Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Headlines Tuesday 24th August 2010

=== Todays Toon ===
PLEASE HOLD THE LINE
These are interesting times to say the least but still it is very healthy and good for democracy and a reminder to all why we must be vigilant to protect it at all costs. - ZEG - days after the election, and if the ALP retain power, we still don't know who the PM will be. - ed.
===Bible Quote ===
“When I said, "My foot is slipping," your love, O LORD, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.”- Psalm 94:18-19
=== Headlines ===
Funding of Embryonic Stem Cell Research Blocked by Ruling
A federal judge temporarily blocks the Obama administration from using federal dollars to fund expanded human embryonic stem cell research, saying the research involves the destruction of embryos.

More Company Audits, Fewer Illegals Arrested
Obama administration, which said it would enforce immigration laws partly by targeting workplace activities, is arresting far fewer workers that the Bush administration, study shows

Egg Recall Exposes Gaps in Feds' Oversight
Two federal agencies downplay their oversight roles after a half-billion eggs have been recalled, highlighting what lawmakers and watchdogs claim is a broken system

Ex-Marine Found Guilty In Colleague's Killing
North Carolina jury finds former Marine guilty of first-degree murder in the death his pregnant colleague at Camp Lejeune, whose remains were found under a backyard firepit

Petraeus Says Taliban Momentum 'Reversed'
Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said in an interview Monday that a surge in coalition troops has turned the tide on the Taliban's "momentum" there, but warned tough battles still lie ahead.

Breaking News
House falls on top of man
A MAN suffered pelvis and leg fractures after a house slid nearly 3m off its foundations and landed on top of him.

Improved market doubles Perpetual profit
FUNDS manager Perpetual Ltd has more than doubled its annual net profit as the company's investments benefitted from improving market conditions.

Woman arrested after hotel stabbing
A 33-year-old woman has been charged with attempted murder after a man was stabbed at a hotel in Adelaide.

Flight Centre net profit triples on sales
TRAVEL agency group Flight Centre Ltd says net profit more than tripled in 2009/10 amid record ticket sales and improved margins.

Court halts funding of cell research
A US court today issued a temporary halt to federal funding of embryonic stem cell research which President Barack Obama had authorised.

Seek net profit jumps 62pc
ONLINE jobs agency Seek Ltd has reported a 62 per cent increase in full year net profit to beat market expectations and says it has "diverse options" to support future earnings growth.

Party politics is so yesterday - Oakeshott
INDEPENDENT MP Rob Oakeshott has raised the idea of a mix-and-match government.

Aristocrat posts profit in tough trading
GAMING company Aristocrat Leisure Ltd says it expects difficult trading conditions to continue into the second half of 2010 as it reported a first half profit.

Foster's reports annual loss of $464m
FOSTER'S Group posts an annual net loss, and says it remains on track for a possible beer and wine demerger.

Boy, 11, nearly snatched from front garden
POLICE are investigating the attempted abduction of an 11-year-old boy from the front yard of his Melbourne home.

NSW/ACT
Tunnel re-opens, questions remain
A BURST water pipe led to a city-wide traffic gridlock last night, six hours after the leak was detected. Is this delay good enough?

Saving the young from road death
A MONTH ago teenager Lucy Hotham climbed into her car at and turned her stereo on. Her next memory is waking up 15 days later.

Bullets, weapons taken in theft
A WEAPONS cache of six guns, two rifles and ammunition are on the streets after the robbery of a shooting academy.

Two stabbed at construction site
TWO men were stabbed and hit over the head with bricks at a construction site in Sydney's south west last night.

Kindy hero saves mum ... again
WHEN diabetic mum Shelly Reid collapsed, her only hope was daughter Paige, 6, who did so much more than anyone expected.

Mystery cash for Kiesha's mum
POLICE are investigating payments into the bank account of Kiesha Abrahams' mum and stepdad.

League star's shock at Lane's babies
DUNCAN Gillies tried to put his arms around his lover Keli Lane, but she hated her "weight gain".

Teen shot protecting his family
A TEENAGER shot dead during a violent home invasion was gunned down as he stood against a door.

Hoges farewells 101-year-old mum
PAUL Hogan slipped back into Sydney late last week for the funeral of his 101-year-old mother Flo.

Queensland
Jesinta ahead in race for crown
AS Gold Coast Miss Universe contender Jesinta Campbell rubbed shoulders with Donald Trump, the odds on her winning shortened - putting her at favourite.

Body found may be missing man
POLICE believe a body which was discovered on the banks of the Tweed River may be an 85-year-old man who was reported missing in July.

Power cut hits thousands
ROAD woes as power cut kills traffic lights in northwest Brisbane and 13,000 homes left without power for almost an hour.

Woman raped after break in
A MAN has been charged with rape after an incident overnight at Strathpine, north Brisbane. The alleged victim was a woman in her 20s.

Car in ditch hits motorway
TRAFFIC snarls are clearing on the Gateway Motorway after an earlier accident forced a car into a ditch.

Pollice seek man over Ayr assault
POLICE are looking for a man they believe can help with their investigation of a sexual assault of a woman in Ayr.

Man crashes 4WD in Fig Tree Pocket
A YOUNG man is fighting for his life after a car crash in Brisbane's west.

Relax Australia, Bob's on the job
BOB Katter is heading to Canberra today to help decide who will govern the country and he says his only allegiance is to the people of his electorate

Ortiga wins top restaurant gong
Ortiga, in Fortitude Valley, has won the 2011 Australian Gourmet Traveller Best New Restaurant award and number one spot in the top 10 restaurants in Queensland.

Petrol plan comes a cropper
A $3.5 BILLION plan to supply 20 per cent of Queensland's petrol needs has been put in doubt by a State Government plan to ban mining on strategic cropping land.

Victoria
Worker trapped under falling house
A MAN had a lucky escape after a house slid nearly three metres off its foundations and landed on top of him in Geelong yesterday.

Speeding hoon blows .227
A DRUNK hoon has shocked police after he was picked up driving almost five time the legal blood alcohol limit.

Prison 'MasterChef' slammed
SOME of the state's sickest criminals have battled for the title of Prison MasterChef inside Victoria's toughest jail.

Modern trams are whispering death
TRAM-related accidents have soared in the past decade, with almost 1769 people needing hospital treatment.

Mum's meltdown a lesson for others
A MELBOURNE mother whose child was almost hit by a bread knife during her fit of rage has written a book about how to be a happy mum.

Coup for Fitzroy's Cutler & Co
GOURMET Traveller magazine has acknowledged Victoria is home to the country's two best restaurants.

Lamb prices off the scale
IT should be enough to make lamb fan Sam Kekovich choke on his chops.

Water limits ease as poll draws near
WASHING cars at home and watering gardens at any time are back.

Fire safety slammed
A FIREFIGHTER maimed in a factory explosion could have been spared his horrific injuries had there been warning signs.

Top AFP cop to Victoria
ANOTHER senior Australian Federal Police officer has been appointed to Victoria Police command.

Northern Territory
Babies' lives endangered in driving stunt
A MAN has been caught driving at 144km per hour with three unsecured babies on board.

South Australia
Triple M breakfast bombshell
THEY were the darlings of breakfast radio - staging a sensational defection - but now Kym, Ali and Dzelde have called it quits.

Woman sought for Kilburn stabbing
A MAN stabbed at least twice outside a Kilburn Hotel is in a critical condition in hospital.

Dams at highest levels since '02
WINTER rain has delivered a major boost to the River Murray, lifting its four key storages to 50 per cent of capacity for the first time since 2002.

Bureaucrat axing probe 'private'
A PARLIAMENTARY committee has heard a bureaucrat resigned after an inquiry into claims she pressured two married public servants to take redundancy.

Maths, science 'all a bit too hard'
HIGH school students perceive maths, science, engineering and technology subjects as too hard, boring and irrelevant, a study shows.

Adelaide dumped as Tiger rethinks
LOW-COST carrier Tiger Airways has again left travellers in the lurch, halting its Brisbane-Adelaide and Gold Coast-Adelaide flights.

Rural sector's $2bn rebound
A STRONG rebound is predicted for the state's rural sector this year and the grain crop is tipped to reach $2 billion.

Drill to simulate mid-city attack
EMERGENCY services will hone their preparations for terrorism when they respond to a mock shooting involving dozens of people today.

Burnside Council criminal charges loom
THE draft report of a year-long investigation into the Burnside Council is understood to contain recommendations for a large number of criminal charges.

Cocktails by puddles at William Creek
WET roads are still stranding people in the outback, but some have worked out a way to pass the time in William Creek - cocktail hour by a giant puddle.

Western Australia
Court bid on teenage sex fiend
A GOVERNMENT department will today apply for a teenage sex fiend to be returned to high security custody after he allegedly attacked a disabled woman.

Ken Wyatt ahead in Hasluck
LIBERAL candidate Ken Wyatt remains ahead of Labor incumbent Sharryn Jackson in the crucial Perth seat of Hasluck, extending his election-night lead in yesterday's counting.

CCC targets City of Stirling
THE Corruption and Crime Commission will hold public hearings into allegations of misconduct at the City of Stirling.

Pub reject stabbed in back
A MAN has a punctured lung after being stabbed three times as he walked away from a Perth pub from where he'd been ejected.

Push for ALP to drop mining tax
NEWLY-elected WA National Tony Crook could back a minority Labor government if the ALP scraps the controversial minerals resources rent tax.

Man, 30, dies at immigration centre
A 30-YEAR-OLD man has died after being found unconscious at the Curtin Immigration Detention Centre in WA.

Fatal crash witnesses sought
POLICE crash investigators are calling for witnesses to a crash in Mosman Park on Saturday night which claimed the life of an 18-year-old man.

Search for missing mum continues
POLICE probing the mystery disappearance of missing mother-of-three Iveta Mitchell are today searching an area near Kwinana Beach.

'Mentally ill don't belong in jail'
MENTALLY ill prisoners don't belong in jail and should be transferred into secure residential facilities instead, WA Labor MP Paul Papalia says.

Tasmania
Labor says Denison still close
LABOR is playing down predictions it will retain the Tasmanian seat of Denison where its candidate is leading independent Andrew Wilkie.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Guest: Linda McMahon
'On the Record' goes on the road with Linda McMahon. The Senate candidate gives a complete behind-the-scenes look at her Connecticut campaign.
===
Ben Quayle Sits Down with Neil
Following in his father's footsteps? Ben Quayle's strategy in the Arizona primary: will it be enough to get him all the way to the Hill?
===
Crimes Against Liberty?
Why David Limbaugh claims Obama's agenda is unraveling the Constitution and stripping us of our rights. The author speaks out.
===
Iran Unveils First Unmanned Bomber Termed "Ambassador of Death
Author Translates Comments of NY Mosque Imam
Negative Ads Run Rampant in IL Senate Race
=== Comments ===
Who Will Stand for the Working Man?
By Larry Gatlin
"Here I sit high, gettin' ideas, ain't nothin' but a fool would live like this
Out all night, runnin' wild, woman sittin' home with a month old
Dang me, dang me, ought-a take a rope and hang me
High from the highest tree, woman would you weep for me?"
These immortal (or immoral) words were written by my dear friend, the late great Roger Miller, about a lazy, good for nothin', beer guzzling', absentee husband, who deserves to be "hung from the highest tree". He went on to say, " I'm the seventh of seven sons, my pappy was a pistol, I'm a son of a gun.

Well, my pappy Is still a pistol and good son of a gun.. Gatling Gun, get it? But unlike the lazy, hard drinking, alcoholic horse's rear in Roger Miller's song, My father, Marine Corp.Curley Gatlin, does not deserve to be "hung from the highest tree". You see, Corp. Gatlin went to work this morning, and just about every morning of his 84 years. He did not leave my mother at home with a "month old child"...unless he was going to work!

He worked hard, really hard, to feed my mother, my two brothers, Steve and Rudy, my sister La Donna and me. He not only worked hard, he taught us to work hard. He taught us that work was what a man does. He taught us that work is noble, that work is, in some great cosmic sense, cleansing, and that a man was pretty much a good fer nuthin' "so and so", if he wouldn't cinch up his belt and figure out a way to feed his family.

Please do not misunderstand me, I know that jobs are hard to find in America today. Well, jobs were hard find in America in 1956 too, but daddy always found one. He moved my mother and me and my new baby brother, Steve, 7 times the year Steve was born...... He moved with the drilling rig. He moved with his...job. That is what working men do, they find work. (more at the link)
===
LABNATINDYGREENS
Tim Blair
Labor closes in:
Julia Gillard’s chances of forming government look more likely – with the support of at least two of three independents and the lone Greens member from Melbourne …
Privately, the two NSW independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, were leaning toward Labor, and would break from Queensland independent Bob Katter if needed.

With their support and that of Greens MP Adam Bandt, Ms Gillard would be able to form government with the slimmest of margins and claim the critical 76 seats needed to govern.
Oakeshott and Windsor respectively represent the seats of Lyne and New England – where voters may be surprised to learn that they are on the verge of returning Labor to power.
===
THEY BELIEVED IN MAKE BELIEVE
Tim Blair
Remember that terrible Greens ad? Turns out the Greens hated it too. Incidentally, the name of the advertising agency responsible is “Make Believe”. Read on for further insider Greens details, including an email reading: “The deal with the ALP is signed by Karl Bitar.”
===
STAB-ILITY
Tim Blair
Labor sackmerchant Mark Arbib kicked Kevin Rudd out of the Prime Ministership, so it’s only fair that Prime Minister Julia Gillard kicked him off the ABC’s Q & A program. Karma and everything. Decreed the PM:
I have made it clear that this is not a time for campaign analysis. The focus of Labor’s ministerial team must be on providing stable and effective government …
Interesting way to emphasise stability.
Consequently I have requested and Senator Arbib has agreed to not appear on Q & A tonight which is focussed solely on campaign analysis. I have requested Labor Backbencher David Bradbury to represent the Labor team on the panel.
Considering that Gillard wants to throw $43 billion at superfast internet, it’s a little odd that she’s so opposed to information being delivered rapidly over creaky old television. Q & A executive producer Peter McEvoy replied:
We’re dismayed that Mr Arbib will be prevented from answering the questions of the Q & A audience on the significant issues raised by Saturday’s election …

We cannot accept your request that you choose a substitute panel member for tonight’s Q & A since this would be a clear breach of the ABC’s editorial independence. Mr Arbib will be represented by an empty chair at the Q & A desk.
The chair performed well. Unlike other Labor entities, it didn’t offer any damaging material at all. Although it lacked a certain authenticity:
To accurately represent Mark Arbib, that empty chair should really be spinning.
Not a great day for the caretaker PM, despite her advances with those independents. Niki Savva reviews the Gillard experiment to date:
She had probably two good days as Prime Minister. The first and the second.
===
ONE NOTION
Tim Blair
So much for dissent. Ex-rebel Marieke Hardy embraces national conformity:
We’ve spent so long pointing out the foibles of our foes we’ve forgotten that the term ‘moving forward’ should really be accompanied by a big idea or two, a firm and exciting notion of where we should be at as a country, a notion that has nothing to do with big taxes or grubby factions or delicate handouts of funding here and there to keep the rowdy suburbs at bay.
Observe that Marieke wishes only for a singular national “notion”. Rather narrow, isn’t she?
We’re just a mish mash of hopeless idealism and world-weary cynicism and until we decide who we really are we’re going to keep ending up with a crippled government of stymied personalities and tremulous crowd-pleasers too terrified to put a step wrong lest we again pounce. And we deserve it. This is what we get.

I’m off to get roaringly drunk. Wake me when we decide on a united vision and have something interesting to say.
If we want something interesting, we won’t be waking Marieke.
===
Now it’s Abbott in front
Andrew Bolt
Now the Coalition edges ahead in Hasluck - and not just there (most recent tweet at the top):
our lead should be about 455 now (subject to minor recount corrections). Not sure whether AEC has updated yet.
11 minutes ago via mobile web

Mathias Cormann So far postals trending in our favour in Hasluck. Out of 2,600 postals today Lib 2PP improved by 138. #ausvotes

Mathias Cormann Another 1,000 (new) postal votes counted in Hasluck. Libs up by another 19 2PP. 500/481. #ausvotes
The Liberal-held Dunkley and Boothby now seem safe. Brisbane falls to the Liberals, and former Greens candidate Andrew Wilkie edges ahead again in Denison.

Likely result: Coalition 73, Labor 72, Labor-leaning independent 1, Greens 1, ex-Nationals independents 3.

Now it seems that the ex-Nationals independents really have little excuse not to back Abbott, if stability is really what they want (and if the seats stay as I’ve called them).

Backing Abbott would give the Government a majority of two. Backing Labor a likely majority of four, but dependent on an unlikely mix of rural conservatives, a Greens extremist, an ex-Greens independent and a warring Labor.

(Figures corrected.)

UPDATE

Then again, how safe is Brisbane for the Liberals?

LetUsRejoiceRT @sspencer_63: Bevis roaring home in Brisbane. LNP lead slashed to 657 with Bevis getting 56% of pre-polls. Bevis now on 49.49%. #ausvotes
===
Kill to avenge the earth, not the humans
Andrew Bolt
What could make Brad Pitt reconsider his opposition to the death penalty?

The September 11 terror attacks that killed 3000 fellow citizens?

The Fort Hood massacre, in which 13 US soldiers were murdered?

The “Grim Sleeper” serial killer, responsible for the deaths of at least 10 women?

Answer: an oil spill.
“I was never for the death penalty before - I am willing to look at it again,” Pitt states, referring to those responsible for the disastrous April 20 oil rig explosion and subsequent spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Imagine how he’d feel if the oil, now largely gone, had actually caused long-term damage.

(Thanks to reader David.)
===
How ABC Online barracked for Julia, using your money
Andrew Bolt
Gavin Atkins wraps up the election campaign waged by the ABC’s new on-line sites, Unleashed and The Drum:
We counted 327 negative comments about Julia Gillard and 353 about Tony Abbott. There were 197 positive comments for Gillard and only 65 for Abbott.

This means that Gillard was criticised 1.6 times for every time she was praised, while Abbott was criticised five times for every time he was praised.

Another way of looking at it, is that while Gillard and Abbott received roughly the same amount of criticism, Gillard was praised three times more often…

The raw numbers do not quite convey the viciousness of some of the personal attacks on Tony Abbott or the softness of praise directed towards him…

The lopsided result was helped markedly by the ABC’s Chief Online political reporter, Annabel Crabb… Crabb recorded 18 gushing positive mentions of Gillard and only three grudging positive mentions of Abbott – and they were largely of the sarcastic variety…

John Hewson criticised Gillard ten times and Abbott four times, but praised Gillard and Abbott about the same. The figures support what we suspected. During this election, Hewson has cemented himself as the ABC’s preferred pet Liberal representative – harmless and completely tokenistic. He provided commentary, but did not represent conservative opinion on any substantive issue…

An aside

As an experiment, we submitted some comments to ABC online over the course of the campaign:

“To be fair to Julia, she is a genuinely strange looking woman” and “She took a married man from his children and is likely to treat her country no better.”

What the moderators were not to know is that these comments were created by making slight alterations to what was, presumably, paid content in The Drum, and inserting Gillard’s name where Abbott’s used to be. They were rejected.
You should complain.
===
Gillard seems set, as independents snub their voters
Andrew Bolt
As predicted here yesterday, Julia Gillard looks like winning with the backing of some of the independents:
Privately, the two NSW independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, were leaning toward Labor, and would break from Queensland independent Bob Katter if needed.

With their support and that of Greens MP Adam Bandt, Ms Gillard would be able to form government with the slimmest of margins and claim the critical 76 seats needed to govern.
Oakeshott could get his reward:
Sources claimed the independents had already knocked back offers from both sides of the speaker’s role in Parliament. However, the lure of a Labor ministry was still believed to be on offer to Mr Oakeshott.
Oakeshott in particular, being in fact a Leftist, has talked of introducing a new “consensus politics”:
ROB OAKESHOTT: And a model, a consensus model of politics that considers how we can build a bit of a buffer, I think, is something I’d be very interested to talking to anyone with… I think one of the more creative ones was South Australia. There was a National Party member in the Cabinet of a majority Labor Government, for example, even when it wasn’t a situation like this.... And you know, I think that’s a response - and a positive response - to the big message of the ballot box last weekend, which is this sense of being underwhelmed in the Australian community by the current state of the way politics is played on these rigid adversarial lines between a blue team and a red team.

LEIGH SALES: On that point, when you’ve been asked in the past few days about how you’re going to make up your mind about who to support, you said that one of the things you would like to see is the reform of the processes of Parliament. What exactly are you looking for there?

ROB OAKESHOTT: That’s one example. Trying to move the Australian Parliament towards compromise and negotiation rather than strict one says black the other says white.
It all sounds so sweet. But such consensus politics tends in practice not just to drown the brilliance of the individual in the mediocrity of the collective - and usually the collective of the commentariat class.

Worse is that consensus politics tends to be the kind of a politics in which voters actually get less debate and less choice. Indeed, the first act of these champions of consensus seems to be to ignore the will of the conservative electorates which voted them in:
“(Tony Windsor’s) problem is that while he has campaigned heavily on issues such as broadband and health, his support base is very conservative,” said Mr Jarratt, the Tamworth region chairman of the NSW Farmers Association.

“But if he were to side with the ALP, then it means he has issues with his electorate - any candidate running against him next election would be saying a vote for Tony is a vote for Labor.”

An on-the-ground survey by The Australian in the three rural independent seats yesterday - Mr Windsor’s New England, Rob Oakeshott’s NSW seat of Lyne, and Bob Katter’s Queensland seat of Kennedy - found much the same sentiment. Many, but far from all, of those who voted for their independent believe it would be a betrayal if their MPs gave Julia Gillard the numbers to continue governing when they could have installed Tony Abbott.
I doubt Bob Katter will do an Oakeshott, however, and help to install a Labor/Green team:
In 1996 Katter defended a fellow Nationals candidate for saying citizenship ceremonies “dewogged” people by arguing: “He is also making the Leichhardt seat a testing ground for those who are game to defy the politically correct enviroNazis and femiNazis and all the rest of these little slanty eye ideologues who persecute ordinary, average Australians all of the time and continuously and indulge in thought control.”

In case anyone thinks he has mellowed, this was Katter in 2006 on the Wild Rivers legislation: ”This country will now belong to these little enviroNazis hiding in their concrete jungles in the big cities.

“It will make mining developments impossible. All changes of usage will have to be run past some pimply-faced university degreed enviroNazi who is all puffed up with his own self-importance and power.”
UPDATE

Oakeshott seems bent on giving us a Labor-Greens government:
LEIGH SALES: When you say the make-up of the Senate is important, does that mean that you will be considering what sort of a government in the House of Representatives could work best with a Senate where the balance of power is going to be held by the Greens?

ROB OAKESHOTT: Yeah, look, that’s a personal view, but I think yes.
Agrarian socialist meets urban socialists and sees something to like.

UPDATE 2

Oakeshott explains his new “consensus” politics:
Mr Oakeshott said voters had demonstrated they were tired of party politics, and he would consider moving away from usual power sharing arrangements.

He floated the idea of a government formed by MPs from all sides, for example former Coalition environment minister Malcolm Turnbull serving under the Labor prime ministership of Julia Gillard, or Mr Rudd in Mr Abbott’s Cabinet…
“I do think here is a moment where we can explore the edges, and explore outside the box.”

So how do you hold such a government to account? By voting Liberal? Or Labor? Or leaving it to the voters of Wentworth to decide the nation’s environment policies?

As I said, “consensus” easily becomes anti-democratic.

(The original version of this update was accidently deleted, so this rewrite may differ from what was earlier here.)

UPDATE 3

If the three ex-Nationals Independent MPs listen to the people who voted them in, they’d back Tony Abbott over Julia Gillard. Here is the Senate vote as of 10.30am in each of their seats, showing a very strong preference for the Coalition:
In New England (Tony Windsor’s seat) the Senate first preference vote is Liberal/National 42.94% to Labor 29.50%. Shooters and Fishers at 6.11% almost tied with the Greens’ 6.99%.

In Lyne (Rob Oakeshott) the Liberals/Nationals are also well in front, with 45.89% to Labor 30.53%. The Greens have 8.11%, and Shooters and Fishers 3.86%.

In Kennedy (Bob Katter): the Liberal National Party on 40.76% is way ahead of the ALP, on 27.24%. The Australian Fishing and Lifestyle Party - motto: “working hard to keep the Greens out of the Senate in Queensland “ - has 6.69%, beating the Greens on 6.20%. Add the Shooters and Fishers on 4.17%, One Nation on 2.07% and Family First on 3.16% and you have a deeply conservative electorate, strongly against Labor and the Greens.
(Thanks to reader Bazzak from Tamworth.)
===
Why feminism cares more about Palin’s breasts than dead women
Andrew Bolt
Dana Loesch:
Popularly defined feminism is no longer about liberating women from the patriarchy but about beholding them to a political party… Liberal feminists made more hay about Palin’s chest than I saw them make over the nine women who were recently stoned to death in the Middle East.
===
Imam: America bloodier than al Qaeda
Andrew Bolt

I’m not sure Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf will have won more support for his plan for a 13-storey Islamic centre and mosque near Ground Zero, where 3000 Americans were murdered by Islamists,
We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al-Qaeda has on its hands of innocent non Muslims.
It seems that the mission Imam Feisal says he has in mind for his mosque - of bringing faiths closer together - would require Americans to say a lot more sorries than it would require from Muslims. And so the link is established between American sin and America’s punishment bu a mosque just two blocks from Ground Zero.

That’s unacceptable and unwise, to put it at its most mild.

Note that Imam Feisal made his comment at a 2005 lecture at the University of South Australia’s Bob Hawke Ministerial Centre. Friendly territory. His full speech - and other quotes - here.
===
Labor now campaigns against itself
Andrew Bolt
If the election is to be decided not by seats but recriminations, Labor has lost. The latest:
The depiction of NSW politics as a ‘’disease’’ by the Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, has drawn a sharp response from Kristina Keneally, who shot back that Labor lost far fewer seats in NSW than in Queensland on Saturday.
That said, the Liberals need to take a hard look at themselves, too:
Victorian Liberals are also disappointed with their performance, losing the seats of McEwen and La Trobe to Labor. Liberals thought Labor had reached a “high-water mark” in Victoria at the 2007 election, yet it won two more seats this time around and almost picked up a further two (Dunkley and Aston). Yesterday, counting for the seat of Dunkley tightened dramatically, with Labor now only trailing by just over 600 votes.

The poor showing by Liberals is being put down to a home state advantage for Gillard, the unpopularity of Liberal state leader Ted Baillieu and the internal warfare that has broken out since the once-dominant Costello and Kroger faction split.
Bad news for the Liberals, with a state election just months away.

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