=== Todays Toon ===
Yet another shallow SMOKE screen - ZEGAs we sit here on the eve of what we all know will be new set of higher taxes in the form of something called the HENRY REVIEW, then who would be surprised to find out that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wants to save all the smokers lives by pricing this addictive LEGAL product out of their reach.
=== Bible Quote ===
“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”- 2 Chronicles 7:14=== Headlines ===
Times Square car bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad charged with terrorism and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction after admitting his role in plot.Where Will Oil Spill Wash Up?
Gulf coast businesses and property owners wait to see where weather and ocean currents will push oil
Iran's Secret Nuke Deal With Zimbabwe?
According to reports, Iran secretly agreed to provide Zimbabwe with oil for African nation's uranium ore
Grisly Details Emerge in UVA Murder
Affidavit says lacrosse star told cops he shook victim and repeatedly hit her head against a wall
World's Biggest Beaver Dam Visible From Space
Canadian beavers built the world's longest dam -- so big it can be seen from space, The Sun reported Tuesday. The incredible woodland construction is a staggering 2,790 feet in length -- more than half a mile long.
Teenage girl among those taken to hospital after Metro service slams into into the back of stationary freight train - but paramedics say crash could have been much worseHousing dream now a nightmare
MORE than 90,000 first-home buyers could be forced to sell as they're caught by fast-rising rates.
Comedian sacked over 'sick' Twitter jibes
CATHERINE Deveny loses job over Logies "jokes" including hoping that Bindi Irwin "gets laid".
Keep roads safe - breath test pedestrians
MAKING it illegal to be drunk and near traffic the best way to reduce road deaths, study says
Dad told his girl's death was 'destiny'
BUREAUCRAT made insensitive call two days after Armani Dirani drowned on school trip.
Labor MP Karryn Paluzzano quits post before hearing
PENRITH Labor MP Karryn Paluzzano will face a corruption inquiry today, less than 24 hours after her dramatic resignation as parliamentary secretary. As the whistleblower in her office publicly aired her alleged wrongdoings yesterday, Mrs Paluzzano said she would step down. "I accept that there were irregularities and I have today advised the Premier that it is my intention to resign from my position as parliamentary secretary, effective immediately," she said.Call to revoke rapists' citizenship
VICTIMS of four brothers convicted of Sydney's most notorious gang rapes have called for the men to have their citizenship revoked on release from prison. One of the four Pakistani-born brothers, known as MRK, will be released from detention this month after serving almost eight years in prison. NSW Premier Kristina Keneally said yesterday the government had fought "every step of the way" against the release of the man, who cannot be identified because he was a juvenile when his crimes were committed. The upcoming release of MRK, who will leave Long Bay jail between May 18 and 25, has deeply upset the family of a victim, who was only 13 when she was gang-raped.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Laura Bush Exclusive! Inside her new tell-all book ... from her tragic teenage car accident to the shocking suggestion the president was poisoned!
Guest: John AshcroftIs the administration doing enough to protect the country? Why the former attorney general says the recent close call is too close for comfort.
===
Guest: John Stossel
Do the president's recent remarks prove that he's pushing a socialist agenda? John weighs in!
===
The Times Sq. Bomb Plot!
Busted! The alleged Times Square bomber is nabbed in flight. Did he really work alone? Greta has the latest developments.
=== Comments ===
About Arizona and Illegal AliensBy Bill O'Reilly
President Obama is facing two situations that could badly damage his administration: the oil spill disaster in the Gulf and the illegal alien controversy in Arizona.
Over the weekend, hundreds of thousands of pro-illegal alien demonstrators gathered across the country. Most of the protests were peaceful, but there was some violence. The worst was in Santa Cruz, California, where at least 18 businesses were damaged.
Apparently, the far left is using the new alien law in Arizona to vent its anger, but what is the truth behind the law that allows local and state authorities to investigate immigration status?
Click here to watch Bill's "Talking Points"!
Governor Jan Brewer has ordered Arizona police not to question anyone unless the cops are already involved with the person. That is, investigating a violation. If police cannot prove their questioning is lawful, they can be sued.
All foreigners in the United States are required by law to carry identification, but the Arizona police cannot question them simply because of that. There has to be another reason.
Nevertheless, the far-left media in America has defined the law in Nazi terms:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOY BEHAR, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": We're going to judge you on how you look. We are going to throw you in jail. And also, they're going to throw these people in jail for six months?
MICHAEL MOORE, FILMMAKER: I think it's a result of a bunch of bigots in the Republican Party of Arizona. That's what it's the result of. And it's sad that they're behaving that way and it makes the rest of us look bad as Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Nonsense. But that kind of propaganda is spreading quickly, and some folks believe it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You cannot discriminate against people and pull them over because they look illegal. How do we know who's illegal?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People with my tint of skin, they are going to be subject to criminalization just because of that. All because of personal appearance. And that's not right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: By targeting people of color in general, it's a racist piece of legislation that should not exist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
There is no question that Hispanics in Arizona will be affected by the new law, and that makes many people uneasy. Understandable. Whenever one group is a target of anything, there will be controversy. But with more than 10 million illegal aliens currently in the USA — most of them Hispanic — there is no way to avoid the ethnic issue.
Arizona had to do something. In the capital city Phoenix, crime is totally out of control. For example, last year New York City — with six times as many residents as Phoenix — had just 16,000 more reported crimes. San Diego is the same size as Phoenix. It has 60 percent less crime. The recent murder of an Arizona rancher by a suspected illegal alien and the shooting of a deputy sheriff by alleged alien drug dealers have made the situation almost desperate.
Arizona has almost a half million illegal aliens on the ground, costing the state about $1.3 billion a year — money Arizona does not have. So a reasonable person can understand why the state instituted the crackdown.
But the liberal press is having none of that. Led by some Washington Post columnists and NBC News, cries of racism fill the air. Post writer Eugene Robinson calls the new law "racist, arbitrary, oppressive, mean-spirited, unjust." Post writer Richard Cohen says: "One thing is certain: Some cops will abuse their power — such is human nature — and the Hispanic minority will come to see the police as oppressors."
But the majority of Arizonans support the law and that includes a number of Hispanics who understand the situation must be controlled.
Obviously, the federal government has not secured the border. Remember, President Bush had eight years to do that, and now President Obama has the power. But the border remains porous, and Arizona, as well as California, New Mexico and Texas, continues to suffer.
While the left-wing media exploits the issue, they offer no solutions. Also, they often equate legal immigration with illegal. Even President Obama is falling into that trap:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: If you are a Hispanic-American in Arizona, your great-grandparents may have been there before Arizona was even a state. But now suddenly, if you don't have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you're gonna be harassed. That's something that could potentially happen. That's not the right way to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
But what is the right way to go, Mr. President, with all due respect? Why can't you use federal power to seal the border against criminal enterprise? There is danger for the Obama administration here.
"The Factor" has been investigating just who exactly is supporting the pro-illegal alien lobby, and we have zeroed in on two main organizations, both extreme left.
America's Voice, founded by a man named Frank Sharry, is driving anti-Arizona sentiment through the mail and by petitions. America's Voice receives millions of dollars from the far-left Carnegie Corporation. On the board of Carnegie are former U.N. chief Kofi Annan and Janet Robinson, the president of The New York Times. It takes money to organize protests and boycotts, and America's Voice has money.
Also, the Center for American Progress, John Podesta's left-wing organization, is hammering Arizona in a number of ways. The point person here is Angela Kelley, and the effort is funded in part by the Ford Foundation, one of the most radical money enterprises in the world. For example, the Ford Foundation has given La Raza more than $3 million. Last year alone, Ford gave Podesta's outfit $1.3 million.
So you can see there is big time radical-left money behind the campaign to marginalize Arizona, and if President Obama gets tied in with these people, it will hurt him. Already, the Obama administration is making noise that it will not accept illegal aliens detained by Arizona. If ICE does not take them, the state will face chaos in its justice system.
Now, there is no question the USA needs a fair immigration system and tough new laws to control abuse. It is President Obama's job to get a fair new law on the books.
But if the debate over Arizona's action is any indication, the situation will become yet another polarizing exercise full of racist charges and hatred.
"Talking Points" believes America is basically a fair country, but the illegal immigration debacle is anything but fair. It's not fair to law-abiding Hispanic-Americans; it's not fair to the aliens themselves who are often exploited; it's not fair to the people of Arizona and other states who are seeing their localities veer out of control; and it's not fair to the police who, believe me, do not want to be chasing down house painters.
Enough is enough with this brutal situation. The media is flat-out dishonest in reporting it, and our political leadership is largely cowardly in solving it. We the people have to demand the federal government, not Arizona, control the dangerous border problem. And if they don't, we're going to have to throw them out with our votes.
===
Iran's President Is Defiant and Our Diplomacy Looks Foolish
By Abraham Cooper Harold Brackman
Washington’s delayed, watered down, and ineffective sanctions program and President Obama's "soft diplomacy," is simply emboldening Iran.
“Since they took over 30 years ago....when the regime acquired rocks, they stoned our women; when they acquired rope they hung our men; when they acquired guns they used them on our streets; when they acquired technology they spied on our children. Does anyone doubt what this illegitimate regime would do if it acquired nuclear weapons?”
Those are the words of Roozbeh Farahanipour, a former law student in Tehran, who graduated with honors from Iranian prisons where he was tortured for his student activism. They were delivered on Monday at press conference at the Simon Wiesenthal Center following President Ahmadenijad’s speech at the opening of the U.N. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Conference. Now based in Los Angeles, democracy advocate Farahanipour is pleading with President Obama to finally deploy sanctions that still might prevent the Mullahs from going nuclear.
Meanwhile in New York, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proved once again that no one does “chutzpah” better than he, and nowhere does he do it better than at the United Nations.
Last year, serial human rights abuser, Mahmoud “Wipe Israel from the Map” Ahmadinejad keynoted the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Durban II Conference in Geneva. At another appearance at the General Assembly in New York, he flirted with Holocaust denial and boasted about Tehran’s 9,000 nuclear centrifuges making fissionable material in contravention of International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) rules and U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Now, basking the spotlight as the only head of state to attend the opening session of the U.N.’s Nuclear Nonproliferation Conference, the irrepressible Iranian president castigates the “Zionist regime” for engaging in “acts of terror” and claims that the U.S. and Israel have created “major terrorist networks” that threaten the world with nuclear blackmail.
Indeed, even before the conference’s opening gavel, came word of a significant victory for Iran. Egypt, Tehran’s historic Mideast archrival, a country which fears a nuclear Iran, telegraphed that it would seek to spin the nuclear forum’s focus onto Israel. Ambassador Maged Abdel Aziz told reporters last week that “Success in dealing with Iran will depend to a large extent on how successfully we deal with the establishment of a nuclear-free zone.” Egypt’s working paper will urge NPT members to “renew their resolve to undertake, individually and collectively, all necessary measures aimed at…the accession by Israel to the Treaty as soon as possible as a non-nuclear weapon state.”
Worse still, there are hints that the U.S. may follow up on Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller’s demand last year that Israel go public about its defensive nuclear arsenal and sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty. This would break forty years of U.S. policy not to paint Israel as the Mideast’s atomic bad guy at the very moment Tehran is planning its nuclear breakout.
Behind their public anti-Israel bluster, Arab leaders privately tell us they’re not losing sleep over the Jewish state but because of the real-time nuclear threat unfolding next door in Iran. It’s a threat that they fear America lacks the resolve to stop. In his new book, “The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations,” author Lee Roberts argues that the key to understanding the Mideast mindset is captured by this statement from Usama Bin Laden: “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse.” As we witness North Korea’s and Iran’s defiance of the U.S. -- as well as the Obama’s administration’s hint that it may join demands that Israel unilaterally surrender its nuclear deterrent -- Egyptians, Saudis, Kuwaitis and other regional players may use anti-Israel rhetoric to hide their real purpose of distancing themselves from a weakened “American horse” and prepare to develop their own nuclear arsenals.
While Mideast proliferation is surely not the purpose of Obama’s new “soft diplomacy,” Washington’s delayed, watered down, and ineffective sanctions program, coupled with diplomatic signals designed more to put pressure on Israel than Iran, serve only to embolden, not rein in, Tehran.
Israel’s commitment not to threaten the region with nuclear attack or to engage in blackmail has been unwavering for over last forty years. In the 1960s, Egypt’s Gamel Abdel Nasser pledged to secure “atomic weapons at any costs” and threatened to “drive Israel into the sea.” The 1967 Arab-Israeli War was the result. Rather than wait around to see if Nasser was serious about getting atomic weapons, Israel developed its own deterrent nuclear capacity, pledging never to be the first to introduce nukes in the region. It held fast to its “no first use” policy, even in 1973 when a combined Egyptian-Syrian surprise attack on Yom Kippur threatened its very survival.
Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, the “father” of Israel’s secret nuclear efforts told President Kennedy in 1963 that “Israel would not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East.” Long before the election of Barack Obama, Peres personally told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that Israel would be willing to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty within two years after the establishment of “regional peace.” Peres believes that it was Israel’s unstated but obvious nuclear capabilities that helped set the stage for the Jewish state’s historic peace with Egypt.
President Obama claims to be a “realist” about the Mideast, but his ambiguous policy about Israel and regional deterrence is anything but that. In pursuit of a “new day”, he should stop wasting precious political time and capital debasing the deterrence of democratic Israel. Instead, to stop the volatile region from becoming an armed nuclear camp, President Obama must demonstrate to nervous Arab leaders and the rest of the world that Washington is still “the strong horse” with the will to thwart any form of nuclear blackmail from the tyrants in Tehran.
Abraham Cooper is Associate Dean and Harold Brackman is Senior Researcher at the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
===
Humans Interbred with Neanderthals, Study Suggests
By Clara Moskowitz
Humans today could be part Neanderthal, according to a new study that found our ancestors interbred with an extinct hominid species some millennia ago.
Neanderthals walked the Earth between about 130,000 and 30,000 years ago. While they co-existed with modern humans for a while, eventually they went extinct and we didn't. There has been intense scientific debate over how similar the two species were, and whether they might have mated with each other.
"The issue has been highly contentious for some time," said University of New Mexico genetic anthropologist Keith Hunley.
Last week at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Albuquerque, N.M., Hunley and colleagues presented the results of a new study that found evidence for interbreeding between modern humans and some other extinct ancient human species – either Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) or another group such as Homo heidelbergensis. The research was first reported by NatureNews.
The researchers looked at DNA samples from humans living today, and found signs of leftover Neanderthal genes introduced from this interbreeding. They looked at genetic data from almost 2,000 people around the world, and calculated how much genetic variation existed between samples. The results indicate that some extinct group of hominids mixed their genes with ours at two points in history, Hunley said.One period of interbreeding probably occurred shortly after Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa around 60,000 years ago. The researchers found an excess of genetic diversity in all modern people except Africans, suggesting that the influx of Neanderthal-like DNA came after the exodus from Africa.
A second period of interbreeding is suggested by the fact that the researchers measured even more genetic diversity among people of Oceanic descent – people from Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and other Pacific islands.
"I think we show there's clear evidence in the genome of living people of this mixture," Hunley told LiveScience. "The fact that there's a clear signal implies that there was some significant amount" of interbreeding, he said.
This work is the first time scientists have used DNA from living people to look at this question, Hunley said.
In an earlier study, Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis found suggestions of Neanderthal and modern human interbreeding by comparing ancient bone fossils from the two species.
Trinkaus said the new work fits into his findings, though he hasn't reviewed the details yet since Hunley's paper has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. "The conclusion makes sense and fits with the majority of the data available," Trinkaus said.
Another anthropologist who has studied Neanderthal anatomy agreed.
"I have been arguing for this position throughout my career, ever since I began to study Neandertals and other populations," said Milford Wolpoff of the University of Michigan. "It has always seemed clear that some Neandertal anatomy appears in living populations."
Not everyone, though, will be easily convinced yet, Hunley said.
===
Law invoked to defend what no law should have threatened
Andrew Bolt
An intrusive law is invoked to protect a British clown from an even more intrusive law:
In a victory for skaters, hoodies and owners of oversized trousers everywhere, a teenager has won the right to wear his tracksuit bottoms halfway down his backside.This is spot on:
Ellis Drummond, 18, (above) faced an antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) that included a ban on “wearing trousers so low beneath the waistline that members of the public are able to see his underwear”. It also prohibited him from wearing in public any clothing “with the hood up”.
But the bans were withdrawn after a discussion before a hearing at Bedford Magistrates’ Court on April 27, in which District Judge Nicholas Leigh-Smith said: “Some of the requirements proposed struck me as contrary to the Human Rights Act.” ..
After the conditions were removed, Drummond’s solicitor, Simon Campbell, and Jim Davis, for the prosecution, agreed on the terms for the order, which was imposed after convictions for assault, possession of Class B drugs and theft.
Alex Deane, director of the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said: “The proper punishment for the comically low-riding trousers favoured by some people is that we all think they look like idiots.”UPDATE
Talking about bullies:
Toronto has moved to toughen its idling bylaw, slapping motorists with a $125 ticket if they are caught with engines running for more than a minute in what the city’s medical officer of health acknowledges stems from efforts ‘’to shift people out of cars.’’(Thanks to readers Craig and David.)
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Now first home buyers will pay for Rudd’s grand spending
Andrew Bolt
Six weeks ago, Terry McCrann again warned that Kevin Rudd’s handouts could lure young homebuyers into desperate strife:
(There are) signs of now relatively dormant goods and services inflation starting to stir.Those lures were huge:
Would that hurt especially new home buyers lured into the market by the Government’s first home owners grant at historically low and utterly unsustainable interest rates?
You bet.
The federal government boosted the first home owners grant in October 2008 from $7000 to $21,000 for the construction of new homes, and $14,000 for existing dwellings.The lures were swallowed:
The grant for the enhanced scheme was wound back to $14,000 in October last year for new homes and $10,500 for existing dwellings, and reverted back to $7000 from January 1 this year for both categories.
RBA board members have publically stated they are concerned about the amount of debt being taken on by first-home owners, suggesting the recent official price data could persuade members to vote for a rate rise.The trap was sprung:
ANZ Banking Group Ltd, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), National Australia Bank Ltd and Westpac Banking Corporation Ltd have all raised their standard variable rates in line with the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBAs) 25 basis point rise in the cash rate…The cost to the borrowers of the latest rise:
Meanwhile, the Housing Industry Association (HIA) says higher interest rates will hit homeowners and the property sector hard…
”The RBA has lifted rates six out of the last seven meetings which in combination with non-official rates has seen mortgage rates increase by 160 basis points in just eight months, in contrast with the rest of world which has mostly left rates unchanged.”
A further rate rise of 0.25 per cent would add another $48 to the monthly cost of repaying a $300,000 mortgage, bringing the total extra cost since October to $235 a month.And now:
The director of the real estate agency BresicWhitney, Ivan Bresic, said first-home buyers lacked financial knowledge and many found their government grants had been gobbled up by higher repayments. ‘’While these interest rates were expected they probably weren’t expected in a row so quickly.’’
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Judges insists on the respect they deny the police
Andrew Bolt
I AM sure Sydney magistrate Robbie Williams wouldn’t mind if I called him a prick if I bumped into him on the street.
After all, he’s said he isn’t satisfied a “reasonable person” would be offended by that word in general conversation.
And so he dismissed a charge of offensive language against student Henry Grech, 22, who’d abused Sen-Constable Adam Royds after being caught allegedly jumping the turnstiles at Bondi Junction train station.
“I consider the word prick is of a less derogatory nature than other words and it is in common usage in this country,” Williams ruled.
“Police officers would be used to this type of language,” he added, confusing what an officer could expect with what they should tolerate.
Actually, I’m sure Williams does indeed mind being called a prick, and I do hastily apologise for being so crude.
Please, please forgive me, sir. You are actually famed for your wisdom and humanity, so do not haul me and the editor in for contempt of court or whatever other crime you can find.
You see, magistrates and judges are actually sensitive about how they themselves are to be addressed.
It’s “yes, your worship” and “No, your honour” with them. Stand when they enter the courtroom, and sit when they command. Show respect.
Try a “Yes, you prick” in court and you’ll find that this magnificent tolerance for the abuse of policemen most certainly does not extend to abuse of the man in the horsehair wig.
Which is rather the opposite of what is needed, you’d think.
===
Fall of a weightless man
Andrew Bolt
THREE million Australians have changed their mind about Kevin Rudd in just two years.
The question is: why did they and so many journalists ever rate such a bungling impostor in the first place?
Tuesday’s Newspoll results confirm what senior politicians on both sides have said they’ve sniffed over the past couple of weeks. And yesterday’’s rate rise will seal it.
After a humiliating month of one policy reversal after another, the Prime Minister has been rumbled as a man of no convictions, no courage and no achievements.
Newspoll’s numbers measure his fall. Two years ago, 84 per cent of voters surveyed rated him decisive and strong.
Last weekend, only 63 per cent could say the same - still a flatteringly high figure, but dropping fast.
That, if accurate, means nearly three million voters have changed their opinion. The scales have fallen from their agog eyes.
Now, for the first time in four years, Newspoll puts Labor behind the Coalition, 51 to 49 per cent.
I suspect this exaggerates Labor’s woes - for now. But Labor ministers must soon ask not just whether Rudd is the leader to take them to the next election, but whether more of them can let them kill their careers as he’s already killed those of Penny Wong and Peter Garrett.
I’m not being wise after the event.
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Julia rises
Andrew Bolt
Phillip Hudson stirs the pot:JULIA Gillard has brushed off suggestions she should replace Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister after a dramatic plunge in his approval rating.The Herald Sun, whose top executives were astonished to be subjected to a tirade of foul-mouthed abuse by Rudd after a few drinks, now asks:
As Labor fell behind the Tony Abbott-led Coalition, the popular Deputy PM expressed her full confidence in Mr Rudd.
She laughed off questions about the top job, saying: “Don’t be silly.”
Labor sources said it was difficult to imagine a leadership change before the election, although some MPs have speculated Ms Gillard could take over from Mr Rudd some time in the three years after it.
Would Julia Gillard make a better PM than Kevin Rudd? Vote in our poll ...But Gillard will herself have some questions on competence to answer today:
SIMPLE, single-storey school halls, classrooms and libraries being delivered to public schools under the $16.2 billion stimulus program are costing more than twice as much per square metre as complex city office towers.(Thanks to reader Shelley.) - she is incompetent, except as a failure. She has failed in all of her portfolios. However, her failures are not as bad as Rudd's. - ed.
According to the construction industry guide, Rawlinsons Construction Handbook, single-level primary school buildings should cost $1350 per square metre - between a third and a quarter of the amount public primary schools are being charged.
NSW government costing figures show standard double classrooms are costing taxpayers $4271 a square metre; “14 core” libraries are costing $5400 a square metre; and the public school standard “21 core” canteen is costing a massive $13,306 a square metre.
The revelations come as the federal Auditor-General prepares to release a report today examining the federal Education Department’s handling of the Building the Education Revolution program.
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They’re all Ruddites now
Andrew Bolt
Now Californians cool to the global warming scare, and are set to vote on a plan to shelve their own emissions scheme:
A plan to block a law cutting state greenhouse gas emissions until the economy rebounds looks likely to make the Nov. 2 ballot. Monday, members of the California Jobs Initiative Coalition turned in more than 800,000 signatures of registered voters to qualify — nearly twice the number needed.
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Rudd wobbles on his great new tax
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd’s great new tax plan isn’t great and soon might not be a plan, either:
KEVIN Rudd was last night locked in tense discussions with the nation’s most senior mining executives as industry leaders ratcheted up their campaign against Canberra’s super-profits tax.Watch Martin Ferguson, a man with a mind of his own and little respect for Rudd. If he speaks out, Rudd is all but finished - and already he’s not as noisy in the tax’s defence as Rudd would like:
As a further $7 billion was wiped off the stockmarket value of Australian mining companies and industry doyen Don Argus warned that the new tax flashed an “amber warning light” to global investors, the Prime Minister refused to comment on whether he would revisit the proposed 40 per cent tax on mining company profits.
Mr Rudd said only that he believed the rate was “about right” before attending a private dinner with industry chief executives led by Fortescue Metals Group’s Andrew Forrest, Rio Tinto Iron Ore’s Sam Walsh, BHP Billiton Iron Ore’s Ian Ashby and Woodside Petroleum’s Don Voelte…
The value of Australia’s biggest resources companies has crashed $16bn in the past two days to $320bn amid uncertainty about the impact of the tax on mining industry profits and projects. West Australian iron ore explorer Cape Lambert Resources yesterday announced it would halt its search for minerals in Australia due to the new tax...
Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson today admitted mining companies could put Australian projects on hold while they examined the implications of the 40 per cent tax on so-called super profits.And more:
“I simply say to the resources community, work through the detail with the treasury officials, because a lot of companies have said to me over the past 24 hours that they’re still modelling the potential impact and they’ve got a lot of questions about the detail of how the government’s announcements will actually be implemented,” he told ABC radio.
Federal Resource Minister Martin Ferguson on Tuesday admits to media that many of the industry do not like the idea of tax. He said consultations may run for a year, allowing more time for changes…Samantha Maiden spots yet more hypocrisy from Labor’s frantic spinners:
“We therefore want the companies to model it, to come into the Treasury process to open their books on a confidential basis, and to actually take us through the design issues that may cause them concerns in the transition, especially for existing projects.”
Just a few months ago, Barnaby Joyce was getting hammered as a “right-wing wacko” for, among other things, questioning foreign investment in Australia.MEANWHILE:
Swan said at the time he was living in the stone age, dubbing Joyce “Barnaby Rubble”, as Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner suggested the Nationals senator was “a freak show”.
That’s the Tanner who explained in a 2007 Chiefly Memorial Lecture why we should never retreat into fortress Australia. “The temptation to pander to social prejudice or short-term self-interest is everywhere,” he said. “It reaches out to us every time a specific issue about foreign ownership, refugees, or international law emerges. (But) embracing the world is now a core Labor value, and Kevin Rudd reflects that.”
These days, the Prime Minister is happy to suggest we should tax mining super profits more, partly because Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton aren’t fair dinkum Aussies.
“Big companies like BHP - it’s more than 40 per cent foreign owned; Rio Tinto more than 70 per cent foreign owned,” Rudd said this week. “We believe it’s time for the Australian people . . . to get a fairer share of the natural wealth of this country, which ultimately is owned by all Australians.”
KEVIN Rudd and three of his key ministerial colleagues will be called to front a Senate probe into the government’s botched $2.45 billion home insulation program.UPDATE
The move will be a potential source of embarrassment to the Prime Minister as he tries to divert attention from a string of recent backflips, including a decision not to relaunch the troubled insulation scheme, which have caused a slump in his approval rating.
Swan deplores extreme claims:
Treasurer Wayne Swan has accused the mining industry of making “extreme” claims against the Government’s new super profits tax, as resources stocks continued to fall around the world.But reader Alan RM Jones asks if Swan also deplores his own:
How about this extreme claim: it’s the ”reform of a lifetime”.
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Of all the Muslims, it of course takes the Dutch
Andrew Bolt
They’ve become Dutch enough at least to shop for sex toys. Well, not quite:
It’s not quite the Kama Sutra or The Joy of Sex but it does offer a similar kind of assistance: the first online sex shop for the Islamic world has opened in the Netherlands.(Thanks to reader zbcustom.)
But there is nothing sleazy about ”El Asira” — “Society” in Arabic. Indeed, the website looks positively demure. The home page depicts a street divided by a line; women customers click on the left of the line, men on the right. Inside the shop — navigable in Arabic, English and Dutch — customers can shop for massage oils, cocoa butter lubricants and aphrodisiacs such as Pure Power, a capsule that claims to “heighten male performance, desire and pleasure"…
Another imam, Abdul Jabbar, also said that there was no fundamental objection to selling sexual aids providing that they were not toys and were sold only to married couples.
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It’s Rudd against the baddies after our Unobtainium
Andrew Bolt
Reader Chris:
I’ve been offline for a while but has anyone else noticed the timing of the Governments resource profit tax with the DVD release of Avatar?It all clicks into place when you read the speech of the man who proposed this “super profits tax”.
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“Bigot”: the last shut-up of the cultural vandal
Andrew Bolt
Melanie Phillips finds Americans are fascinated that British PM Gordon Brown callied Gillian Duffy a “bigot” for questioning out-of-control immigration:
In the US, feelings are still inflamed over the way in which Obama waded into the uproar over Arizona’s attempt to crack down on illegal immigration and slammed it as unfair and un-American and likely to usher in a police state. Or something like that. People feel doubly outraged – not just that immigration is out of control, but that those who applaud the attempt to enforce the law and police the boundaries of the nation should be vilified – at least by implication – by the President, no less, for doing so.UPDATE
It seems to me that the issue of immigration is as toxic as it is because it stands proxy fir a profound disdain for the very idea of the nation as a discrete entity bound by a shared culture and set of values and contained within policeable borders. The absurdly utopian and anti-democratic view that, since the nation is the cause of nationalism, and nationalism is the cause of horrible things like bigotry and wars, if the nation gives way to supra-national entities (like continents) there would be no more wars or bigotry and the Brotherhood of Man would finally materialise. Thus the ‘transnational progressivism’ now so in vogue in high-minded circles.
That’s why those who object to mass immigration are doubly demonised, not just as racists but as xenophobes standing in the way of the Brotherhood of Man. And that’s why Mrs Gillian Duffy of Rochdale lit a beacon whose flame has been noticed all the way across the pond.
Bill O’Reilly shows the “bigot” shouters are out in force in the US, too, and are equally ill-informed. Take Michael Moore. And Barack Obama.
(Thanks to readers Giorgio and bennoba.)
UPDATE 2
Here we dodge the “bigot” slur by talking only about resources and global warming, and not about anything to do with culture, values and institutions:
AUSTRALIANS are adopting a “keep them out” attitude toward immigration and population growth not seen since Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party inflamed debate in the late 1990s.And so the Left and Right join hands.
Experts say the outlook is the response to growing concern about key population issues and protection of scarce resources - such as water, housing and electricity - rather than the result of growing racism.
AustraliaScan research asked 2000 people if they believed population growth and immigration levels should be expanded or restricted.
It found that for the first time in more than a decade, attitudes were on par with those when Ms Hanson was at the height of her popularity.
Social analyst David Chalke said the driving force behind this was not “old fashioned xenophobia”, but fears about a lack of resources.
“There’s a massive contradiction between what politicians have told us for the past five years - that we need to use less water, reduce our carbon footprint ... we’re now saying, ‘how can we do that if we’re adding people?’
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On not quoting Deveny in her defence
Andrew Bolt
Jonathan Green, editor of the ABC’s The Drum, blames me in large part for Catherine Deveny’s sacking. But note two characteristic and troubling evasions:
Even as I write this The Age website is spruiking its story on the sacking of columnist Catherine Deveny and the attendant controversy…Let’s ignore the fact that my contribution to this “heated kerfuffle drummed up by the usual suspects” was limited, pre sacking, to a single blog item written yesterday afternoon when the outrage was already bubbling in The Age’s own pages. In that item I did not call for Deveny’s sacking.
The backstory for any of you who just walked in, is that non-contracted weekly The Age columnist Deveny was dumped yesterday by The Age’s editor in chief Paul Ramadge, not because of anything she wrote for the paper, but because of some off-colour gags she sent out on Twitter during Sunday night’s Logie broadcast… (He) seems now to have set a benchmark: make any sort or reference to the potential sexual proclivities of Bindi Irwin and you are out…
Ramadge was of course a bit slow out of the blocks on this one, giving Deveny the flick only yesterday, not in a heated phone call on Sunday night just before the silver Logie for best supporting presenter in a rural light entertainment docudrama. He thus gives the appearance of acting not as an immediate response to the Sunday night tweets (would Bindi get “laid” would Rove’s new partner “die” etc) but rather in response to the heated kerfuffle drummed up by the usual stern guardians of media probity: Andrew Bolt, Neil Mitchell, A Current Affair and Today Tonight. All of whom have been in a lather for the past 48 hours.
All of which presents the unfortunate impression of The Age, a once fearless champion of journalistic diversity, caving to the sort of hypocritical, faux indignant cant that propels trash talk radio and tabloid TV.
But in saying that, we’re brought to Green’s first evasion. Many Age readers - and its editor, too - have actually shared my disgust with Deveny’s comments, despite being as of the Left as Green would prefer, and I’ve yet to see anyone other than Deveny herself defend what she specifically said of 11-year-old Bindi Irwin, of or Rove McManus’s wife, for that matter.
The fact is that the prime author of her downfall is Deveny herself. She sought fame and wealth through shocking people, and cannot now complain at finding people genuinely shocked and her services no longer required. Indeed, if there wasn’t an edge beyond which lay disaster, no comedian such as Deveny would be able to profit by testing where it lay. They’d be merely pretending to be teetering on the painted edge of a fake volcano, and where’s the daring in that?
As for my own role in this, I criticise many things about and in The Age, but never has its editor shown any sign of taking notice. I rather suspect, then, that what made Ramage sack Deveny was above anything else, his own judgment on what she herself had done. Deveny set out to shock, Ramage was shocked, transaction complete.
None of this is properly acknowledged by Green. Indeed, rather than blame Deveny for yet one more catastrophic lapse of taste, he claims that any disgust at her comments cannot be honestly felt - or, as he puts it, is mere “hypocritical, faux indignant cant”. The most damning thing he can say himself is that Deveny told “off-colour gags” - in which category, I guess, you’d put Benny Hill sketches and some knock-knock jokes. Harmless, cheeky stuff like that.
That brings me to Green’s second evasion. As you may have noticed by now, not once has Green actually repeated in full what Deveny notoriously tweeted on Logies night. Not once has he repeated the phrase that, on top of all she’d perpetrated before, finally got her sacked.
This evasion is astonishingly common among those of the more barbaric Left now howling at the alleged injustice of Deveny’s sacking. Check the pro-Deveny cries of rage from Ben Pobjie, Sophie Cunningham, Crikey and Amy Gray. Green at least mentions the word “laid” in a paraphrase; these others do not do even that.
Not one of them quotes what Deveny actually tweeted that night, the worst of which was this, of a demure 11-year-old girl at the Logies with her mum:
I do so hope Bindi Irwin gets laidI suspect there is a reason none of these defenders of Deveny quoted the words which were the immediate cause of her sacking. It’s that almost anyone with a skerrick of moral sense who read them would instinctively know Deveny did indeed cross a line, and that any revulsion at her foul jeering was quite likely to be genuine. Indeed, what most likely to be “faux” is a Greenish reaction of sophisticated nonchalance. He is a father, after all, and cannot be so dead to disgust.
Had they quoted Deveny’s words, then the bitter cries by these barbarians - most notably, but the other side is just as bad, or even worse - would also stand exposed to the sane as utterly hollow. I see most are complaining that if Deveny is to be sacked, then so must I be. But had I sent such a tweet or email to my readers as Deveny did to hers, not long after calling Anzacs racists, rival broadcasters c...ts and accusing a senior MP of having the “face of a rapist”, I guarantee I would almost surely be hounded out of my job, too, and by some of these very same people now defending Deveny. Or had someone else on my “side” said anything so vile, is it remotely likely I’d have let it slide as a mere joke? A bit of what people expect?
Of course, my question must remain merely rhetorical, since “jokes” of Deveny’s fist-in-the-kid’s-face kind are rarely told by conservatives, who are more inclined to protect standards than kick them.
All that said, there are indeed some troubling questions raised by Deveny’s sacking, and some defences which may be made of her. They do not include the charge of “hypocrisy” or “faux outrage”, and do not outweigh, in my view, the need for The Age to sack a woman it’s so long exploited, and so recklessly.
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The man who wrecked our markets
Andrew Bolt
Charlie Aitken, executive director of Southern Cross Equities, sends his clients this impassioned newsletter. There’s plenty more where that came from, all of it worth reading and available on a free trial. But this extract is perhaps the most sobering:
In the US, the Wall Street Journal is just as astonished:
Australia is the only developed country that didn’t have a technical recession after the global financial crisis, mostly because its mining sector kept feeding China’s economic boom. Now, the Labor Party government has decided all that wealth creation was a bad thing, and it’s time to levy a 40% “super-profits” tax on these companies and redistribute the money…UPDATE
This economic thinking runs counter to everything that made Australia rich over the last three decades: namely, the embrace of competition and capitalism, which rewards high risk with high returns. Setting up a mining company is not akin to opening a restaurant. Companies invest billions of dollars in exploration, build infrastructure to bring their products to a port, and then have to compete in a global marketplace and deal with volatile prices for their goods…
The truth is that all windfall taxes, however they are dressed up and sold by politicians, are arbitrary and economically damaging. BHP Billiton estimates the “super-profits” tax would raise its total effective tax rate to about 57% from 43%, making Australia one of the most burdensome places to mine in the world. The increased tax burden would reduce profitability, discourage future investment and restrict companies’ ability to return cash to shareholders through dividends.
Peter Foster of Canada’s National Post has seen this craziness before:
While this doesn’t exactly rank with Canada’s infamous 1980 National Energy Program, which not only hoisted taxes but also set prices and sought to promote Canadian ownership, it comes into the same category of no-consultation, populist, them-and-us, grab-the-windfall, damn-the-consequences political grandstanding.And the Canadian Government is gloating:
If one were to seek a more recent Canadian parallel, it would be Alberta premier Ed Stelmach’s hoisting of petroleum royalty rates three years ago in the name of “fairness.” We all know what happened next. Investment went elsewhere, the province was hit particularly hard by a drop in oil and gas prices, and two months ago Mr. Stelmach was forced to reverse the decision, thus further imperiling his own tenuous political future.
Behind an appeal to “soak the fat cats,” Mr. Rudd’s move is a naked tax grab on behalf of a cash-strapped government.
AUSTRALIA’S proposed new tax on its resources industry could be a huge competitive advantage for Canada, according to that country’s finance minister, Jim Flaherty.(Thanks to readers Alan RM Jones, David, Pat, Andy and Lee. No link to Aitken’s newsletter.)
Mr Flaherty noted that Canada had been reducing its corporate tax rate, and corporations in most of Canada would face a combined 25 per cent tax rate by 2012.
He said the “easiest thing” for a politician to do is raise taxes, which immediately increases revenues, but limits growth.
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Big Brother has a satellite right over your house
Andrew Bolt
I suspect the state of Pennsylvania’s latest ad to catch tax cheats may actually make its citizens worry more about the people in charge.
(Thanks to reader Andy.)
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