=== Todays Toon ===
William Shepherd Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil, GCMG, MC, KStJ, PC, QC (10 August 1893 – 3 February 1961), the 14th Governor-General of Australia, was born in Scotland and educated at George Watson's College and the University of Edinburgh. He joined the British Army in the First World War and served with an artillery regiment in France, where he won the Military Cross. In 1919 he left the Army with the rank of Captain. He was elected to the House of Commons as Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Cirencester and Tewkesbury in 1929. In Parliament he acquired the nickname "Shakes", from his habit of quoting from the works of William Shakespeare.
=== Bible Quote ===
“Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”- Psalm 143:10=== Headlines ===
Obama Targets House GOP Leader in Economic Speech
During a campaign-style speech in Cleveland, the president takes aim at Ohio Republican John Boehner, ridiculing a speech he gave last month by saying it offered 'no new policies.'Eight People Missing in Colorado Wildfire
Families of eight people who did not evacuate during mandatory order are working with authorities to locate their loved ones, as the fire has consumed 53 homes and 6,200 acres so far
U.N. Wants Control of World's Agenda
After a year of setbacks, U.N. Secretary General Ban ki-Moon and his top lieutenants spend their weekend at a remote retreat, discussing ways to put their organization in charge of the world's agenda
Bite Out of Obesity, or Case of 'Big Brother'?
An Iowa school district's lunch program asks children to memorize a four-digit PIN code so it can monitor what they eat in the school cafeteria — prompting some parents to claim it's an unhealthy case of 'Big Brother'
Breaking News
Watchdog challenges top copQUEENSLAND'S crime watchdog has launched a legal challenge against a top cop who'll decide the fate of police who investigated the Palm Island death in custody.
MPs arrive for party meetings
LABOR frontbencher Chris Bowen does not expect the party's heavily-criticised election campaign to be the subject of much attention when government MPs and senators meet in Canberra today.
Cop dies after 'botched drug raid'
THE police officer shot in the head during a drug raid in Sydney last night has lost his fight for life.
Independents' decision 'pre-ordained'
INDEPENDENTS Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott were never interested in the Coalition's regional package, Queensland Nationals Senator Ron Boswell says.
Dollar up on equities
THE dollar has opened higher after touching a one-month high during the overnight session on the back of US equity strength as successful bond auctions eased debt fears in Europe.
Floods threaten Echuca
CONCERN is growing about the threat floodwaters pose to the Murray River town of Echuca, with water flowing down the iconic river from tributaries flooded by Victoria's heavy weekend rain.
Geoffrey Rush film 'an Oscar magnet'
A FILM about an Australian speech therapist's relationship with King George VI, starring Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth, will be one of the highlights of the London Film Festival.
Eight people missing in wildfire
THE families of eight people who did not evacuate as a wildfire burned out of control in Colorado were working with authorities today to locate their loved ones.
Russian police to destroy $1m of caviar
FOODIES should look away now.
Aussies tops when it comes to giving
AUSTRALIA and New Zealand shared first place in a first-of-its kind survey ranking 153 nations on the willingness of their citizens to donate time and money to charity.
NSW/ACT
Woman threatened in syring hold-upA 60-year-old woman has been threatened with a syringe in an armed robbery at Waterloo.
Surnames reflect changing suburbia
THEY'RE not just any Tom, Dick or Harry: Meet the Patels, who have overtaken Smiths as the most common surname in Parramatta.
Carol loved by everyone she knew
CAROL White was known as the life of the party - now the community who loved her is struggling to cope with her accidental death.
Call for more home detention
JUDGES encouraged to sentence prisoners to home detention despite a shortfall in "field visits" by corrective services staff.
'Systemic failure' of PIC, says supervisor
MEMBERS of the police's own corruption watchdog "should face charges for breaching phone tapping laws".
Latest NSW Government pledge ignored
THE LATEST pledged ignored by the NSW Government is to cut spending on its advertising.
Body found in bushland was shot
POLICE renew appeal for information on the shooting death of a man whose body was in bushland.
Queensland
Card game row in Supreme CourtTHE usually sedate sport of bridge is being taken all the way to the Supreme Court over allegations of score tampering
Officer demoted over nude cops
POLICE sergeant involved in an off-duty naked run through traffic has been demoted to senior-constable in a move that will cost him about $30,000 a year.
Soorley: Put a sock in it, Pete
FORMER mayor Jim Soorley has taken aim at Peter Beattie, saying the former premier should "shut up" about the Labor Party or move back to the US.
Tourist can't recall bashing
A GERMAN tourist savagely bashed in a sex attack in the grounds of a Cairns school on Tuesday has no memory of her night of terror.
PM's bush deal could deny cities
VITAL city infrastructure projects are under threat from Julia Gillard's sweetheart deal with the rural Independents to woo the bush.
Old foes thank Bob Katter
EMAILS and calls of support have flooded in to Independent MP Bob Katter's office following his backing of the Coalition.
Water gouging claims hosed down
SOUTHEAST Queensland councils could charge up to 30 per cent more for household water despite State Government claims they are "gouging" consumers.
Utopian transport dream needs big dollars
THE world is littered with failed utopian dreams. Is the State Government's new transport plan for southeast Queensland destined to be one?
Bligh on critical list: Newspoll
ANNA Bligh is facing a massive voter backlash as anger towards the Labor Party grows.
He's back - Rudd in the spotlight after win
KEVIN Rudd to be welcomed into senior ranks of Julia Gillard's government in next few days.
Victoria
Crown staff threaten racing strikeWORKERS at Crown Casino may go on strike during Melbourne's Spring Racing Carnival if pay demands aren't met.
Bandits find take away slippery
UPDATE 8.52am: THE owner of a python is relieved to have her pet home after bandits took him to McDonald's and terrified patrons.
New threat to fire survivors
A KINGLAKE couple recovering from the Black Saturday tragedy claim lives are in danger from falling trees in the bushfire zone.
Bullied kids told to be invisible
Clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller says bullied students should act less like victims and try to take control of the situation.
Murray set to burst in Echuca
ECHUCA braces for flooding as swollen waterways gush into the Murray River, with Warracknabeal and Dimboola also at risk.
'Jail him for 100 years'
TWO children horribly tortured by their stepdad want him jailed for 100 years so he can't terrorise other families.
Playmate due for Mali
ZOO staff are on standby for the birth of Victoria's second baby elephant and playmate for Mali.
Kids make most of flood
Matthew Bitcon found new ways to amuse himself after school was cancelled and his family property became isolated by rising waters.
Echuca among flood concerns
UPDATE 7.35am: CONCERN is growing about floodwater threats to the Murray River town of Echuca.
Woman stabbed, robbed at station
THREE boys have been arrested following an armed robbery of a 55-year-old woman at Kananook early this morning.
Northern Territory
Nothing newSouth Australia
They're our pride, a field of winnersREAL heroes rarely look the part. Harry Anderson is a shy lanky teenager. Lynton Connor has no hands.
Mystery eye problem at Show
CATTLE urine vapours remain under suspicion as the likely cause of serious eye irritation in dozens of Royal Adelaide Show visitors.
Buried bub's mum asked to come forward
THE grave bore no name and no epitaph - just the words "Unknown Male Infant" for a tiny boy who'd had no life at all.
We get road funding crumbs
SOUTH Australian councils have the worst share of Federal Government road funding of any state or territory, a Victorian inquiry has shown.
Gawler rezoning raises fears
GAWLER Council has raised fresh concerns about infrastructure for 10,000 extra residents now that the State Government has rezoned land in the area.
Driver to stand trial for mother's death
A YOUNG driver is standing trial in the District Court, accused of killing a mother-of-two in a head-on crash in the Barossa Valley.
Disabled should have right to secret vote
THE State's voting laws should be overhauled to ensure disabled people can exercise their right to cast a secret ballot, a tribunal says.
Charges dropped against hoon organiser
A MAGISTRATE has thrown out charges of organising a hoon driving cruise against a car club member because of a lack of evidence in Elizabeth Magistrates Court yesterday.
Woman bashed with garden stake
A MAN has been arrested over a violent home invasion, assault and robbery during which a woman was hit by a garden stake.
Gillard and Abbott pay respects
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition leader Tony Abbott have attended the funeral of a South Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan last month.
Western Australia
WA gives $100,000 to flood victimsTHE West Australian government will donate $100,000 to the Australian Red Cross Pakistan disaster relief appeal.
Mum with kids fails breath test
A MOTHER of two has been charged after a breath test revealed she was three times over the legal limit when she picked up her children from school.
Minister's abuse FOI laws: report
NEARLY half of WA's ministers don't believe freedom of information laws are being used to benefit the public, a parliamentary report concludes.
CCC probe into Stirling delayed
THE Corruption and Crime Commission investigation into allegations of misconduct at the City of Stirling has been postponed.
NWS partners get ACCC green light
ACCC gives the green light for the partners in the North West Shelf gas project to jointly market and sell domestic gas to WA consumers.
MP wants billionaire, Grylls investigated
MARK McGowan says billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer's call for him to be sacked is an attempt to influence politics through intimidation.
Cops blitz Perth trouble spots
POLICE will flood troublesome entertainment precincts in an all-out assault against alcohol-related violence this weekend.
Anderson appeals assault conviction
BUSINESSMAN Warren Anderson has appealed a guilty verdict that he assaulted his estranged wife Cheryl at their former Perth mansion.
Pioneering Kakulas owner laid to rest
LEGENDARY Perth food store owner, Stavros Kakulas, will be laid to rest at the St Constantine and Helen Cathedral in Northbridge this afternoon.
WA link to NSW murder mystery
NSW police investigating the unsolved murder of a woman almost 40 years ago believe someone in WA may hold the key to solving the case.
Tasmania
18 students share needle in science classSCHOOL students were put at risk of contracting various diseases when they shared a needle during a science class last month
=== Journalists Corner ===
Pressure on the European Union (EU) to support an UN investigation into crimes against humanity in Burma is growing. This week three prominent dissident groups in Burma, the All Burma Monks Alliance, the 88 Generation Students and the All Burma Federation of Student Union sent an open letter to the EU asking for their support.The pressure is working--just this week Hungary announced it supports the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma!
Thank you to all of those who called the EU Ambassadors to the UN and Washington, DC. We need more calls! If you are not able to call, click here to send an email!
Right now, the EU is drafting a resolution on Burma that it will introduce at the UN General Assembly meeting (UNGA) which will begin on the 3rd week of September. We need your help to make sure this resolution calls for the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry into Crimes Against Humanity in Burma. We need you to call the ambassadors again as soon as possible.
This is long over due. There have already been 19 UN General Assembly resolutions on Burma since 1991, but none have mentioned the Commission of Inquiry and none have taken serious action. Following UN Special Rapporteur Tomas Quintana's call for the investigation this March, some of the UN's most powerful players, including the US and UK, have endorsed his recommendation. Support for the Commission of Inquiry is the highest it has even been. But this is not enough, we need the EU, a major sponsor of the draft resolution on Burma, to include the call for the Commission of Inquiry in this UNGA resolution.
Below, we have included instructions on how to call or email.
Myra Dahgaypaw
Instructions:
1) Dial one of the numbers below and ask to speak to the corresponding ambassador (if you are not able to call, please email or fax).
Hi, may I speak to Ambassador XXX, I would like to ask him to support an UN Commission of Inquiry into Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes in Burma.
Ambassador's Contacts
(1) His Excellency Mr. Pedro Serrano, Ambassador, Acting Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations Tel. (212) 371 3804
Fax (212) 758 2718
Email: delegation-new-york@ec.europa.eu
(2) His Excellency Ambassador João Vale de Almeida, European Union Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to the United States
Telephone: (202) 862-9500; Fax: (202) 429-1766. Email: catherina.bagnall@ec.europa.eu
2) It is likely that they will ask you to leave a message with his assistant.
Hi Ambassador XXXX. As you may know, the United States has already pledged its support for a UN-led Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma. This is a much needed step as the military regime in Burma has been brutally suppressing ethnic minorities and human rights defenders for more than four decades. Recently, the level of violence has been on the rise. Since 1996, the regime has burned down over 3,500 villages, and instances of rape and forced labor by the military are well documented. That is why I urge the EU to join the United States, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Australia in calling for this important measure towards accountability and justice in Burma.
* We know that the EU is writing a draft resolution on Burma that it will submit at the upcoming UNGA 65th session. We want the EU to make sure that its draft resolution includes a call to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to set up a Commission of Inquiry.
* We believe that this is the right moment to take this action to pressure the regime to stop its sham election and to start negotiations with the democratic opposition led by Aung San Suu Kyi for real and sustainable national reconciliation and democratization.
3) You may want to leave your number in case they would like to call you back.
If you have any further questions about why you should support a Commission of Inquiry in Burma, feel free to call me at XXXXX
4) Thank them for taking the message!
5) Email myradah@uscampaignforburma.org to let us know how the call went.
It's an All New Season of 'The Factor'The summer's over, and 'The Factor' is back in a big way! Straight talk, powerful debate, and NEVER any spin.
Tonight - Morris, Miller, Goldberg, Williams and Ham are all here!
===
What's Obama's Plan for Cleveland?
Obama hits the road and takes his economic agenda to Cleveland! What's his plan for recovery, and will it help ground this rocky city?
===
Countdown to the Midterms!
What's the GOP's last minute strategy to win at the polls and shift the party in power?
===
On Fox News Insider
Bret Baier: Will Rahm Run for Chicago Mayor?
Shep Goes Inside the Progress at the WTC Memorial Site
VOTE: Should Hillary Run for President in 2012?
VIDEO: Cruise Ship Caught in Violent Storm
Imam Behind Mosque Defends Plan
=== Comments ===
Scooter Libby on Iran, Obama's Foreign Policy, Plame CaseTHIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT FROM "THE O'REILLY FACTOR," SEPTEMBER 7, 2010. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MONICA CROWLEY, GUEST HOST: In the "Personal Story" segment tonight: a "Factor" exclusive with Scooter Libby, who was chief of staff for former vice president Dick Cheney.
Mr. Libby joins us now. Hi, Scooter.
SCOOTER LIBBY, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF FOR DICK CHENEY: Hi, Monica, good to be here.
CROWLEY: All right. So let's talk about the Obama foreign policy, and I want to begin with Iran, because it's certainly the biggest threat in the Persian Gulf and I dare say the entire world. Yesterday, the U.N. nuclear watchdog group, the IAEA, came out with a scathing report on the Iranian nuclear program saying, "Hey, look, they are stockpiling enriched uranium. We can't get to it. They won't tell us how much they have, where it is." They're not disclosing anything. No big surprise. And also, they're not letting in inspectors. And, in fact, they just evicted two inspectors from the country. We have now had two years of Obama's policy of engagement with the Iranians. What has it gotten us?
LIBBY: I think it's useful to go back to where candidate Obama was or actually President-elect Obama in his very first press conference said that a nuclear weapon in Iranian hands would be unacceptable, and then he launched on the policy that you mentioned of engagement and sanctions as a fallback. In June of this year, the CIA director, Leon Panetta, I think on one of these shows said that two things. One, the Iranians are about a year away from the bomb.
CROWLEY: Right.
LIBBY: And secondly, that -- he was asked would sanctions work, and he said probably not.
CROWLEY: Right. So here you have Obama's own CIA director saying the Obama strategy probably won't work. And now we're seeing, and the U.N. of all people, are now saying, look, sanctions aren't dissuading the Iranians from their pursuit of a nuclear weapon, so if we still are relying on sanctions -- and I do know that the European Union upgraded their own set of sanctions. The United States is sort of behind the eight ball on this, but sanctions are not working here. So where are we right now in terms of a policy of dealing with Iran?
LIBBY: Well, it would be interesting to be sitting in the sit room these days and listening to the debate on what to do next, because if their own team is saying what they're doing is not working, and if it's truly unacceptable, we have a problem.
CROWLEY: What are the options? Do you think, Scooter, that the Bush administration made a mistake by not dealing more aggressively with Iran when it had the chance?
LIBBY: I would say that back in 2003 or so, there was more that might have been done with the Iranian opposition, for example. At that point they were seven years away from a nuclear weapon, and as we know there is a lot going on inside Iran. There's a crisis of legitimacy, twofold, a crisis of legitimacy going on inside Iran. The 2009 election had to be stolen, in most people's minds, by Ahmadinejad. So there might be something to be done on that score.
CROWLEY: We now know that the Iranians are working 24/7 to get a nuclear weapon. I don't think anybody is under the illusion that they're not doing that. Isn't it advisable to deal with an enemy while you still have an advantage, OK? And once the Iranians get the nuclear weapon, once they get the bomb, we have lost our strategic advantage.
LIBBY: It will be quite a problem once they have a weapon. That's why he called it unacceptable. It's interesting to think about what the region will be like if they have a weapon. You think about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, for example. There's a reason that the world reaction was so mild to that invasion. When you think about the North Koreans sinking a South Korean ship, everything becomes more difficult when the bad guys have that type of weapon.
CROWLEY: Scooter, you mentioned Afghanistan. I know that you had been working on the Iraq surge before this ridiculous, politically motivated case against you derailed your effort and actually set back the Iraq surge program for years and probably cost us a lot of lives and time in Iraq. Since you were one of the leading early authors of the Iraq surge, give us your read about the surge in Afghanistan, and do you think it will work, especially under the guidance of General David Petraeus?
LIBBY: Well, of course, the surge came after I left. The notion of a counterinsurgency strategy, I think, is a legitimate one, for Iraq proved that way. And is also a legitimate one for Afghanistan. They have General Petraeus in command. He's about as good as you could get for that. He's a smart guy. He's already reporting back some problems with the implementation so far, but it's clearly too early.
CROWLEY: General Petraeus also just asked for 2,000 additional troops in Afghanistan. He just did that in the last 24 hours. What does that tell you about how the military leadership is perceiving this surge and whether or not they're actually going to be able to stick to President Obama's timetable about starting to withdraw August of next year?
LIBBY: Well, it's their job to win, and I believe that General Petraeus will do what he can to win. It's interesting what President Obama said when he started the Afghan surge back in April of 2009. He said there were two reasons to do it. One was to get the Al Qaeda leadership that's along the border. But the second reason he mentioned was because Pakistan has nuclear weapons. And what he was saying is that if they have nuclear weapons, there's a danger. If Pakistan is destabilized, that those weapons will find their way into the hands of terrorists. Translation: We would wake up one day, or we could wake up one day with a nuclear weapon going off in New York or Washington or Chicago or...
CROWLEY: And that's the strategic value of Afghanistan, right? (More at the link)
===
Scientists Invent a Tractor Beam
By Mike Lucibella
Tractor beams, energy rays that can move objects, are a science fiction mainstay. But now they are becoming a reality -- at least for moving very tiny objects.Researchers from the Australian National University have announced that they have built a device that can move small particles a meter and a half using only the power of light.
Physicists have been able to manipulate tiny particles over miniscule distances by using lasers for years. Optical tweezers that can move particles a few millimeters are common.
Andrei Rhode, a researcher involved with the project, said that existing optical tweezers are able to move particles the size of a bacterium a few millimeters in a liquid. Their new technique can move objects one hundred times that size over a distance of a meter or more.
The device works by shining a hollow laser beam around tiny glass particles. The air surrounding the particle heats up, while the dark center of the beam stays cool. When the particle starts to drift out of the middle and into the bright laser beam, the force of heated air molecules bouncing around and hitting the particle's surface is enough to nudge it back to the center.
A small amount of light also seeps into the darker middle part of the beam, heating the air on one side of the particle and pushing it along the length of the laser beam. If another such laser is lined up on the opposite side of the beam, the speed and direction the particle moves can be easily manipulated by changing the brightness of the beams.
Rhode said that their technique could likely work over even longer distances than they tested.
"With the particles and the laser we use, I would guess up to 10 meters in air should not be a problem. The max distance we had was 1.5 meters, which was limited by the size of the optical table in the lab," Rhode said.
Because this technique needs heated gas to push the particles around, it can't work in the vacuum of outer space like the tractor beams in Star Trek. But on Earth there are many possible applications for the technology. The meter-long distances that the research team was able to move the particles could open up new avenues for laser tweezers in the transport of dangerous substances and microbes, and for sample taking and biomedical research.
"There is the possibility that one could use the hollow spheres as a means of chemical delivery agents, or microscopic containers of some kind, but some more work would need to be done here just to check what happens inside the spheres, in terms of sample heating," said David McGloin, a physicist at the University of Dundee in the U.K not connected with the Australian team.
===
Another Proposal From Obama to Throw Your Money Down the Drain
By John Lott
After focusing on health care and various regulatory bills for over a year, Democrats are trying to convince voters that they do care about the economy and the high unemployment rate. With the November elections looming (only 55 days away) and Congress set to adjourn on October 8, this is the week for Democrats to push new stimulus proposals. They're doing this although we already have had the $814 billion giant stimulus package last fall and the recent $26 billion in aid for state and local government workers. The various new proposals would increase spending to well over another $200 billion.
The centerpiece of today’s speech in Cleveland is to announce changes in the tax law. President Obama may never have managed a business, but he is sure making up for that lack of experience since becoming president. He is now making lots of business decisions for hapless firms as his new stimulus bills pick what firms should invest in and what product lines will get tax subsidies.
Obama talks tax cuts, but he wants to raise the marginal income taxes that small business owners pay and then give them back some of that money only if they make business decisions that his administration approves of. Large businesses also will get tax cuts, but only if they do what the Obama administration wants them to do.
Economists advise that the best tax systems have low, stable tax rates that let businesses make decisions on how to operate. President Obama violates all these rules, with high marginal rates, temporary tax changes, and very complicated deductions that micromanage how companies operate. Whether a company is even eligible for the deductions depends on how large the company is.
In Cleveland, today Obama will announce that he will fight to make sure that tax rates go up for those making over $200,000, many of them owning small businesses. But his “Small Business Jobs Act,” which will give small businesses $12 billion in loans and "targeted" tax advantages, offers to somewhat offset these higher tax rates.
In addition, the bill creates a “Small Business Lending Fund” that lets the Obama administration make $30 billion in investments in "community banks." You won't be surprised to learnd that the Obama administration has complete discretion over who gets this money.
The president’s speech will also put forward $130 billion for expanded research and development tax credits and a 100 percent temporary business tax deduction for capital investments made before the end of 2011. On Monday, the president proposed another $50 billion in spending on "roads, rails and runways."
The problems with the "Small Business Jobs Act" are revealed in the details: both the loans and the tax cuts micromanage how companies should be run. Take the "bonus depreciation," provision which provides a 50 percent first-year depreciation. Among the lucky assets that are eligible: "Single purpose agricultural (livestock) or horticultural structures," "Storage facilities (except buildings and their structural components) used in connection with distributing petroleum or any primary product of petroleum." "sewage disposal services," and "off-the-self computer software."
The Obama administration officials and Democratic congressional leaders somehow figured out that an agricultural building that serves just one purpose deserves a deduction. But if it does two or more things, it should not be subsidized.
So, a farmer who would have built one building will now build two buildings so that they can get a huge depreciation on both. Why should larger farms, where it may make more sense to have a building that does one function, be the ones who benefit? Of course, this is all nonsensical. And so is the quick write-off for certain types of computer software but not others. And why does "sewage disposal services" deserve such special treatment?
The loans being proposed are no different. The Obama administration and Democrats are picking what type of firms will get loans and what they can get loans for. "Brick and mortar" operations get a loan "to acquire major fixed assets for expansion or modernization." Why are those particular operations singled out in the CDC/504 loan program? Why can't those loans be used to for marketing or product development? And, similarly, if you export certain products, you can get a special loan. It all sounds like pork-projects directed to certain lobbying industries.
Of course, a simple way of getting more loans to firms is for banks to be allowed to make more profits on the loans they make. They could do that by lowering tax rates. But "profits" is a dirty word to Obama and Democrats. And another way is for the government to run less of a deficit. If the government borrows less, there will be more for private firms. Besides, to encourage businesses to invest and for households to have more funds to invest, lower taxes are crucial. This all means less wasteful government spending.
These bills are filled with pork. Does anyone believe that the Obama administration won’t let politics enter into the decisions about which “community banks” will receive the $30 billion in the Small Business Lending Fund?
Alas, the chaos created by politicians rewiring the economy will stay with us. When the gravy train runs out and politically favored companies have to fend for themselves, many of the companies that are growing now will have to retrench. All this is just throwing American's money down the drain.
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.
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GREENS IN CHARGE
Tim Blair
Endangered species Penny Wong responds to her Green detractors:
Penny Wong has hit back at claims Australia needs a new Climate Change Minister with a more consultative approach.Indeed. The climate barely changed at all during her stay at the national thermostat. Meanwhile, Giles Parkinson notes that the possible appointment of Anthony Albanese to the climate ministry “might be coloured by his animosity towards the Greens that nearly unseated him in the latest poll.” Bring on the new paradigm! And David Marr?examines our new Green overlords, whom he observes to be mostly midgets:
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says Senator Wong does not communicate well with the Senate and has been too slow in implementing climate policy.
There has been speculation a Greens Senator could be given the portfolio under the Labor-Greens alliance entered into by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Senator Wong has defended her record on climate change.
They present as a delegation of wide-eyed optimists off on a fact-finding mission to a dangerous land … You fear for them once they open their mouths.And on their towering leader:
if trees could speak they would speak like him.
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UNWIRED WINDSOR
Tim Blair
Independent MP Tony Windsor handed government to Labor because of its $43 billion national broadband idea. According to Windsor, such an outlay is vital to regional communities. Got to be connected at super-speed! But as for the man himself:
“I can’t even operate a computer. I haven’t got one on my desk. But I’ve got people in here who can,” he said.Why commit to Labor’s multi-billion plan when all you need do is hire some smart kids for the office?
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STABILITY NOW!
Tim Blair
Late Tuesday, the Greens began their move to bring down Penny Wong:
SA Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says federal politics requires a climate change minister more consultative than Penny Wong.I would convert to Islam if it meant I could have seen Wong’s reaction to this lovely advice from her Senate colleague. In any case, Wong was understood to be secure: “Labor insiders said she was unlikely to lose the climate change portfolio.” But that quickly changed:
Her comments signalled that Senator Wong’s position as Climate Change Minister may be untenable under the Labor-Greens alliance entered into by Julia Gillard …
Senator Hanson-Young said the Greens expected ministers such as Senator Wong to “work harder and challenge themselves to get good outcomes”.
A new face may become the federal climate change minister, with Penny Wong expected to stand aside after a difficult tenure.And those “Labor insiders” have a new line:
Labor insiders say she has made it clear she does not want to remain in the role.(Via Habib, who emails: “I’d say anyone who looked sideways at the Greens will be purged to keep them onside, making the Labor backbench even more of a seething ghetto populated by truculent, jealous and suspicious goons with colossal chips on their shoulders and a firm knowledge that they can sink the whole leaky enterprise by resigning or jumping ship. This’ll be more fun than a police strike on Grand Final day.")
She did not attend a recent speaking engagement; organisers were told she was not staying in the job. Her chief of staff is moving on.
UPDATE. Cathy Alexander:
Penny Wong is not expected to stay on as climate minister. Speculation Burke, Albanese or Combet could replace.UPDATE II. This is ridiculous:
Albanese!
The Greens and the independents have offered Tony Abbott the opportunity to help govern from opposition …Somewhere, a kindergarten headcount is coming up two short.
As the political establishment comes to grips with the concept of minority government, the Greens leader Bob Brown said the Parliament belonged to everybody, not just the government.
‘’Please think about it,’’ he said …
The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young was keen to explore the idea.
UPDATE III. Stability is busting out all over:
NSW powerbroker Mark Arbib, one of the architects of Kevin Rudd’s sacking as prime minister, has revealed privately that he intends to resign his position as one of the five key party figures who sit on the party’s supreme ruling body, the national executive committee.He’s finally sacked himself.
UPDATE IV. Stability Swan gets involved:
Labor’s alliance with the two rural independents has hit its first hurdle, with Rob Oakeshott demanding the mining tax be included in the government’s proposed tax summit, despite Wayne Swan’s refusal to allow the original super-profits tax to be discussed.As Bob Brown would beg: “Please think about it.”
UPDATE V. Remember when Julia Gillard asked voters to keep state issues separate from federal issues? Now the situation is reversed:
Premier John Brumby has urged the Gillard government not to interfere in Victorian matters …Good advice.
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How will you hold any of them accountable?
Andrew Bolt
I’ve argued before that this “new paradigm” of politics gives voters less say, not more. Arthur Sinodinos agrees:
LA Gillardine is in office but not in power. The new parliamentary processes tilt the balance back towards the legislative arm at the expense of genuine leadership. Collective decision-making robs parties and leaders of individual responsibility and accountability. Who will stick up for anything remotely difficult now? ...
The independents are saying that no one party has a mandate. In other words, forget what you think you were voting for, we are back at square one. It is ground zero for policy. Labor has already dumped its people’s assembly on climate change so all promises are now potentially non-core. The only core promises are those ticked off by the independents.
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Our MP backed WHAT?
Andrew Bolt
The readers of Tony Windsor’s local paper in Tamworth seem less than thrilled.
(Thanks to reader Kevin.)
UPDATE
Same story in Rob Oakeshott’s local paper, says reader Dave.
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The independents have their first fight with Labor - over more taxes
Andrew Bolt
This new alliance is working just as you’d expect - and as investors must now surely fear:
LABOR’S alliance with the two rural independents has hit its first hurdle, with Rob Oakeshott demanding the mining tax be included in the government’s proposed tax summit, despite Wayne Swan’s refusal to allow the original super-profits tax to be discussed.So the new Mineral Resources Rent Tax is responsible for funding $6 billion of the $10 billion in rural spending that Labor offered the two independents for their votes. Trouble is, will the cash actually be there?:
Mr Oakeshott said last night there had to be a public discussion about the Henry tax review that included state mining royalties and the mineral resources rent tax.
The revised mining tax is the key to Labor’s plans to deliver a budget surplus in 2013-14 and fund $6 billion of its regional infrastructure promises, and the Treasurer does not want to go back to the original recommendations of the Henry tax review.
In a note to clients yesterday, UBS analyst Glyn Lawcock said estimates the MRRT faced a potential $8 billion revenue shortfall raised the risk the government would increase the tax.Working beautifully already. Any sign that investors are noticing?
The Australian reported this week that an analysis by resources intelligence firm Intierra found the MRRT would raise only about $2.5bn in its first two years compared with the $10.5bn forecast by the government.
“We believe this raises the risk that the government may seek to increase the proposed MRRT rates or the regime being applied to other commodities,” Mr Lawcock said yesterday.
Answer:
As uranium stocks slumped yesterday amid fears that the Greens’ growing influence over policymaking would be negative for the sector, a leading mining analyst warned the government would need to expand the mining tax…UPDATE
Australian Uranium Association chief executive Michael Angwin said he had yet to receive a response to a letter he had written to Julia Gillard seeking assurances that Labor’s alliance with the Greens would not lead to a change of policy on uranium.
Swan gives in:
WAYNE Swan says the tax summit pushed by the independents may discuss his mining tax legislation after Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott insisted the issue get a public airing.
Meanwhile more taxes are on the menu:
Senator Brown, whose party will have the balance of power in the Senate from July, also put the politically emotive issue of death duties on the agenda, suggesting next year’s tax summit should consider the issue.The best bit, though, is that the Greens now win so many votes from the “doctors’s wives” demographic. Wait for the ladies-who-lunch to realise they’ve voted for a party that wants their inheritance.
UPDATE 1
The independents promised stability. And we got this instead:
THE Greens and the independents have offered Tony Abbott the opportunity to help govern from opposition, saying they would pass any policies with which they agreed, including paid parental leave, whether Labor liked it or not.What this means is that big spending ideas will tend to get support, and savings ones will not. Note, for instance, the two proposals the Greens have already nominated as ones on which they could join the Coalition:
Bob Brown raised the potentially destabilising prospect of the Greens working with the Coalition on legislation to boost mental health spending and to alter Labor’s paid parental leave plan.What we have now is a Parliament so finely balanced and so desperate to avoid offence that the Budget is bound to take a hammering.
UPDATE 2
Some are already alarmed:
FUTURE Fund chairman David Murray has called for the government to adopt transparent, private-sector expenditure disciplines as a way of stopping politicians from conducting an “auction” for their votes.And that uncosted $43 billion broadband promise is seriously scary:
Lamenting the high cost of bids by Labor and the Coalition to secure power, Mr Murray said the outcome, where Julia Gillard was elected on Tuesday with the support of two independents, was “very bad for fiscal discipline”.
“It sets up an unwelcome precedent where individual representatives can auction their votes,” he told The Australian.
Brambles and Bluescope chairman and RBA director Graham Kraehe echoed the concerns about the NBN. “If they are looking to act in the best interests of the country as a whole, they should insist the government publish a proper business case for the NBN before we go down the path of spending $43bn,” Mr Kraehe said.UPDATE 3
Jennifer Hewett explains a looming clash as yet more of those Treasury costings that so wowed the independents go haywire:
Labor says the tax will raise $10.5 billion in its first two years. The big miners - BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata - won’t say so publicly but they are confident the new tax won’t raise anything like that, certainly not from them. Yet they are the ones that were supposed to pay the vast bulk of the tax. So just where will the money come from?
The growing black hole in Labor’s finances is unsettling the market and the mining industry.
The Australian revealed this week that international resources research firm Intierra believes the revised tax will only raise $2.5bn in the two years after it starts in July 2012.
The smaller miners now fear the only way the government can fill that hole is to broaden the tax beyond its current application to just the bigger players in the coal and iron ore markets.
That fear is compounded by the fact the Greens are now in such a powerful position in the Senate and are determined to raise more money from an even bigger and broader mining tax covering other commodities, such as uranium.
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Who elected Europe’s president?
Andrew Bolt
The democracy deficit grows ever more obvious in the European Union:
Speaking to MEPs, in an event billed as emulating the annual speech by the American president to US Congress, the European Commission President insisted that “a euro spent at European level gets you more than a euro spent at national level”.(Thanks to reader Ian.)
“Pooling money at the European level allows member states to cut their costs, avoid overlaps and get a better return on their investment,” he said.... In a bid to escape national vetoes over spending, Mr Barroso proposed giving the EU the right to raise money by issuing bonds, a facility currently limited to “sovereign” nation states…
During the “state of the union” debate, Nigel Farage, Ukip’s European leader, told Mr Barroso that “there is one fundamental difference between you and US President Obama”.
“He, of course, is elected and you are not,” he said.
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Why is a Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad needed?
Andrew Bolt
This tragic death will have political ramifications. For a start, something went seriously wrong with our immigration program if a whole police squad must now be dedicated to the crimes of just one ethnic group:
THE police officer shot in the head during a drug raid last night has lost his fight for life.(No comments for legal reasons.)
William Crews, 26, a constable attached to the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad, died in hospital earlier this morning, it has been confirmed…
Constable Crews was taking part in a search warrant relating to the sale of prohibited drugs when a number of shots were fired from an apartment block in Cairds Ave, Bankstown, just after 9pm.
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Taking the Democrats with him
Andrew Bolt
Barack Obama declines, and the Washington Post grieves:
Democrats in Congress are no longer asking themselves whether this is going to be a bad election year for them and their party. They are asking whether it is going to be a disaster.Obama complains:
The answer will probably be found in states such as Wisconsin, one of a growing number of spots on the map where Democrats accustomed to winning reelection with ease - including Sen. Russell Feingold - are unexpectedly in trouble.
The GOP pushed deep into Democratic-held territory over the summer, to the point where the party is well within range of picking up the 39 seats it would need to take control of the House. Overall, as many as 80 House seats could be at risk, and fewer than a dozen of these are held by Republicans.
Political handicappers now say it is conceivable that the Republicans could also win the 10 seats they need to take back the Senate.
They talk about me like a dog.Meanwhile, Obama offers proof that stimulus spending can be utterly useless, which may actually explain why people aren’t quite so pleased with their Ruddish president:
But if at first you don’t succeed then try, try again until you really bury the economy in debt:Speaking at a Labor Day rally in Wisconsin’s largest city, the president’s described a six-year plan to dedicate an additional $50 billion to infrastructure spending for roads and bridges; make permanent a $100 billion research-and-development tax credit; and create a $200 billion program to convince American companies to buy more equipment and make other capital improvements in the next two years…
The stakes are high for Obama—perhaps in no place more so than Ohio. A crucial swing state, Ohio’s unemployment rate, at 10.3% in July, is higher than the national jobless rate of 9.6% recorded in August.
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Shades of ‘75
Andrew Bolt
The Liberals’ frontbenchers are going in hard:
‘’This is an illegitimate government that is inherently unstable,’’ Mr Hockey said.
The Liberal senator George Brandis implied corruption by saying the government had ‘’as much legitimacy as the Pakistani cricket team’’.
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Arbib to pay. Wong, too
Andrew Bolt
And now that the independents have decided, Labor can settle scores with those who led it to this “victory”:
NSW powerbroker Mark Arbib, one of the architects of Kevin Rudd’s sacking as prime minister, has revealed privately that he intends to resign his position as one of the five key party figures who sit on the party’s supreme ruling body, the national executive committee.UPDATE
Mr Arbib, who has also been partly blamed for the failure of the federal election campaign, also yesterday relinquished his role in negotiating Cabinet positions on behalf of the party’s dominant Right faction.
Saving the planet can be a bastard:
A NEW face may become the federal climate change minister, with Penny Wong tipped to stand aside after a difficult tenure… Labor insiders say she has made it clear she does not want to remain in the role. She did not attend a recent speaking engagement; organisers were told she was not staying in the job. Her chief of staff is moving on.I doubt many voters found Wong persuasive in that role, and if she really believed what she was saying about global warming she’d be gutted by Labor’s ditching of the emissions trading system - a move pushed by Julia Gillard.
UPDATE 2
Tim Blair notes this report of Sarah Hanson-Young, herself so strident and lazily unresearched, dissing Wong now that the Greens have muscle with Labor:
SA Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says federal politics requires a climate change minister more consultative than Penny Wong.What a comedown for Wong since the days when Brisbane’s Sunday Mail could publish this shiny-eyed tosh by Mia Hanshin:
Her comments signalled that Senator Wong’s position as Climate Change Minister may be untenable under the Labor-Greens alliance entered into by Julia Gillard …
Senator Hanson-Young said the Greens expected ministers such as Senator Wong to “work harder and challenge themselves to get good outcomes”.
(Penny Wong is) one of the party’s modern-day female champions.... a senior minister in the Labor Government of Kevin Rudd, responsible for Australia’s battle with climate change and water security.That was just two years ago. But now? Wong has had a gutfull and the Greens want her gone.
``She’s the minister for saving the world,’’ friend Margaret Kelly jokes....
``I just thought, `Wow, this woman is one of the best contributors and political operators I have ever met—what a brain and what a passion,’’ Ms (Joan) Kirner said....
Surprisingly for a champion of the worker and a ruthless political operator, Senator Wong comes across as cultured and refined. She’s smooth and engaging, but with a mysterious reserve—a female James Bond without the violent streak.... Current friend and former boyfriend Jay Weatherill says the powerless and those in need of protection and advocacy were always attracted to Senator Wong…
Senator Wong has a clear focus in her role as Minister for Climate Change and Water. She recognises that the portfolio poses two of the greatest challenges of our time.... As Penny Wong guides Australia through the upheaval of climate change, the qualities revealed more than three decades ago when a young girl made her way in a new world will be invaluable. That young girl is now the woman Australia is depending on.
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But he demanded every last costing from the Liberals
Andrew Bolt
Independent Tony Windsor said that critical to his decision to gave Labor government was its promise to gamble an astonishing $43 billion on broadband.
He made this judgment without asking Labor for a cost-benefit analysis, relying instead on his punter’s instinct:
I’m prepared to back it in… It could be a goer at that price.Now he reveals just how informed his opinion is on matters involving computers and wires:
I can’t even operate a computer. I haven’t got one on my desk.UPDATE
One result of this deal with the independents is that broadband will be extended first to areas where the customers are fewest:
INTERNET users in cities will subsidise unprofitable rural broadband services and face a longer wait for high-speed internet under the deal struck between Labor and two independent MPs.But uh oh:
But opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb warned yesterday that rolling out the NBN to the bush before lucrative metropolitan markets could jeopardise the project’s economic case.And others are also counting the cost of Labor’s $10 billion bribe:
“The NBN business plan was to minimise the cost of the rollout and keep the maximum public exposure to $26bn by first attaining a critical mass in the cities that would allow them to generate revenues to assist the regional rollout, but now that whole thinking has been turned on its head,” Mr Robb told The Australian…
NBN Co’s original plan, set out in the $25 million NBN implementation study, was to build the network in a proportionate but eclectic mix of rural and metro areas so that lucrative metro customers could fund the rollout in less profitable areas.
The original plan ensured that enough recurring revenue would flow into NBN’s coffers to help fund the build, so that no more than $27bn in public funding would be needed to complete the project.
White ants have taken over parts of Echuca Hospital and holes in the walls, stained with blood and other infectious material, have become too difficult to clean… But after three independents, Andrew Wilkie, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, negotiated millions of dollars from the Gillard government for their local regional hospitals, the people of Echuca are starting to wonder if they will get money from the Commonwealth to finally put their old hospital to bed and build a new one…UPDATE 2
Dr Mike Moynihan, president of the Victorian Rural Doctors Association, said… it was outrageous that health funding had effectively been the subject of pork-barrelling in recent weeks, and that he hoped the neediest rural areas would now be given money as well.
Meanwhile it’s back to Labor’s waste:
A COUNTRY Victorian school has lashed the BER program after it was given a “hayshed or glorified carport” that cost more than $280,000. Cavendish primary, near Hamilton, has told a state parliamentary inquiry that its own quote for an enclosed sports stadium came in at $50,000 less.I’m sure Windsor’s gut tells him Labor won’t waste the broadband’s $43 billion like it wasted this Building the Education Revolution cash.
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China shows us something in the dark
Andrew Bolt
The Sydney Morning Herald last month:
Sorry state of play when China leaves us for dead on climateChina, the world’s biggest emitter, is being hailed in green circles for being “more serious” than us about global warming. Sure, it’s actually refusing to cut emissions that are actually soaring, but never mind - look what it’s doing to cut energy intensity, the SMH report urged:
China responded with a target to cut emissions intensity - the amount of gas emitted per unit of GDP generated - by 40-45 per cent by 2020… Contrast this with the reverse momentum in Canberra, where emissions trading has been abandoned by one party and delayed by the other…So how is China’s enlightened plan to both cut energy intensity and seize “economic possibilities” working out?
China is not driven solely by a desire to save the planet… Beijing is also aware of the economic possibilities of being at the cutting edge of new industries. By contrast, neither Gillard nor Opposition Leader Tony Abbott shows much sign of understanding the risks of climate change, let alone the opportunities that come with moving early.
Chinese steel mills and mobile phone factories are being idled and thousands of homes in one area are doing without electricity as local governments order power cuts to meet energy-saving targets set by Beijing.
Rolling blackouts and enforced power cuts are affecting key industrial areas. The prosperous eastern city of Taizhou turned off street lights and ordered hotels and shopping malls to cut power use. In Anping County southwest of Beijing, an area known as China’s wire-manufacturing capital, thousands of factories and homes have endured daylong blackouts over the past two weeks…
This year’s power cuts began after Beijing announced in August that an energy efficiency campaign suffered a setback as a stimulus-fueled building boom drove growth in steel, cement and other heavy industry.
Beijing’s plans call for cutting energy intensity, or energy used per unit of economic output, by 20 percent from 2006 levels by this year. The World Bank says China uses up to twice the energy per unit of output as the United States, Japan and other economies… Energy intensity fell by 14.4 percent by the end of 2009 after thousands of antiquated steel mills and other factories were forced to close, the government says. But it crept back up by 0.9 percent in the first half of this year. Beijing reacted by ordering 2,087 steel and cement mills and other factories with poor environmental controls to close.
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