Tuesday, May 31, 2011

News items and comments

It is silly to expect Blanchett to understand the issues. She is merely parroting her paid mentors .. Her work life depends on her taking this foolish position.
WHILE there would be few regrets if Russell Crowe's ill-advised reboot of Robin Hood had never been made, calling for a boycott on all of his leading lady Cate Blanchett's films seems rather unnecessa...
===
He has a point, even if he doesn't make it well. The bias is not secret. Writing teams have briefs.
PRIME-time television shows such as Sesame Street and Friends are being used to brainwash audiences into left-wing ideals, according to a US author.

===
Banning from pubs and clubs is not a big impost
A FORMER bikie has been banned from associating with three members of the Rebels motorcycle gang under South Australia's controversial anti-bikie laws.
===
It is appalling that a good man lose his life and the killer goes unpunished.
UNSOLVED Homicide Team detectives are renewing their appeal for public help as they investigate the murder of a taxi driver in Sydney's inner-west, in 1996.


===
Hewson is a man Keating admired. Both are fools.
FORMER Liberal leader John Hewson has called on his party to back a carbon price, saying he was an Aussie first and Liberal second.
===
I would love to help
INVESTIGATORS are appealing for public assistance following a suspicious house fire at Fairfield West this morning which led to the closure of the Cumberland Highway.
===
Caton is a fool
ACTOR Michael Caton has been blasted as a "hypocrite" by Premier Barry O'Farrell for backing the carbon tax in a controversial TV campaign with Cate Blanchett.
===
O'Farrell is a good person to listen to. That Gillard isn't listening is partly because she has too many corrupt voices she must listen to.
FAMILIES in the Hunter and Illawarra will be some of the hardest hit by the proposed carbon tax, with Premier Barry O'Farrell warning more than 13,000 jobs could be lost in the Newcastle region alone.
===
The independents wouldn't be an issue if the ALP were competent
THE NSW public service has blown out to more than 322,000 bureaucrats, 50,000 more than when Labor won power in 1995, costing the state more than $27 billion a year.

===
Children need supervision. It is even hard to get a toilet break.
A FOUR-year-old boy left home alone to watch cartoons while his mother did the morning school run was rescued unconscious from his burning home yesterday.
===
Only fools want either in charge.
KEVIN Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull are the preferred leaders of the Labor and Liberal parties, a poll has found.
===
Sad ending to a promising career
AUSTRALIAN actor Jon Blake - the man once dubbed the new Mel Gibson - has died of pneumonia, aged 52.

===
It is hard to manage corruption
ANTHONY Albanese may have to resolve more conflict of interest allegations over the revelation his Infrastructure Australia boss is a former project manager on the Epping to Chatswood rail line.
===
Until the Hamidur Rahman issue is finished I cannot trust NSW Police
HE NEGOTIATED with a madman threatening to blow up a plane at Sydney Airport, helped arrest notorious gunman Ronald Ryan, Prince Charles requested him as a bodyguard and he was a national surf-lifesav...
===
This is not planned or budgeted. It is like the surplus
ONE in eight Australians will be able to work from home by 2020 under an ambitious blueprint for the National Broadband Network that predicts it will save the typical family $148 a week.
===
The policy is abysmal, and savages legal operation while supporting illegal activity like lots of ALP policy. But organized crime has a powerful political reach, as NSW saw with ALP over sixteen years
OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott is considering dropping the Coalition's campaign against the Government's plain tobacco packaging legislation over concerns it was taking too much political heat over the...
===
Corruption is part of the ALP
A FORMER bottle shop owner gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in bags of cash to a building company executive, a court has been told.
===
All that money could have been spent on worthwhile things, like refugees or infrastructure is instead supporting Gillard's policy failure
DOZENS of foreign workers have been shipped to Australia to work at immigration detention centres looking after illegal migrants and asylum seekers.
===
Another Gillard policy failure
THE queue of asylum seekers awaiting expulsion to Malaysia or Papua New Guinea stretched to more than 150 when a new boat arrived yesterday.
===
Texting, phone conversations, social interactions are inappropriate for drivers on the road. Even women, who have remarkable abilities vis a vis mothering, shouldn't do it.
DRIVERS can cover more than 80m without looking at the road if they spend just five seconds sending a text message while travelling at 60km/h, a top researcher warns.
===
Insane Wilkie disappointed but won't withdraw support. A bit like ALP members
A KEY independent yesterday described Julia Gillard's Malaysia Solution as an "abomination" - threatening the refugee swapping deal and the federal government's political mandate.
===
No sane person wants Mexico's criminal influence. It is drug related, but unlike some small third world nation there is reach from the population which can extend anywhere, like with Pakistan and the US Presidency
AUSTRALIAN prisons are increasingly being used by gangsters, nationally and internationally, to further their illegal activities and networks.
===
Beautiful but deadly. Like my wife
DAY became night, waterspouts spun wildly off the coast and intense storms hammered NSW yesterday in scenes befitting a Hollywood disaster blockbuster.
===
PETA will be happy there was no mulesing
www.news.com.au
THE mayor of a regional council has struck a plea bargain over ill-treating sheep so badly that they appeared to have third-degree burns.
===
Could work in Australia too .. but isn't really necessary
www.foxnews.com
The Supreme Court got it right this week. Not only is the E-Verify law constitutional, it is commonsense. American jobs should be preserved for Americans and legal workers. Congress should now act to expand E-Verify across the United States.
===
And the band played Waltzing Matilda ..
www.foxnews.com
This Memorial Day, we should all be asking ourselves how much we benefit from our American lives. How much do we, our children and those we love benefit from living in this country, and how can we acknowledge that we would not be here without the sacrifice of others?
===
Maybe, with good behavior, they would employ him at the ABC.
www.news.com.au
A MAN who has killed two lovers by erotic strangulation deserves "no mercy" due to his learning difficulties.

===
Farr puts an ALP spin on the issue. Australians do not like this government and want an election over the issue of climate change because the government has reneged on promises made last election.
www.news.com.au
MORE voters want Kevin Rudd to lead Labor than back Julia Gillard, a poll released today shows.

===
Caton is an idiot for free
www.couriermail.com.au
Packed to the Rafters star Michael Caton this morning defended his and Cate Blanchett's involvement in the new carbon tax TV advertisement.
===
Now it works they can make it better ..
www.news.com.au
A BIONIC eye that enables blind people to see has been cleared for implantation in British patients after it was granted approval by European regulators.
===
We have Gillard, the independents and the Greens to thank for this
www.news.com.au
A TASMANIAN cancer sufferer will have to fork out $1500 a week for treatment to save her life.

===
Tragedy. Appalling.
www.news.com.au
A WELL-known Miami poet and spoken-word performer was shot dead by gunmen today outside the cafe he owns.
===
Plausible deniability that would have been betrayed ..
www.news.com.au
NAZI dictator Adolf Hitler ordered one of his key henchmen on a secret solo mission to broker peace with Britain two years into World War II.
===
The shooters and their accomplices should be jailed and never released.
www.news.com.au
A POLICE officer is fighting for his life after being shot in the head while responding to a triple-0 call at a Gold Coast tavern overnight.
===
Abbott is right .. we need to go to election
www.news.com.au
THE Government should shelve big advertising campaigns for its carbon pricing plan and go to an election instead, the Opposition demanded today.
===
Liked on www.youtube.com
I am fed up to the back teeth with rich 'holier than thou' hyprocrites telling us how to live. I say, bring on an election. NOW.


===

Hands Off!

by DON BOUDREAUX on MAY 30, 2011

in HEALTH,NOT FROM THE ONION,OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY

This blog post at The Economist is on older Americans’ hostility to proposed cuts in Medicare. The post is entitled “Keeping government hands off their benefits.”

The head aches, spins, and becomes dizzy at the confusion evidenced by this title – a title that, alas, seems to describe reasonably accurately the attitude of Medicare advocates: ‘Don’t mess with my Medicare!’

But I can’t help but ask: how can government possibly keep its hands off of Americans’ Medicare benefits given that it’s the very hands of government – andonly those hands – that create Medicare benefits to begin with? The process by which $$ is taken from Mr. and Ms. Young and given as Medicare benefits to Mr. and Ms. Elder necessarily involves the hands of government. If government kept its hands off of Medicare benefits no such benefits would exist in the first place.

So I say, indeed – government hands off of Medicare!

===

The Manhattan Institute’s Heather Mac Donald identifies some inconsistencies among some of today’s feminists.

New York Post columnist Kyle Smith writes wisely and entertainingly on politically correct vs. politically incorrect doomsaying. (Both varieties are specious.)

Speaking of predicting the future, in Salem, MA, it’s illegal to work as a practicing psychic without a government-issued license. (HT Roger Meiners)

Doug Bandow points out that the laws of economics apply to medical care.

Bryan Caplan poses some penetrating questions to supporters of a legislated minimum-wage.

And speaking of posing penetrating questions, Mark Perry has two of his own.

Finally, Frank Stephenson corrects an historical myth whose persistence can be explained only by a willful ignorance of politically inconvenient facts.

===

MAKE THAT 137

Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (05:51 am)

The list of 140 prominent Australians who want a carbon tax is slightly inflated:

It emerged yesterday that three of the signatories – [Sydney restaurateur Christine] Manfield, Boost Juice founder Janine Allis and Melbourne priest Bob Maguire – were not aware their names were being used as part of the advertising campaign, and do not even agree with Canberra’s proposed carbon tax.

“I’m not agreeing with Julia Gillard on that one, I think it’s a really wimpy way out,” Manfield told The Australian.

“It’s just another f…king tax – it doesn’t solve anything.”

Interestingly, Manfield subsequently tried to backtrack following an angry directive from the taxation sisterhood:

Manfield later sought to retract her statements after she said she was “blasted” in a telephone call from an organiser of 1 Million Women, a carbon emissions reduction campaign for which she is an ambassador.

That “one million” number, too, may be subject to inflation. If it runs close to the accuracy of our prominent 140, the actual total will be closer to 978,572. Also in retraction mode is AustralianPolitics.com’s Malcolm Farnsworth, who had this to say on April 29:

Gillard says celebrity is partly about a sense of connection. Who will rid of us this dreadful woman?

And on June 27:

We are surrounded by banal and frivolous celebrity.

But Farnsie changes his tune when – by deft use of carbon tax magic – a frivolous celebrity transforms into an “Australian citizen”:

The dumbed-down populism of the tabloid press is nothing new but it has about it now a vehemence and viciousness that can still surprise, especially in its casual, off-hand dismissal of an Australian citizen’s right to speak her mind.

Just a second, Mal. Wouldn’t it indicate “dumbed-down populism” if we took seriously an actress’s views on complex economic and scientific matters? I’d take this argument further, but I’m busy trying to find out if Posh Spice has said anything important about the arrest of Ratko Mladic.

(Via Currency Lad)

===

THEY SHOULD GROW SOMETHING MORE PROFITABLE, LIKE FILMS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (05:25 am)

Carbon complaints from the rural sector:

Farmers fear a carbon tax will cost them $36,000 a year and seriously threaten SA’s $3.4 billion grain industry.

National Farmers Federation president Jock Laurie called for the tax to be rejected and said the federation’s research into the impacts on input costs for fuel, feed and other necessities found that a $36-a-tonne tax would cost each grain farmer more than $36,000 a year.

Only 36 grand? That’s nothing. Why, I know of one woman who can pay that much every 12 months until the year 3483.

===

WAARMING IS HARAAM

Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (04:15 am)

An anniversary for Arwa Aburawa:

A couple more weeks of blogging will make it a full year since I joined the Green Prophet team writing on Eco-Islam. I’ve enjoyed every moment of it and learnt a lot about writing green blogs for Muslims, which is why I have put together a short guide to green blogging for Muslims!

Has this been approved by our old mate at Ask an Imam? Apparently solar heating is banned in hot countries, which takes Australia out of the picture.

===

HAPPY NINETIETH

Tim Blair – Monday, May 30, 11 (10:18 pm)

God bless you, Prince Philip.

===

CATE’S MATES

Tim Blair – Monday, May 30, 11 (01:48 pm)

Over the weekend, several of Australia’s most ridiculous people gathered in Canberra to work out how to change the weather.

Climate change minister Greg Combet, Greens senator Christine Milne and Independent MPs Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor joined Labor pet economist Ross Garnaut in discussions to work out a starting price for the carbon dioxide tax – the purpose of which is to somehow turn down the global thermostat a notch or two by making you poorer.

It’s a case of the unelectable leading the unrepresentative towards the impossible. Consider the colourful characters in this carbon circus.

===

Even the list of celebrities is exaggerated

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (06:43 am)

A fake fix to a fake problem is backed by a faked petition:

AT least three high-profile Australians have been included in the pro-carbon tax advertising campaign without their approval, including celebrated Sydney restaurateur Christine Manfield, who believes the tax is “unethical”.

A letter containing the signatures of 140 “Australian leaders” and community groups was delivered to Parliament House in Canberra yesterday. The group is calling on the federal government to put a price on carbon.

But it emerged yesterday that three of the signatories—Manfield, Boost Juice founder Janine Allis and Melbourne priest Bob Maguire—were not aware their names were being used as part of the advertising campaign, and do not even agree with Canberra’s proposed carbon tax.

“I’m not agreeing with Julia Gillard on that one, I think it’s a really wimpy way out,” Manfield told The Australian.

“It’s just another f . . king tax—it doesn’t solve anything.”

But then the thought police crack down on this dangerous outbreak of someone thinking for themselves:

Manfield later sought to retract her statements after she said she was “blasted” in a telephone call from an organiser of 1 Million Women, a carbon emissions reduction campaign for which she is an ambassador.

===

The lady in first class instructs us to cut our emissions

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (06:40 am)

Gerard Henderson is right - it’s the hypocrisy of the Cate Blanchetts that makes them a target:

One of the problems facing Julia Gillard is that so many of those who speak the loudest about the need to reduce carbon emissions have a personal carbon emissions footprint that would be the envy of most Australians.

===

Abbott on Abbott

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (06:35 am)

Tony Abbott defines his ideology - or not:

Ideologically, Abbott doesn’t like to be pigeonholed and he is indeed hard to describe with one label. “Right wing” is misleading. He’s conservative on moral questions but on a range of policy issues he’s much more in the centre. He was never an industrial relations hardliner of the Howard ilk. Once, his tough attitudes on welfare might have been labelled “right”, but the debate has shifted; he, Gillard and even a charity such as Mission Australia stand on the same ground.

He describes himself as both liberal (in the sense of giving a priority to freedom and choice) and conservative. “I think I’m very much part of the Australian mainstream, and I’d be disappointed with myself if I wasn’t,” he says. “A good leader, I mean every successful national leader, has transcended category.”

===

The tax you didn’t vote for, set by people you’ll never vote for

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (06:12 am)

We didn’t vote for the tax, and now we won’t be able to vote for the people who’ll set the target:

JULIA Gillard’s climate change negotiators are working on developing an independent committee to set Australia’s emissions reduction levels to break the biggest deadlock to a deal between Labor and the Greens on the carbon tax…

The plan could bridge the biggest divide between Labor, which has committed to a reduction target of 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020, and the Greens, who want a 25-40 per cent target and who voted against Kevin Rudd’s carbon pollution reduction scheme because it set a “ceiling” of 5 per cent.

===

Not just his fault

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (06:06 am)

The Australian teases Joe Hockey:

We advised the shadow treasurer yesterday:

Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey also needs to keep his nose clean in these affairs. He still has the job ahead of him to consolidate his hold on the key economic portfolio and demonstrate that he has a vision for economic reform.

But he chose to ignore us. In a letter in The Australian Financial Review:

This article claims my budget address at the National Press Club was light on detail yet fails to mention it was a collaborative effort with the Coalition economic team, including Tony Abbott, Andrew Robb and other senior policy-makers....

The Treasurer in question time:

We have seen today the absolutely extraordinary effort from the shadow treasurer who’s started to blame all of his colleagues for the shocker that he had at the press club.

UPDATE

For heaven’s sake, could someone tell Hockey and Turnbull that it’s not about them but their party - and the country:

Only days after Mr Turnbull was publicly embarrassed for missing a parliamentary vote, Mr Hockey wrote that in the first year of Labor, internal and external polling showed Mr Swan “was a much preferred economic manager ahead of Malcolm Turnbull”.

“Since I took over as the opposition’s treasury spokesman, the reverse is now the case,” he said in the letter to The Australian Financial Review.

Replying to criticism of his recent National Press Club speech on the budget, Mr Hockey also wrote that his speech was a “collaborative effort with the Coalition economic team, including Tony Abbott, Andrew Robb and other senior policymakers”.

Senior opposition members described this defence as childish.

Still, the one consolation for Tony Abbott is that while Turnbull and Hockey duke it out, they won’t unite against him.

===

Manners maketh the Baillieu

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (06:02 am)

Premier Ted Baillieu tosses conservatives another bone:

Victoria Police will get permanent powers to slap potty-mouthed perpetrators with on-the-spot fines of up to $240 for using language deemed to be indecent, disorderly, offensive or threatening

Attorney-General Robert Clark said the idea was to lower the police workload by allowing them to issue fines instead of tackling bad language using the court system.

===

That’s not a huge lead

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (05:47 am)

Yet allowing for a margin of error, Labor is still not out of it, thanks to Turnbull:

Despite two weeks of publicity about infighting and squabbles within the Liberal Party, and a concerted government campaign against the Opposition Leader, there has been virtually no change in the party standings.

According to the latest Newspoll survey, conducted exclusively for The Australian last weekend, the Coalition’s primary vote fell from 46 per cent to 44 per cent over the past fortnight, while Labor’s rose one point to 34 per cent and the Greens jumped four percentage points to 14 per cent.

Based on preference flows at last year’s election, the Coalition’s two-party preferred vote dropped from 54 per cent to 52 per cent and Labor’s rose from 46 per cent to 48 per cent.

UPDATE

Dennis Shanahan thinks the Opposition should take a rosier view:

THE latest Newspoll survey is significant because of what didn’t change - the Coalition has kept its lead and Tony Abbott remains within reach of Julia Gillard as preferred prime minister.

Labor’s woes, which worsened dramatically the weekend the Prime Minister announced she’d break a promise and introduce a carbon tax, suggest the electorate is not listening to whatever it is the government has to say.

But we’d agree on this:

There is also a message in this survey for Turnbull.

Despite his intervention on climate change, Abbott’s leadership is proving successful and durable and there will be Liberal MPs who will wonder what the polls would be like this week if there hadn’t been two weeks of self-inflicted damage.

===

If the rest of the world is cutting, why are emissions rising?

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (12:36 am)

Julia Gillard yesterday claimed Australia would not be alone in slashing its emissions:

...because the world is moving too

Oh, really? Almost at that very moment, the Guardian reported:

Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year, to the highest carbon output in history, putting hopes of holding global warming to safe levels all but out of reach, according to unpublished estimates from the International Energy Agency…

Last year, a record 30.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere, mainly from burning fossil fuel – a rise of 1.6Gt on 2009...

That’s a 1,600 million tonne increase in a single year.

Now let’s see what Gillard’s tax will evenutally do to stop this rise, if she really does manage to meet her increasingly impossible target of a five per cent cut of our 2000 emissions by 2020:

...we are confident our plan will reduce Australia’s emissions by 160 million tonnes in 2020.

===

Hewson should declare

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (12:04 am)

If John Hewson is going to be a spruiker for Julia Gillard’s carbon dioxide tax, he should at least declare a potential conflict of interest.

After all, a company such as Change Investment Management would greatly benefit from a tax designed to drive us off coal-fired power to “green” alternatives:

The fund is a global equities fund with a highly targeted focus on quality sustainable businesses in the water, waste management, food and agriculture, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and smart grid infrastructure sectors…

There has already been a strong global economic shift towards renewable energy, clean technology and energy efficiency. This trend will accelerate with the continued development of government mandated renewable energy targets around the world, energy security concerns, commitment of public funds and groundswell of private investment into low carbon energy…

The Change Opportunities Fund is designed for sophisticated investors seeking sustainable superior returns today and into the future. Contact us for full details.

And which embittered former Liberal leader is a non-executive director?

I make no allegation of impropriety. I note only a potential conflict of interest which, in my opinion, should be declared.

(Thanks to reader Michael.)

===

Green power runs out of puff

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (12:04 am)

When the wind don’t blow, the power doesn’t flow - and when the wind don’t blow for decades to come...:

...climate experts are warning that many of Britain’s wind farms may soon run out of puff.... According to government figures, 13 of the past 16 months have been calmer than normal - while 2010 was the “stillest” year of the past decade.

Meteorologists believe that changes to the Atlantic jet stream could alter the pattern of winds over the next 40 years and leave much of the nation’s growing army of power-generating turbines becalmed

Last year, wind speeds over the UK averaged 7.8 knots (8.9mph), a fall of 20 per cent on 2008, and well below the mean for this century, which stands at 9.1 knots (10.5mph)…

Meteorologists have found that the position of the jet stream has been influenced by the lower levels of activity on the Sun.

(Thanks to readers Nick, John and others.)

===

Gillard sinking, her tax wrapped around her ankles

Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (06:27 pm)

Labor’s pain continues, even after Malcolm Turnbull tries to blow up the Liberals. From the Essential Research poll:

Coalition 2PP 54%, up one

Labor 2PP 46%, down one.

Even a leading question on support for Gillard’s carbon dioxide tax can’t produce a response better than this:

Q. Do you support or oppose the Government’s recent announcement to introduce a carbon pricing scheme from 1 July 2012, which will require industries to pay a tax based on the amount of carbon pollution they emit?

Total support 38%
Total oppose 48%

(Thanks to reader Gab.)

===

Murdoch must crush me and my editor

Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (04:55 pm)

Finally I get it. The problem was never that Rupert Murdoch allegedly told his journalists what to write. The problem was that he didn’t tell them to write what the Left wants written:

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s stance on climate change is at odds with that of his Australian newspapers, entrepreneur Dick Smith says.

At the launch of his book, Dick Smith’s Population Crisis, he said that, while Mr Murdoch believed that climate change should be addressed, the views of the many papers he owned were contradictory…

“Rupert, I ask you to come back to Australia and show the leadership that has made you one of the most successful businessmen in the world,” he said…

“Rupert, we need you back here in Australia,” Mr Smith said.

Come back and take the reins, your editors are losing the plot and need to be reminded that you accept we must transform the way we use energy and that we need to act now.

“Perhaps it’s time for you to take up Australian citizenship again - dual citizenship is now allowed - and help guide us wisely through this difficult and confusing age.”

So now my own sin is not that I take dictation from Murdoch, but that I don’t. Shouldn’t the Left applaud my courage?

===

Japan, China and Russia don’t believe what Gillard tells us

Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (03:57 pm)

Which makes it even crazier for Australia to slash its own emissions, unilaterally:

AUSTRALIA’S mining industry has seized on the refusal of three major economies to sign on to a new round of Kyoto Protocol emissions cuts, as Tony Abbott warned even a business-endorsed $10-a-tonne carbon price would cost jobs.

Russia, Japan and Canada confirmed at the weekend G8 meeting they would not join a second round of carbon cuts if developing countries are not being required to make their own emissions reductions.

Now, note the reason given by these countries for not making further cuts themselves:

They argued that the Kyoto format did not require developing countries, including China, the world’s No. 1 carbon emitter, to make targeted emission cuts.

China’s emissions are soaring and it will not agree to cut them. This puts the lie to Julia Gillard’s attempts to fool us into thinking China was also slashing emissions:

You know, China [is] closing down a dirty coal-fired power generation facility at the rate of one every one or two weeks. Putting up a wind turbine at the rate of one every hour. They set their own targets by 2020 of reducing carbon pollution by 40 to 45 per cent per unit of GDP

It also puts the lie to the attempt by Climate Comnmisioner Will Steffen to make us think our own cuts were matched by China’s:

Steffen: Australia’s not acting alone. China’s already acting… They’re phasing out inefficient coal-fired power stations.

So if China really was “already acting”, why do Japan, Canada and Russia not buy that argument?

Oh, make that four nations:

At last Thursday’s G8 dinner the US President, Barack Obama, confirmed Washington would not join an updated Kyoto Protocol, the diplomats said.

===

Two signs of strife for the latest boat people deal

Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (03:35 pm)

This sounds ominous for the Gillard Government:

THE Government is facing humiliation over its so called “Malaysian solution” with a key independent calling it an “abomination” during a debate on a motion to condemn it.

Andrew Wilkie told parliament this morning the way Labor treated asylum seekers was a key reason why he supported Julia Gillard’s minority government…

“The Labor Party has now lost the moral superiority it had regarding asylum seekers. The Labor Party’s approach to asylum seekers was not an insignificant consideration some nine months ago when I was struggling who to give support to,’’ Mr Wilkie told parliament…

“It may well help to deter asylum seekers from attempting the risky (boat journey) to Australia but it is wrong, so wrong in fact I detest it even more than the so called Pacific solution,” he said…

Greens MP Adam Bandt moved the motion to condemn the policy and called on the government to reverse it, claiming it was not compassionate.

And so does this:

Another suspected asylum seeker boat has arrived in Australian waters… The boat was carrying an estimated 52 passengers and four crew, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor said.

That makes 159 boat people to arrive since the provisional agreement with Malaysia to swap 800 of ours for 4000 of theirs was announced. That’s 159 of the 800 spots filled already. No reason yet to say the (unsigned) deal has failed, but the Government won’t want many more boats to arrive.

===

This week’s ratings

Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (03:20 pm)

It seems many of you have switched to watching The Bolt Report at 4.30pm, rather than 10am - 178,000 to 101,000.

Cumulative audience yesterday…

The Bolt Report: 279,000 (up 12,000).

Insiders (ABC1 and ABC24) : 225,000

===

I’m not Big Coal, and still think Blanchett is silly

Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (12:42 pm)

Has Adam Bandt got any evidence at all that the coal companies are behind the criticism of Cate Blanchett over her deceitful ad?

The Australian Greens say big polluters are behind the criticism.

I think it’s time the coal companies started playing the ball, not the woman,” Greens MP Adam Bandt told reporters in Canberra on Sunday.

“I think this is an extraordinarily ugly attack from the defenders of enormous pollution in Australia and it’s time they engaged in the debate in a constructive way.”

Does Bandt seriously believe all the hundreds of readers here and here are in the pay of Big Coal? That would sure be some wild conspiracy theory.

(Thanks to reader Craig.)

===

No, it’s not “carbon pollution”

Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (12:20 pm)

The lie tackled, from 4:22.

===

That’s more like it

Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (12:17 pm)