Headlines Saturday 22nd May 2010

=== Todays Toon ===

Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC (3 August 1867 – 14 December 1947) was a British Conservative politician, statesman, and pre-eminent British politician of the interwar years. He served three times as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; first from 1923–24 then 1924–29 and again from 1935–37. Baldwin was the first commanding Prime Minister in an age of full democracy and this has led to his generally receiving a positive press from recent historians.

=== Bible Quote ===

“I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.”- 1 Corinthians 1:10

=== Headlines ===

Tea Party activists, who helped Rand Paul win Kentucky's GOP Senate primary, are pushing back against critics who have assailed his libertarian views on the Civil Rights Act.

Will 'ICE' Man Freeze Ariz.?
Top official reportedly says agency will not necessarily process illegals referred to them by Ariz. authorities

U.N. Internet Tax Is Dead — For Now
Plan to impose consumer taxes on Internet activity in order to restructure world drug industry hits snag

Texas OKs New Textbook Guidelines
TEXAS TEXTBOOK BATTLE: State's Board of Education approves new textbook guidelines for social studies, history that could affect rest of country

Ferrero Rocher chocolate truffles were seized by airport customs officials - because they were stuffed with $600,000 worth of cocaine. Picture: Courtesy of NBC

Police close in on 'Brother Rock'
AS police hunt cult leader, claims emerge that six-year-old girls have been "pledged" to members.

Diggers sent home for breaking sex ban
FOUR female troops have been sent home from the Middle East after getting pregnant.

Hidden epidemic of women abusing men
VICTIMISED men are too scared of being labelled "wimps" if they cry out for help, finds study.

World of psychos, dope and quick graves
UNDERBELLY a glamorous lie, says former drug dealer who was Mr Asia's right-hand man.

Tiger, Elin divorce talks 'turn ugly'
TIGER Woods' wife Elin has reportedly upped her payout demand to a whopping $900m.

I never covered up abuse, says Archbishop Philip Wilson
THE Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, has denied claims he covered up sex abuse involving the clergy in NSW. Archbishop Wilson maintained he had not mishandled nor covered up sexual abuse cases during his time in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, north of Sydney, in the late 1970s and 80s. "I have always tried to act correctly in these areas, and to do what's right, and I have such an abhorrence of this," he said. "The thing is I was 25 in 1975 when I was ordained as a priest. I thought maybe people had difficulties of virtue in regard to sexuality and so on in the priesthood, but I didn't know there were such people as paedophiles. In my life, I had never seen anything to raise suspicion this was happening." Archbishop Wilson, who heads the national body of Australian bishops, has been accused of not doing enough in response to clerical sexual abuse when he was an office-holder in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

Aussies killed in Afghanistan plane crash
UP TO three Australians were on board a commercial airliner that crashed into a remote mountain.

Inside Sydney's great parrot heist
THEY are bright red, one of the largest of their kind and can break a broom stick in half, yet two of Taronga Zoo's rare macaws have been birdnapped without a trace.

MPs continue to taunt 'Princess' MP Adrian Piccoli in the Bear Pit
TOUGHEN up, it's the Bear Pit not the teddy bear pit - that was Premier Kristina Keneally's response to claims she "sexualised" a male MP. And her ministerial counterpart Steve Whan went further, abandoning parliamentary debate about drought-stricken regions to again label Nationals education spokesman Adrian Piccoli a "princess". For the second day in a row, the NSW Parliament appeared preoccupied with Mr Piccoli's clothes. "It is called the Bear Pit not the teddy bear pit and, you know, if the Opposition are willing to dish it out they have also got to be willing to take it," Ms Keneally told Sky News. "What I would say to Adrian, you know, toughen up mate, it's the Bear Pit. It's a rough-and-tumble place." - And this is the ALP culture which brought forth David Campbell - ed.

Teachers want panic button in classrooms
TEACHERS have called for amergency buttons to be installed in classrooms in response to allegations that a 13-year-old girl threw a bin at her teacher then punched him. The teenager has been charged with assaulting a public officer and suspended for 10 days from the public school in the Goldfields region. Education authorities labelled the incident "abhorrent" and are deciding whether to expel the student and send her to a departmental behaviour centre in Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

=== Journalists Corner ===

An exclusive investigation!
He masterminded a plot to kill innocent Americans ... why? We reveal shocking facts about Anwar al-Awlaki!
Hosted by Bill Hemmer
The New Goldfinger?
Glenn Beck takes on the critics who claim he is in bed with the gold industry!
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Just Say NO!
How is one state taking a stand against Obama's health plan? Greta gets answers!
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Even MORE Spending?
Why some dems are rushing to pass every penny they can! Catch 'Cost of Freedom' at a SPECIAL TIME!

=== Comments ===

Speaking in shades of geldof nonsense
Piers Akerman
SOMETIME Irish rocker and global media tart Sir Bob Geldof has again shown his inner-seagull during a quick trip to Australia. Fly-in, squawk, defecate, fly-out, squawk. - Geldof is a celebrity but not an informed one. He knows a few things about being emo .. which landed him a role in “The Wall” but nothing about important things like administration. He has made the choice to follow the populist culture and this is where it leads him .. to opposing things that support opportunity and proclaiming that which debases us all. - ed
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The President of Mexico Takes on Arizona's Anti-Illegal Alien Law
By Bill O'Reilly
As we reported Wednesday, Mexican President Calderon does not like Arizona cracking down on illegal aliens, and there are a few valid reasons for his point of view.

No one group wants to be singled out for scrutiny, and certainly the focus will be on Mexicans under the new Arizona law.

But in a new Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll, 84 percent of Americans, including 75 percent of Democrats, favor the police asking for nationality status if they have reasonable cause to suspect someone is in this country illegally. Eighty-four percent, that's an astounding plurality, and one Calderon should respect.

Also, President Calderon needs the money illegal aliens send back to his country, an estimated $1 billion in cash a year.

So Calderon has an agenda. Here's what he said on Thursday in front of Congress:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FELIPE CALDERON, PRESIDENT OF MEXICO: My government does not favor the breaking of the rules. I fully respect the right of any country to enact and enforce its own laws. I strongly disagree with the recently adopted law in Arizona.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Well, that's somewhat infuriating.

First of all, if President Calderon really respects the territorial integrity of America and our right to make our own laws, he would seal his side of the border, but he won't.

Second, the Democrats who applauded Mr. Calderon are generally opposed to strict border enforcement. In fact, they have no solution to control rampant illegal immigration. None.

Many believe the Democratic Party wants the votes that new citizens can provide. Therefore, the Dems favor amnesty and a continuation of the border intrusion. That might be unfair, but the perception is there in some quarters.

But again, the Democratic Party really has no solution to the immigration mess other than amnesty and the status quo.

Clearly the American people depart from the Democrats on the issue. All the polls say that.

As for President Calderon, he did himself no good with the American public by condemning the Arizona law. I mean, I like the guy because of his tough stance against the drug cartels. But on the border issue, he's a phony, and that's the truth.
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DALAI LAMER
Tim Blair
The Dalai Lama believes in Marxism. But does Marxism believe in someone who obtains religious authority through god-based reincarnation magic? I’d ask a Marxist, but that would require talking to one.

(Via Ann Althouse)
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STOLLEN GENERATION
Tim Blair
ABBA-rigine n. Someone who identifies as Aboriginal despite the presence of white skin, blue eyes or fair hair.
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SUCKED IN
Tim Blair
Recently added to the list:

Global warming has been blamed for the increase of blood-sucking sea lampreys in the Great Lakes.

Blood-suckers are a common presence among global warmers. Yet those seeking to feast on fears of rising seas may be disappointed:

In a new scientific paper, Nils-Axel Morner, former emeritus head of the paleogeophysics and geodynamics department at Stockholm University in Sweden, says that observational records from around the world – locations like the Maldives, Bangladesh, India, Tuvalu and Vanuatu – show the sea level isn’t rising at all.

Morner’s research, revealed Monday at the fourth International Conference on Climate Change, demonstrates that there is no “alarming sea level rise” across the globe, and it says a U.N. report warning of coastal cities being deluged by rising waters from melting polar ice caps “is utterly wrong” …

For his paper, Morner looked at the sea-level changes in major metropolitan cities around the globe—including Venice, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Mumbai, as well as islands such as the Maldives. A total of 159 stations were used for the research. His study showed that there was a maximum of 3 millimeters of sea level rise in some locales around the world, and many coastal cities showed no rise at all.

But … but … what about the coffee?

Specialty arabica coffee, the pride of countries like Guatemala, grows inside a very narrow band of altitude and temperature making it particularly sensitive to small changes in the climate.

Just as well they have other, hardier crops to fall back on.
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LET THE OIL RUN FREE
Tim Blair
Vandals are said to be attacking barriers that prevent the Gulf of Mexico oil spill from reaching the US coast:

Local authorities reported that vandalism has been an isolated but perplexing problem in some coastal communities.

“We’ve had about a half a dozen cuts on the boom in our area so far, made with a real sharp object,” said Ken Eslava, Fairhope’s assistant public works director.

I blame Obama.
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PEN vs SWORD
Tim Blair
Draw Mohammed Day is over, and Zombie finds a winner. But score a victory too for America’s slicing community, who have forced medical authorities to review their previous opposition to female mutilation:

In areas with large numbers of east Africans - in Seattle and Minnesota, for example - it was clear that just saying no was often inadequate.

‘’We had families explicitly tell [paediatricians] that if we did nothing they would take their kids back to Africa where they would not have control over how harmful a procedure was done,’’ Dr Diekema said. ‘’What they needed was something that satisfied what they believed were the demands of their religion.’’

UPDATE. Further from Jim Treacher.

UPDATE II. Facebook hosted Mo images, so covered faces protest against Facebook:

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Why was Tanner protected on Q&A?
Andrew Bolt
You read it here first - how Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner told an untruth on Q&A. But Gerard Henderson wonders why Q&A host Tony Jones covered up for him.
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There is no compromise with barbarism, only surrender
Andrew Bolt
If it’s all right to mutiltate girls for the greater good, what else might be excused?

The review by a prestigious US medical academy of its policy on female genital cutting has triggered a storm of protest from lobbyists, women’s groups and feminist bloggers.

The Academy of American Paediatrics has been accused of sanctioning child abuse and of behaving unethically…

‘’Have you all gone nuts?’’ one paediatrican demanded of the academy’s bio-ethics committee in a website exchange.

‘’Just a little female circumcision? There’s no reason to do this procedure and to condone any form of it is not acceptable.’’…

The offence was not caused by the committee’s final recommendations, which endorsed the academy’s previous opposition to female genital cutting, last reviewed in 2007.

Rather, the outrage was invoked by the committee admitting in its report the quandary of some paediatricians who argue that offering a form of ‘’ritualistic genital nick’’ might help dissuade families from taking their daughters overseas where they would be more likely to undergo life-endangering surgery and mutilation.

As each month goes by, it becomes clearer that we’re seeing precisely what Raspail described nearly 40 years ago in his prophetic masterpiece - a novel so presient today, when for Europe it’s almost too late:
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Bolt's Defense of Campbell
Andrew Bolt
Channel 7 news director Peter Meakin’s scummy excuse for outing NSW Transport Minister David Campbell as a gay:

He sent out family Christmas cards that would suggest to the people who receive them here’s one big happy family devoted to each other … now there is another side to the story.

I’m not saying they are not a happy family, I’m not saying they don’t love each other, I’m saying there’s another side to this man’s life which has been kept under wraps for 25 years. Are the electorate entitled to know it?

Disgusting. Meakin even concedes he has not the slightest evidence that Campbell had an unhappy family life, and that the Christmas cards he sent were a lie. For all we know Campbell loved his wife and children, and for Meakin to suggest otherwise is a gross impertinence. Who appointed him judge, anyway?

And what a hypocrite. He pretends to outrage that Campbell’s family life isn’t as happy as a Christmas card suggests, and then does his absolute level best to ensure that it isn’t.

UPDATE

Speaking of hypocrites, here’s David Marr, fulminating over the outing of a Labor politician:

As of now, Campbell has been destroyed for one reason alone: being gay.

Yet here’s the same David Marr, trying to justify his own role in outing - and smearing - a conservative broadcaster:

Transcript of ABC Insiders show on Alan Jones ..

HOST Barrie Cassidy: Do you think the Alan Jones book Jonestown will make a splash?

Marr: You have not read it yet of course.

Bolt: I’ll tell you what I have read _ the excerpts that your paper the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age ran from this book (on Saturday). And they all focussed on his sexuality and the fact that he was a teacher in charge of boys. And it went “wink wink, nudge, nudge: teacher, gay, boys”. And I think that is so outrageous. There is nothing to suggest that Alan Jones did anything improper. And if he was not a conservative, but someone of the Left - dare I say that word again…

Marr: Oh dear God…

Bolt: .... you would join me in condemning this rank homophobia. This is disgraceful.

Marr: It’s not homophobia. Read the text. It’s on the record. There were the people who were his pupils. And it is a very careful argument.

Bolt: If this were Justice Michael Kirby, you would be shocked by this. It’s gutless of you not to complain.

Marr: I did the excerpts.

Cassidy: What’s the relevance to his homosexuality?

Marr: Because it’s the very basis of his character and the basis of his career. His problems at those schools projected him out into his career....

Bolt: What problems?

Marr: They are all set out on the book, Andrew.

Bolt: Masters says again and again he does not actually have any proof.

Marr: What it is is an explanation for his strange character, his love of secretness.

Bolt: So he’s strange now?

Marr: It can be - it depends how you live with it, Andrew?

Bolt: Listen to yourself, David. Listen to yourself.

Marr: You read the excerpts and it is all clearly set out. David Flint was absolutely correct the other day. He said, you don’t “out” people unless their sexuality has an impact in public life. And Jones’ does. He is a very important figure in Australia…

Bolt: Listen, it’s the linking of the constant “nudge, nudge, wink, wink that he was with boys” with Masters actually admitting he has no proof at all of anything improper. If this happened to anyone else - this linking of being gay with being a pedophile, you would be the first, like I was when (Liberal senator Bill) Heffernan attacked Michael Kirby I was there saying this is disgraceful. You should be here attacking this kind of stuff.

UPDATE 2

And, in response to the usual critics, I said much the same about Rudd’s own jaunt to a strip club:

Like most Australians, I suspect, I barely care that Rudd when blind still got an eyeful at Scores, which ABC newsreaders at first delicately referred to as a New York “gentlemen’s club”.

After all, nothing Rudd did reflects much on what kind of Prime Minister he’d make...

My real issue there were the lies Rudd told later - on which score Campbell is a saint by comparison. - Bolt is failing to observe the gravity of the issue. Because the ALP is so incompetent, we have no proof that Campbell wasn't a reckless danger to those he ministered. We only have the gushing assurances of those who were responsible for putting Campbell in his exalted position and who failed to adequately supervise him. His crime was not for being gay, or for lying to his family. His problem is that his position was untenable because he kept secret his lifestyle. An open secret, apparently, protected only from the voters. - ed.
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Has Kochie cooled on Rudd?
Andrew Bolt
James Jeffrey notes:

YESTERDAY marked the second week in a row where Kevin Rudd didn’t appear on Sunrise.

Perhaps Rudd’s mate Kochie has worked out the his audience is no longer in the mood for a one-sided diet of Rudd - or for this kind of excruciating television:

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Rudd must go to save the nation
Andrew Bolt
I’ve said we’re now facing a dangerous stalemate: Kevin Rudd cannot afford to give in on his disastrous new “super-profts” tax, but the nation cannot afford for him not to.

Professor Ross Fitzgerald agrees - and concludes that Rudd must go:

Embittered by his failure to achieve (his emissions trading scheme’s) passage and faced with a resurgent opposition led by Tony Abbott, Rudd has seen his political salvation in the mining tax.

Rudd’s desperation for revenues to plug the holes in his budget is revealed by his willingness to damage international perceptions of sovereign risk associated with investing in this nation.

It is one of the most damaging acts of short-term populism in our nation’s history and not befitting the holder of the office of prime minister.

With no one in Labor’s ranks of the stature of former Hawke ministers Peter Walsh, Paul Keating or John Button, it would appear the only way to restore certainty for our key resource developments is a change of government.

(Thanks to reader anon.)

UPDATE

Choose which of the following two men to believe:

KEVIN Rudd has rejected claims his government’s resource super-profits tax is contributing to the plunge by the Australian dollar and stockmarket, saying both are victims of global financial uncertainty…

“Everybody around the world knows that there is a genuine crisis of confidence in Europe, in particular in Greece, and concerning sovereign debt, and as a consequence there are significant changes in currency markets and equities markets right across the world."…

AMP Capital Investors chief economist Shane Oliver told clients yesterday the impact of the global turmoil on Australian shares and the dollar had been “magnified by concerns around the planned resource super-profits tax”.

UPDATE 2

Jennifer Hewett says the Government just doesn’t get how betrayed the miners feel, and what the weaknesses are in its scheme. And it seems she’s talking to one Rudd Government minister who thinks Rudd’s tax is bad news, too:

One minister points out that project finance for big complicated projects is hardly Treasury’s expertise and it shows.

Is that you, Martin?

UPDATE 3

Terry McCrann, like Hewett and her “Minister”, is scathing of the key reassurance that Rudd and Treasury secretary Ken Henry offer miners - that the 40 per cent “super profits” tax comes with the sugar of a 40 per cent tax credit for the costs of a project which fails:

Nobody invests with the expectation of losing money, nobody invests with the hope of getting a guaranteed long-term bond rate return, everybody understands that resources investment is extremely volatile.

So when shareholders and banks provide $2bn to BHP for a project, they expect—hope—it will generate a super-profit, knowing only too well that it could end up barely washing its face, or not even achieving that. They want all $2bn to be at risk.

And which bank would now trust a let’s-change-all-the-rule-overnight government to honor such credits years from now? No wonder the miners say the guarantee is worthless in helping them to now get funding for their projects.

In fact, McCrann warns that Rudd’s tax will make foreign investors so wary of lending us the billions we need that mortgage interest rates may go up:

We need to get at least $50 billion a year of new money to balance our big current account deficit (different from the Budget deficit). Plus, we need to get foreigners to reinvest the $700 billion they’ve already lent us to cover past deficits.

Who does most of that borrowing? And where does it go in Australia? The banks, and they lend most on home loans.

When the money dried up during the global financial meltdown our banks had to pay more to prise out of nervous lenders. And up went their home loan rates.

We face the very real danger of that happening again. And it is our Government which is actively encouraging the risk.

UPDATE 4

Paul Kelly, summing up Ross Garnaut, makes my same point in many more words:

Decoded, he is saying Rudd and Swan are at the crossroads: if they break and retreat (as distinct from agreeing sensible design changes), their government is discredited and lost. Every sign suggests Rudd and Swan grasp this pressure point. Yet the industry wants substantial concessions and the price needed to defuse this political war threatens to be high. The dilemma is diabolical.

But Kelly offers this advice to miners to accept much that’s unacceptable, without explaining exactly why - other than that Rudd is fighting for his political life:

But industry needs to know when to back off to allow Labor the space to make concessions.
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Your billions gone
Andrew Bolt
NSW principals also estimated up to a third of this $16 billion Rudd scheme was being wasted:

ONE dollar in every three spent under the Building the Education Revolution scheme is being frittered away on needless bureaucratic costs, onerous documentation requirements and expensive building materials.

A preliminary assessment by Melbourne quantity surveying firm Swift Construction of the template library and classroom building used by the Victorian Education Department says the project management system for primary schools “ensures added cost for no discernible value adding to the project”.

UPDATE

Toomelah locals can’t believe the waste:

When The Weekend Australian visited the town yesterday, elders and community leaders were frustrated that federal funding, which could have been used to create job opportunities, was squandered on a school tuckshop under the government’s Building the Education Revolution scheme.

The cubbyhouse-sized canteen, measuring 8m by 3m, was built at Toomelah Public School for $650,000, while a three-bedroom home in nearby Boggabilla, in northwest NSW, is listed for sale at a fraction of the price: $119,000.

UPDATE 2

How on earth could another Rudd program build just 11 houses in two and a half years after getting $672 million:

THE federal government has quietly - but radically - shifted the boundaries of the $672 million Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program, conceding that its plan to build 750 houses in 16 remote Northern Territory communities will require significant additional investment.

With only 11 houses completed during the program’s first 2 1/2 years, The Weekend Australian has undertaken a detailed analysis of the progress under the nation’s largest single investment in remote housing.

(Thanks to reader CA.)