Headlines Tuesday 18th May 2010

=== Todays Toon ===

Knight shows Rudd as he is, meeting Jessica, and as he sees himself, waving her away.

=== Bible Quote ===

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”- Romans 11:33

=== Headlines ===

Red Kerry Lies and Inflates to trick Mr Abbott
"I know politicians are going to be judged on everything they say but sometimes in the heat of discussion you go a little bit further than you would if it was an absolutely calm, considered, prepared, scripted remark," he said. - I saw the entire interview and what has been reported is not what Mr Abbott said. Mr Abbott was graceful in ways that Rudd wasn't when Rudd was asked an easier question. Mr Abbott gave a good answer, and Red Kerry seemed unhappy with it and gave the same response Frost once gave Nixon, claiming and inflating a lie. The Question was of the type "When did you stop beating your wife?" and shows a new low with ABC journalism. Mr Abbott answered the question well and kept his head. He also answered it honestly in ways that the ALP will not .. Rudd crumbling and Tanner or Gillard answering questions from their own world. - ed

An unhappy crowd booed as Miss Oklahoma was asked about Arizona's divisive immigration law — but did her answer cost her the crown?

Iran Calling Nuke Checkmate?
Iran's vow to enrich uranium despite proposed nuclear agreement makes U.S. quest for sanctions more difficult

Iraq: We Kicked World Cup Terror Plot
Baghdad security officers say they've captured Saudi militant suspected of 'terrorist act' at soccer competition

Obama's Kenyan Aunt to Stay in U.S.
President's relative, who lives in public housing in Boston, granted asylum and won't be deported to Kenya

Cheeky and unexpected sight greets commuters on the way into work - and if management gurus get their way, we could be seeing a lot more of this. Picture: Solent News

Hey Day! abuse inquiry 'good therapy'
SARAH Monahan spent 35 hours giving police details of alleged abuse by onscreen father.

Three-year-olds grilled on sexuality
OUTRAGE as uni researcher gets funding to question small children about flirting and kissing.

NRL players caught in Facebook sting
POLICE pose as buxom blondes on networking site to teach young players about online security.

Jessica's search for sexy birthday dress
AFTER seven months with nothing but water-proofs to wear, teenager finally gets to go shopping.

Iranian cleric loses battle to stay
SECURITY-risk sheik will be deported within six weeks after appeal to minister fails.

Club sued for $1m over ladder fall
SOUND expert David Mackie is suing his local leagues club - only he can't remember why. He's gone to court after a work accident caused him to suffer amnesia.

Thaksin begs Thais to step back from abyss
FUGITIVE former premier Thaksin Shinawatra calls on both sides to start talks to end civil violence.

Former Treasury chief Liam Byrne jokes UK has 'no money left'
THE scale of the economic challenge facing Britain's new Government was laid out in a one-sentence letter left by an outgoing minister which said: "There's no money left." David Laws, newly appointed chief secretary to the Treasury in Prime Minister David Cameron's coalition Government, described to reporters how he had been left the note by his predecessor Liam Byrne.

=== Journalists Corner ===

Newt Gingrich reveals his strategy to STOP the downward spiral and get our country back on track.
The former speaker on his new plan!
Challenging AZ Immigration Law!
Could this lawsuit overturn the controversial ruling? Neil gets answers
===
"Holding On"!
Can Eric Holder "hold on" to his office? Brit Hume on the attorney general's job security!
===
Reading Between the Lines
It's caused an uproar on Capitol Hill and ignited controversy across the country. But, what does the AZ ruling really say? The man behind the bill responds!

=== Comments ===

Suffering for USA
By Bill O'Reilly
Thursday night here in New York City, the Wounded Warrior Project held its annual fundraiser. About 700 patriots showed up to support this very worthy organization.

Also on hand were celebrities Matthew Modine, Tony Sirico from "The Sopranos" and Bob Costas, who hosted the event.

Country singer Trace Adkins and I were given awards for helping out the Wounded Warriors.

For me, this was a great honor because the award was named after the late Tony Snow, who introduced me to the Wounded Warriors about six years ago. Since that time, "The Factor" has tried to do its best to help the organization.

Patriotic Americans need to think about the tremendous heartbreak of combat veterans whose bodies are shattered forever. There were about a hundred of these men and women at the event, and it's not only they who are suffering; it's their families as well.

The federal government cannot possibly support all the Wounded Warriors throughout their lifetime, so we have to do it, and we should do it. These men and women are the best among us.

In a few weeks, there will be a major battle launched in Kandahar, Afghanistan, which will likely result in horrific casualties. Some of our troops will lose arms and legs; some will be burned; some will lose their eyesight. All will come home to live out the rest of their lives. We must help them. There is no turning away from this.

On BillOReilly.com, we have a link set up directly to the Wounded Warrior Project if you would like to donate. But even if you don't have much money, you can lend them your time.

In addition, we are auctioning off another jacket given to me by the Reagan Library, size large. You may remember the last time we did this, a patriot named Van Merchant from Indiana won the jacket with a $25,000 bid, which I matched. We will do that again. We will match the winning bid.

So I hope you bid on the jacket on BillOReilly.com, and I hope you help the Wounded Warriors. I was honored to be in their presence Thursday night. Their sacrifice defines America as a noble nation.
===
NO MORE PAJAMAS
Tim Blair
Education officials in New Hampshire have composed a strict dress code, banning these items from classrooms:

• Jeans
• T-shirts that have writing, pictures or are considered underwear
• Tank tops
• Shorts
• Sweats, wind suits and gym clothes
• Spandex
• Flip-flops
• Sneakers
• Tops that are low-cut, cropped, tube or have spaghetti straps
• Sheer clothing
• Short skirts that are more than 2 inches above the knee
• Skirts with front slits more than 2 inches above the knee
• Clothes with holes
• Pajamas
• Facial piercings

This dress code isn’t for students. It’s for teachers.
===
THE PRESIDENT NEEDS MORE BIRDS
Tim Blair
Dominic Lawson in the Independent:

Barack Obama’s media advisers were quite distressed when the President travelled down to the Louisiana coastline last week to make his first on-the-spot statement about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Their distress was caused by what they didn’t discover, rather than what they did. Despite their frantic requests, no photogenic dying oil-covered birds could be found to form a backdrop for the Presidential tirade as he weighed into BP.

The same fact – the oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon rig has not (yet) hit the coastline itself – presumably explains why the incident has not been big on the television news, for all the alarm and even hysteria that has been expressed. On a visual medium there is little enduring interest to be had in footage of oil floating on water – even if it is a lot of oil on a lot of water.

But so far, not much of it on birds. The first oiled bird – an ignorant northern gannet – enjoyed a brief media career, and was later joined by a petrochemical-enhanced pelican, yet the overall oiled-bird toll remains impressively low. According to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, only 21 birds have required oil-related treatment. The Fort Jackson Wildlife Rehabilitation Center says it has cleaned a further eight. As Paul Mulshine writes:
The birds don’t seem to be doing that bad. It turns out birds can fly. Who knew?
===
POLITICAL DIFFERENCES
Tim Blair
With Tony Abbott, you are urged to believe only his scripted remarks.

With Kevin Rudd, the scripted remarks are the problem. - I saw the whole interview .. really, I hadn’t the energy to turn off the damn thing before it started, and then with growing horror I watched it unfold. Mr Abbott was extraordinarily graceful under Kerry’s extraordinary attack. Rudd would have withered and mated with Kerry long before the end. Gillard or Tanner would have gone to their fantasy land and started talking about their visions. But Mr Abbott just answered the question in his pugilistic way, and kept honest.
Kerry got the answer he didn’t want, and so he did his journalist thing and said he didn’t understand, and asked the question again and again by shortening it into lie form. The original question was of the style “When had Mr Abbott stopped beating his wife” while the short form of the question was “How can you claim not to be a liar?” But the actual question was well answered by Mr Abbott .. vis, The tax he announced was not something he wanted but was the best possible policy he could bring forward. It is a reasonable tax, not onerous like the Mining tax hike and responsible. Kerry ignoed the truth about the policy being sustainable in ways that Rudd’s great tax grabs aren’t. Kerry ignored the expenditure was beneficial in ways that Rudd’s spending sprees are not. Kerry fixed on the fact it was a tax. It was like Frost claiming he had caught Nixon admitting watergate when he hadn’t. It doesn’t matter what the interview was about, the grab is all that Kerry needs to proclaim his lie. - ed.
===
GOOD LUCK WITH THAT
Tim Blair
Tim Flannery:

We’re trying to act as a species to regulate the atmosphere.

UPDATE. In other atmospheric regulation news, behold the house that global warming built.

UPDATE II. The ice caps are melting, according to a leading authority.
===
Vietnam veteran ambushed
Andrew Bolt
Democrat Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s attorney general, is leading the race to become the state’s new Senator. Or was.

You see, there’s a slight error in this following passage:

“We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” Mr. Blumenthal said to the group gathered in Norwalk in March 2008. “And you exemplify it. Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it — Afghanistan or Iraq — we owe our military men and women unconditional support."…

And another in this:

In 2003, he addressed a rally in Bridgeport, where about 100 military families gathered to express support for American troops overseas. “When we returned, we saw nothing like this,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “Let us do better by this generation of men and women."…

See if you can spot what it is.
===
Lindsay “who, me?” Tanner proves Abbott right
Andrew Bolt
Lindsay Tanner is shocked, shocked, that Tony Abbott has conceded not everything a politician says in the heat of debate may be entirely accurate:

TONY Abbott’s admission that not everything he says off-the-cuff is the “gospel truth” is an astonishing cop-out, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner says…

“But to suggest that somehow, any of us should be immune from responsibility for things we say when the vast bulk of political communication is verbal, whether on radio or on TV, I think is astonishing,’’ Mr Tanner said.

But only last night this same shocked Tanner managed to prove Abbott’s point by denying what he himself said only two months ago about the dangers of lifting the compulsory superannuation guarantee levy - as his own Government has just now done. Here’s Tanner on the ABC’s Q&A, getting a question from the audience:

AUDIENCE MEMBER: In March ... you said that an increase in superannuation from 9 per cent to 12 per cent would act have a negative impact on wages. You said the reason that your Government wasn’t putting it in because real wages were going to decrease because of it, because companies weren’t going to be increasing wages during that time, and now you’ve had a sudden backflip.

TANNER: You mean me personally or somebody else?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, you personally. You had an interview with Ross Greenwood in March…

TANNER: I’d like to see the transcript of that because I think there’s a certain amoung of verballing going on here.

AUDIENCE MEMBER (holding up an iPod: I’ve got it on podcast now if you’d like to listen

HOST TONY JONES: OK, I don’t think we’re going to do that…

TANNER: I’m afraid that without seeing that I’m not going to accept that there been any backflip or anything like that.

Boy, did Jones save Tanner’s bacon. Here is what Tanner indeed told MTRs Ross Greenwood in March:

ROSS GREENWOOD: Paul Keating ... was the architect - if you like, the grandfather now of Australia’s compulsory superannuation scheme. He continuously says that the superannuation contribution should be raised from nine per cent to 12 per cent, on the way potentially to even 15 per cent. The Government seems reluctant to do that, despite even surveys that say that the public - more than 60 per cent of the public would be willing to see their superannuation rise to 12 per cent. Why is this government so unwilling to, if you like, continue to take up the cudgel that Paul Keating created for it in the first place?

LINDSAY TANNER: Look, I’m always very cautious about that survey material Ross, and I haven’t seen the particular ones you refer to. But people tend to get asked questions without being given the flip-side of the choice to consider at the same time. So, for example, if you ask people a question would you support a three per cent increase in the compulsory super fee, understanding that that three per cent is going to effectively come off your wages, and that if it goes into superannuation, it means that you miss out on what otherwise would have been a three per cent increase in your wages, then I think you might get a different response. People do these surveys without actually explaining to people where the money’s coming from and, in effect, ultimately it’s only us, it’s all Australians contributing, and so it’s not money falling out of the sky and the fact that your employer is forced to put in an extra three per cent in your super means that money that otherwise could have gone into your wages, is going into your super basically…

There’s going to be, particularly at enterprise bargaining levels, I think some potential for that kind of thing to be pursued into the future. And we don’t necessarily believe that the case has been made for an across the board increase beyond the nine per cent.

Was that the “gospel truth” you spoke in March, Lindsay? And when you denied saying it last night, was that an attempt to become “immune from responsibility for things we say”?

Abbott vindicated. And Tanner must now tell the truth - the Rudd Government’s 3 per cent rise in the superannuation guarantee levy is going to cut workers’ real wages.

(Thanks to reader Trevor.)
===
More wasted billions from Rudd
Andrew Bolt
The scale of the waste is staggering - representing on these figures a loss of $250 a head from every man, woman and child:

PUBLIC primary school principals estimate managing contractors are pocketing as much as $5 billion of the federal government’s $16.2 billion school building program.

The first detailed costings for individual schools seen by NSW primary school principals reveal that management-related fees made up 35 per cent of the $1.2 million cost of refurbishing five classrooms at a south-west Sydney primary school.

The Public Schools Principals Forum deputy chairman, Brian Chudleigh, said if the breakdown in costings prepared by the managing contractor Hansen Yuncken was typical of projects across the country, up to a third of the federal government’s Building the Education Revolution program was being spent on management fees.

‘’Those are outrageous charges,’’ Mr Chudleigh said.

UPDATE

Some politicians are trying to cover up the scandal:

THE (Victorian) government has been accused of hamstringing a Senate inquiry into the controversial schools stimulus program after bureaucrats refused to appear before a hearing.

And in what one senator suggested was ‘’undue pressure’’, a principal revealed he had received two calls from the Education Department last week asking what he was going to tell the inquiry…

The inquiry heard Swan Hill North primary principal Campbell McKay - who appeared before the hearing yesterday - received two phone calls from department officials last week asking what he would say…

Swan Hill North primary received $2 million under the program for a new library and classrooms. The inquiry heard the school signed up to the template, after project manager Incoll promised it would replace a shed, basketball court, sprinkler systems and a shade structure demolished to make way for the library.

But school council president Mick Doolan said the school was dismayed when Incoll later reneged on its promise to replace the structures within the budget.

He said he could not understand how the project could cost $2 million, but the process had been very secretive and the school had been denied access to costings.

UPDATE 2

More from the inquiry:

In a written submission to the inquiry, the Brumby government yesterday revealed that its reallocation of Building the Education Revolution funding had meant one in three Victorian primary schools might not receive their original commonwealth grant…

Hallam Valley Primary School council president Mark Ogden ... told the hearing he was “hugely disappointed” in how state bureaucrats had run the program, which allocated just $1.2m to his school for a new gym from an original $3m commonwealth grant. He said instead of getting a library with the remaining money, the leftover cash was to go to other schools where costs had blown out.

“It was put to us that if we didn’t sign off . . . nothing was going to happen after that and we would potentially get nothing,” Mr Ogden said. “I would think . . . we were bullied to sign for the gym.”

I’ll buy the argument that Victoria is right to try to steer Rudd’s handout to the most needy schools rather than to everyone. But Hallam Valley suggests that there’s more to this shifting of cash than concern for the needy.

(Thanks to reader CA.)
===
Pay those respects to the taxpayers instead
Andrew Bolt
Out of control:

WALKING the Kokoda Track and a fact-finding mission on cement making in the Ukraine are just some of the events bankrolled by taxpayers as part of Victorian MPs’ $2.5 million global junkets.

A Herald Sun investigation reveals almost 80 jet-setting state parliamentarians have travelled to locations ranging from war-torn Lebanon to upmarket New York hotels - all at taxpayers’ expense - in the term of this parliament.

Three MPs have even charged trips to honour fallen Diggers along the revered Kokoda Track to the public purse.
===
Bolt fails to see the man in the interview.
Andrew Bolt
Another dreadful interview. Tony Abbott yet again makes the mistake of treating a media interview as the confessional of a self-reflective and self-doubting man: - I’m backing Mr Abbott too. I heard the entire interview and it was reminiscent of when Frost claimed Nixon when in fact he hadn’t got what he claimed. Unlike the crumbling Rudd or the fantasy driven Gillard or Tanner’s of the world, Mr Abbott gave a good answer and a graceful response to an abysmal question “When did you stop beating your wife?” variety. He answered it and Red Kerry did the old journo’s trick of saying he didn’t understand what Mr Abbott had answered well. Mr Abbott rephrased what he had said and Red Kerry gave a false reduction which the press have run with. It doesn’t matter to me that journos don’t understand .. in fact I suspect they do, because had Rudd given such a response they would not have hammered home the point. But what concerns me is that the press will fall all around the lie and raise a hubbub that can claim Mr Abbott much as the last minute lies sealed the deal to claim Mr Howard last election. - ed.
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The political ad of the year
Andrew Bolt

Now that’s conviction politics.

(Thanks to reader bennoba.)
===
Stacking Labor branches with ethnic tribes
Andrew Bolt
Labor stacking ethnic branches? You are astonished, I’m sure:

A former staff member of federal and state ministers has told The Age he systematically rorted ALP branch membership numbers in Melbourne over the past decade, to benefit Premier John Brumby’s Right faction.

Costas Socratous, who until last year worked in the electorate offices of federal Home Affairs Minister Minister Brendan O’Connor and former state industry minister Theo Theophanous, says he personally paid the membership fees of hundreds of branch members in the Labor heartland of Melbourne’s western suburbs, using cash and postal orders.

He says the money, up to $5500 a year, was provided to him for branch stacking through MPs’ offices and via shadowy fund-raising events.

In interviews with The Age, Mr Socratous, a former Brimbank councillor, has named Mr Theophanous and state parliamentary secretary Telmo Languiller as architects of the long-running scheme.

He says other senior ALP figures with electorates in the western and northern suburbs also benefited from his internal party activities, including Deputy Prime Minister and member for Lalor Julia Gillard and federal parliamentary secretary and member for Maribyrnong Bill Shorten.

Mr Theophanous and Mr Languiller vehemently deny the accusations, which they say come from a disgruntled former employee who is now out to get them…

Mr Socratous says most of his recruiting was done in the Greek community, but other ALP operatives were doing similar work in the Turkish, Spanish, Vietnamese, Macedonian and Croatian communities.

The allegations, if true, do not just involve dirty work within Labor. They also involve (the almost inevitable) corruption of the multicultural project, turning new Australians into newly warring tribes on the political battlefield.

(Thanks to reader bennoba.)
===
Miners backed
Andrew Bolt
The pressure grows for a (revenue cutting) compromise:

QUEENSLAND is pushing the federal government to double the threshold that defines a “super profit”, as it backs the mining industry on a key component of its escalating dispute with Canberra over the proposed resources tax.

Wayne Swan yesterday sounded a more conciliatory note on the resource super-profits tax, ... but he appeared to rule out changes to the 40 per cent rate and the profit threshold of about 6 per cent - set at the long-term bond rate - before the tax kicks in…

The sector yesterday won support from Queensland Mines Minister Stephen Robertson, who said the state Labor government believed the profit threshold before the new tax kicked in should be raised from about 6 per cent to 11 per cent.

Mr Robertson said he was concerned about the impact of the new tax on Queensland’s fledgling liquefied natural gas industry.

UPDATE

More pressure:

CHINA has used a high-level government meeting in Beijing to officially raise widespread concerns among the country’s leadership about the Rudd government’s 40 per cent resource super-profits tax.

The move has already seen some Chinese companies shelve investment plans in Australia and cast doubt over billions of dollars in debt planned to be forthcoming from Chinese banks to support junior Australian miners.

(Thanks to reader BBBaz.)
===
A dodgy time to be in so much debt
Andrew Bolt
Question: how optimistic were the Rudd Government’s Budget predictions of 4 per cent growth next year and a return to surplus in three?

AUSTRALIAN stocks slumped beyond a seven-month low today, falling more than 3 per cent as a horror lead from offshore markets that came on the back of Europe debt concerns saw investors dump local stocks.

The fear tore through the Asian region, with stock markets in Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and India all down after Wall Street’s Dow Jones Industrial Average and European markets sank on Friday.

Concerns on Europe’s recovery and the prospect of weaker global growth weighed heavily on Australia’s resources stocks, already sold off since news of the Rudd government’s proposal for a Resources Super Profits Tax, but the losses were widespread.

BHP Billiton fell $1.75, or 4.53 per cent, to close the day at $36.89, as rival Rio Tinto gave up $3.85 (5.66 per cent) to end at $64.15.

So mining companies were hit even harder than most. Another question: how much longer can the Government cling to its plan for a 40 per cent tax on “super profits”?
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Almost daily this month
Andrew Bolt
Yet another:

An asylum seeker boat carrying 47 people has been intercepted in waters north-west of Australia.

(Thanks to readers Pira and Peter.)