=== Todays Toon ===
Sir William John McKell GCMG KStJ (26 September 1891 - 11 January 1985), Australian politician, was Premier of New South Wales from 1941 to 1947, and was the 12th Governor-General of Australia.
=== Bible Quote ===
“What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.”- 2 Timothy 1:13-14=== Headlines ===
GOP Vows Crackdown on Controversies If Party Wins House
If Republicans regain control of the House in November, lawmakers promise to launch investigations into controversies that Dems have tried to ignore, including New Black Panther voter intimidation case and activities of the community activist group ACORN.Obama: Economy Better Off After Efforts
Faced with a stalled economy, the president nonetheless took to airwaves for Labor Day weekend address to tell Americans, particularly the middle class, they'd be worse off without his economic policies before sprint to midterm elections
Second Acid Attack A Copy Cat Assault?
Police are searching for a woman suspected of throwing a powerful acid in the face of an Arizona mother in an incident that comes just days after a Vancouver woman (pictured) was left with severe burns to her face and chest in an eerily similar attack
Gulf Crews Face Delay in Lifting Key Device
Ice-like crystals on the 300-ton blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico force BP crews to wait before they could safely hoist the device to the surface
Breaking News
Hurricane Earl weakens to a tropical stormEARL weakened to a tropical storm after barrelling ashore in Nova Scotia last night as a hurricane, the Canadian Hurricane Centre said.
Mutilated body found at golf course
A MUTILATED and badly burned body with a missing foot has been found in undergrowth at a seaside British golf course.
Cocaine epidemic is 'rampart across NSW'
NEW South Wales' top crime expert says the state is in the grip of a cocaine epidemic.
'Government faked daughter's bikini pics'
A FORMER UN nuclear chief turned Egyptian reformer has accused the government of publishing pictures of his adult daughter in a swimsuit and at events with alcohol in response to his bid for democratic reforms.
Delivery man killed as stray bullet hits van
A DELIVERY man was shot and killedby what appears to have been a stray bullet while driving a bread van in New York.
Andes crash survivors help trapped men
A GROUP of former rugby players who survived more than two months of isolation in the Andes after their plane crashed are in Chile to support 33 miners trapped underground.
Ground Zero mosque man 'ripped off' firm
ONE of the money men behind the developer of the Ground Zero mosque was sued for allegedly ripping off an insurance company for nearly $1.8 ($1.97) million
Women try to take dead relative on plane
TWO women who were arrested at a British airport while trying to take a dead relative onto a plane will not face any criminal charges, it has emerged.
Cleric rejects Holocaust as 'superstition'
A SENIOR Iranian cleric, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, has dismissed the Holocaust as a new "superstition" for the West in a blistering attack.
Jet lands in Greece with engine on fire
PASSENGERS and crew were evacuated by slide from a Slovakian airliner tonight after it made an emergency landing on a Greek island with an engine on fire, airport officials said.
NSW/ACT
Young sharks swarm the coastYOUNG, reckless and dangerous sharks are already swarming the state's coast in greater numbers.
Researchers can view porn
POLITICAL staffers will be able to check out internet porn sites - but only if they ask first.
Sydney's appetite for reduction
WEIGHT loss surgery has tripled in five years and western Sydney is at the heart of the trend.
Police net all-female drug gang
AN all-women gang of heroin dealers has been busted in Redfern following a long covert operation.
Dentist snaps up prime property
DAVID Penn is the mystery buyer of $52 million Point Piper harbourfront property, Villa Veneto.
Queensland
500,000 line banks for RiverfireTHE skies over Brisbane's CBD exploded with colour and noise last night for the annual Riverfire extravaganza.
Homes in firing line of growth
TENS of thousands of homes have been earmarked for "investigation" for big transport projects but shocked owners are only finding out when they try to sell.
Brisbane poet to honour 9/11 heroes
POET Rupert McCall will recite his memorial poem at the September 11 ceremony in New York.
Litter police hit smokers
POLICE are being used as escorts for Brisbane City Council litter patrols as the council rakes in hundreds of thousands of dollars from smokers.
Abbott makes last ditch bid
TONY Abbott has launched a last-ditch pro-country plea to the three kingmaker Independents who will decide today who to back into The Lodge.
Baby girl born in rescue helicopter
A PREMATURE baby was delivered by a flight paramedic this morning, during a rescue helicopter flight from Hamilton Island to Mackay.
Whale freed from shark net
A SEVEN metre sub-adult humpback whale has been freed from a shark net on the Gold Coast.
Victoria
Plot to kill casino bossAN ALLEGED plot to kill and rob former Crown Casino boss Lloyd Williams and an Asian high roller has been confirmed.
High seas rescue on main street
CRESWICK felt the full force of Victoria's record downpour yesterday as its streets were turned into canals.
Wave of despair floods Victoria
VICTORIA'S worst floods in 15 years are expected to leave a damage bill of tens of millions of dollars.
Huge blitz on smash hot spots
HUNDREDS of police will blitz Victoria's highest risk traffic areas in an attempt to drive down the state's soaring road toll.
Landslide hits cars at Buller
A LANDSLIDE caused hundreds of thousands of dollars damage when wild storms hit the High Country yesterday.
You love AFL so you can stay here
A DECISION to kick a convicted sexual predator out of Australia has been overturned because the pervert loves footy.
Heath alert for drinking water
OVERFLOWING sewage stores are mixing with swollen rivers in the state's north, prompting a health warning for drinking supplies.
Wild weather sweeps four states
WILD wet spring weather has wreaked havoc across four states, and damaging winds are forecast for the eastern coast.
Search for fisherman lost in bay
UPDATE 6pm: The boat of a missing fisherman has been found, but police continue to search for the man in Port Phillip Bay
Northern Territory
Officer bitten during football fan brawlUMPIRE was also taken to hospital after violence broke out halfway through junior AFL game.
Policeman bitten during football brawl
A MASSIVE brawl involving hundreds of spectators has erupted at a junior Australian Rules grand final in Alice Springs.
South Australia
Most powerful man for the weekendHE IS South Australia's most powerful man this weekend but few people could name him - MLC Paul Holloway is both Acting Premier and Acting Deputy Premier.
Armed robbery at service station
A MAN wielding a kitchen knife has robbed a service station in Elizabeth South late Saturday night.
Pay school fees or go to jail
MORE than 50 South Australian mums and dads have arrest warrants hanging over their heads - most unknowingly - for not paying their children's school fees.
50,000 homes without power
MORE than 50,000 South Australian homes are without power and some may remain so for days as wild weather continues to lash the state.
It's showtime for busy dad Travis
WHEN he's not scoring goals on the soccer pitch, Adelaide United captain Travis Dodd is happy at home with his son Jake, 9, and daughter Mia, 5.
Western Australia
Knives, machetes used in schoolsBIG knives, a machete and a home-made weapon have been used by students to threaten other classmates in WA schools this year.
Boy, 17, free after admitting porn charges
A TEENAGE boy who pleaded guilty to downloading 220 images of hardcore child pornography walks free, sparking outrage from a child protection advocate.
Eagle Masten 'belted' in wild night
A WEST Coast Eagles footballer was punched and another was forced to apologise to a woman he abused after an alcohol-fuelled night out.
Rail strike threat for Royal Show
TRAIN drivers are threatening to derail this month's Perth Royal Show as they continue a battle for better pay and working conditions.
Landlords fear meth lab rise
LANDLORDS are hiring forensic experts to check for harmful chemicals in a bid to nab tenants who set up suburban drug laboratories.
Cabbies getting ruder
THE number of WA taxi drivers reported for rudeness, sleazy conversations and inappropriately touching customers is on the rise.
Healthy rise for fat cats
HEALTH Department bureaucrats already earning more than $500,000 a year given pay rises - while WA's struggling hospitals are hit by budget cuts.
Habitual criminals clog court system
WA'S 10 worst adult "petty" criminals have committed a staggering 519 offences in just three years - and half of them did not spend a day in jail.
Driver critical after car accident
A MAN is in hospital in a critical condition after a car accident near Rockingham last night.
Pub blaze causes $20,000 damage
THE Arson Squad is investigating a blaze at the Ballajura Tavern.
Tasmania
Nothing new=== Comments ===
The independent path to hypocrisyPiers Akerman
GREEN-Left Independent Andrew Wilkie has as much chance of finding stability in a Gillard Labor Government as he does of breathing life into the extinct Tasmanian tiger. - It is clear now that good policy involves making the right choices even when not in government. Clearly the conservatives can, and clearly the ALP cannot .. and clearly the independents do not. I remember the kind of smoke behind promises of Malcolm Turnbull while he was Liberal leader, when he promised that although he might work with the AGW lobby, he wouldn’t commit Australia to a course of action that would compromise her. Luckily, Mr Abbott was there then, and enough Liberal party members with sense. Which goes to show the Liberal party doesn’t always have people who only choose sensible paths, but what may one say about a party that only chose poorly?
The ALP do not have an example of good policy, stable government or bush friendly outcomes. Tasmania are a left wing basket case. Even voting for a conservative government, they are denied one under their parliament. It isn’t that the rules favor the ALP, although they exploit them. It is the case that demonstrably the press are partisan in support .. and so to be balanced is to be very left wing. On almost all measures the Conservatives deserve government. But they may be denied it. There are many reasons to support the ALP, but they all seem corrupt. What we need to see is if the GG can act without appearing corrupt. The electorate were confused by Get Up and the ALP. The electorate will still be confused until they ‘see’ how the ALP behaves. The time to reject the independents is at election. They have been elected and now the Liberal party has to negotiate with them .. even though they are acting like spoiled children. As independents they would have been paid a good sum of money from the electoral office for their wins. About $2.30 each 1st preference vote. They have that money and they are going to get a lot more. Then when a new election is called they will be paid again. It is true that the make up of the parliament appears unworkable. But before a new election can be called, much has to be played out. We need to know if the GG can act without appearing corrupt. We need to know what ALP policy was and will be. We know what the Green policy is, but we need to know how that will express itself. That will inform voters for the next time. Otherwise it will be another hung election.
Thing is, this shows that no sitting ALP member is capable of breaking this shameful nexus of corruption which engulfs their party. They are waiting for the lights to dim before they show their knives again. - ed.
===
Imagine That -- There Are Leftwing Wackos, Too!
By Bobby Eberle
The media love to portray any person who freaks out as a rightwing extremist. If someone goes on a shooting rampage or takes a hostage or sends a threatening letter, the media seem to be less interested in if that person were simply mentally unstable than what conservative organizations he or she belongs to. They don't focus on the incident; they focus on what drove the "rightwing extremist" to do harm.
Now, we have a case where a leftwing radical went psycho. Will the media say that his fondness of Al Gore did him in? Will the government issue warnings and memos to watch out for leftwing organizations as they have done with conservative groups? I doubt it.
On Wednesday, police shot and killed James J. Lee who held three hostages for several hours "at the Discovery Communications building in Silver Springs, Maryland." Police ended up shooting and killing the gunman, and all three hostages were unharmed.
Bobby Eberle is President and CEO of GOPUSA. (more at the link)
===
The Democrats' Biggest Mistake
By Doug Schoen
The mainstream media’s bias towards the Tea Party movement has been undeniable since its emergence in February 2009.
It has been systematically ignored, belittled, marginalized, and ostracized by political, academic, and media elites who have portrayed the movement as being driven by racism, bigotry, and white supremacy.
Indeed, Kate Zernike’s coverage of last Saturday’s “Restoring Honor” rally on the National Mall for the New York Times, is no exception from that of the media and political elites who continue to denigrate, minimize, and marginalize the importance of what has become the most potent and powerful movement in America.
Zernike’s piece contains an array of the unfounded and unsubstantiated claims such as: “even if Tea Party members are right that any racist signs are those of mischief-makers, even if Glenn Beck had chosen any other Saturday to hold his rally, it would be hard to quiet the argument about the Tea Party and race,” notwithstanding all evidence to the contrary.
Instead of focusing on the explicitly apolitical nature of the rally or the lengthy tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, she discussed the alleged beliefs of unnamed Tea Party “critics” who “say they hear an echo of slavery, Jim Crow and George Wallace.”
Who are these “critics”? When and where did they say this?
And given the overarching non-political agenda and of the event, it remains fundamentally unclear why Zernike chose to reference “Rand Paul, the Republican nominee for Senate in Kentucky, said that he disagreed on principle with the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that required business owners to serve blacks.”
Indeed, Zernike coverage is littered with allegations of racism that are not only unsubstantiated, they make no sense.
At one point, she went so far as to suggest that the anti-systemic, anti-Washington, pro-Constitution, fiscally conservative values of the Tea Party movement are actually a manifestation of deep-seated racism because “the government programs that many Tea Party supporters call unconstitutional are the ones that have helped many black people emerge from poverty and discrimination.”
Not only are the various activists, members, and supporters of the Tea Party movement are united behind a simple set of principles – advocating limited government, limitations on the recently passed health care reform bill, and deficit reduction, and a return to Constitutional principles – so too is a broad-based, ideologically, political, racially, and economically diverse majority of the electorate.
What Zernike wrote just isn’t true. Why indeed is the Tea Party movement indistinguishable from the issue of race? Is it because it is predominantly comprised of white people? Eighty percent of America is white. Why does this make it racist?
Put simply, and to be crystal clear, the Tea Party movement is not about politics or class or race. It is, above all, about upholding fundamental American values.
Indeed, the ordinary citizens, a large percentage of whom have never been in politics before, that congregated on the Mall this past Saturday represent a broad-based national movement whose scope and breadth and depth of support has been unappreciated and fundamentally not understood.
While traveling this past weekend, I was stopped by a couple in the Dallas airport who very kindly said that they enjoyed watching my commentary on "Hannity."
They were an interracial military couple -- one is serving in the National Guard, the other is in active duty.
Both are supporters of Glenn Beck and the Tea Party movement – and had attended Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally on the National Mall.
They wanted to set the record straight that “any effort to brand the Tea Parties as racist or hostile is just absurd. We aren’t racists or bigots. We revere Dr. King and respect everything he did in to achieve his dream for our country. And we certainly are not puppets of some right wing political agenda. We are ordinary Americans who love our country but believe that we need to return government back to the American people. Washington is broken, and both parties are equally to blame.”
The bottom-line conclusion is clear. Despite efforts by many in the media and political class to demonize the Tea Party movement, the real issue driving the movement is not partisan rage on the right, nor alleged racism, but a profound crisis of governmental legitimacy.
Having spent the past 18 months chronicling the rise and the influence of the Tea Party movement along with pollster Scott Rasmussen for our book "Mad As Hell," I have seen firsthand the extent to which the Tea Party movement has already fundamentally altered American politics and will almost certainly affect both the 2010 congressional elections and the 2012 presidential election.
Indeed, the Democrats' biggest mistake has been to underestimate the importance of a movement that is of unprecedented and potentially of fundamental importance to the American political system.
Attacking dissent may feel good in Washington, but efforts to demonize the movement on unfounded accusations of race, all the while ignoring the fundamental concerns of a majority of the electorate is a prescription for disaster.
Douglas Schoen is a political strategist and author of the forthcoming book "Mad as Hell: How the Tea Party Movement is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System" to be published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins on September 14.
===
Obama Doesn’t Know Rights From Wrongs
By Jon Kraushar
What’s wrong with President Obama and his administration is that they don’t know rights from wrongs.
They are more concerned with:
• The PLO’s rights rather than the PLO’s wrongs. In inviting Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington to restart peace talks after a two-year hiatus, Obama perpetuated the illusion that the PLO has any credibility as a reliable partner. The PLO has repeatedly reinforced its commitment to kill Jews and destroy Israel. For decades, the PLO has misappropriated countless billions in U.S. and foreign aid. Before it gets negotiating “rights” the PLO needs to demonstrate through actions that it is capable of renouncing violence and corruption and that it can honor—rather than consistently violate—any agreement.
• An Imam’s Rights Rather than an Imam’s Wrongs. Obama buys into the “religious rights” argument of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf to build a $100-million mosque and Muslim cultural center near Ground Zero. But the issue is how wrong the location is. Obama also disregards Rauf’s refusal to acknowledge Hamas as a terrorist group and Rauf’s assertion that U.S. foreign policy caused 9/11. The president must realize that Rauf misused his “goodwill” trip to the Middle East (funded by taxpayer dollars!) as a publicity and fundraising stunt.
• Terrorists’ Rights Rather Than Terrorists’ Wrongs. The Obama “Justice” Department has dropped the prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the accused coordinator of the Oct. 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. It has also granted Miranda rights (the "right to remain silent") to the Christmas Day and Times Square bombers and it fights to provide civilian (rather than military) trial rights to terrorists including admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Terrorists terrorize us twice when our legal system uses wrong reasoning to give them “rights.”
• Unions’ Rights Rather Than Unions’ Wrongs. Obama has given unions sweetheart deals that raise corruption and cronyism to obscene levels. For example, in the government takeover of General Motors, as The New York Post reported, the Obama-supporting United Auto Workers got: “a remarkable 17.5 percent of the stock plus $2.5 billion in cash plus $6.5 billion in preferred stock carrying a dividend of about 9 percent. In other words, the UAW got three to four times as much as [private] bondholders for a smaller claim on GM's assets. The union even boasted to its members in May 2009 that it had made no concessions on pay, health care or pensions in the restructuring. In effect, the government divided up GM's creditors into favored and unfavored groups, then gave a fat stake in the reorganized business to the favored (aka longtime Democratic Party donors).” Whether it’s health care reform, educational reform or any other kind of reform, Obama and his administration always find ways to serve up sweet treatments for unions and sour treatments for the public.
• Illegal Immigrants’ Rights Rather Than Illegal Immigrants’ Wrongs. The Obama administration’s insistence that the federal government has exclusive authority over immigration laws has resulted in the perpetuation of abuses by illegal immigrants and in the Justice Department suing Arizona for trying to enforce immigration laws that the feds either won’t or can’t. A recent study conducted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) says harboring illegal immigrants costs an average of $1,117 for every “native-headed” household in America. FAIR estimates that $52 billion is spent on schooling the children of illegals, $28.6-billion is spent by the federal government in “illegal related costs” and state and local budgets are crippled with $84.2 billion in illegal immigrants’ costs. One example FAIR gives is that the $21.8-billion California spends on illegal immigration is $8 billion more than the state’s current budget deficit of $13.8 billion. For those who argue that FAIR is being unfair, it is indisputable that illegal immigrants are inflicting enormous costs on our health, educational and criminal prevention systems. Illegal behavior should not be a passport to undue “rights.”
• Financial Scammers’ Rights Rather than Financial Scammers’ Wrongs. Take your pick: certain Wall Street firms, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, mortgage brokers and borrowers—the list seems endless. Obama and his administration have created moral hazard and monetary mayhem with the nation’s financial system and have battered, bruised and scorned law-abiding, taxpaying Americans. In Obama’s upside down world of bailouts, handouts, buyouts, copouts, and sellouts, the wrongdoers get rewarded and the right doers get punished.
How can a president be right when he and his administration can’t tell rights from wrongs?
Communications consultant Jon Kraushar is at www.jonkraushar.net
===
Obama Is Repeating the Mistakes of the 1937 Economic Collapse
By John Lott
Does the 1937-38 economic collapse, the so-called "depression within the Depression" offer any lessons on what we should do now? In 1937, it seemed that things were improving, some light was seen in the Great Depression, but unemployment suddenly jumped from 14.3 percent in June 1937 to 19 percent in June 1938. With the unemployment rate stuck at 9.6 percent, the Obama administration is planning to unveil what would be its third stimulus package. Supporters are pointing to the late 1930s to justify yet another increase government spending.
Today Keynesians are out in full force defending the massive $1.3 plus trillion deficit that we have run since Obama became president, warning that cutting it would lead to a scenario similar to what we saw in the late 30s.
Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, has this to say in The Times earlier this summer, declaring that those opposing more government spending were pointing us towards disaster: "It raises memories of 1937, when F.D.R.’s premature attempt to balance the budget helped plunge a recovering economy back into severe recession."
Last Saturday, Yale’s self-described "New Deal economist" Robert Shiller made the same point in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, attacking the "concern about the national debt" and advocating more government spending.
Both men point out that the federal deficit declined from $2 billion in 1937 (in inflation adjusted dollars, about $30.3 billion today) to a near balanced budget in 1938.
Some conservatives, such as Newt Gingrich, have recently focused on the new Social Security taxes that started in 1938 as the problem. "If we have large tax increases in January, this economy will sink deeper into recession," Newt Gingrich told Newsmax in late July. "This was exactly the mistake made in 1937 and 1938, and it created a second mini-depression."
Yet, while taxes surely hurt economic growth, there were other major economic events that both these discussions completely ignore. The late Milton Friedman pointed to new banking regulations that went into effect from March through May 1937. President Roosevelt had accused banks of "hoarding" money and his solution was to increase the reserve requirement with the Federal Reserve, dramatically reasoning that the government could make sure that the banks' money was properly spent. Of course, banks had not just been "hoarding" extra reserves for no reason.
Banks had very good reasons not trust the Federal Reserve. When the Federal Reserve was set up in 1913, banks lost crucial tools that they had to stem runs were depositors tried en mass to withdraw money from their accounts. In exchange, the Federal Reserve promised to serve as a lender of last resort to temporarily tide over banks who couldn't cover withdrawals by depositors.
However, in 1929 and later, the Fed reneged on this promise. Banks, left to fend for themselves, were forced to liquidate many assets and build up their cash reserves. When Roosevelt took these cash reserves from banks, the banks dramatically reduced their lending to again build up a cushion that they could control. The money supply shrank, prices plummeted, and unemployment rose in all the ensuing chaos.
What are the general views of economists? After all, economists are famously known to be quite divided on wide range of issues. A recent Wall Street Journal survey during August of 53 prominent, forecasting economists provides something of a guideline. The view of 63 percent of the economists who opposed any more fiscal or monetary stimulus is summarized well by Stephen Stanley of Pierpont Securities: "The economy needs government to get out of the way."
The real lesson from the 1937-38 is that government made the situation much worse by always trying to fix things. Unfortunately, this is precisely what we have seen under Mr. Obama's presidency with the failed stimulus spending and all the regulatory chaos they have created.
John R. Lott, Jr. is a FoxNews.com contributor. He is an economist and author of "More Guns, Less Crime."(University of Chicago Press, 2010), the third edition of which was published in May."
===
MORE DEATHS, FEWER PROTESTS
Tim Blair
A peacenik finally realises that the peace movement isn’t about peace:
“We don’t have a very vibrant anti-war movement anymore,” lamented Medea Benjamin, founder of Code Pink, one of the anti-war movement’s most visible organizations. “The issues have not changed very much. … Now we have a surge [in Afghanistan] that we would have been furious about under George Bush, yet it’s hard to mobilize people under Obama. We have the same anti -war movement and not the same passion.”This is despite the US losing more members of the military in Afghanistan under Barack Obama than during eight years of Bush. (Similarly, Australia has suffered more military deaths in Afghanistan under Labor rule than under the previous Howard government.) MoveOn.org has moved on:
MoveOn.org, which produced a 2007 anti-war newspaper ad labeling Gen. David Petraeus “General Betray Us” for the surge in Iraq, has largely been silent, despite a similar U.S. strategy in Afghanistan with Petraeus at the helm.Peace groups are fighting another battle:
The leaders have kept their grumbling about Afghanistan mostly to themselves, to keep Obama’s sagging poll numbers from sinking further or jeopardizing the Democratic majority in Congress.As Cindy Sheehan observes: Groups like MoveOn.org, in particular, are more interested in politics than in peace. What a massive shock.
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SO TELL US THE DAMN LOTTERY NUMBERS
Tim Blair
The latest wisdom from Cate Blanchett:
It’s in the mind of the artist the future is imagined.Blanchett previously announced that artists “change people’s lives, at the risk of our own,” and have the ability to “change countries, governments, history [and] gravity.”
UPDATE. Despite their future-imagining powers, none of the artists based at a former Melbourne convent predicted this:
Glass blower Philip Stokes is preparing to leave … Several operators at the site, including violin maker Paul Davies and arts company A is for Atlas, have chosen to leave already. Other artists and tenants, among the 130 on site, cite an atmosphere of ‘’fear and mistrust’’ ...For artists, their concerns seem a little basic:
The board of the Abbotsford Convent Foundation, set up to manage the site after it was handed over by the state government in 2004, has fractured amid the growing discontent.
Tensions boiled over about a month ago, when a convent staff member was allegedly assaulted by a tenant over access to a car parking space. Police are investigating the incident.Write a play about it, Cate! Says one inmate: “The culture here is more a dictatorship than a democracy.” Among artists? Unbelievable.
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Abbott’s case: why I should be PM
Andrew Bolt
Tony Abbott appeals to the public over the heads of the independents:AUSTRALIA is more likely to have stable government from an alliance of 76 broadly like-minded MPs than from a rainbow coalition of fractured Laborites, Greens and country conservatives.(Thanks to reader Spin Baby, Spin.)
Australia is far more likely to get a fresh start from a new government than from a Labor Party that’s humble only because it has no choice. Why would the country independents throw a lifeline to a seriously bad government that’s just got worse since it executed a democratically elected prime minister?
For all her undoubted political skills, Julia Gillard’s actual decisions - to subcontract climate change policy to an unelected assembly, to resurrect a previously promised and dumped railway, and to export the boat people problem to an unwilling East Timor (as well as the disastrous school halls program) - suggest that she would be a worse prime minister than Kevin Rudd.
UPDATE
All this yammer about “stable government” is drowning out the more important debate - about effective government:
Former Labor leader Kim Beazley has weighed into the hung parliament debate, casting doubt on Australia’s ability to perform a major and effective role on the international stage.UPDATE 2
Mr Beazley is ambassador to the United States and stationed in Washington…
A government source confirmed Mr Beazley had raised questions whether it would be politically viable for the next prime minister to spend sustained periods outside the country with numbers in the House of Representatives close to a hung parliament.
Tony Windsor lets himself be convinced by Julia Gillard’s public servants that Julia Gillard’s $43 billion gamble is a prudent investment:
Key independent Tony Windsor has strongly backed Labor’s $43 billion National Broadband Network, criticising the Coalition’s cheaper alternative as a ‘’retrograde policy’’ that would create a digital backwater in rural Australia....If Windsor had talked not to bureacrats, but seven telco companies instead, he may well have reached a very different conclusion. Had he wanted to.
Mr Windsor, who was briefed by senior officials from the Department of Broadband last week, said he had been convinced that ‘’you do it once, you do it right, you do it with fibre’’.
(Thanks to reader Tim for the pic, taken this morning in Mt Isa.)
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What’s the excuse now for that mad dam ban?
Andrew Bolt
Years Melbourne has been on water restrictions:
7Where a new dam for Melbourne was planned:
(T)he Mitchell has a huge catchment area - so big, in fact, that it would normally fill a dam the size of the Thomson, our biggest, three times faster than that dam fills now. It’s a river that floods badly around every decade.The likely cost of such a dam:
$1.35 billion.What happened to that planned dam:
(The Labor Government) turned the dam reservation on Gippsland’s Mitchell River into a national park.The excuse the dam-phobic Labor Government gave for not building the dam:
Unfortunately, we cannot rely on this kind of rainfall like we used to.What it spent instead on a desalination plant to deliver just a third of the water:
$3.5 billion (or $5.7 billion in net present cost over the next 30 years).When the Mitchell last burst its banks:
2007How much water went to waste in that single flood:
There is no doubt that had a dam the size of the Thomson dam (Melbourne’s biggest) been in place on the Mitchell River, all of the flooding in Bairnsdale, Paynesville and much, if not all, of the Gippsland Lakes and Lakes Entrance flooding would have been prevented… Thwaites’ own department says more than 540 billion litres of flood water has gone down the Mitchell alone since June 19. In a dam, that would be more water than Melbourne uses in a year.How the Mitchell is flowing today:
Moderate Flood Warning for the Wonnangatta and Mitchell Rivers… Since 9 AM rainfall general rainfall totals of up to 13 mm have been recorded Mitchell River catchment… As a result, stream rises have occurred in the upper Mitchell River catchment which is likely to lead to areas of Minor flooding over the coming days.Another river the Labor Government could have used:
Check also the Glenmaggie Reservoir on the Macalister, which (in 2009 was) so full that (it) had to tip out as much as 40 billion litres .... That’s as much water wasted as Melbourne uses in a whole month. You see, the Glenmaggie is not only another reservoir that’s too small, but it’s even been left unconnected to Melbourne’s water network.How the Macalister is flowing today:
MAJOR FLOOD WARNING FOR THE MACALISTER RIVER DOWNSTREAM OF LAKE GLENMAGGIEHow much the green madness has cost Victoria.
Incalculable.
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