Headlines Saturday 1st May 2010

=== Todays Toon ===

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, PC, FRS (15 March 1779 – 24 November 1848) was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary (1830–1834) and Prime Minister (1834 and 1835–1841), and was a mentor of Queen Victoria. The city of Melbourne in Australia was named after him.

=== Bible Quote ===

“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”- Ephesians 4:15

=== Headlines ===

Officials say they will probe every possible cause — even criminal acts — of last week's explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in Gulf.

U.S. Silent When Iran Got U.N. Women's Post
As outrage builds over Iran's selection to U.N. women's rights panel, official says U.S. was powerless to do anything because Iran faced no competition

Palin E-Mail Hacker Convicted
A jury in Tennessee convicts man who hacked Sarah Palin's e-mail account on two of four charges

Texting While Driving an 'Epidemic'
Transportation secretary says he believes many lives will be saved by taking cell phones out of drivers' hands

Noah's Ark Hoax Claim Doesn't Deter Believers
Earlier this week a group of Chinese Christians held a news conference to announce they were 99.9 percent sure they had found Noah's Ark. Most likely, the claim is false, but that won't stop Ark enthusiasts from believing the biblical boat is out there somewhere.

State of Virginia to Investigate Global Warming Scientist Mann
The legal waters are warming faster than the planet for embattled climatologist Michael Mann. First word emerged that the inspector general for the National Science Foundation would look into the Penn State panel reviewing the climate scientist, who is currently director of the school's Earth System Science Center. Now the attorney general for his old employer the University of Virginia is planning an investigation, too. According to a report in Charlottesville weekly The Hook, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has asked the University of Virginia to produce "a sweeping swath of documents relating to Mann’s receipt of nearly half a million dollars in state grant-funded climate research" conducted while Mann was at UVA between 1999 and 2005. Should the AG uncover evidence of impropriety, the school could be commanded to return the funds, and pick up the cost of the AG's investigation. The paper, tipped off by anonymous sources, has posted a PDF of Cuccinelli's formal request, a legal document called a civil investigative demand. In that letter, he demands production of information and documentary material relating to three papers Mann authored while at UVA, using a total of $484,875 of state grant money.

Belgium has become Europe's first country to vote for a ban on the full Islamic veil or burqa, sparking dismay among Muslims and warnings of a dangerous precedent / AFP

Millions to gain from man's death
WOMAN who allegedly plotted with her lover to kill her husband stood to gain millions from his death.

Malcolm in the middle of an election fight
MALCOLM Turnbull is today expected to stay and contest the next election, despite quitting.

Aussie jailed for 'luring' teen on internet
MAN jailed in Canada for internet luring and attempted sexual assault says he made a "mistake".

Crackdown on codeine-based pain killers
POTENT codeine-based pain relievers now harder to buy to dissuade abusers of the drug.

Man to have baby with his lover grandma
A 72-year-old woman who feels "sexually alive" with her grandson is now planning a child with him.

Suit alleges New York girl sexually abused by seven classmates
The New York Post said the girl, then 12, was walking toward the girls’ locker room at her school in the borough of Queens when she was grabbed and dragged into the boys’ locker room, according to the suit.

Boy loses hand in bedroom explosion
A TEENAGE boy has suffered shrapnel wounds and lost a hand after a blast in his bedroom.

No tax cuts until all debts are repaid
SMALL business will win but elsewhere the Government will be miserly with handouts when it releases the Henry review of the $280 billion tax system tomorrow.

Police search university for armed suspect
UNI students alerted by police searching a campus building for an armed suspect.

Gordon Brown fails to re-ignite poll hopes
EX-British premier Tony Blair returned to the campaign trail today to help his embattled successor Gordon Brown, struggling to keep his party's re-election hopes alive six days before national polls. A major gaffe and a poor performance in a crunch pre-election TV debate have left Brown's Labour Party trailing in third place in polls, while boosting the hopes of his main opposition rival, Conservative leader David Cameron. Blair, making only his second appearance of the campaign so far in a London health centre, insisted Labour still have a chance of clinging on to power after 13 years in office. "I believe Labour has every chance of succeeding," he said, adding: "When you get into the final days people will really focus their minds on who's got the best ideas for the future." Asked if Brown had failed as premier, Blair said: "No, I don't think he's failed at all."

=== Journalists Corner ===

Rosie's Rant!
She squared off with Mike Huckabee over gay adoption!
Now, the governor on an explosive 'Hannity'.
Founders' Friday!
He failed at collecting taxes, but succeeded in founding the country. We explore the life of Samuel Adams.
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The War of Words!
Is Obama using political intimidation to silence his opponents? Karl Rove responds!
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The New Tax Plan
It's set to abolish U.S. debt, but could it also eliminate an economic recovery?

=== Comments ===

Ad Campaign Stirs Emotions
Alabama gubernatorial candidate Tim James defends 'Learn English' commercial - O'Reilly Factor - ed.
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Muhammad Cartoons vs. Piss Christ
By Tommy De Seno
The purpose of criticism is persuasion, and not one person has ever been persuaded by being insulted.
Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law of the prophets. Matthew 7:12

This past week the creators of Comedy Central's edgy cartoon series "South Park," wrestled, as they have in the past, with their network over their depiction of the Prophet Muhammad on their show. Why? Because the 200th episode of the show included a caricature of Muhammad disguised in a bear suit. Muslims do not allow Muhammad to be represented as an image, and they consider it a great insult when someone does it.

When a non-believer shows Muhammad as an image, extremists have been known to resort to revenge murder. When 12 cartoons depicting Muhammad appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, worldwide protests ensued. The result was shooting deaths and the burning of Danish embassies. One of the artists, Kurt Westergaard, has had to fend off at least two murder attempts since the publication of his drawing.

A radical Muslim group last week suggested that "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone may end up like Theo Van Gogh, a newspaper columnist and movie maker gruesomely murdered on a city street in Amsterdam for his criticism of Islam.

While I condemn the violence and threats, as a Christian I’m obligated to follow the teaching outlined in the book of Matthew. I must at least consider the insult Muslims are feeling when Muhammad is drawn. When I ponder this, I wonder how I would react if the sacred icons of my religion were similarly disrespected (it matters not that I don’t understand how a drawing is disrespectful, it matters to them). I can think of two times in my own lifetime where similar insults happened to Christian images.

In 1987 the artist (I use the term loosely) Andres Serrano photographed a crucifix in a bottle of his own urine, and titled it “Piss Christ.” It caused a public uproar, first because of the insulting treatment of the symbol of Christianity and second when it was revealed Serrano received a $15,000 prize, partly from the taxpayer-funded National Endowment of the Arts.

In 1999, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani made news when he cut funding to the Brooklyn Museum after it displayed a painting by the artist (again, I use the term loosely) Chris Ofili. The painting depicted the Blessed Mother Mary surrounded by pornographic images and covered in elephant dung. A judge later reinstated the funding.

As a Christian I was no less outraged by the disrespect of the symbols I revere than Muslims are when they see any depiction of Muhammad. I find an insult to religion as unnecessary in discourse as they do.

The difference, of course, is that unlike extremists, I’m bound by a religious covenant against violence, a legal covenant against violence and a personal morals covenant against violence. When my religious symbols are disrespected, I suffer the great frustration of not being able to do anything about it. It hurts. Muslim extremists do something about it.

This leads to the question, why should Muslims or I be put in the position of having to do anything about it? The beginning of our inquiry into this problem should not start with what the reactions by the insulted will be. The first inquiry is – what do the folks hurling the insults get out of doing it?

What does it bring to the cartoonist drawing Muhammad or the painter disgracing Mary for them to do those things? I can’t think of a benefit to them or anyone else when those things are done. The hurt and pain to the religious are obvious.

Some will argue the non-sequitur: “They have the freedom of speech to do it.” So what? With freedom comes responsibility. I’m free to say a whole wide mess of things that can insult and hurt people. I don’t. I live in a society with others – and while I’m not going to curb my behavior for subjective claims over arguable insults – when something is widely understood as being hurtful to many, I’m a better person to refrain from doing it. I don’t use racial epithets, and I wouldn’t draw Muhammad or put Christ in a glass of urine. Why not? It would hurt others, and I gain nothing.

One can criticize Islam without drawing a picture of Muhammad. One can criticize Christianity without creating horrid images of Jesus or Mary. The purpose of criticism is persuasion, and not one person has ever been persuaded by being insulted.

I’m certainly not suggesting anything be outlawed. It shouldn’t be. Here’s what I am suggesting:
Fight like hell for the right to draw a picture of Muhammad – then choose not to.

Tommy De Seno is a writer and attorney. Read more at JustifiedRight.com.
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COPENHAGEN MEMORIES
Tim Blair
Can’t sleep? Watch this.
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Scenes from our tribal frontiers
Andrew Bolt
In Sydney:

Between 7.30pm and 7.45pm yesterday (Saturday 24 April), vandals attacked the Anzac Cenotaph outside the Arncliffe RSL club in Wollongong Road. Garbage was thrown around the memorial while it’s believed the intruders swung on a flagpole until it snapped in half… Officers joined RSL staff in cleaning up the rubbish ahead of this morning’s Anzac Day ceremony at the club… Officers are keen to speak to up to a dozen teenage males, described as Mediterranean/Middle Eastern in appearance, seen in the area prior to the attack.

In Britain:

A Muslim protester who daubed a war memorial with graffiti glorifying Osama Bin Laden and proclaiming ‘Islam will dominate the world’ walked free from court after prosecutors ruled his actions were not motivated by religion.

And again in Sydney, four years ago:

A YOUTH claimed to be a proud Aussie as he apologised to RSL Diggers for burning the Australian flag - then admitted having no idea what the RSL stood for…

(T)he teenager of Lebanese descent ... stole the Australian flag on December 11 in a reprisal attack on the night of the Cronulla riots before setting it on fire and handing it to a group of friends who dragged, urinated and spat on it.

UPDATE

Suspected terrorists demand the benefits of the state they allegedly tried to destroy:

FAMILIES of suspected terrorists can claim thousands of pounds in benefits from British taxpayers, a European court ruled yesterday.

In a judgment that sparked a furious response, the European Court of Justice said handouts to suspects’ wives were unlikely to fund terror activities.

As a result, they can continue to claim income support, disability allowance, and child, housing and council tax benefits. And those payments should not be monitored by the Treasury.

These families seem to be outbreeding the native-born taxpayers of the despised country they’ve joined:

The first woman, M, and her husband are Egyptian citizens with a legal right to live in the UK. The pair are disabled, have five children and are entirely dependent on benefits of more than £350 a week.

The second woman, A, had seven children with her husband, one of whom has Down’s Syndrome… The final suspect is a Tunisian man who was legally resident in the UK with his Bosnian wife. They and their four children were entitled to some £310 a week in benefits.

Then there’s the family of hook-handed jihadist Abu Hamza:

Taxpayers have already spent millions keeping Hamza and his family housed, clothed and fed. His wife Najat Chaffe, 49, has claimed benefits for herself and their six children for at least 10 years.

(Thanks to readers David and A.A..)

UPDATE 2

Yet another unrepresentative devotee of the religion of peace:

THE Australian man arrested as part of a growing al-Qaeda probe in New York is a devoted follower of fundamentalist Islam, sources say.

New York-based Sabirhan “Tareq” Hasanoff, who has both Australian and US citizenship, was one of two men charged with conspiring to provide material support al Qaeda in the US yesterday.

He is accused of lending the extremist network his computer expertise and handling huge sums of money for the group in New York.

(Thanks to many readers.)
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Worse than Whitlam
Andrew Bolt
Add Peter van Onselen to the ranks of the disillusioned, now the Rudd has shelved his emissions trading scheme:

Liberals like to attack Rudd from the right as a mirror image of Whitlam, but in fact the more appropriate attack is from the left as someone not fit to polish Whitlam’s bootstraps. Rudd can’t be compared with Whitlam because he is too timid…

Rudd has put his political self-interest ahead of what he regards as the greatest moral challenge of our time. You don’t get more callow than that.

Australian cartoonist Bill Leak is sure on form (above).

UPDATE
Reader cuckoo wonders if bootstraps are even polished.

UPDATE 2

Michael Kroger got it said on Lateline, and magnificently:

MICHAEL KROGER: Well, Leigh, when my father was alive, the great moral issue of his time was fighting Adolf Hitler and Nazism. When I was younger, the great moral issue of our time was fighting communism, to liberate millions and millions, tens of millions of people around the world from oppression.

This man declared this the great moral issue of this time. He should have called a double dissolution based on this issue because this was, as you said, the issue which defined him and defined our time, defined our generation. This is just another backflip from this disastrous Prime Minister who is the worst prime minister I’ve ever seen in this country in my lifetime - the worst and getting worse. And if he had ...

LEIGH SALES: So you think, in your view, worse than Gough Whitlam?

MICHAEL KROGER: Worse than Whitlam? Oh, God, much worse than Whitlam. Much worse than Whitlam. I mean, Gough Whitlam had - compared to this man, he had beliefs. I mean, he had - he opened Australia’s relations with China, he had the Trade Practices Act, the Family Law Act.

OK, he was a disaster in terms of managing the economy, but Whitlam had beliefs. There were things that he came into Parliament to do when he became Prime Minister in 1972. He was a grand figure on the Australian stage. He ended up as a disastrous Prime Minister, but at least he believed in something.

This man believes in nothing. Absolutely nothing. He’s a fraud as a prime minister. And, I’ll tell you what staggers me: it staggers me that people in the Labor Party are still prepared to work with him as leader. He changes policies every day. As Paul Kelly said, this is a man without beliefs, without a narrative. What does he stand for? Nothing. Nothing.

If AWU boss Paul Howes could have thought of a counter argument, I’m sure he’d have put it. But this is how he began his non-defence of a man he’ll one day confess to despising:

PAUL HOWES: Well, um, it’s a bit hypocritical, Michael, to have a person like yourself, as senior as you are in your party, to criticise Labor from changing policies.

UPDATE 3

Even public servants in the department most devoted to the Leftist faith have had enough of the deceit, arrogance, chaos and weakness:

Public servants in the Climate Change Department were assured as late as Tuesday morning that the Government’s emissions trading scheme was going ahead as planned, even though reports of the scheme’s demise had already appeared in that day’s press…

Now staff are both scared for their futures and angry at being misled by their own bosses.

‘’Either management was lying on Tuesday morning or they didn’t know themselves what was going on,’’ one source told The Canberra Times yesterday.

‘’People are furious that they had been forced to work so hard within extraordinary time lines for so long and meet what turns out to be artificial deadlines.

‘’Up until this week, everything was urgent and had to be done in a hurry. People put their lives on hold at the whim of the Prime Minister.’’

UPDATE 4

Is the Rudd Government really still offering these jobs, or is the ad just running for the laughs it now gives?

Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Closing date: Monday, 24 May 2010
Job Title: Graduate
Job Type: Ongoing, Full-time
Salary: ~ $55,330
Location: Canberra | ACT
Classification: APS Level 3

The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency is now recruiting for the 2011 Graduate Development Program. We are seeking up to 30 graduates from all disciplines who want to make a contribution to developing and implementing Australia’s climate change policy....

Climate change is one of the most complex policy challenges facing Governments today. The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency is a dynamic new organisation at the forefront of developing and delivering the Australian Government’s response to this critical environmental issue. The Graduate Development Program provides the successful candidates with an exciting opportunity to work at the forefront of this significant environmental global issue, where you will gain extensive exposure in the delivery of Australian Government responses, whilst working as part of a dynamic multifaceted organisation.

What exactly would these 30 bright young zealots on $55,000 a piece actually do now?

(Thanks to many readers, including Steve and FOEHN.)
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Help her produce more
Andrew Bolt
An unmarried criminal who’s been on welfare for years wants our help to breed more of her clan:

A SERIAL welfare cheat who fraudulently claimed almost $140,000 in payments - including single-parent benefits - has launched legal action to force authorities to grant IVF treatment in prison.

This case is brought to you by the latest weapon from the Labor Government’s social engineering department:

Castles alleges authorities have broken the Charter of Human Rights.

(The judge will make up his own mind. That said, I’m not taking the risk of allowing comments on this.)
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Nixon did what any good general would have done on D-Day
Andrew Bolt

The managing director of Our Community defends his next speaker. Christine Nixon, he says, is like General Eisenhower.

(From readers GoldCoastSeer and Doc Molloy.)
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A whale of a distraction
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd is desperate for a distraction:

THE government has decided to press ahead with legal action in the International Court of Justice to stop Japan’s ‘’scientific’’ whale hunt.... The government has come under intense attack for putting its centrepiece environment policy - the emissions trading scheme - on hold until at least 2013, and for reneging on other election promises.

To distract from his failure on one utterly pointless green gesture he revives another.

UPDATE

Yet another Rudd promise overboard:

ANOTHER Rudd government policy is on the scrap heap after the government abandoned plans to expand the Do Not Call register to include business phone numbers…

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy ... said yesterday he had ditched the expansion plan, representing another government about-face after the delay to the emissions trading scheme, the axing of the insulation scheme and abandonment of its childcare commitment.

UPDATE 2

Journal of a Rudd staffer. But satire these days is astonishingly close to the reality as described by a real staffer.

(Thanks to readers zbcustom, Frank and Greg.)
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Rudd makes grandparenting a (paid) chore
Andrew Bolt
Does grandma really love you, or does she just do it for the money?

GRANDPARENTS will be paid to look after newborns if parents are unable to care for their children, the Rudd Government said yesterday… People, including grandparents, would have access to the scheme if parents were unable to care for a child because of illness or accident.

(Thanks to reader CA.)
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Rudd robbing both the rich and poor
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd’s next strategy is so transparent and so craven - to dress up his urgent need for more cash as an attack on Labor’s mythical “robber barons”:

THE Rudd government is picking an election-year fight with Australia’s mining industry over its new resources rent tax, claiming it has short-changed taxpayers to the tune of $35 billion.

The truth behind this cynical spin is that Rudd, who’s looted the surplus to spend on trash, is now robbing not just the rich, but the poor as well. It’s the poor who tend most to smoke:

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced this week the Government would raise the tax on cigarettes by 25 per cent...

As for the booze the poor drink:

DRINKERS of fine wine will be spared the pain inflicted on cigarette smokers in tomorrow’s Henry review. In fact they’re likely to find Australia’s most expensive drop more than $100 a bottle cheaper. But drinkers of cask wine are in for a shock.

A move towards a single flat volumetric tax on alcohol is set to cut the price of a $620 bottle of Grange by $133 while adding $20 to the price of a four-litre cask…

The proposed flat tax set at the packaged full-strength beer rate of 39 cents per standard drink would push up the price of a four-litre cask from $15 to $35, according to calculations by the Australian Hotels Association, while taking $6 off the price of a $54 cabernet sauvignon.

A middy of draft beer would climb 28 cents while $9 would be sliced off the price of a $43 bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label whisky.

UPDATE

Meanwhile, reader Bob has another example of money being splashed out by a careless government:

All Apprentices receive $800 tool allowance. Under the previous government it was paid through a voucher system where the apprentice could take this voucher card to any registered tool shop, and buy $800 worth of tools.

At the beginiing of the year, this Labor government changed it, and is putting the $800 straight in the apprentices bank account. The idea of the scheme is for the apprentices to get tools.

Normally our shop would have put through about 40 kits by now. So far this year we have sold 1 kit. From one shop i spoke to, whose son is an apprentice, all his friends spent it on alcohol and other stuff, besides tools. I have no proof of whats happening, but a lot of tool shops i speak to, and large tool importers i speak to say the tool kits have dried up.

But the money is still being handed out, but not being used for what it was intended. The scheme worked very well under Howard. They changed it, most likely to buy apprectices votes. Just stupidity. What do you think an 18 year old kid will do with $800 CASH
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How Rudd plans to waste his next $43 billion
Andrew Bolt
Terry McCrann on the Kevin Rudd’s next disaster, and probably his greatest - the National Broadband Network:

In an exercise that looks increasingly… as classic Rudd-spin-on-the-run, a year ago the government dumped its $12bn FTTN—fibre-to-the-node—network, because it didn’t make any sense; only to embrace the even grander, even more senseless, and obviously more expensive, $43 billion FTTH—fibre-to-the-home—network.

So, whether you wanted it ot not, whether you would ever conceiveably use the 100Mbps that FTTH promised—the “Rolls-Royce”, at RR-type cost to the nation, mind you—you would get it clamped to your house. Well, actually, most houses. The FTTH started out as going to over 90 per cent of premises, with the remainder “filled in”, mostly by wireless. But that was always going to be “qualified” (down) over time.

In any event, by the time we got the fixed FTTH 100Mbps speed, around 2020, that most of us didn’t want now or then, those of us that did want faster were probably going to be able to get 10 or more times that speed from competing technology. While the rest that were happy with slower would be more than likely getting it from the more convenient wireless…

(B)oth the technological reality and any rational allocation of our resources demanded that the NBN should be done by building out the Telstra network. In very simple terms, Telstra has the ducts down which the NBN’s fibre should, even has to, go… Unless the Telstra network and its customers are incorporated in the NBN, it will make the sheer waste of Kevin Rudd’s insulation fiasco look like petty cash.

(NBN boss Mike) Quigley let some of the cat out of the bag a couple of weeks ago, when he said the NBN wouldn’t make money “for 30 years”.

And, of course, Telstra threatens to build out its existing network to compete with Rudd’s white elephant in the biggest markets - delivering 100Mbps to Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.