=== Todays Toon ===
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945) was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war. The only American president elected to more than two terms, he was often referred to by his initials, FDR. Roosevelt won his first of four presidential elections in 1932, while the United States was in the depths of the Great Depression. FDR's combination of optimism and economic activism is often credited with keeping the country's economic crisis from developing into a political crisis. He led the United States through most of World War II, and died in office of a cerebral hemorrhage, shortly before the war ended. - a facile man, he managed to secure Democrat patronage of the black vote while keeping all Democrat hypocrisy and tax and spend politics - ed.=== Bible Quote ===
“But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”- Jeremiah 17:7-8=== Headlines ===
Tensions high on Capitol Hill as House votes 224-206 to approve rule for health debate, clearing way for vote on Senate packageStupak: We Have a Deal
White House, pro-life Democrats reach deal for executive order on abortion to accompany health bill
Fargo Safe After Flood Fight
North Dakota residents gain the upper hand on the bloated Red River as floodwaters recede
Hero Dad Killed While Rescuing Teen
New York father of two intervenes to save a young family friend from a gang of thugs — and pays with his life
A male nurse allegedly addicted to watching others kill themselves online could be charged with assisting suicide.
Crash thief: From coma to killer
LAST year a joyrider put himself into a coma after crashing a stolen car - now a family of three is dead.
Voter backlash a warning to Kevin Rudd
PM told to work on policy and cut the spin following large swings against Labor in state elections.
Darren Hoare's killer 'unhinged by war'
PARENTS of man facing death penalty for killing an Aussie plead for his life, saying he's mentally ill.
95,000 Mohammed descendants set to sue
PROPHET'S descendants plan libel action against newspapers over "blasphemous" cartoons.
Newman mocks AFL over women's footy
AFL looks at future of women's footy, prompting ex-player to suggest they're on "giggle gas".
Mum arrested after two-year-old dies at Dulwich Hill home
A WOMAN has been arrested following the death of her two-year-old daughter in Sydney's inner-west. The girl's body was found by police at a house on Benham Street, Dulwich Hill, about 9.30pm (AEDT) yesterday. Her mother, aged 28, was arrested at the scene and taken to Newtown Police Station.MyZone tickets clog the buses
THE State Government's MyZone ticketing system will be a disaster for Sydney's public transport because it's "likely to cause commuters lengthy delays."
British Labor Party 'lobby for cash' MPs caught in TV sting
A GROUP of British MPs have been filmed apparently offering their lobbying services for cash. Three former cabinet ministers were secretly filmed as part of an undercover investigation for a television documentary. Stephen Byers, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon - all of whom deny breaking any parliamentary rules - were interviewed by a fictitious US lobbying firm in the sting.
$100bn needed to keep power on, Government warns
THE FEDERAL Government has warned of brown-outs and national power shortages if $100 billion is not spent on generators in the next 10 years, guaranteeing steep rises in electricity bills. Power price rises have also been linked to the cost of connecting renewable energy sources, such as wind turbines, to the national electricity grid and cutting greenhouse gas emissions, The Australian reports. Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said at the weekend the investment required to avoid power rationing and increase renewable energy "can only be paid for with higher electricity prices". "It is high time we started telling the truth about electricity prices," he told a meeting of business people in Queensland on Saturday. "We simply cannot maintain supply reliability for households and businesses if we don't invest in electricity supply infrastructure. That investment can only be paid for with higher electricity prices. "Australia now needs to invest at least $100 billion in electricity infrastructure over the next decade just to meet growing demand and replace ageing infrastructure.
=== Journalists Corner ===
As the fate of health care is decided, NO ONE has you covered like Fox!Only one team has complete coverage as events unfold!
LIVE From D.C.!
As the votes come in, Neil's covering all the costs of the bill that could impact you! Plus, click HERE for Neil's perspective on the bill!
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All Eyes on The Hill!
As health care hangs in the balance, Greta, Bret, and Shep have LIVE coverage! All access, all day, all the information you need!
===
We Have You Covered LIVE!
From reaction on the street to last minute backroom deals, O'Reilly, Hannity, and Rivera break down the vote!
Find Out Why Jon CaresPLAY VIDEO: The actor reveals his feelings about the health care bill. Hear from Jon!
===
Michele on Health Care
PLAY VIDEO: Griff Jenkins caught up with the congresswoman in the midst of the tea party protests! Find out what she has to say.
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Their Word From The Hill
PLAY VIDEO: We took to the streets of Washington, D.C.! Find out what people are saying about the bill on the Hill!
=== Comments ===
What Happens When America Forgets GodBy Rev. Bill Shuler
Our country has lost its moral compass and we are quickly becoming a nation of moral relativists.
America is in sore need of spiritual revival. We have lost our spiritual compass. As we approach Easter fewer and fewer people know its true meaning. The words spoken thousands of years ago have taken on new relevance, “My people have forgotten me, days without number. “ Jeremiah 2:32.
The following are ten things that happen when we forget God:
1. We become moral relativists.In our efforts to offend no one, we have stood for nothing. The church will either rise to meet the challenge or become irrelevant in its complacency. The choice is ours.
2. A cheapened version of spirituality devoid of God emerges.
3. Materialism prevails.
4. Human and civil rights are endangered.
5. The poor are disregarded.
6. Life is undervalued.
7. Man becomes consumed with self.
8. History is rewritten and identity lost.
9. Personal responsibility takes a back seat.
10. A generation wanders.
Rev. Bill Shuler is pastor at Capital Life Church in Arlington, Virginia. For more visit Capitallife.org.
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Obama to America -- I Win, You Lose
By Jon Kraushar
"Give me tyranny and give me debt" has replaced “Give me liberty or give me death.”With his health care holy war, President Obama is sending America at least 10 messages since taking office:
1. I win; you lose.
2. My will; not the will of the people.
3. Government of Obama, by Obama, for Obama; not government of the people, by the people, for the people.
4. Corrupt House rules and autocracy; not play by the rules and democracy.
5. “I’ll tread on you” now steps on “Don’t tread on me.”
6. “I, the president”; not “We, the People.”
7. “All men are created equal” but I am more equal than others.
8. “The dissent of the president” overrules “the consent of the governed.”
9. “Give me tyranny and give me debt” replaces “Give me liberty or give me death.”
10. “That government is best which governs most” supersedes “That government is best which governs least.”
Communications consultant Jon Kraushar is at www.jonkraushar.net.
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MUST-SEE BBC
Tim Blair
A couple of things about the BBC’s excellent Generation Jihad investigation: one, baby jihadis born and raised in the West are driven entirely by ideology (says one British extremist, previously jailed for terrorism offences: “I’ve never been a victim of poverty or any kind of family break-up or anything like that").
And two, these jihadis are a serious menace, despite – paradoxically – being complete losers.
UPDATE. The program – broadcast locally on SBS – reviewed by The Observer‘s Rachel Cooke:
I found the motivation of these men impossible to understand. They were middle-class; they had loving parents; they had money and mobile phones …Yes, we do. The second episode begins here.
I thought back to the first part of the series, to the two cocky young men in their nylon tracksuits and flashy trainers, newly released from prison. [BBC journalist Peter] Taylor asked them how their communities had welcomed them back. Cue wide smiles all round. The food, the presents! The money, the visitors! No one thought that they were terrorists, or anything like terrorists. It was more a case of: “Hail the conquering heroes!” I think we have a problem on our hands.
UPDATE II. An example, via Mark Steyn, of the type of society favoured by these junior jihadists.
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QUOTE OF THE MONTH
Tim Blair
From Footscray footballer Jason Akermanis:
Money speaks the greatest language of all, which is freedom.
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APPLAUSE AND HUGS
Tim Blair
Congress clears Barack Obama’s health care bill:
Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage.Associated Press correspondent David Espo seems to have become a little carried away himself there.
Widely viewed as dead two months ago, the Senate-passed bill cleared the House on a 219-212 vote. Republicans were unanimous in opposition, joined by 34 dissident Democrats.
Obama watched the vote in the White House’s Roosevelt Room with Vice President Joe Biden and about 40 staff aides. When the long sought 216th vote came in - the magic number needed for passage - the room burst into applause and hugs. An exultant president exchanged a high-five with his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.
UPDATE. Mark Steyn:
If Barack Obama does nothing else in his term in office, this will make him one of the most consequential presidents in history. It’s a huge transformative event in Americans’ view of themselves and of the role of government.But not in a good way.
UPDATE II. Bipartisanship achieved – in opposition to Obama.
UPDATE III. “The health care battle is just beginning.”
UPDATE IV. An interesting way of putting it: “America’s healthcare system will get a $US940 billion makeover after the House of Representatives voted today for historic reform, cementing President Barack Obama’s place in history.”
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Barack wins, America pays
Andrew Bolt
A win for Barack Obama for which the Democrats may soon pay the price:
Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage…Washington Examiner:
Widely viewed as dead two months ago, the Senate-passed bill cleared the House on a 219-212 vote. Republicans were unanimous in opposition, joined by 34 dissident Democrats…
Obama’s young presidency received a badly needed boost as a deeply divided Congress passed legislation touching the lives of nearly every American. The battle for the future of the health insurance system — affecting one-sixth of the economy — galvanized Republicans and conservative activists looking ahead to November’s midterm elections…
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the legislation awaiting the president’s approval would extend coverage to 32 million Americans who lack it, ban insurers from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and cut deficits by an estimated $138 billion over a decade. If realized, the expansion of coverage would include 95 percent of all eligible individuals under age 65.
For the first time, most Americans would be required to purchase insurance, and face penalties if they refused. Much of the money in the bill would be devoted to subsidies to help families at incomes of up to $88,000 a year pay their premiums.
Despite more than a year of steadily rising public opposition, manifested in opinion polls and in protest rallies across the country, President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally rammed through Obamacare late Sunday when House Democrats gave the bill their imprimatur.John Hinderaker is still optimistic:
The House vote isn’t the end of the national debate on this issue, however, as the Senate still must accept the House changes in the Senate Obamacare bill. Senate Republicans argue that the House reconciliation bill that makes significant changes in the Senate bill violates the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, maintaining that it should be ruled out of order by the Senate parliamentarian for consideration in the upper chamber. That in turn would mean the only bill the president could legally sign would be the original Senate bill, with its massive funding of abortion and the infamous deals used to buy senators’ votes, including the Cornhusker Kickback. At that point, a constitutional crisis of historic magnitude seems inevitable.
Here’s why: Never before in American history has a measure of such importance been imposed on the country by the majority party over the unanimous opposition of the minority.
* The health care bill’s taxes will go into effect promptly, but its substantive provisions are, for the most part, deferred for four years. This means that we have plenty of time to repeal the legislation… Moreover, even if the Republicans only take over the House in November, and not the Senate, won’t it be possible to throw roadblocks in the way of the bill’s implementation? Won’t budget appropriations be necessary to sustain the various federal tentacles the bill seeks to establish? What will happen if the House simply refuses to fund them?…Mark Steyn isn’t so sunny:
* The health care debate has energized the conservative movement and awoken the sleeping giant, that is, the American people....
* Barack Obama has used his political capital--pretty much all of it--on unpopular legislation that will continue to rile the voters for years to come. As a result, Obama is a remarkably unpopular second-year President....
You can say, oh, well, the polls show most people opposed to it, but, if that mattered, the Dems wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing. Their bet is that it can’t be undone, and that over time, as I’ve been saying for years now, governmentalized health care not only changes the relationship of the citizen to the state but the very character of the people…At least Obama finally achieved bipartisanship:
More prosaically, it’s also unaffordable.. Five years from now, just as in Canada and Europe two generations ago, we’ll be getting used to announcements of defense cuts to prop up the unsustainable costs of big government at home. And, as the superpower retrenches, America’s enemies will be quick to scent opportunity.
Longer wait times, fewer doctors, more bureaucracy, massive IRS expansion, explosive debt, the end of the Pax Americana, and global Armageddon. Must try to look on the bright side . . .
These are the (34) Democrats who voted no tonight on the Senate-passed health-care bill....
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We’ll go black if Rudd doesn’t see the light on his great green tax
Andrew Bolt
Er, but who’d be mad enough to invest in the most needed forms of base-load power when the Rudd Government’s ETS is designed to drive them out of business?
THE FEDERAL Government has warned of brown-outs and national power shortages if $100 billion is not spent on generators in the next 10 years, guaranteeing steep rises in electricity bills.
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How government cash created the Climategate scandal
Andrew Bolt
Australian climate scientist Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen tells the British parliamentary inquiry into Climategate just how much global warming science is corrupted by politics and money. Excerpts:
I was peer reviewer for IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)… Since 1998 I have been the editor of the journal, Energy & Environment (E&E) published by Multi-science, where I published my first papers on the IPCC. I interpreted the IPCC “consensus” as politically created in order to support energy technology and scientific agendas that in essence pre-existed the “warming-as -man-made catastrophe alarm."…(Thanks to reader John. read on for Boehmer-Christiansen’s full submission.)
3.2 Scientific research as advocacy for an agenda (a coalition of interests, not a conspiracy,) was presented to the public and governments as protection of the planet… CRU, working for the UK government and hence the IPCC, was expected to support the hypothesis of man-made, dangerous warming caused by carbon dioxide, a hypothesis it had helped to formulate in the late 1980s…
3.3 ... In persuading policy makers and the public of this danger, the “hockey stick” became a major tool of persuasion, giving CRU a major role in the policy process at the national, EU and international level. This led to the growing politicisation of science in the interest, allegedly, of protecting the “the environment” and the planet. I observed and documented this phenomenon as the UK Government, European Commission, and World Bank increasingly needed the climate threat to justify their anti-carbon (and pro-nuclear) policies. In return climate science was generously funded and required to support rather than to question these policy objectives… Opponents were gradually starved of research opportunities or persuaded into silence. The apparent “scientific consensus” thus generated became a major tool of public persuasion…
4.1 ... As editor of a journal which remained open to scientists who challenged the orthodoxy, I became the target of a number of CRU manoeuvres. The hacked emails revealed attempts to manipulate peer review to E&E’s disadvantage, and showed that libel threats were considered against its editorial team…
4.4 Most recently CRU alleged that I had interfered “maliciously” with their busy grant-related schedules, by sending an email to the UKCIP (Climate Impact Programme) advising caution in the use of CRU data for regional planning purposes. This was clearly reported to [CRU head Phil] Jones who contacted my Head of Department, suggesting that he needed to reconsider the association of E&E with Hull University. Professor Graham Haughton, while expressing his own disagreement with my views, nevertheless upheld the principle of academic freedom…
4.5 The emails I have read are evidence of a close and protective collaboration between CRU, the Hadley Centre, and several US research bodies such as the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where former CRU students had found employment. Together they formed an important group inside IPCC Working Group 1, the science group…
The CRU case is not unique. Recent exposures have taken the lid off similar issues in the USA, the Netherlands, Australia, and possibly in Germany and Canada… It is at least arguable that the real culprit is the theme- and project-based research funding system put in place in the 1980s and subsequently strengthened and tightened in the name of “policy relevance”. This system, in making research funding conditional on demonstrating such relevance, has encouraged close ties with central Government bureaucracy. Some university research units have almost become wholly-owned subsidiaries of Government Departments. Their survival, and the livelihoods of their employees, depends on delivering what policy makers think they want. It becomes hazardous to speak truth to power…
Postglacial climatic history is by no means well understood and the human contributions cannot yet be assessed.
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White and “tanned”? Must be a guy with a sun lamp
Andrew Bolt
Victoria Police play another game of “let’s not mention the ethnicity”:
A MAN has been treated in hospital after a savage glassing attack on a nightclub dancefloor in Melbourne’s CBD early yesterday… Police would like to speak to two men, the first is white, with a tanned complexion, in his twenties, approximately 183cm tall, of solid build and with short brown curly hair. He had a fine beard along his jaw line.That’s him in the middle and right of the pictures above. If a wanted man isn’t Asian, Caucasian or Aboriginal, the police are suddenly struck blind.
(Thanks to reader Encyclopedia Brown.)
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Real crooks, pretend sentences - and a pretend fix
Andrew Bolt
Victoria would rather free the crooks than build the jails:
A RECORD number of serious criminals were freed with “slap on the wrist” sentences last year. Sex offenders, armed robbers, thugs and drug traffickers were among those given fully suspended prison terms, which involve no jail time…(Thanks to reader Phil from bkkk.)
Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that of 1963 criminals convicted in the County and Supreme Courts, judges freed 506 on wholly suspended terms. Suspended terms went to 5364 (6.5 per cent) of 82,524 convicted in magistrates’ courts....
In May 2006, the State Government announced suspended sentences would be phased out, ending in abolition by December 2009.
Mr Hulls said then that most people regarded the sentences as a slap on the wrist and a “get out of jail free card”, and “under the reforms, jail means jail”. The Sentencing Advisory Council had said the sentences were a fiction and their abolition would result in “real truth in sentencing”.
But in April 2008, it said the corrections system would be unable to cope with the consequent influx of prisoners and recommended alternative sentencing options.
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Rudd’s new $570 million annual tax on new homes
Andrew Bolt
Steve Conroy will not want his reputation wrecked as was Peter Garrett’s by a Prime Minister who imposes on him a mad plan and then won’t listen when it hits the inevitable hurdles:
KEVIN Rudd is believed to have told Communications Minister Stephen Conroy to come up with a strategy within two weeks to take the heat out of the political crisis building up around the government’s $43 billion national broadband project.Meanwhile, check the costs Rudd will impose on the rest of us - costs even more than the $43 billion price tag we’ll be underwriting:
Canberra sources said the directive followed a “difficult” meeting between Rudd and Conroy after the Prime Minister was shown a copy of the controversial $25 million implementation study into the development of the national broadband network.
Conroy has dismissed Senate demands to table the 500-page report prepared by KPMG and McKinsey & Co, arguing that he intends to discuss its findings with cabinet colleagues first.
There are suggestions the government, which is tipping hundreds of millions of dollars into this project, particularly in Tasmania, may be too embarrassed to release the report because it will be found to be “shallow”, throwing up more questions than answers, with engineering considerations, for example, outweighing the critical issues of economic viability.
Conroy last week introduced legislation into the Senate requiring all new homes to be fibre-ready for “superfast broadband”. Under this “fibre in greenfields policy” all developments in Australia that receive planning approval from July 1 this year will have to include capacity for high-speed cabling… Conroy’s Fibre Deployment Bill estimates that, on the basis of 189,000 new homes, schools and businesses being built each year along the proposed fibre cable grid, the overall additional development cost would be up to $570m a year. The bill’s explanatory memorandum acknowledges that this increased cost will be passed on to the purchaser but says this should be outweighed by increases in property values.Home builders must pay $570 million a year just on the off chance they may one day use this white elephant. Rudd’s dream; your bills.
This is yet to be tested ...
(Thanks to reader CA.)
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Now we know who to blame
Andrew Bolt
There’s good news in this:
NEARLY 95,000 descendants of Mohammed are going to sue 10 newspapers for publishing “blasphemous” cartoons of the prophet.Now we know precisely who to sue for this faith that’s inspired such lethal intolerance.
Faisal Yamani, a Saudi lawyer acting for the descendants, claims that the cartoons - which first appeared in 2005 and caused violent protests by Muslims around the world - are defamatory.
(Thanks to reader CA.)
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Hope and bangs
Andrew Bolt
The cheek is turned:
U.S. President Barack Obama has renewed his administration’s offer of dialogue and diplomacy with Tehran.The cheek is slapped:
In a new videotaped appeal to mark the observance of Norouz, Obama said Washington is committed to a “more hopeful” future for the Iranian people despite U.S. differences with Iran’s government.
Taliban commanders have revealed that hundreds of insurgents have been trained in Iran to kill NATO forces in Afghanistan.(Thanks to reader Alan RM Jones.)
The commanders said they had learned to mount complex ambushes and lay improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The accounts of two commanders, in interviews with The Sunday Times, are the first descriptions of training of the Taliban in Iran. According to the commanders, Iranian officials paid them to attend three-month courses during the winter.
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Is this how to measure our warming?
Andrew Bolt
How reliable really are the weather stations that the Bureau of Meteorology uses to measure the rise in Australia’s temperature?
After checking the stations at our air force bases, Australian Climate Network now reviews more of the 100 weather stations that form the Bureau’s Reference Climate Station network that’s used to measure long-term changes in our weather:
Next to airports, an historical location for weather stations has been post office buildings, and this is the next category of “high quality, long-term climate monitoring” stations under examination. When looking at the examples provided below, it is worth keeping in mind that stations such as these have been at the forefront of developing the narrative that global warming is real, is happening faster than we previously thought, and that man’s contribution to this impending disaster is unequivocal.So how many of these six stations meet the top criteria that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sets for Climate Reference Network stations that measure long-term warming?:
The RCS stations surveyed in this installment include:
008039 - Dalwallinu (WA)
009510 - Bridgetown Post Office (WA)
010035 - Cunderdin (WA)
026026 - Robe (WA)
037051 - Winton Post Office (Qld)
073054 - Wyalong Post Office (NSW)
Flat horizontal ground surrounded by a clear surface ?Bridgetown Post Office:
Grass/low vegetation ground cover <10>None, suggests Australian Climate Network. Here’s just three examples from the six stations ACM shows:
You’ve got to love this one - sitting in a back yard surrounded by tall brick buildings. CRN1 status: Fail.Cunderdin Post Office:
This has to be one of the favourites so far - the station is just dumped in a lot along with corrugated iron fences and builders’ rubble. CRN1 status: Fail.Wyalong Post Office:
Is there anything right about this picture? On an ungrassed surface, next to what looks like a steel fence, behind a building with an air conditioner unit on the roof and paved walkways? ... CRN1 status: Fail…Anthony Watts has raised similar concerns about many of the US stations.
Summary:
We have now looked at 18 separate stations (out of a total of 103), in three separate categories. So far, not one of these stations meets the criteria of being “away from large urban centres” and the CRN quality standards of NOAA/NCDC in terms of siting.
UPDATE
Reader Alan Shore objects:
Just a friendly heads up - both the Bridgetown Post Office (009510) and Cunderdin Post Office (010035) stations you’ve referenced in Is this how to measure our warming? are used for cloud observations only. According to BoM:Against that, each of the six stations discussed here is on this BoM list, with the photographs above:Temperature, humidity, wind, pressure and rainfall observations are from Bridgetown {station 009617}. Cloud observations are from Bridgetown Comparison {station 009510}.
Temperature, humidity, wind, pressure and rainfall observations are from Cunderdin Airfield {station 010286}. Cloud observations are from Cunderdin {station 010035}.
Australia’s Reference Climate Station Network
The Australian Reference Climate Station (RCS) network has been established for high quality, long-term climate monitoring, particularly with regard to climate change analysis. The establishment of the network followed a request by the World Meteorological Organization to all of its member nations in 1990.
Around 100 RCSs have been selected from the existing Australian observation network. Preference was given to stations with
high quality and long climate records,
a location in an area away from large urban centres, and
a reasonable likelihood of continued, long-term operation.
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Spending money like water, and vice versa
Andrew Bolt
The Victorian Government could have built a dam on the Mitchell River for $1.35 billion. But because of its green mania and it’s refusal until the very last minute to admit Melbourne needed more water, it’s paying $3.5 billion for a desalination plant instead that will produce only a third of the water - and gobble up scads of power to make it, too.
How could that make economic sense?
Easy, when your grasp of economics is as shaky as that of Victoria’s Water Minister, Tim Holding, who brushes aside reports that the desal plant workers are getting $150 million extra to get the plant on line on the Government’s timetable:
Victorian taxpayers will not pay one extra cent as a result of agreements for workers’ pay and conditions on the desalination project because we agreed to a fixed-price contract.I guess Aquasure never budgetted for this expense, and is just donating the wage hikes from its own pockets. Right?
And indeed:
A senior government insider close to the project confirmed the state was well aware that its tight deadline of December next year would come at a cost.(Thanks to reader Ant.)
The source said Victoria’s diminishing water supplies had led to a “desperate” need for the plant to be finished quickly. “They [bidders] were told: ‘You’re meeting this deadline.’ ”
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Disney bans implants
Andrew Bolt
I’m presuming they figure the audience can now tell, and won’t want to see them in the 18th century. Either that, or someone at Disney has gone all moral:
Under Rob Marshall, the director of the fourth chapter of the [Pirates of the Caribbean] films, only the naturally endowed will stand a chance of crossing swords with Johnny Depp.
In a request to casting directors circulated around Los Angeles last week, the film-makers say they are seeking “beautiful female fit models. Must be 5ft 7in-5ft 8in (170-172cm), (U.S.) size 4 or 6, no bigger or smaller. Age 18-25. Must have a lean dancer body. Must have real breasts. Do not submit if you have implants”.
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Jihadists and their many supporters
Andrew Bolt
Rachel Cooke reviews Generation Jihad, a BBC documentary shown on SBS which tries to explain Britain’s jihadists:
I found the motivation of these men impossible to understand. They were middle-class; they had loving parents; they had money and mobile phones …
I thought back to the first part of the series, to the two cocky young men in their nylon tracksuits and flashy trainers, newly released from prison. [BBC journalist Peter] Taylor asked them how their communities had welcomed them back. Cue wide smiles all round. The food, the presents! The money, the visitors! No one thought that they were terrorists, or anything like terrorists. It was more a case of: “Hail the conquering heroes!” I think we have a problem on our hands.
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