=== Todays Toon ===
The problem is not the banks, the problem is the government is that bad. - ed.=== Bible Quote ===
“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,”- Colossians 1:9=== Headlines ===
Steele vs. Anuzis: Republicans Battle for Party Chairman
Current RNC Chair Michael Steele has faced increased scrutiny from both Democrats and Republicans for his leadership skills and verbal gaffes — and he now faces a challenge from former Michigan GOP Chair Saul Anuzis.Jindal: Experience Beyond His Years?
12 in 2012: If Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal were to run for president, he would be the youngest commander in chief in history — yet many cite his experience as his biggest selling point
Group to DOJ: Probe Muslim Prayer Events
Conservative group calls on Justice Department to investigate weekly prayer sessions on Capitol Hill that FoxNews.com found have sometimes included people with terrorist ties
Cops: Remains Likely Those of Missing Girl
Police think they have found the remains of 10-year-old Zahra Baker, who was reported missing by her parents last month in North Carolina
Zahra's DNA matches bone - US police
ZAHRA Baker's body has been found, North Carolina police have confirmed.
Boy caned for bringing pork to school
MALAYSIA'S parliament this week debated whether or not it was right for teachers to cane a 10-year-old boy for bringing pork to school.
Porn shop lotto ticket proves luckiest
A GROUP of friends came forward Friday as the buyers of the $128.6 million ($130 million) Powerball ticket bought at a Michigan porn shop, the Detroit News reported.
Suspected shooting death in Sydney
POLICE believe a man whose body was found in Sydney's inner west died from a gunshot wound.
Naked scanners 'may be dangerous'
US scientists have warned that the full-body, graphic-image X-ray scanners being used to screen passengers and airline crews at airports around the country may be unsafe.
Palfreeman's birthday in hell
PAUL Palfreeman is Australia's unknown prisoner, left to languish in one of Europe's most notorious prisons
Medich fights back
ACCUSED murder "mastermind" Ron Medich has broken his silence from inside a Sydney prison.
Cash to stop the radicals
A $10 million offensive will be launched across Sydney in a bid to rescue young people involved in extremist groups.
Dodging bushfire disaster
MORE than $50 million will be spent to substantially increase backburning operations in NSW.
Never rains but it pours
FOR a decade they struggled with drought. When it rained, it poured.
A final healthy pay day for MPs
DOZENS of state MPs will retire with more than $30 million in taxpayer-funded pensions.
Man stabbed to death, body found
ONE man has been stabbed to death north of Newcastle, and the body of another was discovered on a footpath in Surry Hills this morning.
Coal giant Xstrata in 'land grab'
WESTERN Queensland landholders are holding out against plans for a $3 billion coal mine to rival NSW's Hunter Valley and create more than 800 jobs.
Curtain falls on Powderfinger
AFTER 20 remarkable years - and with a hometown crowd gearing up for their final concert - Powderfinger guitarist Ian Haug says it really is all over.
Housing hit by rate rises
A BOUNCE-BACK in the Queensland housing industry is unlikely any time soon with the latest figures showing another drop in housing finance figures.
Raised wrong and raising hell
BOYS aged 10-14 are the fastest growing group of violent criminals in Queensland, and parents who use TVs and video games as babysitters are blamed.
Termite trouble flies in
MAJOR termite swarms are expected soon in Queensland as a result of perfect breeding conditions following good rain, architects say.
Principal stirs gender debate
WHETHER or not you agree with Dr Amanda Bell that a woman should lead teenage girls, the Brisbane Girls Grammar is thought-provoking.
Top cop must be more accountable
THE Crime and Misconduct Commission has insisted Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson's new contract make him accountable for officer bad behaviour.
Gabe Watson's next stop
WHEN honeymoon killer Gabe Watson returns to the US he will be held at Jefferson County Jail in Alabama awaiting trial. We take a look inside.
Torres Strait cholera warning
TRAVEL between Australia's Torres Strait Islands and nearby Papua New Guinea has been restricted in an effort to contain a deadly cholera outbreak.
Man crushed in workplace accident
A MAN has been crushed to death when an object fell from a crane at a workplace at Laidley, west of Brisbane.
Labor losing support in polls
VICTORIA may be heading for a hung parliament with the polls tightening as the Brumby government's support slips.
Big Day KO hits leading stable
OWNERS of a promising racehorse injured during this year's Big Day Out concert have launched a legal battle.
Twins celebrate first anniversary
EVEN those closest to Trishna and Krishna can't believe their amazing transformation a year after their epic separation.
Labor to aim at 'weak' link Ted
LABOR plans to turn up the heat on Ted Baillieu in the final fortnight of the election campaign. -because they have no actual worthwhile policies to point to - ed
'Drive hoons to morgue for a look'
YOUNG hoons should visit morgues and see the dead bodies of road accident victims, argues Liberal MP Denis Napthine.
Obama in play for Melbourne
IF you thought Tiger was big, wait for Australian golf's next unveiling - Barack Obama.
Jack saved by the belle
A HEART-stopping moment at a hospital ball had a fairytale ending for 77-year-old Jack Joel.
Tax windfall for students
A HIGH Court ruling could reap students thousands of dollars by claiming educational expenses.
Locusts blow in as swarm grows
MELBURNIANS could be battling locusts for months as numbers of them hit the suburbs.
Patients left stuck in ambulances
ALMOST half of all people rushed to hospital are left waiting in the back of the ambulance outside overflowing emergency wards.
Nothing new
Designer dresses up Sturt's Desert Pea
THIS is South Australia's floral emblem as you've never seen it.
Stop the cuts, orders Labor State Council
THE Government has been ordered by the Labor Party's governing body to reverse the Budget cuts to worker entitlements - another sign of unrest in the party.
$5.85m target for historic mansion
A MANSION that held the state's house price record, goes on sale this weekend - below its previous $6.4 million price tag as its large block has been divided.
Crean critical of Basin rescue plan
FEDERAL Regional Minister Simon Crean has criticised the Murray-Darling Basin Authority for being "one dimensional".
Mystery surrounds triple murder
A LACK of leads into the Rowe family's triple murder and days of unsuccessful searching by specialist police have fuelled speculation about the killer.
A gold rush on techno trash
OUR throw-away culture could soon lead to "landfill mining" becoming a commercial reality.
Light side of heavy metal gods
GROWN men gush like teenage girls when they gain entrance to the inner backstage sanctum of heavy metal gods Metallica.
Concern over deaths of infants
AT least four South Australian newborns died soon after leaving hospital in situations where health workers contacted Families SA to say they were concerned.
Maggie proud to be top South Aussie
CULINARY icon Maggie Beer can now add South Australian of the Year to her seasoned palate.
Stormy seas ahead for Rann
PREMIER Mike Rann's annus horribilis continues. It is almost as if he is channelling Captain John Smith on the bridge of the Titanic.
Qantas grounds Perth flight
QANTAS has been stung in yet another mid-air mishap with one of its engines, this time involving Perth passengers on their way to Melbourne tonight.
Truck roll-over on Roe Highway
A TRUCK roll-over is causing major traffic disruption on Roe Highway in Bellevue, east of the city.
Man dies on Port Hedland worksite
WORKSAFE is investigating the death of a man at Port Hedland today.
Alley victim 'probably run over'
POLICE are seeking public help to determine what happened to a 36-year-old man who was found laying badly injured in a city laneway.
Barnett defends embattled police minister
PREMIER Colin Barnett has defended his police minister despite suffering a heavy blow in having his controversial stop and search laws blocked in Parliament.
Sticky tape teacher stood down
A WA teacher has been stood down following claims the mouths of several primary school students were sticky taped shut.
Boat pens, cafes at Rous Head Marina
A MARINA planned for Rous Head Harbour at Fremantle is likely to include more than 100 boat pens, cafes, offices and tourism facilities, WA Premier Colin Barnett says.
Nothing new
=== Journalists Corner ===
Video: Let's Be Clear!After White House senior advisor David Axelrod reportedly commented to the Huffington Post that Obama might be willing to extend Bush-era tax cuts to ALL tax brackets, the president clarified his position from the G-20 Summit.
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Guest: Glenn Beck
Exposing Soros! Beck on the billionaire's strategy to strike at Fox! Plus, reality check! Could "Sarah Palin's Alaska" be forced to pay big bucks in a lawsuit?
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George W. Bush Goes On the Record
The former president reveals his most prized possessions from his presidency. Greta has the must-see interview.
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The Debt Commission's Plan!
Fighting earmarks - will the GOP agree to ban pork spending? Plus, is there a solution to social security or should the program be scrapped?
On Fox News Insider
Report: Usama Bin Laden Appoints New Terror ChiefOliver North: Obama Needs to Backtrack on Afghanistan
Palin E-mail Hacker Sentenced to Year in Custody
VIDEO: Oliver North Tells Stories of Our Heroes in Uniform
=== Comments ===
A World Without America's Leadership and Military Might Would Be ChaosBy Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney
Without the United States military there would simply be no United States of America. And without the United States in the world, there would be global chaos.
These are very profound words but history has clearly established that this is the truth. This goes all the way back to the time of the Spanish-American War in 1898, when the battleship Maine was sunk in Havana Harbor and Spain declared war on America. That act resulted in America’s initial global move towards stabilization.
A series of battles were also fought in the Caribbean and the Pacific resulting in temporary control of Cuba and ownership, until 1946, of the Philippines. To this day the United States has ownership over Puerto Rico, Guam and Wake Island. This initial action towards global stability continues for the benefit of world order.
America’s entry into World War I at a critical time for the Allies further signaled that we would join those nations that share similar interests and are committed to a stabilized world.
World War I was more of a “European-balance-of-power” war than the ideological war that later followed it. However, efforts by nations to establish the League of Nations, even though America did not ultimately join it -- to the disappointment of President Wilson -- was a noteworthy step. This was the first time in modern history that nations formed a global organization to try to solve issues using diplomacy. The League ultimately failed, primarily because America did not join and an onerous Versailles Treaty put such a heavy burden on Germany that it later enabled Hitler to introduce National Socialism (Nazism) to the country.
The world was now faced with an aggressive Germany and ideology that joined with the fascism of Italy and an expanding fascist Japan that was dominating the Western Pacific. These ideological driven dictatorships plus the Western allies’ appeasement activities were a danger to global peace and freedom. World War II started because of aggressive attacks by Germany, Italy and Japan in Europe and the Pacific culminating in Japan’s infamous attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 that brought America into the first truly global war in which over 60 million people died.
America now emerged as the only global power left standing with immense wealth and the economic and military power to lead the world out of chaos.
I remember it well. As I was a teenager, I was living in Germany in early 1949 where my father commanded the Mercedes and BMW factories which were used to rebuild destroyed American vehicles and create jobs during the chaotic period before the Marshall Plan kicked in and the Berlin Blockade ended.
However a new ideological threat emerged when the Russians put up an Iron Curtain across Eastern Europe and the North Koreans, aided by Communist Russia and China, invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950.
This time a new United Nations organization, one that America played a major role in creating, responded to the situation led by American forces and economic power.
The victory in the region created the huge economic miracle that still exists in South Korea today. America still has over 30,000 troops stationed there to ensure that stability thrives.
I spent 11 years in the Pacific as an Air Force Commander supporting this success. It is no accident that South Korea is free today due to America’s military, economic and diplomatic support.
In Europe we faced the same Communist threat.
I personally served five tours there culminating as the Vice Commander in Chief of US Air Forces in Europe with forces from Norway to Turkey that ensured these NATO countries flourished to be the economic powers they are today.
Only the American military held this Communist threat at bay using a Containment Strategy that enabled it to collapse under its own failed economic system and ideology. Unfortunately, few Europeans today realize why they are free!
Vietnam had a much different outcome due to weak and duplicitous American political leadership. America had fundamentally won the war there and we pulled most of our forces out. However, North Korea invaded the South and a Democratic Congress tired of the war that two Democratic presidents (Kennedy and Johnson) led us into denied American support and signaled our retreat. That further encouraged North Vietnam to continue its attack.
I served four tours in Vietnam and Thailand starting in 1963 and finishing in 1969. It was a tragedy that America appeased the North Vietnamese and did not use massive airpower when they invaded South Vietnam. We should have supported the South Vietnamese with fuel, ammunition and equipment to defeat this outright attack. Appeasement always fails.
An America that is not willing to use its forces decisively cannot win and the Gradualism Strategy of the Kennedy-Johnson Administrations only encouraged Communism’s advance.
Saddam Hussein’s brutal attack on Kuwait in 1990 was met with a determined American response assisted by our key allies and resulted in a very decisive 100-hour war against Iraq’s aggression but it did not finish the job.
The cowardly attack by Al Qaeda on America on September 11, 2001 brought the war against Radical Islam (RI) to the forefront of the world’s attention. America had been in denial to a series of attacks by Radical Islam since the first World Trade Center attack in 1991 plus the attacks on our embassies in Africa, the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia and the attempted sinking of the USS Cole in Aden Harbor, Yemen.
The resulting operations in Afghanistan and Iraq continue to this day with the jury still out on our success.
However it is apparent that the 9/11 attacks put us into the middle of a war between Radical Islam and moderate Islam. This is a war that we should ultimately get the moderate Islamic nations to resolve. -- Iraq appears to be moving in that direction but the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan are getting support -- financially and morally -- from the Pakistan Intelligence Service (ISI). The Obama administration must resolve this incongruity or we will not be successful. It is time we get the Saudis, Turks, Jordanians, Egyptians and others to defeat and excise Radical Islam from their societies.
History has shown that when America’s military, economic and diplomatic leaders adopt the wrong strategies our enemies can prevail. When we are decisive the free world prevails! Once again, we are at a critical turning point in our history.
Thomas G. McInerney is a retired Air Force Lt. Gen who graduated from West Point in 1959 and retired as Assistant Vice Chief of the Air Force. He is a Fox News military analyst.
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America, You Ain't Seen Nothing, Yet!
By Frank Donatelli
Just last week, the GOP had one of its greatest nights ever: gains of 60 plus House seats, new governorships in many large industrial states and an increase of 675 seats and counting in state legislatures across the country. Republicans now have more House members than at any time since 1946 and the most state legislators since 1928. The relative disappointment of a loss of a couple of hotly contested Senate seats is minor by comparison.
And yet, as Ronald Reagan would say, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” That’s because there is still room for Republicans to make additional gains as we look to the congressional elections of 2012.
In the Senate, Democrats will be defending 23 of the 33 seats up for election. Several are in states that President Obama lost in 2008 and generally vote Republican in presidential years: Montana, North Dakota, Missouri, Nebraska, Alaska and West Virginia.
Yet others are in states won by President Obama, but have very competitive Republican parties: Florida, Virginia, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Still others might be open because of retirements (Wisconsin). Under the able leadership of NRSC Senator John Cornyn, Republicans have a favorable map to make another run at Senate control in 2012.
In the U.S. House, despite the incredible gains of 2010, the GOP is well positioned to protect or possibly even expand its ranks. This is because redistricting will begin next year in time for the 2012 elections. Republicans gained a stunning 25 legislative chambers this year. Of the states that will gain or lose congressional seats, eight states are controlled by the GOP, 6 are split, 3 are governed by commissions, and only one is Democratic. And for the first time, a commission will control both congressional and legislative redistricting in the nation's largest state of California.
Republicans also have total control in other states not gaining or losing members where redistricting could affect the partisan balance (Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma and Wisconsin). The fact is that Republicans are in the best position for redistricting since the 1960s when the Supreme Court first mandated redistricting based on "one man, one vote."
After everything they've gone through this year, surviving House Democrats' first vote will now be whether to vote for Nancy Pelosi as Minority Leader. -- Talk about the gift that keeps on giving.
For those who think President Obama will save the day for Democrats, the facts tell a different story. It is true that he is still a formidable political force who will generate enhanced turnout from his base of minorities, liberals and young people. The third category is uncertain since they have borne the brunt of his economic policies that have generated few new net jobs.
However, even assuming a changed electorate in 2012, President Obama’s victory of 2008 shows that he is a candidate whose support is a mile deep and an inch wide. As a winner in 2008, he still ran behind 46 House Democrats who won their seats in spite of President Obama losing their districts. He is not likely to have coattails in many districts and states beyond the very blue seats that his last minute campaigning helped save for his Party this year.
To be sure, the issue mix will be different next time. It better be, or the Democrats will face another monsoon. Yet, even assuming enhanced Democratic turnout and a strong reelection effort by the president, Republicans have a rare opportunity to increase their ranks in Congress and that would make for a lonely reelection for the president.
Frank Donatelli is the Chairman of GOPAC, the center for training and electing the next generation of Republican leaders.For more information on GOPAC, visit the organization’s Website at: www.gopac.org.
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Muslims Can Be Patriots, Too
By Mohamed Elibiary
I was recently appointed a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) and had the honor of swearing an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
Some of my track record over the past several years helping to confront foreign-inspired threats to our homeland has recently been made public. That same patriotic track record, however, was met with outrage in what I can only call the "keyboard crusader" corner of the blogosphere. Why? Because a Muslim was appointed to such a position.
What is becoming more obvious daily is that here at home we have some of our fellow citizens here at home have an unevolved view of the clash of civilizations. This self-righteous camp claims to be fighting to counter Bin Laden’s ilk by broadening the enemy category to the religion of Islam and/or casting broad suspicions on all Muslims.
It’s accurate to diagnose the American people as a confused bunch. After all, we are still debating who attacked us on 9/11 and what their ideology was. On the one hand, there are those see our enemy, post-9/11, as Al Qaeda and the global pseudo-jihad movement it spearheads. Then, there are others who believe in a "conveyor belt" theory of sorts. They feel that "Islamism" or the merging of one’s religious identity and nationalism is a gateway to extremism. -- Just as marijuana is considered by some as a "gateway" to harder drugs.
Currently the majority of academics and center-left think tanks view non-violent Islamists as the largely benign Muslim version of Evangelical Christians and therefore natural allies in countering Al-Qaeda and expanding democracies. That view is opposed by right-wing think tanks and security hawks who view non-violent Islamism as merely a pre-cursor stage to violence and an eventual threat to U.S. foreign policy objectives in the Middle East. All these groups and their viewpoints enrich our public discourse and generally welcome nuanced analysis of their point of views in a civil public discourse.
Finally however there is a unique category that views the circle of threat as not pseudo-jihadists or Islamists, but instead as the religion of Islam itself. They’re quick to classify any action by any public Muslim figure as “deception” in the pursuit of an ultimate goal to “subvert our Constitution” and impose a “Caliph” guided by the Koran in its place.
Many of our fellow citizens have spent the greater part of the past nine years confused as to whom our country’s enemy is and in response lash out harmfully at a great number of innocent fellow citizens. We must remember that one can’t listen while he’s shouting, nor discern while conflating broadly into global conspiracies, and only dialoging with sell-out “moderate” Muslims willing to reinforce what we want to believe is not patriotism but simply pouring Novocain upon our paranoia.
The intelligence field is basically about collecting information and producing analytical products to inform government’s policy making process. The counter-intelligence field is basically about playing defense against others trying to steal our national secrets or advance subversion operations against us. Our collective challenge therefore is to identify who America’s enemies are, what their plan is and where to draw the line between “us” and “them” so we stop suffering from fratricide.
An important step down the path of consensus and true service to our country is to settle our post 9/11 public conversation on who exactly “belongs” as an American. We can achieve that by not attempting to outsmart our common sense and adopt separate standards for separate religions and groupings of Americans in our public discourse about security topics. Simply put if we can't substitute the word "Jew" or "Christian" when speaking of Muslims then we should be wise enough to know that’s not the proper way to state a perspective.
There is no valor in being ugly or debasing our democracy’s public discourse in a bullying manner, just evil cowardice.
As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love…”
Mohamed Elibiary is a national security expert and an advisor to several government agencies and American Muslim community groups. His e-mail address is melibiary@texasintel.org.
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The Truth About Amazon, Kids and Free Speech
By Wendy Murphy
A new publication entitled "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-Lover's Code of Conduct" recently made its way onto the bestseller list, in part because when Amazon.com decided to sell it, the public's rage-filled reaction caused even MORE publicity. Not so ironic, I know.
At the risk of fueling more attention, there is an interesting debate buried in the abstract muck and mire of this most grotesque of subject matters.
Free speech principles sit at the top of the list of the Bill of Rights for a reason. A healthy democracy cannot survive if people are denied the ability to express ideas -- especially discontent regarding the actions of government. This is why political speech tends to receive the strongest legal protection. Openness and dissenting views ABOUT the government provide necessary balance between the power of the state and the freedom of individuals.
Free speech in other contexts is also important, but not in the same way. For example, restraining people from yelling "fire" in a crowded theater does no harm to principles of democracy, while providing protection for people's freedom from the threatened harm of being trampled.
Speech that constitutes "advocacy" to promote certain behavior can also be restrained in certain circumstances. In the famous "Brandenburg" case, the U.S. Supreme Court characterized the test this way: It is constitutionally permissible to restrain "advocacy" speech if it is directed as "inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."
Lots of people have argued that "how to" books don't incite "imminent" lawlessness. And in some jurisdictions federal judges have agreed with this point of view. For example, in Massachusetts, the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) was sued for providing guidance to two men who raped and killed a little boy named Jeffrey Curley. The case was ultimately dismissed. Who knows whether money changed hands in a secret settlement but protecting NAMBLA-like materials is almost a sport in a crazy state like Massachusetts where anything goes, so long as it promotes a liberal ideology. Children's well-being de damned.
The U.S. Supreme Court would likely have overturned a pro-NAMBLA ruling from a Massachusetts federal court in light of its reaction to a similar kind of case from the Fourth Circuit which ruled that a man who wrote a "how to" guide book for "hit men" could be prosecuted for aiding and abetting murder. The court held in the Rice decision that the book "incited" lawless action, even though it produced no "imminent" threat. In 1998, the United States Supreme Court allowed the Fourth Circuit's decision to stand.
In light of the "Rice" case, a child molester's "how to" book is NOT "clearly" protected speech, as has been suggested by most pundits and legal analysts offering commentary on this story. Such a book is easily compared to the "hit men" guide book in that it "incites" lawless action against children.
One could argue that a child abuser's manual is entitled to even less free speech protection than a "hit men" guide because children are a special class of citizens, uniquely defenseless because of their age and because they lack political and economic power.
The law has long crafted special exceptions to protect children, even in the context of First Amendment rights. For example, while adult pornography is legal, child pornography is not. In fact, the Supreme Court took extra measures to protect children by declaring that child pornography is not even "speech." Thus, there's no need to debate whether an exception, such as the "incitement" rule, should apply. That child pornography does not even enjoy the basic respect of being called "speech" shows how strongly the Supreme Court feels about the harm done to children by sexual abuse.
Makes a gal wonder why the people running Amazon seem to have a different "feeling" about children.
The company intially claimed it sold the self-published "guide book" in its online bookstore because of its principled opposition to censorship. According to the Christian Science Monitor, "Amazon's first response was a statement declaring that, 'Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable. Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.'"
Because too many companies like Amazon put profits ahead of safety, especially the safety of vulnerable kids, Congress should get off its butt and change the law that insulates Internet host sites from liability for unlawful content. ISPs like Amazon claim liability exposure is unnecessary to protect the public because they effectively self-regulate by having rules in place for users, and "terms of service" contracts, that forbid the posting of certain kinds of offensive content. -- If that were true, the child molester's guide never would have made its way out of the creepy basement or similar location where it was created.
There is one section in the guide book, however, that I actually like. It talks about how the word "pedophilia" literally means "child love." This is true. "Pedo" means "child" and "philia" means "love." It's hardly a reason, though, to celebrate the sexual abuse of children by using this word. As we know, the ancient definition of what should more rightly be termed "child rapist" was coined during a time when we thought watching lions eat humans was a barrel of fun. And...it was probably crafted by a guy who wanted to insulate himself from societal shame and punishment while making himself feel better as he destroyed children's bodies and minds.
Nonetheless, I think it's time to change the word -- just in case a few lingering Neanderthals think the definition gives them license. Here's my suggestion: How about "Pedozimia"? It means "child hatred." Perfect.
Speaking of hatred, child predators should beware that if parents have no choice but to tolerate laws that will not protect their children from threatened violence by dangerous predators, they will take matters into their own hands. -- They will teach each other all the strategies they need to ensure their children are safe. So if someone doesn't take legal action AGAINST the "pedophile" guide book, don't be surprised if bookstores soon start selling titles like this: "A Parent's Guide to How to Rape Sexual Predators With a Pitchfork."
I hope you just recoiled from the shock of reading that sentence. That was my point. Free speech is a two-way street.
Wendy Murphy is a former prosecutor and law professor at New England Law|Boston. A former Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School, Wendy specializes in the representation of crime victims and is the author of "And Justice For Some."
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Gay marriage will divorce Labor from its base
Andrew Bolt
Paul Kelly:
If you want proof the Greens have scrambled Labor’s head, well and truly, consider the public ruminations by Gillard minister and former NSW right-wing party secretary Mark Arbib that it’s time for Labor to abandon its opposition to gay marriage. Why is it time?And Kelly calls on the ABC to help save Labor:
Because the Greens are stealing Labor votes, that’s why. Nothing else. So Labor should cynically abandon its support for the foundational social institution, a move that will trigger a deeply polarising debate and brand Labor indelibly as a libertarian personal rights party ready to ditch any institution or principle. In the process, Labor will alienate permanently an important section of its base.
So what is the answer to Labor’s 2010 political crisis? Support gay marriage, of course.
No, it’s not satire, this view is gaining serious support. It testifies to how politicians can be fooled by opinion polls and miss the bigger picture. It verifies, again, the far-reaching impact the Greens are having on Labor.
On Thursday evening Australian Workers Union boss Paul Howes warned at the Sydney Institute that Labor risked “ending up in an inner-suburban ghetto where we are just manning the barricades against the Greens hordes”.
In this Labor-Greens intersection the role of the ABC is critical because this fault line reflects one of the broadcaster’s heartlands where its influence is significant.===
Let’s state the issue: it is whether the ABC continues to give the Greens immunity from criticism or whether it changes its de facto policy and treats the Greens not as a minor party of superior virtue but as a party that can make and break public policy, thereby deserving scrutiny similar to the main parties.
If the ABC fails to make this necessary re-assessment, Gillard Labor will be the serious loser.
Failing not because they’re poor, but for the reasons why they’re poor
Andrew Bolt
Time we were a lot more honest about the role of culture:
But a new report focusing on black males (in US schools) suggests that the picture is even bleaker than generally known.(Thanks to reader Lew.)
Only 12 percent of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, compared with 38 percent of white boys, and only 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white boys.
Poverty alone does not seem to explain the differences: poor white boys do just as well as African-American boys who do not live in poverty, measured by whether they qualify for subsidized school lunches.
The data was distilled from highly respected national math and reading tests, known as the National Assessment for Educational Progress… The report shows that black boys on average fall behind from their earliest years. Black mothers have a higher infant mortality rate and black children are twice as likely as whites to live in a home where no parent has a job…
The analysis of results on the national tests found that math scores in 2009 for black boys were not much different than those for black girls in Grades 4 and 8, but black boys lagged behind Hispanics of both sexes, and they fell behind white boys by at least 30 points, a gap sometimes interpreted as three academic grades…
“There’s accumulating evidence that there are racial differences in what kids experience before the first day of kindergarten,” said Ronald Ferguson, director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard.
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The great global warming scam just got worse
Andrew Bolt
Here’s one way that Europe “cut” its emissions under the kind of emissions trading system Labor wants Australia to have, too:
The European Commission is planning to clamp down on a €2 billion ($2.8 billion) carbon trading scam involving the deliberate production of greenhouse gases which the fraudulent manufacturers are then paid to destroy.This global warming scare has been a picnic for alarmists, carpetbaggers and thieves. Meanwhile, some more revision of those scary predictions:
The Climate Change Commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, says the use of these carbon permits, from industrial gas projects in China, could be banned because of their ‘’total lack of environmental integrity’’.
Billions of euros worth of the controversial permits were used between 2008-09 in the European Union’s emission trading scheme, in which companies must exchange pollution permits for emissions produced.
The scheme allows some of those permits to be bought in from developing countries.
The most popular of these so-called offsets come from projects that destroy the greenhouse gas HFC-23, a byproduct of the manufacture of the refrigerant gas HCFC-22.
The Environmental Investigation Agency said in June that many Chinese chemical companies were manufacturing HCFC-22 primarily to earn money from destroying HFC-23, which can be five times the value of the refrigerant gas the plants are ostensibly set up to create.
The threat to tropical rainforests from climate change may have been exaggerated by environmentalists, according to a new study. Researchers have shown that the world’s tropical forests thrived in the far distant past when temperatures were 3 to 5C warmer than today. They believe that a wetter, warmer future may actually boost plants and animals living the tropics.(Thanks to readers Vivienne and Steve,)
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Swan “saves” by taxing you more
Andrew Bolt
More evidence that Treasurer Wayne Swan is in over his head - and not telling us the truth:
[W]hen the government spruiks that it has implemented more than $80 billion in savings, as it did during the election and as Swan again did during the week on ABC1’s The 7.30 Report, that rather impressive number includes policy decisions most of us wouldn’t dream of putting in the savings column of a balance sheet.(Thanks to reader philj.)
Of the savings Swan claims credit for, he includes every tax increase this government has implemented or intends to implement (alcopops taxes, the mining tax, tobacco taxes, you name it). He even includes money raised such as a $150 million one-off dividend extracted from Australia Post in the 2008-09 budget.
The political alchemy doesn’t stop there. Swan’s so-called savings includes $555m raised by increasing luxury car taxes, $402m from increasing visa application charges and, in the most recent budget, $275m by amending the arrangements for ethanol (in other words, more fuel taxes).
The list goes on and on.
Reader Alan RM Jones adds:
And of course the $43b NBN is an “investment”. It is an Orwellian budget.UPDATE
Another good way to save money is first make a promise and then scrap it for the savings:
The federal government has shelved its controversial diabetes reform plan that was meant to allow patients to sign up with a “home” GP practice for continuing care from mid-2012.It’s now easier to list the promises broken by Labor than those kept.
Just four months ago, Health Minister Nicola Roxon said it would be “foolish” to walk away from the $450 million overhaul due to opposition from some doctors.
But on Friday she did just that.
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Amnesty defends helping Hicks sell books
Andrew Bolt
Amnesty International tries to explain to me why it’s helped a convicted terrorism supporter to profit from his crime by helping to flog his white-washing book for Christmas. The answer in part is apparently that most of its members wouldn’t mind:
Amnesty International decided to sell the David Hicks book via the organisation’s online shop because he was a focus of our campaigning to close Guantanamo Bay and end illegal US detentions for a number of years. He was held without charge or trial for almost six years at Guantánamo Bay. He was the first person to be sentenced by a U.S. military commission – a tribunal which Amnesty International has long stated could not and did not meet international standards for fair trials.===
These US Military Commissions violated international law in a number of ways, such as permitting the use of hearsay evidence and evidence gained using torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
We knew that many of our supporters would be interested in the David Hicks book, in order to gain another perspective on his personal story and his case.
We have a large range of books available, some of which contain views and opinions that are not necessarily those of Amnesty International. We select a range of books that we feel will help in human rights debate, knowledge and discourse. Selling the David Hicks book does not mean that Amnesty International is promoting his views or actions. We have in the past defended his human rights and we now believe that his account of what happened to him would be of interest to readers.
This is only one of many books we have sold on Guantánamo Bay and the “war on terror”. We make a very modest profit from the sale of all our books, profit which is put to good use in our work protecting and saving lives. We receive no funding from governments or political parties.
Amnesty International works to protect the rights of all people. The stories of individuals who have been oppressed or treated unjustly are important to the overall understanding of human rights - no matter who they are, or how controversial their actions may have been.
Peter Thomas,
Director of Fundraising,
Amnesty International Australia
Hostages taken, aid blocked - and that’s just on the “peace” ship
Andrew Bolt
If you can’t broker peace on your own peace flotilla, I’m not sure you have much to teach the Israelis:
Greek commandos boarded a Gaza-bound aid ship—whose mission went awry and turned into a hostage situation after a dispute with the ship’s captain—in a harbor off the country’s coast Friday, an official with the activist organization sponsoring the vessel said.===
The people on board, who had been described as hostages by the charity group that sponsored the voyage, were safe and uninjured..., said Ellie Merton, a representative of the Road to Hope organization in London, England…
Merton said the ship was taken over in Libya by its captain on Thursday after the ship captain “went nuts” and allegedly kidnapped the convoy members on board after an argument, according to the charity… Ten convoy members—seven Britons, two Irish citizens and an Algerian—were taken hostage, the group said…
According to Road to Hope, if all had gone according to plan, the boat would have left Libya loaded with aid for Gaza. And 55 more volunteers would have been on board…
But after the captain’s argument with an Egyptian broker, the ship left behind the aid group’s cargo and a large group of volunteers.
The US sinks and sinks
Andrew Bolt
The latest signs of an American decline that leaves so many Western democracies more vulnerable.
American influence wanes at the G20:
Leaders of the world’s biggest economies agreed on Friday to curb “persistently large imbalances” in saving and spending but deferred until next year tough decisions on how to identify and fix them…Obama’s own authority wanes, too - as does his assertiveness:
The agreement, the culmination of a two-day summit meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 industrialized and emerging powers, fell short of initial American demands for numerical targets on trade surpluses and deficits. But it reflected a consensus that longstanding economic patterns — in particular, the United States consuming too much, and China too little — were no longer sustainable… The measured language on imbalances reflected the clout of China, which successfully resisted pressure for its currency to appreciate quickly, and Germany, which insisted that an examination of imbalances include fiscal, monetary and other policies, not just trade.
Mr. Obama arrived on the world stage two years ago to a fawning reception from world leaders. They appeared at global conferences carrying copies of his memoir, hoping for autographs. They angled for handshakes and “bilats” — diplomatic jargon for one-on-one meetings. They maneuvered to get near him in photo opportunities. But after the battering his party took in the midterm elections at home and the disputes that erupted at the G-20 conference in Seoul, he faced a string of questions on Friday — not only about the power of the United States, but also about his own diplomatic touch…Faith in America wanes among those who should set a better example in a fraying community:
But in Seoul, the president’s ambitions were frustrated. He had been widely expected to secure a revised free trade agreement with South Korea that would expand American exports of autos and beef — an important prize for a president who has made doubling exports in five years a part of his economic agenda. Instead, he and his South Korean counterpart, President Lee, sent their negotiators back to the table for more talks…
As to the discord with other nations, Mr. Obama lamented the “search for drama” and disagreement at international summits. If there is a reason for the discord, he said, it is because emerging powers are no longer satisfied with letting the United States take the lead.
“We are a very large, very wealthy, very powerful country,” Mr. Obama said. “We have had outsized influence over world affairs for a century now. And you are now seeing a situation in which a whole host of other countries are doing very well and coming into their own, and naturally they are going to be more assertive in terms of their interests and ideas. And that’s a healthy thing.”
13-year-old Cody Alicea rides with an American flag on the back of his bike… A school official at Denair Middle School told Cody some students had been complaining about the flag and it was no longer allowed on school property…Faith in American support for fellow democracies wanes, too, at least while Obama is in charge:
Cody’s grandfather says the school was concerned about racial tensions or uprisings because of the flag.
On a conference call with American Jewish leaders today, a White House official said the administration hadn’t sought a confrontation with the Israelis over a new construction announcement.And, of course, confidence is waning in the ability of the US to reverse its economic decline - or in Western European democracies to stem their own relative decline, too:
President Barack Obama answered a question at a press conference on the subject straightforwardly but hadn’t specifically planned to make a statement criticizing new Israeli building, National Security Council official Dan Shapiro said on the call, according to a participant…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a marathon seven-hour meeting yesterday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that produced a noncommittal statement.
Bond-market sentiment soured this week, as the combination of the Federal Reserve’s economic-stimulus plan and renewed concern about European government debt levels weighed on long-term corporate debt…All these indicators come from just the past couple of days.
The Treasury’s auction of another $16 billion of 30-year bonds Wednesday also depressed prices by increasing supply…
Meanwhile, speculation about Ireland’s government-debt burden also had an impact on corporate investors…
“The Fed-induced rally appears to be melting before the reality of Europe’s severe sovereign-debt problems,” Aladdin Capital Markets analysts wrote. They said most U.S. investors don’t appreciate that “a bigger sovereign-debt crisis can start in Dublin, but end in Washington.”
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Sanctimonious hypocrites GetUp our nose
Andrew Bolt
The hide of these preachers:
THE advocacy group GetUp! accepted a record $1.12 million donation from a large union just before the federal election, at the same time supporting a ban on political donations from unions and business.Maybe I’m being too kind to call this hypocrisy. There seems something almost fraudulent about this.
The donation from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union funded a prominent TV advertisement that attacked the Liberal leader Tony Abbott’s ‘’archaic’’ views on women and social issues in the days before the election in August.
It went to air as a GetUp! advertisement with no reference to being largely funded by a big Labor-affiliated union.
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Victoria’s Liberals catching up to Labor
Andrew Bolt
I repeat, Ted Baillieu may not have presented the case well, but Labor’s waste is now so extraordinary that this alone may deserve its removal - and the voters seem increasingly of that mind, too:
THE Victorian election has become a mirror image of the federal campaign, as the state heads towards a hung parliament…But the Nielsen poll has Labor just a little more ahead, thanks to a stronger Greens vote:
The latest Newspoll also shows a collapse in support for the Greens, with their primary vote dropping more than a quarter from the previous survey, from 19 per cent to 14 per cent.
The poll, conducted exclusively for The Weekend Australian from Tuesday to Thursday, reveals that the Liberal Party has increased its primary vote from 36 per cent in September-October to 39 per cent while Labor has slightly improved its primary vote from 35 to 37 per cent…
Just two weeks from the state election, the two-party-preferred vote shows the race has tightened to 51-49 in favour of Labor, down from 52-48 in September-October and a high of 55-45 in July-August.
The poll gives Labor 52 per cent of the vote after distribution of preferences from the Greens and other minor parties, and the Coalition 48 per cent…Meanwhile Labor and Jacinta Allan are making a pig’s breakfast of their campaign to hold Bendigo East.
The Greens are attracting 16 per cent of the primary vote across Victoria, way up on the 10 per cent they gained at the last election.
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Paying Muslims not to turn on us
Andrew Bolt
Is this true? Do local Muslims really need to be bribed to tell us someone’s planning to blow us up?
A $10 million counter-terrorism offensive will be launched across Sydney in a bid to rescue young people involved in violent extremist groups and potential home-grown terrorism.Wait a minute. I thought that warning of such things was what only racist Islamophobes did.
The Federal Government will today announce it will pay community groups to identify young people involved in fanatical groups who pose potential terrorism threats.,,
Lakemba community leader Dr Jamal Rifi said that the threat was real and the local community, particularly in southwest Sydney, needed to act.
I need to see just how such money will be spent, but already fear that subsidising Muslim groups only formalises a separatism that’s actually one of our problems. So I’m not at all surprised to hear Rifi himself add:
He said that similar programs under the Howard government had been a failure because the money was not used for the purposes it was intended.And again we must put the hard question. How is it in the national interest to allow in people who then require us to devote so much money and effort to protect ourselves from the most radical of them?
Oh, and perhaps the reporter could explain why the world “Muslim” does not appear in his article.
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Elton John a native artifact
Andrew Bolt
It’s the shamelessness of this ripping off of taxpayers that says so much:
SIR Elton John was at the centre of a fight over European Union spending after an inquiry was started into the use of at least $(A)818,000 of “development funds” to stage one of his concerts.Was the quick tinkle of O sole mio to formally qualify for cash?
The UK singer reportedly left the crowd in Naples “crying with emotion” after performing familiar hits including “Candle in the Wind” at the Piedigrotta festival in the Italian city’s Plebiscito square on September 11 last year.
His concert was made possible with the handout of taxpayers’ money from the EU’s vast E34 billion annual cohesion fund.
Mario Borghezio, an Member of the European Parliament from Italy’s Northern League party, called the use of money by the Campania region “shameful” after it was discovered that it came from subsidies intended to support the traditional music and crafts of EU member states.
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Airing our dirty linen abroad
Andrew Bolt
Greg Sheridan thinks this trip is as terrible as Julia Gillard’s last:
SO here’s a first. The Prime Minister now travels overseas to tell international business audiences what a bunch of bastards the Australian banks are.I’ll ask again what I asked yesterday: Is Gillard finished?
Julia Gillard needs very quickly to rethink her approach to international prime ministerial travel.
She should understand that when she travels overseas, she is doing so to talk to foreigners about foreign affairs issues that bear on national interests. She is not going overseas to continue prosecuting domestic politics to another audience.
We have had, so far, some really strange performances abroad by Gillard, so strange they are almost inexplicable. They testify both to a dreadful tin ear for the area on the Prime Minister’s part, and truly appalling staff work that leaves her with poorly designed messages that she is unprepared even to explain or defend properly… It all feeds into the image of a desperately provincial prime minister who simply cannot master a message for an overseas encounter that goes anywhere beyond the scripted lines, and even the scripted lines are half the time rubbish.
UPDATE
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Julie Bishop is right about Gillard’s deal with Russia to supply our uranium:
”The decision to announce Australia will supply uranium to Russia while maintaining a ban on sales to India exposes the hypocrisy of Labor’s stance on uranium exports,” she said. “Julia Gillard has effectively said at the G20 meeting that the government trusts Russia to use our uranium for peaceful purposes but that it doesn’t trust India.”===
4G may trump Gillard’s $43 billion
Andrew Bolt
MIT has news that cast even more doubt about the wisdom of the Gillard Government committing $43 billion to a national broadband network that leaves users chained to a socket in the wall:
During the first wave of the wireless revolution, businesses realized that being out of the office didn’t mean being out of action. BlackBerrys, iPhones, and 3G dongles for laptops let businesspeople stay connected on the move.(Thanks to reader Craig.)
But the second wave, ushered in by the development of 4G mobile broadband, will take the mobile revolution indoors. Although consumer excitement over apps and smart phones is high, and has attracted much of the attention of the press, the enterprise will be the first serious consumer of 4G services. Cellular networks and other service providers are preparing services that will arrive at offices with the potential to destroy the last vestiges of wired infrastructure such as desk phones and wired Internet links.
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That’s your money the banks are risking
Andrew Bolt
Economist Dr Elvis Jarnecic checks out the Australian Bankers Association’s latest protests that Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey is wrong to want more regulation to protect the taxpayers’ dollars now pledged to protect them:
It should be clear that the crux of the ABA’s criticism of Mr Hockey is that he has dared suggest (i) that “taxpayers are underwriting the banks” and (ii) that “taxpayers’ money is at risk”. In case you are confused, the ABA states plainly: “But taxpayers’ money is not at risk.”===
The ABA’s media release is a fabrication. In every possible respect—legally, economically, and practically—taxpayers explicitly insured, or underwrote, Australia’s banking system during the crisis, and taxpayers’ money was (and remains) absolutely at risk…
So let’s examine the facts. The Australian taxpayer directly guaranteed around $160 billion worth of Australian bank debts during the GFC. All the major banks used this guarantee to raise funds. Under the terms of the taxpayer guarantee, if any of the banks defaulted on the repayment of their loans, taxpayers are irrevocably on the hook for the short-fall. That is, taxpayer money is directly at risk.
And contrary to what the ABA incorrectly maintains, Australia’s banks are not all AA-rated. Many have significantly lower (ie, higher risk) ratings. Combined with the fact that several AA-rated banks failed during the crisis, the ABA’s argument that there is a ‘zero probability’ of the guarantee being called on is yet another fabrication.
If there was a zero probability of any taxpayer money being at risk, why did the creditors to Australia’s banks insist that the government supply them with this insurance before offering funding to our banks? And why did the banks pay good money to use the guarantee, and then have it back $160 billion worth of their debts?…
The whole point of the government lending its AAA-rating to guarantee deposits and bank debts is to provide the funders of our banks, namely depositors and third-party investors, with the certainty and security that the Government will not allow them to fail. And this is also exactly what creates future moral hazards. And in case this is all lost on you, it was moral hazard that triggered the US sub-prime crisis, and it will be moral hazard that, one way or another, causes the next catastrophe.
It’s his Remembrance Day, too, isn’t it?
Andrew Bolt
Very good to pause for Remembrance Day, but why the apology to Chaouk?
Wearing a white T-shirt, sneakers and dark pants, 26-year-old Matwali Chaouk was about to learn the length of his jail term for a string of firearms offences when the judge suddenly stopped court proceedings and asked everyone to stand and observe a minute’s silence.(Thanks to reader John.)
It was 11am on Remembrance Day.
Judge Michael McInerney apologised to the tattooed Chaouk for the delay, inserting a dramatic pause during his sentencing decision in the Victorian County Court.
“No, no, I understand,” Chaouk said.
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