=== Todays Toon ===
To preserve our democracy and way of life we must dump the ALP from office. - ed.=== Bible Quote ===
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”- Matthew 6:33=== Headlines ===
Congress' Solution: Last One Out, Turn Off the Lights
After a two-year session marked by epic fights over government spending and health care regulation, Congress is spending its final days doing the legislative equivalent of watching movies before school lets out for summer recess.Military Poll: Diplomacy Just As Important
New poll shows nearly 90 percent of active and retired military officers say diplomacy and development are at least partly helpful to achieve U.S. national security objectives as opposed to just a strong military presence - Diplomacy is important and glaringly that is where Obama has failed - ed
Chrysler Workers Fired for Drinking on Break
Thirteen plant workers at the Chrysler Jefferson North Assembly plant in Detroit have lost their jobs after a TV station caught some of them drinking during their lunch break
U.S. Silent on Iran Nuke Cyber Attack
Pentagon refuses to comment on whether U.S. used the Stuxnet Worm to invade Iran's nuclear facilities amid widespread accusations that the West coordinated cyber attack
Breaking News
Branson sorry for Virgin bluesRICHARD Branson has apologised for a "terrible 24 hours" after some Virgin Blue customers spent a second night stranded following the weekend's check-in chaos.
Titanic actress Gloria Stuart dies at 100
ACTRESS Gloria Stuart, who went from a 1930s leading lady to playing the elderly but still luminous Rose Calvert in Titanic – and who was the oldest actress ever nominated for an Academy Award, has died at age 100.
Thirteen drown in US Navy rescue feat
At least 13 people on board a skiff in the Gulf of Aden drowned today when the USS Winston S. Churchill attempted to come to their assistance.
Paris Hilton wins 'that's hot' lawsuit
HALLMARK Greeting Cards has settled a lawsuit with celebrity socialite Paris Hilton after she sued the company for releasing a card using her trademarked catchphrase “that’s hot."
NSW/ACT
Rich bounty as prayers answeredWHEN Sarah Graham went down on her knees to pray for rain, her image resonated around the nation, highlighting the farmers' plight.
Tragic parents and child reunited
AT the front of the church there was a small white coffin and it was far too small. Family says goodbye to baby Lucy Schollbach.
Fancy a future in new toy testing?
FORGET focus groups, surveys and scientific studies - to gauge a toy's appeal just put it in the hands of a child. A very simple theory.
Tickets as rare as Roosters teeth
THE Ticketek website was hit hard as football fanatics swamped the site for Grand Final tickets.
Final arguments before jury retires
IN his barrister's words, sex-charged accused Brett Stewart had been the star of a "bad movie".
DJs case leads to paranoia head
DAVID Jones publicist Kristy Fraser-Kirk has a psychiatric condition because of the media frenzy in her sexual harassment case.
A hint of warmth for Sydney's spring
IT may have taken its time to get here but Sydney revelled in spring's offerings. Some suburbs were just shy of hitting 30C.
Queensland
Bikini girls in 'horse' raceGOLD Coast Turf Club will lock bikini-clad women in barrier stalls and run them down the straight, to mirror a horse race.
Coronation Hotel robbed at knifepoint
A HOTEL on Brisbane Street in West Ipswich was robbed at knifepoint by two men just before noon on Monday.
Gas explorers close in on Brisbane
THE massive coal seam gas industry is knocking on the door of southeast Queensland with exploration now only 50km from Brisbane.
Unpredictable Langbroek under attack
LIBERAL National Party backbencher David Gibson has taken another swipe at John-Paul Langbroek, insisting he is an everyday man masquerading as a political leader.
Bashed puppies part of sick trend
THE shocking discovery by young schoolgirls of seven puppies found bashed to death on a roadside in Townsville is the latest in a spate of animals being killed and dumped in public places.
Police vow to reclaim Coolangatta
POLICE have vowed to take back the streets of Coolangatta, the Gold Coast seaside suburb with a battered reputation after a wave of late-night violence.
Reckless moment costs teen his life
AN uncharacteristic moment of recklessness has cost a Brisbane teenager his life and devastated his family.
Gold Coast street has no name
THEY might live in the heart of the Gold Coast but dozens of residents have been battling red tape in an effort to get a name for their street.
Mansions bought for no reason
TAXPAYERS are set to lose out as more than $25m worth of prime Sunshine Coast land is sold off after no longer being needed for a transport corridor.
Sica 'told friend of victims' pleas'
ACCUSED triple murderer Max Sica asked a friend if she knew how hard it was to kill someone when they pleaded "please don't", a court heard.
Victoria
Ugly war of dirty wordsWAR has broken out between Eddie McGuire and Derryn Hinch over allegations the Magpies' boss sledged his own players.
Coffee price hike hits our city
THE cost of a cup of coffee has risen faster in Melbourne than other Australian capital cities in the past year.
Breast best in infection fight
BREASTFEEDING reduces the severity and frequency of common infections in babies, research reveals.
Replay stops home sales
REAL estate agents are rescheduling auctions to help home owners avoid a grand final flop.
Rating fun toys is child's play
PARENTS have been spared a Christmas toy price rise thanks to the soaring Australian dollar.
Ain't seen nothin' yet
PROMOTER Michael Gudinski will on Tuesday announce the last-minute entertainment for "Grand Final Take Two''.
Food prices set to jump
FOOD prices will soar up to 45 per cent over the next decade as staples become more scarce, experts warn.
Deadly punch acquittal
AN amateur footballer was acquitted of manslaughter over the death of the teammate he punched during grand final celebrations.
Please explain, Sir Richard
IRATE passengers are demanding Virgin Blue founder Sir Richard Branson appear in person to explain a computer glitch.
Dead after a 3-hour wait
A MAN who died after waiting more than three hours for an ambulance pleaded for help nine times before paramedics arrived.
Northern Territory
Nothing newSouth Australia
Mayors gain power by defaultFOURTEEN mayors and five entire councils will be handed power without facing the people at the state's looming council elections.
Sitting days challenge
PARLIAMENT will be asked to set a minimum number of sitting days as part of a plan to ensure accountability and openness.
'No jobs cut' letters released
PUBLIC sector unions have stepped up their attack on the Government, releasing three more letters from ministers promising no job cuts.
Bikies safe as Parks Centre axed
PREMIER Mike Rann said he would "bulldoze" bikie fortresses. Instead, he is knocking down a community centre across the road from one.
South Australia's most wanted
SOUTH Australia's most wanted criminals are a motley crew of suspected drug dealers, murderers, armed robbers and villains.
Is the Murray plan being watered down?
THE key plan for the future of the River Murray is still being tinkered with, just days before its scheduled release, prompting fears it could be watered down.
Hit-run probe 'cronyism'
THE BOARD investigating hit-run lawyer Eugene McGee will not release its findings publicly, prompting the widow of his victim to accuse it of "cowardice".
Gloves are off as political trust collapses
IT is going to be ugly but it will be beautiful in its ugliness, Independent MP Rob Oakeshott famously predicted some weeks back.
More motorists opt for striking numbers
PERSONALISED number plates have never been so popular.
Neglect mum 'emotionally numb'
A MOTHER has told a court she starved her children, but had been emotionally numb to her actions.
Western Australia
Serious injuries after Bunbury bar assaultA MAN has been charged after a serious assault at a Bunbury bar that left another man with facial injuries, broken ribs and concussion.
Four die on roads, witnesses sought
THREE men and an elderly woman have died on WA roads over the Queen's Birthday long weekend and police are seeking witnesses to another crash.
WA racks up hours, nation takes a break
WEST Aussies are a hard working bunch compared to the rest of the country, as full-time workers spend less time at their jobs now than a decade ago.
Tasmania
Nothing new=== Journalists Corner ===
Guests: Rush Limbaugh and Sarah PalinThe Tea Party impact: is the grassroots movement signaling a changing of the guard in D.C.? Former Governor Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh have expert insight.
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Spending Spree on the Hill?
Billions in new spending ... right before the election? Neil gets answers on how the latest move to get more money will impact key players on Capitol Hill.
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All New 'Factor' Investigation
Bill's tracking down the 9/11 truther who was involved with the imam of the NYC mosque! Go inside with a 'Factor' investigation. Plus, are certain broadcasters too big for their britches? Bernie gives his take on whether some have become too powerful.
===
On Fox News Insider:
VIDEO: Martha's Studio Interview with... a Wild Wolf?!Dierks Bentley on the Return of the Grand Ole Opry!
Did New Black Panther Members Dine with Ahmadinejad?
=== Comments ===
Black Panther Polling Place Story ExplodesBY BILL O'REILLY
Back in January 2009, three Black Panthers were charged with violating the Voting Rights Act. That civil action stemmed from two Panthers standing in front of a Philadelphia polling place during the presidential election, one of them holding a club.
There is no doubt the Panthers committed the act, and they didn't even bother showing up in court to fight the charges.
Nevertheless, in May 2009 the Obama administration moved to dismiss criminal action against the Panthers, and that has caused a national outcry.
On Friday, testifying in front of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, Christopher Coates, the former chief of the Justice Department's voting section, flat-out accused the Obama administration of ignoring the law:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER COATES, FORMER CHIEF OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT'S VOTING SECTION: We had eyewitness testimony. We had videotape that there were two people standing in uniform in front of a polling place. One of them had a weapon. They were hurling racial slurs. 11B of the Voting Rights Act prohibits attempts to intimidate or coerce or threaten.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Mr. Coats' testimony was devastating. Not only did he indict Attorney General Eric Holder for failing to uphold the law, he accused members of the Justice Department of racism.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: I believe that present management in both the division and the section are opposed to the race-neutral enforcement of section 5 and continue to enforce those provisions in a racially selective manner.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Mr. Coats' comments echo those of J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department attorney who worked in the civil rights department. A few months ago, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly interviewed Mr. Adams:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MEGYN KELLY, HOST, "AMERICA LIVE": Do you believe that the DOJ has a policy now of not pursuing cases if the defendant is black and the victim is white?
J. CHRISTIAN DAVIS, FORMER JUSTICE DEPT. ATTORNEY: Well, particularly in voting, in voting, that will be the case over the next few years. There's no doubt about it.
KELLY: Is the Department of Justice corrupt?
ADAMS: Well, I think the decision to dismiss this case was corrupt. I don't think the department or the fine people who work there are corrupt. But in this particular instance, to abandon law-abiding citizens and abet wrongdoers constitutes corruption.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
So there seems little doubt that Attorney General Holder did not uphold the law, which is his sworn duty. Whether there is racism in his department is a matter of debate, but certainly the accusation is troubling.
As for Mr. Coats, he is not some right-wing guy. He actually worked for the Voting Rights Project of the ACLU, and in 1991 he received the Thurgood Marshall Decade Award from the Georgia NAACP. So this is not a man with an ideological axe to grind.
The entire case is troubling, but it's also stupid. Those Black Panthers should have been prosecuted, there's no doubt about it. Everyone knows that if a Klan guy was outside a polling place with a club shouting racial invective, he would have been prosecuted.
So you can draw your own conclusions here, but there is no question that this story is a major embarrassment for the Justice Department and the Obama administration.
===
WE’RE REALLY RESILIENT
Tim Blair
Warmenist Tim Flannery, prior to Copenhagen:
This round of negotiations is likely to be our last chance as a species to deal with the problem. I can’t say I’m optimistic ...He can now. The former panic merchant has changed his mind. In fact, he seems absolutely buoyant at humankind’s prospects. Here’s Flannery on yesterday’s Sunrise, jabbering with fellow warmster-turned-optimist David Koch:
Flannery: After the Copenhagen meeting, I guess myself and a few other people sat back and thought, gee, are we actually going to make it or not? And there was a bit of a mood of depression hanging over everyone and I thought, you know, the only way to understand this is to take a bit of a longer view.Makes you wonder what all the fuss was about. Congratulations to Flannery, by the way, on his discovery of human adaptation. A Nobel awaits.
So that’s why I brought in evolution and how the process that created us – what’s it created, a monster or something that can live within the planet’s constraints. And, you know, I must say I came away from that exercise feeling a lot more optimistic … you’ve got to take a longer view.
Koch: Yeah, coz you’ve looked at history and you’ve found that we change all the time. We’re actually, and the earth, nature, ourselves, we’re really resilient.
Flannery: That’s right.
UPDATE. The return of global cooling.
===
SOLDIERS CHARGED
Tim Blair
Three Australian soldiers – two of them reservists – face criminal charges following civilian deaths in Afghanistan last year. The Daily Telegraph responds.
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BOSSY SCIENCE
Tim Blair
Do this, don’t do that, sit up straight, be quiet, that lawn won’t mow itself … younger readers may detect a parental note in modern science. Older readers may be reminded of the reasons for that first divorce:
(Via the great Liz)===
BANANAS, BOOKS AND BEER. AND ALSO FISH
Tim Blair
A righteous bounty is delivered to roadside scavengers:
• “Drivers may have gone bananas Friday morning after a truck carrying 43,000 pounds of the fruit rolled over on a major Brighton-area freeway ramp during the morning commute.”
• “Andrew Marr’s latest book is, literally, stopping traffic. Boxes containing 15 British tons worth of the journalist’s history volume The Making of Modern Britain have been strewn across a busy English road after an accident.”
• “Sunday turned out to be a perfect holiday for Bacchus lovers here, as a truck loaded with over 400 boxes of beer overturned near the Ambala-Rajpura bridge today.”
• “Hundreds of live fish were let off the hook at approximately 6:17 p.m. when the truck transporting them lost control and overturned past exit 17 southbound on Interstate 95.”
UPDATE. Less amusing transport news.
===
RULES CHANGED
Tim Blair
A leftist collective demands total disclosure:
It’d be good practice for major media organisations … to be upfront about just who the authors are.Furthermore:
Writers should openly declare their present interests as they relate to any particular published piece.Of course they should. We can’t have people “writing disingenuous political attacks on their opponents without being required to clearly identify themselves.” (Note: in the complained-about cases linked above, the authors actually are identified, but not in sufficient detail to satisfy our leftist friends.) So you’d imagine that this crew would be pleased when an anonymous author – who occasionally writes for a major media organisation – is unmasked:
Media can reveal that high-profile blogger Grog’s Gamut is actually Greg Jericho, a public servant who spends his days working in the film section of the former Department of Environment, Heritage, Water and the Arts.The reaction from those who’d earlier called for writers to “clearly identify themselves”? For some reason, they ain’t happy. Scoring extra hypocrisy points, the collective member who penned that response declines to use his real name.
The identity of Mr Jericho, who shot to prominence after making some sharp observations about media coverage of the 2010 election and subsequently has written for the ABC’s The Drum website, has triggered much speculation in recent weeks ...
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Why is Gillard now pushing what she told Rudd was poison?
Andrew Bolt
Terry McCrann is mystified by Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s decision to consider imposing the carbon tax she ruled out just six weeks ago, when there was an election to win:
Why did she earlier lead the push in the Gang of Four to dump the Government’s ETS - the move which destroyed Kevin Rudd’s credibility and ultimately sealed his fate?UPDATE
Presumably because she thought it would cost votes and possibly government. Yet now, at the first opportunity after the election, she’s grabbed what she thought was the hottest of hot potatoes!...
No, Julia’s experience could mirror that of the Canadian government that tried a similar slick trick to her - promising in the election campaign no GST and then slipping it in after winning the election.
At the next election, it was reduced to two seats. Yes, two seats. And Julia is supposed to be the smart one.
No kidding, Sherlock:
KEY independent Tony Windsor has expressed concern about the impact of a carbon price on the cost of food.Wait until it dawns on Windsor that a carbon dioxide tax will also send power bills through the roof.
UPDATE 2
Reader Stephen wonders just how high an Australian carbon tax would have to be to actually force people to slash their emissions, when the overseas data is so discouraging:How effective are taxes (and similar schemes) at significantly and meaningfully reducing emissions? As the stated goal is to save the planet from the “dangerous” levels of CO2, the actual levels need to be reduced substantially. This is especially the case where other countries are increasing their emissions and will continue to do so.Dates obtained for carbon tax implementation here. Data set for emissions here.
Some interesting data:
Both Sweden and Finland implemented carbon taxes in the 90s, how effective have they been at reducing CO2 levels? Almost meaningless up to 2006.
By 2006, Finland had grown its emissions by 2.5 metric tons per capita, since implementing a tax. Sweden on the other hand had reduced its emissions by 0.8 tons per capita, since implementing a tax. According to the “science”, I’m assuming this is inadequate.
Over this same period, Australia grew its emission by 0.8 tons per capita. Between these two countries and our own, there is no meaningful difference in emissions with or without a tax. The question then becomes: how painful does the tax need to be for it to actually be meaningful (from a believer’s perspective)?
UPDATE 3
The Greens MP for Melbourne, Adam Bandt, boasts on Twitter that the Greens forced Julia Gillard yesterday to set up her rigged committee to work out how to tax emissions:
Because Melb went Green on Aug 21, we could negotiate a committee to put a price on pollution. Today the c’ee was set up. Well done, Melb.The Government really is a Greens-Labor coalition.
about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck
Retweeted by 28 people
AdamBandt
UPDATE 4
Meanwhile, the rest of the world keeps refusing to do what Gillard says we must - and that includes even Barack Obama’s US:
President Barack Obama’s dream of passing a big bill to battle global warming is likely dead for the rest of his term, according to a leading Democrat and long time backer of climate legislation.(Thanks to readers Deb and Alan RM Jones.)
“I don’t see a comprehensive bill going anywhere in the next two years,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman told the Reuters Washington Summit on Wednesday.
Bingaman’s comments are the most frank to date from a Democratic senator on legislation that Obama has said was key to giving the United States a lead role in global efforts to fight climate change.
===
Wooing the Greens: Labor’s $20 million game of let’s-pretend
Andrew Bolt
Labor at the last election campaign - when it was desperate for Greens preferences -abruptly dropped its opposition to a high-speed rail network linking our biggest cities:
AUSTRALIA’S east coast could eventually be linked by a high-speed rail network if Labor wins the next federal election.But now we learn that Labor is spending $20 million to find out exactly what it had already been told:
A Gillard government would carry out a feasibility study into the project later this year, Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday.
The $20 million study would look at whether a high-speed rail link on Australia’s east coast would be financially viable, and identify potential train routes and station stops…
The announcement comes as the Australian Greens, who have been lobbying for such a study to be undertaken, look set to win the balance of power in the Senate after the August 21 poll.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard rejected any assertion there had been a deal with the Greens on light rail.
A high-speed rail network linking Australia’s major cities isn’t viable because they are too far apart or don’t have the population to justify the cost, departmental documents show.Which means Labor is spending another $20 million just to pretend to examine a dud scheme proposed by the Greens. Good God, how we are taken for fools..
Labor announced during the August election campaign that, if re-elected, it would initiate a $20 million feasibility study for a high-speed rail network linking Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, with a particular focus on the Sydney-Newcastle leg.
But a document obtained under a freedom of information (FOI) request showed Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese was told in March the plan was not viable.
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All the balance that the ABC can tolerate
Andrew Bolt
Add the Left-wing host of Q&A and the balance last night works out to five of the Left and one conservative:
Stephen Conroy - Minister for CommunicationsIs there a single show on ABC TV that would ever have an imbalance that works the other way?
Sophie Mirabella - Shadow Minister for Innovation
Rob Oakeshott - Independent MP
Fiona Patten - President of the Australian Sex Party
Mungo MacCallum - political commentator
(Thanks to reader Marcus.)
===
Save the planet! Don’t breed little Lachlan Kents
Andrew Bolt
Melbourne writer Lachlan Kent tells Age readers how he’s helping to save the planet:
TWO years ago, aged 27, I committed to a radical lifestyle choice. Having become a stepfather some six years earlier, and with my wife’s blessing, I had a vasectomy…No little Kents will be around to see if their dad’s sacrifice was worth it, but I suspect Kent will have more immediate regrets:
I don’t want my own biological children when there are already so many to go around.... Just as the notion of ‘’man versus man’’ dominated the 20th century, it has become increasingly obvious to me that ‘’man versus nature’’ is the issue of our time… The prospect of an unsustainable world of 9 billion people by about 2050 scares me to the core. The 6 billion we already have seems like way too many.
My conviction behind the decision to have a vasectomy is therefore both private and political.
However, not wanting to appear a fanatic, I rarely speak of my anxiety about overpopulation with friends or family...No, he just tells a few hundred thousand anonymous Age readers instead.
===
Denounced anonymously
Andrew Bolt
A man must go to trial without knowing the identity of those who accuse him?THE David Jones publicist at the centre of a $37 million sexual harassment lawsuit had developed a psychological disorder, and did not want other women involved in the case to be put at risk of harm, the Federal Court heard yesterday.Is Kafka writing this script?
Kristy Fraser-Kirk, 27, is suing the retailer, its board and former chief executive Mark McInnes in the record claim, alleging Mr McInnes made unwanted sexual advances towards her.
The claims are being vigorously defended.
Other women make allegations against Mr McInnes in Ms Fraser-Kirk’s amended statement of claim. Justice Geoffrey Flick yesterday heard arguments over whether their identities should be disclosed to Mr McInnes and David Jones.
(No comments for legal reasons.)
===
It’s a contest, not a collective
Andrew Bolt
Niki Savva has had enough of this new paradigm:
Parliament’s first act should be to outlaw group hugs.And she’s had enough of this nonsense that Tony Abbott’s duty is help Labor govern:
Abbott’s job as Opposition Leader is not to prop up a weak or fragile government, or to make its life easy. It is not in his interests and it is certainly not in the national interest…(Thanks to reader Paul C.)
She got it right at her first question time as Prime Minister, in June, when she shook hands with Abbott and declared “game on”.
That was when she had 87 Labor MPs sitting behind her. Now that she only has 72, she wants a cosy-up. Forget it. No amount of tut-tutting or name-calling will change it.
===
The deaths are troubling, and so is the court martial
Andrew Bolt
The first instinct is to defend them and to deplore these charges:
THREE special forces soldiers will face an unprecedented court martial over the deaths of six people in Afghanistan, including five children…Yet there do indeed seem to be questions we need to resolve. Five children are dead, after all, and this war will not be won of Afghans believe we do not take such tragedies seriously or do not do our best to avoid them. And here’s some of what needs to be checked out:
The Director of Military Prosecutions, Brigadier Lyn McDade, said the men, who were serving with the Special Operations Task Group, would face a range of charges, including manslaughter, dangerous conduct, failing to comply with a lawful general order and prejudicial conduct…
Law firm Kennedys, representing two of the commandos, yesterday issued a statement in which the two soldiers expressed their deep regret about the deaths but said they were were “deeply disappointed” at the decision to proceed to court martial…
“Words will never adequately express our regret that women and children were killed and injured during the incident on 12 February, 2009.
“These were people we were risking our lives to protect.”
The casualties were caused by the “callous and reckless act of an insurgent” who fired at the soldiers from within a room he knew contained women and children, the soldiers’ statement said. The soldiers claim the building they were targeting was occupied by armed Taliban and that gunfire had been directed from inside the building at the SOTG.
But the policeman father of one of the child victims said the soldiers should be spared punishment. Abdul Qayam said the raid was a case of mistaken identity and the commandos had believed the house belonged to an insurgent commander.But these are matters that should have been fully investigated before charges were laid. A court martial should only come after the military is reasonably certain of such facts.
He said he wanted the informer who provided the false information handed over to him, rather than have the Australian soldiers facing charges…
The only witness of the raid, identified as an armed Taliban insurgent, is dead.
A court martial will attempt to clarify whether he was an insurgent and not a farmer defending his family. The military tribunal will determine whether undue force was used and whether the SOTG troops attacked the right target.
After all, charge a soldier too soon and you’ll make soldiers too scared to shoot.
===
Er, I’m not sure this is what we meant by protecting our borders
Andrew Bolt
The Gillard Government can’t stop the boats, but at least it’s tough on protecting us from a five-year-old adopted girl:A VICTORIAN family has been torn apart after Australian immigration officials in London ruled their five-year-old adopted daughter was an unacceptable immigration threat.UPDATE
Helen Coates and Stuart Kruse, both Australian citizens, were banned from bringing Isimbi, adopted from Rwanda, back into the country.
David Burchell goes to town on the kiddult compassion-mongers of the Gruen Transfer who liken every boat person to a Jew fleeing the Nazis:
One of the saddest features of this vexed and interminable debate is that for a decade not a year has gone by without some new group of clever young things discovering the plight of asylum-seekers, all by themselves, and proceeding to instruct the population on the matter. First they advise the citizenry to abandon all restraints on people arriving on our shores by boat. Then, noting the swelling numbers of miserable folks on boats, they declare that our facilities for processing them are overcrowded and need to be shut down. Soon enough - since only small minds cavil over nice distinctions between administrative categories - they declare that every person arriving should be presumed to be a bona fide refugee and treated as such, even at the cost of trimming the regular immigration program.
Finally, their best efforts to persuade others of this chain of logic having failed, they conclude that the rest of the population is nothing but a bunch of unfeeling, ignorant fools, worthy only of being subjected to a barrage of pithy slogans, lurid images and emotive logic-chopping: all the predictable armoury of the ad agent on a pro bono mission. Yet it’s precisely out of this phony emotiveness that internees at Villawood are being encouraged into patterns of behaviour - operatic distress, half-meant threats, stigmata-like rituals of self-harm carried out in media-worthy ways - that gratify only the already converted while arousing revulsion and suspicion in everybody else. Meanwhile, long-term advocates of refugees across the globe are drowned out in a sea of self-parading nonsense talk that combines the chutzpah of a 30-second TV ad with the self-righteousness of a sermon.
There are many thousands of people across the globe who live in constant fear of physical harm, retribution and even death. By the same token, there are many millions whose night thoughts are chiefly devoted to finding a more promising homeland for their children. The interests of the former group are hardly served by treating both groups as if they were the same people. This is not compassion but a mission of self-discovery turned into the political program of a social caste. Once again a complex debate is in the process of being dragged down into the depths of histrionic self-indulgence and self-display. .
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