to reader CA.)
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Look over there! A unicorn with a bomb!
Andrew Bolt
Even The Age is now onto his spinning:
KEVIN Rudd toughened his terrorism blueprint to highlight the threat from jihadist and home-grown terror despite resistance from officials within his department and the Attorney-General’s Department who were concerned the language was inflammatory and counter-productive.Had John Howard done such a thing…
It is understood that the Prime Minister’s office hardened the language of an earlier version of the counterterrorism white paper and also insisted it should include an ‘’announceable’’.
The revelation comes as Mr Rudd is under fire from terrorism experts and the Opposition for using the issue to divert attention from embattled Environment Minister Peter Garrett and the government’s bungled insulation scheme.
UPDATE
But The Age editor is not just unfair to Rudd, but to his readers:
Mr Rudd warned of the threat ‘’from people born or raised in Australia, who have become influenced by the divisive narrative espoused by al-Qaeda’’, yet spoke of ‘’jihadist terrorism’’. He thus framed the terrorists in terms of their own distorted narrative, which portrays them as holy warriors and martyrs fulfilling the religious duty of jihad. Terrorists should not be dignified with any terms that reinforce their false identification with Islamic belief.When all but one of the 18 terrorist organisations proscribed by Australia are Islamist, and most announce their religious mission in their title, how can The Age editor be so sure that this identification with Islam is false? Wishing something does not make it true.
UPDATE 2
Rudd actually achieves a doube unicorn with his white paper on terrorism, announcing measures not just to distract attention from Garrett but from the very problem the paper warns of most:
Critics of the white paper have been quick to point out that while the paper focuses on the threat of homegrown jihadism, the government is spending its money on border security rather than on counter-radicalisation programs.Meanwhile, there’s more cash to stem the flood that Rudd himself unleashed by weakening our laws, as our spies are diverted to stopping the boats instead:
THE government will unleash the full resources of its major spy agencies, including phone taps and satellite surveillance, against people-smugglers and other criminal gangs threatening Australia’s border security. That will mean significantly increasing the agencies’ powers to deal with criminal activity rather than their present focus on direct threats to national security posed by foreign states and their agents.UPDATE 3
Carl Ungerer of the Australian Strategic Policy Insitute sums up this bizarre response:
Early on in the document we are told a significant number of Australian extremists have been radicalised to the point of committing violence....(Thanks to readers Pronto and Red Baron.)
(But) aside from a small section on resilience and reference to community engagement in the Australian white paper, the government offers no new funding or programs to counter home-grown extremist ideology.
Instead, media attention will focus on the two main deliverables: $200m for aviation security measures including body scanners at airports and next generation x-ray machines; and $69m for enhanced visa restrictions for individuals from 10 as yet unnamed countries.
Each of these measures is warranted and probably overdue. But neither is directly related to the paper’s principal strategic assessment. If home-grown terrorism is the problem, why is border security and a better visa system for foreigners the answer?
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