Monday, March 21, 2011

News Items and comments

Enough already, Julia

Piers Akerman – Saturday, March 19, 11 (04:46 pm)

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard cannot be believed - on anything.

DD Ball replied to nellie
Sun 20 Mar 11 (12:01pm)

Yes Gillard has been caught lying, but when has she been found to tell the truth? On what issue has she done something that both benefits Australia but not herself? Australia expects everyone will do their duty.

DD Ball replied to Laura
Sun 20 Mar 11 (12:01pm)

I don’t care if she never fully comes to account for her time in government .. so long as it ends.


will those citizens who receive their carbon compensation be rewarded with a cash payment ?. That’s a good way to do it as it means some folk will be able to upgrade their plasma TV’s they previously bought with their stimulus freebies. Might be able to get the 3D.model. Go Australia !

garry (Reply)
Sat 19 Mar 11 (05:20pm)
DD Ball replied to garry
Sun 20 Mar 11 (12:03pm)

I get it you are being funny, but the taxation amount will make the stimulus appear small. Also it won’t return money to people, but take less away from some than others .. but more than anyone should pay

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470 DAYS UNTIL LABOR’S PROGRESS TAX

Tim Blair – Sunday, March 20, 11 (11:09 pm)

Dear Prime Minister Gillard,

We the undersigned oppose your carbon dioxide tax.

The tax is unprincipled, because during the election campaign you lied about not introducing it.

The tax is unscientific, because it cannot possibly achieve its aim of reducing global temperature.

The tax is unworkable, because it will be drafted and administered by a government that cannot do anything properly except cut down its leaders. Speaking of which, watch your back.

Yours sincerely,

Voters

PS: See you on Wednesday.

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NO MO ZONE

Tim Blair – Sunday, March 20, 11 (11:02 pm)

It could have been a beautiful friendship. Instead, Barack Obama is raining Tomahawks of justice down upon Muammar Gaddafi, who vows to fight it out:

“We are getting ready for a long, glorious war,” Gaddafi said in an audio message broadcast on state television.

Michael Moore is on your side, Muammar. Of course, the last tyrant he supported ended up being cruelly underpanted and then executed, so you might hold off buying any unripe bananas. Can Mo survive? Let’s put it to a poll:

Thank you for voting!
Total Votes: 364

UPDATE. A Barcepundit exclusive – Gaddafi’s plan to sway world opinion:

image

The human shields will be on their way to Tripoli aboard the next flight.

UPDATE II. Kevin Rudd in 2002:

There is no debate or dispute as to whether Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. He does.

Despite his belief in Saddam’s WMD possession, Rudd opposed the invasion. The bar is now set a little lower. Here’s Rudd in 2011:

This is a necessary and moral course of action against an individual who is a brutal, bloody dictator.

(Via Currency Lad)

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PRESSURE DOWN

Tim Blair – Sunday, March 20, 11 (10:55 pm)

A certain situation appears to be easing:

The operator of a crippled nuclear plant in Japan said on Sunday that it was no longer necessary to relieve pressure inside its most troubled reactor by releasing radioactive gases, saying pressure had stabilized.

At an afternoon news conference, officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company said venting from Reactor No. 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station would not be needed.

Now maybe we can get back to covering the larger story: 8,000 dead, 12,000 missing, 360,000 homeless and a nation facing five years of rebuilding.

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KARAOKE SQUAD

Tim Blair – Sunday, March 20, 11 (08:22 pm)

The big problem in Sydney right now is unregulated karaoke:

A squad of specialist police swooped on over 20 karaoke dens in Sydney’s CBD last night, issuing 85 enforcement notices for offences including breaches of the Liquor Act …

Superintendent Mark Walton said most karaoke establishments in the city were operating legally but some were not, and he warned last night’s raid would not be the last.

Sure, go after easy targets. You never see any cops raiding bus driver hangouts.

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KNUT

Tim Blair – Sunday, March 20, 11 (04:33 am)

Knut, the popular Berlin-based poley bear, has died at just four years of age. No cause is known.

UPDATE. Treacher:

With the death of Knut, copyeditors in newsrooms all over the English-speaking world are being extra-careful.

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The real Julia no longer a socialist but a conservative

Andrew Bolt – Monday, March 21, 11 (06:57 am)

Julia Gillard insists the real Julia, who a decade ago was still a leader of the Socialist Forum, is actually a very conservative person:

JULIA Gillard has revealed herself to be a cultural traditionalist, indicating she will oppose moves by the Greens for euthanasia and gay marriage laws and that she believes it is important for people to understand the Bible- despite the fact she is an atheist.

It’s true that the arguments she now advances - some for the first time that I can recall - are sound:


Asked about her attitudes on social issues, Ms Gillard harked back to her upbringing in Adelaide and agreed that she was a “cultural traditionalist”.

“I had a pro-union, pro-Labor upbringing in a quite conservative family, in a sense of personal values. I mean we believed in lots of things that are old fashioned in the modern age,” she said.

“We believed in politeness and thrift and fortitude and doing duty and diligence. These are things that were part of my upbringing. They’re part of who I am.”

On euthanasia, Ms Gillard said while she could personally understand that people in the end stage of life might want that choice, she had never been satisfied that policy proposals from pro-euthanasia advocates had enough safeguards.

On gay marriage, Ms Gillard said: “I do find myself on the conservative side in this question.”

Declaring there were “some important things from our past that need to continue to be part of our present and part of our future”, Ms Gillard said her view was that the Marriage Act - and marriage being between a man and woman - “has a special status”.

Ms Gillard said it was important for people to understand their Bible stories “not because I’m an advocate of religion - clearly I’m not - but once again, what comes from the Bible has formed such an important part of our culture”.

The question is why it’s only now that we hear of this Julia.

The Julia of the Socialist Forum may have explained why when she wrote this for the comrades:

For the Left to make any real advance all these perspectives on the relationship to Labor in government need to be rejected in favour of a concept of strategic support for Labor governments. We need to recognise the only possibility for major social change is under a long period of Labor administration. Within that administration the Left needs to be willing to participate to shape political outcomes, recognising the need to except (sic) often unpalatable compromises in the short term to bolster the prospect of future advance. The task of pushing back the current political constraints by changing public opinion would need to be tackled by the Left through government, social movements and trade unions.

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Fukushima being stabilised. The real tragedy lies elsewhere

Andrew Bolt – Monday, March 21, 11 (06:49 am)

The death toll from Japan’s tsunami reaches truly terrible proportions, yet our media hyperventilates about a nuclear emergency that has killed no one and probably never will:

THE number of people confirmed dead or listed as missing in Japan has topped 21,000.

Meanwhile, the danger at the Fukushima reactor recedes:

Workers on site have succeeded in increasing the stability of the Fukushima Daiichi reactor units with units 5 and 6 now in cold shutdown. Pressure built up within unit 3 but a more significant venting does not seem necessary now.

External power has now been connected to unit 5 and 6, allowing them to use their residual heat removal systems and transfer heat to the sea. This has been used to cool the fuel ponds and bring the units to cold shutdown status, meaning that water in the reactor system is at less than 100ºC…

An extended operation to refill the fuel pond took place at unit 3, with the Hyper Rescue crew spraying for over 13 hours. Radiation levels 500 metres north of the reactor showed a decrease from 3.44 millisieverts per hour to 2.75 millisieverts per hour, indicating a measure of success in refilling the pond. A similar operation is planned for later today at unit 4 and the surface temperatures of the buildings appear to be below 100ºC.

It’s astonishing that these reactors could have so well withstood a catastrophe that was unimaginable when they were designed:

The Fukushima power plants were required by regulators to withstand a certain height of tsunami. At the Daiichi plant the design basis was 5.7 metres and at Daini this was 5.2 metres.

Tepco has now released tentative assessments of the scale of the tsunami putting it at over 10 metres at Daiichi and over 12 metres at Dainii.

The plant sites were inundated, causing the loss of residual heat removal systems at both sites as well as emergency diesel generators at Daiichi.

It’s time to hold the scaremongers to account.

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Libya: but what next?

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, March 20, 11 (06:15 pm)

l’m all in favor of preventing a massacre of civilians, but what is the end game here?

THE immediate goal of the coalition’s intervention in Libya is to protect civilians with a no-fly zone, not to try to oust strongman Muammar Gaddafi, the top US military officer says.

US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as other Western leaders, had been saying Gaddafi must go, but since the UN authorised military action last week those calls have been dying down.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said initial air and sea strikes by US, Britain and France had stopped Gaddafi’s forces in their tracks and… military action was limited - for the moment at least - to protecting civilians, particularly in the rebel bastion of Benghazi...

“The focus of the United Nations Security Council was really Benghazi specifically and to protect the civilians,” he said on Fox News Sunday.

Are the allies happy if Gaddafi staying in control of Libya, apart from the rebel’s enclave around Benghazi? How long will this no fly zone be imposed?

There seems to have been little of the debate about effectively declaring war on Gaddafi as there was about declaring war on Saddam. And there are much fewer Western security interests at stake, too - no WMD programs, no funding of terrorists, no history of invading neighbors.

UPDATE
Tim Blair:


Kevin Rudd in 2002:


There is no debate or dispute as to whether Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. He does.

Despite his belief in Saddam’s WMD possession, Rudd opposed the invasion. The bar is now set a little lower. Here’s Rudd in 2011:

This is a necessary and moral course of action against an individual who is a brutal, bloody dictator.

UPDATE
Greg Sheridan:

The US will want desperately to limit its involvement, and yet anything which ultimately leaves Gaddafi in power will look like a defeat. Soon enough progressive opinion in the West, and paranoid opinion in the Arab world, will turn against the intervention.

Already Gaddafi is running out the familiar lines - the intervention is colonialist, it is the work of Western crusaders.

The politics within the Arab League will be critical here.

In that case, we’re in trouble. Having first called for the no-fly zone, the Arab League now denounces the West for the consequences:


Arab League chief Amr Moussa called for an emergency meeting of the group of 22 states to discuss Libya. He requested a report into the bombardment, which he said had ”led to the deaths and injuries of many Libyan civilians.”

“What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians,” Egypt’s state news agency quoted Moussa as saying.

UPDATE

It may mark success, or the West being gamed again by the Arab world:

LIBYA has announced a new ceasefire in the campaign against an uprising, as a second night of international air strikes on the country appeared imminent…

Following a meeting in the Mauritanian capital, the African Union’s panel on Libya called for an “immediate stop” to all attacks and asked Libyan authorities to ensure “humanitarian aid to those in need”, as well as the “protection of foreigners, including African expatriates living in Libya”.

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Hopeless and no change

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, March 20, 11 (01:32 pm)

Remember when Barack Obama attacked an American president for sending in the military to help topple a Middle Eastern tyrant?

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The chief deceiver of the nation, the person who said before the last (federal) election 'no carbon tax', now is delivering a carbon tax, now is the pinup girl at (Premier) Kristina Keneally's launch," he said at Tumbi Umbi."What a role model, what a disgrace."What a reminder to people across this state not to believe Labor's promises, because just like Julia Gillard's promises, they'll never be delivered."

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Good
BESIDES being clean, modern, reliable and cool, there's one other good reason to begin an immediate nuclear energy program in Australia.
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I wish you well
EGYPTIANS have poured into polling stations many voting for the first time after decades of dictatorship.

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Yet another metaphor for ALP government.
CITY roads in Sydney were clogged yesterday after part of the Eastern Distributor tunnel was closed for more than an hour due to a power failure.
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All of these are pro ALP. What about Akerman, Blair, Devine or Bolt?
THE Daily Telegraph's political columnist Laurie Oakes has been selected on a shortlist for the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year Award.
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This is policy failure. Kids are still kids.
VIOLENCE in NSW schools is spiralling out of control with the number of assaults jumping dramatically over the past five years. It has been horrifically highlighted by a series of race-related schooly...
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There is no good reason why NSW electricity be expensive. It is the result of ALP mismanagement.
IT is the damning report that proves the poor decisions of the NSW Government directly resulted in higher power bills for consumers.
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Guy Zangari's promotional material doesn't mention this .. But blames the Liberals
ARROGANCE. And utter contempt for NSW voters. If proroguing parliament was not bad enough, Premier Kristina Keneally proved she does not understand the need for open and accountable government with he...
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Why didn't Garnaut warn us of this before the desalination plant being built.
RAIN has caused some minor flooding and damage in the state's west.
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I am angry at this attitude. This is a tragedy with tens of thousands lost and dead. Yet all we hear radiating from Australia's federal government is .. ?
THE Federal Government remains concerned for eight Australians still unaccounted for in Japan.

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If only her parents had warned her about lying.
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard revealed yesterday that her personal stance against gay marriage was due to her conservative upbringing.
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This media scare campaign overstates the issue.
RADIATION contamination was discovered in Tokyo's water supply as well as vegetables and milk produced near the crippled Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima.
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Human Rights used to mean more, before Libya became the face of the UN HR committee.
A LOYALIST soldier captured during the week-long siege of Ajdabiya told how Colonel Gaddafi had personally ordered his troops to "massacre" ordinary civilians.
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Which Bush will the UN emulate?
NATO forces face a stark choice in Libya, according to a former RAAF chief: Either pursue a Gulf War I scenario in which the tyrant survives or a Gulf War II outcome in which he is removed by force
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Good policy
TRAIN fares will be cut by more than $100 a year under an O'Farrell government in an effort to boost public transport use and reduce queues at ticket turnstiles.
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Obama's action is typical Democrat .. Bombs. Had he been stronger earlier then this might not be necessary. Cheers to his peace prize.
LIBYAN leader Muammar Gaddafi called on his people to strike civilian targets and turn the Mediterranean into a "real battlefield" last night, accusing the West of a "new crusade". He was responding a...

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