=== Todays Toon ===
Admiral Sir Harry Holdsworth Rawson, GCB, GCMG, RN (5 November 1843 – 3 November 1910), is chiefly remembered for overseeing the British Benin Expedition of 1897 that burned and looted the city of Benin, now in Nigeria. No shame was attached to the event at the time, which amounted to a punitive expedition, and Admiral Rawson was appointed Governor of New South Wales, 27 May 1902 – 27 May 1909. The first naval officer since Captain Bligh to hold the post, he proved so popular that his term was extended.=== Bible Quote ===
“The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.”- Zechariah 14:9=== Headlines ===
Obama Takes Off the Gloves, Singles Out GOP Lawmakers
During town-hall event in Wisconsin, the president hammers House Minority Leader Boehner for comparing financial crisis to an 'ant' and goes after Rep. Barton for publicly apologizing to BP.Why Are Fewer Illegals Caught Along Border?
FoxNews.com's Joshua Rhett Miller reports from the border on whether the steep drop in illegal-immigrant arrests is just 'shoveling sand against the tide'
Outrage on Hill Over Vets' Exposure to HIV
Lawmakers want investigation into reports that more than 1,800 vets may have been exposed to HIV or other diseases while getting dental treatment at a VA medical center in St. Louis
Kagan Called Out on Partial-Birth Abortion
Supreme Court nominee defends her revision of an obstetrician group's policy statement on partial-birth abortion while she was a Clinton adviser
A couple who belong to a controversial Church say their life is in tatters over “malicious lies” following raids that netted guns and ammunition on the organisation’s properties.Student's eyesight worth nothing
NONE of the youths who attacked an Indian student outside a railway station will see prison.
Abbott's $1.5bn vow starts fake campaign
TONY Abbott ignites unofficial election race with "game-changer" $1.5 billion mental health plan.
Gore 'a pervert and sexual predator'
A MASSAGE therapist accusing Al Gore of sexual assault says he was like "a crazed sex poodle".
Maggots fall from overhead bin on flight
A FLIGHT was forced to return to the gate after maggots fell on unsuspecting passengers.
World Cup ball is too perfect to fly straight
HI-TECH football is just too round to behave like others, say experts after footballers complain about it.
Killer surgeon Patel on suicide watch
CONVICTED surgeon will be sentenced today for killing three patients and harming a fourth.
Search to resume for missing camper
A SEARCH resumed at daybreak for a missing Estonian tourist who had been camping at a southern Sydney beach.
No more jobs for family, MPs told
STATE MPs have been banned from hiring family members as staff in their electorate and parliamentary offices. The edict from independent speaker Richard Torbay comes after several MPs gave relatives jobs as relief staff. Among more than half a dozen MPs hiring family was controversial Wollongong Labor MP Noreen Hay, who employed her daughter, and Liberal Ray Williams, who employed his daughter-in-law. Also hiring relatives were Labor's Barry Collier, who hired his wife and Linda Volz, who hired her brother. All the hirings were within parliamentary rules. The change is an attempt by Mr Torbay to show he is cleaning up standards before next week's expected tabling of the ICAC report into former Penrith MP Karyn Paluzzano. Mr Torbay said MPs had followed the rules up until now but it was time for a change.Hospital 'infected 1800 veterans with HIV'
DENTAL care patients at risk of contracting life-threatening diseases after equipment was not properly sterilised.
NSW Premier Kristina Keneally's $50m BER cash stash
ABOUT 900 schools will get electronic whiteboards, air-conditioning, solar panels, water tanks and covered walkways in a $50 million windfall from the controversial Building the Education Revolution program. Education Minister Verity Firth said yesterday the BER cash was freed up because many school construction projects had come in under budget. - nothing like the number that went over budget and sucked resources from the state. - ed.
Brumby Government's primary vote plummets in latest Newspoll
THE Brumby Government's primary vote has plummeted with the Coalition making up more ground in the polls ahead of the state election. The latest Newspoll survey for May-June - taken before Julia Gillard became Prime Minister - underlines the huge task ahead of Labor in retaining power in Victoria for a fourth consecutive term. The poll, published in The Australian, shows the Liberal-National coalition moving into striking distance, with the Greens becoming a potential kingmaker.Man 'groped sleeping schoolgirls during flight'
A MAN waited until two teenage schoolgirls were asleep before groping them on a flight from Bangkok to Sydney, a court heard yesterday. A MAN waited until two teenage schoolgirls were asleep before groping them on a flight from Bangkok to Sydney, a court heard yesterday. Sudhamoy Bandyopadhyay, 65, was travelling on a Thai Airways jet in January with a group of students returning from a trip to Italy. Seated behind a 16-year-old girl, he allegedly leant forward and listened to her breathing until he knew she was asleep before reaching around and groping her right breast. The girl said she pushed his hand away with a pillow and noticed he was wearing distinctive rings on his fingers. Next to her, a second girl claims she woke up when she felt a "stroking motion" against her left breast, which she alleges was the back of Bandyopadhyay's hand.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Guest: Sharron AngleShe's been slammed by Sen. Harry Reid in recent ads, but is he playing dirty because her stance is gaining ground with voters? Now, the GOP's Senate candidate fires back!
===
'America Live' Exclusive!
Reports of threats, scare tactics & charged with voter intimidation! Why was the case against the New Black Panthers dropped? A former DOJ attorney speaks in an exclusive interview.
===
Primetime Lineup
Cut budgets and stop tax hikes! Can Gov. Chris Christie's strategy for New Jersey save the state? He sits down with Sean Hannity. Then, decreasing the nation's deficit ... How does the GOP plan to stop the spending? Answers when Reps. John Boehner and Eric Cantor go 'On the Record'!
===
On Fox News Insider
You Decide: Who is the Biggest Fox Fan?SLIDESHOW: On Set with Dolly Parton
=== Comments ===
Losing in AfghanistanBY BILL O'REILLY
It is Iraq all over again. The war in Afghanistan is now going south, with President Obama calling on Gen. David Petraeus to turn things around, just as President Bush did in Iraq.
On Tuesday, the general was quizzed by members of the Senate, a meaningless exercise because everybody knows he is America's last best hope to win the war in Afghanistan.
A new poll says that 58 percent of Americans support President Obama's timetable to begin leaving that theater a year from now.
The truth is Americans are tired of the Afghan war, now the longest-running conflict in U.S. history. The reason we are in Afghanistan in the first place is that before 9/11, the Taliban who ran that country allowed Al Qaeda to use it as a training base.
Presidents Clinton and Bush knew that, but did not take action. Then Al Qaeda attacked the USA, and Mr. Bush, using Special Forces and the CIA, removed the Taliban.
The problem is that almost nine years later, the Taliban continues to fight a guerilla campaign, and, incredibly, the USA has not been able to get an effective Afghan government up and running.
The leader of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is considered by his own people to be corrupt and incompetent, so many Afghans are simply sitting it out, leaving the USA and NATO to fight what is essentially their fight.
We can't win if the Afghan people do not support the cause. The country is simply too big, and right now there are fewer than 100,000 U.S. troops in the theater. So it is up to the Afghan people to oppose the Taliban, and so far that is not happening in any great numbers.
Gen. Petraeus was able to convince various tribes in Iraq to stop fighting each other and turn on Al Qaeda. That's why the surge succeeded in that country.
The same thing could happen in Afghanistan, but the odds are against it because the Taliban leadership is hiding in Pakistan ready to move in when the Americans move out.
So you can see this is a huge mess, and like President Bush, President Obama has not been able to figure it out.
Can Petraeus turn it around? Well he did perform a quasi-miracle in Iraq, and he'd have to do that again.
If the general fails, the Taliban will recreate its brutal regime in Afghanistan and Al Qaeda will emerge from the caves allowing history to very well repeat itself.
===
51st STATE
Tim Blair
Associated Press reports:
Police in the US state of Portland ...
===
SLIGHT HITCH
Tim Blair
Christopher Hitchens is unwell:
Author, journalist and public intellectual Christopher Hitchens has announced he has cancer of the oesophagus and will undergo treatment.Being an atheist but also a contrarian, Hitchens would probably appreciate the irony of any prayers offered. He’ll be recovered shortly, and again dealing with the likes of Bill Maher.
Hitchens revealed his condition in a three-sentence statement on the website of Vanity Fair, a magazine to which he regularly contributes, and said he would have to cut short his current book tour.
“I have been advised by my physician that I must undergo a course of chemotherapy on my oesophagus. This advice seems persuasive to me. I regret having had to cancel so many engagements at such short notice,” Hitchens said.
(Via Emmanuelle)
===
MONTH OF HELL
Tim Blair
Chaser chap Craig Reucassel vows to avoid all alcohol for the entire month of July – something of a challenge, considering he has three sons under eight. And works for the ABC. And is renovating his house. And is a Labor voter.
The stress will probably kill him, but it’s all for a good cause: Australia-wide cancer services. Please donate. You’ll be helping hospitals and hurting Reucassel. Win/win!
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MEAT: THE NEW DRINK
Tim Blair
Alaska leads the way:
Prepare your palate for carnivorous cocktails.We need a new cocktail recipe: the Creepy Neighbour.
The Alaska Distillery in Wasilla has launched its Smoked Salmon Flavored Vodka, about a year after the Seattle-based Black Rock Spirits introduced a bacon-flavored vodka.
Both savory spirits were intended to complement Bloody Marys but are finding wider uses among mixologists.
“I think there was some madness and some drunkenness involved, honestly,” said Toby Foster, an Alaska Distillery partner and the one charged with coming up with new flavors with Alaska themes.
===
INTEGRATION DENIED
Tim Blair
Good news: German Muslims support their national soccer team during the World Cup.
Bad news: Leftist cranks harass German Muslims for supporting their national soccer team during the World Cup.
UPDATE. At least no Germans are being sent to the coal mines.
===
THE RAW AND THE COOKED
Tim Blair
Ken Stewart checks Australia’s climate records:
Like many people, he thought that the analysis of climate change in Australia, and information given to the public and the government, was based on the raw temperature data. He was wrong. He averaged maxima and minima for all stations at each site, then compared the result with the High Quality means. By these calculations (averaging the trend at each site in Victoria) the raw trend is 0.35 degrees C per 100 years, and the High Quality state trend is 0.83C. That’s a warming bias of 133%!Interesting.
(Via Benny Peiser. Also via Benny: a recent history of scientific consensus, by Ronald Bailey)
UPDATE. Further from Andrew Bolt.
===
CARBON CONCERT
Tim Blair
NYT folk scientist Andrew Revkin rocks to the Treacher beat. It’s a folkin’ classic.
===
PRICE WATCH
Tim Blair
An $87,709.99 watch receives mostly enthusiastic reviews from Amazon customers:
• I bought a couple of these and smashed them in front of poor people. You know, as a joke. Then I drove away.(Via s_dog)
• It’s perfect for my camping trips. Yes, I had to sell my house and my car, I now live in my camping tent under the bridge, having grilled rats for dinner, but man this watch is totally worth it.
• I highly recommend this watch to anyone looking for a timepiece that is capable of telling time, and is black.
• Chuck Norris riding into the Super Bowl on the back of Godzilla and round house kicking the crowd is no where near as awesome as this priceless poon magnet.
• I was just about to check out when I noticed how absurdly high the shipping cost was. $9.95!? Nice try!
===
Another Morgan poll to worry Labor
Andrew Bolt
Again sobering news for Julia Gillard:
If a Federal Election were held today the LNP would now win the Queensland ALP marginal seats of Flynn, Longman and Dawson, while the ALP would retain Leichhardt according to a special telephone Morgan Poll conducted June 25-30, 2010 in four Queensland ALP marginal electorates: Flynn, Longman, Dawson and Leichhardt.That said, again a caution: just 200 or so people were surveyed in each electorate.
The LNP vote (Two-Party Preferred) in Flynn was 55% (up 7.3%); Longman 56.5%, (up 8.2%) and Dawson 51%, (up 3.4%). In Leichhardt the ALP was virtually unchanged at 54%.
Professor David Flint:
Those over awed by the poll bounce should recall Cheryl Kernot’s move to Labor, and the rejoicing which dominated such progressive redoubts as the letters page of the Sydney Morning Herald. She was widely predicted to become the first woman prime minister.(Thanks to reader Steve.)
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Gillard gets her deal - but at what cost?
Andrew Bolt
A victory for Julia Gillard - but one that will come at a big cost:
MINERS and the government will announce tomorrow that they have struck a deal to end the bitter standoff over the mining tax...We don’t yet know how many billions the Government has given up to end this war with the miners. But every single one of them will require painful cuts - starting, perhaps, with the promise to cut business taxes.
The government is understood to have made progress in reaching a compromise with the three big mining companies - BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata - on key elements of a new resources tax model.
It is understood to have given ground on three of the industry’s key concerns - the retrospective application of the tax, the profit threshold at which the tax took effect and the headline rate of taxation.
The miners’ concern about the retrospectivity is understood to have been overcome by agreeing that the miners can calculate their existing assets - including the Pilbara iron ore mines and the east coast coal mines - into the revised tax regime at market value.
The new agreement is also likely to not only see lower value resources including sand, gravel and limestone excluded from the regime, but exclude nickel mining and processing from the regime…
Talks have also centred on the threshold point at which the tax would kick in, with the miners pushing for a higher rate than the current benchmark of the 10-year Commonwealth bond yield.
The government has also indicated a willingness to compromise on the 40 per cent headline rate of taxation and both sides are thought to be very close to agreement…
The compromise may make it necessary for the government to alter some of the initiatives that were contingent upon the revenue flowing in from the tax, such as the promise to slash the company tax rate from 30 to 28 per cent.
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Abbott trumps Labor on mental health
Andrew Bolt
Good politics, and for all I know it’s good policy:
TONY Abbott has ignited the unofficial election campaign by targeting Labor’s policy weak point of mental health with a $1.5bn spending package. The package includes 800 new hospital beds.The ABC TV report featured Robb, giving the announcement real gravitas given not just his persona but his own well-publicised battle with depression. The report then included a snide attack by Health Minister Nicola Roxon on “phony Tony”, with some flunky snickering behind her. It looked cheap and brainless, particularly in contrast with Robb, and I’d advise Roxon to ease up on her public bitchiness.
Capitalising on health sector anger about Rudd government inaction on mental health, the Opposition Leader yesterday promised to fund 80 new mental health treatment facilities, including 60 serving young people…
Health has historically been a Labor strong point and Julia Gillard, who ousted Kevin Rudd last week, has made clear she will campaign on Labor’s health record in the approaching election.
However, mental health experts have criticised Labor’s record, with the head of Mr Rudd’s National Advisory Council on Mental Health, John Mendoza, questioning Labor’s commitment a fortnight ago as he handed in his resignation. The 2010 Australian of the Year - mental health expert Patrick McGorry - has also been critical of Labor’s approach.
Mr Abbott’s ... move won early approval yesterday, with Professor Mendoza describing the plan as “a game-changer”, and Professor McGorry and a range of other mental health experts also enthusiastic in their support....
Mr Abbott’s policy documents released yesterday said a Coalition government would raise the funding by abolishing a range of Labor programs, including expanded funding for GP services, the GP Superclinics program, an e-health system and existing youth mental health programs....
Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb, who revealed this year that he had fought a lifelong battle with depression, said he was delighted with the commitment. “We have replaced $1.5bn worth of bureaucrats with $1.5bn worth of frontline clinical medical health specialists,” he said.
UPDATE
Oops. This choice of words isn’t much better:
FEDERAL Health Minister Nicola Roxon has labelled the Coalition “crazy’’ for funding its mental health policy by scrapping Labor health reforms in general practice and record keeping.(Thanks to reader Bernard Slattery.)
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ABC confounded: Tasmania not threatened again
Andrew Bolt
Why is the ABC so eager to imagine Tasmania as threatened by environmental disaster?
Take the prize-winning Four Corners program that claimed Tasmania’s forests were being devastated by crooked loggers, leading to this damning finding by the ABC’s independent complaints review panel:
There were inaccuracies and some misrepresentation of facts in ‘Lords of the Forest’. The program often, though not invariably, presents only the ‘anti-Lords’ (anti-logging) version on disputed issues of fact. It frequently casts doubt on the credibility of the ‘Lords’ (logging industry) and their supporters, but scarcely ever subjects their opponents to the same treatment… The emotive language of the program invalidates the claim that every effort was made to bring balance to the production. Perhaps justified as isolated individual and contextual descriptive phrases, the frequent use of pejoratives leaves the reasonable viewer with the impression that the program is anti-logging i.e. seriously lacking in balance and fairness.’Now this:
TASMANIAN Premier David Bartlett is furious with the ABC’s Australian Story for reporting in February that drinking water at St Helens is toxic.Quite rightly.
A Tasmanian review found that the water does not pose a health risk, prompting Bartlett to mount his high horse. The program relied on “seriously flawed scientific methods that distorted the results” causing “fear and distress” Bartlett thundered. The river is “in near pristine” condition.
“Yet this poorly researched and alarmist program is still available on the ABC website. I have asked the ABC to remove the program from the website and if that is not possible to add a disclaimer to the effect that the information on which it was based has been shown to be wrong and to direct viewers to the website of the scientific report.”
Bartlett also wants an apology.
Has the ABC ever been caught out falsely pooh-poohing an environmental problem?
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Dirty soccer deals, not done cheap
Andrew Bolt
More on the dirty deals done in a quixotic World Cup bid that’s backed with $45 million of Rudd Government cash:
AUSTRALIA’S World Cup bid team gave the wife of FIFA vice-president Jack Warner a pearl necklace last year after a complaint from Mr Warner that she had missed out on pearl jewellery given 14 months before to the wives of other FIFA officials.Reader David Hayward, a senior transport planning consultant, tells me our millions are been splashed on a bid that was always doomed to fail:
The gift was given after the formal World Cup bidding period had begun and when the Football Federation of Australia was seeking support for its bid from Mr Warner, who is on the FIFA executive committee that will decide later this year on who will host the 2018 and 2022 soccer World Cup.
The FFA said the gift - with an estimated value of $2000 - complied with FIFA rules, which specify that gifts must be incidental or symbolic in value.
The Age yesterday revealed how the FFA paid tens of thousands of dollars for the Trinidad and Tobago under-20 soccer team to travel to Cyprus last year in a gesture warmly received by Mr Warner.
In fresh developments, The Age can reveal that:
- The FFA’s international lobbyist Peter Hargitay canvassed giving a job to the daughter of FIFA president Sepp Blatter if the Australian bid was successful…
The FFA last night told The Age that it purchased pearls for Mr Warner’s wife, Maureen, last year using its own funds…
Mr Warner has previously been repeatedly accused of using his FIFA status to enrich himself and his family.
After an investigation in 2006, FIFA ordered him to repay $US1 million his family earned through the improper sale of World Cup tickets.
I’m completely with you that it is delusional to think Australia will host the FIFA World Cup in 2022 and this has always been the case, FIFA are simply playing with Australia’s emotions to fill up their coffers even more.Stadiums
I’d like to share with you some basic and “to the point” facts that I think highlight how it is that Australia really is a joke bid and that the Government is incompetent in allocating $45 million in funding which can be used to successfully debate this topic.
Likely Future Host Nation Order
2018 – Europe (most likely England, especially now that FIFA are sympathetic to them after the refereeing blunder in the Germany game – we never had a chance at hosting this tournament, anything to the contrary is a lie)
2022 – USA
2026 – China (FIFA’s next Asian World Cup host will be a population of 1.3 billion, not a population of 22 million, it just makes commercial sense)
2030 – Europe (most likely Spain/Portugal or Russia)
2034 – Africa / Americas / Middle East
2038 – Asia (most likely Australia)
The reasons for the above host nation order are based on the following important aspects:
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Howard blocked, cricket shamed
Andrew Bolt
It’s not Howard but international cricket that’s humiliated:
JOHN Howard’s desire to strut the international cricket stage has been thwarted by opposition from the game’s dominant Afro-Asia bloc.Peter Roebuck says it’s the shady blocking the straight:
A self-confessed cricket tragic, the former prime minister looked set to achieve the next best thing to his boyhood dream when he was nominated by Australia and New Zealand to become vice-president, then president, of the International Cricket Council.
In an unprecedented move the ICC has asked Australia and New Zealand to re-submit its joint nomination after rejecting Mr Howard at yesterday’s board meeting in Singapore…
While there was no vote taken at yesterday’s meeting, only three countries—Australia, New Zealand and England—were in support of Mr Howard.
On Tuesday night, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the West Indies all signed a letter objecting to Mr Howard as a candidate and refusing to let him speak at yesterday’s board meeting. Zimbabwe did not sign despite its opposition.
Most of all it’s about governance and the lack of it, and the endless soft soaping of the scoundrels running Zimbabwean cricket…Corroborative detail:
Howard never was the issue. Corruption is the issue, and it is dancing tonight...
Cricket Australia pushed Howard because of his credentials and cleanskin in financial affairs. They knew well enough that cricket lacked oversight… Howard does bring rigour to the table, and authority. That’s why they blocked him. He might ask awkward questions, might demand answers, and might publish inconvenient reports…
Of course, the corrupt pretend that Howard was blocked because of his political past. The argument does not hold water, let alone whisky (the favoured drink of the Black Label Brotherhood running the game). Half the Indian board are politicians. Among recent ICC presidents, Sharad Pawar, the new man, is a senior minister in the current Indian government, Percy Sonn was a bigwig in South Africa’s ruling ANC, and Ray Mali is an ANC fat cat despite being exposed as a possible collaborator with a shady past. Hey ho, hey ho, it’s off to work we go.
The mess is not about politics or principle or anything at all except power. The worst elements at the ICC were scared of Howard and so found reason to stop him before he became strong.
No heed need be taken of the fact that Zimbabwe was not one of the six Test nations that ignored protocol to block Howard’s nomination. The wretches running that particular show operate in the shadows. Far and away the most attractive feature of Howard’s unexpected nomination was the effect it had on Zimbabwean cricket officials. Alarmed, they called in various debts, not least from South African and subcontinental sympathisers.
It is likely former New Zealand Cricket chairman John Anderson, who Mr Howard beat to win the nomination, will now become Australasia’s joint candidate. Sir John is also unpopular with Mr Howard’s most strident opponents, Zimbabwe and South Africa. He sat on the ICC’s audit committee that attempted to bring the dubious financial dealings of Zimbabwe Cricket to account two years ago.UPDATE
Instead of backing the probe, the ICC sacked chief executive Malcolm Speed, Sir John resigned from the committee, and the audit has never been released.
Last night Mr Speed described the rejection of Mr Howard as “disgraceful"…
“I think it’s part of India’s power grab for world cricket.
“It’s important for them that ICC does not have a powerful chairman and in my view the ICC will be diminished and based in Mumbai within two years.”
Age readers side with Robert Mugabe:
Poll: Do you think John Howard would make a good president of the International Cricket Council?Typical comments from those so deranged by partisan hatred as to abandon principle:
Yes 35%
No 65%
Total votes: 1221.
Best news I’ve heard since Dubya’s Yap Yap got bumrushed out of Bennelong.The Left, despots and crooks. Why do they make such easy allies?
Bob Lansdowne | A to Zee - July 01, 2010, 7:25AM
Perhaps the opposing nations have a justified objection to the ICC being headed by a 70 year old white man with 1950’s attitudes and the cultural sensitivities to match.
richg | Caulfield North - July 01, 2010, 7:24AM
i couldn’t care less who runs the ICC, but seeing this horrible little man refused the job seems to me an outstanding outcome.
chris.d - July 01, 2010, 7:24AM
UPDATE 2
And to confirm that noisome alliance:
Zimbabwe’s sports minister David Coltart said some officials from Zimbabwe Cricket were supporters of Mr Mugabe and detested Mr Howard.Malcolm Conn adds:
The former prime minister’s bid to become president of the International Cricket Council failed on purely racial lines, much to the embarrassment of a sport which continues to shred its scant credibility on an all too regular basis.(Thanks to reader Professor Bunyip, who we all wish would resume blogging.)
“The ICC usually descends into racism and nationalism over matters of substance. This time they’ve descended into racism and nationalism,” one former cricket official told me with a weary laugh…
Have a late night drink in a hotel bar with ICC delegates and the resentment against Australia and England eventually begins to ooze out from the non-white countries which now dominate cricket.
UPDATE 3
An example of the sub-continental smearing of Howard, and the disturbing motivations behind his rejection:
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A few humans make Victoria much warmer
Andrew Bolt
Retired school principal Kenskingdom was alarmed by this Bureau of Meterology graph, showing a strong warming trend for Victoria:
He checked the data from which the trend, and found it had first been adjusted and turned into “high quality” data. As a BOM spokesman assured him:On the issue of adjustments you find that these have a near zero impact on the all Australian temperature because these tend to be equally positive and negative across the network (as would be expected given they are adjustments for random station changes).Actually, no, though. You see, Kenskingdom discovered that the adjustments served to exaggerate Victoria’s warming remarkably:
Kenskingdom goes through the individual stations for you and concludes:There is a distinct warming trend in Victoria since the 1960s, which has been especially marked in the last 15 years.UPDATE
The first half of the record shows a cooling trend. BOM’s adjustments have attempted to remove this.
2007, not 2009, was the warmest year in the past 100 years.
Three stations identified as urban in 1996 have been included.
Many stations’ data have been arbitrarily adjusted to cool earlier years
Only one station has had its trend reduced. Two are essentially unchanged.
Ten of Victoria’s 13 stations have been adjusted to increase the warming trend, to the extent that there is a warming bias of at least 133%, more likely 143%.
These adjustments, and the Australian temperature record to which they contribute, are plainly not to be trusted.
More climate wisdom from the Bureau of Metereology:
Melbourne has experienced its wettest June in nine years, recording 59 millimetres of rain, 10 millimetres more than the long term average…The heavy June rain was, once again, not quite what the warmist BOM predicted back in March:
But despite the damper conditions, the Bureau of Meteorology says there’s no end in sight to the drought.
Contrasting this, the chances are between 30 and 40% for above average June quarter falls in an area encompassing much of central to southeastern SA, northwest Victoria and the far southwest corner of NSW… Across the rest (and most) of the country, the chances of exceeding the median April to June rainfall are between 40 and 60%, meaning that above average falls are about as equally likely as below average falls.UPDATE 2
Weather is not climate, which is worth remembering when you hear the next screams of “global warming” on a hot day:
Sydney’s week of cold weather continues, with the city recording its coldest June morning since 1949 when temperatures dived to 4.3 degrees.(Thanks to reader Professor Frank.)
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What if the Government passed a law on what you must eat?
Andrew Bolt
Barack Obama’s latest Supreme Court nominee seems no more likely to defend the freedoms of American citizens than his last.
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She should never have promised Rudd a job
Andrew Bolt
Norman Abjorensen is right. Gillard should have promised Rudd nothing:
A SLOWLY ticking time bomb awaits Julia Gillard if she is re-elected in the coming election, now firming for August.Yet Greg Sheridan insists:
The bomb is one of her own making: the pledge she gave to include Kevin Rudd in her cabinet if she were returned to government. Unless it was said merely to assuage those sympathising with the former prime minister’s abrupt and brutal removal, Rudd’s presence in a future Gillard cabinet is fraught with potential to destabilise, and is certain to be resisted by a majority of ministers who, after all, collectively decided they could no longer work with him.
Rudd himself will loom over Gillard’s foreign policy. His shadow may loom longer in the coming weeks, because she squibbed the obvious and decent option of making him foreign minister… I do know for sure that Rudd is an immensely gifted man with a better and deeper knowledge of foreign affairs than anyone in the parliament on either side, and that if Labor cannot make use of that resource it is a failing of Labor, not only of Rudd, and it would be a huge waste for the nation.That’s an odd conclusion to an article in which Sheridan lists several of Rudd’s stunning diplomatic failures, many of them caused by his typical overreach, arrogance and tin ear. Take his deteriorating relationships with many of our closest allies or biggest trading partners - Japan, Singapore, India and China. Or his wasteful campaign for the UN Security Council seat. His over-hasty and over-the-top condemnation of Israel. His failed push for a new Asia-Pacific Community, which served only to convince many neighbours he was too big for his boots.
Exactly where has she shown the deftness of touch Gillard would want in her Foreign Minister?
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From the Brumby frying pan into the Green fire
Andrew Bolt
John Brumby’s Government is looking stale and now relies dangerously on Green preferences - dangerously for Labor and for the declining number of rationalists in Victoria:
The Brumby government’s primary vote has plummeted to depths not seen since the dying days of Joan Kirner’s administration 18 years ago.The Coalition will be disappointed that voters disappointed with Labor don’t trust Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu and his team.
The latest Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Australian, shows the primary vote for Labor has dropped to 34 per cent, falling three points since the last survey and down from 41 per cent at the end of last year.
Most of the voters who have deserted Labor have defected to the Greens, with the party receiving a 28 per cent increase in its primary support since April, jumping from 14 per cent to 18 per cent.
The Newspoll - conducted from May through to June but before Victorian Julia Gillard took over as Prime Minister - also shows the Liberal Party’s primary vote slipping from 38 per cent to 36 per cent in the past two months…
Newspoll shows the Brumby government ahead of Mr Baillieu’s Coalition on a two-party-preferred basis, 51-49, largely thanks to Greens preferences. The gap has narrowed from 52-48 in April and 57-43 in December.
This Newspoll was taken before Kevin udd was dumped, which gives Labor hope. It claims its internal polling shows it’s bleeding because of Rudd - and now that he’s gone it may win back those who defected to the Greens:
Many of the swinging voters quizzed by Labor identified federal government problems, such as the emissions trading scheme and the insulation batts debacle, as concerns they had about the Brumby government.But in Victorian Labor’s consolation is a federal Labor concern. Gillard badly needs to put distance between the Rudd Government’s legacy and herself.
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New Zealand backs off a war we’re losing
Andrew Bolt
As I argued yesterday, Afghanistan is a war we must win, but it’s wrong to send troops to one led by people doomed to lose:
NEW Zealand has rejected a request from Australia to send soldiers to help its forces in Afghanistan, with Prime Minister John Key saying he had grave reservations about the prospect of winning the war…
‘’Sacrifice is one thing for Kiwis, we accept that, but we need to know that it’s in a worthwhile cause and that there is a chance of success at the end of it,’’ Mr Key said in an interview on Radio New Zealand. ‘’I don’t believe that that is the situation at the present time.’’..
He said: ‘’I don’t think we need to be embroiled further in a war which will not be won if the local government there continues to be corrupt and not to win the hearts and minds of its people.’’
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Your taxes, Labor’s profit
Andrew Bolt
Julia Gillard spent $9000 of your money to earn $10,000 for Labor:
JULIA Gillard’s trip to Brisbane earned the ALP almost as much as it cost taxpayers to send her here.But credit Gillard for being a quick learner:
The Prime Minister’s office yesterday defended Ms Gillard’s fly-in-fly out visit for a $40-a-head Labor function on Tuesday night, saying the use of the jet was in line with the usual processes that have been the same under successive governments.Labor pointed to former prime minister John Howard’s use of the jet, including to attend the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2006.
However the Opposition said the ALP should reimburse taxpayers for the cost of the flights, saying it would have almost have been easier on the public purse if the Prime Minister made a donation to the party from government coffers.
The $9000 return flight to Brisbane is just shy of the estimated $10,000 collected from the 250 people who attended the function for Labor MP Yvette D’Ath at the Australian Workers Union watering hole in the CBD.
Ms Gillard’s $5500-a-head dinner with Brisbane business leaders was cancelled on Wednesday night. It is understood there were concerns the dinner at the exclusive Urbane restaurant could have become a media spectacle and there are no plans at this stage for it to be rescheduled.(Thanks to reader CA.)
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