Friday, July 30, 2010

Headlines Friday 30th July 2010

=== Todays Toon ===
THIS week Julia Gillard appeared with a million-dollar makeover on the cover of The Australian Women's Weekly. - she still seems bitter and lonely and resentful of her poor life choices. - ed.
=== Bible Quote ===
“I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life.”- Psalm 119:93
=== Headlines ===
Protests Rage as Arizona Appeals Immigration Law Ruling
State asks appeals court to lift a judge's order blocking most of its controversial immigration law as the city of Phoenix fills with protesters, including 50 who were arrested

Rangel's Future Up in Air as Panel Meets
GOP panel members suggest time for a deal has run out, as embattled Rep. Rangel's lawyers meet with the House ethics committee

Obama Losing Ground With Women Voters
The president takes to the couch on 'The View' as a new Fox News poll shows his approval rating among women dipping 14 points in seven months to just 45 percent

Drivers Defeating Big Brother's Cameras
It might be too late for DMX, shown at left, who was caught on camera going 114 mph, but motorists might be getting the upper hand as budget cuts and emerging technologies kick red-light cameras to the curb

Breaking News
White House car bailouts 'saved 1m jobs'
THE White House said its multi-billion dollar car industry bailout had saved a million jobs and the sector from collapse.

Killed driver unlicensed, in stolen car
A TEENAGER and his passenger, killed in a double fatality, were driving a stolen car at the time of the crash.

China allows critical IMF report release
CHINA allowed an IMF report critical of its currency policy to be released, signalling faith that it can control the yuan debate.

US at risk of 'Japanese-style deflation'
THE US risks "Japanese-style" economic stagnation as seen in the Asian giant's "lost decade", warns a Federal Reserve official.

Labor uses broadband as election plus
THE high-speed fibre network is a major point of difference between the Government and Opposition.

Churchill's teeth snapped up for $22,000
A PARTIAL set of dentures used by British wartime leader Winston Churchill sold at auction today for $22,000.

Goldman tells staff to cut the crap
STAFF told to refrain from salty language, after emails revealed the liberal use of profanity to describe their own products.

'Cheat's charter' hampers divorce cases
DIVORCING wives will no longer be able to use secretly-seized documents to expose their husband's hidden financial assets.

Man on drugs rams stroller with son inside
A MAN who crashed the stroller carrying his infant son into a wall while high on heroin was charged today.

Gruen Nation transfers to poll ratings
VIEWERS have tuned in in record numbers to television programs that poke fun at politicians and expose the spin behind the campaigns.

NSW/ACT
Assault an ambo, land in prison
ABUSE or threaten a paramedic and you could face up to five years in jail under laws that come into effect today. Have your say.

Whose bright idea was this?
THE school stimulus program under siege on numerous fronts is now accused of wrecking the sleep patterns of country folk.

Mavis and her 91-year-old toy boy
MAVIS Cook had more than turning 100 to celebrate - she had a 91-year-old "toy boy" on her arm. Meet Mavis and John Clarke.

Fatal hold-up 'was an inside job'
POLICE allege dead robber Nathan Brodbeck used a gun supplied to him by Brinks security guard Franjo Velado Santalab.

Business fury at bike paths
THE Government's bike path mission to tear up streets and cyclists has cost $3358 for each rider.

Firth wears the naughty cap
KRISTINA Keneally was attacked by her own MPs for turning on Minister Verity Firth for promising to replace toxic school heaters.

Husband is sued over legal lies
A PROMINENT businesswoman is suing her ex-husband for more than $1 million, claiming she was duped into marrying him.

Hope for little battler Charlotte
CHARLOTTE Wyse was diagnosed at 15 months with anaplastic ependymoma, which is aggressive and hard to beat.

Is this Australia's oldest surfing photo?
THE question now is can this photo from circa 1910 lay claim to being the earliest image of surfing off Australian shores?

Illegal prostitutes helped pay mortgage
A SYDNEY mother brought 11 women here from Thailand to work as prostitutes so she could pay off her mortgage.

Queensland
Court rules mum unfit to stand trial
A 34-YEAR-OLD mother has been found mentally unfit to stand trial over the drugging and attempted murder of her two young children.

Thick fog paralyses airport
HEAVY fog is taking its toll on Brisbane transport this morning with the airport out of action until at least 10am and all CityCats suspended.

Cops livid at Bligh pay insult
POLICE are furious at Anna Bligh's suggestion officers will have to be more flexible and productive if they expect a pay rise of more than 2.5 per cent.

Man smashes police car windows
A MAN smashed the windscreen and windows of a police car near Pacific Fair shopping centre on the Gold Coast last night and calmly walked away.

Contempt sentence for murderer
A CONFESSED murderer is scheduled to front a Brisbane court this morning to be sentenced for refusing to testify against a so-called accomplice.

Ipswich man killed in rollover
AN Ipswich man has been killed when the car he was travelling in careered on to the wrong side of the road and rolled several times.

School turmoil as principal quits
AN elite Brisbane girls' school has admitted its principal has resigned, months after another incident in which the deputy principal was sacked.

Affirmative action on indigenous jobs
FOUR youngsters are at the vanguard of an ambitious new program which aims to boost employment opportunities for young indigenous Queenslanders.

Weather ripe for squalor in mud
FRUSTRATED motorists abandoned their cars on the road leading to music festival Splendour in the Grass yesterday.

Wikileaks founder's state of origin
WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange was born in Townsville and raised on Magnetic Island, it has been revealed.

Victoria
Stabbed in back during shop raid
A FEMALE bottle shop attendant was stabbed in the back during an attempted armed robbery in Box Hill North last night.

iPhone frenzy hits Melbourne
MELBOURNE'S most hardcore “iFans” have queued for up to 24 hours to be the first to own an iPhone 4.

Man critical after high-speed crash
UPDATE 8.31am: A MAN is fighting for his life after a horrific car accident in Boronia this morning.

Joffa's September blockbuster
SEPTEMBER will get scarier for Magpies haters, when Melbourne cinemas start showing Joffa: The Movie.

Housing prices fall flat
MELBOURNE'S property boom is over for at least the next 12 months, according to a survey of leading property experts.

Hulls sets new bench marks
ATTORNEY-General Rob Hulls has announced a review of the judicial selection process.

Tests go down to wire
UPDATE 6.45am: METRO begins a complete inspection of overhead power systems amid free travel today after Tuesday's meltdown.

RMIT's air of corruption
RMIT has been accused by the state watchdog of endangering the lives of aircraft passengers.

Victoria's $24b building boom
VICTORIA is booming out of its borders with a record $24 billion worth of new building permits issued in the past year.

Gangs rip off millions
A WAVE of card-skimming thefts in recent months has cost Melburnians millions.

Northern Territory
'Violent bullies force girl, 14, out of school'
A MOTHER says she has been been forced to take her daughter out of school after two years of violent bullying by a gang of girls.

South Australia
Cyclist dies in fall in Hills
A CYCLIST has died while riding on a popular road in the Adelaide Hills.

Man arrested as police swoop on Gauchos
POLICE swooped on a Gouger St restaurant last night, arresting at least one man and interviewing others understood to be members of an outlaw motorcycle gang.

Man collapses after drug-lab raid
A MAN, arrested over a clandestine drug lab in the eastern suburbs, collapsed soon after being taken to the city watch house.

Optic broadband for more homes
AN EXTRA 300,000 homes and businesses across Australia will be hooked up to high-speed broadband, the Federal Government will reveal today.

Cheapest fuel on Saturday
SATURDAY could soon be the cheapest time to fill up as intense competition drives petrol price discount days towards the weekend.

Little bingles are costing big bucks
CAR crash claims are on the rise, with carpark bingles to blame, according to insurer RAA.

Court out on misdiagnosis
VICTIMS of bad doctors have been warned to complain to the health complaints commissioner because the High Court had excluded suing for misdiagnosis.

He's the little boy who just can't eat
TRYING to get one-year-old Asher White to eat is a struggle his parents have never won.

Gang leader's former home firebombed
A HOUSE formerly occupied by the leader of the Newboys street gang has been fire bombed at Enfield.

Have you seen this man?
THIS man is wanted for indecently assaulting a woman on a north-eastern suburbs bus.

Western Australia
Stun gun 'disguised as phone'
POLICE have charged a 23-year-old Armadale man after allegedly finding a stun gun disguised as a mobile phone inside his car.

Archbishop stirs poll atheism fears
PERTH Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey has suggested Julia Gillard's atheism could cost her votes.

Mothership readied for arrivals
THE flotilla being used to ferry asylum-seekers to Christmas Island will soon include a mothership.

Attacker jailed after fatal bashing
A MAN involved in a fatal bashing has been jailed for five-and-a-half years.

'Hoon' cop stood down
POLICE Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan stands down senior constable after reckless driving charge.

Former Supreme Court Judge dies
FORMER Supreme Court Judge Henry Wallwork has passed away suddenly at his Perth home, aged 75.

Three injured in country crash
THREE people are in hospital following a serious two-vehicle crash in Roelands, 165km south of Perth.

Former rock star faces fraud charges
A BANKRUPT former rock star has appeared in court over the catastrophic collapse of two failed businesses owing tens of millions of dollars.

WACA set for massive transformation
THE green light has been given to an ambitious redevelopment of the WACA that will see commercial and residential towers built at the iconic cricket ground.

Lotto luck strikes twice in Kwinana
ANOTHER WA punter is about to begin living the Lotto life after scooping the division one pool in last night's million dollar draw.

Tasmania
Killer's ex wants to sell story
SHE kept killer's brutal secret from police, now she wants to tell her tale to a magazine and cash in.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Guest: Elisabeth Hasselbeck
With two wars, a crashed economy, and an oil crisis ... Is the president engaging in showmanship over leadership? Elisabeth Hasselbeck weighs in. C
===
Guest: AZ State Senator Russell Pearce
A setback for Arizona's immigration law? State Senator Russell Pearce reacts to the ruling and talks strategy. The fight is on!
===
"Showdown State" Shocker!
Key parts of Arizona's immigration bill are blocked by Uncle Sam. Now, Gov. Brewer sounds off on the state's next move!
===
On Fox News Insider
What Will the Next Phase Be of the BP Oil Cleanup?
DNC Ad: GOP, Tea Party Are One and the Same
If the Midterm Elections Were Held Today...

CONGRATULATIONS - New Jersey's Senator Lautenberg is one of the 31 Senators who decided to sign the letter to Secretary Clinton requesting a UN Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma!

Senators get very few calls of gratitude. We urge you to call Senator Lautenberg's office and thank him for signing the letter. For more information about the letter, see below.

For Senator Lautenberg: Call Andrea Friedman at (202) 224-3224

Say "Thank you for signing the letter requesting a UN Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma!"

Or click here to send an email to Senator Lautenberg.

Many thanks to all Burma supporters in New Jersey.

Keep up the good work,

Background Information on the Commission of Inquiry Letter
The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Burma, Tomas Quintana, released a groundbreaking report to the UN Human Rights Council calling for an investigation into Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes in Burma, after nearly a year of being bombarded by our demands. This is the first time an acting UN official has called for such strong action.


Senators Feinstein (D-CA) and Gregg (R-NH) have sent a letter to their fellow Senators asking them to join them in sending a letter to Secretary Clinton to support UN action to investigate the Burmese regime's crimes against humanity.



Democratic governments such as the United Kingdom, Australia, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia already support the call for a UN-led Commission of Inquiry on Burma. Now, we need the United States government to get on board and be a strong voice supporting the establishment of an investigation into crimes against humanity in Burma.
On August 14th, join U.S. Campaign for Burma members for a screening of "Burma VJ," the Academy Award nominated film that documents the courageous video journalists(VJs) who risked their lives to cover Burma's Saffron Revolution in 2007.

To learn more about the film, click here

JavaFlix Movie Discussion Group is hosting. The film will be followed by a discussion with special guests from US Campaign for Burma.

Event Details:
Where: VCC Office and Cultural Center,
4523 Springfield Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19143
When: August 14th, 7:30pm
Contact: George Dougherty, dougherty.george@gmail.com

I hope that you are able to attend this event that's sure to be eye-opening!

Thank you for your continued support,
=== Comments ===
Gillard is less boa and more anaconda
Piers Akerman
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard does not wear the Cheryl Kernot red boa. - It is sad that Gillard made that choice at age 16. She has lived a life of denial, and soon she will reap the fruit of that lifestyle. I am sure there are many in Australia who think becoming PM is worth the trade, that one is expected to sacrifice much if they are to become PM. The truth is that she probably can't keep it. In fact, one has to give much if they are to be exalted. To sacrifice one's children is not to give, it is to deny one's own future. Children would have allowed that bitter lonely woman to grow. Right now, the back stabber is being white anted, and the ALP is divided from the top down. - ed.
===
Best of Dennis Miller in the No Spin Zone

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT FROM "THE O'REILLY FACTOR," JULY 28, 2010. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LAURA INGRAHAM, GUEST HOST: In the "Miller Time" segment tonight: Our pal Dennis has the night off, but in his absence we decided to put together the best of Miller over the past few months. I suggest you buckle up for this ride. Roll the tape.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Man, you got to get down here and take control of this. Put somebody in charge of this thing and get this thing moving. We're about to die down here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BILL O'REILLY: I couldn't get by the glasses. I don't know what he wants. What do you think?
DENNIS MILLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Carville looks like a Muppet accidentally washed on hot. The guy makes Slade Gordon look like a sumo wrestler at this point.
When a guy says this is the moment -- you remember the speech when Barack Obama says this is the moment that the seas will drop and the planet will cease to warm? If you set up that sort of thing and then when it hits the fan, you can't do anything, like anybody else. BP can't do anything. The feds can't do anything. I don't know who is going to fix this, but it's disappointing to the left. He's just a guy. He's a guy from Chicago. He doesn't know what to do.
O'REILLY: Carville -- look, it's almost like Bush. The left screaming that Bush didn't care about Katrina and didn't go down to New Orleans quick enough and flew over on his way to San Diego, wherever he was going. Carville wants him down there. Carville wants him down there, I guess, with a rake and maybe a big, you know, swat in the water. But Carville wants him down there. That's what the deal is.
MILLER: You know, when stuff happens, it happens. And guess what? It reminds us we're a bit puny. I guess the only thing Barack can do at this point is maybe, what's it been, 35, 37 days? No doubt, he's so litigious, he'll probably sue the Greenwich Meantime Institute and tell them they've made days too short and he wants to move them to 27, 28 hours. What are we going to do? We'll figure it out until we can fix the pipe. All I know is this, ANWR is looking better, Billy.
O'REILLY: ANWR is looking good, absolutely.
MILLER: ANWR is looking good.
O'REILLY: Nobody knows about it. It freezes right away.
MILLER: Just get some paper towels. Get some paper towels.
O'REILLY: So how are they processing the firing of McChrystal? Do they understand it? What do they think?
MILLER: Think of McChrystal as Jack Nicholson in "A Few Good Men" and think of Obama as Tom Cruise in "A Few Good Men." I think McChrystal was percolating and he was going to blow because he thinks Obama has no code. I think that's all that happens.
O'REILLY: It might have been a subconscious thing, you know, anger one way or the other. To let this guy into the tent, Hastings from Rolling Stone, you're asking for it. But it made it easier for Barack Obama to replace him because he's got Petraeus to go to. He's got the big gun that saved Iraq. If he didn't have…
MILLER: Mariano Rivera, Billy. Mariano Rivera coming in from the pen.
O'REILLY: I think that's what the hidden story is here. That it's not good in Afghanistan right now. Our guys Hunt and Peters say it's not good there. So maybe we can upgrade this at the same time, so why not do it. But the real crux of the matter is the macho factor here. If Obama allows one of his generals to denigrate him and his guys, he losses all macho, does he not?
MILLER: There are a bunch of things that went into the decision, like you said the macho posturing and the fact that Karzai said he wanted him on board. I think Barack Obama likes to keep Karzai a cat on a hot tin roof, a little skittish over there.
O'REILLY: Espania defeats Germany, Deutschland, today.
MILLER: You know what makes me laugh about the World Cup, Bill? These refs are more inept than the people trying to cap the spill down there. That's a bad referee thing and they try to paint it all sexy as soccer in the ads. But I don't know how sexy is it when a guy says, "I just participated in a 0-0 tie." You know, it's just not that sexy. I can miss an entire game and see all the scoring that the guy who watches the whole game sees. I mean, what's going on here?
O'REILLY: I know that. There was the highlight. We saw the highlight on "The Factor" and nobody else does anything. That's what it was. But you're missing the artistry of kicking the ball up and down. It's a highly skilled game. It is a highly skilled game. But Americans, they want razzmatazz. That's what we want and that's just not it.
MILLER: Enough with the horns! I get it!
O'REILLY: Miller has been following the Iranian space launch. Miller is the only human being on Earth following this. I want an updated report from you.
MILLER: Well, all I know, Bill, is when a sexually repressed Islamic regime either literally or figuratively fires a worm into outer space, I'm happy about it because it siphons off some of that diverted libidinal rage they're feeling. More power to them over there sending that worm into outer space.
O'REILLY: So somehow, Miller, you have arrived at the conclusion that the Iranian space program is connected to their libido.
MILLER: Yes. Let the kids play for a while. Maybe they'll get Betamax next month.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
===
KERNOT RETURNS
Tim Blair
The 2010 federal election is now officially hilarious:
Cheryl Kernot is taking another tilt in politics and standing as an independent senator for New South Wales.

ABC News 24 understands Cheryl Kernot plans to run under the banner “Change politics”.
She previously ran under the banner “change parties”.
UPDATE. A tough break for Kevin Rudd:
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has been admitted to hospital in Brisbane and will undergo an operation to remove his gall bladder on Friday.
===
CASH FOR CLIMATE
Tim Blair
Five lucky climateers are set to earn almost as much as the Prime Minister:
The five climate change experts Julia Gillard hopes to inform public opinion on the issue will be paid an average of $300,000 a year.
It’s a four-year deal, so these temperature talkers will be rolling in it. The hours don’t sound too difficult:
Part of the commission’s role will be to assist the 150-member Citizen’s Assembly, a group designed to find a consensus on the issue.

The costing request shows the government expects the assembly to meet three times, the first being later this year and then twice more by the middle of 2012. The government expects its plan to cost $2.7 million.
Who will be the chosen five?

UPDATE. Henry Ergas on the citizens’ assembly:
It undermines both the preconditions that make for good government. It avoids taking a stance on a crucial issue, thus circumventing the bases of political accountability. At the same time, it empanels what amounts to a jury, but without the safeguards indispensable for jury processes to have legitimacy.
But it will make five clowns rich.

UPDATE II. The global warming movement is kaput! Finito! Done!
===
Big Nanny pushes us off our bike
Andrew Bolt
SEE Melbourne’s ranks of unused blue bikes? Proof that too much government fussing over your health makes you fat.

And, boy, no one fusses more than does a Victorian Government.

We are Australia’s nanny state, which is why our new $5.5 million Melbourne Bike Share has a giant spoke in its wheel.

Most cities around the world with such a scheme - a network of docking stations of hire bikes - have found it works a treat. Take Montreal, a city Melbourne’s size, which in its first five months logged a million rides.

But Melbourne? Two months after parking 600 bikes in 50 docking stations in the city, the Government has sold just 70 rides a day.

The reason is as simple as it was predictable, and Melbourne Bike Share’s own surveys picked it up as the most cited disincentive: it’s having to wear a helmet.

Victoria’s politicians decree that no one may cycle without foam and plastic strapped to their noggin. Penalty: $146.

Never mind that as an adult you’re able to figure whether the risk of cracking your skull on the asphalt is a small price to pay for the convenience of cycling without a helmet. On impulse.

The state says it knows better. No helmet, no ride. For your own good. Even if it’s not.

It’s offensive bullying, and no other city with a bike scheme like ours is so impertinent. Mexico even scrapped helmet laws to make its system work.

It’s a no-brainer. Who carries a helmet on the off chance they will hire a bike? Which tourists pack one for a trip here?

And who’d want to rent one that’s been drenched with someone’s sweat, speckled with their dandruff, slickened with their gel or infested with their nits?
===
Gillard is a racist because she held a white baby
Andrew Bolt
Suvendrini Perera, associate professor of cultural studies at Curtin University, is alarmed that Julia Gillard kissed a white baby:
The day after the election announcement, several newspapers featured front-page photos of the Prime Minister, garbed all in white, and her (male) deputy - each bearing an exceptionally robust looking, if slightly bemused, white infant in their arms. If the central issue of the election is population, these images of the - reconstructed and thoroughly contemporary - white heterosexual family underscore that the lowering of the birth rate is off the agenda…

The ideal of the remade white heterosexual Australian family represented by Gillard and Wayne Swan at a baby welcome ceremony reaffirms the way in which the reproduction of the population is inextricably bound up with the reproduction of an established political and social order. The image stages an unspoken but unmistakeable return to the defining characteristic of Australia as a nation-state built on whiteness, and dedicated to the reproduction of the racial order established at Federation. Within this order, non-white bodies may be present, and even attain positions of relative power and prominence; however, their presence is one that must remain subject to continuing containment, subordination or assimilation…

Make no mistake: there is a deep internal consistency to the population ‘’debate’’. Beneath the facade of a thoroughly modern, optimistic and relentlessly ‘’forward-moving’’ Prime Minister is a campaign that returns us to the ‘’race election’’ threatened by John Howard in the 1990s.

Can Australia move forward from the exclusionary politics of race? Certainly not with a Prime Minister whose ‘’right kind of migrant’’ is a reproduction of her own image.
Some people should really get over themselves. Has she considered that Gillard simply kissed whatever baby was pushed at her, and to refuse a kiss to a white one - as Perera seems to demand - might have seemed not just racist, but a sign of madness?

Oh, and it hardly needs saying, but this article appeared in The Age. Foucault is quote, which is always a giveaway.
===
Labor stumbles, and it’s now neck and neck
Andrew Bolt
I still believe Labor to be ahead, yet this latest Galaxy poll would make it very, very worried:
The latest Galaxy poll of 800 voters, taken on Wednesday night for Channel 9, has Labor and the Coalition tied at 50-50 on a two-party preferred basis.

The previous Galaxy poll at the weekend had Labor leading 52-48. Labor’s primary vote slipped from 38 to 37 per cent; the Coalition’s has climbed from 41 to 43 per cent.

For Mr Abbott, 37 per cent regard him as the better PM (up from 35); Ms Gillard’s standing has tumbled six points to 49 per cent.
The Liberals had a bad first week, hampered by lack of cash and the (partly in consequence) campaign disorganisation, not to mention Tony Abbott’s stumbles as he attempted to bury the WorkChoices issue.

But Labor’s second week, ever since Abbott won the debate, has been little short of a disaster. There’s been the leaks, the boat, Abbott’s gazzumping on tax, the new campaign by the miners ... WorkChoices is played out as a news story and the Liberals now seem somewhat better organised, if still chronically short of cash for ads. The only undoubted positive for Labor this week is the 13-page election advertisement published by Women’s Weekly, and Gillard’s impressive spin in response to the leak that she questioned a pension rise on the alleged grounds that pensioners vote Liberal.

The worry for Labor is that Abbott is more likely to surprise by performing well, and Gillard to surprise by stumbling. To see that isn’t just to point to the more shiftable parts of the votes, but to where the more interesting news angles - the “memes” - are buried. Then there’s the biggest question of the campaign: how much more leaking can Gillard expect from the Labor rat who’s been killing her in this first two weeks?

Dennis Shanahan:
THIS week Julia Gillard appeared with a million-dollar makeover on the cover of The Australian Women’s Weekly.

Our first female Prime Minister looked more like a supermodel than a cabinet minister. But it’s Tony Abbott who is beginning to look better as the election campaign moves on.The Leader of the Opposition, who started the campaign way behind and with low expectations, has proved to be far more disciplined than anticipated and is beginning to truly look like an alternative prime minister.
UPDATE

I suspect “moving forward” is going backwards:

According to Chris Pash of Dow Jones, “Cliche of the Week” columnist for The Australian, Gillard has used “moving forward” 1500 times in the past month. It spiked in the first two days of the campaign and has been dropping off since, but is currently running at an average 25 mentions a day.

For his part, Tony Abbott is a prolific user of “fair dinkum”—238 in the past month, with the phrase spiking in usage this week.

===
If we called our bashed civilians “refugees”, the Age might be less sniffy
Andrew Bolt
The Age treats with disdain the attempts by both parties to answer a clear public demand to be better protected from rising violence:
Campaign descends into law-and-order brawl
“Descends”?
===
Mathieson snapped at last
Andrew Bolt
Rare news - trivial yet unhelpful - of a man Labor is keeping well-hidden:
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard’s car has been snapped twice by police in the past six months with her de facto Tim Mathieson at the wheel.

Ms Gillard’s taxpayer-funded private car, a Toyota Camry, was detected by a speed camera on a Victorian road in January and snapped going through a red light more recently. It’s understood the second traffic infringement happened in March…

Ms Gillard’s minders were furious the information had been leaked as she fights a difficult battle for power…

The incidents aren’t the first brush with the law for Mr Mathieson, who lost his licence after a car crash and drink driving charge about 10 years ago.
It’s about the only picture taken of Mathieson in the past few months.

UPDATE

Reader John from Bundoora:

Looks like he was ‘moving foward’ a little too quickly.
===
Latham accuses Rudd the “snake”
Andrew Bolt
Latham lets fly on a man he’s long despised:
FORMER Labor leader Mark Latham insisted last night that Kevin Rudd was behind damaging leaks against Julia Gillard and condemned the behaviour as cowardly, “the snake’s way”, unmanly and “beneath an Aussie bloke”.

Mr Latham told Sky News no prime minister had loved the job more than Mr Rudd, who greatly enjoyed meeting foreign leaders such as US President Barack Obama. Labor was living with the consequence of taking away from Mr Rudd the thing he loved most, Mr Latham said.

And he said Mr Rudd was humiliated by being left on the back bench by Ms Gillard.

“If he can’t have it, no one else will,” Mr Latham said. “There’s also a cowardice to it.”
UPDATE

Who could possibly benefit from this latest leak to one of Kevin Rudd’s favourite sources?
Labor has asked the former prime minister, Kevin Rudd, to campaign for the party outside his own seat, but he has asked for time to consider the request.

Labor strategists believe the former prime minister is an asset for the party in Queensland, where the federal government is most vulnerable.

The Herald/Nielsen poll last week suggested Labor could lose up to 10 seats in Mr Rudd’s home state. If Labor loses 13 seats nationally it is out of power.
(Thanks to readers FOEHN and Pira.)

1 comment:

Hampers said...

Just gone through your blog and found it wonderful. It was nice going through your blog.