Headlines Thursday 18th March 2010

=== Todays Toon ===

This cartoon depicts the "steamrolling" effect of the Teapot Dome oil scandal of the Harding Administration in the 1920s.
"I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies in a fight. But my friends, my goddamned friends, they're the ones who keep me walking the floor at nights!"
-Quote from Harding on his cabinet of friends and the corruption that plagued it.

Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th President of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death from a heart attack in 1923. A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate (1899–1903) and later as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio (1903–1905) and as a U.S. Senator (1915–1921).

=== Bible Quote ===

“[A psalm of David.] The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.”- Psalm 23:1-3

=== Headlines ===

President tells Fox News he's not worried about 'procedural' debate over whether House Dem leaders should go ahead with plan to approve health care without traditional vote.

Health Care Before Jobs
Sharp contrast in how White House tackles health care reform and jobs creates friction within Dem ranks

DOJ Paints GOP as Weak on Terror
Justice Department officials try to turn the tables on Republicans, say they're putting American lives at risk

Bible Group Told It Needs Permit
California city orders group of Christian worshippers who meet inside homes to get a permit or shut down

This is Sydney's Monofail - carriage collision near busy road worries regulator

THIS is the picture that reveals just how lucky passengers on the Sydney Monorail were to escape serious injury last month. The crash last month between the two monorail trains could have been much worse, as both were carrying weekend tourists on a track directly above the busy Western Distributor.

'Ford will be next to quit Australia'
THOUSANDS of jobs at risk as expert says Ford cannot afford to keep manufacturing in Australia.

Manhunt for 'worst' child sex offender
A MANHUNT is being stepped up for a child sex offender on the run after giving prison guards the slip.

Search on for mystery 'sinking boat'
CREWS to resume search for five people aboard a missing boat despite fears call was a hoax.

Hey Dad! star: 'I was abused on set'
ACTRESS who played schoolgirl Jenny Kelly in hit sitcom says she was too afraid to speak out.

Bad smell leads to body under hotel bed
GUESTS slept in a hotel room for months before a woman's body was discovered under the bed.

Scientists find way to force cancer cells to die of old age
INSTEAD of killing off cancer cells with toxic drugs, scientists have discovered a molecular pathway that forces them to grow old and die. Cancer cells spread and grow because they can divide indefinitely. But a study in mice showed that blocking a cancer-causing gene called Skp2 forced cancer cells to go through an aging process known as senescence - the same process involved in ridding the body of cells damaged by sunlight.

Car jacking victim tells of knife terror
TWO people arrested after three violent car-jackings and a two-hour high-speed police chase.

Family's wasted wait for justice

A FAMILY with two young children spent two hours waiting for police by the side of the road after apprehending a boy who hurled a rock through the windscreen of their car, only to be told officers were too busy to respond. On the same day the State Government defended triple-0 response times, the Smith family from Lismore told of their anger at being forced to release the boy who threw the rock. "I was furious. I had my two kids (Amelia, 3, and Bayley, 2) in the back of the car," Adam Smith said of the incident. Mr Smith and his wife Beverly were driving in Lismore on Tuesday afternoon when a rock shattered the windscreen.

NSW fails to end cramming of students into classrooms
NSW primary schools have the largest class sizes in Australia, despite a $700 million program to improve student-to-teacher ratios.

School 'Building the Education Revolution' costs double quoted price
THE cost of projects under the Federal Government's $16.2 billion school infrastructure program more than doubles from initial estimates by the time builders start work

=== Journalists Corner ===

It's an interview with President Obama!
During one of his administration's most important weeks, the president goes one-on-one with Bret Baier on the state of health care.

Guest: Sen. John McCain
The GOP strategy to stop the democrats' bill on the Hill! McCain weighs in on the health care battle.
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Guest: Janet Napolitano
From terror threats abroad to our security stateside, the homeland security secretary hashes it out with O'Reilly!
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Guest: Sen. Judd Gregg
Amid public outrage and political backlash, he reveals his answer to health care concerns!

=== Comments ===

Sorry to say this but hypocrisy unwelcome
Piers Akerman
FULL marks to Tony Abbott for highlight the appalling paternalistic sanctimony of the welcome-to-country ceremonies that every kumbayah coffee klatch has now embraced. - Rudd is capable of breathtaking audacity. But it is a mistake to label this as merely Rudd’s doing. It is the ALP who practice this, and it has happened under Keating, Hawke and Whitlam and similar stupid things happened under Beazley, Crean and Latham.
The ridiculous practise Piers describes is carried out in NSW High schools at each assembley (weekly!). Those poor kids endure so much for the ALP governance they didn’t vote in. - ed.
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American Doctors and Obamacare
By Bill O'Reilly
What I'm about to tell you is simply stunning.

A new survey published by The New England Journal of Medicine, a prestigious magazine, says that nearly half of primary care doctors in America could leave the medical profession if Obamacare is passed.

According to the Journal, 63 percent of physicians feel that health care reform is needed but should be done in a more gradual way. And an astounding 72 percent of doctors believe a public option, that is a government-run health insurance company, would have a negative impact on medical care in the USA.

From the jump, "Talking Points" has been telling you about the unintended consequences of Obamacare. But if half the nation's doctors are considering getting out, that's by far the most frightening offshoot of health care reform.

If Obamacare passes, there could be about 30 million more Americans seeking medical care from the establishment. Dick Morris says even if every doctor stays in place, the result would be health care rationing. But if doctors begin leaving the profession, well, you do the math.

The question is: Why? Why are so many doctors queasy about Obamacare? There are essentially two reasons.

First, loss of control. Most doctors value their freedom to make decisions when it comes to their patients. They don't want some pinhead in Washington telling them how to treat a person.

Second, many doctors believe Obamacare will cut payments, especially in the Medicare area. With the high cost of medical malpractice insurance and other expenses, many doctors say hey, it's just not worth it.

If the Democratic Party is concerned about an exodus of American doctors from the field, we haven't heard it. We haven't heard President Obama, Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid say anything about this.

But I believe the study in The New England Journal of Medicine because I've talked to enough doctors myself to know there's no great enthusiasm for Obamacare in the medical community, even here in liberal New York City.

Once again, "Talking Points" would not vote for Obamacare. Not because of ideology, but because of the huge expense, which the country can't afford, and the amazing array of unintended consequences that will kick in once the feds try to run the health care industry.

The massive Obamacare plan is already out of control and it hasn't even been passed yet.
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MOONLIGHT STATE
Tim Blair
Thank you for saving us from global warming, Mr Rudd:

Electricity bills in NSW will soar by up to 64 per cent over the next three years, with the blame laid squarely on the Federal Government’s proposed emissions trading scheme.

The state’s Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal confirmed the increases in Sydney today.

That increase will apparently add between $500-$900 to typical annual power bills. How will poor people celebrate the fourth annual Hour of Power, due to be held on March 27? Maybe they’ll be reduced to gnawing on raw vegetables in the manner of common rabbits. As for the rest of us, it is time to begin planning this year’s illumination.
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TRUTHER TOUR
Tim Blair
Look who’s coming to Australia:

Socialist Alternative is very proud to announce a speaking tour of Australia by Gaza photo-journalist and founder-editor of the Palestine Telegraph, Sameh Habeeb.

Click for previews of Sameh’s likely talking points.
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PUTTING THE ME INTO CFMEU
Tim Blair
2007. The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union campaigns against unclean coal:

2010. An ex-Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union official overcomes any coal issues:

A former union boss, John Maitland, has amassed a $9.8 million stake in a controversial coalmining project, after the state government granted an exploration permit through a deal which has been slammed as a favour to union mates.

Mr Maitland, previously the national secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, holds the stake in NuCoal, which recently listed on the sharemarket with plans to export up to 4.3 million tonnes of coal a year.

Will it be “clean coal”? Hmmm?
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18 WORLD CHAMPIONS …
Tim Blair
… all in a bunch. I’ve been lucky enough to see 12 of them compete and to interview four (Brabham, Stewart, Jones and Hamilton). Great stats:

Between them these 18 drivers won 36 world titles and 391 races – that’s almost half the 821 F1 championship races since 1950.

Surprisingly, Lewis Hamilton is yet to overtake Alan Jones and Mario Andretti for career wins. He’ll get there – and within far fewer Grands Prix – by the end of 2010. He might not catch Brabham, however …
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SOUND ADVICE
Tim Blair
“If you’d rather not be asked about wishing cancer upon your critics,” writes Jim Treacher, “perhaps you should refrain from saying such things.”
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NATION AT EASE
Tim Blair
Former Gordon Brown aide Nick Stace offers a view about his new home that may surprise certain scowly residents:
He believes that Australia is more at ease with itself than Britain because it’s got more national pride.
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ASSOCIATIONS
Tim Blair
Associated Press, 2008:

The mother of the boyfriend of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s daughter sent text messages to two police informants discussing drug transactions before her arrest on felony drug charges, authorities say.

Associated Press, 2009:

A half sister of Gov. Sarah Palin’s husband is accused of breaking into the same home two times with the intention of stealing money.

Associated Press, 2010:
The teen father of Sarah Palin’s grandson has been ordered to make interim child support payments of $1,750 per month to Palin’s daughter.
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RULE BROKEN, ANARCHISTS OUTRAGED
Tim Blair
Peaceful, tolerant, diverse San Francisco turns on its own:

An ex-vegan who was hit with chili pepper-laced pies at an anarchist event in San Francisco said Tuesday that her assailants were cowards who should direct their herbivorous rage at the powerful - not at a fellow radical for writing a book denouncing animal-free diets.

Lierre Keith, a 45-year-old Arcata resident, was attacked at 2:15 p.m. Saturday at the 15th annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair while discussing her 2009 book, “The Vegetarian Myth.” A 20-year vegan, Keith now argues that the diet is unhealthy and that agriculture is destroying the world.

And for that, apparently, you deserve to be assaulted.

As Keith stood at a lectern at the Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, three people in masks and black hooded sweatshirts ran from backstage, shouted, “Go vegan!” and threw pies in her face.

As you’ll shortly see, it was a little more aggressive than that. The woman was essentially belted in the head – despite her holding views that on almost every other issue besides food align Keith with her attackers.

“It’s insane. My entire book is about how the world is being destroyed,” Keith said. She said the first pie hit her just after she uttered the sentence, “You should not eat factory-farmed meat.”

Observe as the revolutionary piemen of vegetal justice take down their prey:

Note the immediate non-response of the assembled anarchists, who sit there like a pod of narcoleptic flatheads while a 45-year-old woman is bashed. Solidarity, comrades. Note, too, the Yakety Sax soundtrack. It helpfully conceals further audience reaction:

The worst part was hearing the cheers of onlookers in the audience as the assault took place.

Lovely people.

UPDATE. Vegan logic:

she says vegans are all navie and veganism is an eating disorder which causes anger problems. this is super offensive and reason enough to get pied for.

Death to those who insult the religion of peace!

UPDATE II. From comments at the main piece:

Two months ago, in Portland, a radical animal rights man doused himself with gasoline and light himself on fire, and then attempted to run into a fur store in his last act to set it ablaze. Too bad for him the store door was still locked as they had not yet opened for business that day. BTW, he died that afternoon.

Yep. It happened.
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None so blind as the atheist who will not see
Andrew Bolt

Richard Dawkins from Young Australian Skeptics on Vimeo.

Young Australian Skeptics actually think this video proves Richard Dawkins was not referring to Pope Benedict when, in discussing the canonisation of Mary MacKillop, he sneered at ”Pope Nazi”.

Which only proves that these sceptics aren’t sceptical at all in rushing to believe what suits them best. A sad case of confirmation bias, I’m afraid, but we’ve already seen on Insiders how non-sceptical the Skeptics really are when it comes to their preferred faiths, such as global waming.

Incidentally, their preferred and invented target, Pope Pius XII, did not deserve that slur, either, even if he could have done more to save the Jews.

(Thanks to reader Ben Pobjie.)
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The fall and fall of Obama
Andrew Bolt

The incredible shrinking president.
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Why greens are so mean
Andrew Bolt

Iain Hollingshead explains why greens tend to be so much nastier, deceitful and abusive:

Every now and again there comes along a scientific study that proves beyond reasonable doubt what you instinctively know to be true: wine is good for you, exercise is dangerous, and self-righteous environmentalists are lying, cheating, thieving degenerates.

I’m exaggerating only a little. Do Green Products Make Us Better People?, a paper in the latest edition of the journal Psychological Science, argues that those who wear what the authors call the “halo of green consumerism” are less likely to be kind to others, and more likely to cheat and steal. Faced with various moral choices – whether to stick to the rules in games, for example, or to pay themselves an appropriate wage – the green participants behaved much worse in the experiments than their conventional counterparts. The short answer to the paper’s question, then, is: No. Greens are mean.

The authors, two Canadian psychologists, came up with an intriguing explanation for this. “Virtuous acts,” they write, “can license subsequent asocial and unethical behaviour.” It’s the yin-yang theory of psychology, or “compensatory ethics”, to give it its proper name. Buy an organic potato, then go home and beat your wife with The Guardian.

Tim Blair has an example:

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Catastrophe for catastrophism
Andrew Bolt
After 20 years of scares, Americans no longer fall for the greens’ end-of-the-world alarmism:

Gallup concludes:

Americans are now less worried about a series of environmental problems than at any time in the past 20 years. That could be due in part to Americans’ belief that environmental conditions in the U.S. are improving.

(Thanks to reader Mark.)
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How rush-rush-Rudd lost your billions
Andrew Bolt
Waste, waste and yet more scandalous waste:

THE cost of projects under the federal government’s $16.2 billion school infrastructure program more than doubles from initial estimates by the time builders start work…

At Hastings Public School at Port Macquarie on the NSW north coast, the school is building a new covered outdoor learning area and a two-classroom building with its grant of $3m from the Building the Education Revolution.

The outdoor area, known as a COLA in educational parlance, was initially budgeted for $400,000, but by the time students are running around under its shade, the structure will cost closer to $1m…

The experience at Berridale Public School near Cooma in southeast NSW is similar. Granted $850,000 to build a library, the school was originally told the building would cost $285,000.

But the estimated project cost is now almost $896,000, including the management cost paid to the NSW government of $11,000....

As reported in The Australian in June, Hastings Public School built a COLA in 2003 for $40,000 and the principal was reported at the time as questioning how “what is essentially a weather shelter” could cost $400,000. Now the school community is asking how it could cost about $954,000....[Breakdown of the figues here.]

Pressure has been building on the federal government over continuing stories of mismanagement and inflated costs of the BER, with the federal Coalition last year securing an inquiry by the Commonwealth Auditor-General’s Office. Its report is expected in the next couple of months.

The NSW opposition, with the support of the Greens and Family First, yesterday succeeded in forcing an upper house inquiry into the BER in the state to assess the fees and charges levied by government agencies and managing contractors, and whether building costs are in line with industry standards.

The Senate is holding its own inquiry into the primary school building program, the largest component of the BER.
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Can a son welcome his white dad?
Andrew Bolt
Watching Kim Collard give what he claims is a “traditional” welcome to country - a pious ritual actually invented by actor Ernie Dingo and a mate some 35 years ago - I’m struck by this question, given Collard’s relatively pale skin.

Could an Aboriginal son of a white father welcome dad to “his” country, or would he realise that’s really a bit too stupid?

Or take Aboriginal artist Danie Mellor (below), winner last year of Australia’s richest art prize for Aborigines:

All right, so his mother Doreen (right) claims to be Aboriginal, too:

But his father does not. So could a Mellor, as an Aborigine, perform for dad a welcoming ceremony to the country that his own dad has called home since before his son’s birth? Or is a white father entitled instead to welcome his Aboriginal son to the land to which he actually brought him? Or is neither entitled to welcome anyone, both having invaders’ blood in their veins?

Whew. Tricky protocol issues, once we start insisting on these insane claims to racial preferment and identity.
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The reckless bravery of academics
Andrew Bolt
Universities Australia Professor Peter Coaldrake risks his hide on a terrible gamble:

PETER Coaldrake has chosen a hot topic for Universities Australia’s first public forum as the peak lobby group seeks to cast off its image as a club of vice-chancellors who blow a “foghorn for funding”.

Tomorrow at a UA-hosted forum in Parliament House, Canberra, a senior scientist from the Bureau of Meteorology, Blair Trewin, will defend its century-long climate science record…

The Queensland political scientist, who cut his teeth critiquing the gerrymander of the Bjelke-Petersen era, admitted some of his counterparts thought the forums risky.

“If it’s a risk so be it,” he said. “But it’s a risk worth taking if we are interested in standing up for science and research and encouraging the next generation to take scientific careers."…

Tomorrow’s UA forum on climate change would ventilate community concerns over the rate of Himalayan glacial melt and other errors in the case for climate change.

So, how daring are Coaldrake and his speakers? What kind of bruising, boots and all debate will they present today, at some risk their standing? Coaldrake announces the speakers:

Senator the Hon Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research

Ms Anna-Maria Arabia, Director, Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies

Professor Snow Barlow, School of Agriculture and Food Systems, The University of Melbourne

Professor Nathan Bindoff, Professor of Physical Oceanography, University of Tasmania

Professor Keith Dear, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, ANU

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Centre for Marine Studies, The University of Queensland

Dr Anthony Hogan, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, ANU

Professor Roger Jones, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University

Dr Marie Keatley, Department of Forest and Ecosystem, The University of Melbourne

Associate Professor Janette Lindesay, The ANU Climate Change Institute

Professor Amanda Lynch, School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Monash University

Ms Jenny McAllister, Director, Climate Change, Air and Noise, NSW Government

Professor Tony McMichael, The ANU Climate Change Institute

Professor John Quiggin, Risk and Sustainable Management Group, The University of Queensland

Professor Roger Stone, Australian Centre for Sustainable Catchments, University of Southern Queensland

Dr Blair Trewin, Climatologist, National Climate Centre, Bureau of Meteorology

Professor Peter Coaldrake, Chair, Universities Australia and Vice-Chancellor, QUT (Chair of the Forum)

Pardon? That’s it? A roster of alarmists and various experts, not one of whom is an identified sceptic? All selected for a display of solidarity, with no likelihood of debate? None added to, say, challenge Ove Heogh-Guldberg’s astonishing record of dud predictions?

If that’s daring, then I deserve the Victoria Cross just for turning up to Insiders. Some people should really get over themselves.

(Thanks to reader Tony.)