=== Todays Toon ===
VALE DET SNR CST WILLIAM CREWS(A NSW police officer shot and killed during raid on drug dealers)
It would be most remiss of me to not pay some kind of tribute to a man who is no doubt be extremely missed by many, many people in this country right at this moment and for many years to come. My heart goes out to his family, friends and colleagues and to state the obvious he is a hero in my book. Anyone who puts on the blue uniform, especially these days, has my utmost respect and obedience. - ZEG - it is for this reason, because of this tragedy, that I made Picking Cotton - ed.
=== Bible Quote ===
“Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.”- Titus 2:2=== Headlines ===
Economic Indicators Pose Challenge to Obama Sales Pitch
President tries to get voters to focus on the good and block out the bad as the White House looks to jolt the economy out of neutral, but recent figures from the real estate, manufacturing and automotive markets underscore how fragile the economy is.Fla. Pastor Cancels Burning of Korans
Church minister says he is calling off plan to burn Korans on Sept. 11 because the leader of proposed mosque near Ground Zero has agreed to move its location, but NYC imam denies those reports
ICE Policy to Let Illegal Immigrants Go Free?
County sheriffs near the Arizona-Mexico border scrutinize a proposed policy that would set free illegal immigrants who get pulled over by police for traffic-related offenses
Iran to Release Female American Hiker
Iran says it will free Sarah Shourd — one of three Americans jailed accused of spying — as an act of clemency to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan
Breaking News
Elderly woman saved from fireA WOMAN has been saved from her burning home north of Hobart by a quick-thinking neighbour.
I have nothing to hide - Fevola
BRENDAN Fevola has told the Footy Show he is innocent as the woman who alleges he flashed her filed an official police complaint.
ACCC opposes Virgin Blue, Air NZ team-up
AUSTRALIA'S competition regulator has rejected Virgin Blue and Air NZ's proposed alliance on flights between Australia and New Zealand.
Soccer star faces axe over sex pics
SOCCER star Lisa De Vanna could be stripped of her Matildas contract after a teenage fan saw pictures of her simulating sexual acts on her Facebook page.
Body identified as missing swimmer
A BODY found in a central Queensland river has been identified as that of a 43-year-old Cairns man who disappeared on Monday.
Combet tipped to take over climate portfolios
THE Federal Government must appoint someone to the climate change portfolio who wants the job, opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt says.
Joyce says Oakeshott not being upfront
NATIONALS frontbencher Barnaby Joyce is suggesting key country independent Rob Oakeshott sought a ministry in the Labor minority government rather than being offered one by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Woman attacked while in labour
A GOLD Coast mum who was assaulted while in labour outside a hospital has dubbed her first born - tiny Kiara Walls - a miracle baby.
Deal may end US 'underwear bomber' case
LAWYERS for a Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a plane near Detroit on Christmas Day said today they had talked to prosecutors about resolving the case with a deal.
Bligh ends hospital orderly shift
QUEENSLAND Premier Anna Bligh has clocked off from her eight-hour shift as a hospital orderly, saying it was a learning experience.
NSW/ACT
Fog hits Sydney ferries, planes, roadsFERRIES suspended, flights diverted and traffic disrupted by early morning fog.
Man 'points stun gun' at mum, 3 kids
ROAD rage pair taunts mother and three children, 'pointing stun gun at them'.
Sartor ponders his options
STATE Labor's dash for the exit door continues with Frank Sartor confirming he might quit.
The Quay to a $20 million view
ONE of Australia's most desirable penthouses - boasting views stretching from the Harbour to the mountains - is on the market.
Lane 'lied' to police over Dad
KELI Lane broke down in front of a police detective, telling him she had misled investigators.
Woeful health of our hospitals
SEE which of NSW's hospital emergency departments has the most dissatisfied patients in the state, according to a new survey.
The madness of young P-platers
FIVE P-platers lose licences every hour as result of tough measures to stop growing road toll.
'Porn art' designed to shock
IT'S the latest art exhibition designed to shock - hard-core porn superimposed on a painting of the Madonna and child. But is it art?
Fatso gives thieves the arse
FATSO the fat-arsed wombat is a victim of his own popularity after fans attempted to crowbar him off his perch at Olympic Park.
Gay adoption Bill passed
A BILL giving same-sex couples the right to adopt has been passed by the NSW parliament. Have your say.
Queensland
Drug trafficker's appeal dismissedA MAN who ran a t-shirt design company called "Corrupt Brothers" was in charge of two units where a large amount of drugs and cash were discovered.
Top acts in Good Vibrations line-up
THE line-up for the Good Vibrations Festival to be held at the Gold Coast Parklands on Saturday February 19 has been officially confirmed.
'Well done' as students fall behind
QUEENSLAND students have slipped behind in the rankings on this year's national tests, but have improved, earning teachers a well done from the government.
Low blood sugar 'made me pull gun'
A P-PLATER claims he was suffering from low blood sugar when he crashed his car and pulled a replica pistol on onlookers who jeered at him.
Help find who attacked man, aged 94
RELATIVES of a 94-year-old war veteran who was bashed in his home at Wellington Point are expected to make a public appeal to help find his attacker.
Rookie Roosters defecate in hotel
TWO Sydney Roosters players have been sacked after trashing a Townsville hotel room.
Bligh's hard night on the ward
PREMIER Anna Bligh has finished a gruelling eight-hour shift working as an orderly at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital.
Driver attacks mum in labour
A MUM in labour has been assaulted by a woman in another car as she rushed into hospital to give birth.
Arson suspected in house fire
A HOUSING commission property that had only been vacated a couple of days ago has been the target of a suspected arson attack.
Woolies rethink coin-lock trollies
A CONSUMER backlash in areas of Queensland has forced grocery giant Woolworths to review its rollout of coin-lock shopping trolleys
Victoria
Lamborghini smashes into bus stopA BLACK Lamborghini sports car has crashed into a bus stop in Melbourne’s north-east.
Echuca, Wangaratta brace for floods
ECHUCA residents are preparing for the first of two river peaks as work begins on a Wangaratta levee on the brink of collapse.
Baby's lucky escape from fire
A THREE-month-old baby boy suffered smoke inhalation and his family had a lucky escape after a house fire last night.
Cops Unite to take back streets
THOUSANDS of extra police will be deployed over the weekend as part of a trans-Tasman blitz on alcohol abuse and violence.
Housemate brawl ends in stabbing
A MAN has been charged after allegedly stabbing his housemate in a kitchen at Boronia.
We name and shame hoons
POLICE have refused to name and shame hoons, despite road carnage victims demanding they get tough and out these menaces.
Libs want answers on plant
UPDATE 9.13am: THE opposition wants to know how much was spent to get Toyota to build a new plant in Melbourne.
Police capture $1m of ice in raids
THREE men and a woman have been charged after police raids which netted drugs with a street value of more than $1 million.
Six injured in nine car pile-up
SIX people were taken to hospital - including three children - after a pile-up involving nine vehicles in Thomastown last night.
Taxpayers bear cross
TAXPAYERS will foot the bill for moving a religious cross at the centre of a dispute between two neighbours.
Northern Territory
Nothing newSouth Australia
End of a bumpy journeyAFTER months of uncertainty, the revival of the northern suburbs has begun with news an extra 50 workers will hit the Holden factory at Elizabeth.
Time to end the bill rorts
ELECTRICITY companies will be ordered to provide customers with more accurate information after being caught adding up to $50 to annual power bills.
Lower Lakes set to merge at last
THE drought-stricken Lower Lakes will be reconnected for the first time since April 2008, with a man-made embankment to be partially removed.
Show of entertainment diversity
THE ADELAIDE Showground will transform into a modern exhibition and entertainment precinct, after getting the green light from Government to develop the site.
Two wanted over indecent exposure
TWO men are wanted by police for separate indecent incidents yesterday at Netley and Plympton Park.
Ex-scout leader in abuse case
A FORMER Scout leader was today reported for historical sex crimes involving the persistent abuse of five children in the 1980s and 1990s.
Fears for letterbox bombers
POLICE say pranksters responsible for blowing up letterboxes in the Barossa Valley using homemade explosives are risking serious injury.
Forged ID used to open accounts
A MAN has faced court accused of using a forged British passport to obtain bank accounts and post office boxes as part of an identity theft scam.
City works prompt road closure
NORTH Terrace will be closed to west-bound traffic at its intersection with King William Street tomorrow morning.
Burglary arrest leads to stolen stash
A MAN arrested for breaking into an Angle Park house allegedly had a stash of stolen goods at his home, including TVs, a laptop, jewellery and cash.
Western Australia
Watchdog role warning ignoredTHE State Government will shift the focus of WA's corruption watchdog towards fighting organised crime, despite a major report warning against the move.
Tourists attacked in bag snatch
A TOURIST has been dragged to the ground and her husband punched in the face in a bag-snatching attempt in the Goldfields.
Driver killed by tree branch
A MAN died overnight when his vehicle left the road and hit trees near Geraldton, 427km north of Perth.
Margaret River mine must be processed
THE WA Premier has told protesters at parliament he understands their opposition to a coal mine in the Margaret River region.
Man convicted over vicious glassing
A 48-YEAR-OLD man has been convicted over a vicious glassing attack on a pub patron in a Northbridge hotel.
Bird deaths sparks investigation
WILDLIFE officers are investigating the deaths of more than 140 seagulls on Carnac, Penguin and Seal Islands.
Bouncer basher avoids jail
A 26-YEAR-OLD man who bashed a bouncer outside a Perth nightclub walked from court after being given a suspended prison sentence.
Dumped Tuckey fires parting shot
OUSTED West Australian Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey has declared he doesn't intend to be gracious at all to the man who unseated him, the Nationals' Tony Crook.
Flawed hoons laws overhauled
POLICE will seize the private car of a man caught allegedly driving his employer's vehicle without a licence in the first substituted vehicle case.
Murder accused 'mentally ill'
A MAN standing trial for stabbing his fiancee to death once believed he was receiving messages from Oprah Winfrey through the television, a Perth court has heard.
Tasmania
Elderly woman saved from fireA WOMAN has been saved from her burning home north of Hobart by a quick-thinking neighbour.
Response to needle scare 'unacceptable'
A SENIOR medical official has criticised Tasmania's Education Department for its slow response to an incident in which students shared a needle during a science class.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Guest: Kelsey GrammerMust-see TV? A new television network is dedicated to the values of the GOP! Now, Kelsey Grammer on why it's the right step for America.
===
'The O'Reilly Factor'
Obama is on the campaign trail ... Michelle Obama that is! Laura Ingraham will analyze her impact. Plus, why is the NAACP going after the Tea Party so aggressively? 'The Factor' investigates.
===
'On the Record With Greta Van Susteren'
Following in AZ's footsteps - Rhode Island pens their own immigration plan! Now, the representatives behind it open up on getting advice from Jan Brewer!
===
On Fox News Insider
Iran Set to Release One HikerBush's "No Comment" on President Obama
Meghan McCain Talks Sarah Palin
Video: Biden Thanks Bush?
No NYC Mosque: Anger Will Explode in the Muslim World
=== Comments ===
Fed on a high fibre diet of mythsPiers Akerman
AS it stands, Julia Gillard’s $43 billion National Broadband Network will cost every household between $6000 and $10,000. - It is important for us to maintain and spread our awareness of the issues. The reason why there was a hung parliament was not because the public like bad governance, but because lies were spread about the conservatives and smoke was blown by MSM over the choice offered. The NBN is a case in point. We don't need to spend $43 billion to achieve something worthwhile, and if we spend it we won't achieve something worthwhile .. - ed.
===
Imam Behind 9/11 Mosque Speaks Out
BY BILL O'REILLY
Writing in "The New York Times" Wednesday, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf says that the Islamic Center located near Ground Zero will proceed, but that he will make public who is funding it. The imam says the community center is a symbol of tolerance. And it shows America accepts all religions.
The imam's article's interesting. He makes some good points. Also, he doesn't come across as belligerent or unreasonable at all. But with all due respect, Imam Rauf is making one very large mistake.
Right now, there are more than 100 mosques in New York City, so there's no religious tolerance issue here or in most other parts of America. There is, however, a big religious tolerance issue in most Muslim countries, as they don't accept any other religion. By placing the proposed mosque within yards of the 9/11 attacks with no stated purpose for that, the imam has created a controversy. He did it. There's simply no reason for the mosque to be there. And if some 9/11 families object as they do, sincere Muslims should respect that.
"Talking Points" believes that tolerance deal swings both ways, right? Seems every two minutes, some Muslims are offended by America. Yes, we have some kooks who are disrespectful to Islam, but every nation has them.
It is long past time for the Muslim world to show a little respect and tolerance to America. After all, Muslims attacked us in the name of Allah. Until the imam and other Muslims understand the impact of that mass murder, many Americans will remain resentful. After all, violent conflicts generated by Muslims are raging all over the world, while Muslim- Americans here live in peace and relative prosperity. As well intentioned as Imam Rauf may be, the truth is that Americans are not seeing much tolerance in the Muslim world overseas. Respect and acceptance must be earned. Deferring to the wish of the 9/11 families might begin that process.
===
Muslim Persecution of Hindus In India -- The Story You Won't See In the Western Mainstream Media
By Phyllis Chesler
They are crossing the border illegally and violently displacing the indigenous population whose homes and possessions they either destroy or occupy. They are attacking the young, the elderly, and especially the girls and women, whom they kidnap, forcibly convert, or traffic into brothels. The locals are terrified of them. The police rarely come to their aid, nor do the politically correct media or government. Both are terrified by the criminals and terrorists who are riding these immigrant waves.
I am not talking about illegal immigrants to Europe or North America. I am describing Muslims who are penetrating India’s West Bengal region. These Bangladeshi immigrants are becoming conduits for criminal activities (arms, drugs, and sexual slavery) which also fund global jihad.
You won’t read about this in the Western mainstream media—or even in the Indian media, which has turned a blind eye to this ongoing tragedy because they are afraid to be labeled “politically incorrect” or “Islamophobic.” They are also afraid of reprisals. When Islamic zealots ransacked the office of the renowned newspaper, ‘The Statesman’ in Kolkata, in retaliation for a mere reproduction of an article condemning Islamic extremism, the Indian press remained silent. The editor and publisher of the newspaper were arrested for offending Muslim sentiments and no action was taken against the rioters.
Fortunately, there are a few very brave Hindus who are taking a stand against the Muslim terror campaign in India. One of them is Tapan Ghosh, whom I had the privilege of meeting recently when he came to New York City to talk about anti-Hindu persecution in his homeland. In 2008, Ghosh founded “Hindu Samhati” (Hindu Solidarity Movement), which serves persecuted Hindu communities in both West Bengal and Bangladesh.
As Ghosh emphasized in our interview, the Muslim persecution of Hindus in India is nothing new. Over a period of 800 years, millions of Hindus were slaughtered by Muslims as infidels or converted by the sword. In 1946-1947, when British India was divided into India and Pakistan, Muslims massacred many thousands of Hindus in Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal, and all along the fault line which separated India and Pakistan. Anti-Hindu riots and massacres continued during the 1950s and 1960s, but it was in 1971, when East Pakistan broke away to form the country of Bangladesh, that things worsened for Hindus in the area.
As Ghosh explained to me, “The liberation movement for Bangladesh was characterized by an escalation of atrocities against the Hindus and pro-liberation Muslims. Hindus were specifically singled out because they were considered a hindrance to the Islamisation of East Pakistan. In March 1971, the government of Pakistan and its supporters in Bangladesh launched a violent operation, codenamed “Operation Searchlight,” to crush all pro-liberation activities. Bangladeshi government figures put the death toll at 300,000, though nearly 3 million Hindus were never accounted for and are presumed dead.” U.S. officials in both India and Washington used the word “genocide” to describe what took place.
According to Ghosh, there has recently been a sharp increase in incidents of “Muslim rioting during Hindu festivals, destruction of Temples, desecration of Deities, and large-scale, provocative cow slaughter.” Worse: “Hundreds, thousands, of Hindu girls have been kidnapped, trafficked into sexual slavery, or taken as second or third wives for wealthy Muslim men. In recent years, Ghosh’s organization has rescued nearly 100 such girls, and one of his main missions has been to help reintegrate those survivors into their families and societies.
Ghosh wants the Indian government to stop the illegal immigration from Bangladesh and to force the return of undocumented Muslims; to ban madrassas and polygamy; to enforce a single standard of law and education; and to arrest and prosecute known Muslim mafia kingpins and terrorists. He challenges the media to report on the anti-Hindu atrocities and to address the issue of religious apartheid.
Ghosh is not optimistic. “The establishment of massive Saudi-funded Madrasas across rural Bengal is only contributing to the growing religious extremism among Muslims, [and] implementation of Sharia laws by [Islamic] courts is quite prevalent in many villages.” His greatest fear, he tells me, is that one day shouts of “Allahu Akbar” will ring out across the land and that Muslim zealots will demand that Hindus either convert or leave West Bangal—or die.
Ghosh came to America not just to appeal to Indian-Americans with family and historical ties in West Bengal and Bangladesh but to appeal to all Americans for their support. As he sees it, the battle against Muslim persecution in India is just one front in a much larger battle against Islamic expansionism and terror throughout the world.
All Americans must realize, he told me, “that the war on Islamic terrorism cannot be won without curbing religious extremism amongst the Muslim masses, be it in the suburbs of Detroit or Delhi or villages in rural Bengal. And this will require the active support and cooperation with each other, ranging from cooperation at the highest level to those who work at the grassroots level. We hope that Americans and Westerners will come out and support the Hindus in Bengal in raising resources and creating awareness about our on-the-ground realities.”
Phyllis Chesler, Ph.D. is professor emerita of psychology and the author of thirteen books including "Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman" and "The New Anti-Semitism." She has written extensively about Islamic gender apartheid and about honor killings. She once lived in Kabul, Afghanistan. She may be reached through her website: www.phyllis-chesler.com.
The author would like to acknowledge the assistance of Nathan Bloom in the preparation of this article.
===
Oakeshott forgets he wanted to be an Iemma minister (UPDATE: Turns down Labor offer)
Andrew Bolt
It appears “independent” Rob Oakeshott has long had an ambition to be a Labor minister:
ROB Oakeshott has previously sought positions in Labor cabinets, casting doubt on whether the independent MP was fully impartial as he considered the claims of Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott to form minority government.Odd that Oakeshott should forget what Iemma remembers.
The Australian has learned that Mr Oakeshott, then a state MP, approached former NSW premier Morris Iemma in 2007 and asked to join his ministry…
A spokesman for Mr Oakeshott said last night he had “no recollection whatsoever of being in a conversation with Morris Iemma about a ministerial position in 2007”.
Mr Iemma declined to comment in detail but confirmed that the conversations took place....The Labor source, who was privy to the discussions, said Mr Oakeshott told Mr Iemma: “If there is a reshuffle, I have a suggestion, and the suggestion is put me in."…
Mr Oakeshott is due to announce today whether he will accept a ministerial position overseeing regional Australia in the Gillard government.
UPDATE
That may explain why Rob Oakeshott denied on Melbourne radio yesterday that even the scandalous waste of billions of dollars through Julia Gillard’s Building the Education Revolution did not deserve to be called “maladministration”: Yet today we learn that he should know only too well that it was:
His northern NSW electorate has thrown up several examples of waste and mismanagement under the Building the Education Revolution scheme.Huntingdon Public School P&C secretary Helen Atkins in front of the thing the school got for Gillard’s $338,380:
Most famously, Hastings Public School was to be charged $900,000 for a covered outdoor learning area or COLA, essentially a large shed with no walls…
The Australian has uncovered another troubled BER project in his electorate - a request for a $100,000 school hall that blew out to about four times that amount.
Huntingdon Public School, 20 minutes west of Mr Oakeshott’s home town of Port Macquarie, currently has 39 students from Kindergarten through to Year 6…
In the June 4 newsletter, ( the school’s principal Gunnar) Fuhrmann told the school community: “We will not be receiving any furniture, curtains, plants, a covered walkway or security lighting. What has our school gained?
“Not a hall but a 21st century 5m by 5m extension to our existing COLA on one end and an enclosed 5m by 5m extension on the other. The cost of our BER-Multi Purpose Space so far is a staggering amount of $338,380 with additional expenses still to be added.”
(Thanks to readers Pira, Colin and Matt.)UPDATE 2
All this will make it very hard for National Party MPs in particular to hold their tongue:
TONY Abbott has warned his MPs against attacking the independents who delivered power to Labor, saying the ‘’baton’’ of government could change on the floor of the Parliament before the next election is due…UPDATE 3
Implicit in his remarks at a special party room meeting in Canberra yesterday is the view that the situation remains very fluid and the independents might ultimately be persuaded to support a no-confidence motion that would bring down the government.
I suspect the heat got too much for Oakeshott. He says he’s turning down Labor’s offer of a ministry - and says the Liberals offered him one, too.
===
Ban Ki-moon gets Chinese burn
Andrew Bolt
China’s top UN diplomat - and the UN’s undersecretary general for Economic and Social Affairs - sees red:
China’s top-ranking UN diplomat embarked on a drunken rant against the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, telling his boss he’d “never liked” him, and adding for good measure that he didn’t like Americans either.Doesn’t like Americans?
The outburst by Sha Zukang at a retreat for top UN officials in the Austrian ski resort of Alpbach left senior UN officials cringing in embarrassment…
“I know you never liked me Mr. Secretary-General – well, I never liked you, either,” said Mr Sha as Mr Ban looked on, smiling and nodding awkwardly during the 15-minute toast attended by the UN’s top brass…
Later in his impromptu speech Mr Sha turned to an American colleague, singling out Bob Orr, from the executive office of the secretary-general.
“I really don’t like him: he’s an American and I really don’t like Americans,” he said.
Isn’t the UN trying to stamp out racial and ethnic vilification? Didn’t China have a representative on the 18-man Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that only last month flogged Australia for being racist?
===
Labor’s NBN advisoer hires Tanner, Labor’s NBN shareholder minister
Andrew Bolt
Isn’t this a little too hugger-mugger?:
Former finance minister Lindsay Tanner has been appointed special advisor to the Australian arm of global corporate advisory firm Lazard…Reader Kevin notes;
Mr Tanner resigned from politics at last month’s federal election to pursue policy and finance interests in the Australian market…
Lazard Australia’s head of corporate advisory John Wylie says Mr Tanner will be a valuable asset to the business…
Lazard has recently been appointed by the Government to provide advice on the $43 billion national broadband network (NBN) program. Lazard said Mr Tanner was not involved in the appointment of Lazard to the contract and he will not have a role in the NBN project.
The story running acknowledges Lazards has a contract with the government to give financial advice on the NBN but says Tanner had no part in the appointment.
The original tender for the contract in January which is worth $3.4 million over twelve months said: “ The Commonwealth, through the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (the Department) seeks to engage an independent expert to provide it with commercial advice in relation to any commercial agreement that NBN Co may reach.”
Legally the Commonwealth is represented in the NBN by the two shareholder ministers . At the time the contract was awarded on 22 July 2010 the two shareholder ministers were Tanner and Senator Conroy. It’s almost inconceivable the appointment would have been made without Tanner’s involvement.
Also it hasn’t been acknowledged that John Wylie the head of Lazards in Australia was on the expert group that recommended fibre to the home in early 2009.
Link to the $3.4 million contract: https://www.tenders.gov.au/?event=public.cn.view&CNUUID=F89785DD-A554-9604-87380AF4376E5DA3
===
Nor does George Bush
Andrew Bolt
The Sydney Morning Herald’s reviewers discuss The First Blitz, a documentary about the First World War:
Hitler doesn’t really appear in this which is odd, isn’t it?(Thanks to reader David.)
===
Immigrants aren’t only victims
Andrew Bolt
THE killing in Sydney of Constable Bill Crews, 26, reminds us that the wrong question gets asked about migrants and crime.
It’s the question asked just two weeks ago by the United Nations’ typically ill-informed Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
CERD yet again flogged Australia for our alleged racism, which is cute, given its 18 members include officials from such beacons of tolerance as China, Pakistan, Algeria and Russia.
And prominent in its report was a demand we come clean on the link between immigrants and crime.
No, wait. I’ve fooled you. CERD demanded we come clean on only one link - the one it assumed would prove our racism. But it wants us to keep conspiratorially quiet on the other.
It said: “The Committee is concerned by ... the series of racially motivated assaults of Indian students, including one death, in the state of Victoria.
“It regrets the failure by the Government and police ... to address the racial motivation of these acts, as well as the lack of available national data on the prevalence of migrants as victims of crime.”
The committee repeated the point: it wants “law enforcement authorities to collect data on the nationality and ethnicity of victims of such crimes”. But it would not ask for data on the ethnicity of the perpetrators.
No wonder. As it turns out, many Indian victims were attacked not by the Anglo racists preferred by activists, but by other immigrants.
For example, the first well-publicised attack, on Sukhraj Singh in a Sunshine store, was by a gang of which the only identified member was a Somali refugee.
A Victoria University report on the violence against foreign students confirmed that while police wouldn’t provide statistics on the attackers’ ethnicity, “youth and community service providers ... indicated that those who were known to be involved in crime are often relatively new arrivals to Australia themselves”.
Indeed, a fortnight before CERD’s report, two men were jailed for killing another Melbourne visitor, Canadian Cain Aguiar - New Zealander
Sioeli Seau and Fostar Akoteu, son of Tongan immigrants.
And two days after CERD’s sermon, a front-page newspaper report told of a probe into organised crime that was searching for “businessman” Hakan Ayik.
===
The green totalitarian itch
Andrew Bolt
TWO years ago Tasmanian police held an anti-terrorism drill that sounds more realistic by the day.
The scenario for their exercise had a forest campaigner hijacking a plane and threatening to crash it into a pulp mill.
No surprise, right? But the news leaked out and police had green activists howling in outrage at being seen as totalitarians in koala suits.
As is too common, the police buckled before their moralising wrath, and a spokesman grovelled out to apologise.
No offence intended, he whimpered.
“We deliberately drew up a scenario unconnected with events in history, unconnected with current events or what police expect in the future.”
Really? So police train for what they don’t “expect in the future”? Can’t wait for their next exercise, involving a mock siege of Parliament by giant cane toads.
But what of the claim that this eco-terrorist scenario was “unconnected with current events”?
Last week a global warming believer burst into Discovery Channel’s Maryland headquarters to demand the station do more to save the planet from the Armageddon we’re told will be caused by global warming.
To make his request harder to ignore, James J. Lee held three hostages at gunpoint until police shot him dead.
You’re right, Lee does not represent the typical warming activist, who is as open-minded and see-both-sides as, say, Christine Milne.
Yet read the enviro-rants of this man who says he experienced an “awakening” on seeing Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary. which told every child in the country that wicked humans are killing the earth.
Phrase after phrase of Lee’s writings sounds so familiar.
Consider the demands he served on Discovery with the aid of his gun.
===
Wong’s world over-heated
Andrew Bolt
Penny Wong’s style of earnest fervor - if I can put it that way - has petered out into exhaustion on all sides:
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard is expected to bring high-flyer Greg Combet into cabinet to be climate minister, as Labor tries to rebuild credibility on an issue that helped sow the seeds of its poor performance at the federal election last month…
Penny Wong, the minister who oversaw the ETS process and then had the difficult task of selling Ms Gillard’s unpopular plan for a citizens assembly on climate change, is believed to want a change of portfolio.
===
Who grew them up?
Andrew Bolt
It’s beyond my comprehension how these men could be so feral:
A year after Nate Myles was suspended for six matches and fined $50,000 for defecating in a hotel, two more Sydney Roosters players have performed the same disgusting and vile act.This, however, remains contested:
The Roosters yesterday sacked Toyota Cup players Sam Brunton and Anthony Gelling, who are accused of defecating on tables and the floor of rooms at the Holiday Inn, Townsville, last weekend.
THE mother of four who accuses AFL bad boy Brendan Fevola of indecent exposure has filed an official complaint with police…
Fevola did however release a statement to Channel 9 which was aired on The Footy Show. It read: “I maintain my innocence and I look forward to giving my side of the story to the police as soon as possible. I have nothing to hide…
But some witnesses yesterday contested the latest allegation made against him.
===
But what’s an extra billion or two to Labor these days?
Andrew Bolt
There’s just something about this project that screams we’re going to pay a lot more for a lot less than promised. The latest warning:
JULIA Gillard’s pledge to start the rollout of the $43 billion National Broadband Network in regional Australia is in jeopardy because of an acute shortage of skilled workers to build and maintain it in the bush.UPDATE
Skills shortages in regional areas have prompted warnings of a wages blowout that could drive up the costs of the NBN to taxpayers even further, with every 1 per cent rise in construction labour costs forecast to add a further $1.4bn to the total bill.
The powerful Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union yesterday warned there would be pressure for wage rises.
Telecom consultant Kevin Morgan, who served on Kim Beazley’s ministerial committee on telecom reform on behalf of the ACTU, explain just how Gillard’s NBN deal with the two independents will blow out the costs:
Tuesday’s deal demonstrates that the fragile economics of building a national fibre-to-the-home network can be prejudiced if it suits the government because in assuring the independents that rural and regional areas will get priority for the fibre rollout the government has turned the business case for the NBN on its head.Oh my God, this will be a disaster.
Big telecommunications investments and certainly the copper network are built on a simple formula. The network is first rolled out in low-cost, high-income urban areas, which generates the cashflow to subsidise the rollout to high-cost, low-return rural areas.
The need to generate immediate cashflow and minimise costs is critical to the NBN because it will operate as a wholesale-only network with far smaller margins than vertically integrated operators such as Verizon in the US, KPN in The Netherlands and Japan’s NTT, which are still struggling to earn a return on their fibre-to-the-home investments despite offering retail services.
In those markets the rollout has been targeted at urban areas where consumers have the ability to pay. Nevertheless, even in these lower-cost, higher-income market segments, demand for fibre-to-the-home is levelling off; six years into its US rollout, Verizon has found only 30 per cent of households are taking up service. The Dutch experience is similar.
Despite this, the government has rewritten the telecommunications economics handbook; the NBN will start in rural areas, which are not just high cost but have the least ability to pay for the high-speed services consumers must buy if the NBN is to succeed.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has found non-metropolitan households have 25 per cent less disposable income than capital city households…
And if the demand side of the equation for an initial rural rollout looks shaky, so do the costs. Even though the most expensive to reach 7 per cent of households will be served by wireless and satellite, that still leaves two million rural and regional households to be connected to fibre. In the absence of a publicly available business plan or cost-benefit analysis of the NBN, the costs of connecting them with fibre is unknown, but studies from Britain suggest the cost of connecting homes in rural areas could be $15,000 to $22,000 each, with the costs in regional centres exceeding $8000.
This commitment to a rural first rollout will mean the government will have to put more equity into the NBN or raise more debt on its behalf in its initial years, meaning the NBN cannot be considered a commercial investment but will have to come on budget.
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Defending this freedom shouldn’t be this dangerous
Andrew Bolt
Bravo, Angela Merkel:German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s speech Wednesday at a ceremony honoring Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard has led to some breathless media coverage: for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung it was her “most explosive appointment” while the Bild called it “most courageous.” The fact that both may well be right underlines just how controversial it has become to defend Western values in the face of Islamist extremism.To remind you of a contrary argument, expressed in London:
The 75-year-old Mr. Westergaard has been living under police protection for the past five years for drawing Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban in one of the 12 cartoons the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published in 2005. The illustrations triggered riots around the world that caused at least 50 deaths while the paper and the Danish government came under pressure from Muslim countries to retract the cartoons.
The organizers of the M100 Media Award in Potsdam near Berlin honored Mr. Westergaard for his defense of press freedom in the face of threats of death and violence. The Chancellor agreed…
“It is irrelevant whether we find his caricatures tasteless or not, whether we think they are necessary or helpful, or not,” the Chancellor said. “Is he allowed to do that? Yes, he is.”Remembering her own life under communism in East Germany and how the Berlin Wall fell only 21 years ago, Mrs. Merkel urged Germans to “never forget how precious freedom is.”
Freedom always means freedom for your fellow man, and therefore requires tolerance of those with whom you disagree, the chancellor explained. But tolerance cannot be arbitrary, she added, for “tolerance is its own grave digger if it doesn’t protect itself against intolerance.”
(Thanks to reader Rita.)
UPDATE
To defend freedom of speech does not mean giving up the freedom to criticise someone for doing something spitefully aggressive:
The pastor of a small Florida church who has pledged to incinerate copies of the Quran on Sept. 11 said Wednesday he would press ahead with the plan, despite pleas from the Obama administration, U.S. military officials, the Vatican and religious leaders around the world.But while I consider the pastor to be a fool, I can’t but note how scared so many powerful people are by not the action but the predicted reaction. The pastor, after all, is just burning a book, not blowing up embassies or flying crowded planes into skyscrapers. The story menu on Drudge:
PASTOR: KORAN WILL BURN…
‘Meant to Be a Warning’…
AP WON’T DISTRIBUTE IMAGES, AUDIO…
FOX NEWS WON’T COVER, EITHER..
Church website shut down…
FBI PAYS PASTOR A VISIT…
Obama says call it off…
Then sends ‘best wishes’ to Muslims worldwide…
Vatican: ‘Outrageous’…
NYPD: ‘Dangerous’…
Holder: ‘Idiotic’…
Clinton: ‘Disgraceful’…
Palin: ‘Unnecessary provocation’…
FBI: Retaliation ‘Likely’…
INTERPOL issues global alert…
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Castro burns his Che t-shirt
Andrew Bolt
Jeffrey Goldberg discovers even Fidel Castro has now lost faith in Cuban communism:I asked him if he believed the Cuban model was still something worth exporting.Bit late to admit it now, especially to 16,000 Cubans who haven’t lived to hear this admission:
”The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore,” he said.
During his “five decades of resilience, progress, allegiance to peace and social equality”, Castro has executed 16,000 people and imprisoned more than 100,000 in labour camps. The Western media are greatly exercised about Guantanamo; but few have heard of Kilo 5.5, Pinar del Rio, Kilo 7, the Capitiolo (for children up to age 10) and the other camps that compose Castro’s gulag. Two million Cubans have by now rejected the resilience and progress of Castro’s revolution and more than 30,000 have died trying to escape.
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Garnaut’s dirty secret
Andrew Bolt
How often we’ve had to endure having Professor Ross Garnaut exaggerate the global warming threat and lecture on our moral duty to do something useless about it?
But has he just been working off his own guilt? From last night’s 7.30 Report:
KERRY O’BRIEN, PRESENTER: Perhaps best known as chairman of the Rudd government’s climate change review panel, Ross Garnaut has in recent years urged Australians to take decisive action to reduce carbon pollution in the atmosphere.
Ross Garnaut has simultaneously boasted his large gold company’s environmental credentials suggesting they are exemplary. But others claim such a suggestion could not be further from the truth…
GREGY HOY, REPORTER: .... Lihir Gold Limited, on the island of Lihir off PNG’s north coast, has built one of the world’s biggest goldmines over 15 years under leadership of its founding chairman Professor Ross Garnaut, AO, or Officer of the Order of Australia… Though our requests for pictures and precise figures were simply ignored by the company, each year Lihir is known to dump millions of tonnes of its mine waste and chemically treated metalliferous tailings into the sea; replete with significant traces of cyanide and heavy metals.
TIFFANY NONGGORR: The sea is impacted but they’re not releasing any of their information to the general public and the only studies that we do have show major problems.
CHARLES ROCHE, MINERAL POLICY INSTITUTE: It’s sort of out of mind, out of sight. The option is chosen mainly because it’s a lot cheaper, so basically this, by dumping their mine waste into the ocean, Lihir Gold have been making more money, effectively.
DR GREG BRUNSKILL, AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE: Most of the studies by people that I know and respect do indicate that corals, fish and bottom animals are affected by the mine waste and in the case of Lihir, this involves some 60 square kilometres of sea floor area…
GREG HOY: Ross Garnaut is better known, of course, as an economics professor and environmental crusader. As chairman of the Rudd Government’s Climate Change Review Panel, he’s urged Australians to act responsibly by cutting carbon pollution in the environment, remonstrating government for its lack of leadership on the issue.
ROSS GARNAUT: The failure of our generation will haunt humanity until the end of time…
GREGY HOY: Professor Garnaut also serves as a director of the infamous Ok Tedi gold and copper mine in western PNG ,which continues to discharge 56 million tonnes of metalliferous waste into the nearby river systems each year.
When questioned about this two years ago, Professor Garnaut cited Ok Tedi’s sulphur reduction efforts, but was pressed for time.
(start archive footage)
ROSS GARNAUT, DIRECTOR, OK TEDI MINING LIMITED (19 December 2008): It’s the most thorough and careful management of the environment that’s ever been undertaken by a mining company.
STEPHEN, REPORTER: A management decision has let a huge amount of waste go down the river, doctor?
ROSS GARNAUT: I do have to get back to climate change, that’s what I’m here for today. There’s a lot of people waiting for me at another place. So very nice to see you, Stephen, goodbye.
(end archive footage)
TIFFANY NONGGORR: That river is going to be affected for 300 years or more. There’s copper levels 800 kilometres away from the mine in the silt of the river, 3,000 times the safe levels. It’s a moonscape.
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As some character said to Tony Blair…
Andrew Bolt
Ouch:
“You are my 10th prime minister,” Queen Elizabeth observes to Tony Blair when she meets him at Buckingham Palace on his first day in office in 1997, according to “A Journey: My Political Life,” Mr. Blair’s new memoir. “The first was Winston. That was before you were born."…
But… it turns out that the queen may not have actually said what Mr. Blair claims she said.
Or maybe she did, but only in the movies. In “The Queen,” the 2006 film about the aftermath of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Helen Mirren, playing Elizabeth, greets Michael Sheen, playing Mr. Blair, saying in part: “You are my 10th prime minister, Mr. Blair. My first was Winston Churchill.”
Peter Morgan, screenwriter of “The Queen,” said that the scene in the film was entirely fictional, based on his imagination. Since it is unlikely that he “guessed absolutely perfectly,” Mr. Morgan told The Daily Telegraph, perhaps Mr. Blair “had one gin and tonic too many” and — like Ronald Reagan before him — “confused the scene in the film with what actually happened.”
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No easy answer
Andrew Bolt
Simon Sheikh heads GetUp, the far-Left lobby group campaigning against political donations while receiving secret political donations of its own.
Tonight he appeared on Sky News’ The Nation, with fellow panelists Graham Richardson, Rob Borbidge and John Hewson, all veteran politicians. Choose which thing was most obvious:
1. Sheik’s utter naivety.To keep your choice simple, I’ve left out perhaps Sheikh’s worst trait - that he genuinely thinks he represents “the people”.
2. Sheik’s utter certainty
3. Richardson’s utter contempt
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