Headlines Saturday 27th March 2010

=== Todays Toon ===

by Hugh Haynie of The (Louisville) Courier-Journal., 1959. “He wasn’t there again today – How, how we wish he’d go away.” Though Adlai Stevenson 1922 lost the presidential race two times, his unseen presence overshadowed the Democratic nominating process in 1960. Here, contenders Stuart Symington, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, and John F. Kennedy lament Stevenson’s unfilled shoes (note the famous hole). The cartoon references a nursery rhyme and 1930s song, “The Little Man Who Wasn’t There”: “As I was going up the stair / I saw a man who wasn’t there / He wasn’t there again today / I wish, I wish, he’d stay away.”
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.

=== Bible Quote ===

“For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him,”- Philippians 1:29

=== Headlines ===

After riding to fame on McCain's coattails, Palin is trying to save the four-term Ariz. senator's political life by helping him overcome toughest re-election challenge ever.

Secularist Coalition Claims Victory in Iraqi Elections
Ayad Allawi wins most seats in parliamentary elections, beating Shiite bloc headed by country's PM Nouri al-Maliki

Dems: Full Throttle on Health Overhaul
As Republicans await next step in lawsuit against 'ObamaCare,' some states led by Dems are already moving to implement the new health care law

A START on New Nuke Treaty
Obama says nuke treaty to replace START accord shows U.S., Russia ready to leave 20th century behind

An ACORN by Any Other Name Still Smells Like an ACORN, Critics Say
Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, who led an investigation into the group, said ACORN's assertion that it is closing is just another scheme designed to get its hands on taxpayer funds.

Bali Nine members facing the death penalty tell of how they try not to think about the prospect of capital punishment / Luckman S. Bintoro

Hey Dad! star to see police
SEX Crimes Squad detectives are preparing to take a statement from Sarah Monahan.

'Illness fuelled sister's murder plot'
A GIRL who stabbed her sister to death searched the internet for ways to kill her, a court hears.

Australians richer despite financial crisis
AUSTRALIANS are clawing back the wealth they lost in the global financial crisis, ABS reports.

'Despicable' sex con preys on elderly men
A WOMAN fleeces elderly men by making sexual advances before conning them out of cash.

Formula One champion caught hooning
FORMER F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton caught hoon driving and has car impounded.

'Family voted 159 times in election'
THE Electoral Commission wants an inquiry into claims a family voted 159 times in the South Australian election

Babysitters guilty of murdering toddler
A COUPLE who inflicted more than 70 injuries on a three-year-old boy they babysat have been found guilty of his murder.

=== Journalists Corner ===

Showdown in the West!
Guests Sen. John McCain & Sarah Palin talk GOP strategy on his hotly contested Senate race.
LIVE From D.C.!
Health care politics! Find out what it means for YOU! Plus, don't miss 'Cost of Freedom' Saturday at 10a et!
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Olympic Figure Skater Evan Lysacek
The Olympic gold-medalist sits down with the governor!
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Rubio & Crist Square Off!
A special LIVE face-off! With the state's critical U.S. Senate seat on the line, they're in a fierce battle in Florida's hotly contested primary!

=== Comments ===

The Truth About Obamacare Enforcement
By Bill O'Reilly
If you were watching Wednesday night, you saw Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner tell me I was misinformed about the IRS punishing people who don't cooperate with Obamacare. The interview was quite something:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: The IRS is now going to have to enforce Obamacare. So if you say flip it, I ain't buying it, then the IRS is the one that is going to make the determination whether you get fined or what happens to you. So again, the IRS is going to have to have access to information.

REP. ANTHONY WEINER, D-N.Y.: That's not — that is not true.

O'REILLY: And if you don't want to buy health insurance…

WEINER: That's the way the bill works.

O'REILLY: …the IRS has to see to it that you do. That's what universal health care is about.

WEINER: Incorrect.

O'REILLY: The IRS then comes in and deals with that person.

WEINER: That's not true.

O'REILLY: Who deals with them? Who determines the fine?

WEINER: We're not criminalizing them for failure — it's in the law.

O'REILLY: I'm asking you the simplest question in the world. If somebody refuses to cooperate…

WEINER: When you say…

O'REILLY: …who finds them and you can't tell me?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

So what is the truth of the matter? I hope Mr. Weiner has a pen.

No 1: Beginning in 2014, the IRS will be the primary enforcement arm of universal health care, and they might need 16,000 new agents. If you don't buy health insurance, the IRS can fine you. That is, take part of your tax refund, up to 2.5 percent come 2016. For some people, that's big.

No 2: The IRS will have control over who does and who does not purchase health insurance. We hear that you will have to tell the agency your insurance status on your tax returns.

No 3: The feds can punish you in other ways if you do not get a tax refund. If you are receiving any other federal benefits, they could take them away from you after checking first with the — ready Congressman Weiner? — IRS.

So you can see that the Internal Revenue Service will greatly expand its power under Obamacare. So I believe I was correct in my assessment, and Mr. Weiner was a bit confused.

As always, we are ready to receive facts to the contrary.

The importance of the IRS deal is the constitutional challenge to Obamacare. Does the federal government have a right to demand that you buy anything that doesn't directly relate to public safety, like car insurance? Eventually that will be what the Supreme Court will have to decide.

In the meantime, the feds will require you to purchase some kind of health insurance, and if you don't have the money, they will subsidize you. And everyone will be required to tell the government exactly what kind of insurance you have.

So there you have it. We appreciate Congressman Weiner coming on to debate. We know Obamacare is a complicated issue, but, once again, we were correct. The IRS is the enforcement arm.
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Lip gloss versus reality in NSW
Piers Akerman
Behind NSW Premier Kristina Keneally’s lip gloss, there lurks a formidable politician. - Barry won and Kenneally failed, but don’t expect the mainstream media to report that. It will be said that Barry was too negative. How negative can one be about this abysmal government which Keneally has not got the talent to fix? Keneally has not looked into the issue of Hamidur Rahman which may lead me to run for the legislative council in next year’s election as an independent.
Even if Keneally had the courage to attempt to change course for NSW, she would get caught in those strings she is tied up in. At what stage is someone so inept that they may be considered to be corrupt? The government had no problem smearing me to the legislative council, but they still spoke the truth on the issue too. They admitted they hid the testimony that the parents of Hamidur Rahman were blameless for his death from the coroner because they didn’t feel it was important. If you think about it, they failed to sell electricity for $120 billion in the early 90’s because that wasn’t important either. Now we must pay some $10 billion to keep electricity active .. standing still. Voters don’t seem to be important to Keneally either, although it is good to know she loves her mother. - ed.

David replied Neither side has run with it DD and the Liberal Party has also shown you little support other than the initial questioning. Both sides will hang you out to dry mate either through malice or by lack of political mileage so I suspect your on your won.
I agree that you give the LC a go. I sadly suspect that this will your only chance in clearing your name.
Tim replied
DD, Dave: I reckon the ‘F’ bomb dropped by Biden and the ‘shitstorm’ remark by Rudd were deliberate. This seems to be a new tactic to emphasis the importance of a policy initiative.

David, it isn’t the Liberal party’s fault. I’ve been offered support from several notable figures, but I have had to decline because of the smear. It is too soon for the Liberals to do anything because the ALP have smeared, but haven’t acknowledged anything. The problem is the anti corruption watchdogs have been silenced .. the ICAC and the Ombudsman’s office have a duty of care to the issue and have gotten off by claiming bogus reasons. Any press cover would end their excuse and force the ALP hand to address the issue. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter so much if I get elected, but by running I might get the press to break their silence. I’ll run as an independent even though I’m a liberal supporter because Hamidur Rahman is only a single issue and I wouldn’t be able to address it in a multi issue party format. But I’m a conservative. David, also, I’m not interested in clearing my name. I’m solely interested in taking the smear away from Hamidur’s parents. I think the rest will follow that. Tim, the ALP vocab is limited. they curse at each other in their policy discourse. The way they speak to the conservatives and public does not come naturally to them. What you heard from Biden and Rudd were policy statements. - ed.
===
Face of a Labor cheat
Andrew Bolt
Mind you, he was only following orders:

QUEENSLAND Ministerial staffer and young Labor apparatchik Nino Lalic has been revealed as part of the dirty tricks campaign at the weekend poll.

Mr Lalic, who works as an administrative officer for Queensland Disability Services Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk, took four weeks leave without pay to help Labor campaign in Adelaide.

The Advertiser obtained a photograph of the 22-year-old Young Labor member, who is part of the dominant Right faction, wearing a T-shirt that reads: “Put Your FAMILY FIRST”…

Mr Lalic confirmed he was in Adelaide, but initially denied wearing a “Family First” T-shirt. It is understood, however, that he was wearing an ALP supplied T-shirt and handing out second preference cards in relation to Family First, which were authorised by SA Labor state secretary Michael Brown.

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Building the anti-waste revolution
Andrew Bolt
A mutiny against Rudd’s obscene waste:

ALMOST half the population of a tiny NSW town blockaded its school’s gates yesterday to prevent builders and managing contractor Bovis Lend Lease from entering the site to perform works under the Rudd government’s Building the Education Revolution program.

The small primary school in the NSW Hunter Valley town of Cassilis had been slated to receive a toilet block and a covered outdoor learning area for a combined cost of $250,000 under the schools building program.

After learning that construction costs had blown out so much that the COLA had to be scrapped, the toilet block downsized and that the drinking fountains were not going to be replaced, parents decided to take matters into their own hands. About 40 of the town’s residents created the blockage yesterday.

“Enough is enough,” Cassilis P&C association spokesman Phillip Morton said.

“We want to stop the project. And the reason we want to stop it is we believe if we do that now, we can incorporate the facilities we need into the building. But if we wait till it’s complete, it’s only going to be harder to extend, and it will cost taxpayers more.”
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Don’t strip in Iceland
Andrew Bolt
What Christianity - and ice - could not achieve, feminists can:

Iceland has passed a law that will result in every strip club in the country being shut down… The Nordic state is the first country in the world to ban stripping and lapdancing for feminist, rather than religious, reasons.

Makes Christianity seem a lax and permissive creed in comparison.
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The betrayal of Israel
Andrew Bolt
The new anti-"Zionism" - or anti-Semiitism for many - has gone mainstream in a deadly serious way:

For a head of government to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of. Yet that is how Binyamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip viewed in Jerusalem as a humiliation.

After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisers and “let me know if there is anything new”, a US congressman, who spoke to the Prime Minister, said.

“It was awful,” the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting “a hazing in stages”, poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House telephone line. Another said that the Prime Minister had received ”the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea”.

UPDATE

Praise to Tony Abbott for standing against it:

TONY Abbott has called on the Rudd government not to expel an Israeli diplomat over allegations the Israeli secret service, Mossad, used forged Australian passports in the assassination of a Hamas terrorist in Dubai…

The Opposition Leader wants the Rudd government to ignore the precedent set by Gordon Brown’s government in London, which expelled an Israeli diplomat as punishment for the use of British passports in the Dubai killing....

“We can never forget that Israel is a country under existential threat in a way Australians find difficult to understand,” Mr Abbott told The Weekend Australian. “It’s also the only pluralist democracy in the Middle East.
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A new class of villain
Andrew Bolt
Sydney Morning Herald columnist Lisa Pryor:

Instead of professing love of country, a better class of scoundrel can profess love of school. Why sticky-tape the national flag in the front window of your home when you can stick the pennant of your private school on the back window of your car?

My own children - and their lovely friends - are all scoundrels for loving their schools? And their parents are scoundrels, too, for spending so much on education that we could have splurged on ourselves instead?
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HOUR OF 570 HORSEPOWER
Tim Blair
As a symbolic gesture to mark the importance of Earth Hour, I’m currently driving one of these across Mexico:

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The plan explained: an African on every fire truck
Andrew Bolt
My column yesterday noted the revolt of women firefighers against the Metropolitan Fire Brigade’s plan to end “discrimination” against them by introducing policies to discriminate for them - and for migrants, too.

I wrote that the MFB had assured the women that entry requirements for these “disadvantaged” groups would not change (although this was not the women’s principal concern), although these groups were to be offered a special pre-selection course to get up to speed.

Two particularly interesting comments have since come in. First, from a firefighter who doubts the MFB’s assurance:

Yes ...that is exactly how this program was pitched to us. Until we read the fine print of the affadavit supplied to VCAT, which had something VERY different in it. To paraphrase, it stated that once they disadvantaged had gone through the 14 week pre-selection course, “ The MFB has considered whether successful participants in the Program should, upon completion, be required to undertake the MFB’s standard recruitment process. The MFB has decided that this would constitute an inefficient use of MFB resources” –paragraph 27 MFB VCAT Submission

So what part of that statement aligns with (the) stated position that “All applications and recruits have to go through the same rigourous process”?

The second and wilder response comes from MFB CEO Ken Latta, who accuses me of being unaware that the test won’t change (even though I indeed wrote just that) and then seems to argue that we must hire black African firefighters to deal with fires in the houses of black African newcomers.

In case you think I’m misrepresenting Latta’s argument in order to mock it, here it is in full:

Andrew loves to shoot first and ask questions later - well shoot first at least. A phone call to the MFB would have helped his research on the goals of the MFB Gender Inclusion and Diversity programs he vilifies in his column (HS p30, 26 March).

What is wrong with wanting more female, indigenous and culturally different (at least different to Andrew) applicants? They won’t get in if they can’t pass the test and the test is not changing. Out of around 2,000 applications last year only 77 women wanted to be firefighters. Do women make good firefighters? Ask one; they’ll tell you they do. It’s just that many don’t think it’s a job that will suit them so they don’t apply.

And many newer arrivals to Australia feel the same way, but that could be based on their experiences from the countries they left. A uniform for some of them is seen as a thing to fear, even a fire fighter’s uniform! So they don’t apply.

Just last week MFB firefighters attended a fire in an inner city block of flats. The family, recently arrived and of African background, greeted them with caution even though they were there to put out a fire; there to help them. At first the family would do no more than cautiously point them to the room where the incident occurred and it was only by chance that a firefighter observed that a baby had actually received burns and needed immediate medical attention.

How could this happen? Why would they not immediately seek help? Because the community we serve is changing from the traditional one Andrew is used to and to help it the MFB has to understand it and be a part of it.

So are we positively discriminating? Are we are trying to advantage Mary and Muhammed and disadvantage Bill and Ted?

No! All we are trying to do is increase the application rates from people who would not normally apply and then give them the tools to present themselves in the best light.

So rest assured Andrew, when your house is burning, whoever its is that comes smashing through the door to pluck you screaming from danger, if it’s an MFB firefighter it will be the best there is.
Next time give us a call first and we’ll explain it all to you.

Ken, you’ve added absolutely no information here that wasn’t already in my article, other than that your plan is even more ludicrous than I thought.

There is not a hope in hell of overcoming the situation you describe without you sending African officers to every fire that conceivably involves African homeowners. And, of course, you’d need a representative of every other unassimilated minority on every firetruck, too, to make your dream real. Otherwise you’d face the embarrassment of having sent only Anglo and Sudanese firefighters to a fire in the home of, say, an Afghan or Iraqi.

But maybe I’m just not thinking big enough? Is the plan to set up rival ethnic services, so Muslims can ring their own Muslim fire service, Africans theirs, Jews theirs and so on?

Hmm. Might it not actually be easier if we accept into this country people with less hatred, disdain or fear of our officials, or taught them fast that Australia has different ways and expectations? And that it’s all in together?
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Killed by the rise of the feral
Andrew Bolt
Another case of our reverse-Darwinism:

BEN RUDZYN had everything to live for. A biomedical engineer with first-class university honours and an IQ of 160, the 26-year-old had a life of promise ahead of him.

In an all-too-familiar tragedy his life was taken when his car was hit by another driver, going at twice the speed limit while drunk and on drugs, unlicensed and in an unregistered car.

Mr Rudzyn was killed instantly, his 18-year-old girlfriend, Olivia Stennet, was badly injured and required three months in hospital, and ongoing treatment…

The driver, Dragan Jojkic, a 26-year-old P-plate driver, had had his licence suspended five times before, either for speeding or drink driving.

Despite the suspensions, in eight years he was convicted of 16 traffic offences. Jojkic had also been before court for property offences and other matters committed while under the influence of illicit drugs or alcohol.

His total punishment until the day he killed Mr Rudzyn and injured Ms Stennet were fines amounting to $1500.

The cultured is being killed off by the feral.

UPDATE

Meanwhile:

A TEENAGE mother who dumped her baby in a garden bed in a Territory town is pregnant with her third child.

It was revealed yesterday that the mother’s two children had been placed in care after a passer-by found the four-month-old baby in a public mall in the main street of Tennant Creek.

The mother could not be found until the next day.

Sources told the Northern Territory News the 16-year-old mother was symbolic of the welfare problems in Tennant Creek.

They say teenage girls are getting pregnant so they can access the Federal Government’s baby bonus.

(Thanks to readers David and Terry.)
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Rudd lets China buy up our suburbs
Andrew Bolt
Yet another Kevin Rudd scheme whacks us with its unintended consequences - this time fuelling out housing bubble and pricing Australians out of their nice suburbs:

RESERVE Bank governor Glenn Stevens ... said the bank was monitoring how much the federal government’s decision last March to relax its rules on foreigners owning property had contributed to surging prices for housing…

Treasurer Wayne Swan eased restrictions for those on temporary visas, such as business owners and foreign students, to allow them to buy any home to live in, land to build on or new dwelling for investment purposes.

Agency Marshall White says buyers from mainland China and Hong Kong kick-started Melbourne’s prestige property market last year and still account for a third of its sales.

Mandarin-speaking sales executive Michael Liu, who was hired by the agency to deal with overseas buyers, said a few streets in the eastern suburbs of Kew and Balwyn were now 80 per cent Chinese-owned.

(Thanks to reader Tony.)
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Another alarmist puzzled by the lack of warming
Andrew Bolt
Barack Obama’s Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, has been certain we face doom from global warming:

Chu said Americans had yet to fully understand the urgency of dealing with climate change. “I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen,” he told the Los Angeles Times in his first interview since taking the post. ”We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California. I don’t actually see how they can keep their cities going.”

But now he’s not certain why that global warming has paused:

It’s fair to say we don’t understand these ripples. We don’t understand the downward trend that occurred in 1900 or in 1940. We don’t fully understand the plateau in the last decade.

(Thanks to reader Phil.)
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Another win to a SA Labor party most don’t want
Andrew Bolt
Reader John Comnenus says Labor keeps winning elections in South Australia against the will of most voters:

In 1989 the ALP won 48.1% of the 2PP vote and formed government,

In 1993 the ALP won 39% of the 2PP vote and lost government,

In 1997 the ALP won 48.5% of the vote and remained out of Government,

In 2002 the ALP won 49.1% of the vote and formed government,

In 2006 the ALP won 56.8% of the vote and formed government,

In 2010 the ALP won probably around 49% of the vote and easily form government.

So since 1989 there have been six elections. The ALP has only won a majority of the vote once but has formed government on four occasions. The Liberals have won a majority of the vote on five out of six occasions but only formed government twice…

In Joh Bjelke Petersen’s day this was called a Gerrymander. In Mike Rann’s day it’s called a superior marginal seats campaign. Either way it seems that the State Electoral Commissioner in SA consistently puts up electoral boundaries that allow the Government to be formed by the ALP against the clearly stated will of the people.
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How World Vision helped fund a monument to a Jew killer
Andrew Bolt
I’ve already decided not to donate a single extra dollar to World Vision when my current sponsorships run out, But now add to its global warming extremism this (naively unwitting) support of another kind of fanaticism:

CHARITY group World Vision Australia has been embarrassed by a plan by Palestinian authorities to name a sporting complex containing an Australian-funded soccer field in the West Bank after a former militant PLO leader.

World Vision Australia funded the recently completed field in Jenin as a community project to help young Palestinians.

However, this month the authorities in Jenin announced plans to build additional sports facilities on the site and to call the planned sporting complex the Abu Jihad Youth City.

Abu Jihad, or Khalil al-Wazir, was the former commander of Fatah’s armed wing. He was considered a high-profile terrorist by Israelis for plotting numerous attacks inside that country during the 1970s and 1980s.

Background on Abu Jihad:

Abu Jihad planned many of the major Fatah terror attacks, including the worst terror attack in Israel’s history, in which 37 civilians were murdered in a bus hijacking led by Dalal Mughrabi in 1978. He also planned the hostage taking at the Savoy Hotel in Tel Aviv in 1975 in which eight hostages and two Israeli soldiers were killed. Abu Jihad was killed in 1988 in an operation attributed to Israel.

(Thanks to reader Formerly.)

UPDATE

Reader HRT has a further objection:

From the 7.30 Report 9 Jun 2000:

“Melbourne’s Wesley Central Mission today vowed to review the salary package of ....... Reverend Tim Langley, after it was revealed he was earning $160,000 a year, as well as living in a luxury apartment supplied by the Uniting Church........
REV TIM COSTELLO, BAPTIST MINISTER: Look, I was shocked and I think most clergy in the church are dumbstruck. When you have a religious calling, you understand it’s about sacrifice and service. You’re not in it to make money.”

From World Vision Australia 2009 Accounts:

T. Costello Cash, Salary & fees: $229,358 Superannuation: $20,642. Total $250,000. Other benefits such as a car are not mentioned.

As World Vision is not a religious calling I guess Costello’s package is OK - but I won’t be paying for it.

UPDATE 2

But reader Dom, a World Vision employee, adds:

It is worth noting that Tim Costello speaks at hundreds of events across Australia. He donates all of the money from speaking fees - $125,000 - back to World Vision.
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Alarmist government brought down to earth
Andrew Bolt
The judge is perfectly right - a government which claims we’re in mortal danger from man-made global warming can’t then hand out more rope:

Protesters have won a High Court battle forcing the Government to consider climate change issues before plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport can go ahead. A coalition of councils, green groups and residents argued that expansion of the airport would contradict Britain’s overall climate change targets.

Let the hypocrites now choose between their mad hype and a bigger airport.

(Thanks to reader Yankeebravo.)