=== Todays Toon ===
Colonel Sir Henry Abel Smith KCMG KCVO DSO (8 March 1900 – 24 January 1993) was a British Army officer and a Governor of Queensland.
=== Bible Quote ===
“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”- Psalm 27:14=== Headlines ===
SHOW ME THE MONEY: GOP Outpacing Dems in Campaign $$
Republican candidates are pulling ahead in the bare-knuckles race for campaign cash, including in Nevada, where GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle reports a whopping $14M collected in the critical third quarter, compared to less than $3M for Harry Reid.Free-for-All During New York Gov Debate
Andrew Cuomo and Carl Paladino, the top two candidates in New York's gubernatorial race, both play it straight as they compete with a cast of minority-party candidates in a surreal seven-way debate
Justice Dept. Backs Islam in Mosque Battle
Federal attorneys file legal brief in First Amendment fight over the construction of a Tennessee Muslim center, affirming that Islam is a recognized religion entitled to constitutional protection
Virginia AG: 'Liberty' Trumps Health Law
Ken Cuccinelli warns during hearing that the federal government will be able to order Americans to 'buy anything' if the state's lawsuit against the health care overhaul goes down
Breaking News
Oil spill leaks onto Colombian beachesEMERGENCY declared following a spill of some 75,000 litres of crude oil on beaches off Colombia's northern Caribbean coast.
WikiLeaks 'to release Iraq war files soon'
WIKILEAKS will not publish some 400,000 secret reports on the Iraq war today, but they would be available "very soon".
Apple sells 4m iPads, profit up 70 pc
APPLE says its quarterly net profit soared 70 per cent to $4.35 billion on strong sales of Macintosh computers, iPhones and iPads.
Not all children to be freed from detention
CHRIS Bowen has admitted not all children will released from detention despite a shift in the Government's asylum-seeker policy.
Top firms expect long road to recovery
CFOs of top firms more optimistic about their financial prospects but most expect a slow return to economic growth, a survey says.
NSW/ACT
Man charged with attempted kidnappingA MAN has been charged with the attempted kidnapping of a 15-year-old girl earlier this month.
The man behind NSW's throne
HE'S known ubiquitously as Walt and many claim he is quietly running the NSW Government. Meet the mysterious Walt Secord.
Lost in bonfire of firefighter vanities
FIRE Brigade officers had to sit in their station and do nothing as a house burned just 10 minutes away because of a farcical rule.
HSC students speak of success
LOVE might be the universal language, but NSW students will need a big helping of good luck today - however you write it.
Too high a price for a taxi
A TAXI fare home from a mate's birthday party could cost young Sydney real estate salesman Jeremy Novotny, 21, his life.
The biggest show in town is back
JURASSIC Park will meet Olympic Park when Walking With Dinosaurs roars back into Sydney.
Brimble comments fuel legal fight
THE war between the state's top prosecutor and the coroner overseeing the Dianne Brimble inquest has widened.
000 in trouble as numbers collide
THE usual triple-0 emergency number is in disarray, with some emergency staff telling the public to dial 112 instead.
Queensland
Hit-run driver returned, hit mateA MAN who was crying over the body of his best mate after he thought he had just been killed in a hit and run was then run over by the same driver, a court has heard.
International students mugged
AN Asian student walking home from a bus stop has been the latest victim of bagsnatchers in the Sunnybank area on Brisbane's southside.
Dog food closes road
A MAIN road on Brisbane's southside remains closed after a truck rolled overnight, spilling tonnes of dog food.
$3m won't cover four school walls
TWO schools in the same electorate in Brisbane's west have had very different outcomes from the $3 million allocated for Building the Education Revolution.
Family dismay as medics cleared
THE family of an Aboriginal girl, 4, who died in a remote Queensland hospital are "angry and disappointed" after staff were cleared of official wrongdoing.
Phone triple-0? Call back later
A MORNINGSIDE family failed to get a response when they rang 000 after being threatened by a group of teens in their yard as police struggle to cope.
Glass highway panels vandalised
SHATTERED glass panels lining the Tugun Bypass are a financial black hole with the State Government forking out up to $20,500 to replace a single panel.
Govt puts us on storm footing
PREDICTIONS the state faces the worst cyclone season in 40 years have prompted the Bligh Government to put in place a suite of measures.
Coroner ready to take on DPP
THE war of words between the state's top prosecutor and the coroner overseeing the Dianne Brimble inquest has widened.
Riderless horse mystery solved
THE young rider of a horse found wandering on a Gold Coast hinterland property with a broken bridle and dislodged saddle has been found safe.
Victoria
Ecstasy OD tot back with mumA GOVERNMENT bungle saw a toddler returned to her mum's care after the young girl was admitted to hospital for taking ecstasy.
Call for liquor licence crackdown
VICTORIA's peak medical group has called for an urgent crackdown on liquor licence breaches.
Teen escapes daylight abduction
A 17-year-old girl managed to escape two would-be abductors in broad daylight.
Speed camera court threat
THE state Government is considering a massive lawsuit against the Hume Freeway speed camera operators.
Time for Melbourne to think big
MELBOURNE is facing massive changes as its population surges towards eight million by 2060, big business has warned.
Rapist gets only a year
A RAPIST who attacked his flatmate of four days as she slept on the couch will serve as little as 12 months for his crime.
Drivers seek faulty camera justice
THE floodgates are open for legal challenges against fines issued through the Hume Freeway speed cameras.
Beaconsfield mine hero dies
A SELFLESS Victorian hero who helped blast the Beaconsfield miners to safety has died after losing his battle with cancer.
Dozens arrested in drug operation
DRUG-smuggling rackets involving tens of millions of dollars being passed at Crown casino have been smashed by police.
Cleary is ready to run again
SUBURBAN footy legend and former federal MP Phil Cleary is on the verge of running for state Parliament as an independent.
Northern Territory
$164m to combat child protection flawsTHERE are at least 1000 children at risk of harm in the Northern Territory who have received no support from the Government, a damning report says.
Damning NT child protection report released
CHILD protection in the Northern Territory is failing because the system is swamped by social problems, an inquiry has found.
South Australia
Country hospitals on the critical listTHREATS to the quality and availability of healthcare in regional communities have prompted a public backlash from Keith to Kangaroo Island.
Council elections - time to have a say
COUNCILLORS are responsible for $16 billion worth of infrastructure and spend $1.5 billion each year, but are elected on just a few votes.
City will share Murray pain
ADELAIDE residents will rely more on the city's new desalination plant and less on the River Murray under proposed changes to water allocations.
$2m fee for Lance but none for us
LANCE Armstrong's suspected $2 million appearance fee for the Tour Down Under has been backed up by discrepancies in the state tourism budget.
Student drop halts building program
UNISA may be forced to put building works on hold if international student numbers keep falling, after a 9 per cent drop in commencements this year.
Power companies want to flick switch
ELECTRICITY companies want to make it easier to cut customers off during heat waves.
It just doesn't belong here
NEWS spreads fast in small country towns, and by beer o'clock yesterday, plans to establish a detention centre was the hot topic at the Woodside Hotel.
Facility is result of policy failure
FOR years I've fought attempts by the Department of Defence to close the Woodside army camp.
Kids at risk as cough hits wards
ALMOST 60 babies have been treated following possible exposure to whooping cough through contact with two infected doctors, SA Health says.
Pokie addiction led to suicide
UNABLE to cope with her chronic pokies addiction, SkyCity Casino worker Katherine Natt took her own life.
Western Australia
Call for VC to late HMAS Perth skipperTHE Navy will be asked today if the captain of HMAS Perth, sunk by the Japanese in World War II, can be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for heroism.
Cop hurt in rock attack
A POLICE officer was injured overnight when he was attacked while trying to arrest a man for breach of bail in Kununurra, 3323km northeast of Perth.
Teacher guilty of porn charges
A JURY has convicted a 63-year-old former teacher from Beverley of five counts of accessing child pornography.
Muslim woman forced to unveil for trial
A MUSLIM woman who sparked a national debate when she asked if she could give evidence wearing a niqab, has uncovered her face in a fraud trial.
Jobs in limbo as CITIC terminates contract
‘FINANCIAL irregularities’ are central to a dispute between a Pilbara project's Chinese owners and a contractor that has left hundreds of jobs in doubt.
Traffic warning for charity ride
DRIVERS are being warned to watch out for Perth's largest ever peloton as hundreds of cyclists hit the streets to raise money for multiple sclerosis.
Whale sharks a bright spot in WA tourism
WHALE shark sightings, visitor levels and the number of tour operators have increased to record highs, according to the State Government.
Clearing 'killing Perth's bush'
ENTIRE populations of native plants and animals will be pushed to extinction if Perth land clearing continues at the present rate, experts warn.
Cop breaks finger during party arrest
A POLICE officer broke his finger while trying to arrest a man outside a party in Padbury early yesterday.
Armed pair rob IGA store
POLICE are searching for a man and a woman who used a pistol to hold up a Padbury IGA store last night.
Tasmania
Nothing new=== Journalists Corner ===
Report: GOP Opponent Heckled by Barney Frank's PartnerFollowing a debate with Frank last week, his GOP opponent, Sean Bielat was heckled while in the midst of an interview. Sources are claiming the heckler was none other than Barney Frank's significant other.
===
The Gloves are Off in Nevada!
Angle and Reid land some heavy blows. Find out what the oddsmakers have to say on 'Hannity'. Then, if Obamacare is the symptom, does Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli have the cure? He goes 'On the Record'.
===
Which Candidates Will Be in Trouble at the Polls?
House Dems are in the hot seat! Bret goes inside why some party members could face BIG problems at the polls and how the GOP will try to capitalize.
===
The Appearance Everyone is STILL Talking About!
The latest on Bill's explosive appearance on 'The View'! Plus, Hume, Williams, and Ham with an action-packed reality-check!
On Fox News Insider:
Olivia Newton-John's Spreading Breast Cancer AwarenessAirline Tells Man He's "Too Disabled" to Fly
By the Numbers: The Foreclosure Fiasco
=== Comments ===
A View of 'The View' One Day LaterBY BILL O'REILLY
There is a much larger issue in play than the discussion that took place last Thursday on "The View." We'll get to that in a moment.
But first, the nation is talking about my debate with "The View" ladies over how to describe and process the brutal attack on 9/11/2001.
After Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar walked off the set objecting to my statement that Muslims killed Americans on 9/11, the country became fully engaged.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": Everybody is talking about making the Palestinians and Israelis sit down and talk in the Middle East. We can't even get the ladies of "The View" to sit down and talk with Bill O'Reilly. Did you see that today? Well, Bill O'Reilly did something on "The View" today that made Whoopi and Joy walk off the set. He showed up. Very tense, very tense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now, this is a classic liberal vs. traditional situation. I believe there is a problem in the Muslim world. If you look at the polls taken over there, most Muslims have a poor opinion of America. Therefore, many of them are inclined to sympathize with people giving Americans a hard time. In some cases, that includes violent terrorists.
Right now, the United States is fighting Muslims in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Pakistan, and we could be fighting Muslims in Iran if they don't stop causing trouble in that country.
In addition, the whole world fears Muslim terrorists will murder people in their respective countries. The entire world is concerned about that.
So while Ms. Goldberg and Ms. Behar may be offended that I did not use the words "Muslim terrorists" in describing the 9/11 attack, the truth is there is bitter conflict between the Muslim world and the West.
Cliff May, who works for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, issued this statement about "The View" situation: "O'Reilly says it's inappropriate to build the mosque near the World Trade Center site because thousands of people were killed there in the name of Islam. Two of the women hosts of "The View" walked off in disgust at this assertion. This is all part of the continuing, rather successful, effort to try to completely sever the connection between terrorism and Islam."
Mr. May's analysis is perceptive.
THE QUESTION THEN BECOMES: Why? Why do liberals want to sever the connection between terrorism and Islam?
Part of the reason, I think is, that far-left people have always believed it is partially America's fault that some Muslims hate us, that we have exploited the world and we are getting what we deserve. That's the Rev. Wright-Ward Churchill point of view.
There comes a time when the truth must be told and if people don't like it, that's the way it goes. Anyone watching this program knows I am not anti-Muslim. But you also know that I deplore the continuing terror acts committed under the banner of Islam.
Again, if moderate Muslims would ally with the USA, the jihad could not exist. But that obviously has not happened.
===
We Cannot Afford to Ignore the Loneliness of Teenage Boys
By Malina Saval
The spate of gay teen suicides this past September has opened a floodgate of fear, worry, and anger. Parents, teachers, and students all across America are wondering why it happened, whose fault it is, and what we can do to stop it.
Pushed to the brink by anti-gay bullies and aggressive acts of homosexual harassment, teens like Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi, 13-year-old Seth Walsh from Tehachapi, California, and 19-year-old Zach Harrington from Norman, Oklahoma, ended their own lives rather than suffer hatred and humiliation at the hands of peers, classmates and school administrators who seemed to do nothing at all to protect them.
Gay teen suicide has since become a spotlight issue in the media, sparking increased awareness of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues, and spawning a celebrity-studded, anti-bullying campaign in which such gay and straight-allies as Ellen DeGeneres, Sarah Silverman and Tim Gunn assure GLBT youth that “it gets better.”
And it does. And it will. But the tragic fallout of gay teen bullying is also a jarring wake-up call to the overarching problems that have long plagued teenage boys—gay and straight—and made them particularly vulnerable to a collective sense of loneliness, isolation and despair.
Primarily, I want to speak of loneliness because it’s a recurring theme that cuts throughout teenage boyhood culture in America. When I was writing my book, “The Secret Lives of Boys: Inside the Raw, Emotional World of Male Teens,” I met countless boys from all walks of life that felt as though they were all alone. For them, loneliness was a pox upon male adolescence.
Nobody understood them they lamented, but nobody was interested in what they had to say. Their parents tried, but they too often compared themselves to when they were kids, even though the lives they were living were drastically different. The parents weren’t open to admitting that they don’t know what it’s like to be young -- not now anyway -- where cyber bullying and sexting provide a maelstrom of overwhelming social distractions.
In the outside world, in books and in movies, male teen stereotyping had sullied these boys’ reputations. Their silence was misinterpreted. They were blasted for being insensitive, cold, and cruel when in reality they were emotional sieves, romantic even.
When it came to broken relationships, the boys that I met did not suffer rejection or heartbreak lightly. They wanted love, just like everybody else. They felt frustrated, sad and confused. They felt alienated in their despair. “There aren’t any guys out there who get me,” was a common refrain. “I’m different. I don’t know any boys that are like me.”
I spoke at length with an 18-year-old struggling with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. For the longest time he couldn’t talk to anybody about it, lest they think he was “crazy.” He’d walk across bridges, peer down at the concrete below, and thought often of killing himself to escape his pain and embarrassment (according to statistics, boys between the ages of fifteen and nineteen are four times as likely to die by suicide than girls).
I interviewed a boy diagnosed with severe psychiatric behavioral problems that was erroneously pegged a drug addict by school administrators because of the way he acted. As a result, he lost trust in teachers, became deeply depressed and had given up on trying to make friends. I met a gay teen that went through a period where he slept with guys he didn’t like. “I only did it with them because I was lonely,” he explained.
All the boys, without exception, at one time or another, felt like they were living in their own private world. Their schools encouraged cliques (often unwittingly), they told me. Even if they were in the popular crowd, they still felt like outcasts.
When I informed the boys that I’d met that there others who were a lot like them in so many different ways, some were so surprised they went slack with disbelief. One brightly suggested that I throw a party where they could hang out and get a chance to know one another without the conflicts and constructs of school. Perhaps they could break down barriers.
We might never know exactly why Tyler Clementi, Zach Harrison and Seth Walsh killed themselves—shame, guilt, sadness? But what we do know, and what I discovered while writing my book, is that during such dark episodes, friendships have the potential to keep boys afloat.
When boys found a close confidant, an ally in which to confide, their moods and spirits improved drastically. They felt safer, less isolated, and their self-esteem increased ten-fold. Their loneliness melted away, they summoned strength to live. The boy with OCD who contemplated suicide spoke frankly of how much his best friend meant to him: “He literally saved my life.”
Malina Saval is a pop cultural journalist and the author of " The Secret Lives of Boys: Inside the Raw, Emotional World of Male Teens" (Basic Books). She can be reached at Malina@MalinaSaval.com.
===
Lessons of Chandra Levy's Murder
By Jeffrey Scott Shapiro
Nine years after her murder, the Chandra Levy trial started Monday in Washington, D.C., and although there may be justice for the victim, there’s little that can be done to even the scales for Gary Condit, the man who was falsely accused of killing her.
Condit, who was a California valley Congressman at the time, was suspected of having Chandra kidnapped and murdered when no evidence supported that claim.
Condit’s problem was that he had a brief relationship with Chandra while she was interning for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons back in 2001. Naturally, when she disappeared, the media assumed Condit had something to do with it.
Why?
Because thanks to Hollywood and the tabloid press, the American public has believed for decades there is a secret Washington underground network for powerful politicians and corporations that enables them to have ‘troublemakers’ removed and ‘taken care of.’
Oliver Stone suggested in his movie, "JFK" that the federal government had President Kennedy assassinated. ‘Murder at 1600’ told a thrilling fictional tale in which White House officials framed their own president for the murder of a young staffer. John Grisham’s novel, "The Pelican Brief" pinned the assassination of two U.S. Supreme Court justices on a high-powered white collar Washington law firm.
But does any of this actually happen in real life?
As a former Washington, D.C. prosecutor who tried criminal cases in the nation’s capital and dealt regularly with the FBI, Secret Service and U.S. Capitol Police, I’ve never heard of a single instance in which anyone disappeared or was murdered by government officials.
There is no secret, underground Washington network.
Despite the abuse of power we sometimes see in Washington on the House and Senate floors or from the Oval Office, it’s highly doubtful that abuse of power includes kidnapping and murder. This isn’t Saddam Hussein’s Iraq or the former USSR.
This is the mentality, however, that deluded Americans into believing that Gary Condit was guilty – the fictional existence of “they,” as a secret society in Washington. That was the real tabloid story the press was interested in. Gary Condit was just a mere example of what everyone thought was behind the royal curtains of the power elite, and they were excited they’d finally caught one of these devious Washingtonians in the act.
The tabloids crucified Condit, and late night cable news channels followed those stories featuring so-called ‘experts’ who didn’t hesitate to ramble on and on with baseless theories.
In 2002, a prominent criminal defense lawyer from California was quoted once as saying he could “prove” Gary Condit was responsible for Chandra’s murder and that he had her corpse dumped in Baltimore Harbor. In 2001, Dominick Dunne from Vanity Fair reported that he had sources in the Middle East that swore Chandra was sold there as a sex slave.
None of that was true.
It turns out her corpse was lying in Rock Creek Park as the alleged victim of a no-name, common criminal who had a history of violence. So much for the conspiracy theories about the Washington power elite. So much for Baltimore Harbor and being sold into white slavery to Middle Eastern sheiks.
None of that was remotely true, which should make us all take a moment and reconsider the most important lesson that arose out of the Chandra Levy case, that journalism should be based on facts, not theories.
In 2006, I spoke directly with one of the lead detectives from the Washington, D.C. Metro Police Department who was assigned to the Chandra Levy case. I was intrigued when he told me they had “no interest in Gary Condit as a suspect,” and as a result, I pitched that story to several news outlets. To my surprise no one was interested in reporting it.
Maybe that’s because vindication isn’t as enticing as accusation.
The specific accusations that arose from the national media against Gary Condit were so detailed they couldn’t have been anything but pure fabrication or the result of journalists failing to properly investigate. In retrospect, some of them were totally absurd and laughable if the damage they caused to Condit’s life and career wasn’t so tragic.
Supermarket tabloid journalism has infiltrated the landscape of mainstream news convicting people by suspicion in the court of public opinion, and because people want to believe in conspiracy theories, they buy into them.
After all, it’s a lot more exciting to believe that a U.S. Congressman used a secret Washington underground network to have a young girl kidnapped and murdered than accept the more likely reality that she was just another victim of violent crime.
But after a nine-year investigation, U.S. prosecutors and Washington detectives are now saying that is the case. Hopefully, there will be justice for Chandra one way or another. For Gary Condit however, there isn’t much that can be done. After all, sticks and stones may break bones, but words do permanent damage.
Jeffrey Scott Shapiro is a former Washington, D.C. prosecutor and an investigative journalist who started his career with the tabloids. In 1999, he reported his tabloid editors to the FBI for criminal acts and has since been a vocal critic of their methods. He can be reached at jshapiro@ufl.edu.
===
PAST IMPERFECT
Tim Blair
Eight things Kathy Shaidle wishes she had known when she was a leftist.
===
HEY CHARGER
Tim Blair
Green is always worse:
Owners of an electric version of Ford’s Focus hatchback may have to put up with plenty of inconvenience to keep the car on the road.Sounds like fun. At least Ford released the details; others aren’t so enthusiastic …
The car maker released details of the car this week that shows it anticipates owners of an electric version of its Focus hatchback may have to recharge it up to a whopping 1500 times a year — or up to four times a day.
The number of homes found with unsafe insulation from the federal government’s bungled scheme will be kept secret because it would scare the public.This is from the same government that wants to spend $43 billion on the planet’s speediest internet system, so it can not tell you things as fast as possible.
===
HAIL HAIL
Tim Blair
Chuck Berry – the man who told Keith Richards, “If you want to get it right, let’s get it right” – is 84:
Richards isn’t usually so intimidated. That’s the magic of Chuck.
(Via R. Black)
===
WORDSMITH KEV
Tim Blair
Another lesson in diplomacy from the master:
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and his office privately referred to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as “Spanky Banky” according to a new book.===
===
Gillard won’t tell you the truth for your own good
Andrew Bolt
We can’t handle the truth about this government’s bungling:
The number of homes found with unsafe insulation from the federal government’s bungled scheme will be kept secret because it would scare the public and ruin fraud investigations, the responsible bureaucrat has argued…(Thanks to reader Alan RM Jones.)
“It can create apprehension in the broader community and it can further do damage to the industry if, in fact, inappropriately that kind of information is out in the public arena,” Mr Bowles said.
===
Back Gillard against NSW’s mad laws
Andrew Bolt
Reader Erasmus identifies just why the NSW Government is refusing to agree to Julia Gillard’s plan for national workplace safety laws:
I think it’s time for all sensible people to get behind one positive thing Julia Gillard is trying to do.Your voice would help.I agree. - I disagree, this is a dispute between a union rort and a major pork barrel .. I don't want either. - ed.
For years, the Howard Government tried to harmonise Australia’s workplace safety laws. The big differences between laws in different states makes it very difficult and complicated for national employers to manage the issue - and that actually has a negative affect on worker safety. The Labor state governments, funded by the unions, always resisted.
For three years, Gillard has overseen negotiations to do what Howard wanted to do, and it seemed until recently she had succeeded. Now NSW has reneged on the deal.
And here’s why. In NSW, an employer is guilty of a workplace safety breach unless he/she is able to prove themselves innocent - reversing natural justice. More unfairly, charges can be made not just by an independent authority (like WorkSafe in Victoria) but by unions.
Worse, the union making the charge gets a percentage of any fine handed down!
The unions argue that the system works because they win all the cases. But this is because the system is so unfairly weighted against employers that most don’t even contest the charges - it’s far cheaper to pay the fines.
It is this absurdly unfair system that the NSW government (run by the local union movement) and the ACTU is defending and, believe it or not, insisting should be extended to the rest of the country.
Recently, a hobby farmer went to the NSW High Court to appeal a judgement against him - it took years - and won. The NSW workplace laws were deemed patently unjust. Yet the union movement and NSW Labor continues to fight for it.
On this occasion, robust support for Gillard is a must.
===
“Out of context” Flannery explains his dud predictions
Andrew Bolt
Watch Alarmist of the Year Tim Flannery squirm when confronted by his alarmist predictions that Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide risked running out of water by ... er, last year. (From 39:55)
Flannery claims he’s being verballed. Oh, really?
Flannery also fails repeatedly to declare a vested interest when spruiking green power - his investment in Geodynamics. But given the way its shares have performed, maybe it’s just shame that keeps him silent.
===
Shhh. We’re winning in Afghanistan
Andrew Bolt
James Brown says defeatism is rising just as we’re winning - and driving the Taliban into negotiations:
IN FEBRUARY Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service captured Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar at a madrassa in the Pakistani port city of Karachi. Mullah Baradar was the Taliban’s second in command, surpassed in seniority only by Mullah Omar.===
At the time of his capture he was responsible for the planning of Taliban strategy across the whole of southern Afghanistan. Baradar’s capture was unusual and unexpected. That morning raid may mark the point at which a failing Afghan war was turned around.
In the months since Baradar was captured, coalition forces have captured or killed a succession of senior Taliban commanders across Afghanistan. In three weeks last June, three successive Taliban shadow governors for the province of Baghlan were killed or captured within days of being appointed to their role.
The Haqqani insurgent network that facilitates the majority of attacks on Kabul has lost three leaders due to coalition operations this year. As one NATO senior official put it, this year “the Taliban are experiencing a whole new level of pain”.
Ask most Australians, though, and they will probably answer that the war in Afghanistan is a lost cause.
What does Gillard really want to do?
Andrew Bolt
Niki Savva:
Gillard’s inability to lay out a clear agenda for Labor and for the government - the penchant for committees, reviews, round tables, guides and the need to take deep breaths - means she is in danger of being swept along by events either outside her control or initiated by others.===
Kevin Rudd had to go because under him the government had lost its way. Gillard has yet to find hers.
Britain chooses nuclear over green power
Andrew Bolt
Britain pulls the plug on the the latest grand plan for green power, which turns out to be as ludicrously expensive as most such schemes:
A £30bn scheme to harness green electricity from the Severn Estuary has been scrapped by the Government as it confirms the location of eight new nuclear power plants…(Thanks to reader wokka.)
The Department of Energy and Climate Change said there was no strategic case for spending taxpayers’ money on the project to harness tidal power with a 10-mile barrage…
Plans to construct a barrage on the Severn Estuary had drawn criticism due to financial and environmental concerns. Initially expected to cost £15bn, a recent feasibily study suggested that could double.
===
Beat without bruising
Andrew Bolt
This is apparently a breakthrough:
The Federal Supreme Court in the United Arab Emirates has ruled that a man can beat his wife and young children as long as no marks are left…This more enlightened form of justice is an example to believers in other lands:
“Although the (law) permits the husband to use his right (to discipline), he has to abide by the limits of this right,” it quoted Chief Justice Falah al-Hajeri as having written in a ruling released in a court document on Sunday…
The UAE is less conservative than some Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia...
A woman hacked to death on the orders of her husband was left dying in the street with a severed hand, the Old Bailey heard today.(Thanks to reader watty.)
Geeta Aulakh, 28, was executed as she went to collect their two young sons from a childminder because she had begun divorce proceedings, said Aftab Jafferjee, QC, prosecuting.
Harpreet Aulakh, in an act of “breathtaking indifference”, had offered £5,000 for her death in a room full of Punjabi men, said Mr Jafferjee.
Mrs Aulakh, who worked for Sunrise Radio as a receptionist, was found dying in Braund Avenue, Greenford, west London, in November last year.
===
A throne for Kev
Andrew Bolt
A: Kevin Rudd’s pretentions are outsized.
B: Governments spend money like it wasn’t their own. Which it isn’t.
And so we get this:
A Senate estimates committee revealed yesterday the Federal Government forked out $131,000 of taxpayer money on 45 Wilkhahn chairs for its $14 million high-tech “war room” - a situation room commissioned by former prime minister Kevin Rudd and similar to the one used by US President Barack Obama.(Thanks to reader CA.)
That equates to $2911 per chair.
===
Twice as much for Julia’s price
Andrew Bolt
How many billions has Julia Gillard wasted?
THEY are both in the same electorate, both have about the same number of students and both have been given $3 million to spend under the Building the Education Revolution.
But the startling difference between what Mount Crosby and Moggill state schools can afford to build under BER has sparked further outrage over the controversial program, which continues to be dogged by claims of wastage.
At Mount Crosby State School, the centre of one of 21 complaints lodged in Queensland against BER, $3 million is not enough to put four walls around an 831sq m hall and to add a 273sq m library and resource centre to the school’s existing 111sq m library.
But Moggill State School, which fought to have its own project manager and won, is building a hall of almost 1500sq m and a library and 458sq m resource centre for the same price.
(Thanks to reader Pronto.)
===
The “good” racism that’s killing children
Andrew Bolt
A new racism is making children victims of a dysfunctional culture which too many of us are now too delicate to confront:
The “overwhelming failure” of the Territory’s child protection system was laid bare in more than 700 pages of a report released yesterday that detailed the “tsunami of need” among Aboriginal children in remote communities…And so a new generation is created of a culture which will cripple those who live under it. Meanwhile, the nice “good” racists prattle on about how Aboriginal culture builds such strong family networks.
But the report detailed a disturbing trend of child protection workers desensitised by the level of neglect in indigenous families - “lowering the bar” of what constituted abuse… The child protection report found the threshold for investigation of child protection cases within the NT had risen to the extent that many professionals no longer reported serious cases of child neglect.
One child protection worker who spoke anonymously to the inquiry described the despair within the department at the high threshold for notification of cases of neglect.
“What someone gets charged with torture for in the eastern states we accept as ‘normal’ in the Territory,” the worker said. “This higher threshold of neglect has been confirmed by staff at (NTFC) . . . it becomes demoralising on a daily basis to witness the needless death and suffering that Territory children live with and know that there is no point in notifying (the NTFC) as the notification will be closed at Intake.”
===
Um, you sure?
Andrew Bolt
Sometimes a reporter trusts the press flack’s spin more than the evidence of their own eyes, which is why Virgin’s new ads get this astonishing rap:
Breaking away from the controversial ads of the past, this latest offering attempts to shake the airline’s anti-feminist reputation, replacing their overtly sexual clips with Bond-esque glamour.A selection of top airline ads at the link.
===
Court throws out male journalists
Andrew Bolt
And the journalists accepted this court-enforced segregation?
A MUSLIM woman who sparked a national debate when she asked to give evidence in court wearing a niqab has uncovered her face to testify in a fraud trial.I’m shocked none of the male journalists or their employers protested against this segregation.
Tasneem, whose last name has been suppressed by the Perth District Court, gave evidence for just 15 minutes today in the trial of Anwar Sayed…
Tasneem, 36, has worn a niqab since the age of 17 and wanted to wear it while giving evidence in the trial. But Judge Shauna Deane in August ruled she must remove the face-covering garment so that the jury could see her facial expressions…
Judge Deane last week ruled that to make it easier for Tasneem to give evidence comfortably, men would be removed from the court.
The only men allowed in the courtroom while she gave her evidence today were male jurors, the judge’s usher, Mr Sayed and the lawyers. While female journalists were allowed to stay in the court to report on Tasneem’s evidence, male journalists were ejected.
UPDATE
Apologies - the fault is the court’s:
A lawyer representing Network Ten and the Seven and Nine networks made an application on Friday to alter the order so that male journalists could remain in court, but the application was rejected.
No comments:
Post a Comment