=== Todays Toon ===
Compromise or capitulation? Gillard’s mining backdown
=== Bible Quote ===
“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”- Romans 12:3=== Headlines ===
In Worst-Case Estimate, Gulf Oil Spill Is Worst in History
The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest peacetime oil spill ever, based on the highest of the federal government's estimates, emphasizing BP's dire need to stop the gusher.Welfare Cash Available at Strip Clubs?
California scramble to reform welfare benefits policy, after recipients were able to access taxpayer cash at strip clubs' ATMs across the state
Google Unveils Gay-Only Benefits
New policy raises eyebrows after the company reveals it will be compensating employees to cover taxes paid on their domestic partners' health benefits, but only if they're gay
Arizona's Newest Legal Foe: Mexico
Mexico gets to have a say in one of the lawsuits challenging Arizona's controversial immigration enforcement law, judge rules
Mining shares lift on tax retreat
THE Government's decision to cut the resources tax to 30 per cent has boosted mining shares.
Man forced wife to choose her death
A MAN who made his estranged wife take a drug overdose will spend less than a year in prisonEmail exposing sleazy worker goes viral
BARCLAYS PA faces sack after writing that worker was "sleeping his way round the secretaries".
iPhone 4 buyers sue Apple over reception
"JUST don't hold it that way," said Steve Jobs of the iPhone's signal problems. Customers didn't buy it.
Keyboard Cat rubs animal lover the wrong way
THE advertising watchdog receives many complaints from the public. Some are justified, some are questionable. Some are a bit ridiculous. Telstra has been forced to defend the treatment of a pet cat in a video filmed more than 20 years ago that it featured in one of its TV ads. The company decided to include the popular "Keyboard Cat" video clip in one of its ads for the T-Hub phone earlier this year. The YouTube video, which has been viewed more than 8 million times, shows Fatso the cat appearing to play a simple melody on a keyboard. But while he might delight bloggers, Fatso has rubbed at least one TV viewer the wrong way. After seeing Telstra's ad, one animal lover made an official complaint to the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) alleging that it was cruel. "The cat is clearly being forced to play this piano does not appear to be comfortable and quite frankly I think it's cruel to depict a living animal being treated like a puppet," said the complainant. Telstra disputed the allegation, saying Fatso appeared to be "at ease" and "laid back". The company added: "It is very difficult to make a cat do anything it does not like without an obvious struggle."
Gibson accused of jaw-dropping tirade
YOU won't believe what Gibson reportedly said to his ex when he saw what she was wearing.
Cops 'find missing backpacker's passport'
AIR, sea and land search resumes for Estonian backpacker who went missing from Sydney's coast.
Skyrocketing rates bleed you dry
STRUGGLING householders now have another costly burden to bear - higher rates.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Country Singer Phil VassarLet freedom sing! Country singer Phil Vassar kicks off the Fourth of July and performs one of his mega hits!
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The Immigration War!
Arizona has been on the firing line. Now, Governor Jan Brewer responds to Obama's address on this critical issue! She goes "On the Record"!
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Founders' Friday: Women of the Revolution
Independence Day is this weekend and what better way to celebrate our nation's birthday than to remember the women who played a critical role in the founding of our country?
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On Fox News Insider
Obama Toughens Stance on ImmigrationCBO Reports Skyrocketing Debt
Yet Another Biden Gaffe?
=== Comments ===
The hair apparent or just a pretender?Piers Akerman
WOMEN friends say they knew Julia Gillard would topple Kevin Rudd when she had her hair newly coloured.
Julia, they said, was playing the role made famous by Reese Witherspoon in the hit movie Legally Blonde.
Without giving away too much of the plot, it does hang on a woman’s natural concern for her new perm.
That was last week, though.
Subsequently the women’s magazines and Sunday lifestyle sections are still making much of the new Prime Minister’s sense of fashion (or lack of it) and sending packs of reporters to the Victorian fruit-packing town of Shepparton to research the background of First Bloke Tim Mathieson.
Meanwhile, the rest of the nation is left wondering whether the difference between the current PM and her dumped predecessor is simply one of style - or if Labor’s shift heralds a genuine change of policy direction.
Gillard has said she rolled Rudd because the Government had lost direction and needed to get back on track.
She has said the nation will go to an election this year.
Labor’s apparatchiks are heavily hinting that the election will be sooner rather than later - that is to say, August rather than early October.
That doesn’t leave the Gillard Government a lot of time to define itself, if it can, as something other than a chapter-two extension of the Rudd government.
To accomplish this, Gillard needs to say where and when the administration of which she was deputy leader jumped the rails.
Just as importantly, Gillard must explain why she apparently did nothing to stop the train wreck while it was in progress - and when she saw the warning signs.
Gillard has admitted to being part of the Gang of Four responsible for running the nation under Rudd. In her role, it’s an admission she could scarcely avoid.
As well, Gillard has accepted some responsibility for some failed policies.
But this isn’t enough.
As deputy prime minister and acting prime minister - frequently, during Rudd’s constant overseas trips - Gillard must accept almost equal responsibility for everything the Rudd government did over the past three years.
Next week, just a fortnight into her prime ministership, Gillard will be forced to address one of the biggest issues dividing Australians, the treatment of irregular maritime arrivals (IMAs), when its three-month suspension of visa applications for Sri Lankan boat people expires.
The short odds are that Gillard will simply extend the suspension, perhaps adding another three months.
This would bring expiration for Sri Lankans to the same point as the current six-month suspension for Afghan IMAs.
Conveniently, an extension would also place the problem beyond the election deadline Gillard has set herself.
That’s not dealing with the problem, however. It’s just putting it off and hoping no one will notice - just as the Rudd administration reopened the old Curtin detention centre in northwest Western Australia in a bid to house refugees without dealing with the reason they are arriving in the first place.
The detention centre on Christmas Island is full with about 2500 inmates.
Immigration authorities are having to make do, shoving people into an old mining camp at Leonora in remote WA, and spreading others into suburban locations throughout South Australia, Queensland, NSW, Victoria and the Northern Territory.
With so many different sites now in operation, the department is blowing out its budget simply providing such essentials as food.
Beyond that, consider the massive cost of basic services such as translators, health providers, communications staff and others needed to care for the IMAs.
Having given a major dog whistle to western Sydney and western Melbourne on refugees with her announced concern about “the sanctuary” Australia provides for those who call it home, Gillard needs to spell out a detailed policy that will reassure the electorate and also permit the department to function efficiently.
Closer to home is Gillard’s own failure to rein in the waste in the $16.2 billion BER school stimulus package and her attempt to protect it from scrutiny by appointing business figure Brad Orgill to report after the upcoming federal election.
Like the Government’s failed home insulation scheme - which has seen nearly 200 homes either burnt down or placed at serious risk - the BER demonstrated the Rudd government’s total lack of managerial skills. The crisis talks on the Government’s proposed super tax on mining need to come to an acceptable resolution but again serve to illustrate the amateur approach taken to running the nation by Rudd, Gillard, Treasurer and now Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan, and Finance minister Lindsay Tanner.
Whatever Gillard, Swan and Tanner may now say, it is an indisputable fact that the Budget brought down in May relied on the introduction of its Resource Super Profits Tax (RSPT) from July 1, 2012, to bring the nation back into the black after Labor’s prodigious spending spree since the party was elected in 2007.
As Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce recently pointed out, the gross national debt when the Rudd government came to office was $59 billion. It is now $147 billion.
In 935 days the Government spent $88 billion - a new record for Australian governments, a rate of spending of $95 million a day, which is forecast this financial year to rise to $150 million a day.
These are the big issues, but Gillard is still playing the media and keeping the attention on her living arrangements in Altona, where her security detail appears to be monitoring security matters from a rundown caravan parked on a neighbouring block while both the Lodge and Kirribilli House stand fully equipped and staffed at taxpayers’ expense awaiting her presence.
Gillard and her fellow plotters toppled an Australian prime minister in his first term of office because (they claim) they perceived there was a national emergency.
It is now dramatically apparent that they acted because there was a political emergency.
We are now one week into the biggest political upheaval in the country since 1975, yet Gillard and her team are talking it down and offering distractions out of the Hawker Britton handbook, not substantive policy change.
The gesture of placing Humphrey B. Bear in the prime ministerial office is as calculated as it may have been cute, but it doesn’t detract from the notion that Gillard has only managed to make her new digs look like rented space in an airport development.
Flying around the nation with a sense of urgency is meaningless unless something meaningful is also being done, and to date, there is no evidence that Gillard considers the national good to be as important as the political success of the ALP. - Excellent points, Piers, but thte most telling one is this .. it is too late for Gillard. She had her chance when she staged the coup, and could have made the necessary changes at that time. She hesitated. She got confused with the favorable polls. She forgot she needed to give a reason for why she staged the coup.
Rudd was not merely unpopular, he was the worst PM to date. But Gillard may not be better, just different. She won’t humiliate airline hostesses by swearing like a spoiled child, but she won’t do anything worthwhile also. She is not only defending her reputation, not building it, she has to defend herself against the real power brokers in the ALP who turned on Rudd. The timing is wrong for her to capitalize on the honeymoon .. if the election were tomorrow it would be ok, but it has to be weeks away from the designated time, and the fact she has no policy because her masters won’t let her will have sunk in by then. And if she delays it will get worse.
It isn’t that Gillard is a bad person. I am a Christian and she is an atheist, but I believe I could make similar political decisions if I were required to, religion plays a factor for me, but not in the way my detractors would suggest, and at the end of the day the loss her atheism poses is only for the impressionable ones who are mislead. Gillard, like Rudd is the same person .. self centered and powerless. Unable to set their own agenda and wanting to stamp their authority. I only wish to serve .. they wish to be served .. the fools.
Gillard failed me over the issue of Hamidur Rahman. She failed to stand up for important issues when she could have. She took out Rudd, but she replaced him as a policy free zone too. Her mining policy is to claim that “All of that is mine.” Now she is only good for a photo shoot. - ed.
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Scientists Find Genes for Extremely Long Life
By Rachael Rettner
Reaching immortality is still in the realm of science fiction. But using clues from our genes, scientists are one step closer to understanding why some of us live to be centenarians while others don't.
Using a specific set of genetic markers, scientists predicted with 77-percent accuracy whether someone would live to a very old age.
The findings do not mean that lifestyle factors, such as healthy diet and exercise, are not important for long life. Indeed, 23 percent of the time the genetic markers didn't predict longevity. So those long-lifers without the centenarian genes might have practiced healthy habits that allowed them to lead a longer life. [Learn more facts about centenarians]But they do suggest our genes play an important role when it comes to living well past the average lifespan. With more research, one day people might be able to determine whether they have the genetic potential to become a centenarian.
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Is There Trouble Brewing Between the Clintons and President Obama?
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT FROM "THE O'REILLY FACTOR," JUNE 30, 2010. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
Watch "THE O'REILLY FACTOR" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET!
LAURA INGRAHAM, GUEST HOST: In the "Unresolved Problem" segment tonight: Is there trouble brewing between the Clintons and President Obama?
In a surprise move, Bill Clinton endorsed an underdog in a Colorado Senate primary race, directly opposing the White House's handpicked candidate. Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs was asked about it yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bill Clinton has apparently endorsed Andrew Romanoff in the Colorado Democratic primary. How do you respond to that? Are you amused, dismayed, infuriated?
ROBERT GIBBS: Are those -- D, none of the above.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: So what's going on here? Joining us now from New York, Fox News contributor Dick Morris, the author of the book "2010: Take Back America."
Now Dick, I have this view that Bill Clinton is enjoying every minute of his new status as the political savior in race after race. And this Colorado story is just one of my favorites of the last couple of weeks. Tell us about it.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE SEGMENT!
DICK MORRIS: Well, I think he is enjoying it, but I think this is not motivated by that. I think it's a carefully choreographed move pas de deux of Hillary and Bill to put a little bit of daylight between themselves and Obama.
You have Bill's endorsement of Romanoff. And after all, the administration thought so much of Michael Bennett, his opponent, that they sent someone to offer Romanoff a job. They didn't want to make him a czar, so it didn't work, because his name's Romanoff. But anyway, they offered him a job, and he didn't pull out. But for Clinton to then endorse against Bennett, that's a pretty heavy thing to do.
Secondly, Bill Clinton, a few days ago said well, look, we have to keep the oil out from the Gulf, stop it from gushing and all that. Those are the main tasks. Let's concentrate on those, and let's not be savaging BP. Let's not be attacking them. Let's not be criticizing them. They're good people trying to do the best they can. And only after the spill's cleaned up, do we have time for that, implicitly really slapping at Obama for the way he's handled it.
At the same time, you have Hillary, who is gradually expanding her jurisdiction. It was Hillary Clinton, the secretary of State who broke the story that Justice was going to sue Arizona over immigration. It was Hillary Clinton, the secretary of State who said in a speech it was her personal opinion, not reflective of the administration, that the rich are not paying enough in taxes. Now could you imagine Madeleine Albright or Colin Powell or Condoleezza Rice saying that? I have a big column on this on my website DickMorris.com. Those kinds of statements…
INGRAHAM: Well, Dick, tell us about how this spins out.
MORRIS: Those kinds of statements are not made without they're having choreographed them together.
INGRAHAM: Right, but how -- OK, so they're choreographing it to what end?
MORRIS: Well…
INGRAHAM: How do you see this in the wild thought process that is yours and your column, how do you see this playing out? Is she going to challenge Obama for the nomination?
MORRIS: Well, she's not in the on-deck circle yet. And she certainly isn't in the batter's box, but I think she's picking out bats from the bat rack in the dugout. Now if Obama recovers and wins Congress and his ratings go up, she'll be a good person and not going to run until '16. But if Obama craters, and loses Congress, and there's a groundswell of demand from the grassroots of the Democratic Party for a new horse to represent them in 2012, we all know that Hillary's sense of loyalty and integrity would preclude a candidacy.
INGRAHAM: Dick, would she ever consider -- I kind of know the answer to this, but what you think. But would she ever consider being No. 2 on the ticket with Obama if he decides to dump our favorite Joe Biden?
MORRIS: As she once famously said, I've had that job already.
INGRAHAM: Yes, she -- well, she kind of did. But she wouldn't do that, right? No way?
MORRIS: I don't think so. But I think that -- I think -- well, you know, it's a comedown from VP. The other thing that I think is going to be interesting to watch is these boys and girls are from Chicago, and they played politics pretty rough there. And I'll bet that you will see a shot by Obama against Bill Clinton. You won't see any more Haitian appointments or missions to North Korea. You will see some putdown coming out there, because they have to respond to the Romanoff thing. It's politically as serious a challenge as McChrystal's Rolling Stone interview was as a military matter.
INGRAHAM: Wow. Hey, we only have about a minute, Dick. But let's talk about the management of the oil spill. I think so much time has gone on, people are kind of just, OK, all the oil is spilling out. Hundreds of thousands of, you know, barrels coming into our Gulf every day. But now it looks like the administration is finally getting around to waiving the Jones Act and allowing boats to come in. I think Bush it took him two or three days…
MORRIS: Yes.
INGRAHAM: …to have a similar waiver. And this has taken 70 days.
MORRIS: Well, I had a unique perspective on that. And again, there's a column on my website about it. I went to Alabama. And I met with Governor Bob Riley, the Republican governor. And he said when the oil started to spill, he said hey, look, I have 160 miles of Alabama coastline. I want booms that are not the light little things that can't stop the oil. I want 20-foot high, several ton booms, sink them down there and screen off the coast. And he went all around the world, collected the global inventory, put them out there. And then the administration decided, no, we're going to move him to Louisiana where Carville had just had a press conference attacking them. OK, Reilly said, I'll put snare booms right offshore, so we'll catch the oil as it comes into shore. Fish and Wildlife said you got to protect the sea turtles, can't do it. Then he said, OK, I'll put 400 men and women on the beaches to scoop it up manually when the oil comes in. Ut-uh said OSHA, they can't work more than 20 minutes out of every hour and every two hours they need a break because of the heat.
INGRAHAM: A nightmare. This is just -- I don't know.
MORRIS: And that's what's going on. Every little agency has its own bureaucratic fetish…
INGRAHAM: It's just fiefdom.
MORRIS: …that gets in the way of protecting this -- these beaches.
INGRAHAM: All right, Dick, we appreciate it, as always. Thanks so much.
MORRIS: Thank you.
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UNEMBIGGENED
Tim Blair
Standard alarmism in the SMH:
The world’s peak scientific body on climate change will “almost inevitably” make a big increase in its predictions of sea-level rises due to global warming in its next landmark report in 2014 …But after a re-write:
The world’s peak scientific body on climate change will ‘’almost inevitably’’ make an increase in its predictions of sea-level rises due to global warming in its next landmark report in 2014 …(Via Benny Peiser)
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TAX CHANGED
Tim Blair
“If you want to change the tax,” we were told, “you have to change the government.” In fact, all we needed to do was scare them:
The Federal Government will limit its new resources tax to just 320 companies mining iron ore, coal, oil and gas.Wayne Swan’s budget might now need some revision: “The reforms are expected to reduce revenue by $1.5 billion over the forward estimates.”
It has dropped its plan for a resource super profits tax and replaced it with a minerals resource rent tax.
The new tax will apply to iron ore and coal projects which will be taxed at a new headline rate of 30 per cent – down from the previously planned 40 per cent.?
UPDATE:
The government has given up significant ground to ensure the Prime Minister can go into an election without facing a $100 million advertising war.Remember the government’s ad, featuring an earnest tax lecturer? Gone.
UPDATE II. The Minerals Council of Australia won this with pocket money:
If ever there was proof that advertising – or rather the threat of it – works then this is it.News of the tax changes saw the value of BHP Billiton rise by $600 million. Rio Tinto is up by $1.2 billion.
In the first month of its campaign attacking the government’s planned resource super profits tax the mining industry spent at least $7 million on buying TV and radio air time and placing advertisements in newspapers, outspending the government by about two to one. And every cent tax deductible.
UPDATE III. More than $550 million in suspended mining projects are now unsuspended. Resources shares are up.
UPDATE IV. May 10:
Wayne Swan has accused mining chiefs of holding a “gun to the head” of the national interest by opposing the new profits tax, saying threats and abuse will not alter the government’s resolve.May 11:
Wayne Swan, the treasurer, is determined not to back down on the tax.
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Two Gillards are funnier than one
Andrew Bolt
The happiest woman in Australia, now that Julia Gillard is Prime Minister:
Amanda Bishop, Australia’s answer to Tina Fey and Julia Gillard’s comic double, (is) now riding the Labor leader’s wave of success.UPDATE
After building a cult following of her own on Channel 7’s now defunct sketch comedy show, Double Take, the Sydney actress is back in hot demand for her pitch perfect impersonation of the new PM.
Nailing Gillard’s husky drawl, Bishop is poised to turn her parody into pay dirt, with 2GB and Seven in talks to build separate comedy shows around her.
Reader cuckoo believes Genevieve Morris has a whole new career opening up, too.
UPDATE 2
Gillard answers Holly Byrnes’ questions.
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Gillard's Triumph of the appearance on Tax
Andrew Bolt
Julia Gillard surrenders after a two-month war that killed off Kevin Rudd, but, being newly in charge, will take this as a victory:
JULIA Gillard flew into Canberra last night to sign a breakthrough deal with the mining industry on the resource super-profits tax. The government has given up significant ground to ensure the Prime Minister can go into an election without facing a $100 million advertising war…Matthew Stevens:
It is understood the name of the tax will be changed…
The government will make significant concessions to the miners, including cutting the headline 40 per cent rate of the RSPT. The rate at which the tax applies is expected to rise from the long-term bond rate of about 6 per cent to the bond rate plus 7 per cent, a total figure of 13 per cent.
Other concessions are likely to include exempting certain commodities - such as phosphate and possibly base metals such as nickel - from the tax and allowing miners to use the market, or current, value of their existing projects, when calculating the amount of tax they will pay.
This could save big miners billions of dollars and reduce the restrospective impact of the tax on existing projects.
The changes, which will be put to the wider mining industry for consideration, are likely to reduce the $12 billion the government expected the RSPT to raise between now and 2013-14. To ensure the budget bottom line is not affected, promises that were to have been funded by the RSPT will be cut… Other promises - such as the cut in the company tax rate from 30 per cent to 28 per cent, and several superannuation changes - are more likely to be delayed rather than scrapped…
A mining industry source said last night Mr Ferguson and Ms Gillard had led the negotiations in the past three days. “Swan was moping at times, looking like Mr Grumpy,” the source said.
WAYNE Swan is said to be a very grumpy man right now. And who can blame him? After enduring two months of public booting by the mining industry,… it seems to have ended in humiliation for Swan and his puppet-master, Treasury secretary Ken Henry.Terry McCrann:
But far from feeling depressed, the Treasurer should indulge in quiet celebration…
Today’s deal will be perceived by some as the government crumbling in the face of opposition from the mining companies. To a degree, that is true. But look to the outcome, not the route taken to get it. If the super tax has been redesigned properly, then the government can get its claimed “fairer share”, but it will have to wait quite a bit longer to get it.
JULIA Gillard and Wayne Swan have effectively dumped Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan’s resources tax. But it will serve as a much bigger win for the new Prime Minister than the loss of revenue to the budget.What a difference a new nameplate makes. This was the tax proposed by Treasurer Wayne Swan, who for two months insisted it could not change and smeared the miners who protested as liars, foreigners and fat cats. The same Treasurer now gives in, yet because he now has a new Prime Minister it’s not a defeat but a victory.
The new tax shows her being decisive and sensible. And well and truly in command - her deputy had to sign off on the gutting of his own tax…
It will also create a huge problem for the Opposition. Will it continue to pledge to abolish a tax that is acceptable to the industry and gives the taxpayer a bigger share in our mineral wealth?
UPDATE
The smaller miners, like David Flanagan’s Atlas Iron, protest:
Atlas is a member of the junior fraternity in Australia and we are a member of AMEC and we expected to be consulted in the process so I’d be surprised if there was an announcement that was supposed to be on a consensus basis because we haven’t even been in the room and AMEC represents 140 or thereabouts member mining companies and we thought that we were pretty important - and important for the development of Australia.UPDATE 2
Depending on your agenda, it’s either a victory or defeat for Gillard.
The Age’s verdict:
Gillard bows to minersThe Australian’s:
PM’s mining breakthroughUPDATE 3
Gillard got out of the jam relatively lightly:
JULIA Gillard has rebadged the “super-profits tax” and slashed the rate to 30 per cent as part of a deal to end the war with the resources giants.(Thanks to reader Nonna.)
The government has excluded all commodities from the tax apart from iron ore and coal, easing industry fears about the potential impact on base metals projects.
Under the revised deal announced this morning, onshore oil and gas projects including the booming coal seam gas sector in Queensland will be covered by the existing Petroleum Resource Rent tax, levied at 40 per cent.
The rate at which the tax applies has risen from the long-term bond rate - currently just over 5 per cent - to the bond rate plus 7 per cent. That makes the threshold about 12 per cent…
The $1.5 billion reduction in revenue under the new plan to $10.5 billion will mean the government must reform some of the initiatives that were contingent upon the tax, including the slashing of the company tax rate to 28 per cent.
The government has now said the company tax rate will be cut to 29 per cent from 2013-14, saving $600 milion, but will not be reduced further.
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The one boat that’s too, too many
Andrew Bolt
WITH even Vietnamese now turning up in boats, Julia Gillard has her excuse.
No, not just an excuse. Our new Prime Minister has an imperative to get tough. And, while she’s at it, could she tell her Home Affairs Minister, Brendan O’Connor, to stop telling such porkies?
Only this week did we learn that a boat detected 120km north of Broome on June 18 was actually full of Vietnamese - 28 of them, in fact.
Not that O’Connor told us this. Indeed, he pretended they may have been Afghans or Sri Lankans instead, and thus subject to a government decision three months ago to suspend refugee applications from those two nationalities.
In a press release he issued after the Vietnamese were brought on board HMAS Armidale, he wittered: “While their nationalities are yet to be confirmed, if these asylum seekers are Sri Lankans or Afghans, the processing suspension introduced by the Government on April 9, 2010 will apply.”
So how dishonest is that? By then even the most slack-jawed of sailors on the Armidale could have told at a glance that their new passengers were in fact Asian.
Even now, the Immigration Department is trying to play down the significance of Vietnamese once more arriving by boat, 35 years after the fall of Saigon. But, but, but there was a boat of Vietnamese seven years ago, too, a spokesman protested.
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Live Green before you vote it
Andrew Bolt
ENOUGH’S enough. If you’re really this keen to vote Green in the state election, why not prove you’re serious?
Why not live the life you apparently want the Greens to inflict on the rest of us?
Go turn off your own lights first. Kill your fridge. Cook your roast over a solar-powered candle.
Then go to work and turn off the machines. Junk the computer. Tell your hospital to switch off the machines that go “bing”. And harness some donkeys to pull our trains.
Can’t find donkeys, you say? Nonsense. Look at yesterday’s Newspoll, which reports a record 18 per cent of Victorians plan to vote Green.
Plenty there. Hook ‘em up.
I laugh, but dear God, we’re drowning, up to our necks in unreason.
“There, there,” coos my wife, when I sob that even some of our frequent-flyer friends vote Greens.
“They wouldn’t vote Greens if they actually thought they’d win ... “
No? Well, they’re winning enough already, like the battle for our brains.
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Benefits of capitalism
Andrew Bolt
Soviet Union stewardess in 1961:
Russian stewardess in 2010:===
Blame Rudd instead, says Brumby
Andrew Bolt
John Brumby blames Kevin Rudd for trashing his brand:
With Labor’s primary vote in freefall as voters turn their back on the State Government, Premier John Brumby lashed the former PM’s regime for damaging the party’s brand…I believe Rudd also causes the flu.
The polling shows federal Labor was more popular in Victoria under Mr Rudd than any other state, yet the Premier blamed federal issues for dragging him down.
The latest Newspoll, taken before Julia Gillard became prime minister, shows the Victorian Labor government primary vote has slipped to 34 per cent - its lowest point since the dark days of the Kirner government in 1992…
“We’ve had some issues over the last month or two, they’ve been issues across Australia and they have affected the Labor brand and I think you’re seeing that reflected (in the poll),” Mr Brumby said.
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Boat people redux: the moral blackmail starts again
Andrew Bolt
Back to were we darkly were, with florid attempts at moral blackmail:
A SRI LANKAN tried to hang himself inside Villawood detention centre this week, sparking complaints from advocates who equate immigration processing delays with torture.UPDATE
The man, 28, was found to be in genuine need of a protection visa three months ago, but continues to be held because ASIO has not completed a mandatory security check, the refugee advocate, Jamal Daoud, said…
‘’Why wait until they try to kill themselves?’’ a Tamil activist, Saradha Nathan, said.
The suicide attempt, and four separate instances of self-harm on Christmas Island this week, have angered refugee supporters who say the mood has blackened in the privately run detention centres as asylum seekers wait longer to be processed.
Yet another rings for a taxi:
A boat carrying 73 suspected asylum seekers has made a triple-oh emergency call off Christmas Island...Triple-oh?
There are 77 people on board the boat; 73 are understood to be Afghan asylum seekers and the other four are crew members.
(Thanks to reader CA.)
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Burying ourselves
Andrew Bolt
William Bourke:
At about 2 per cent a year, Australia’s population growth is twice the world average and around eight times the Western average. That’s extreme growth in anyone’s language…(Thanks to reader Max.)
If the government had the courage to fully disaggregate and reveal the economic costs of population growth, it would forever obliterate the arguments that continued population growth has net economic benefits or results in lower taxes and debt.
Infrastructure Partnerships Australia now estimates the national backlog of infrastructure projects is worth $770 billion, and rising. Guess who pays for that. Population growth costs have clearly overwhelmed and impoverished local, state and federal government budgets…
Is it also a coincidence that we have gone from five public hospital beds per thousand people to about three? Or from three years’ salary to afford the average home to more than seven?
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New Zealand sacrifices to save the world 0.04 per cent
Andrew Bolt
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key had it right the first time, in 2005:
I rise on behalf of the National Party to give the good news to the people of New Zealand—that is, the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill is a load of rubbish and the National Party will not be supporting it, for very, very good reasons indeed…Five years later:
Yet here we are down in New Zealand, a very little country with about 0.2 percent of the world’s emissions, putting a self-imposed straitjacket on our businesses, and waving a huge flag that says: “Foreign investment, don’t come anywhere near us. Australia is over there—the West Island. Go over there to pour your dollars in.” To the Chinese we are saying: “Come in and buy as much coal as you like from our West Coast. We’ll sell it to you and you can burn it without a carbon charge—but, by the way, to those back here in Aotearoa New Zealand we will be slapping on a carbon charge and you won’t be able to operate."…
This is a complete and utter hoax, if I may say so. The impact of the Kyoto Protocol, even if one believes in global warming—and I am somewhat suspicious of it—is that we will see billions and billions of dollars poured into fixing something that we are not even sure is a problem. Even if it is a problem, it will be delayed for about 6 years. Then it will hit the world in 2096 instead of 2102, or something like that. It will not work.
The world’s second national carbon trading scheme ramps up from Thursday with the inclusion of sectors covering half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions, but anger over the scheme could hurt the government.New Zealand’s impact on world greenhouse gas emissions:
Rising electricity prices and higher fuel costs have worried some voters, farmers and businesses, which fear the higher costs could hurt their competitiveness.
New Zealand’s impact on global emissions, a mere 0.2 percent...New Zealand’s sacrifice means it could cut global emissions by up to 0.04 per cent by 2020.
(Thanks to reader John.)
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The messiah deserves a little something
Andrew Bolt
Jay Nordlinger on the crazed sex poodle and ”taking it for the team”.(Thanks to reader The Other JS.)
UPDATE
The world gets a bit warmer for Gore:
POLICE are to reopen an investigation into allegations Al Gore groped a massage therapist in hotel in 2006 and acted like a “crazed sex poodle”. A spokeswoman for Mr Gore said the former US vice president stood by his earlier denial, adding that an investigation would only serve to benefit him.
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