=== Todays Toon ===
CONVICTION TRUMPS RHETORIC EVERY TIMEMany commentators and people in general are asking the question "when is this resources super tax issue going to end?"....and rightfully so. Well, I am sure that this is a question that Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd and Treasurer, Wayne Swan never really thought that they would be dealing with now, but are asking themselves it on an hourly basis. This new super profits tax, that will destroy any chances that the Howard battlers had of getting ahead, is in my opinion, the nail in the coffin for Rudd's reign in the Lodge. - ZEG
=== Bible Quote ===
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.”- Psalm 19:1-2=== Headlines ===
Kevin Rudd a dead PM walking
SENIOR Labor MPs says the leadership is Julia Gillard's for the taking before the election - if she wants it. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's control of the party has entered a treacherous phase, with Cabinet ministers and backbenchers canvassing the idea of changing leaders before this year's federal election. As Ms Gillard was forced yesterday to publicly deny she wanted the top job, Labor MPs described Mr Rudd as a "leader under fire" and said his prime ministership was "terminal". Senior Labor sources said Ms Gillard has always had the numbers to seize the leadership, but not necessarily the will to challenge for the top job. "She would get it pretty easily right now, but I don't think she wants it," the source said. - it is a poison chalice, whomever has the job come election will lose. Gillard would rather wait, and use the loss to claim renewal. In fact, she'll also be an abysmal leader. - ed.
After helping lead candidates in other states to unexpected victories, former President Bill Clinton takes aim at Republican nominee Sharron Angle in Nevada, to help vulnerable Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.Obama Gives Brits Oil Pass
President tells British PM David Cameron no hard feelings on BP disaster after lashing out at Congress, Tea Partiers
Body Found in Hunt for Flood Survivors
Death toll rises as Arkansas officials search for dozens still missing after flash floods hit campgrounds
Primary Opponent Calls for Investigation
Presumptive Dem nominee in South Carolina's Senate race demands probe into Alvin Greene's mysterious victory
Andrew Johns resigns as assistant coach of NSW's Origin side after racially taunting Aboriginal superstar Greg Inglis.I want a second go at record, says Abby
RESCUED teen sailor vows to take on high seas again as she lashes out at her media critics.
Secret that almost killed Harry Kewell
SOCCEROO nearly died from a rare blood disorder that has plagued his career since 2002.
Video nasty of dad cheering teen fight
FATHER refereed after-school punch-up in park between his son and another teenage boy.
MasterChef judge in battle of the bulge
MATT Preston sparks legal fight over plans to be the new face of weight loss giant Jenny Craig.
Baby scandal nurse unfairly sacked
HOSPITAL criticised for dismissing nursing manager who gave colleague persmission to leave baby in care of stranger at airport.
Clover's two-day reno DA
RESIDENTS who wait months DAs are wondering how Lord Mayor Clover Moore's took a few weeks.
Star's anger as Labor puts on the red light
POP superstar Sting is said to be furious he has been caught in a brawl between the State Government and one of Australia's biggest promoters. The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that the Keneally government has rejected 11th- hour attempts to resuscitate a cancelled New Year's Eve concert at which Sting was to have performed before more than 40,000 fans at Glebe Island, headlining a seven-day extravaganza including INXS and Natalie Imbruglia, and culminating in a concert by US glam-rockers KISS. The event was cancelled because of concerns about transport chaos, with Events Minister Kevin Greene saying Melbourne was welcome to the concert. Mr Greene said: "There's enough going on in Sydney on New Year's Eve for everyone ... so if Melbourne wants some reflected glory by holding a Sting concert, then they can have it."
$2b blackhole uncovered in Kristina Keneally's 'miracle' budget
A $2 BILLION blackhole has been uncovered in the miracle back-to-surplus Budget delivered by the NSW Government. Leading economists have warned the Government's $773 million election year Budget surplus is in danger of collapse given Labor's dismal record of broken promises to rein in government spending. The Government's economic credibility came under attack after an analysis by The Sunday Telegraph revealed Labor had consistently failed to meet its expenditure targets for a decade - and yet predicts it will hold spending growth to just 2.7 per cent in 2010/11 in last Tuesday's Budget. This forecast is way below the average increase in spending for the previous four years of 6.6 per cent per year - and much lower than in any year since 2000. If this average increase in spending occurred again next year, with no change in revenue, the surplus predicted by Treasurer Eric Roozendaal for an election year would be wiped out and the budget would record a $2 billion deficit.
Lin family murder: Police raid in-laws
POLICE investigating the horrific murder of the Lin family have raided the home of the family's in-laws, seizing garage tools, clothing and furniture during a five-day search of the house. The Sunday Telegraph can reveal strike force officers spent almost a week combing through the North Epping house of husband-and-wife Robert Xie and Kathy Lin - victim Lilly Lin's sister - between May 10 and May 14. The property is a short distance from the Boundary Rd house where Yun Li "Lilly" Lin, her newsagent husband Min Lin, their sons, Henry, 12, and Terry, nine, and the boys' aunt were bludgeoned to death on July 18 last year. The search is one of a series of dramatic developments in the case that have been kept out of the public spotlight by police and family members. They include revelations that Lilly Lin had previously been married to another man. Police are refusing to say if they have spoken to her ex-husband.
=== Comments ===
Labor members are ready to dump RuddPiers Akerman
EITHER Kevin Rudd is finished or the Labor Government he leads is for the chop, according to some of the most senior voices in the federal ALP caucus. - Rudd has very good advisers, well had. He didn’t listen to them because they didn’t respect his position. He basically wants an election slush fund, when the Super Tax popped up, he thought it better than the ETS, and so ditched the ETS to be popular. Sadly he didn’t look popular, but he might still have a re election revenue stream. Unless the ALP, out of an act for self preservation, knife him before the election.
That unpleasant smell coming from the ALP is fear. They don’t know if they should knife Rudd now and then get wiped out at election, or go to election, get wiped out, and then knife Rudd. Maybe an early election would be better, as the longer they wait the more their supporters will desert them. Knifing Rudd first is state wisdom, and worked for NSW, WA, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria a few times. But federal wisdom is to make important changes after the election so as to hide the fact one is lying to the electorate. In some ways, Rudd is like wheat. He bends with the wind.In other ways, wheat is much better, being wholesome and reliable as a food source. I feel I must defend Gillard here. She would not be worse than Rudd. She might be better. But she wouldn’t be competent. She has failed abysmally all on her own. She just isn’t as bad as Rudd. - ed
- Ivan Denisovich replied- If you put aside the current failures, you begin to look at other failures in the making. Gillard has bungled IR and every other portfolio she has held. Swan is looking bad for trying to ruin the economy before the GFC, and being spineless when the GFC arrived, and for doing mates deals with cars for patronage. Tanner has defended the garbage and added nothing, he went to his happy place when he got asked hard questions, and kept blaming the opposition for the inept government.
Gillard is massively overrated, especially by many in the media for whom the fact that she is from the far left and a woman is what really counts. She has a substantial record of failure (BER etc), kooky schemes (the author of Medicare Gold) and poor judgement (a key backer of both Latham and Rudd, flawed characters unsuitable for high office). The more damaged Rudd looks the more pressure will be applied to the BER Investigation Taskforce by Labor heavyweights to whitewash the BER rorts scandal and absolve Gillard as far as is practicable.
I wouldn’t hold out much hope that a Gillard government would prove to be significantly better than the Rudd one. Firsty, Gillard has been part of the Gang of Four that has making the key Rudd Govt decisions. Secondly, it’s not just Rudd that is the problem, it’s the Labor template. This is the State Labor Governments’ modus operandi transposed onto the Federal stage. It was always on the cards that the Rudd Govt would prove to be as hopeless as the NSW Labor Govt. And changing a useless, spin addicted Premier like Peter Beattie for a woman from the left of the party in Anna Bligh certainly hasn’t improved Queensland’s situation, so why would anyone be entitled to believe that changing leaders from Rudd to Gillard would prove any less disappointing.
Putting them aside, you still have the likes of Ferguson and other failures who did nothing while Rome burned.
But then you have the new trash, like Jason Clare, who cannot even represent his constituents when they approach him over important matters. He is recognized as being PM material, but only by those who admire the suit and ignore the man. - ed
===
The Other Side of Jihad -- Honor Killings
By Phyllis Chesler
We usually associate jihadic warriors with fiery, anti-American and anti-Israeli sermons and with homicide bombings and airplane hijackings. We don’t think of jihadists as homebodies or in terms of their family relationships.
But we should.
Islamic fundamentalism (Islamism) is associated both with terrorism—and with Islamic gender apartheid. Thus, Islamists demand that their women shroud themselves, marry their first cousins, serve their brothers and father as domestic servants, keep quiet about routine daughter--and wife--battering, and keep away from infidel influences.
If they don't, they risk being honor murdered.
Not all Muslims are Islamists. Many are anti-Islamists, dissidents, moderates, secular, or apostates. I know, because I work with such people. (more at the link)
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NATURALLY
Tim Blair
An environmental conflict ends in a Green error.
===
SELECTIVE SWEARING
Tim Blair
Claire Harvey on the Prime Minister’s sweariness:
Kevin Rudd is surrounded by c**** and everything is f*****. Let me explain. I don’t mean the Prime Minister is making mistakes, or that his government is hopeless.Well, not quite, as Claire explains:
I mean he has a potty mouth. He swears all the time, about everything, no matter whom he’s addressing.
A few months ago, I spent a day trailing Rudd around Brisbane.This is the behaviour of a child. By all means, Kev, swear as much as you like. But tactical swearing to impress people? Give us a f****** break.
We had a long interview on the Royal Australian Air Force jet during a flight back to Sydney.
Repeatedly, although I had two tape recorders running and was taking shorthand in my notebook, Rudd interrupted his own long, circuitous sentences to say something amusingly direct and clear.
Each time, it was expressed in profane terms. Sometimes, he strung several swear words together.
And each time he used a rude word, he prefaced it with “off the record” …
He was simply swearing for the sake of it, as if to let me know that he was a hard man who knows how to swear.
===
Disendorse him
Andrew Bolt
Malcolm Turnbull is talking of his own leader, too, and in an election year - when the Liberals are at last recovering from his own disaster turn at the top:
Former federal Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull has accused Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of being a coward on the issue of climate change.Great speech - for a Green. In what possible way did it help the Liberals, though? Once again Turnbull demonstrates his belief that the Liberals are only worth voting for if he’s the leader. Ditto for Labor. - he is merely filling the vacuum left by Fraser's leaving. He isn't credible as a leader anymore -ed.
Mr Turnbull presented last night’s Deakin Lecture on climate change in Melbourne and told the gathering Mr Rudd’s about-face on the issue is extraordinary and a let-down to the community.
“Right now we have every resource available to us to meet the challenge of climate change except for one, and that is leadership,” Mr Turnbull said.
”Our efforts to deal with climate change have been betrayed by a lack of leadership, a political cowardice, the likes of which I have never seen in my lifetime.”
===
Rudd throws away another half a billion
Andrew Bolt
Rudd squanders another $469 million, in the name of a myth and in pursuit of the UN’s worthless praise:
Rich and poor nations alike criticized a new blueprint for a U.N. climate treaty on Friday as two weeks of talks among 185 countries ended with small steps towards an elusive deal…Er, how much exactly? And entrusted to whose hot little hands?
The new draft text keeps some elements of the Copenhagen Accord, including a plan for aid to developing nations of $10 billion a year from 2010 to 2012, rising to more than $100 billion from 2020.
Australian delegate Robert Owen-Jones announced in Bonn that Canberra was contributing 559 million Australian dollars ($469 million) to the 2010-12 funds.
(Thanks to reader John.)
===
Green folly
Andrew Bolt
Dynastykid89, avoiding any nasty brawl over broadcasting rights, restages the blunder that cost England two points. Feel for a goalie whose one error will define his career. Meanwhile, video of the dreadful moment is here for as long as it lasts.
===
The seeming Prime Minister
Andrew Bolt
Claire Harvey on the most offensive thing about Kevin Rudd’s swearing:
A few months ago, I spent a day trailing Rudd around Brisbane.As I’ve said so often, this is a deeply insecure man, which explains his manic need to assert himself - and his even more manic obsession with seeming, above doing. But you’ve seen that in his policies, too.
We had a long interview on the Royal Australian Air Force jet during a flight back to Sydney.
Repeatedly, although I had two tape recorders running and was taking shorthand in my notebook, Rudd interrupted his own long, circuitous sentences to say something amusingly direct and clear.
Each time, it was expressed in profane terms. Sometimes, he strung several swear words together. And each time he used a rude word, he prefaced it with “off the record” …
He was simply swearing for the sake of it, as if to let me know that he was a hard man who knows how to swear.
===
Obama walks on oil
Andrew Bolt
Obama has flapped around while an oil slick eight times greater than than of the Exxon Valdez laps his country’s coast. But, as so often, the green groups defend a side rather than a principle:
As the greatest environmental catastrophe in U.S. history has played out on Obama’s watch, the environmental movement has essentially given him a pass — all but refusing to unleash any vocal criticism against the president even as the public has grown more frustrated by Obama’s performance.Politico calls it:
About a dozen environmental groups took out a full page ad in the Washington Post Tuesday — not to fault Obama over the ecological catastrophe but to thank him for putting on hold an Alaska drilling project. “We deeply appreciate your decision. ...” the ad says to Obama.
Some say there’s little doubt that if a spill like the one in the Gulf took place on former President George W. Bush’s watch, environmental groups would have unleashed an unsparing fury on the Republican in the White House. For their liberal ally, Obama, they seem willing to hold their tongues.
“These guys have bet the farm on this administration,” said Ted Nordhaus, chairman of an environmental think tank, the Breakthrough Institute. “There has been a real hesitancy to criticize this administration out of a sense that they’re kind of the only game in town. … These guys are so beholden to this administration to move their agenda that I think they’re unwilling to criticize them.”
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Poland arrests “Mossad agent”
Andrew Bolt
Mossad, like the Israeli army in southern Lebanon in 2006, seems dangerously flabby and error-prone - and Israel itself seems without many friends:
An alleged Mossad spy from Israel wanted in connection with the hit-squad slaying of a Hamas agent in Dubai has been arrested in Poland, officials said Saturday.UPDATE
The man, using the name Uri Brodsky, is suspected of working for Mossad in Germany and helping to issue a fake German passport to a member of the Mossad operation that allegedly killed Hamas agent Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January, a spokesman for the German federal prosecutor’s office told The Associated Press.
Brodsky was arrested in early June upon his arrival in Poland because of a European arrest warrant issued by Germany which is now seeking his extradition, the spokesman said, declining to be named in line with department policy.
More hostile action - this time against a parody that went viral on the Internet after branding the Mavi Marmara the Islamist stunt that it was:
As Israel went offline for the Jewish sabbath, YouTube removed most versions of Latma’s hit parody song We Con the World. If you try to access the song on YouTube you receive the notification:Hot Air, thankfully, has preserved the version above, and adds:This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Warner/ Chappell Music, Inc.Copyright experts we advised with before posting the song told us in no uncertain terms that we were within our rights to use the song because we did so in accordance with the Fair Use Doctrine. The Fair Use Doctrine, copied and pasted below from the US Copyright Office stipulates that it is legal and permissible to use copyrighted material under the fair use doctrine for purposes of parody.
...it’s not the first time that YouTube has come down against the Israeli side in its editorial decisions. In 2008, the service removed several IDF videos of their actions in Gaza when Israel attempted to bypass what it sees as a hostile global media. After an outcry, YouTube restored the videos but labeled them as potentially “inappropriate.”It says so much: free speech and Israel’s free society both under attack.
UPDATE 2
Reader Elena hopes this satire won’t offend YouTube, too.
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Principles first
Andrew Bolt
A brave stand by Tahu:
Andrew Johns has quit as assistant coach of New South Wales Origin side amid a racism furore that saw winger Timana Tahu storm out of camp…(Thanks to reader bleary.)
In a statement released by the NSWRL , Johns said: “Two nights ago while trying to talk up the match I made a disparaging comment about a member of the other team and in the process of that I referred to the colour of his skin...”
In a statement released by the NSW Blues, Tahu said:"Joey said something which he thought was just some banter amongst the boys that I took offence to.
“It is something I feel strongly about. To sacrifice my NSW Origin jumper and to give up the chance of bringing the trophy back to NSW is obviously something I gave a lot of thought to.
“But I felt I had to make a statement that this sort of behaviour in any environment is unacceptable and, as a senior player, I had to show that.
“The fact that it came from someone on the coaching staff that is highly respected in the game and has such influence in rugby league, and someone I have known for a long time, made it more hurtful...”
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Two more “stopped”
Andrew Bolt
Define “stopped”:
TWO vessels carrying a combined 110 asylum seekers and nine crew have been stopped by the Royal Australian Navy off WA’s far-north coast.(Thanks to readers CA, frank and slowlearner.)
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