Headlines Sunday 9th May 2010

=== Todays Toon ===

New Crowns for Old depicts Disraeli as Abanazer from the pantomime version of Aladdin offering Victoria an imperial crown in exchange for a royal one. Disraeli cultivated a public image of himself as an Imperialist with grand gestures such as conferring on Queen Victoria the title “Empress of India”.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British Prime Minister, parliamentarian, Conservative statesman and literary figure. He served in government for three decades, twice as Prime Minister. A teenage convert to Anglicanism, he was nonetheless the country's first and thus far only Prime Minister of Jewish heritage. He played an instrumental role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party after the Corn Laws schism of 1846.

=== Bible Quote ===

“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”- Colossians 4:5-6

=== Headlines ===

After public disputes with Obama over leadership in Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai will work to become a credible partner worthy of the thousands of U.S. troops and billions of dollars pouring into Afghanistan.

Oil Box Fix a Bust
Deep-sea ice forces crews to move long-shot containment box from Gulf leak while they look at alternative solutions

Defense Chief to Slash Pentagon Budget
Defense Secretary Robert Gates orders paring down of military bureaucracy to save $10B for U.S. combat power

Palin Fights Endorsement Backlash
Despite fierce criticism from Tea Party supporters, Palin won't back down from her pick for California Senate

MasterChef producers have admitted that contestant Callum Hann was allowed to replate his dessert and perfect a key component - after the cameras had stopped rolling.

The $733 a year banking rip-off
BANKS used the global financial crisis as an excuse to gouge customers an extra $733 a year.

Swan admits no frills Budget is boring
EVEN Wayne Swan concedes Tuesday's Budget will hold no surprises and no new money.

Chatroulette users exposed on global map
POPULAR social networking site has some serious privacy issues - and this time it's not Facebook.

Secret of happiness revealed - be a mum
TWO thirds of mothers say they are very happy with their lives.

My beer and speed binge shame - Geyer
RUGBY league great Mark Geyer reveals drug and alcohol abuse almost led to his downfall.

Mum jailed for slapping drunk daughter
COLEEN Gudman was locked up for 'simply pulling her drunk teenage daughter into line'.

Vogue beauty serves beer and pizza
LAST year she was the star of Australian Fashion Week but 12 months on we found her serving pizza and beer to party-goers at a fashion function in Haymarket.

Fat cat bureaucrats in Libs' sights
SENIOR State public servants with Labor links are likely to face the chop under a Coalition government. It is understood the jobs of as many as seven department heads, including Education chief Michael Coutts-Trotter, will be reviewed by the Coalition. Although Opposition leader Barry O'Farrell wants to avoid a "night of the long knives", several of his would-be ministers are believed to have earmarked public servants with ALP ties for removal from the departments they hope to take over. Party sources have revealed Mr O'Farrell is considering changing the way departmental chiefs operate and is looking at adopting a model pioneered by the former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett. - then maybe something can be done for hamidur Rahman. This is an excellent move on the part of the Libs. - ed.

Have fewer kids, says Anglican Church
THE Anglican Church wants Australians to have fewer children and has urged the Federal Government to scrap the baby bonus and cut immigration levels. Fairfax newspapers say the General Synod of the Anglican Church has issued a warning that current rates of population growth are unsustainable and potentially out of step with church doctrine including the eighth commandment "thou shall not steal". The Anglican Public Affairs Commission has also warned concerned Christians that remaining silent is little different from supporting further overpopulation and ecological degradation. - how quickly that church forgets God's word. They should be asking for a boost in infrastructure - ed.

=== Comments ===

The O'Reilly Factor
Stock market shenanigans, Greece and President Obama
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Rudd raiding our super to pay bills
Piers Akerman
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan have seriously miscalculated the level of support they can count upon for their new attempt to seize a massive chunk of mining industry profits. - the money Rudd spent on jobs did not go to saving jobs. It went to a pork barrel so that Rudd can be reelected, knowing he won’t be popular. Rudd can have media groups spread the lie that a vote for someone other than the ALP or conservatives will punish the ALP. But as we saw in South Australia and Tasmania, unless conservatives get a majority of votes the ALP will retain power. - ed.
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The bishops with the minds of gnats
Andrew Bolt
Did these Anglicans consult with these other life forms before purporting to speak on their behalf? Or must we simply asume that an Anglican bishop has a better insight into the mind of, say, a gnat than the rest of us?

THE Anglican Church wants Australians to have fewer children and has urged the federal government to scrap the baby bonus and cut immigration.

Wading into the population debate, the General Synod of the Anglican Church has warned that current rates of population growth are unsustainable and potentially out of step with church doctrine - including the eighth commandment, ‘’Thou shall not steal’’.

In a significant intervention, the Anglican Public Affairs Commission has warned concerned Christians that remaining silent ‘’is little different from supporting further overpopulation and ecological degradation’’.

‘’Out of care for the whole of creation, particularly the poorest of humanity and the life forms who cannot speak for themselves … it is not responsible to stand by and remain silent,’’ a discussion paper by the commission warns.

How telling that leaders of a faith that once preached of man’s dominion over nature now preaches nature’s revolt against we sinners. Animism is infecting what has for many centuries been the most human-centric of faiths.

(Thanks to reader Don.)
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Abbott takes action against floundering Rudd
Andrew Bolt

Tony Abbott is already a credible “action man”, and his new ad is prompted by polling which suggests someone else most definitely isn’t.
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Hasta la vista, Obama
Andrew Bolt

I score this one as a knockout win to the Governor of Arizona.
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22 million Australians ignore protest
Andrew Bolt
The Sydney Morning Herald is easily impressed:

Onlookers stared and tourists took photographs as protesters formed a giant ring representing a lifebuoy on Bondi Beach yesterday to send a political message about the treatment of asylum seekers.

The protest, which attracted about 300 people wearing the lifesaver colours of red and yellow and was repeated in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, was organised by Amnesty International Australia…

Representatives from refugee communities, GetUp!, the Refugee Council and church bodies also took part.

Just 300 people? With the SMH counting at least seven groups taking part? Heavens, GetUp alone managed to get 118 to Rudd’s farcical Ideas Summit in Canberra.
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Masterchef uses a toxic ingredient
Andrew Bolt
They can have contestants who are bankrupts or mean, or edge out others they just don’t think sell. But cheating is what would kill Masterchef for me.
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Mate examines rate
Andrew Bolt
I’m sure he’d tell his mate his rate is robbery:

TREASURER Wayne Swan has been accused of installing a ‘’Labor mate’’ on an independent panel set up to examine his controversial 40 per cent resource tax…

The panel is made up of senior Treasury official David Parker, Tax Office second commissioner Jennie Granger, Board of Taxation deputy chairman Chris Jordan, Business Council president Greig Gailey and investment banker Paul Binsted…

Mr Binsted,who reportedly held an ALP fund-raiser at his house for former Labor leader Mark Latham, was also the subject of ‘’Labor-mates’’ claims after being appointed chairman of the Sydney Ports Corporation by the NSW Labor government in 2006.

Ah, NSW, home of so many mates, no doubt every one of them richly deserving - through talent alone - of preferment under Labor:

SENIOR State public servants with Labor links are likely to face the chop under a Coalition government.

It is understood the jobs of as many as seven department heads, including Education chief Michael Coutts-Trotter, will be reviewed by the Coalition…

Among those whose jobs would considered to be on the line under a Coalition government is Mr Coutts-Trotter, who last year earned just under $500,000. The husband of federal Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek, he was former NSW treasurer Michael Egan’s chief of staff…

Human Services director-general Jennifer Mason is also facing the axe if the Coalition wins government next March… Ms Mason worked as chief of staff to former attorney-general Bob Debus.

Former nurses union official Debora Picone, who is director-general of NSW Health, could also be looking for a new job.

But I’m certain that Binted has the integrity to note what Michael Coulter of The Age has of what Swan delights in calling the “super profits tax”:

Consider the rhetorical wrapping on this nut, designed to portray it as a tax on wanton greed and undeserved reward. Most Australians grudgingly accept that companies need to turn a profit, but what sort of vulture needs a ‘’super’’ profit? If you were wondering, super profits are ‘’net returns that exceed a satisfactory return to investors’’. Satisfactory to whom?

(Thanks to reader CA.)
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Give that warmist scientist a mirror
Andrew Bolt
The hypocrisy is astonishing:

Two-hundred-and-fifty scientists have signed an open letter saying they are deeply disturbed by the recent escalation in attacks on climate scientists, saying political action has been derailed.

The letter, published in the journal Science, says the recent attacks on climate researchers are being run by special interests…

Professor Kurt Lambeck, from the Australian National University, says the Federal Government cannot afford to allow any more delays.

“The negative aspects of the debate have been very unfortunate because I am sure that they’re one of the elements in this delay in starting the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme,” he said…

“It’s a call really for rational debate to get the facts out, not to have that discussion deflected by extreme views that are not really based on the science,” he said.

Just within these few lines, we have warmist scientists deploring “attacks” on them, yet in the same breath accusing their critics of corruption. We have Lambeck demanding views be based on facts and science, yet endorsing a futile scheme whose very name is a lie, since carbon is neither a pollutant nor a greenhouse gas, but that black and sometimes sooty stuff that be useful to make colorless carbon dioxide seem the pollutant that it isn’t, either.

(Thanks to reader JX.)
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Green always did clash with red
Andrew Bolt
Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett lied before the election in ruling out a deal with the Greens:

A BACKROOM deal with the Greens is a deal with the devil, and I’m not going to sell my soul for the sake of remaining in power.

Instead, of course, he gave two Greens, Nick McKim and Cassy O’Connor, portfolios in his Government to keep his job.

Now Sue Neales checks how this deal is working out in practice after a couple of weeks of Parliament, with the Greens leader and his lover enjoying the perks of being ministers, while the three other Greens members seethe at having to shut up.

First to McKim and O’Connor:

Instead of humility in victory, arrogance reigned too often, as well as the sense the two Greens were trying to be “more Labor than Labor"… No longer was the articulate Mr McKim—easily the best and most damaging performer in Parliament—firing all barrels in (Labor’s) direction. Instead his sights and cutting barbs were turned on the Liberal Opposition...

As for the other three Greens:

Are Tim Morris, Kim Booth and newcomer Paul O’Halloran compliant government backbenchers or genuine opposition members? ...

The three are not aligned to Labor. They have not bound their souls to Team Bartlett’s with the signing of a ministerial deal already branded by Liberal hard-hitter Peter Gutwein as akin to “30 pieces of silver”.

It must be galling for Kim Booth and Tim Morris in particular to sit there and not say a word while Labor ministers such as Bryan Green repeat government platitudes and positions that only six months ago the same Greens were branding as “corrupt , disgraceful, scandalous and shameful”.

This noticeable tension in the House finally erupted when Mr Booth could contain himself no longer as Mr Green, resurrected as Labor’s Resources Minister, was back singing the virtues of the responsible forestry industry.

“Wrong,” yelled Mr Booth from the Greens’ back row.

“What do you call that, friendly fire?” asked the Liberals of Premier Bartlett, to much laughter.

There’s a promise of fun here.
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Save the planet! Forget the humans
Andrew Bolt
Planet before people:

THE (Queensland) State Government has raided $10 million from the coffers of a community benefit fund to support its floundering solar rebate scheme, depriving many charities of much-needed grants. The Government has ordered $3.3 million a year for the next three years be redirected from the Gambling Community Benefit Fund to finance the installation of solar panels and hot water systems.

In fact, the Government is putting a useless gesture to “save” a planet that’s not in peril before doing something practical for people who really do need help.

Be at least grateful that some people still retain a sense of both proportion and morality:

Mary Philip, chair of the independent Gambling Community Benefit Committee, which decides who receives grants from the fund, has resigned in protest.

(Thanks to readers elsie, David and CA.)
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Neutered police now neuter another guardian in turn
Andrew Bolt
Police do to a mother what’s so often been done to them when they, too, have battled to uphold the law:

IT was bad enough when Colleen Gudmann learned police had found her drunken 16-year-old daughter trying to use fake ID to get into a pub.

But when the Northbridge hairdresser went to Chatswood station to collect her, things quickly got worse.

By night’s end, it was Ms Gudmann who was locked up on an assault charge and facing a police AVO - all for exercising what she says was normal parental discipline.

Police arrested her after she argued with her daughter Victoria, who lashed out at her mother, calling her a bitch.

Ms Gudmann says she did what most parents would in her situation: she gave Victoria a small slap on the cheek to pull her into line.

“The next thing I know, the policewoman yelled at me to ‘Get out, go!’...”

Two weeks later, she experienced another first, fronting Hornsby Local Court as a defendant - on Domestic Violence Day - while Victoria, a Year 11 student at Killarney Heights High School, was questioned by social workers about whether she feared for her safety.

(Thanks to reader CA.)
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The pocket Windschuttle: his case against Peter Read
Andrew Bolt
Reader Tony Thomas, a retired journalist and the chief typo spotter of this blog, rightly believes there are few more important books on Australian history than Keith Windschuttle’s latest - a demolition of the “stolen generations” myth.

Indeed, Thomas considers The Fabrication of Aboriginal History - Vol 111: The Stolen Generations 1881-2008 to be so important that to spread the word he is considering writing a series of precis of its central arguments and revelations.

Here is his first - a summation of Windschuttle’s devastating assault on the scholarship of Professor Peter Read, the man who invented the “stolen generations” phrase. Page references are given as a number (page) and decimal point (approximate location on that page – eg 46.3 indicates page 46 and a third of the way down). Let Tony know if you’d appreciate more where this came from:

The “Stolen Generations” tag originated from a 1981 pamphlet of 21 pages by historian Peter Read, now Professor of History at Sydney University, who argued that children were removed to separate them permanently from the rest of their race. 43.4