=== Todays Toon ===
The 26th of July isn’t just a date, it was a whole movement. The 26th of July Movement was the mob led by Fidel Castro that in 1959 threw over the Batista regime in Cuba.Gillard's heroes - ed.
=== Bible Quote ===
“I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.”- Psalm 119:60=== Headlines ===
Oil Change: Embattled BP Boss Hayward to Be Replaced
BP reportedly set to name Managing Director Bob Dudley (right) as the energy giant's new boss if the board approves negotiated ouster of current chief Tony Hayward, who's under fire over Gulf of Mexico oil spill.Hunt On for Missing Sailors in Afghanistan
Massive search under way to find two U.S. Navy sailors who vanished Friday, but U.S. officials decline to comment on reports that militants killed one and are holding the other
Stage Set for Volatile Election Season
100 DAYS TO DECIDE: With just 100 days to go until midterm elections, congressional Dems ramp up efforts to stay in office while GOP polishes its plan of attack
Ex-CIA Chief: Strike On Iran More Likely
As Tehran pushes ahead with suspected nuke program, Bush-era CIA boss Michael Hayden says military action against Iran now seems more probable
Last few early humans survived in 'Eden,' scientists say
A STRIP of land on Africa's southern coast became a last refuge for the band of early humans who survived an ice age that wiped out the species elsewhere, scientists maintain. The land, referred to by researchers as "the garden of Eden," may have been the only part of Africa to remain continuously habitable during the ice age that began about 195,000 years ago.
Scientists' excavations showed how a combination of rich vegetation on land and nutrient-laden currents in the sea created a source of food that could sustain early humans through devastating climate changes. "Shortly after Homo sapiens first evolved, the harsh climate conditions nearly extinguished our species," said Professor Curtis Marean, of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. "Recent finds suggest the small population that gave rise to all humans alive today survived by exploiting a unique combination of resources along the southern coast of Africa."Man photographed in 30m tombstoning plunge
THE adrenalin craze of "tombstoning" has been condemned in the UK after a man leapt 30m from a towering sea cliff. Photographer Alistair Sopp captured the breathtaking footage by chance as the man threw himself off a cliff in Cornwall, England. "Tombstoning" - which sees people jump into the sea from cliffs, sea walls and piers - has claimed at least 12 lives in the UK and left several paralysed. "This is madness and should not be encouraged in any way,” a Cornish coastguard told The Sun. "He's lucky to be alive. People need to be aware of the dangers associated with tombstoning."It is extremely dangerous and when it goes wrong it can have devastating results."
Breaking News
MP refuses to meet with women in burqasA BRITISH lawmaker has been warned he faces possible legal action if he carries out a threat to refuse to meet constituents wearing burqas.
Chief to go as BP tries to rebuild image
BP WILL sacrifice embattled chief executive Tony Hayward within days as it tries to rebuild its image in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.
Flo the Wombat indecisive over election
FLORENCE the Wombat is no Paul the Octopus.
Three dead, 24 hurt in Sweden crash
A HEAD-on crash between a bus and a car on a highway in northern Sweden today claims three.
One dead, ten injured in Bangkok blast
AN explosion at Bangkok bus stop took place at the scene of recent mass anti-government protests.
Lebanese military fires on Israeli aircraft
THE Lebanese military opened fire with anti-aircraft batteries on an Israeli reconnaissance plane that violated the country's airspace today, the army said.
Oprah Gives Fergie her own US talk show
US TALK show queen Oprah Winfrey has offered the scandal-hit Duchess of York her own primetime talk show, it has emerged.
US 'not headed for double-dip recession'
US TREASURY Secretary Timothy Geithner said today he did not believe the country will “double-dip” back into recession before the economy improves.
Music promoter candid about downfall
MUSIC promoter Glenn Wheatley says he became the "poster boy" for an Australian Tax Office's offshore investigation that led to his fast fall from grace.
Drunk learner driver clocked at 130km/h
A LEARNER driver has been clocked driving an unregistered car at 70km/h over the speed limit while drunk in Victoria's Latrobe Valley.
NSW/ACT
Dogged push for equalityA LOBBY group wants laws allowing dogs into outdoor cafes to be expanded.
Councils' big legal bills
NSW COUNCILS are throwing away millions of dollars by spending ratepayers' funds on lawyers.
Illegal deer hunters busted on film
SYDNEY deer hunters have been caught on film for illegal trespassing and camouflage tactics.
DNA link found in missing mum case
A MINUTE trace of DNA could finally yield the identity of missing Sydney mother Lynette Dawson's killer.
Chemo forced on dying teen
MARK and Dianne Westley refused chemo for their daughter Sarah until DoCs stepped in.
A record scent of Marilyn Monroe
SOME like it hot, Australia's biggest caffeine festival also like their coffee shaped like Marilyn Monroe.
Queensland
Science behind coal seam gas queriedTHE government admits the science behind the potential $50 billion coal seam gas industry isn't good enough, telling the industry to fix it or go.
QR safety policy labelled a joke
QUEENSLAND Rail's safety policy is a "joke'' that endangers passengers and protects drunken yobs and vandals, a front-line worker says.
Residents to fight dredging plan
A $500 million plan to dredge Gladstone Harbour to cope with the massive LNG ships has been given the green light by the State Government.
Happy snaps help whale research
HAPPY holiday snappers will soon be able to take part in humpback whale research, merely by sending their in their photographs to scientists.
Cool and wet conditions to stay
WETTER and cooler conditions could be the norm in coming days, as most of the state is tipped to receive isolated showers until the weekend.
Bank manager found and charged
A BANK manager who went missing during an investigation into money missing from a bank he worked for has been found in north Queensland.
Miners to launch anti-tax ads
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard will be given another headache this week with junior and mid-tier miners set to relaunch their advertising campaign against the Government's proposed mining tax.
Asbestos threat in schools
MORE than a third of Queensland state schools inspected for a new asbestos threat have come back positive for the deadly substance.
Victoria
Man dies as car slams into treeA MAN is dead and another fighting for his life after separate crashes on Victorian roads yesterday.
Pollies warned off blaze victims
BUSHFIRE survivors have complained of Gestapo tactics after election candidates were warned against door knocking without permission.
Wannabe rockers, listen up
WANTED: a young, good-looking guy with a stand-out voice who can really rock.
Car-jacking terror
A MOTHER and her three-year-old daughter were held at knifepoint by a drug-crazed car-jacker during a drive of terror, a judge heard recently.
Burglar terrorises elderly couple
AN elderly man was injured and his wife pushed over during an aggravated burglary in Melbourne's north this morning.
Northern Territory
Children abusing other children 'ignored'CONCERNS raised over an increase in reports of children as young as three coercing other youngsters into sexual acts.
South Australia
Fire at surf shopLEAKING chemicals started a fire in a surf shop at Hove yesterday afternoon.
Toxic truck fire forces road closure
A SEMI-trailer loaded with herbicide which caught fire forced the closure of the Dukes Highway Sunday night.
Woman carjacked at McDonald's
AN armed man threatened to stab a woman and her young son before stealing their car at knife-point at a McDonald's restaurant in the northern suburbs tonight.
Street gang link to drive-by shooting
POLICE are linking an Elizabeth East drive-by shooting to street gang the Newboys.
Western Australia
Man charged over Mandurah hit-runPOLICE have charged a 21-year-old from Dudley Park over this week's Mandurah hit and run that left a 20-year-old beauty therapist in hospital.
Home-made bomb injures Ballajura man
A Perth man has suffered injuries to his face and hands after his homemade bomb exploded at his house.
Tasmania
Nothing new.=== Comments ===
100 Days to Decide: What to Expect Before NovemberBy Dana Perino
What to expect in the next 100 days:
1. Less congressional activity. Members of Congress worried about their re-election prospects won't want to be inside the Beltway going into the home stretch. They'll want to be back in their districts, touting their accomplishments, convincing voters that while the rest of Congress stinks, they are really looking out for them and the best choice for the November mid-term.
2. Negative campaigns. The Democrats have passed significant legislation this year, but those laws are distinctly unpopular; therefore, they have to run on the past. They can't run on hope this year -- instead, they'll run on fear. Republicans will draw the contrast with the unpopularity of the current administration and Democratically-led Congress, but it will be hard for them to make their case as the president will dominate the news cycles. So, the GOP will have to try harder and find other ways to communicate than just through the media (they are getting much better at this).
3. A crisis. Every August, just when everybody wants to take a breather, something happens. In 2005 it was Hurricane Katrina; in 2008, it was the financial crisis as the banking sector was falling apart. You can't plan for it -- but it will always happen and it will require the federal government to be responsive and effective. It's critical for the Democrats they don't screw this one up ... and nobody knows what it'll be yet.
Dana Perino is a Fox News contributor and a former White House press secretary.
===
Abbott gains most
Andrew Bolt
Tony Abbott won tonight’s debate - or at worst drew even. But even if he merely drew even, he gained most. Julia Gillard has been seen next to him, and struggling. Up until now she seemed the impeturbable, unflappable frontrunner.
To know how pear-shaped it could have gone for Abbott, think back to his disastrous health debate with Kevin Rudd. To know how vulnerable Gillard feels, know that she doesn’t want another debate.
WILL THIS HELP?
Not much on its own. John Howard lost probably all his debates, or seemed to, and went on to win four elections. Abbott needed a huge lift. This won’t give it to him, but may influence the press pack to take him more seriously for a while again. It may have broken the media meme of the past week - that of stumbles.
OTHER VERDICTS?
The Nine worm gives it to Gillard, but Laurie Oakes and the Sky News panel give it to Abbott. Chris Uhlmann calls it a draw, but adds that this is of most value to Abbott. The ABC polls six voters in Labor-held Lindsay, in western Sydney, four of whom give it to Abbott. Channel 7 gives it to the PM 53% to 47%. Commentators are kinder to Abbott than the public. Joe Hockey notes that in the nearly 20 years of the worm, the Liberals have lost two thirds of the debates but won two thirds of the elections - which may say something about how ineffectual the debates are, or how readily the worm reacts to the Left’s strengths of promising spending and how reluctant it is to acknowledge what comes after reflection - the cost.
ABBOTT’S WEAKNESSES
Nerves, obviously, and the need to check his notes for the opening and closing statements. He seemed so anxious to avoid antagonising women - and perpetuating the story of his “women’s problem” - that he drew his claws just a little in attacking Gillard, He mucked up his closing statement, seemingly suffering that dreadful problem of the nervous where you start to hear yourself speak, and lost his thread. He forgot key attack lines, not least that we’ve gone from three boats a year under Howard to three a week under Gillard. He wasn’t strong enough in projecting a plan for the future, or in showing up Gillard’s relative weakness in economics. - overstated - ed
GILLARD’S WEAKNESSES
Pulled up a couple of times by Speers for not answering a question, adding to that dangerous impression of being a spinner. She refused in particular to name how often she’d warned Rudd his government was “losing its way” before she deposed him. She struggled very badly in refusing to give a guarantee that she will set up her new regional processing centre, meant to stop the boats, within her first three years of government, and why she wouldn’t just pick up the phone to Nauru and accept its offer of a centre within weeks. She looked also less warm - which is her great selling point - and more the fiercely controlled and made up operative, and even a little strident in attack. She too often seemed to be spinning lines, not offering a program.
ABBOTT’S STRENGTH
Yes, he overused the phrase “fair dinkum” (seven times) but did indeed project an earnestness, which was of most use to him in once again batting away his WorkChoice albatros. He was relatively strong on the boats. - His policy is far superior in all aspects, but Bolt won't concede that -ed.
GILLARD’S STRENGTH
She looks almost Prime Ministerial, which is half the battle. She spoke fluently without Abbott’s stumbles or notes. She talks education with passion, even if her agenda is largely exhausted (with her excellent plan to compare school results) and her cash largely wasted (the school halls), and that’s a winner. - she spoke fluently about meaningless spin. Congrats. - ed.
ABBOTT’S “WOMEN’S PROBLEM”
I’m told Seven’s worm was more decisively for Gillard, but Nine’s - while it rated her very positively at the start, and Abbott less so, seemed more likely as the debate wore on to at least give the man a go. Women seemed more positive than men about both candidates, yet the final verdict showed women again more for Gillard than Abbott. But here’s the question: does this actually prove not that Abbott has a “women’s problem” but that Gillard has a “men’s problem” - that men don’t buy so easily the focus-group tested hot-button words such as “conversation”, “dialogue”, “families” and “agreement” without seeing some hard facts and policies to back them up. I do think the former is problem is of more weight than the latter, but I also think that both exist. - Gillard doesn't have a man problem, she has a problem that her policies are that bad that men don't want them. - ed.
UPDATE
Reader Sir Stiff Pilchard:
Tony Abbott missed an open goal.They had to answer a question about the cost of living prices and stopping them rising and all he had to say was...“We won’t be having an ETS or Carbon Tax.”Reader Jay Santos:
In sadly typical fashion none were prepared to discuss the real issues facing this nation (appalling lack of infrastructure, taxation reform).Instead we got focus-grouped platitudes, hollow motherhood statements and 20 minutes devoted to the issue of friggin’ boat people. The debates are a joke.The candidates are a joke. And the worm couldn’t separate them.- note the most rabid lefty can't support Gillard, and dams her opponent by saying they are similar - ed.
===
GILLARD WINS
Tim Blair
After 928 days of Kevin Rudd’s government, leftist Ben Eltham asked:
Where did it all go wrong?After just 33 days of Julia Gillard’s government, leftist Marieke Hardy asks:
Where did it all go wrong?UPDATE. This is beautiful:
Australia renewable energy industry was reeling yesterday after discovering a $520million budget cut to low-emissions technology in the fine print of Julia Gillard’s ‘‘cash-for-clunkers’’ announcement …Suck it up, greenoids. Hey, you can always donate.
The move will be financed by cutting into existing carbon reduction programs, including $200million from the flagship solar power incentives and $150million off the renewable energy scheme that provides rebates to householders for solar hot water and heat pump systems … Environment groups were yesterday bewildered by the government’s cash-for-clunkers program.
===
DODGE, DUCK, DIP, DIVE … AND DODGE
Tim Blair
It’s a great – no; the greatest – honour to represent Australia in international sport. The problem: so few of us are sufficiently gifted, and so few places are available. But Burt Sigsworth, hero, discovered a way.
After learning that Australia had no national dodgeball association, Sigsworth and his mates registered one. Then they selected themselves to play for Australia at the world dodgeball titles next month in Las Vegas. “We found,” says Sigsworth, “the greatest loophole in Australian sport.”
The Emus, as they’re known, have never played competitive dodgeball, but recently commenced serious preparations:“Once a week we watch the movie and have a training session on Fridays when we throw a ball at each other,” Mr Sigsworth said.They’ve also sought professional help:
The group met with the Australian handball team last week to pick up some valuable tips on how to throw better.This is the finest Australian sports story of the year. Sigsworth and his men have until August 13 to get their game down:
Just remember the five Ds, gentlemen.
===
I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE THEY TOOK OUR YOGURT
Tim Blair
A two-fisted tale of vegetables, cheese, unpasteurised milk – and guns.
===
CITIZENS REQUIRE SOME ASSEMBLY
Tim Blair
Not that she really needs another vote, the polls being where they currently are, but Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s climate speech last week absolutely guaranteed my support.
“If we are re-elected,” Gillard announced, “I will develop a dedicated process – a Citizens’ Assembly – to examine over 12 months the evidence on climate change, the case for action and the possible consequences of introducing a market-based approach to limiting and reducing carbon emissions.”
Now, this I’ve just got to see. A genuine Citizens’ Assembly, all squabbling and seething and obsessing for a whole year about how best to destroy our economy for no reason at all? Please, please make it happen.
Even better, they should televise every minute of the Assembly’s deliberations, with underperforming Citizens being voted out (and also being sterilised, if we want to add a population theme). Al Gore could turn up to present a special Inconvenient Truth temperature graph challenge. MasterClimate!
But there are one or two problems with Gillard’s Citizens’ Assembly plan.
===
TRUE BUT FAKE
Tim Blair
Charles “Pancake” Johnson remains insistent that cause and effect don’t occur in that order:
By now, you can predict right wing tactics almost to the letter. Whenever Fox News, a Tea Party group, or a Congressman from Texas is caught saying or doing something stupid, misogynist, racist, or kinky, the tactic is: pick out an irrelevant or minor point in the criticism that can be portrayed as inaccurate or wrong in some way, then relentlessly hammer away at it while ignoring any and all substantive issues. This minor point will often involve a deliberate misrepresentation of the criticism, as well.… it just doesn’t matter! Apparently Fox still lynched Sherrod, despite the fact that she’d already been lynched (according to Johnson’s use of the term). Impressively, despite his mistaken (and uncorrected) attempts to frame Fox over Sherrod’s resignation, Johnson now faults the network itself for poor “fact-checking”. In more ways than one, this boy ain’t right.
You can see Fox News using this depressingly familiar tactic today, in their excuses for their role in the right wing lynching of Shirley Sherrod.
The talking point on which Fox settled very early was that they had not even mentioned the Sherrod story on air before she resigned from the USDA. And while this may be true …
UPDATE. I wrote this response before Charles wrote his post. That’s how things work now.
UPDATE II. West Wing white guys blamed! Unless Fox is now embedded with Obama, this is probably another sign of the network’s non-involvement. (Via Instapundit)
UPDATE III. Little Dean Footballs! Howard Dean goes ponytail:
DEAN: Did you play, did Fox News play the clip that turned out to be inaccurate?
WALLACE: After she was fired.
DEAN: Right. I don’t think it matters whether it was before or after.
===
Hard to keep up with all that spending
Andrew Bolt
The reporters didn’t fall for Julia Gillard’s spin today, which will feed into the new narrative triggered by her slump in the polls and less-than-commanding performance in the debate:
With a sizeable slump in her popularity in the latest Newspoll, Monday didn’t get better for the prime minister when she announced a training package for specialist emergency doctors and nurses in Launceston…UPDATE
The $96 million program is part of more than $7 billion promised by the government as part of its health and hospital reform package. But Ms Gillard initially was insistent the program was new money - even though an accompanying press release indicated provision for it was made in the May budget.
“Just to be clear this is a new announcement with new money,” she told reporters…
When pressed for clarification on the funding later in the press conference, Ms Gillard had to back track.
“I’ve confused you,” she said. “This is beyond what was announced at CoAG (but) provision was made for it in the budget and we are announcing the measure today.”
Add this, and we have a story for the TV news tonight:
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has conceded the Opposition is correct when it claims Labor is borrowing $100 million a day to pay back Government debt.
===
US threatened by an enemy within
Andrew Bolt
Chesser is American-born, but the question remains: if more people of this faith means also more people inclined to terrorism, what is an immigrant nation to do to protect its citizens?
Chesser, who just two years ago was a high school football player and crew member in Fairfax, VA, is now one of 34 Americans accused of and charged with having ties to international terrorists in the past 18 months…Australia’s white paper on counter-terrorism this year warned of exactly this issue:
“This is what we have feared for a very long time—that finally the ideology of radical Islam is effectively reaching into the United States to disaffected people here over the Internet,” said Richard Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism adviser…
“In the last six to nine months,” Clark said, “the FBI has seen more domestic Islamist extremist activity than at any time since immediately right after 9/11.”
A ... shift apparent since 2004 has been the increase in the terrorist threat from people born or raised in Australia, who have become influenced by the violent jihadist message,” it warns. “A number of Australians are known to subscribe to this message, some of whom might be prepared to engage in violence. Many of these individuals were born in Australia and they come from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds… The scale of the problem will continue to depend on factors such as the size and make-up of local Muslim populations, including their ethnic and/or migrant origins, their geographical distribution and the success or otherwise of their integration into their host society.
===
Labor spinners must take dictation from Hartcher
Andrew Bolt
Great Labor minds think alike.
There’s the Labor memo:
In an embarrassing error, Labor has revealed its strategy for countering Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in an email mistakenly sent to AAP following the leaders’ debate.Then there’s the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hartcher:
The email, sent to senior Labor figures ahead of the debate, discusses ways of capitalising on any “slip ups” or “policy inconsistencies” from Mr Abbott.
It also includes talking points Labor campaign spokesman Chris Bowen and Sustainable Population Minister Tony Burke were to use to “start the ball rolling” when dealing with the media after the debate.
The email urges both Mr Bowen and Mr Burke to refer to Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s positive plans for the nation compared to Mr Abbott’s negative approach… It includes comments from Mr Bowen, developed after the debate, in which he says the prime minister won because ”she had more positive plans to take the country forward while Mr Abbott just played his usual negative politics”.
Tony Abbott made a strong critique of the Gillard Labor government in last night’s debate, but utterly failed to establish his own party as the alternative…UPDATE
But the central problem of Abbott’s performance was the absence of a plan for government… Abbott offered an “action contract” to the Australian electorate, but every point on it is a repudiation of Labor and not a positive alternative....
He failed to mention any positive offerings on education or health....
Where Abbott chanted his four-point repudiation, Gillard pitched positives. She listed the government’s six-point economic plan, plus its new offerings on education and health…
The bottom line? Abbott ran as an insurgent, not a potential prime minister. Gillard ran as a leader with a positive plan.
On the other hand, The Australian’s Matthew Franklin bites the hand of the Labor spinners trying to feed him:
THE Labor Party’s attempts to control the campaign for the August 21 election are reaching new levels of Kevin Rudd-style control-freakery…
This morning several journalists preparing to cover Mr Abbott’s campaigning activities in Brisbane found themselves being called by Labor media advisers.
Typically, the conversation began with the claim that a particular issue, be it paid parental leave or the cost of living, was “really heating up” in Canberra.
“If you guys could forensically examine Abbott on this you might take this somewhere”, a Labor staffer told The Australian before starting to give example of the tough questions that might be thrust in the Opposition Leader’s face.
There was none of this last week on Julia Gillard’s bus when Coalition staffers minded their own business…
For the record, it is unlikely that Labor’s proposed questions will get much of a run in the press conference Mr Abbott will hold later today. The crude Labor tactic was the topic of laughter and ridicule as news spread of this morning’s telephone calls.
===
One took his job, the other wants his seat
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd has two of those “women problems” himself. One is Julia Gillard, and the other Rebecca Docherty, yet again dismissed as a ”former barmaid”.UPDATE
Reader Dipu finds that Rudd is as orchestrated as ever:
This is about the so called ‘Mobile Office’ of Kevin Rudd. Being my local member, I wanted to contact him to make him aware of something important. I probably was a bit naive in thinking that I could meet him in his ‘Mobile Office open to the public’.
When I turned-up to this event (in Bulimba last week), it was nothing more than a pre-planned photo-shoot with the so called electorates wearing suits and make-up. This approach of Rudd just disgusts me.
On contacting one of his teenage staffers they said that I have to fill a lengthy form and that they would contact me later!
I stood there for a few minutes and the whole thing was orchestrated drama!
===
I’d bet my $80 that drivers aren’t as green as Brumby pretends
Andrew Bolt
The Brumby Government claims it can help save the planet with you-beaut schemes like this:
The State Government’s white paper on climate change, to be launched today, will offer drivers the option of paying a voluntary fee of up to $80 to bankroll a 20 per cent cut in Victoria’s greenhouse gas emission by 2020. The additional $80 rego payment will go towards planting more trees and changing farming practices.Drivers volunteering to pay $80 a head to plant more trees to save the world? How many such dupes is the Government banking on?
The State Government is hoping as many as 20 per cent of the 4.5 million owners of registered vehicles in Victoria will choose to spend money to offset their emissions - generating more than $70 million.Ten per cent? That’s sure wildly optimistic, given the failure of offset programs run by even the funkiest airlines:
“But even if only 10 per cent of drivers opt to offset all their emissions, Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by over one million tonnes each year,” Mr Brumby said.
Peter McCormack (2007) of Virgin Blue noted that since they launched their “Virgin has Gone Green” campaign in March 2007, 14,000 of their passengers voluntarily decided to offset their emissions. However, this figure only represents 0.5% of their air passengers in the same period… Macintosh and Downie (2007, p. 54) stated that voluntary programs like Virgin Blue’s “are unlikely to reduce the sector’s contribution to global warming” due to the current small levels of customer uptake. Similarly, British Airways’ carbon offset program has also shown minimal results, and politicians have blamed this on the airline’s failure to adequately market its product (BBC News, 2007).The research isn’t that much more optimistic:
Roy Morgan Research3 ... surveyed over 655 Australians on their attitudes towards climate change and participation in carbon offset schemes. Only 4% of respondents to the survey had participated in a carbon offset program. Uptake of the programs was primarily through the airline providers and hire car companies.And Queensland’s Labor Government could have told Brumby not to make such a fool of himself:
The state government’s carbon offset contribution scheme appears to be failing, with just 230 Queenslanders making the voluntary payments since its launch in November last year.More green deceit, I’m afraid, with the trademark obsession with seeming, rather than doing.
UPDATE
Then there will be the costs that aren’t voluntary at all, since the Government needs more cash to finance once of the most expensive sources of boutique power it can think of:
The white paper will include recent commitments to kickstart a large-scale solar power industry to generate 5 per cent of the state’s electricity from the sun by 2020, and double an existing energy efficiency target.One way to suddenly, somehow, generate 5 per cent of the state’s huge power supplies by solar generators is to scrap the cheap and efficient coal-fired stations we already have:
The government is also expected to outline a plan, revealed in The Age earlier this month, to close one-quarter of the Hazelwood brown coal power station by 2014. But the state would require federal help to compensate the plant’s owners, International Power.It’s hard to believe the Government seriously intends any of this madness. If it does, we will by paying more for less power, when this booming state is running short of the stuff already:
Victoria’s booming population (is) expected to drain a further 15 to 20 per cent off the electricity grid by 2030...Brumby should drop the warm fuzzies and tell us straight: how much is all this going to cost?
UPDATE 2
Kathy Russell is astonished that a Government would spend so much on an “alternative” form of energy that is so unreliable that it actually requires full-time backup from the very power stations it’s meant to replace:
In the first three weeks of November (last year) there was a total of 5.5 hours in which the combined output of wind farms in Victoria was zero or below (important fact: sometimes turbines are net users of electricity because at all times they require energy to initiate and maintain blade spin, cooling of motors, remote monitoring, turning of blades to face the wind, flashing lights, and so on). In addition, for a further 5.67 hours the combined output of wind farms in Victoria in this period was between zero and 1 MWh. This is just as bad. What good is 1 MWh of power from all that capacity? On top of this again, for a further 26.25 hours the combined output of wind farms in Victoria in this same time frame was between 1 and 5 MWh.(Thanks to reader George.)
That’s a total of 37.42 hours of less than 5 MWh Victorian combined wind farm energy generation during a three-week period from a combined maximum generating capacity of 439 MWh. So for a day and a half in a three-week period, all the wind farms in Victoria combined produced less than 1 per cent of their capacity. How is this smoothing out intermittency? How is this energy security?…
In total, the system produced at less than 50 MWh for the equivalent of eight days. It produced at less than 100MWh for the equivalent of thirteen days. The average output for the whole Victorian system for the three-week period was 86.32 MWh…
So can you now see why backup generation must not only be built, but kept running at all times? What’s the point of installing two systems when one alone will suffice? Where are the savings?
===
Abbott hints, Hirsi Ali explains
Andrew Bolt
There was this single line of code in Tony Abbott’s population speech on the weekend
The immigration programme should focus on immigrants who will make a contribution to our country and who are likely to feel proud of their new nationality.Former refugee Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of Infidel, fleshes out the idea:
Ms Hirsi Ali, arguably one of the most high-profile asylum-seekers in the world, believes the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees is out of date and unable to cope with the scale of migration, and says Australia is well-placed to lead moves to replace it.Mind you, if “everybody lies” to get in, why wouldn’t they lie in agreeing to this condition?
Ms Hirsi Ali, a prominent critic of Islam, said it was futile for countries to attempt to establish the bona fides of would-be refugees, not least because many asylum-seekers will say anything in order to qualify for asylum.
She said refugee claims should be rigorously assessed on the applicant’s ability to make a contribution to the host nation and to accept its values and culture.
“Everybody lies,” she told The Australian yesterday.
“So what I am trying to say is that we have to change the paradigm. You have to say, ‘You’re welcome, we need immigrants but there are many conditions. Here is the law, the culture, the customs. Here is what you agree to, and in exchange you get to live in a peaceful, prosperous society where you have all this opportunity. If you don’t agree we will just return you’.”
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Labor’s lead halved
Andrew Bolt
If this Newspoll result is what the Coalition achieves after a sub-par week of campaigning....
Labor’s 10-point lead on a two-party-preferred basis at the start of the election campaign has been reduced to a knife-edge 52 per cent to 48 per cent over the weekend, while the Coalition’s primary vote jumped four points to 42 per cent, compared with Labor’s 40 per cent, down from 42 per cent.“Knife-edge” overstates it, actually. But transparently obvious stunts such as her 150-strong “citizens’ assembly” seem to have more voters seeing through Julia Gillard:
Satisfaction with the new Prime Minister has also dropped dramatically, from 48 per cent to 41 per cent; dissatisfaction with the job she is doing leapt from 29 per cent to 37 per cent last weekendAnd - at the risk of reading too much into inflections in a poll - it seems some women may now over that woman thing and judging Gillard as a politician, rather than a symbol:
Last weekend, the Labor primary vote of 40 per cent came from an unchanged male vote and a female vote of 40 per cent, down four points in the first week of the election campaign.UPDATE
This won’t help Labor:
Prime Minister Julia Gillard will be given another headache this week with junior and mid-tier miners set to relaunch their advertising campaign against the government’s proposed mining tax.
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Obama wasn’t quite so tough on the bomber last year
Andrew Bolt
Barack Obama wasn’t quite as opposed to the disgraceful freeing of the Lockerbie bomber as he now claims:
THE US government secretly advised Scottish ministers it would be “far preferable” to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya.
Correspondence obtained by The Sunday Times reveals the Obama administration considered compassionate release more palatable than locking up Abdel Baset al-Megrahi in a Libyan prison.
The intervention, which has angered US relatives of those who died in the attack, was made by Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London, a week before Megrahi was freed in August last year on grounds that he had terminal cancer.
The document, acquired by a well-placed US source, threatens to undermine US President Barack Obama’s claim last week that all Americans were “surprised, disappointed and angry” to learn of Megrahi’s release.
Scottish ministers viewed the level of US resistance to compassionate release as “half-hearted” and a sign it would be accepted.
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