Sunday, May 29, 2011

News items and comments

They have a choice, if they care for their party's future and break ranks
Julia Gillard last week told the ALP Caucus she is playing a "long game". And despondent Labor MPs have little choice but to steel themselves for the journey.
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Taliban commit another atrocity
NATO's military commander for northern Afghanistan has survived a suicide bomb that killed seven others.

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An abysmal GG
THE Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, is refusing to declare as gifts the discount designer clothes and accessories she is given, although she has vowed to slash costs after racking up a $110,000 flowe...
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The ALP lied again
HEALTH authorities have warned consumers to wash their fruit and vegetables after acknowledging that recycled human waste is being used as fertiliser on farms.
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Lalich is useless.
NSW business is pushing for a dramatic merger of Sydney councils to slash waste, arguing that the red tape is holding the state back.
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And yet so like those same telecoms.
A MAN posing as a phone technician embarked on a two-month crime spree, robbing hotels, travel agencies, TABs and even the RTA, a court heard yesterday.
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He is still a useless money sink hole.
KARL Bitar wants to engage in "constructive" dialogue with the federal government on reinvigorating the international tourism market and tackling problem gambling.
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People need a place they can go to and have fun. And not be threatened by drunk, dirty children.
POLICE have launched a major crime blitz in Kings Cross to smash growing drug and booze-fuelled violence on the popular nightclub strip.
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This is exciting .. Like paying for your own post box .. Again
QUEUEING at the post office to pick up parcels could soon be a thing of the past thanks to intelligent lockers.
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The ALP can spend money, a lot of money, but they do it badly.
DOCTORS warn they will boycott the Federal Government's multi-million-dollar plan to roll out electronic health records if patients can edit or withhold their medical history.
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t isn't a maternity leave issue, but a studio demand.
JUST two weeks after giving birth, teary-eyed Shelley Craft brushed aside the pain of leaving her baby at home to front the cameras.
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Reality tv is a loser. They need better drama. But the CSI stable is abysmal
CHANNEL 9's fightback will begin next month with an arsenal of new shows aimed at arresting its ratings slide and improving its budget bottom line.
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The campaign is being bungled by the ALP
THE fight between big tobacco and government over plain packaging of cigarettes is set to intensify today with a survey finding a majority of Australians endorse the groundbreaking reform.
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I would love to suggest public schools .. Some are very good. But the Education Department has never addressed the Hamidur Rahman issue.
PHOTOGRAPHER Kristy Doherty intended to send her daughter to a private school but a study showing it will cost almost $500,000 has her weighing up the options.
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Private education keeps Australia strong
PUTTING a child through private school could cost parents a staggering $500,000.

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To curb spending, the ALP who need their pork barrels, will cut $50 billion from useful projects.
SECRET proposals to freeze family tax payments to millions of parents were developed by the Gillard government before the last election.
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This is a distraction from the ALP issues. It is a Liberal party issue. ALP issues would never be aired by the media like this, which is why no one knew when Rudd was rolled. But Costello was reported as rolling Howard every year, many times a year .. And he never did. Howard lost government before the organized transition.
LIBERAL elder Philip Ruddock faces a bloody showdown with members of the NSW Religious Right who are plotting a takeover of his prized blue-ribbon seat.
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They knew our homes were at risk and did nothing. That is the ALP
SENIOR Labor ministers were warned seven months ago that the popularity of the ill-fated solar panel scheme could pose a safety risk to consumers.
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Can't the foreign service work for Australia instead?
HIS manner might be lighthearted, but Kevin Rudd is deadly serious about his tea.

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‎$8k is a lot per person. Why so much?
HEROIN addicts are being held in immigration detention centres and provided with methadone.

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I have sent him numerous emails, all respectful, but a little desperate, and he has never replied. I understand when I find out why 2GB won't report on Hamidur Rahman I will be surprised. But I think that is disappointed.
RADIO king Alan Jones will no longer personally reply to his listeners, blaming poor health and a tough schedule.
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I used to like her and respect her artistic choices.
CATE Blanchett has proved she is just another morally vain Hollywood star trying to justify her great good fortune by preaching to the rest of us about climate change.
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She is a jet setting carbon sink.
CATE Blanchett has sparked outrage in the community with her decision to front an ad campaign promoting the federal government's controversial carbon tax.
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They lied. They promised it was too late, now. But they still want your money. Global warming is about money, not climate change.
MILLIONAIRE Hollywood superstar Cate Blanchett has met with fierce criticism for fronting a new TV campaign urging ordinary Australians to back a carbon tax.
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She couldn't quit over a substantive policy issue?
www.news.com.au
AN Italian junior minister says she has quit in protest against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's complaint to US President Barack Obama about his legal woes.
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He had a death wish .. riding a motor bike without a helmet
www.news.com.au
A MAN has died after police arrested him on a street in Sydney's southwest.

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Hopefully by the time they get out of jail the war against drugs will have ended in defeat for the bad guys.
www.news.com.au
FOUR people have been arrested in Queensland for their alleged involvement in an international drug syndicate that spans Australia, South America and Central America.
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That is three wounded and one dead since Jason Clare procured less protective material for our troops. Were they wearing that material?
www.news.com.au
TWO Australian soldiers have been wounded after their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device while on patrol in southern Afghanistan.
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Israel was criticised, but there were no howls for Egypt to open this border ..
www.foxnews.com
After four years, Egypt has permanently opened the Gaza Strip's main gateway to the outside world.

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The left are not finished. It began with Global Warming
www.foxnews.com
Italian government officials have accused the country's top seismologist of manslaughter, after failing to predict a natural disaster that struck Italy in 2009, a massive devastating earthquake that killed 308 people.
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And still no one has died.
www.news.com.au
JAPAN has revealed radiation up to several hundred times normal levels has been detected on the seabed off the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
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Each execution is worse than outsiders know. China has a one child rule for each family .. each execution is a family ..
www.news.com.au
CHINA'S top court has ordered capital punishment for food safety crimes that result in fatalities, as the nation battles a wave of scares over tainted foodstuffs.
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And now back to finding my socks ..
www.news.com.au
A 22-year-old Australian university student has solved a problem which has puzzled astrophysicists for decades, discovering part of the so-called "missing mass" of the universe during her summer break.
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Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal:

The Trade Adjustment Assistance program rests on the principle that consumers whose demands for American-made products help to create jobs for American workers should pay to train these workers for other jobs if these consumers ever shift their demands from American to foreign suppliers (“Dispute Threatens Key Deals on Trade,” May 28).

The merits of this program are doubtful. If the value to workers of this fringe benefit (for that’s just what it is) were greater than its cost, it would be supplied privately on the market. Enough employers would respond to worker demand for a ‘retraining’ fringe by offering, along with wages and other fringes, a promise to pay to retrain workers who lose their jobs to any import-related decline in demand for these firms’ outputs.

Of course, being costly like all other fringe benefits, provision of this fringe benefits would result in lower wages and lower values of other fringe benefits paid to workers. Also like other fringe benefits, though, if the value to employees of this benefit is greater than its cost, employers competing for workers would be obliged to offer it.

But we see very few employers offering worker-retraining fringes – strong evidence that the value of these benefits to workers falls short of the cost of supplying them. As such, it is unjust to force taxpayers to pay for a benefit for these workers that these workers themselves, through their own actions on the market, reveal is not worth its cost.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux

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The real Qantas kamikaze

Miranda Devine – Sunday, May 29, 11 (08:43 am)

Qantas’ current industrial strife is a worry to fans of the national carrier. Why is a newly arrived Irish CEO with an incomprehensible accent attacking the pilots, of all people, and calling them “rogues” and “kamikazes”.

Clearly Alan Joyce, 44, doesn’t understand Australians’ attachment to Qantas.

As far as passengers are concerned the pilots are royalty.

If they want a couple of free premium economy seats, they should be at the head of the queue.

Business class seems to be full of Qantas employees, anyway, so why shouldn’t the people who actually fly the plane get the odd freebie.

And if unionist Paul Howes gets membership of the exclusive Chairman’s Lounge, then soshould the pilots.

In any case, what the pilots really want is job security and a guarantee they won’t be replaced by cheap contract pilots from Asia.

That’s what the passengers want, too. Without its superbly skilled pilots, Qantas’ edge over its competitors vanishes. Its fares are more expensive but people have been willing to pay for safety, and the familiar Aussie friendliness of the flight attendants.

What Qantas has that no other airline has is what Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man famously said: “Qantas never crashed.” Although that’s not strictly true, Qantas has not had a fatality in 50 years.

We can attribute its safety record to the quality of its pilots, not to mention its engineers, also striking over job security—pilots such as 25-year Qantas veteran Richard de Crespigny who managed to land QF32 safely last year after an engine blew up mid-air, saving the lives of 466 passengers.

Qantas is not just another airline. It’s a national treasure. Australians feel ownership of the flying kangaroo. It’s certainly not like the gimcrack airline Ryanair from Joyce’s homeland, which is so cheap it plans to make passengers stand during flights so it can squeeze in more people, and to make them carry their own luggage to the plane.

Joyce should remember that without passengers he doesn’t have a business.

And while we’re at it, at the risk of appearing xenophobic, why is American amateur pilot John Travolta the face of Qantas? It makes no sense, and Americans, more than anyone, must be scratching their heads.

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402 DAYS UNTIL LABOR’S MILLIONAIRE ACTRESS TAX

Tim Blair – Sunday, May 29, 11 (02:36 am)

Cate Blanchett, whose worth is estimated at $53 million, tells Australians to pay more tax:

The 42-year-old has teamed with Packed To The Rafters star Michael Caton to be the face of a series of TV ads branded “Say Yes”, which will screen nationally from tonight.

The ads - funded by a coalition of green groups and unions - are aimed at convincing the average Australian that a carbon tax is a good idea and urging them to “unite” behind putting a “price on pollution” despite the impact on the cost of living.

The ads kick off a “Say Yes week of action” led by the Australian Conservation Foundation, GetUp, Greenpeace, WWF, the Climate Action Network, The Climate Institute, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Environment Victoria, and the ACTU …

Viewers are told “saying yes” to action on carbon pollution will provide “help for people struggling with bills” …

The Sunday Telegraph was yesterday unable to contact Blanchett, an ambassador for luxury car brand Audi.

This is becoming obscene. And even less popular:

A rally organised by the Youth Climate Coalition in Martin Place yesterday was expected to attract more than 300 people but barely 50 took part.

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LIGHT SAVERS

Tim Blair – Saturday, May 28, 11 (11:35 pm)

Australians were quick to secure their globe stocks ahead of impending illumination bans. Now Americans arejoining the hoard.

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PALIN HITS THE ROAD

Tim Blair – Saturday, May 28, 11 (11:06 pm)

It begins with a roar:

UPDATE. It’s all about Nazis, apparently.

(Via Currency Lad)

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If Hockey “supporters” said nothing, half this story would not be written

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, May 29, 11 (05:51 am)

Joe Hockey also seems keen to use the email beat-up to advance himself:

LIBERAL Party unity is in tatters, with senior sources claiming leader Tony Abbott’s relationship with his shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey, and rival Malcolm Turnbull is ‘’poisonous in every way’’…

The former Liberal leader was furious after chief Whip Warren Entsch sent an email chastising Mr Turnbull and four others for showing ‘’great disrespect’’ to their colleagues by missing a division in Parliament.

The Sunday Age can reveal that while the email had Mr Abbott’s approval, Mr Hockey attempted to warn Mr Entsch against sending it - minutes before the email arrived in Parliament House inboxes.

Supporters of Mr Hockey confirmed he had told Mr Entsch the email would further destabilise the party and unnecessarily aggravate tension between Mr Turnbull and Mr Abbott.

A source said the manager of opposition business, Christopher Pyne, who is a supporter of Mr Abbott’s, also warned against sending the rebuke to MPs, predicting the contents would be leaked immediately.

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A lesson in sacrifice for the planet from the woman in the luxury Audi

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, May 29, 11 (05:43 am)

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It’s not just the “let them eat cake” attitude but the hypocrisy that makes this a bad career move:

CATE Blanchett ... has teamed with Packed to the Rafters actor Michael Caton to be the faces of a series of TV ads branded “Say Yes”, which will screen nationally from tonight.

The ads are aimed at convincing the average Australian that a carbon tax is a good idea, even if it is tipped to raise the cost of living…

In 2009, BRW estimated the Oscar winner’s wealth at $53 million, putting creature comforts like a $10 million mansion in Hunters Hill on Sydney’s North Shore well within the budget…

“It’s nice to have a multi-millionaire who won’t be impacted by it telling you how great it is,” Terri Kelleher, from The Australian Families Association, said....

Blanchett, who is actually an ambassador for luxury car brand Audi, could not be reached for comment.

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If only Michelle had been as outraged by the deaths

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, May 29, 11 (05:30 am)

Michelle Grattan never protested as boat-loads of asylum seekers drowned, lured to their deaths by Labor’s irresponsible weakening of our border laws. But finally, after one false start, she’s outraged:

THE past week has brought home that the Labor government can’t claim a shred of principle on asylum policy any more. It has shamed itself repeatedly and in a most hypocritical way. Those who condemned the Pacific solution have embraced a Malaysian one. The people who said Nauru was unacceptable for offshore processing in part because it wasn’t signed up to the UN convention on refugees aren’t worried that Malaysia is also outside it.

I agree: Labor are hypocrites. But if the Malaysian deal goes ahead, the new regime is at least likely to stop the boats, and the drownings. The greatest sin is that it was ever weakened.

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Being a warmist is no longer cool

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, May 29, 11 (05:26 am)

The climate is definitely cooling:

A rally organised by the Youth Climate Coalition in Martin Place yesterday was expected to attract more than 300 people but barely 50 took part.

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Seconded

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, May 29, 11 (05:19 am)

I’m naturally grateful, but far more important is that a sloppily worded law be changed to protect the free speech of all:


(Victorian Liberal) Conference delegates passed a motion inspired by the racial vilification case against Herald Sun journalist Andrew Bolt, who was subject to a class action after writing a series of articles relating to light-skinned Aborigines. The motion called on the federal party, should it win government, to amend the Racial Discrimination and Racial Hatred acts so that freedom of speech is better protected in the future.

I’m just astonished that the celebrity advocates of free speech have run dead on this very important issue.

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Don’t mention the penis

Andrew Bolt – Saturday, May 28, 11 (05:06 pm)

Surely these parents are kidding:

A CANADIAN couple have sparked controversy by deciding to keep the sex of their baby secret, leaving the decision up to him… or her.

Baby Storm has big blue eyes, fair hair and chubby cheeks. But whether this baby is a bruising boy or a blushing girl is, the parents say, a secret.

The bizarre move has led to Kathy Witterick, 38, and husband David Stocker, 39, being labelled the most politically correct family in the world…

Her husband chimed in: ‘If you really want to get to know someone, you don’t ask what’s between their legs.’

The couple believe they are releasing Storm from the constraints society imposes on males and females.

(Thanks to reader Catherine.)



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