=== Todays Toon ===
James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the fifteenth President of the United States from 1857–1861 and the last to be born in the eighteenth century. To date he is the only president from the state of Pennsylvania and the only president to remain a bachelor.A popular and experienced politician prior to his presidency, Buchanan represented Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives and later the Senate, and served as Secretary of State under President James K. Polk. After turning down an offer for an appointment to the Supreme Court, he served as Minister to the United Kingdom under President Franklin Pierce, in which capacity he helped draft the inflammatory Ostend Manifesto, which suggested the U.S. should declare war if Spain refused to sell Cuba. The Ostend Manifesto was never acted upon and greatly damaged the Pierce administration.
Despite unsuccessfully seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1844, 1848, and 1852, Buchanan was nominated in the election of 1856 as a compromise between the two sides of the slavery issue; this occurred while he was away on business. His subsequent election was largely due to the even more divided state of the opposition. As President he was a "doughface", a Northerner with Southern sympathies who battled with Stephen A. Douglas for the control of the Democratic Party. Buchanan's efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South alienated both sides, and as the Southern states declared their secession in the prologue to the American Civil War, Buchanan's opinion was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal; hence, he remained inactive. By the time he left office, popular opinion had turned against him, and the Democratic Party had split in two. Buchanan had once dared to hope that his presidency might rank in history with that of George Washington. However, his handling of the crisis preceding the Civil War has led to his consistent ranking by historians as one of the worst Presidents.
In this editorial cartoon from the 1856 presidential election, James Buchanan—in the light suit—helps hold down the head of a "Free Soiler" while Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas and President Franklin Pierce shove an African-American slave down his throat. In 1860, Douglas, who wrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, would carry Pennsylvania, but lose the presidential election to Abraham Lincoln.
=== Bible Quote ===
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”- Joshua 1:9=== Headlines ===
Two GOP lawmakers call for charges to be dropped against three Navy SEALs who captured Al Qaeda terrorist behind the murder, mutilation of four Blackwater contractors — and allegedly gave him a bloody lip.
Dem Dozen Targets Abortion
Lawmaker says a dozen Dems will reject Obama's bill unless it contains language banning fed funds for abortion
With $$ on the Line, States Go to Illegals
2010 Census is about to begin, and states once unkind to their illegal immigrant population are changing their tune
Missing Ga. Girl Found, Beau Arrested
Tip leads cops to Amber Graham,14, in her boyfriend's house after she disappeared a week ago
Hair clippings believed taken from Napoleon Bonaparte on his death bed have been found in the historical 130-year-old Sydney Town Hall's vaults
Toddler murder suspected
POLICE are now treating a missing boy's death in Melbourne as a possible murder case.
Cabinet splits over tax and tactics
KEVIN Rudd faces damaging cabinet splits over tax, election strategies and political tactics.
Baby dies as parents raise virtual bub
A COMPUTER addict couple let their real baby starve to death while raising a virtual one online.
Mum ignores deadly brown snake to bake
TOVE Tagell ignored a snake bite to whip up a cake but ended in a high dependency hospital ward.
What women really want the most
A NEW survey reveals many mums are opting for a healthy family life instead of a career.
Calling a cease fire at primary schools
PUPILS as young as six have been armed with 'weapons' and playing war games on school grounds around Australia.
Is this the bionic man of NSW?
A SEEMINGLY indestructible man has escaped serious injury after a car crash where he ran into traffic and hit more cars before jumping off a 7m bridge.
Stampede kills 37 children, 26 women
SIXTY three people, all of them women and children, were crushed to death in a stampede at a temple in northern India.
Burst water main rips homes apart
The ruptured main was dug up yesterday and will be sent to metallurgists in Sydney to find out what went wrong.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Impacting elections, supporting candidates and setting agendas!
Will we see a tea party takeover?
The Pregnancy Pact
What became of the 17 high schoolers who got pregnant in Gloucester? The Culture Warriors have the update!
===
Guest: Ann Coulter
The Dems were against the nuclear option when the GOP had the power. Now, they look poised to pull the trigger! Is it liberal hypocrisy?
===
Drugs, Prostitution, & Polygamy!
All are outlawed ... but still widespread! So what's the solution? John says to put an END to government prohibition! Could it cut down on crime?
=== Comments ===
Farrakhan, Wright and Pfleger to Receive 'Living Legends' Award
By Bill O'Reilly
An unbelievable show this Friday night in Chicago. Together on one stage: Louis Farrakhan, Jeremiah Wright and radical priest Michael Pfleger.
They will all be receiving an award called "Living Legends," and you can see it as a VIP if you have a hundred bucks.
The spectacle is being driven by Rev. Wright, who is actually giving himself the "Living Legend" award, as well as the other two guys. There's no third party involved.
All the money people pay to see this dog-and-pony show will go to Rev. Wright's charity. Pfleger will get a bit of it, and so will the Haitian singer Wyclef Jean.
Don't you love this?
Rev. Wright is honoring himself, Farrakhan and Pfleger, and is charging money for the exposition. Is America not a great country?
The serious part of the story is Father Pfleger, a radical-left Catholic priest who runs St. Sabina parish on Chicago's South Side. Pardon the pun, but what in God's name is Pfleger doing on the same stage as Farrakhan, a race-baiting anti-Semite? Why is the archdiocese of Chicago permitting that?
We contacted Archbishop Francis George, but the head of Chicago's 2.4 million Catholics has no comment.
Are you kidding me? This is a scandal. You can't have a Catholic priest whose message should be peace on earth, goodwill to men, standing there with a hateful guy like Farrakhan. I mean, Wright is bad, but Farrakhan is nuclear. This is unbelievable.
Just in case you missed "The Factor" Tuesday night, here's a taste of what Farrakhan said just last Sunday:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOUIS FARRAKHAN, NATION OF ISLAM LEADER: The white right is trying to set Barack up to be assassinated. There are Christians…
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, yes, sir.
FARRAKHAN: …praying for God to kill Barack Obama. He wants to write a new page with the Muslim world, but the Zionists won't let him. Now they got him with a mustache like Hitler.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
FARRAKHAN: I thought I was the new black Hitler.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Again, Archbishop of Chicago Francis George will not comment about one of his priests being honored with Farrakhan and Wright.
"Talking Points" has no problem with these three men speaking about anything. They have First Amendment rights. But the whole deal is so bizarre, we thought you should know about it.
"Living Legends" indeed.
===
Michelle Malkin Reacts to Rangel Scandal
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 3, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right, so after insisting that he would not step down from his position as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Charlie Rangel finally threw in the towel this morning. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLIE RANGEL, D-N.Y.: In order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections, I have this morning sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi, asking her to grant me a leave of absence, until such time as the ethics committee completes its work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Oddly, Rangel has found no shortage of Democrats willing to defend his ethical fiber. Chief among them House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who had this to say about the findings of the House Ethics Committee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: All I saw was the press release where they said that he did not violate the rules of the House. And I think that's an important statement that they made. But they did not take action against him. They just said he did not willfully break the rules.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And joining me now with reaction to the latest Democratic corruption scandal is the author of number one "New York Times" best- seller, "Culture of Corruption." Michelle Malkin is back with us.
What happened to drain the swamp? What happened to the most ethical Congress ever?
MICHELLE MALKIN, "THE CULTURE OF CORRUPTION" AUTHOR: Well, Nancy Pelosi, with her mop and her clean-up attitude, didn't drain the swamp. She over flooded it. And now, as I've said the culture of corruption chickens are coming home to roost.
I think that this is a damning indictment, not just of Charlie Rangel, and the arrogance and the hubris with which he has clung bitterly to his seat and to his gavel, as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, but it is as much a damning indictment of Speaker Pelosi and the hypocrisy with which she has ruled, with her gavel as House speaker.
Downplaying these violations and remember this is just the tip of the iceberg. The issue here that he was so weakly admonished for by the House Ethics Committee which involved corporate sponsorships on a junket in the Caribbean is the tip of the iceberg, as I say.
He's got all of these lapses with his financial disclosure forms. There's a rent controlled apartments in New York City. There's the use of official stationary to try and solicit funds for a public policy school in New York that's named after him. It goes on and on and on.
Those issues still have to be resolved. And yet here we have Nancy Pelosi shrugging it off because technically he didn't violate anything and after all, as she said a couple of days ago, it's not like he endangered national security.
HANNITY: Yes.
MALKIN: She actually said that, Sean.
HANNITY: No, she actually said that and she had a very different take when she had comments about Tom DeLay.
What's — the story gets more interesting now because you've got Rangel's successor, a guy by the name of Congressman Pete Stark, who himself has been investigated for ethics violations.
He's had a number of bizarre outbursts in 2007. He actually said that, you know, Americans are being sent to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement.
He said at another time to a reporter, get the blank out of here or I'll throw you out a window. So this is the next guy in line to take over the powerful House Ways and Means Committee?
MALKIN: Yes, it does tell you something about these bizarro, swamp creatures that this is the only person that Pelosi has to elevate her crony from California. I don't just call him Pete Stark, he's Pete Stark-raving mad.
He is infamous on YouTube for going after his own constituents who dared to question him over the summer over the health care takeover. He has used foul language on the House floor, not just against former President Bush who he accused of being amused over the deaths of Iraqis during war.
But also language that he used against his fellow colleagues. And then of course his own ethics scandal, as you mentioned.
HANNITY: Yes.
MALKIN: Regarding a house that he claimed deductions for, apparently, in Maryland. And then he went and cussed the people who were investigating that as well.
Now this guy will be wielding the gavel? It really is time to drain the swamp and that time is coming soon.
HANNITY: All right, remember how big an issue the Mark Foley case was leading into the 2006 elections? Politico reported earlier today that this guy, one-term congressman, Eric Massa, also from New York.
I don't know what's in the water in New York these days. But according to several House aides on both sides of the aisle, you know, this guy is married with two kids, who's being accused — he's denying it — but being accused of sexually harassing a male staffer.
Now do you remember the outrage then? So how big an issue — I guess is my question — how big an issue is corruption now going to be as we head into these midterms? You think it's going to matter?
MALKIN: I think it's going to be one of the key issues in 2010 and 2012. I think the “culture of corruption” epithet that Pelosi and Dean used against the Republicans in the midterms is coming to boomerang and bite the Democrats right back in their back side.
And the fact that there were 39 Democrats who refused to stand by Charlie Rangel and inviting the wrath of the congressional black caucus, which of course is going to play the race card as they always have done in defending Charlie Rangel over the years.
It tells you something. It tells you that they are scared out of their minds, as they should be. They don't want to taint on them.
HANNITY: All right, last question.
MALKIN: And it's about time.
HANNITY: All right. Last question. Is it going to be the Republicans and the Democrats that get the wrath of voters, or is this mostly about the Democrats and Obama's agenda?
MALKIN: Well, this is the ruling majority. They're responsible. They're accountable, and the people will hold them accountable for it.
HANNITY: All right. Michelle Malkin, always appreciate you being with us. Thank you very much.
===
NEWS BRIEFLETS
Tim Blair
• Australia is the world’s drug dealer. Cool.
• “Global warming freaks” denounced.
• Caption of the year: “Coconut munching paradise dweller.”
• And another caption, via CL and Hot Air.
• She’s an expert: “A 45-year-old woman, charged with ending a domestic dispute by killing her 26-year-old husband of five days, is a registered lobbyist for a group fighting domestic violence.”
• It is important to know your pretentious hats. (Via Michael Rittenhouse)
===
BILL’S BACK
Tim Blair
It took me a couple of seconds last night to recognise the sturdy chap waving to me from the other end of the bar. It was Bill Leak, looking very healthy and strong following his dreadful accident in 2008. Bill is now Australia’s funniest conversationalist on the subject of cranial surgery.
===
Iraq, the democracy the Left wouldn’t back
Andrew Bolt
Professor Fouad Ajami marvels at what has been wrought in Iraq, facing another general election on March 7:
The American project in Iraq has midwifed that rarest of creatures in the Greater Middle East: a government that emerges out of the consent of the governed. We should trust the Iraqis with their own history. That means letting their electoral process play out against the background of the Arab dynasties and autocracies, and of the Iranian theocracy next door that made a mockery out of its own national elections…
Of all that has been said about Iraq since the time that country became an American burden, nothing equals the stark formulation once offered by a diplomat not given to grandstanding and rhetorical flourishes. Said former U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker: “In the end, what we leave behind and how we leave will be more important than how we came.”
We can already see the outline of what our labor has created: a representative government, a binational state of Arabs and Kurds, and a country that does not bend to the will of one man or one ruling clan.
===
And a Mercedes in every garage
Andrew Bolt
This is the bit that makes me most doubt Kevin Rudd’s hospitals plan:
The federal government has promised to cut waiting lists down and move public patients into private beds if necessary, under its $90 billion overhaul of the hospitals system.That is a bold promise that is essentially uncosted, and assumes that surgeons are even available at the lower price the Government will surely be offering. And if public patients can now expect private treatment, why would a mug pay top dollar for the private health insurance that keeps these private hospitals afloat?
I sense one more over-promise that could lead to tears and an ocean of red ink - when Rudd already can’t say how he’ll pay for his massive shakeup.
===
Now for a glimpse of Prime Minister Abbott
Andrew Bolt
I agree with Dennis Shanahan that Tony Abbott’s early success means he needs soon to switch to alternative Prime Minister mode:
Abbott must stay ahead of the game and perhaps move sooner than he expected on to positive policy instead of relying only on negative oppositionism.
This will pose not just a political challenge for Abbott, but a psychological one. Being intensely self-reflective and doubting - and honest, too - will he be able to project the self-assurance and gravitas we expect in the leader of this nation?
But I certainly don’t think it’s time to stop pointing out Rudd’s flaws. The insulation fiasco is only a metaphor for so much else, and that big picture needs explaining, too. - in many ways Bolt is still demanding much of Abbott that he never would demand of the ALP. I think Abbott is up to it, but I dislike these sleights of Bolt. -ed.
===
Hand the installers not our wallets but our country
Andrew Bolt
W HAT a great country this would be if the insulation bandits now robbing us blind actually ran it instead.
I look at the quotation book and pay sheets left behind at one more house stuffed with Kevin Rudd’s useless free insulation and think, boy, these blokes are sharp.
Certainly sharper than the politicians and bureaucrats who blew $2.5 billion of our money on this colossal spending spree that’s left four installers dead, 90 homes burned, 1000 more electrified, and another 240,000 fitted with insulation, much of it imported, that’s either useless or dangerous.
I mean, how on earth did so many people - including hundreds barely able to speak English - work out so fast that here was a bring-your-own-wheelbarrow mountain of free cash to which they could help themselves, and in most cases legally?
How did they work out dodges and wheezes that seemingly whip-smart politicians such as Rudd and and his top-shelf bureaucrats never thought to even guard against?
I flick through this quotation book, for instance, and see that these guys worked systematically through street after street of the suburbs they’d picked out, quoting each house precisely the same maximum $1200 for installing Rudd’s insulation - no matter whether the installation area was 120sq m or just 80.
It was free to the householder, anyway, so they wouldn’t quibble. And it was gravy to the installer, who on the smaller jobs could get Rudd’s free cash for up to 40sq m of batts he never had to install.
Wait, you still want a quote from a second company? No worries - these same guys could organise that on the spot, too, or so claims the man who found these documents in his home.
Other installers, we now learn, were even sharper, billing the rush-rush-Rudd Government for whole houses they never even touched, but for which they forged invoices they were sure then would never be checked.
===
Insulate us from the nongs who ran this program
Andrew Bolt
It gets worse and worse:
GREG Combet has called in the Auditor-General to investigate the bungled $2.45 billion home insulation program.I think “would not say” is more accurate.
The move comes amid fresh allegations by the federal opposition of “widespread and systemic” rorting of the suspended scheme, involving installers claiming rebates for ceiling batts never laid.
The allegations emerged as householders received letters from the government asking if they were satisfied with insulation paid for by taxpayers.
Many householders said their homes had not been fitted with batts but they had received letters sent to fake names at their address…
The government could not say yesterday how many had complained that their roofs had not been insulated.
UPDATE
And another disaster:
THE $175 million green loans scheme was “hijacked” by opportunists, overseas call centres and companies that specialised in making homes environmentally friendly, leading to a raft of dubious assessments.UPDATE 3
As the Auditor-General begins a probe into the debacle, the industry association charged by Environment Minister Peter Garrett to accredit the army of green assessors has slammed the scheme as poorly managed and lacking quality checks.
Association of Building Sustainability Assessors chairman Wayne Floyd said tens of thousands of home owners, eligible for the $10,000 interest-free loans, were now likely to miss out on the Rudd government’s new March 22 deadline on the loans.
Reader Arden:
Andrew, this blog seems like a good place to collect evidence about the extent of the rorts. Here’s my contribution:I was cold-called a couple of months ago by someone offering to insulate my roof. I told him we already had very good insulation which the builder had installed. He replied that he’d replace the insulation. I asked him why would he replace, it, it doesn’t wear out, does it? No, he said, if the old insulation was still good he’d instal new stuff over the top. Again, I asked why, would this improve my energy efficiency? No answer. Then I told him that we had a very shallow-pitched roof with no roof-space, so he’d have to take off the colourbond roofing to instal the insulation. He hung up.
===
Arctic puts Wilkinson’s alarmism on ice
Andrew Bolt
You’ll remember alarmist Marian Wilkinson’s scare-mongering report for Four Corners after the big Arctic melt of 2007:
If you want to see climate change happening before your eyes, scientists will tell you: “Go to the end of the earth”, and that’s why we’re here, in the Arctic Circle.Wilkinson never explained why the end of the earth we had to go to for evidence was the top, and not the bottom, where sea ice was actually increasing. But let’s go back to the Arctic, as the ice reaches its winter peak, to see “climate change happening before your eyes”.
Surprise! Anthony Watts presents the evidence showing the Arctic sea ice cover keeps recovering from its 2007 lows. For instance, the Danish Meteorological Institute shows the ice extent at nearly the highest in its six-year record:
You might just see from the National Snow and Ice Data Center that the Baltic has even more ice than the long-tern average:
Which may explain this:
AROUND 50 ships, including large ferries reportedly carrying thousands, were stuck in the ice in the Baltic Sea today and many were not likely to be freed for hours, Swedish maritime authorities said.(Thanks to reader Mike and Merilyn.)
===
Peta pays to rob poor voters
Andrew Bolt
POOR Peta Duke. If she hadn’t somehow typed the ABC’s address on the email she’d actually meant for her boss, she’d be a hero.
“You’ve done it again, girl!” Planning Minister Justin Madden would probably have chortled.
“Your plan will do the trick.” With emphasis on the word “trick” - as in one more deceit by those pea-and-thimble shysters you now elect in these spin-spin days.
You know the kind of thing - stacking committees to produce the “right result”, fudging surveys to prompt the longed-for answer, and launching sham inquiries to give your crusading politicians exactly the dodgy conclusion they always wanted.
But, alas. Duke, eyes no doubt whirling from another frantic day of spinning in the Brumby Government’s media unit, last week accidentally emailed her plans for the Government’s latest “trick” to the ABC, and now must pay the price for being caught doing precisely what she’s paid to do.
Denounced by the suddenly moral Premier, John Brumby, and the suddenly outraged Madden, she was “demoted” to doing, er, what she always does.
Paid to spin, and now “punished” as spin, by a minister whose other new title - “Minister for Respect” - is pure spin, too, to trick Indians into thinking this Government is cracking down on racist thugs. It’s a circus, folks.
You’ve no doubt heard about Duke’s precise “crime” - drawing up a document titled “Minister for Planning Justin Madden’s Media Plan” to help her man rig the blocking of a proposed redevelopment of the heritage-listed Windsor Hotel.
===
Local planning is best left to locals who must live with it
Andrew Bolt
Is there any proof that the Federal Government and its Canberra mandarins know best how Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the rest should run themselves?
The federal Infrastructure Minister, Anthony Albanese, will today outline the Rudd Government’s push to cut across state and local authorities, as he releases a snapshot into the state of Australian cities that will form the basis of a national cities policy…A very dangerous touch of arrogance and overreach, I fear, although I can understand why the clowns in Sydney might encourage Kevin Rudd to think he could do a better job.
The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has signalled the government’s intention to intervene in urban planning.
(Thanks to readers Cynic, CA and mareeS.)
===
Not so much the knives but the signal these children were sent
Andrew Bolt
What cultural swtiches were turned on to unleash this in Victoria?
SCHOOLGROUND knife and weapon attacks have doubled in 10 years and are as common as bar-room stabbings and glassings. Police investigated 70 weapon attacks in school, university and college grounds in 2008-09, compared to 73 offences in licensed premises.
===
Ministers dare doubt what they once just copped
Andrew Bolt
Cabinet “splits” may be overselling what are just the usual range of views, yet it’s the first time in two years such a thing could even be said:
KEVIN Rudd faces damaging cabinet splits over tax policy, election strategies and political tactics as his response to poor polling erodes the hallmark solidarity of Labor’s first two years in government…
Federal and state Labor MPs are questioning Mr Rudd’s political handling of issues such as the emissions trading scheme, his bungled $2.45 billion home insulation program, threatening a referendum on health at the election and not releasing the Henry tax review. They are also critical of Mr Rudd for months of delays in the release of the health proposal, his frank admissions of broken promises, failure to deliver and his apparent panic in the face of falling polls…
Mr Rudd retains the absolute support of his colleagues, but a series of political problems have slashed Labor’s long-established lead in opinion polls, and MPs concerned at the significant drop in his personal approval are querying his style and judgment.
After weeks of bad publicity over the roofing insulation scheme and government refusals to investigate the scheme under Peter Garrett, the new Minister for Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, yesterday announced an about-face and called in the Auditor-General to investigate fraud.
At the same time, Health Minister Nicola Roxon failed to rule out tax increases to pay for the health changes and Mr Rudd played down the prospect of releasing the Henry tax review, which the government has had for months. He said he had not spoken to Wayne Swan about it because he was preoccupied with the health plan.
Several senior Labor sources have confirmed the cabinet differences over Mr Rudd’s delay in releasing his promised “root-and-branch” examination by a committee led by Treasury secretary Ken Henry. The report was completed late last year but is stalled as the Treasurer tries to ensure it does not prompt a tax-rise scare campaign only months before an election campaign.
===
Why Gillard is Bolt’s pin-up. For now
Andrew Bolt
I like her, too:
JULIA Gillard has been anointed as one “smart lady” who should be “running the country” by Sydney radio king Alan Jones, who complained today he could sum up Australia’s problems with two words: “Kevin and Rudd"…I’m not sure just why Gillard appeals so to conservatives. Is it that she seems so pragmatic now, ditching any sign of her old flirtation with the far Left? Is it her earthiness, and obvious intelligence? Is it her reluctance to play along with Labor’s New Class and to damn the battlers and “forgotten Australians”?
But a grumpy Jones, famously dubbed the Parrot, opened the batting in today’s interview by demanding of Ms Gillard: “Why have you allowed yourself to be dragged into the defence of what is a hastily cobbled together so-called reform package?”
Jones complained of the “Prime Minister telling us about the government, all the government’s shortcomings, all their failures, all their mistakes, all their bungles. Surely in everything that we’ve seen the government has only two problems, Julia; one is Kevin and the other is Rudd.”
“This is, we’ve got the wrong person running the country,” Jones told listeners.
“I will say to my listeners this is a woman who has nothing to do with health care and she is the Minister for Education and Industrial Relations and she’d most probably run rings around anyone in government arguing the case today. ”
In my case, one reason for my respect is that she’s spearheaded the few government programs that a conservative - or any evidence-based Leftist, too- could whole-heartedly endorse: a return to phonics, the publication of school results, a return to more of the basics in education. She seems as passionate as I am that working class and immigrant children be given that ladder of education to climb out of cultural ghettos and join the great conversation of our civilisation.
And there’s that school-marmish insistence on standards:
JULIA Gillard has been the nation’s education minister for a little over two years, but her passion for grammar and punctuation has deep roots. As a solicitor at law firm Slater and Gordon in the 1980s and ‘90s, Ms Gillard would get her staff to chant: ‘’One cat’s hat, two cats’ hats, where do the apostrophes go?’’But three cautions…
She told her biographer, Jacqueline Kent: ‘’If I got a letter with it done wrong I would draw a cat with a hat at the bottom in the hope it would come back right the next time. They all thought I was kind of strange.’’
One other reason for her popularity is simply that she’s not Kevin Rudd. It’s natural to wish for the successor when the leader seems so catastrophic, and it’s natural, too, to overpraise that longed-for alternative.
Second, Gillard, in the end, comes from the Left and I’m not sure her gut instinct isn’t still isn’t there, leaving her with a bias to big-government solutions (Medicare Gold and workplace “reforms").
Third, while her negotiation skills have been proven, with even few employers prepared to say a bad word about her, it’s not clear at all yet that she can run a big program well. The $16.5 billion Building the Education Revolution has already blown its budget and wasted billions on overpriced, irrelevant and even unwanted school buildings. The workplace “reforms” have actually put many people out of work. The computers in schools program is behind schedule, over budget and largely ineffectual in improving teaching.
It may well be that we love Gillard now. But she’s smart enough to know that we might find Prime Minister Gillard not quite this charming,in the end.
But I’m very, very keen that she prove me wrong.
UPDATE
Speaking of delivery and big government:
ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence has expressed concern that the Rudd government’s award revamp could leave workers worse off, after union leaders vented their frustration that Labor’s policy could disadvantage their members. During debate at the ACTU executive, union leaders told Mr Lawrence they were unconvinced by Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard’s assurance that workers’ take-home pay and conditions would be protected.(Thanks to reader CA.)
===
Which pollie is reading a cracker book?
Andrew Bolt
From the Australian Literary Review’s survey of federal politicians comes this mildly reassuring list:
Table 1: Favourite Authors Listed by Australian PoliticiansDo the Labor politicians who nominated Tolstoy and Orwell realise how profoundly conservative their essential message is? I’m looking at you, Lindsay Tanner. John Roskam tells why Caro should be on the list here.
Non-fiction
1. Nelson Mandela (Bruce Billson LP, James Turnour ALP, Anthony Albanese ALP, Brett Raguse ALP, Pat Farmer LP, Margaret May LP)
2. Robert Caro (Chris Bowen ALP, Mitch Fifield LP, Nicholas Champion ALP, Kirsten Livermore ALP)
3. Les Carlyon (Brendan Nelson LP, Michael Forshaw ALP, Bruce Scott NAT)
4. The Bible (Stuart Robert LP, Hedley Chapman LP, Alex Hawke LP)
Fiction
1. Leo Tolstoy (Lindsay Tanner ALP, Mike Kelly ALP, Nick Minchin LP, Trish Crossin ALP)
2. Harper Lee (Chris Bowen ALP, Brett Mason LP, Bruce Billson LP, Shayne Neumann ALP)
3. J.R.R. Tolkien (Kate Lundy ALP, Darren Cheeseman ALP, Tony Abbott LP)
Non-Fiction and Fiction
1. George Orwell (Cory Bernardi LP, Lindsay Tanner ALP, Brendan O’Connor ALP, Mark Dreyfus ALP, Gary Humphries LP, Mitch Fifield LP)
Tony Abbott’s list is great, Sword of Honour being a particularly marvellous book I read only last year myself:
Last non-fiction: Paul Johnson, A History of the JewsOther politicians I find in my reading room are Mark Bishop, Christopher Pyne, Mitch Fifield, Gary Humphries, Greg Hunt and Tanner. From previous chats, I’m sure George Brandis is, too, but he didn’t join in this survey.
Last fiction: Evelyn Waugh, Sword of Honour (trilogy)
Favourite non-fiction: Robert Rhodes James, Churchill: A Study in Failure
Favourite fiction: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
One curious thing; how bare the list is of non-English authors, other than Tolstoy, a Roman, a Nordic crime writer or two, and a couple of others. No Orhan Pamuk, for instance, or Hugo, Flaubert, Stendahl, Ibsen, Montaigne, Goethe, Roth, Virgil, Dante or Dostoevsky. The only person to nominate a book by the great master Conrad couldn’t or didn’t name the author. Sadly, few mentioned Dickens and none Trollope, author of the some of the greatest political fiction.
But let’s see what book Maxine McKew nominates as her favorite non-fiction:
The Battle for BennelongYes, it’s about herself.
===
Four against one, even discounting Jones
Andrew Bolt
John Styles examines the very curious notion that the ABC’s Q&A has of “balance”.
Oh, and my own piece that you see flagged above is here.
Peter Coleman also discusses the launch of Keith Windschuttle’s book on the “stolen generations” here. I told you I got a bit heated, although Coleman is kind enough to simply say I spoke “with passion”.
Most people freeze with terror when speaking in public. I don’t, but freeze with regret afterwards.
No comments:
Post a Comment