=== Todays Toon ===
=== Bible Quote ===
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”- Psalm 139:13-14=== Headlines ===
Missing Facebook teen found dead
A TEENAGER missing from home after arranging a camping trip with two men she met on Facebook was found dead last night. Homicide detectives, who are leading the investigation, arrested a 20-year-old Leumeah man about 8pm. Police this morning charged him with murder after the discovery of the body which is believed to be Nona Belomesoff. The man has been refused bail and will appear at Parramatta Bail Court later today. - I grieve for her. She had been a student of mine, as were her family. She deserved to have a long life, and to bounce grandchildren on her knee. - ed.
Two killed as three explosions rock rural N.H. town, nearby homes being evacuated.Alleged Bomb Plot Financiers Nabbed
Pakistan has at least 2 men in custody on suspicion of helping to finance Times Square bomb attempt
BP Boss Calls Oil Spill Relatively 'Tiny'
Chief executive of BP says tells newspaper oil spill in Gulf of Mexico is 'tiny' compared with 'very big ocean'
Shakeup at Wikipedia After Porn Purge
Wikipedia leadership in 'chaos' amid porn controversy, source tells FoxNews.com
After 210 days on the open ocean, she's nearly home.Dragan's last refuge was run-down yacht
WAR crimes suspect Dragan Vasiljkovic spoke of sailing north on a yacht he had brought on ebay.
Construction link to union HQ bomb
A UNION boss has linked a western Sydney construction company to a "mobile fuel bomb" that was rammed into a trade union headquarters at Lidcombe.
Rapists will rot in jail for decades
TWO rapists who held a group of Asian students hostage and carried out a depraved sexual assault on a woman were jailed yesterday for 25 and 20 years.
Rail guard brutally assaulted by fare-evader
A RAIL worker was bashed so savagely by a fare-dodger yesterday he needed brain surgery. The RailCorp worker, 40, was manning gates at Central Station in the city when he was allegedly attacked from behind with a piece of timber about 6.40am. RailCorp spokesman Paul Rea said footage from RailCorp CCTV cameras, believed to show a man jumping the gate to avoid paying a fare, had been handed to police. St Vincent's Hospital doctors kept a close watch on the rail worker last night as he recovered from surgery. Police yesterday charged a 29-year-old man from Casula with attempted murder.
Ten dead after Bangkok protest clashes
TEN people were killed following violent clashes between troops and anti-government protesters in Thailand's capital city. Lieutenant General Jongjet Aoajenpong, director of the Police General Hospital, said two people who died on the way to the hospital "are likely Red Shirt guards." The official Erawan emergency centre added that at least 125 people were wounded in the latest clashes after troops opened fire on protesters.Australia defeat Pakistan by three wickets in World Twenty20 semi-final
Mike Hussey smashed 60 not out from 24 balls to put Australia into the World Twenty20 final after an amazing finish to the semi-final against Pakistan.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Chris Wallace talks to Laura Bush from her Dallas home ...As she gets personal & opens up about her newest book - Spoken from the Heart.
Founders' Friday: George WhitefieldHe's controversial & complicated, but there wouldn't be an America without him. Beck gets the story.
===
Backing Beck!
Why is the left suddenly giving Glenn their support? Beck's here to explain!
===
Mind Over Matter!
Is your brain telling you to over-eat? We reveal a shocking new study.
Great news, Senator Lautenberg is one of the first Senators to cosponsor the renewal of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act. Call Senator Menendez and ask him to join Senator Lautenberg as a cosponsor of the renewal of sanctions against the Burmese military regime. (Instructions below).Last week, many of you emailed your Senators to cosponsor Senate Joint Resolution 29, a bill renewing the U.S. sanctions against the Burmese military regime, known as the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act. In response to these emails, four more Senators have agreed to cosponsor the renewal! We need to keep the momentum going, emails will not be enough, we need you to call Senator Menendez.
The Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act denies hundreds of millions of American dollars from getting into the hands of the Burmese junta and its cronies. Now more than ever, Aung San Suu Kyi and the pro-democracy movement need our help to sustain strong U.S. pressure on the regime. This Act sends a strong signal to the regime that Americans care about human rights and that we will never recognize its attempt to legitimize itself via their upcoming sham elections.
Important!
Senator Menendez cosponsored for several years. The staffer you talk to may not know that, so it is important to tell them. Also tell them that the other New Jersey Senator Lautenberg has already decided to cosponsor. Urge Senator Menendez to to continue his support for Aung San Suu Kyi and the struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma by again cosponsoring the renewal of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act.
DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Call your Senator using the information we have provided you in the box on the top right.
2) WHAT TO DO WHEN THE RECEPTIONIST ANSWERS
When a receptionist answers the phone, ask to speak to the foreign policy staffer by name.
- "Hi my name is [your name] from [name of your state], may I speak to [name of the foreign policy staffer]?" Tell the receptionist that you live in the Senator's state and that you want to speak to the staffer about "co-sponsoring' the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act. Be sure to be polite, and say something like:
- "I'm calling because I would like to ask [staff person's name] if Senator [Senator's name] will co-sponsor the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act."
3) WHAT THE RECEPTIONIST WILL SAY
At this point the receptionist will either:
A) Transfer you to the telephone of the staff member. If this happens see section "A" below. or
B) Transfer you to the voicemail of the staff member. If this happens see section "B" below. or
C) Say that the staff member is busy, and ask to take a message. If this happens see section "C" below.
8. WHAT TO DO ONCE YOU ARE TRANSFERRED / LEAVE A MESSAGE
A) IF YOU SPEAK DIRECTLY TO THE STAFFER
I.) Thank them for speaking with you and tell them why YOU think they should co-sponsor.
II.) Tell them why you called. Here is a suggestion of what to say:
* "Hi my name is _______ I am from [your State]. I am very concerned about the Human Rights situation in Burma and am calling because I would like to urge Senator __________ to co-sponsor Senate Joint Resolution 29, a bill renewing the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act. The people of Burma, including Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi, have called for pressure on Burma's military regime, and we should support the calls of the people of Burma"
*Then give her/him proof that this policy works: "The Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act has cut off hundreds of millions of dollars to Burma's military regime"
*Let her/him know that this a bipartisan effort, and tell them who are the first co-sponsors of the bill: "There are Senators from both parties supporting this bi-partisan effort: Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Mitch McConnell (R-IL), Richard Durbin (D-IL), John McCain (R-AZ), Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Christopher Dodd (D-CT), and Judd Gregg (R-NH).
* Offer to email a copy of Senate Joint resolution 29 to the staff member. You can download a copy, in PDF format, right here.
Finally: Ask if your senator will cosponsor.
It is likely that they will not give you an immediate answer because they need to ask your Senator. If that is the case, ask them politely when you will know about the final decision and how you can be informed.
To CO-SPONSOR THE BILL CONTACT
Ask them to contact the following staffer, based on their party affiliation:
Democrats: Richard Harper in Senator Feinstein's (D-CA) office
Republicans: Ally Bird in Senator McConnell's (R-KY) office
VI.) Ask them when you can call back to follow-up.
III.) OPTIONAL Beyond the basics here are some additional points for you to say:
- It is important to send a strong signal to the regime that the US government will continue to keep American money out the hands of the junta. Especially given the upcoming sham 2010 elections and increasing hostilities against ethnic minorities.
- Point out that other countries are increasingly following the US lead on sanctioning the military junta. The E.U., Canada and Australia have all imposed sanctions on Burma.
- As Speaker of the House Tip O'Neal once observed "All Politics is Local," meaning to be successful you must bring the issue home. Your senator represents YOU and it is you they want to hear from. If you have traveled to refugee camps on the Thailand-Burma border, know Burmese people, grew up in Burma, or care about human rights, be sure to let the staff member know.
B) IF YOU LEAVE A VOICEMAIL
Hi, my name is______, I am a constituent of the Senators. I am very concerned about the human rights situation in Burma . I would like ask the Senator to sign on as a co-sponsor to the renewal of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act (S.J.Res 29), which keeps millions of dollars out of the hands of Burmese junta every year. This is a very important year for Burma, the regime is trying to legitimize itself with a sham election and is increasing hostilities against ethnic minorities.
Be sure to leave your phone number so they can follow-up (They DO call you back!).
C) IF YOU ARE LEAVE A MESSAGE WITH THE RECEPTIONIST
Follow the instructions for the voice mail. Call back the next day to follow-up.
After you call, please send us a quick email at mikejen@uscampaignforburma.org and let us know how your call went!
All the instructions you need are right here. It often only takes a few persistent calls to bring this issue to your Senator's attention.
Thank you for taking action on Burma. We truly appreciate your commitment.
Mike Haack
=== Comments ===
Supreme CourtBy Bill O'Reilly
On Tuesday, Megyn Kelly and I had a shoot-out over liberal activist Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Ms. Megyn believes Judge Ginsburg is responsible, that she tries to base her decisions on the Constitution. I do not believe that.
The issue is important because Elena Kagan, President Obama's new Supreme Court nominee, is liberal as well. But no one knows whether Dean Kagan is an activist or not.
To protect you and your family, Supreme Court justices should be trying to uphold the original Constitution, not an evolving one, and that's my problem with Judge Ginsburg.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL O'REILLY: I don't think Ruth Bader Ginsburg gives a whit about the Constitution. Now, you covered the court.
MEGYN KELLY, "AMERICA LIVE" HOST: Oh, I don't believe that at all.
O'REILLY: I don't think she cares a wit about it.
KELLY: Bill.
O'REILLY: As written.
KELLY: That's so unfair.
O'REILLY: As written?
KELLY: Yes. You are being really unfair.
O'REILLY: I don't think so.
KELLY: Don't attack the justices.
O'REILLY: I can prove it.
KELLY: No, you can't. You don't know what you're talking about on this. Come on.
O'REILLY: You're crazy. I can prove it.
KELLY: Don't assail her credentials and her commitment to the Constitution just because you disagree with the way she interprets it, OK? She may not be the kind of jurist you would like, but that doesn't mean she doesn't honor the Constitution as she sees fit.
O'REILLY: Read — if you read Ruth Bader Ginsburg's decisions, it is always based on what Ruth Bader Ginsburg feels is best for the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
So let me back my opinion up. In 2007, Justice Ginsburg dissented from banning partial-birth abortion, which the Supreme Court did outlaw. In her dissent, Ginsburg objected to a fetus being described as an unborn child.
Well, if it isn't an unborn child, what exactly is it, judge? And what gives Ginsburg the right to define a fetus anyway? Is she God?
She's entitled to her opinion, but certainly with human DNA present at conception, the unborn child description is scientifically accurate.
So it's clear that Judge Ginsburg supports the gruesome partial-birth abortion procedure because she doesn't feel a fetus has any rights. Where is that in the Constitution?
No. 2: You may remember that in 2003, a group of firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut, were denied promotions even though they qualified. Less qualified African-Americans were given preference. The case, Ricci v. DeStefano, was overturned by the court 5 to 4. So the firefighters received their promotions.
Judge Ginsburg objected to the decision, saying that New Haven had practiced "undisguised discrimination" in the past. Therefore, promoting minorities should supersede test results.
You will not find that anywhere in the Constitution. That is a political opinion.
One more: In both 2009 and 2005, Judge Ginsburg gave speeches saying that the Supreme Court should consider foreign law when making decisions in the U.S.:
"Why shouldn't we look to the wisdom of a judge from abroad? We are not so wise that we have nothing to learn from other democratic legal systems, newer to judicial review for constitutionality."
Now, are you going to sit there and tell me that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison wanted the U.S. Supreme Court to look at Portugal for guidance? Are you going to tell me that?
"Talking Points" believes Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an ideologue, and we hope for the sake of the nation that Elena Kagan — and Sonia Sotomayor for that matter — will not go anywhere near Ginsburg's activism.
===
PRESBYTERIANISM AVOIDED
Tim Blair
Mark Steyn reports:
What with the Fort Hood mass murderer, the Christmas Pantybomber and now the Times Square Bomber, you may have noticed a little uptick in attempted terrorist attacks on the U.S. mainland in the last few months.Read on, and be amazed as Attorney General Holder continues dodging the Allahphant in the room.
Rep. Lamar Smith did, and, at the House Judiciary Committee, he was interested to see if the attorney general of the United States thought there might be any factor in common between these perplexingly diverse incidents.
“In the case of all three attempts in the last year, the terrorist attempts, one of which was successful, those individuals have had ties to radical Islam,” said Congressman Smith. “Do you feel that these individuals might have been incited to take the actions that they did because of radical Islam?”
“Because of ... ?”
“Radical Islam,” repeated Smith.
“There are a variety of reasons why I think people have taken these actions,” replied Eric Holder noncommittally. “I think you have to look at each individual case.”
UPDATE. Presbyterians lose it in Sweden:
Watch for Mohammad McGirlpunch taking his best shot about 42 seconds in.
UPDATE II. Much longer clip here. They really don’t like the gays. Justifying the attack, one loser explains: “I said stop the film, and you didn’t stop it.”
===
DAYS WAITED
Tim Blair
The SMH’s Peter Hartcher on Kevin Rudd’s failure to pursue the great moral challenge of our generation:
This decision has turned out to be the most important event in the life of the Rudd government. It has galvanised the fastest collapse of support for a prime minister in the 20-year history of Newspoll and one of the two sharpest recoils from a prime minister in the 40 years of the Nielsen poll.No worries, Kev. Maybe Barack Obama will present you with a medal for courageous restraint. But what of Minister for Nothing Peter Garrett, who claimed in 2007 – when Rudd used warming panic to help win the election – that it was “dangerous” to wait “a day longer” before taking action against climate change? There was “no time for excuses”, according to Pete:
He had hoarded popularity to wage a fight on a big issue, but, ironically, he has lost his popularity by failing to attempt the fight.
The electorate wants a leader with the courage of his, or her, convictions.
Also from 2007, this prediction: “Imagine the hilarity certain to be generated by Minister for the Environment and the Arts Peter Garrett. A fantastic liability in opposition, he’ll be 10,000-carat comedy gold in Government.” And, as it turned out, a red-hot hit in suburban ceilings.
We’re now 1014 days past the day that Garrett told us we couldn’t wait a day longer for whatever climate magic Labor would deliver. Excuse me, but what a bunch of screaming, manipulative, fear-mongering frauds. As for those who supported Rudd, even Tim Flannery has lost faith:
“I could go to the Prime Minister now and say, ‘Look, why don’t we put some policies together to address climate change effectively,’” Professor Flannery said.It’s terrible when a Prime Minister no longer believes in something that’s unbelievable. Possibly he never believed it in the first place.
“And even if he accepted them, I wouldn’t have any faith that he would actually deliver on them because we’ve already seen this breach of faith.
“That’s the fundamental problem: it’s not the delay of the climate thing, as bad as that is, it’s the breach of faith with the electorate that’s the problem.”
===
SHORT HISTORY, BIG WIN
Tim Blair
Australia has just achieved the greatest victory in Twenty20 cricket history, mostly thanks to Michael Hussey. It’s now an Australia-England final on Sunday. Highlights:
UPDATE. Cricinfo’s Andrew McGlashan:
Australia shouldn’t have won this game, they really shouldn’t have got close.
The fact they were victorious with a ball to spare was down to one man who produced something even he doubted was possible.
===
How she spoke today was the greatest part of her voyage
Andrew Bolt
What’s impressed me most is not Jessica Watson’s amazing round-the-world voyage but the way she spoke of it at her welcome today. There is much more to her than the sailing, and I suspect we will hear much more from her, and much that is good.
She seemed to me to speak at a higher level than did her interviewer, and the reasons she gave at the very end of this clip for refusing to accept the Prime Minister’s well-meant accolade of “hero” were impressively thoughtful.
===
Don’t mention the tax
Andrew Bolt
Just a mistake, I’m sure, but the Rudd Government forget to mention its new $540 million tax on green fuel:
HALF a million drivers will be hit by a new $540 million excise on LPG that was hidden in the fine print of the budget.
Governments have spent more than $400 million over the past five years encouraging drivers and taxi fleets to convert their vehicles to run on cleaner liquefied petroleum gas, and the LPG industry has argued that it should remain excise-free.
But the government will impose a 2.5¢ a litre excise from July 2011, rising to 12.5¢ a litre over five years. Over the next four years the new tax will reap about $540 million.
Plans for an LPG excise were announced by the Howard government in its energy white paper in 2004, but Michael Carmody, the chief executive of LPG Australia, said he had not known whether the Rudd government intended to proceed with them until he found a reference buried in Tuesday’s budget papers.
There has been no press release or public announcement about the tax change.
===
The retreat from reason
Andrew Bolt
Melanie Phillips:
IN Britain, the benefits of diversity are apparently boundless. Now that the Pagan Police Association has received government recognition, police officers can take a string of pagan festivals as official holidays.(Thanks to reader Nonna.)
These include celebrating the festival of lactating sheep, and drinking mead and dancing naked to celebrate the harvest. In court, pagan officers will be allowed to pledge to tell the truth not before God but by what “they hold sacred"…
What has Britain come to when its police officers are given leave to dance about naked? How can generations of Australians have been taught the egregious falsehood of the Stolen Generations as fact? ...
Such intellectual perversity can be understood only in the context of a far wider and profound retreat from reason throughout the West.
Across a broad range of issues, the progressive intelligentsia appears to have junked the rules of evidence, objectivity and rationality in favour of fantasy, irrationality and upside-down thinking.
Take man-made global warming, for example.
===
At least Rudd’s popular in Belarus
Andrew Bolt
Wondered why Kevin Rudd seemed so much more popular on Twitter than on the streets?
KEVIN Rudd has been accused of artificially boosting his Twitter following to make him appear more influential in cyberspace.UPDATE
As the number of followers edges closer to 1 million, analysis shows three-quarters are from overseas. They include 36,000 from Chile, 27,000 from Ecuador and 18,000 from the former Soviet Union nation of Belarus.
Several thousand followers of KevinRuddPM have dormant accounts or are advertising online services where you buy followers to bolster your “online street cred”.
Others spruik porn services.
“It can be a telltale sign someone has artificially increased their follower ranks when they’re filled with advertisements for those types of services,” said Leon Hill, a Twitter entrepreneur.,,
A spokeswoman for Mr Rudd denied there was a campaign to boost the PM’s Twitter account.
Peter Hartcher, still clutching to his belief in both apocalyptic warming and a Rudd with convictions, describes the month in which the gonna-wooda-cooda PM blinked:
Australia came very close to having a federal election in March. It would have been a double dissolution election, only the seventh since Federation. The Senate had rejected Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme on December 2. It was the second time. Rudd now had his trigger and his cause. For the Prime Minister, dealing with climate change was a mandate issue. His resolve was firming.Still waiting on both, but Hartcher still won’t draw the conclusion.
Election preparations gathered momentum. Major blocs of TV ad space were booked for a campaign in February and March, according to word in the industry.
Labor’s poll figures were strong… Labor had a tremendous lead.
Kevin Rudd was preferred to Tony Abbott as prime minister by an overwhelming 60 per cent to 23 per cent. On the count that matters most, the one that decides elections, Labor had 56 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote to the Coalition’s 44 per cent....
Rudd had long asserted that climate change was ‘’the great economic and moral challenge of our time’’. And he had made clear that it was not just another policy. It was personal: ‘’We had deeply held views within our family. Therese and the kids have a deep conviction and view about the need to act.’’
He had earlier told political intimates that he had been careful to hoard his popularity for two great causes. Although he had been criticised for avoiding tough decisions merely to retain his popularity, he had explained privately that he was husbanding his poll strength for the really big issues. And they were? One was climate change. The other was tax reform.
===
Hawke asked if Gillard could take over
Andrew Bolt
Hawke denies saying it was actually Rudd who broke his heart:
FORMER prime minister Bob Hawke is “broken-hearted” and “disappointed” by Labor’s slide in the polls and has asked a Labor MP whether Julia Gillard would take over from Kevin Rudd before the election.
Mr Hawke confirmed to The Weekend Australian yesterday that he had a public conversation, while waiting at Canberra airport to board a plane back to Sydney, in which he expressed his disappointment that Labor was travelling badly.
He asked Labor MP Daryl Melham whether it was possible that the Deputy Prime Minister would seize the leadership following media speculation about the Prime Minister’s problems. Mr Hawke said he asked the question only because there was speculation in the media that Ms Gillard was a leadership contender.
Mr Hawke said he had also said he believed Labor would come back in the polls as the election neared.
===
Three times the price for a Gillard library
Andrew Bolt
Yet another example of the astonishing waste in the Building the Education Revolution:
Last year, Cattai Public School, in the Hawkesbury region north of Sydney, was told it would be given a $678,000 library and a $202,000 shade structure under the federal government’s $16.2 billion schools stimulus program.
At the time, Parents & Citizens Association president Helena Bark raised serious concerns over those costings, as the pre-fabricated “cookie-cutter” designed library cost just $341,000 from the manufacturer.
Further, the school had 18 months earlier built a covered outdoor learning area, or COLA, twice as big as the proposed new structure for $70,000, just one third of the proposed price.
Now, not only have the school’s concerns gone unanswered, but they have been told the cost of the library has blown out to $920,000 - more than the school’s entire original budget - and plans for a new shade structure have been scrapped.
===
Rudd tells miners what he denies to everyone else
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd’s new “super profits” tax on miners is a policy to appeal to the inner Marxist - to tackle inequality by beggaring the successful:
The miners said Mr Rudd told them (at a Perth dinner) the new tax would help the rest of the economy by slowing down the mining sector. At the private dinner on May 4, the Prime Minister argued that the commodities sector had driven up the value of the dollar so much it was hurting other areas of the economy. Mr Rudd cited financial services, tourism, wine exports and foreign students, which he said were being badly damaged…And how would Rudd’s reported comments fit with Wayne Swan’s claim?:
Mr Rudd’s blunt comments contradict the government’s repeated assertions that the proposed 40 per cent tax on mining super profits is not aimed at slowing investment.
In the face of strong criticism from the federal opposition and mining industry that the new tax would slow down development, ministers have repeatedly denied this prospect or that they wanted to use the tax to deal with the pressures of a two-speed economy.
… overall this will grow the mining industry because it is a predictable tax and it is an efficient tax.UPDATE
Voters in mining seats don’t seem to be buying the Government’s spin:
KEVIN Rudd’s mining super-profits tax directly threatens four Labor-held seats, three in Queensland and one in Western Australia, as the government prepares to defend a slender nine-seat buffer at this year’s election amid a dramatic drop in support in the polls…UPDATE 2
Labor has been struggling in the Queensland marginals for months, especially mining-rich Dawson and Flynn, where there have been fears the now-shelved Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, and now the mining tax, will halt the resources boom.
First-term Labor MP in Flynn Chris Trevor has publicly raised his concerns over the proposed tax, as has Labor’s candidate in Dawson, Mike Brunker…
Leichhardt services the lucrative far north Queensland bauxite mines, and Labor incumbent Jim Turnour faces a comeback from popular former Liberal member Warren Entsch.
More reason to doubt the Government:
THE Rudd government’s marketing of its new mining tax has again been undermined by misrepresentation, with official data challenging claims the petroleum industry has thrived under the 25-year-old resources rent regime.UPDATE 3
Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan have told the public and parliament that oil and gas production in Australia remained strong under the petroleum resources rent tax scheme, on which the new 40 per cent super-profits tax is based.
But industry and government figures show just about every tonne of extra gas production has been generated by the North West Shelf project, which is exempt from the PRRT regime introduced in 1987.
Don Voelte, chief executive of North West Shelf operator Woodside Petroleum, yesterday rejected the government’s claim the PRRT had not damaged the offshore oil and gas industry. He said the tax “hurt” the national interest and allowed countries such as Qatar and Indonesia to bolster their industries while Australia’s struggled to come to grips with it.
In the United States, CNBC’s Squawk Box is astonished by Rudd’s super profits tax, and asks BHP Billiton chief Marius Kloppers to explain what those crazy Australians are up to. Kloppers says Rudd’s tax means a BHPB executive will “certainly think about where are you going to invest the next dollar”.
Better news for Rudd is that Kloppers is confident that China’s boom will continue, although he warns the Government will try to slow down growth a little.
More scandalously, Kloppers says he’s never drunk Fosters and is a vegetarian.
UPDATE 4
More from the US:
Morgan Stanley’s is recommending investors short the Australian Dollar vs. both the U.S. dollar and Singaporean dollar. Their main concerns are that the government’s new ‘resource super profits tax’ on mining companies, such as BHP (BHP), will destroy the mining industry’s valuations and create a headwind for Australian economic growth.(Thanks to reader BJ.)
===
Dumping the ETS let Rudd spend yet more
Andrew Bolt
Tim Colebatch doesn’t just uncover hypocrisy, but reveals how big-spending these self-declared misers are:
Amid a patchwork of conflicting budget figures, definition changes, and the deliberate withholding of data, an Age analysis found that scrapping the ETS made the difference in the Rudd government meeting its spending cap.
The budget papers show that in 2012-13, even on the smaller of two very different sets of budget numbers, the emissions trading scheme would have added $7.1 billion to spending.
That would have lifted real spending growth in that year - on the accruals measure in which all detailed budget information is given - from 2 per cent to 2.9 per cent.
As the central pillar of its strategy to return the budget to balance as soon as possible, the government last year pledged to temporarily restrain growth in future outlays to 2 per cent in real terms.
But with spending on age pensions alone set to rise $3 billion in 2012-13, hospitals spending $2.1 billion, GST payments $2 billion, and infrastructure works by $1.7 billion, the government was clearly on track to blow that cap without big spending cuts.
===
The pocket Windschuttle - how Tasmania found “stolen” children
Andrew Bolt
Here’s the seventh of reader Tony Thomas’s summations of the key arguments of Keith Windschuttle‘s important new book The Fabrication of Aboriginal History - Vol III: The Stolen Generations.
Today: how Tasmania’s Government invented “stolen” Aborigines to compensate
Writing this essay, it is hard know whether to describe the recent Tasmanian tilt at political correctness over ‘stolen generations’ as delusion or farce. But there is no doubt that the Human Rights Commission’s 1997 report on Tasmania’s ‘stolen generations’ was both mendacious and foolish. Its deceptions can be disproved from the same data it obtained and then concealed. Tony Thomas
In January 2008, the then Tasmanian Labor government led by Paul Lennon said it would pay 84 Tasmanians $58,000 each because they claimed to be members of the Stolen Generations. And 22 offspring of ‘victims’ who had died, each got $5000. The Liberals there backed the idea. It was all very nice.
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