Tuesday, June 14, 2011

News items and comments

BUT IT WAS ON THE INTERNET

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (05:35 am)

The social media geniuses at Hungry Beast are just awesome at connecting conservatives to evil, but show them afake oppressed lesbian and all of their doubt and cynicism instantly vanishes. Skip to the 28:38 mark of the show’sfinal 2011 episode:

Serious Blonde: Three weeks ago we ran a quote from Amina A., a Syrian lesbian and author of the blog A Gay Girl in Damascus.

Worried Dan: Earlier this week Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari was taken by armed men in the Syrian capital and hasn’t been heard from since.

Smirkle Le Douche: So we’re going to leave you with her words one more time.

And they did, except that those words were written by a 40-year-old American male college student in a Che Guevara T-shirt. Hungry Beast also ran a photograph of “Amina”, who – sadly for Serious, Worried and Smirkle – turned out to be heterosexual London woman Jelena Lecic.

If it’s online and on-message, leftoids are guaranteed to fall for it.

(Via Martin of Geelong)

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386 DAYS UNTIL LABOR’S MINUS MINES TAX

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (05:27 am)

They’re only jobs. What do they matter when Labor has a planet to save?

Explosive economic modelling warns that the carbon tax could force eight black coalmines to close, costing nearly 3000 jobs in regional NSW and more than 1100 jobs in Queensland in its first three years.

Independent modelling commissioned by the Australian Coal Association warns that the number of early mine closures could reach 18 within nine years and result in Australia forgoing coal sales of $22 billion from existing mines over the next decade.

Workers, investors and even Labor might be spooked by these projections, but Greens will be thrilled. They crave closures. In the world of people who actually provide jobs, however, Bega Cheese, Coca-Cola Amatil and Metcashare the latest to join the big list.

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CHET’S OBAMAFIED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (04:16 am)

Obama is shutting down Ohio shop by shop, as Mark Steyn reports:

“This plant indirectly supports hundreds of other jobs right here in Toledo,” Obama told the workers at Chrysler. “After all, without you, who’d eat at Chet’s or Inky’s or Rudy’s? Manufacturers from Michigan to Massachusetts are looking for new engineers to build advanced batteries for American-made electric cars. And obviously, Chet’s and Inky’s and Zinger’s, they’ll all have your business for some time to come.”

A couple of days later, Chet’s announced it was closing after nine decades. “It was the economy and the smoking ban that hurt us more than anything,” said the owner. But maybe he can retrain and re-open it as a community-organizer grantwriting-application center.

Obama should emulate his vice-president, who is able to revive diners that were closed decades before he reached the White House.

UPDATE. The meaning of Mark. An excellent piece by Andrew Klavan.

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CARBON COMICS CONTINUED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (02:43 am)

As part of this site’s policy of promoting the state-friendly political opinions held by unhappy comedians, we present:

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IDEAL FOR LUMBERJACKETS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (02:42 am)

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ONLY A FEW MONTHS TO GO

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (02:31 am)

A leftoid forecast from February 2009:

I’ll predict that in as few as three years, LP, Crikey, Grods, and a few dozen other independent blogs will have successful-now newspaper sized audiences, and they won’t have to be brought up by Murdoch, and toned down, turned down, in the process to get find such audiences …

Unlike three or four years ago, the new online voices are cutting through, getting through. And they’re not being read because they are polite and neat and too afraid to offend.

Turn it down? Bulls**t. TURN IT UP!

Only those ready to get Ugly and tell the brutal truth will survive, the soft and wussy will be cast aside.

People do carry on sometimes.

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BOGUS IN DAMASCUS

Tim Blair – Monday, June 13, 11 (04:20 pm)

It’s an Arabic Alene:

The mysterious identity of a young Arab lesbian blogger who was apparently kidnapped last week in Syria has been revealed conclusively to be a hoax. The blogs were written not by a gay girl in Damascus, but a middle-aged American man based in Scotland.

image
A Syrian lesbian yesterday

Tom MacMaster, a 40-year-old Middle East activist studying for a masters at Edinburgh University, posted an update declaring that, rather than a 35-year-old feminist and lesbian called Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari, he was “the sole author of all posts on this blog”.

According to MacMaster, the fakery “created an important voice for issues I feel strongly about.” Maybe she/he will get a gig at The Drum.

UPDATE. Further from MacMaster, and how the hoax unfolded.

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BAMBI IN A BEAR PIT

Tim Blair – Monday, June 13, 11 (03:08 pm)

An unnamed Labor campaign director predicts fun times among her colleagues for incoming Greens senator Larissa Waters:

‘’It could be like Bambi going down to the bear pit,’’ the Labor campaign director said. ‘’It could be difficult to get traction inside that melting pot of personalities.’’

The Australian Greens are the world’s only reality TV show without cameras.

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387 DAYS UNTIL LABOR’S DO-NOT-BLAME-THE-TAX TAX

Tim Blair – Monday, June 13, 11 (02:59 pm)

The Parramatta Climate Action Network sends its pro-tax operatives on a door-to-door calming mission:

Western Sydney householders should not be worried about the impacts of a carbon tax on their costs of living, as more opportunities will arise in renewable energy investments, say local community activists.

Problem is, people are already worried, and with good reason:

“We’ve been on doorknocking campaigns and found some people were so pressed financially they were using solar lamps [instead] of lights at night, and sometimes not even having the refrigerator going because of the costs of energy,” [group member Phil Bradley] said.

That ought to give even activists some pause; people in a first-world city are turning off essential appliances because they can’t afford to run them. Bradley continues:

“It’s pretty sad when some are saying they’ve heard prices are going up, and thinking that’s the fault of the carbon tax, which hasn’t even been introduced yet. They’re unaware that there is a compensation package part of this, that in fact makes some people better off,” he added.

Two things: imagine how much happier people will feel to learn that their already-difficult circumstances aren’tbecause of a new tax. Why, that tax hasn’t even been introduced yet! Drink some room-temperature milk and cheer up, oldtimers. Secondly: after all the other government triumphs – from combustible insulation to Malaysian refugee swapsies – why should anyone believe that they can pull off a complex carbon compo scam?

“It’s one of those issues that could bring down the government,” said John Wanna, a professor of politics and public administration at the Australian National University. “There is no real analysis of what this means for jobs and the government hasn’t resolved whether this will change people’s behavior.”

It already has, at least so far as voting intentions go. John Warhurst tips an August 2012 leadership challenge for Julia Gillard, who has one or two other issues with which to deal:

The Gillard government’s credibility is about to take another battering as one of its more complex and ad hoc tax reforms - the minerals and resources rent tax - faces the threat of a constitutional challenge in the High Court.

Adding to the fun, two new members – International Power and Port Macquarie Taxis – take their place alongside the dairy industry, TRUenergy, Leighton Holdings, Sunbather Pool Technologies, the Master Builders Association, the Herald Sun, the Housing Industry Association, Clive Palmer, the WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy, the Queensland Resources Council, Mt Isa mayor John Molony, Queensland Labor premier Anna Bligh (conditionally), Western Australian MP Tony Crook, cement maker Adelaide Brighton, power company Macquarie Generation, Ford factory workers, Kerry Stokes, Stephen Lowy, the Minerals Council of Australia, Western Australian energy supplier New Synergy, the citizens of Illawarra, Hafda’s Butchery, Labor senator Doug Cameron’s working people, Rio Tinto, Alcoa, dairy farmers, barley growers, insurance companies, local councils, state governments, CFOs, food and grocery producers, miners, union members, Gerry Harvey, G&S Engineering, Sam Gadaleta, BHP, Queensland Labor members, the Noosa Chamber of Commerce, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Northern Territory parliament, Santos, the Australian Taxi Industry Association, Alumina Limited, an industrial group representing Amcor, Bluescope Steel, Boral, CSR, Sucrogen, Sugar Australia, Rheem, Vicpole and Dexion, Incitec, the Taxi Council of Queensland, the Australian Agricultural Company, the Australian Coal Association, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, the Federation of Automotive Product Manufacturers and Penrith’s Sun Masamune sake brewery as carbon tax doubters.

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Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal:

GE’s Jeff Immelt’s and American Express’s Ken Chenault’s essay on how the President’s Jobs and Competitiveness Council – on which these CEOs serve – will create jobs and “improve America’s competitiveness” is little more than a whoop-tee-do of proposals designed to titillate policy-wonks in ways that sexting porn stars titillate certain Congressmen (“How We’re Meeting the Job Creation Challenge,” June 13). It prompts many questions, such as:

Among their Council’s few (potentially) sensible proposals is that America be made a more attractive destination for foreign direct investment. If this proposal succeeds, one result will be a higher U.S. trade deficit. Will Messrs. Immelt and Chenault then explain to politicians and the American public that the higher trade deficit should be celebrated rather than decried?

Messrs. Immelt and Chenault identify “construction, manufacturing, health care and tourism” as being among those U.S. industries that their Council wishes to promote. Are they aware that propping up specific industries involves shrinking others? How will government officials weigh the policy-induced gains in these and other favored industries against losses in, say, IT or forestry? And what if it turns out – as it very well might – that expanding employment in their favored industries can be done only by forcing those industries to adopt less-efficient but more labor-intensive production methods? Will Washington then applaud the higher employment in these industries? Or will it decry these industries’ loss of ‘competitiveness’?

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux

Note that in the letter I resisted pointing out the hilarity of having the CEOs of two companies that each received billions of dollars in government bailout funds holding forth on how to make America more “competitive.”

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George Selgin continues to set the record and our thinking straight about fractional-reserve vs. 100%-reserve banking.

Cato’s David Boaz is now blogging at the Encyclopaedia Brittanica blog.

Here’s part of a talk that former Cleveland Fed President Jerry Jordan delivered on how currency debasement undermines the rule of law.

In the Guardian, my brilliant younger colleague Bryan Caplan debates Tiger Mom Amy Chua.

Mark Perry brings us this video of Judge Jim Gray; Judge Gray is an eloquent and passionate opponent of the ‘war on drugs’ war on peaceful people who choose to use intoxicants that the government disapproves of.

After reading George Will’s superb column in yesterday’s Washington Post, I’m more convinced that ever that we should bring back, and ‘Locke’ in, the nondelegation doctrine.

Chapman University philosopher Tibor Machan ponders Paul Krugman.

Back in April Mark Perry offered this useful and revealing table on how “American” are various makes of automobiles.

Finally, Henry Manne reminds me of this video – “The Government Can” – from August 2009 by comedian Tim Hawkins. I’m pretty sure that I linked to this video earlier here at the Cafe, but it’s worth re-linking. Not only is it entertaining, but perhaps the single best way to protect our liberties is to reveal politicians to be the buffoonish objects of ridicule that they truly are. In this way, laughter is indeed the best medicine.

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Teach science instead: ban warming in the classroom

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (07:08 am)

Fewer fads and more science, please:

Climate change could be axed from (England’s) national curriculum in a move to strip science back to basics.

The Government adviser overseeing a major overhaul of teaching in England and Wales said the subject should be cut in order to ‘get back to the science in science’.

The move will please many critics who feel climate change should not be taught as scientific fact when it is still disputed by some experts.

Climate change should be cut in order to ‘get back to the science in science’, according to the Government adviser overseeing a major overhaul of teaching in England and Wales

Tom Oates, whose vision for the revised syllabus will be unveiled later this year, said last night it should be up to schools to decide whether to teach topics about the effect of scientific processes on people’s lives. ‘We have believed that we need to keep the national curriculum up to date with topical issues, but oxidation and gravity don’t date,’ he said.

‘We are not taking it back 100 years, we are taking it back to the core stuff. The curriculum has become narrowly instrumentalist.’

But in a foolish land where the Education Minister is a former Australian Conservation Foundation president...:

SCHOOL Education Minister Peter Garrett has confirmed the Gillard government will not stop the teaching of climate science in the classroom following a move in Britain for the subject to be withdrawn from the national curriculum.

Mr Garrett clarified last night that climate change was not taught as a curriculum subject in its own right in Australian schools, but could be adequately dealt with in science and geography classes.

“We have a cross-curriculum theme which is sustainability, and I think climate change would be an element of that,” he said on the ABC’s Q&A program.

(Thanks to readers Gab and Albert.)

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Making London Muslim

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (06:30 am)

How the new multiculturalism works in London:

Police have been accused of “covering up” a campaign of abuse, threats and violence aimed at “Islamicising” an area of London...

The claims come as four Tower Hamlets Muslims were jailed for at least 19 years for attacking a local white teacher who gave religious studies lessons to Muslim girls.

The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered more than a dozen other cases in Tower Hamlets where both Muslims and non-Muslims have been threatened or beaten for behaviour deemed to breach fundamentalist “Islamic norms.” ...

Teachers in several local schools have told The Sunday Telegraph that they feel “under pressure” from local Muslim extremists, who have mounted campaigns through both parents and pupils – and, in one case, through another teacher - to enforce the compulsory wearing of the veil for Muslim girls. ...

One teacher at the Bigland Green primary school, Nicholas Kafouris, last year took the council to an employment tribunal, saying he was forced out of his job for complaining that Muslim pupils were engaging in racist and anti-Semitic bullying and saying they supported terrorism....

Tower Hamlets’ gay community has become a particular target of extremists. Homophobic crimes in the borough have risen by 80 per cent since 2007/8, and by 21 per cent over the last year…

Last year, a mob of 30 young Muslims stormed a local gay pub, the George and Dragon, beating and abusing patrons. Many customers of the pub told The Sunday Telegraph that they have been attacked and harassed by local Muslim youths…

Even during meetings of the local council, prominent supporters of Tower Hamlets’ controversial directly-elected mayor, Lutfur Rahman – dropped by the Labour Party for his links to Islamic fundamentalism - have persistently targeted gay councillors with homophobic abuse and intimidation from the public gallery.

The Labour leader, Josh Peck, was attacked with animal noises and cries of “Unnatural acts! Unnatural acts!” when he rose to speak.

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Walking home from the party

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (06:12 am)

Labor is dying on its feet:

After party officials finalised their numbers earlier this month they found that 2100 members in Victoria - 16 per cent of the 13,000 members of last year - had not rejoined.

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Bravo Michael Danby

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (06:08 am)

Labor needs to realise the Greens are to it what One Nation was to the Coalition - only more dangerous:

In a speech in parliament last month that went largely ignored, Labor backbencher Michael Danby made clear what he thought of the Greens, particularly NSW Senator-elect Lee Rhiannon. Its significance was not that he condemned Rhiannon, whom he called the Elena Ceaucescu of the Greens, and her NSW colleagues over their extreme foreign policy views, particularly on Israel, but that he has decided not to preference the Greens in his electorate next time.

“There are people like me in the Labor Party, in seats in the House of Representatives—and this will probably be ignored, as all important points that I find are made in backbench speeches are—who will be thinking very carefully at the next election about where we will give our preferences,” he said. ”The Greens political party will not be getting my support.”

Danby’s pledge threw down a challenge to his colleagues and his Prime Minister to act on a matter of principle...

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If Labor has lost Lindsay…

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (06:02 am)

Lindsay Fox is actually one the tycoons closest to Labor, so this is a bad sign for Julia Gillard:

Mr Fox is the generous Liberal Party donor who provided the plane that enabled Mr Abbott, his immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, and a media entourage to visit Nauru at the long weekend.

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We’ll lead the world in futile gestures - and damaging

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (06:00 am)

Gerard Henderson explains very carefully the deceit behind claims that Australia is trailing the world in slashing emissions:

The Productivity Commission’s report did not identify any nation with an all-embracing carbon tax. Nor could it locate one country with an unlimited scheme. The report refers to Britain and Germany as “part of the European Union’s cap-and-trade ETS” and points out that New Zealand “introduced its own scheme in 2008”.

The EU’s scheme does not cover road transport fuels but is scheduled to cover aviation and petrochemicals in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Under the New Zealand scheme, emissions are uncapped but a cap may be introduced, conditional on the actions of other countries.

Japan and South Korea have announced that they will introduce a scheme, but in both cases implementation has been delayed. China is considering a pilot ETS in some provinces, sometime in the future. That’s all. In the US, California is the only state that is committed to implementing a scheme by next year. At the national level, Barack Obama no longer talks much about climate change. There is no scheme on the agenda in India.

And they are just our major trading partners. Australia’s competitors - including Canada, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia and Russia - have no intention of implementing a carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme in the foreseeable future.

The facts indicate that it is a myth to maintain that Australia lags the world in abating carbon emissions or that it will be treated as a pariah if it does not immediately introduce a carbon tax leading to a scheme… Labor, with the encouragement of the Greens and some independents, plans to introduce a carbon tax that would impose a greater burden on Australian businesses in relation to most of our competitors and some of our trading partners. It doesn’t make sense.

Terry McCrann:

THE Productivity Commission report did not prove the carbon tax was good policy, far less that Australia must implement it.

All it did was show that if we are intent on attacking the foundation of our prosperity, the carbon tax and/or an emissions trading scheme would be the least stupid way of doing it…

If we go down the carbon tax/ETS route, all—and I, or rather the PC, mean all—other mechanisms for purportedly cutting carbon dioxide emissions should be abandoned. It should be the carbon tax/ETS and nothing else. No 20 per cent renewable energy target/requirement. No high-cost solar (or wind) feed-in tariffs. No subsidies for ‘alternative’ energy research or into CCS (carbon capture and storage). Nothing.

First, because having other incentives to cutting emissions when you have a carbon tax is doubling up, to no point. And secondly, because the ‘other means’ are so expensive. Germany, presented as the leader we should follow, is paying $137 for each tonne of emissions avoided. A $40, even a $60, carbon tax looks like a bargain in comparison.

So yes, all that means the Opposition’s ‘alternative’ policy mix to hit the 5 per cent 2020 emission reduction target it shares with the government, is a crock… Yet at the same time the Opposition mish-mash is much better. Because Julia Gillard is dead right about the fact that it would be much easier to dump if—my words, definitely not hers—we came to our senses.

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As Gillard weakens, the Left reaches for the wheel

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (05:58 am)

As Julia Gillard’s authority erodes...

LABOR’S Left faction will demand an increase in the amount of money raised by the proposed mining tax, a challenge to the authority of the Gillard government’s leadership.

It is part of a broader new thrust by the Left to move the government towards what it calls “a more egalitarian society”.

“We should have another look at whether the mining industry is paying its fair share, and whether the community is getting a fair outcome from it,” a national convener of the Left, Doug Cameron, told the Herald.

He said the issue would be on the agenda for Labor’s national conference, notionally the party’s supreme policymaking body.

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Rudd wouldn’t go to PNG if it saved Gillard

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (05:50 am)

Why should the foreign minister help his own government?

FOREIGN Minister Kevin Rudd has rejected a request from former Papua New Guinea prime minister Rabbie Namaliu that he to fly to Port Moresby to rescue the Gillard government’s floundering asylum seeker deal.

A spokesman for the Foreign Minister said: “Mr Rudd has no plans to travel to PNG at the near future. The PNG leadership is currently focused on issues other than the proposal for a regional processing centre.”

See, the worse it gets for Gillard, the better for Rudd.

UPDATE

Another place Rudd hasn’t gone to:

FEARS are escalating that the Gillard government’s ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia will damage the country’s entire beef industry, with southern Australian farmers already reporting a drop in prices.

Domestic cattle producers are worried the 11,000 livestock stranded by the ban will flood the local market in coming months and cause a glut for all beef products. The Victorian Farmers Federation says prices for beef have already dropped by 10c a kilogram - or 5 per cent - in anticipation of this occurring, and stock agents have reported slow sales and a softening in consumer demand.

The growing concerns come as the Gillard government continues to seek a solution to the trade impasse sparked by television images of brutal treatment of cattle in Indonesia.

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Bye bye coal miners

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (05:41 am)

Good news for warmists who think coal mines are killing the planet, but for Labor it’s a reality check:

EXPLOSIVE economic modelling warns that the carbon tax could force eight black coalmines to close, costing nearly 3000 jobs in regional NSW and more than 1100 jobs in Queensland in its first three years.

Independent modelling commissioned by the Australian Coal Association warns that the number of early mine closures could reach 18 within nine years and result in Australia forgoing coal sales of $22 billion from existing mines over the next decade…

The modelling of the black coal industry, which was completed on the assumption the coal industry would not receive assistance under the carbon package, comes as the coal union steps up pressure on the government’s multi-party climate change committee to agree to a compensation package at least matching the $1.5bn in assistance promised to “gassy mines” as part of Kevin Rudd’s carbon pollution reduction scheme.

Even if Labor does manage to persuade the Greens to compensate coal mines, does anyone expect Labor to get the complicated arrangements right? Won’t this make the whole exercise even more pointless? Can the Government afford all this compensation?

What a nightmare.

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Shameless fearmongers

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (05:26 am)

The Gillard Government’s latest fear-mongering:

Victorians also are being warned that global warming could slash the ski season by up to 96 per cent, under an extreme scenario of rising carbon emissions with increased warming and decreased rainfall.

The latest news from those snowfields the CSIRO keeps warning about:

Victoria’s ski fields had one of their best starts to the season in years with the three major resorts reporting big crowds and plenty of snow.

And there’s this scare:

The number of heat-related deaths could reach 1318 a year...

It is dishonest not to point out that all the evidence suggests that those heat-related deaths would be more than compensated for by a fall in cold-related deaths

The British Medical Journal in 2000 reported a study by scientists in Britain, Italy, Holland and France who found that “all regions showed more annual cold-related mortality than heat-related mortality”.

They concluded: “Our data suggest that any increases in mortality due to increased temperatures would be outweighed by much larger short-term declines in cold related mortalities.”

This Government is shameless in its scares and cannot be trusted.

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Media shock: 13,000 emails show Palin is perfectly normal

Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, June 14, 11 (12:12 am)

Toby Harnden says Sarah Palin’s media critics may have overplayed their hand - again:

The trove of more than 13,000 emails detailing almost every aspect of Sarah Palin’s governorship of Alaska, released late on Friday, paints a picture of her as an idealistic, conscientious, humorous and humane woman slightly bemused by the world of politics.

One can only assume that the Left-leaning editors who dispatched teams of reporters to remote Juneau, the Alaskan capital, to pore over the emails in the hope of digging up a scandal are now viewing the result as a rather poor return on their considerable investment.

If anything, Mrs Palin seems likely to emerge from the scrutiny of the 24,000 pages, contained in six boxes and weighing 275 pounds, with her reputation considerably enhanced…

The emails will finally confirm – in all but the darkest recesses of the world of Left-wing conspiracy theories – that Mrs Palin is, in fact, the mother of her youngest son Trig, who has Down’s Syndrome....

Communications from her children and husband make her family appear close and loving.

An email from Bristol, referring to her younger sister, said: “Hello Mother, Um, I’m sitting in library and I really thing you need to get Piper a cell phone!! Wouldn’t that be so adorable! She could text me while she was in class!! It’s a done deal right?! Perfect! Ok, I will talk to you later and I need some cash flow! Love ya!”

To an extent, the emails remind Americans of the person they saw take the stage at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota nearly three years ago – refreshing, plain-speaking, open and uncomplicated…

The email release could mark the end of a chapter of what conservatives have termed “Palin Derangement Syndrome”. Her enemies in the media appear to have overplayed their hand.

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Or September

Andrew Bolt – Monday, June 13, 11 (05:51 pm)

You have a better tip?

John Warhurst, from the Australian National University’s school of politics, said Ms Gillard could survive if she can pass the carbon tax and bring about a turnaround in the polls.

Otherwise, he predicted a leadership challenge in August 2012.

Sportsbet frames the market:

Labor Leader at 2013/14 Federal Election

Julia Gillard 1.65
Bill Shorten 3.75
Greg Combet 9.00
Kevin Rudd 9.00
Stephen Smith 17.00
Wayne Swan 17.00
Chris Bowen 21.00
Anthony Albanese 51.00
Nicola Roxon 81.00
Simon Crean 101.00
Kate Ellis 151.00
Peter Garrett 151.00

I’d have slightly longer odds on Shorten, longer still on Gillard and shorter on Rudd. Simon Crean represents good value.

The punters rate Abbott as safer than Gillard, but they’re throwing their money away on Turnbull:

Liberal Leader at 2013/14 Federal Election

Tony Abbott 1.55
Malcolm Turnbull 3.00

And Stuart Robert must have laid a tactical wager:

Stuart Robert 51.00

As for the election result, Sportsbet says it’s the Coalition by a mile:

Coalition 1.53
Australian Labor Party 2.50

Sportingbet agrees:

ALP 2.50

Coalition 1.50

Centrebet likes Labor’s chances even less:

The Federal Coalition firmed today back into $1.43 (from $1.45) on Centrebet, while Labor eased again from $2.70 out to $2.75!

(Via Tim Blair.)

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Scamming is an art, too

Andrew Bolt – Monday, June 13, 11 (05:49 pm)

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Gaddafi has tried that before. He isn't honorable.
FORCES loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi killed 21 rebels by pretending to surrender, a rebel commander told AFP.
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I am confident the government attempted a cover up, but has done nothing to mitigate their disaster
THE Immigration Department rejected claims by migrant groups that information on a leprosy outbreak was withheld from refugees inside Villawood detention centre.
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Creeping is illegal
POLICE blame impatient drivers queuing across busy intersections in the Sydney CBD for gridlocking streets and causing "bedlam" during peak periods.
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How is it bullying by the Premier? The unions are bullying.
THE O'Farrell government has resorted to bullying tactics by ordering bosses to reject public sector workers' requests for time off to attend tomorrow's rally against new industrial laws.
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Who is Burn related to?
NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione's three deputies will rotate their roles as part of a succession plan being considered by the top brass.
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El-Ahairrah did a deal with the Black Rabbitt to free his people
FRESH fears over a nuclear leak at the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima plant have re-ignited after a rabbit born close to the facility was found to have no ears.
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China says 'no.'
JULIA Gillard has finally confirmed she will not meet with the Dalai Lama when he visits Canberra today.

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It costs a lot to maintain an inept PM
STAFF numbers in the Prime Minister's office have blown out by almost 30 per cent since Labor stormed to power in 2007.
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Gillard is Victorian ..
THOUSANDS of travellers remain stranded, but federal politicians will be airlifted to Canberra by Air Force jets to arrive in time for parliament tomorrow.
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ET, phone home
MEET the gang of four - the Greens senators who will hold the balance of power when they take their place in the upper house on July 1.
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Liberals have good policy which rewards workers
A $4000 REBATE will be given to small businesses for every extra worker they employ under new payroll tax laws to be introduced by the state government this week.
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Dams are flood mitigating.
TORRENTIAL rain, dangerous surf and thunderstorms will batter parts of the state today as many residents remain on flood alert.
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It doesn't have to be this bad. The Liberals offer sensible policy. But they have to be in government.
CONSUMERS will be slugged with price rises on everyday items like Coke, cheese, pizza and McDonald's as the carbon tax puts the squeeze on retailers and producers.
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Lord, I pray you give your people in Christchurch a rest from these quakes.
QUAKE-weary Christchurch residents have been warned to brace for more violent aftershocks.

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Smith hopes to distract from ALP shortcomings ..
www.news.com.au
NEWLY aired allegations of rape, abuse and misconduct within the defence forces will be investigated, Defence Minister Stephen Smith says.
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I want President Palin
www.foxnews.com
All candidates for president are network or local. Romney is a network anchorman—sleek, put together, the right hair, a look of dignity. He's like Brian Williams.
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The future is now
www.physnews.com
‎(PhysOrg.com) -- Taking a giant step forward in the creation and production of graphene based integrated circuits, IBM has announced in Science, the fabrication of a graphene based integrated ...
11 hours ago · · ·
    • David Daniel Ball What it may mean is wireless links have become faster longer and stronger meaning wireless could match optical fibre at a thousandth of the cost.
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I see something amazing
www.foxnews.com
Incredibly tiny, light-sensing structures called rods and cones in the eye are responsible for vision. And for the first time ever, a breakthrough new technology reveals those amazingly tiny rods in action in a living eye.
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This only gets better for all .. except his constituents
www.foxnews.com
Dismissing calls by Democratic leaders for him to resign over a sexting scandal, Rep. Anthony Weiner says he's taking a leave of absence and checking himself in for treatment instead.
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mistaking a service pistol for a stun gun. That is a life long mistake. But why stun a prone figure? The sentence was short because it was a mistake .. but protestors want more blood.
www.foxnews.com
A white former San Francisco Bay area transit officer convicted of the fatal shooting of an black unarmed black man on an Oakland train station platform was released from jail early Monday after serving 11 months of a two-year sentence, officials said.
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The body of Hamidur Rahman is in there
TODAY's cartoon by John Kudelka in high resolution right here on your Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph iPad app.
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My prediction, the ALP will be an unpleasant part of our past
Armed with swear words WE live in a brilliant time, which probably accounts for all of the complaining.

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At the end of the day, Nixon's fears were well founded.
www.foxnews.com
Forty years after the explosive leak of the Pentagon Papers, a secret government study chronicling deception and misadventure in U.S. conduct of the Vietnam War, the report is coming out in its entirety on Monday.
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How about Cuba? Venezuala? He could also play against the penguins of Antarctica ..
www.news.com.au
THE controversial head of world chess says he has no qualms about playing a game with Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli while fighting between loyalist forces and rebels raged across the country.
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They oppose nuclear power. Don't they care about global warming?
www.news.com.au
PRIME Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced the prospect of fresh humiliation following local election defeats, as Italians flocked to the polls to vote in opposition-backed referendums.
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Hypocrites unhappy
www.news.com.au
RIGHTS campaigners have reacted furiously after a US student based in Scotland unmasked himself as the author of the Gay Girl in Damascus blog, which charted the security crackdown in Syria.
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Emma, you could live a better life than that .. more fulfilling. Embrace Jesus.
www.news.com.au
EMMA Watson is preparing for life after Harry Potter.

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David Daniel Ball likes a link.
www.informationaboutdiabetes.com
In the search for a cure for diabetes, a recent development has stunned even the experts involved. Scientists at a Toronto medical center claim that they have proof the the nerve system is responsible for triggering diabetes, a fact which may well lead to the possibility of a cure for the diabetes,

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Chapelli nails it
Any cricket captain who makes selection choices on like and dislike is destined for a short reign.

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@anibalme Pobre Guatemala, tienes razón. Ella no era comunista. Pero ella ha sufrido por sus líderes fascistas o socialistas como el "Gran Juego" fue interpretado por las grandes potencias.
Source: www.youtube.com
Shortly after reaching Guatemala City, Guevara acted upon the suggestion of a mutual friend that he seek out Hilda Gadea Acosta, a Peruvian economist who was living and working there. Script from Wikipedia, or modified, images sourced Google Ima...



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