Headlines Friday 7th May 2010

=== Todays Toon ===

George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen KG KT FRS PC (28 January 1784 – 14 December 1860), styled Lord Haddo from 1791 to 1801, was a Scottish politician, successively a Tory, Conservative and Peelite, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1852 until 1855.

=== Bible Quote ===

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

=== Headlines ===

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has lost the faith of the British people, opponent David Cameron says, as exit polls point to a likely cobbled-together coalition

100-ton containment vessel is designed to collect as much as 85 percent of the oil spewing into Gulf

Typo Cause of Wall St. Dive?
Investigators look into possibility a trader accidentally placed an order to sell $16 billion, instead of $16 million, triggering sell orders across the market

U.K. Conservatives Fall Short of Majority
Conservatives capture largest number of seats in Britain's national election but fall short of majority, exit polls say

Bomb Suspect a 'Fan' of Radical Imam
Faisal Shahzad is a 'fan and follower' of Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been linked to the Fort Hood attack and failed Christmas Day jet bomb

Ex-partner suspect in missing millionaire
CRAIG Puddy's former business partner has been arrested, a day after his burnt-out car was found.

Surgeon kill case 'not another Brimble'
SURGEON partied with escorts amid lines of cocaine while prostitute lay dead, court told.

No R18+ rating 'equivalent to censorship'
HEAD of one of world's largest video game publishers says Australia treats gamers like kids.

Worker 'bashed over small penis taunts'
AIRPORT staffer "lost his mind" after being teased when a body scanner exposed everything.

'Spooked' truckie swipes cars in cop chase
A TRUCK driver who caused chaos on two freeways allegedly said the Russian mafia was after him.

Going solar has hidden extras
POWER prices could rise so steeply that homeowners lured into the State Government's Solar Bonus Scheme by seemingly generous rates are left in the red.

Liar Paluzzano resigns from parliament
DISGRACED MP Karyn Paluzzano has resigned from the NSW parliament. "I have today advised the premier and the speaker of my resignation from NSW Parliament, effective immediately,'' Ms Paluzzano said in a statement on Friday. "Over the past seven years it has been my absolute honour to represent the great people of Penrith and the lower Blue Mountains,'' she said. She nominated her achievements as an MP as helping to deliver an after hours GP clinic at Nepean Hospital, traffic lights on Mulgoa Road and the trade school at Jamison High School. Ms Paluzzano said she would be making no further comment. Ms Paluzzano was suspended by the NSW Labor Party on Thursday night and could be jailed after admitting signing false staff payslips, rorting her parliamentary mailing allowance and then lying about it to a corruption inquiry.

Scipione 'hid details of sex attack'
POLICE Commissioner Andrew Scipione once tried to prevent details of a serial child sex attacker being released publicly despite the fact he remained at large, it was claimed yesterday. The revelation came at a sentencing hearing for former superintendent Adam Purcell, forced out of the police force in part for disobeying that order. Mr Purcell has pleaded guilty to two charges arising out of a Police Integrity Commission hearing and faced a sentence hearing in the District Court yesterday. Purcell admits divulging details of the child sex attack investigation to a reporter.

=== Journalists Corner ===

Email your Senators today and tell them to support freedom, democracy, and human rights in Burma.

In 2003 Congress passed landmark legislation, the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, that has stopped hundreds of millions of dollars from entering the pockets of the Junta and its cronies. Every year the Act must be renewed before it expires, and every year grassroots pressure from Americans is what keeps it afloat.
This is no time for the U.S. to reward the regime by lifting sanctions. With the regime's upcoming sham elections and its increasingly aggressive stance toward ethnic minority groups there is no doubt that Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma still need our solidarity. Click here to see Aung San Suu Kyi's message to the people of the world and her brave call for sanctions.

Email your Senators and tell them to renew the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act today!

Thank you for all your work!

Mike
Christina Aguilera's new video sparks internet controversy!
So, how do you protect your kids from finding racy content on YouTube, Facebook, & other Web sites?
Guest: Karl Rove
New polls show Arizona's new law could help Republicans! So, why is the GOP worried?
===
Legal Immigrants
They came into this country to pursue the American dream. Now, it's time for them to be heard!
===
Guest: Rep. Daryl Metcalfe
AZ's new law has sparked calls for immigration reform in other states. Rep. Daryl Metcalfe speaks out!

=== Comments ===

Retirees big losers in Rudd’s mine plan
Piers Akerman
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan have outdone Pauline Hanson with their attacks on “foreigners” since they introduced their big new tax on mining companies last Sunday. - It looks like dumb politics, with Australia and Australians losing out big time, and foreign investors encouraged to look elsewhere. But, the clever bit is the ALP gets to play with more money .. it is a pork barrel, and therefore nothing else matters. The ALP (I hesitate to blame Rudd as I don’t think he is smart enough or in control to have produced this faux pas) are gearing up for a few elections soon, and they will need a lot of spending cash to blind the voters to the obvious. That the ALP, in office, do not stand for equity, fairness or decency is plain. They get credited by a few for for conscience politics, but that is not deserved, nor evidenced.
Take as an example from Alana Jones this morning of a patient whose out report after a brain anuerism had him being smeared as a drug user, and not as a victim of procedure. The ALP have failed to address the smear, but claimed it was regular, therefore sidestepping the need to examine the important issue further.
Or, consider the case of Hamidur Rahman. I bear all the danger in bringing this issue forward. I can be smeared (as I have been), ignored, denied paid work, denied legal representation, denied access to political patronage (my own local state member had threatened me!!) and the ALP have apparently been able to silence the press on this matter. It isn’t only the retireees that miss out .. all Australians have been dudded by the ALP in government. - ed.
===
Is the Obama Administration Angry With Fox News... Again?
By Bill O'Reilly
As you may remember, the president and his team harshly criticized Fox News last fall for not being fair and that led to a vigorous back and forth between FNC and the White House, which jazzed our ratings a bit. Then things kind of died down.

But now the oil spill has muddied the waters once again. I apologize deeply for the atrocious pun.

The latest round began on Cavuto's program earlier this week. Michael Brown, President Bush's point man on Hurricane Katrina, said this about President Obama's posture on the oil spill:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BROWN, FORMER FEMA DIRECTOR: If the winds are right, it'll go up the East coast. This is exactly what they want because now he can pander to the environmentalists and say I'm going to shut it down because it's too dangerous. While Mexico and China and everybody else drills in the Gulf, we're going to get shut down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Now, I don't think Mr. Obama wants the oil spill to expand. In fact, I usually dismiss conspiracy theories like that.

But Mr. Brown's opinion annoyed the administration, and the subject came up Tuesday when our White House guy Wendell Goler asked a question:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WENDELL GOLER, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: As for critics who are calling this your Katrina, is there — President Obama's Katrina…

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Can I say this? I watched Fox yesterday.

GOLER: I really didn't want you to go there.

GIBBS: But you sort of opened both the double doors and, voila, here I am.

GOLER: It wasn't just Fox calling this your Katrina.

GIBBS: No, no, but Fox had the very special and unique interview with Michael Brown. You opened it and I had to do it, who for those who weren't let in on the big secret, Mr. Brown, FEMA Director Brown under Katrina intimated on Fox and it wasn't — I will editorially say didn't appear to be pushed back on real hard, that this spill was leaked on purpose in order for us to walk back our environmental and drilling decisions, and that the leak that we did on purpose got out of control and now is too big to contain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

So my question is: Why does the White House care what Michael Brown says?

Look, we can't control what the guests say. Cavuto actually stuck up for the president during the interview with Brown. So "Talking Points" believes this deal is phony, a canard, a charade.

The lingering issue is that Fox News is by far the toughest media outlet on President Obama, and he doesn't much like it. Understandable.

But the White House makes a mistake by bringing up dopey stuff like the Brown deal. I always tell these guys, Mr. Gibbs included, if you have a beef, bring it here. If you think you are being treated unfairly, we'll give you plenty of air time.

But give Wendell Goler and our hard news guys a break. They are fair and don't deserve scorn. I'll take that heat, gladly.
===
On they come
Andrew Bolt
Another:

A group of suspected asylum seekers are still awaiting rescue in waters off Australia’s Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean.

Four foreign-flagged merchant tankers are in position to rescue 62 people on the stricken fishing vessel, but are awaiting approval from Australia authorities to take them onboard.
===
Trader Error
Andrew Bolt
Perhaps keyboards need redesigning, when the stakes are so colossal:

A HUMAN trading error at a “major firm” may have caused a huge plunge in the US share market overnight…

Rumours swirled around the market that a trader had reportedly entered a “b” for billion instead of an “m” for million in a trade involving Procter and Gamble, CNBC reported, citing several sources.

This set off a chain of trades that led to the largest intra-day plunge in the history of the Dow Jones Industrials average, Reuters reports…

Shares in Procter and Gamble fell from $US61.56 ($69.50) a share to $US39.37 a share and then quickly bounced back again. Procter and Gamble later confirmed the sudden drop in its share price was an error...
===
Kroger on Rudd
Andrew Bolt
Michael Kroger writes on - and writes off - Kevin Rudd:

Like life itself, one day Kevin Rudd’s Prime Ministership will come to an end. Calls to Cate Blanchett to check on the progress of baby Iggy will be met with the butler telling him “Ms Blanchett is busy, could you possibly ring back on another occasion”. He will then realise that celebrities have a thousand fans but John Button only one funeral. As a former Prime Minister once said “remember that it is not about you, it is only about the position you hold”.

Like a boy in a lolly shop with a stack of blank cheques, Kevin Rudd is a man hopelessly out of his depth. Easily the worst Prime Minister in living memory.
===
Britain votes
Andrew Bolt
Follow the election results as they come in here.

The tip:

DAVID Cameron was on the verge of becoming Britain’s prime minister this morning as he battled to convert a final opinion poll lead into a governing majority after the most remarkable British election campaign in decades.

Votes were cast overnight (AEST) following a round of election-day polls that suggested Mr Cameron’s Conservatives would replace Labour as the largest party, while falling short of a majority.

Conservative 276
Labour 225
Liberal Democrat 48
Others 27
===
Me for Deveny is no fair exchange
Andrew Bolt
I AM told I’ve engineered the sacking of The Age’s most popular columnist, noted barbarian Catherine Deveny.

But I’m told that for this service to the state I must now be sacked in turn.

The Left demands it. To even the score.

Yes, that really is how adolescent and tribal are the howlers who, like Deveny, have drowned out so much civilised debate. But first the background.

Deveny was fired on Tuesday by Age editor-in-chief Paul Ramadge for having sent more of her spittle-flecked tweets.

This time she’d been lolling on her couch on Sunday, watching the Logies, when she spotted on the screen the demure Bindi Irwin, just 11.

Cleverly using her opposable thumbs, Deveny banged out this tweet: “I do so hope Bindi Irwin gets laid.”

This, she later explained, was one of her “grown up jokes”.

Here’s another, also sent this same wild night after she saw comedian Rove McManus with Tasma Walton, whom he married after his first wife died of cancer: “Rove and Tasma look so cute ... hope she doesn’t die, too.”

Still, it wasn’t until two days later that Deveny was fired, with Ramadge declaring it was because “the views she has expressed recently on Twitter are not in keeping with the standards we set at The Age”.

This startled me, I admit, because until then I had no idea The Age kept any standards at all.
===
The rorts are all we wanted checked
Andrew Bolt
THERE’S one thing we most needed to know about Julia Gillard’s rort-riddled Building the Education Revolution spree.

It’s this: how much of that $16.2 billion the Deputy Prime Minister shovelled out has been wasted on scandalously overpriced halls, shelters and classrooms, and siphoned off in grossly inflated “management fees”?

But here’s the joke. That is the one question that the auditor-general’s report she commissioned into this growing scandal could not answer.

As the auditor-general said in his report on Wednesday: “An examination of particular BER ... projects was outside the scope of the audit.”

His own terms of reference stopped him from checking a litany of claims of padded prices and rorting. For months, newspapers and radio stations have found Gillard’s program paying $850,000 for outdoor shelters, for example, which normally cost $250,000.

Or paying three or four times more for school buildings than the $1300 to $1400 a square metre that the Rawlinson’s Construction Handbook recommends.

But about potentially the worst waste of money since, er, Rudd’s insulation fiasco, we’re told almost nothing.

Berwick Lodge principal Henry Grossek, one of the first to blow the whistle on Gillard’s reckless spending (usually, to be fair, by the state governments she entrusted with her billions), told me yesterday he was not surprised the truth was being hidden.
===
Stamp of decline
Andrew Bolt
Our stamps, formerly honoring the head of state and our greatest deeds, are now used to flog the latest slam-bam movie:

Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe is to feature on Australia’s latest postage stamp, mail officials said Thursday, in a series celebrating his portrayal of folk hero Robin Hood…

Australia Post said the stamps were a celebration of Crowe’s achievements ahead of the much-anticipated “Robin Hood” premiere.

Standards were once set:
The first person other than a head of state (living or dead) to appear on a stamp was Benjamin Franklin whose portrait featured on the 10c stamp issued by the United State in July 1847.

The first person other than royalty to appear on a British stamp was William Shakespeare in 1964....

The first Australian stamp pack featured the 50th Anniversary of the First UK/Australian Flight. It was issued in November 1969.
===
South Park bravely savages the creed that won’t say “boo”
Andrew Bolt
Brave people:

Comedy Central might censor every image of the Prophet Muhammad on “South Park,” yet the network is developing a whole animated series around Jesus Christ.

As part of the network’s upfront presentation to advertisers, Comedy Central is set to announce “JC,” a half-hour show about Christ wanting to escape the shadow of his “powerful but apathetic father” and live a regular life in New York City.

Kicking at what protects, cowing before what threatens. Where must that lead?
===
Greece’s Marxists demand workers be exploited
Andrew Bolt
Greece’s leaders hold their nerve:

The Greek parliament on Thursday approved a tough austerity package agreed with its eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund as tens of thousands of people kept vigil outside for three bank staff killed in anti-reform riots on Wednesday…

But the threat of renewed violence persisted as the communist-led PAME union announced a rival demonstration in another central square where leftwing extremists have frequently clashed with police.

These new Marxists know all about exploiting the workers:
In Marxist theory, the Communist Party represented the interests of productive workers, the value of whose labor is expropriated by others. That was wrong, but at least it had a certain coherence. Greek Communists (and more generally, 21st century socialists) stand for something quite different: the ‘right’ to be supported by the labor of others (in the Greek case, Germans); the ‘right’ to be a sponge, forever; the ‘right’ to be an exploiter. It would be hard to think of a less attractive political program.
===
Blanket ban on emissions
Andrew Bolt

Some products speak straight to people’s deepest concerns:

(An) advertisement promoting a blanket made with activated carbon fabric to completely and quickly absorb the odoor of flatulence has become a viral hit on YouTube… The product’s website goes as far as to say that the blanket contains the same type of fabric used by the military to protect against chemical weapons.
===
Too many new Victorians, says Premier
Andrew Bolt
Brumby’s problem, but it’s Kevin Rudd who controls immigration:
PREMIER John Brumby has acknowledged for the first time that Victoria’s population has been growing too fast.

While not quite echoing the famous ‘’Sydney is full’’ sentiments of former New South Wales premier Bob Carr, Mr Brumby said he was comfortable with a population growth rate of up to 1.7 per cent, which he likened to a car travelling at 100km/h.

Victoria’s population growth under Mr Brumby’s definition has been ‘’speeding’’ at 130km/h. Budget papers show Victoria grew by 2.2 per cent last financial year, and is forecast to grow this financial year by 2.1 per cent and next financial year by 1.9 per cent. It is not until 2012-13 that growth is expected to return to the 1.7 per cent rate Mr Brumby says is appropriate.
===
Blowout: the real reason Rudd ditched his ETS - according to Bolt
Andrew Bolt
I missed David Uren’s piece a few days ago, but have heard it since endorsed by financial experts:

LEST anyone doubt the Rudd government’s commitment to its budget rules, it trashed its emissions trading system so that it could honour its commitment to keep spending growth below 2 per cent.

Postponing the ETS does virtually nothing to improve national savings since the cash raised from auctioning permits to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere almost exactly matches the cash paid out in compensation.

But that compensation bill was making it impossible for the government to keep growth in budget spending below its nominated cap, particularly in 2012-13.

Meeting the 2 per cent cap on spending, after allowing for inflation, has proved much tougher than appeared likely when the plan for returning the budget to surplus was devised in February last year. The budget rules were originally designed to persuade the credit rating agencies that the government’s $42 billion second stimulus package would not jeopardise Australia’s AAA credit rating…

The rules were met with widespread disbelief among economists who noted that the permitted spending growth was barely half the average rise in government outlays of the past 20 years of just under 4 per cent. Having witnessed the government’s response to the crisis, they questioned whether Rudd knew the meaning of “frugal"…

Last November’s budget update showed that total outlays were expected to rise 1.2 per cent in 2011-12 and 1.9 per cent in 2012-13.

The ETS was the biggest single contributor to that growth. The budget update showed that outlays on compensation for climate change rose from $430m in the upcoming budget year to $4.7bn in 2011-12 and $11.8bn in the following year.

The compensation bill for 2012-13 represented growth in government outlays of 2 per cent alone.
===
Tell him what he thinks
Andrew Bolt
The Prime MInister takes a firm line while he gets Hawker Britton to consult the focus groups:

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said there was “understandable concern in the community” about people wearing the burqa, but a ban was not Coalition policy… Premier John Brumby attacked the call, accusing proponents of taking a “cynical view” of the world… A spokesman for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd refused to comment on the burqa.
===
Too many fights
Andrew Bolt
Suddenly brushfires everywhere:

JULIA Gillard has bowed to union pressure and introduced new protections to ensure the take-home pay of tens of thousands of workers will not be reduced under the Rudd government’s new streamlined awards.

Employers last night accused the government of “bending over backwards” to placate unions while leaving some companies “high and dry” by not addressing increased labour costs resulting from the award overhaul.

UPDATE

But this is a big win for Gillard, whose strength seems to be in getting people to agree:

JULIA Gillard has stared down the teachers’ unions and forced them to drop their plans to boycott next week’s national literacy and numeracy testing in schools.

The Australian Education Union yesterday called off the proposed boycott of the NAPLAN tests after the Education Minister agreed to set up a working party to examine student performance data.

But Ms Gillard did not agree to remove any information from the controversial My School website, concerns about which prompted the union’s boycott threat.

- Bolt is too generous. Gillard has obfuscated the results here too, and these could, indeed should be more informative. - ed.
===
The curious evidence of Professor Lewandowsky
Andrew Bolt
Professor Stephan Lewandowsky is a global warming evangelist of the University of Western Australia. You may think from his title that he brings impressive qualifications to the debate, but in truth he’s a psychologist, not a physicist.

You might further doubt his credibility when you examine precisely how he presents his evidence, particularly when - as is so typical of warming worshippers - he proceeds to demonise the heretics.

Let me demonstrate. Here’s what Professor Lewandowsky tells ABC readers I’ve said about Lord Oxburgh, the allegedly “independent” and impartial chairman of an inquiry into the Climategate scandal:

The scurrilous thinking of conspiracy theorists is best exemplified by an Australian tabloid blogger, whose “evidence” for a whitewash derived from the fact that Lord Oxburgh ... rides a bicycle! Yes, Lord Oxburgh rides a bicycle. And being a cyclist clearly implicates one in a grand conspiracy designed to deny others the pleasures of life that are seemingly only attainable by emitting vast quantities of CO2.

Here now is what I actually said:

Surely Oxburgh’s choice of transport to the press conference on his Climategate findings should have made some journalists there wonder about his impartiality:

RON OXBURGH, breezily pushing his bicycle through a clot of journalists outside the press briefing he had just given, is a busy man happy to hurry.

You see…

Lord Oxburgh is so concerned at the potential destruction from global warming that he wants to devote more of his time to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and the use of fossil fuels…

At home, Oxburgh has persuaded his wife and son to use bicycles and abandon the car ”except for trips to the supermarket”. For those, he uses a diesel capable of 60 miles to the gallon.

“‘Domestically we all ride bicycles and use the car as little as we can,’ he said. The family has also abandoned air travel for holidays – though Oxburgh still regularly has to fly on business matters.

Exactly what do you think he was likely to conclude about Climategate?

Note that nowhere have I suggested, as Lewandowsky claims, that Oxburgh is part of a “grand conspiracy”. Note also that I do not, as Lewandowsky claims, cite the mere fact of bicycle riding as my “evidence” of a whitewash, the case for which I make here, discussing Oxburgh’s actual report. Note further that I do not even base my doubts of Oxburgh’s impartiality solely on the very relevant evidence I do discuss here - his manic conviction that man-made global warming is so dangerous that his whole family must cycle to save the planet.

Elsewhere I’ve offered other evidence of his clear lack of impartiality and of his conflict of interest as an “independent” chairman of a review into Climategate:

From the start, it seemed the panel was far from as “independent” as it was advertised. Take its chairman, Lord Oxburgh, and his global warming interests:

President of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association
Chairman of wind energy firm Falck Renewables
A member of the Green Fiscal Commission

Now compare what I’ve said to what Lewandowsky says I said. Make your call. Could you trust his summation of any evidence that might challenge his warming faith? Are these the standards to be expected of a true academic?

UPDATE

More on the Professor from an unimpressed JoNova.
===
Yuk
Andrew Bolt
The word should “fired”, and the fired should be Oldfield:

DAVID Oldfield has been dumped from his comeback gig at radio 2UE after declaring any asylum seekers trying to escape detention should be “fried’’.

The controversial One Nation co-founder was due on air as a fill-in drive host at 3pm but listeners instead heard a recorded message from Oldfield saying he had been suspended.

On Wednesday - three days into his lifeline after being mysteriously dumped as midnight-to-dawn presenter on 2GB - Oldfield complained that electric fences surrounding the Christmas Island detention centre had been turned off.

He suggested they be turned back on so any refugee escapees would “fry’’ or be “barbecued"…

Greg Byrnes, program manager of the Fairfax Media owned station, said Oldfield’s three week stint at the station - he was due to do nights from Monday - was now under review but he could return to air.

Seriously? - I stopped listening to 2GB while Oldfield was on air. I started listening again now that Jim Ball is back at that time. Jim (no relation) is a gentleman, but Oldfield is a pernicious brute whom I will not tolerate. I never listen to 2UE anyway. - ed.