Bairnsdale Conservative: Headlines Wednesday 7th July 2010

=== Todays Toon ===

Gillard Backflips to Applauds
by Mark Kenny
Two things are crystal clear from yesterday’s policy shoot-out at the OK Corrale over asylum seekers. One, that an election is now perilously close and could be called within days. The rate at which Julia Gillard is crossing off the problem areas suggests she wants to go to Yarralumla very soon. And two, that Ms Gillard and Tony Abbott believe that election can be won or lost on this policy alone.

This policy change by Gillard merely shows she knew she had it wrong for over eight years, but persisted with a policy that killed at least 170 people for political advantage. - ed.

=== Bible Quote ===

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”- Matthew 24:35

=== Headlines ===

DOJ: Arizona Immigration Law Must Be 'Struck Down'

Department of Justice files a lawsuit against Arizona over its immigration policy, accusing the state of trying to 'second guess' the federal government.

Ex-NASA Boss: Muslim Push 'Deeply Flawed'
Former chief says agency is in danger of becoming an 'empty shell' after current NASA administrator claims White House was making outreach to Muslim nations one of its top priorities

Lindsay Lohan Going to Jail
California judge sentences actress to 90 days in jail for violating probation stemming from a 2007 drug case after she failed to attend court-ordered alcohol education classes

Dubai: Scanners Against Islam
Dubai airports will not use hi-tech full-body scanners because they 'contradict Islam' and violate passengers' privacy, even though scanners can detect terrorist threats like those posed by Christmas Day bomber

Alleged Russian Spy Anna Chapman Reportedly Tried to Infiltrate Buckingham Palace

British intelligence officials are investigating reports that accused Russian red-headed spy Anna Chapman worked her sexy secret-agent wiles on Princes William and Harry, the grandsons of Queen Elizabeth II. A bombshell report revealed that Chapman, 28, was actively trying to infiltrate the royal scions' social circle with the intent of meeting them.

Lindsay Lohan breaks down in tears as a judge sentences her to 90 days behind bars for not attending enough alcohol education classes.

Baby dies from gunshot wound
POLICE are investigating if a baby boy's death is linked to a car crash that killed a young woman.

Gillard clears decks for August 21 poll
CANDIDATES ordered to a snap campaign meeting as Gillard eyes next weekend to call election.

Company 'sacked woman over pregnancy'
A COMPANY allegedly told a pregnant worker she had "caused inconvenience" before firing her.

It was just a bit of banter, says Elle
SUPERMODEL "regrets any offence" caused by advocating the use of powdered rhino horn.

Macaron, macaroon - which is which?
CHEF who designed this week's MasterChef dessert challenge says judges made sweet mistake.

Woman fights divorce lawyers' $10.5m bill
WOMAN embroiled in Australia's most expensive divorce claims legal charges "unreasonable".

Police moving on Hells Angels
THE Hells Angels has been targeted as the state's public enemy No. 1 - and police want it the first bikie gang outlawed.

Doodling as Metro plan burns $500m

AS THE doomed CBD metro fell apart, the State Government was drawing up plans for artworks at stations. Secret papers released yesterday reveal the scale of the Government's incompetence, including its fascination with art in spite of poor patronage figures, safety concerns and contractors "sceptical" the project would ever be built. Almost half a billion dollars was wasted on the failed Metro, which was axed earlier this year by Premier Kristina Keneally. The documents released yesterday showed that by 2051 patronage would be just 46.6 per cent of capacity, leaving the Government considering allowing passengers to travel free for a year.

Towers are light years into future

THIS is the $600 million space-age development - including giant overhanging mirrors to reflect the sun - finally given the go-ahead for the city. The spectacular project at Carlton and United Breweries' old KB site on Broadway, which was stalled by a host of issues, has finally been signed by the Planning Assessment Commission. Planning Minister Tony Kelly was forced to refer the Frasers Property development to the independent commission after the developer declared it had donated $25,000 to the ALP in the two years before its application. Mr Kelly said the commission had reviewed his department's assessment report and the developer's documents and it had supported the project.

Blackout hits 50,000 Sydney homes
ENERGY Australia has denied that a blackout which knocked out power to 50,000 homes and business in Sydney's north is because electricity infrastructure is in poor condition. A problem with the TransGrid network, which owns and manages electricity infrastructure and supplies Energy Australia, caused the problem about 5am (AEST) today. At least 60 sets of traffic lights are also not working. Affected areas include Pennant Hills, Berowra and Hornsby. "Just after five there was a problem on the TransGrid network which is the upstream network which supplies Energy Australia's network," an Energy Australia spokeswoman told Macquarie Network. "That automatically shut down power to that part of our network which supplies those areas." She said it remains unclear what the problem with the TransGrid network was or when it will be fixed.

=== Journalists Corner ===

O'Reilly is Back!
The Factor's back in full swing with an all-star lineup! Goldberg, Stossel, Hume, Krauthammer, and Colmes!
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Powerful Primetime
Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren: covering today's top stories and uncovering the truth! The most powerful primetime is only on Fox News Channel!
===

On Fox News Insider

Arizona Senators Respond to Lawsuit
Harry Reid Plays "Dirty Trick" on Opponent?
Candidate Wants to Pull the Plug on Illegals

=== Comments ===

FRAUD EXPOSED
Tim Blair
Palin-hater Andrew Sullivan, nine months ago:

It seems to me that Levi has nothing to lose and a lot to gain by telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth … If she can make millions off lies and spin, why should he not make some cash by telling the truth and exposing the fraud?

Sullivan is yet to mention the latest from Levi:

Levi Johnston has acknowledged telling lies about Sarah Palin and her family after splitting with the former Alaska governor’s daughter last year.

Johnston, 20, told People magazine in an online story posted on Tuesday that, since his untrue statements were made in public, “I owe it to the Palins to publicly apologise”.

Sullivan last month: “No one has yet found an obvious lie in anything Levi has said.” Nobody much cared what he said … besides Sullivan.
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YOU MIGHT BE A REDNECK IF …
Tim Blair
Comment of the week:

Julian Burnside’s idea of a redneck is somebody who went to Melbourne Grammar.

(Via Tony the Teacher)
===
JOHNIA GOWLARD
Tim Blair
Tuesday’s Daily Telegraph editorial:

The Prime Minister is expected today to reveal her own revised plan on dealing with the massive increase in the numbers of boat people arriving off our coastline. It shouldn’t be forgotten, however, that much of the current failed policy on boat people and asylum seekers was the work of Gillard herself …

Considering the extent to which both major parties are now moving back to that government’s tougher measures – which had the life-saving effect of dissuading people from making perilous boat journeys in the first place – some re-assessment of the Howard era may now be due.

The Australian‘s Greg Sheridan today:

Julia Gillard has moved to a tougher and better policy on illegal immigrants than Labor has had for a long time.

In doing so, she has comprehensively vindicated John Howard.

Yet some who condemned Howard now praise Gillard for imitating him. It’s a funny old world.

UPDATE. Rudd supporter John Faulkner quits the front bench. At 56, he’s calling for “generational change”.

UPDATE II. Gillard cannot keep a straight line.
===
HELP THEM FEEL GOOD
Tim Blair
NASA’s latest mission:

“When I became the NASA administrator, [Obama] charged me with three things,” NASA head Charles Bolden said in a recent interview with the Middle Eastern news network al-Jazeera. “One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.”

From moon landings to promoting self-esteem …

From Cape Canaveral to Cape Fear. Jules Crittenden has more.

UPDATE. Forget space travel. Iran is still trying to cope with mullets.

UPDATE II. Another contribution to science, math, and engineering:

Muslim fanatics in Kerala on Sunday chopped off the right hand of a college lecturer, accusing him of setting a question paper with a derogatory reference to the Prophet.

Turns out it was all due to a minor punctuation issue:

In the test, Prof. Joseph tells the story of a fishmonger who, despite hard work, becomes increasingly poor. The monger’s name is Mohammad. In his desperation, he spoke to God and also asked his brother why his fortunes were dwindling. His brother told Mohammed: “Why are you calling God, God, God....” Students were asked to specify the punctuation of the narrative.

One of these days, Allah! Straight to the moon!
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HEBRON ROCKS
Tim Blair
Israeli soldiers dance it up while on patrol:

Their commanders do not approve.

(Via Brat)
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TAKE ALL THE TIME YOU NEED
Tim Blair
A challenge from Dennis Prager:
Can you name one difference between what the media refer to as “world opinion” and Left-wing opinion?
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Dare I dream?
Andrew Bolt

How we’ve waited for revenge:

Orange you glad you waited? - ed.
===
Now Faulkner goes, too
Andrew Bolt
Julia Gillard retains the worst ministers - Peter Garrett, Penny Wong, Wayne Swan - but loses another of her best:

DEFENCE Minister John Faulkner will hold a press conference this morning to announce his decision to return to the backbench following the election.

The shock decision will force Ms Gillard to plug another gap in her front bench after the election after Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner revealed last month he would not be recontesting his seat of Melbourne last month.

Not her fault, I believe, but not good for her at all.

UPDATE

Faulkner was the gentleman who volunteered to keep Kevin Rudd company as he made the humiliating walk from the party room where he’d been toppled back to his office. He was the only other minister present in the long meeting Rudd and Gillard had on the night before Rudd was forced to resign.

Asked directly at his press conference if he’s comfortable with Gillard’s new policy on boat people, he hems and haws, mentions cabinet solidarity and only eventually says he’s “of course” supportive.

He says he’d only every agreed to serve as Minister for the first term of this Government.

UPDATE 2

The claimed reason?

‘‘I believe the government is well-placed to win a second term,’’ he told reporters in Canberra.‘ ‘But I also believe in generational change.’’…

‘’I know this is the time to step down,’’ he said. Any suggestion the recent change in leadership was responsible for his decision to relinquish his portfolio was wrong.
‘’I cannot say strongly enough that any such speculation is just plain wrong. Julia Gillard has my absolute support.’’
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The CSIRO chairman’s yacht no measure of global warming
Andrew Bolt
SIMON McKeon has just the right attitude in these irrational days to be the CSIRO’s new chairman.

I know - you’ll say it’s crazy for our top scientific body to now be led not by a scientist but a Melbourne banker.

But he has the right vibe, you see.

It is important to the Gillard Government that the CSIRO be led by another global warming alarmist, who won’t do anything embarrassing.

Embarrassing, like, asking the CSIRO, itself a hotbed of warmist activism, to account for a string of dud predictions that have caused such needless fear and led the Government so astray in its enthusiasm for emissions trading.

Remember the CSIRO report in 2003 that claimed global warming could strip our ski resorts of a quarter of their snow by 2018, and half by 2050?

We’re now half way to 2018, and yet again the snow was great for the opening of the ski season last week.

“It’s been fantastic, we’ve had so much snow that we opened a day early, on Friday,” Perisher Blue spokeswoman Kelly Schlecht says.

“If it stays like this we’ll have a bumper season.”

True, weather is not climate - but can someone tell that to McKeon?

Two years ago he told The Age what had helped to convince him of man-made warming was that a rainy wind across Waratah Bay, next to Wilson’s Promontory, had all but gone. He knew this because he’d been relying on it to fill the sails of his yacht as it tried to break the world speed-sailing record.

Shocked by his limp sails, he’s since become a business community ambassador for Earth Hour, spruiking the value of tackling global warming by switching off lights for a single hour on one Saturday each year.
===
Gillard’s great con
Andrew Bolt
I THOUGHT Julia Gillard would finally rid us of Kevin Rudd’s noxious spin and brazen lies.

But after her speech on boat people, I feel sick.

The woman I’ve praised this past week for warmth and directness has started her reign with the same cold deceit with which Rudd ended his.

Smoother delivery, sure, but the spin is just as shameless. Just as offensive in treating voters as fools. Turns out Rudd’s spin wasn’t just his, after all, but part of the new Labor brand.

The worst of it - in a speech riddled with this cancer - came when Gillard announced she hoped one day to send all boat people to East Timor for processing, so they couldn’t be sure they’d end up here for the $10,000 they’d paid a people smuggler.

Sound familiar? Yes, it’s the same “Pacific Solution” John Howard once had and which Gillard condemned year after year as cruel, costly and useless.

Here she is just last year: “We also said to the Australian people ... we were going to end the Pacific Solution which had cost so much money for so little result.”

Here she is in 2007: “We have committed to ending the so-called Pacific Solution, we would not have offshore processing in Manus Island and Nauru.”

So the difference now is ... ? Well, Gillard’s plan is to send boat people this time not to Nauru but East Timor, which to the Left is a holy land. Think Gusmao. Viva the Revolution!

Rather than use again the detention centre at Nauru, which we’ve already built, Gillard will spend a fortune on a new one in East Timor, provided its Government ever agrees to a plan it’s not yet seen in detail. And in the months until then, the boats will keep coming, with 83 this year already.

But get this. Rather than admit yesterday that she and Labor were wrong to dismantle the Pacific Solution and were now bringing it back, Gillard looked you in the eye and insisted you see black as white.

Oops, sorry - there is one more difference.
===
Gillard big boat people plan: East Timor says “huh?”
Andrew Bolt
It’s cartoonish, how slap-dash Julia Gillard’s thought-bubble of a detention centre in East Timor is. She hasn’t even raised it with the country’s Prime Minister:

EAST Timor MP Jose Teixeira was thoroughly perplexed yesterday by Julia Gillard’s announcement of plans for an asylum-seeker processing centre.

“It would be a legal minefield, to say the least, with the amendments that would be required to the Immigration Act to make it happen,” said Mr Teixeira, who was resources and energy minister in the former Fretilin government and now sits on the parliamentary foreign affairs committee.

”Fretilin disagrees with Timor Leste being set up as a processing centre for asylum-seekers bound for Australia,” he said. “It is unfair to burden emerging countries like ours with such an issue...”

His scepticism was shared by many, including some in Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao’s own coalition administration.

One government source, who asked not to be named, said Ms Gillard’s announcement came as a complete shock.

“To be blindsided like this? No, it wasn’t on,” the source said…

East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta last night confirmed he had given his in-principle support to Ms Gillard but admitted to the ABC’s Lateline program that he was yet to speak to Mr Gusmao about the plan…

Other Timor analysts agreed the plan was unlikely to go through, with some pointing out that Mr Ramos-Horta did not even have the authority to agree to such a deal. “(Mr Ramos-Horta) is the President, and as such he’s not a member of the government,” one said…

East Timor has no facility capable of housing hundreds, let alone thousands, of the Afghan, Iraqi, Iranian, Sri Lankan and other asylum-seekers making their way via Malaysia, through Indonesia and on to Australia, usually via either Ashmore Reef or Christmas Island.

Such facilities would need to be built from scratch and would far overshadow the living conditions of most ordinary East Timorese.

It’s astonishing that Gillard should have announced as her policy a plan so unrcertain and unresearched, and requiring the assent of people she has not even consulted.

UPDATE

On Lateline last night:

JOSE RAMOS-HORTA, EAST TIMOR PRESIDENT: We need to look into details of how this would happen. I still have to discuss with president Xanana Gusmao. I will be seeing him in the next day or so. We will discuss, but we need to hear some more specific details about this processing centre for asylum seekers.

LEIGH SALES: Have you been given any details about how many people the centre would need to hold, what sort of facilities you would require and so on?

JOSE RAMOS-HORTA: No. We - I have not received any such detail.

UPDATE 2

How slap-dash is this idea?

… it emerged that the Prime Minister raised it for the first time with East Timor’s President, Jose Ramos-Horta, on Monday night - just hours before her announcement.

Which isn’t what the Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, deceptively tried to suggest on the 7.30 Report:

HEATHER EWART: But how long have you been planning this for?

CHRIS EVANS: Well there’s been discussions through the Bali process and through officials in board terms for a long time in the sense of we need to solve this is a regional problem… What Julia did is said, “Look, I’m gonna seize this. I’m gonna drive it. I’m gonna make it happen.”

HEATHER EWART: So that’s been in the last couple of weeks then?

CHRIS EVANS: Yes, that’s very much the case.

Do the East Timorese know how many detainees Evans is thinking of?

This is not Australia’s problem alone and Australians are gonna see it through the prism of, “We’re the only ones dealing with unauthorised rivals.” Every Western democracy is dealing with this and every country in the region’s dealing with it. Malaysia’s got a million Bangladeshis in its territory. So, we need regional solutions.

UPDATE 2

Ramos-Horta isn’t the only one to be consulted just briefly, and at the last minute, before they could given any defnitive answer:

Ms Gillard contacted Mr Ramos-Horta, the New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, only on Monday night…

Mr Key, in South Korea, said he had told Ms Gillard New Zealand would not increase its annual refugee quota of 750. ‘’In addition, we won’t be sacrificing our security checks on those seeking refugee status in New Zealand.’’

UPDATE 3

Fretilin MP Teixieia again, on ABC radio (no link):

I’d like to correct something. Dr. Ramos Horta is not the head of government. He is the president. The head of the government is Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao. As the president he really doesn’t have any constitutional powers over issues such as this – immigration, asylum [seekers]. We’ve all been taken a bit aback by his comments. Surprised naturally. I’ve spoken to some member so government – Mr. Gusmao’s government – who have actually said this is the first we’ve heard of it. Certainly it’s the first of Fretilin has heard of it.

· We feel that it’s, you know, I mean, apart from the surprise really there are no details, but we can say that in principle any form of a processing centre of they types that have been discussed are not acceptable for Timor-Leste, it’s an unfair burden to put on us – as an emerging society post-conflict, as a society that has a number of social, economic, and other pressures on us – it’s unfair to put that additional pressure on here.
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IPCC “one sided”
Andrew Bolt
The IPCC alarmist? I’m shocked:

THE UN body that advises governments on climate change failed to make clear how its landmark report on the impact of global warming often presented a worst-case scenario, an investigation has concluded.

A summary report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on regional impacts focused on the negative consequences of climate change and failed to make clear that there would also be some benefits of rising temperatures.

The report adopted a “one-sided” approach that risked being interpreted as an “alarmist view”.

For example, the IPCC had stated that 60 per cent of the Great Barrier Reef was projected to suffer regular bleaching by 2020 but had failed to make clear that this was the worst projected outcome and the impact might be far smaller.

The wording of a statement on between 3000 and 5000 more heat-related deaths a year in Australian cities had suggested that all of the projected increase would be the result of climate change, whereas most of it would be caused by the rising population and an increase in the number of elderly people.

The report, which underpinned the Copenhagen summit last December, wrongly suggested that climate change was the main reason communities faced severe water shortages and neglected to make clear that population growth was a much bigger factor.

The inquiry into the IPCC was ordered by the Dutch government after the UN body admitted its 2007 report contained two important errors…

The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, which published the results of its investigation yesterday, concluded that the IPCC’s main findings were justified and climate change did indeed pose substantial risks.

Why do Australian exaggerations figure so prominently?

(Thanks to readers CA and Baden.)
===
How many billions did Gillard really surrender?
Andrew Bolt
Exactly how big was the backflip the Gillard Government performed to achieve it’s “victory” - one it falsely claimed would cost it only $1.5 billion of the $12 billion it had counted on?

THE government is under pressure to explain how its new mining tax will yield nearly as much revenue as the original super-profits tax.

A Citigroup analysis shows that the new minerals resources rent tax will raise between a fifth and half the revenue of the original resource super-profits tax.

Major resource companies are telling Coalition frontbenchers that they do not expect to have to pay any additional tax under the new regime, leading industry spokesman Ian Macfarlane to forecast that the estimates will unravel by the end of this week.

(Thanks to reader CA.)
===
It’s like a Jew going back to Hitler’s Germany for a holiday. Or not, really
Andrew Bolt

The Canberra Times, in a front-page article, presents us with a typical refugee of the kind we should help to flee mortal danger:

Excuse me? We’ve helped a refugee escape persecution so terrible in Afghanistan that he travels back three times on holiday? And on his latest trip stays there three months? And has family still living in safety in Pakistan?

And to think a newspaper blithely prints this without asking any of the obvious questions. But so many journalists reporting on boat people seem to have lost every sceptical instinct.

(Thanks to Michael Smith of 4BC and Peter.)
===
Julian Burnside is a prize hypocrite
Andrew Bolt
When Tony Abbott proposes a new Pacific Solution, Julian Burnside is livid:

The idea of reopening Nauru as a place of detention is unnecessary, absurdly expensive and morally bankrupt.

It is unnecessary, because it proceeds from the bizarre assumption that, if Christmas Island is full, we cannot accommodate any more asylum seekers while they are processed… It is ridiculously expensive to hold asylum seekers in Nauru. It costs about five times as much per person per day to hold asylum seekers on Nauru as it does to hold them in mainland detention centres.... Worse than its being unnecessary and expensive, the Coalition’s idea is morally bankrupt.... What Abbott proposes (like prime minister John Howard before him) is to mistreat innocent people to deter other victims of persecution from trying to save themselves by asking for our help. There is no religion or moral code in which such an approach would be acceptable… I wonder how he reconciles his philosophy of consequentialism with his pretended devotion to Christianity

When Julia Gillard proposes a new Pacific Solution, Julian Burnside is impressed:

Prominent human rights lawyer Julian Burnside QC has given conditional approval to the proposed East Timor processing centre, providing treatment of asylum seekers is fair and humane.

Mr Burnside said what was proposed was different from the former government’s Pacific solution, although it would depend on the detail.

He was generally impressed by the new approach.

An important difference was that East Timor was a signatory to the Refugees Convention while Nauru was not, he said.
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Weather is not climate, and Australia is not warm
Andrew Bolt
Alice Springs:

An appeal has been launched for donations of blankets and dry bedding as rain forces people out of Alice Springs town camps on what is likely to be the town’s coldest day on record.

Sydney last week:

Sydney’s week of cold weather continues, with the city recording its coldest June morning since 1949 when temperatures dived to 4.3 degrees.

Adelaide:

Oppressive summer heatwaves are the normal weather-related bugbear for Adelaide residents but locals are currently shivering through their coldest week since 1982.

Perisher:

New South Wales (NSW) ski resorts were reveling in one of the best ever opening weekends, with plenty of natural snow and record levels of artificial cover.

Melbourne: