Labor and friends long for 1984
Piers Akerman – Saturday, September 24, 11 (10:19 pm)
JULIA Gillard wants to blame Tony Abbott for her minority government’s dysfunctionality but that is a huge stretch.
arn’t we lucky we dont have cruddies broadband and his secret control.
How else would we be able to learn the truth.
Stick it to them Piers, by the way, I’m sure you put in the part of the boat people just to annoy me.
Oh come on Piers, life’s too serious to be serious. Have a laugh, its the weekend.
Sat 24 Sep 11 (10:40pm)
Sun 25 Sep 11 (06:55am)
It isn’t luck. It will happen if the government continues.
I hate the left of politics with a passion because they exploite workers.
The right of politics look after workers cradle to grave.
Sat 24 Sep 11 (10:47pm)
Sun 25 Sep 11 (06:58am)
The right don’t take care of anybody. They might allow prosperity. I prefer conservatives. Conservatives promote prosperity which is the only cure for poverty.
Sun 25 Sep 11 (09:43am)
workers and the naive.
Sun 25 Sep 11 (01:23pm)
The Right makes money, the Left wastes it. The history of Australian politics.
It is good that you are able to write columns such as this Piers, before they are banned and commentators such as yourself are prevented from writing in the future, if this media enquiry?just happens to find that people like yourself and indeed may of your bloggers are acting contrary to what the lefties consider the national interest, just look at the gutlessness of 2UE, Michael Smith it seems may very well be sacked for daring to go digging into the past of the Black Widow of Canberra.
Sat 24 Sep 11 (10:47pm)
Sun 25 Sep 11 (07:01am)
2UE has form, Smith accepted the ALP line in the past. You can’t pick and choose freedoms, or you lose them.
It does not matter, more deeply, if Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon was a member of a communist outfit or not ...
Is her heart and mind essentially communist?
Decidedly yes.
Neville Chamberlain, pre-Churchill, was not a member of the Left but he was heart and mind.
More recently Malcolm Turnbull is not a member of the Left but to some extent he is.
The heart and mind - where do they reside ...
The inner person - what are their true colours ...
This is the hub from which attitude flows ...
JJ.
Sat 24 Sep 11 (10:47pm)
Sun 25 Sep 11 (07:05am)
Being a communist is discrediting. It shows the judgement is awry. It shows lack of compassion.
Turnbull supports a tax. He has a banker’s view, not a communist view. But it is wrongheaded.
Sun 25 Sep 11 (08:09am)
John Jay, Kevin Rudd, once again, shows his true colours, whilst granstanding in the U.S.
It is reported that Kevin Rudd, with cameras in tow, ( of course ), chased down Hillary Clinton to force her into honouring a statement she made to Hamish & Andy whilst last in Australia that she would get together with them for a Barbeque when they were next in the U.S.
Kevin Rudd is allegedly in the U.S. for high profile talks, yet he takes time out to force an opportunity to get himself on the Hamish & Andy television show. Telling Hillary Clinton she has two choices, either put on a barbeque or go on the Show.
What an utter embarrassment Kevin 07 is to this Nation. The fm of the Gillard/Rudd Govt manipulating publicity, once again.
No link to this report, however, one would probably be able to watch it on the latest Hamish & Andy Show from the U.S. broadcast here via Channel 9.
One could be forgiven for being disgusted with the fact that the fm of this Nation takes his job so lightly, whlst living it up at the Australian Taxpayers’ expense. What a joke this man really is! 
Sun 25 Sep 11 (09:30am)
Anyone that supported the eastern block repression of human beings is beyond redemption. Anyone who has had knowledge of what they did to anyone who dissented, went to church, wanted to do something other than what the state sanctioned was brutally repressed. Shame Greens Shame for allowing such a viper to enter your nest. Should have stuck to the environment.
Sun 25 Sep 11 (12:25pm)
Hamish & Andy thank Kevin Rudd for keeping Hillary Clinton to her word. Proof, Kevin 07 will do anything just to keep his face on the screen. Up to his old ‘ look at me, look at me “ tactics.
Not Kim Beazley, but Kevin Rudd gets the glory. HAH! What a joke!
No wonder his Poll rating dive bombed after only 12 months as pretend pm and they will again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLW0MXAf4j4
Lets get some ‘grown up’ and responsible people into Govt, so this Nation can once again hold her head up high.
Drug-drivers on the road to perdition
Miranda Devine – Saturday, September 24, 11 (10:21 pm)
DRUG-DRIVERS are wreaking hell on our highways so why is the law so soft?
Harm minimisation fails and Libertarians are wrong to claim a moral issue with blocking drug use. Libertarians claim that legal restriction is wrong. That it encourages use, as prohibition of alcohol did.
I am teetotal by choice. It is related to my discovery that small amounts of alcohol gives me gout. Many people I know aren’t teetotal. Not all of them are drunks. But some are. Likewise some people I know use drugs. It ruins them mentally. It also leaves an awful smell in the toilet.
Is there a worse tragedy than the senseless loss of a loved one? Maybe a government sanctioned killing of a loved one. That is the moral issue.
Sun 25 Sep 11 (06:43am)
Lomu tackled
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 25, 11 (06:41 pm)
Wish the great man the very best:
All Blacks legend Jonah Lomu was in a stable condition in Auckland Hospital’s kidney ward, New Zealand’s Herald on Sunday has reported.
Gillard flies in a new media manager
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 25, 11 (06:14 pm)
It’s not a good sign that Julia Gillard has had to buy in overseas talent to manage her media unit:
JULIA Gillard has hired a former Tony Blair strategist to head her media team.
The appointment (of John McTernan) was announced to staff yesterday and he will replace Russell Mahoney, who stepped down from the role last month to become one of Ms Gillard’s foreign-affairs advisers.
Mr McTernan was Mr Blair’s director of political operations after working as a senior policy adviser.... Mr McTernan also assisted the Scottish Labour Party with its election campaign before coming to Australia to be part of South Australian Premier Mike Rann’s Thinkers-in-Residence program.
True, McTernan has spent some time here, but he takes on a job in which personal relationships with journalists - especially those not in Canberra - are important, and even more so a refusal to accept the Canberra conventional wisdom. The best at this kind of job have an almost visceral understanding of their true audience - the public, and especially those parts of it in the vast suburbs beyond the view of most professional commentators. Reading poll figures is an inadequate substitute. Wasn’t it only a year or two ago that the polls showed the public would really, really love a “price on carbon”?
On the other hand, his blog reveals that he’s an excellent commentator with a talons for typing fingers. That, and his undoubted intelligence, puts him way ahead of almost all other commentators of the Left here, as does his humor. And the disastrous judgment of the Australians running Gillard’s media strategy so far suggest he hasn’t had much to beat.
Let’s see if he’s as conscious of what he doesn’t know as he is of what he does. He’ll know he’s there when he’s more inclined to love Australian voters than lecture them.
Run, Christie, run
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 25, 11 (05:40 pm)
Chris Christie is our man. And Jennifer Rubin’s scenario speaks to us:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie lives in Medham Township (not the official governor’s residence) with his wife, Mary Pat, and their four kids. You can imagine that like many Americans he will come home from work, have dinner and sit down with his spouse to watch the Republican debate. As many of us do, you can imagine him screaming at the TV set as the frustration mounts. What would he holler at each of them?
Rubin then suggests that hollering...
She has a rich archive to inspire her, though - and to excite the rest of us:
From The Bolt Report today
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 25, 11 (04:46 pm)
I don’t think Kristina Keneally rates Kevin Rudd.
Putting it mildly.
Back away very slowly
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 25, 11 (01:51 pm)
Reader Angela wonders if some of my critics suffer from Bolt Derangement Syndrome.
Resist the new racism
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 25, 11 (11:32 am)
Tanveer Ahmed underlines the stupidity of our fashionable insistence on differences of “race” that are actually trivial, if not undetectable:
A core weakness of liberal democracy is its weak collective identity amid unprecedented diversity. These challenges remain at the forefront for Western governments, highlighted in recent months by riots in Britain and mass murder in Norway.
When the first sprouts of violence emerged in the London riots, the initial hypotheses revolved around the contributions of race…
It has become clear that race did not explain these extraordinary developments in Britain. Several commentators have jokingly called the riots a triumph of multiculturalism, given that white, black and Asian faces took part… In spite of these trends, race still permeates much of the discussions. The uncomfortable question has been the degree to which tensions between different ethnic communities and the wider issues of race and cultural alienation have played a part in some areas....
In Britain, despite years of official exhortations to “celebrate diversity”, many people retreated into their ethnic camps. This was apparent during the riots, where ethnic groups, whether they were looting or protecting their communities, were often segregated into their specific groups, be it Asian, West Indian or white.
Britain has pursued a policy of actively promoting racial equality, from setting targets for representation of certain racial groups in public sector organisations to passing racial vilification laws.
But if white people are constantly told how culturally different their Asian or black neighbours are, and if Asians and blacks are told to be vigilant against white racism, all groups might conclude that they have little in common. Grievances over issues such as population and housing exacerbate the tensions.
Julia’s martyrs rebel
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 25, 11 (10:11 am)
Samantha Maiden counts the MPs who face the choice between Rudd or an end to their career:
They’re being dubbed Julia’s martyrs - three dozen MPs whose political futures are on the chopping block.
While the Prime Minister has the strong backing of her Cabinet, there is growing support among backbenchers who risk losing their seats on the basis of current polling.
Senior ministers who are backing Ms Gillard’s leadership are also in the firing line. The Gillard Cabinet would be a political killing field on the basis of the polling with up to six ministers to lose their seats.
Ministers to go would include Treasurer Wayne Swan, Defence Minister Stephen Smith, Attorney-General Robert McClelland, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, Education Minister Peter Garrett and Trade Minister Craig Emerson.
Special Minister of State Gary Gray and Childcare Minister Kate Ellis, who are not in Cabinet, are also in danger.
The only Queensland Cabinet minister left standing would be Kevin Rudd.
But the real action is among a growing number of backbenchers who never agreed with the leadership change. They want the Prime Minister to be given until Christmas to get a handle on the carbon tax and the asylum-seeker debate.
(Thanks to reader Alan RM Jones.)
Hanson unloads on Gillard
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 25, 11 (06:13 am)
Pauline Hanson will ring a lot of bells with her assessment of Julia Gillard:
I don’t think she has the vision, I don’t think she has the leadership and I think she is the worst prime minister we have ever had and that’s the general feel of people I speak to.
Age of quackery
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 25, 11 (06:07 am)
I’m not surprised so many people believe in quack cures, given that so many people also believe man can “stop” global warming:
HEALTH authorities have failed to keep up with an explosion in natural therapists as lives are put at risk from untested, unproven and potentially dangerous services. ... Grave concerns about the policing of alternative operators this year prompted the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council to launch a review of regulation. The body, due to report to health ministers in November, consulted with representative associations and found there were at least 200,000 practitioners.
Thee’s a reason green schemes need government handouts
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 25, 11 (06:00 am)
Chris Berg warns Julia Gillard that her $10 billion “clean energy” fund could buy her a mess just like Solyndra:
Solyndra was the jewel in the crown of Barack Obama’s green energy program. This California-based solar cell manufacturer received a $US535 million loan guarantee from the US government in 2009. Part of the administration’s stimulus package, the guarantee was supposed to help spark the green revolution.
When Obama visited the company in May 2010, he announced Solyndra would demonstrate that ‘’the promise of clean energy isn’t just an article of faith’’ and would lead the way ‘’towards a brighter and more prosperous future’’…
But last month Solyndra declared it was bankrupt. A year and a half after Obama waxed lyrical about the oodles of green jobs the company would create, 1100 people are out of work. There’s a criminal investigation under way…
Solyndra is Obama’s Enron. Not only a political mess (one of the company’s private investors is a major Democrat donor), but it’s a huge policy mess, too.
So why should Gillard care? Because the program that financed Solyndra does much the same thing as her proposed Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
Forgetting himself - or his business as well?
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 25, 11 (05:47 am)
Does the desperate love of a middle-aged man for a trophy model prove he’s thinking with the wrong organ even when he gets down to business?
When Arnaud Lagardere, one of France’s most important press barons and aerospace bosses, appeared in a kitsch video declaring his undying love for a Belgian swimwear model less than half his age and a foot taller, it wasn’t just seen as a lapse of taste.
The 50-year-old’s decision to participate in the video made some in the sober French finance world question his ability to run his business. The video has become France’s viral internet hit of the year.It was the first time the French business world, normally discreet about its private life, had seen a chief executive so publicly cavorting. Some called it ‘’economic suicide’’ for Mr Lagardere, who heads the Lagardere media group, which publishes Elle and Paris Match, and has a stake in the European aerospace and defence group EADS.
AFL turns against Gillard’s pokie deal - and her lifeline
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 25, 11 (05:28 am)
As I suggested on Wednesday,even the AFL clubs are now turning against the Gillard Government’s pokies deal with Andrew Wilkie:
There is growing support among the presidents to use Grand Final week to launch a public campaign against the mandatory pre-commitment reforms proposed by Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie…
Victorian AFL clubs control about 2500 of the state’s almost 30,000 pokies…
But if the reforms don’t pass Parliament, Mr Wilkie, who helped deliver government to Labor, is threatening to switch his support to Tony Abbott.
“We have spoken to government and expressed our concerns, and will continue to do so,” AFL media manager Patrick Keane said yesterday…
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire told Channel 9 on Friday that clubs were endangered by the changes....
Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett yesterday predicted the Wilkie amendments would fail…
“The Gillard Government is going to wipe out RSL clubs right throughout the state.”
This will hurt Labor, since many of the clubs speak straight to Labor supporters.
This campaign is sweet revenge for Karl Bitar, who has masterminded it for Crown after being unfairly blamed for Julia Gillard’s own sins and dumped as Labor’s national secetary.
The only question is whether Andrew Wilkie will indeed act on his threat to withdraw his support for the Gillard Government - and whether this means he’ll vote it down.
Mr./Ms. “AmericanProudly”
Dear Mr./Ms. “Proudly”:
Thanks for your e-mail response to my post explaining why Pat Buchanan is mistaken when he insists that “You cannot have a rising standard of living when your highest-paid production jobs are being exported overseas.”
You write that, unlike me, “Pat lives in the real world.” You imply that economics is sophistry used to conceal truths that to persons such as Mr. Buchanan and yourself are plain enough in the absence of any serious pondering.
So let me make my point from a direction opposite the one I took in my post. That point, you’ll recall, is that scarcity isn’t wealth, and (hence) government efforts to prevent goods and services from becoming less scarce retard, rather than promote, economic growth.
Suppose Dr. Evil Genius engineers, and unleashes on America, swarms of insects that extract oxygen from the air. These insects attack randomly, killing a hundred or so Americans every hour.
The horror of these suffocations prompts American scientists and entrepreneurs to develop a device that, worn around the neck, protects each of its wearers from the insects. This device, alas, is costly. Yet to avoid suffocation Americans willingly buy these pricey devices. And many Americans find high-wage jobs in factories producing these devices.
Evil Dr. Genius made breathable air scarce. Producers responded to this situation by making it less scarce. And they’re paid handsomely for their successful efforts.
Should we therefore conclude that Dr. Evil Genius has bestowed on Americans a benefit? After all, he caused the creation of plenty of high-paid production jobs. And should we lament it if foreigners eventually find ways to produce and sell this life-saving device to Americans at a fraction of the cost at which this device can be produced in the U.S.?
If you agree with Pat Buchanan, you must also agree that Dr. Evil Genius would be a genuine boon to America’s economy – and that anyone who devises a low-cost means of eradicating once and for all Dr. Genius’s swarming insects would be an economic curse that Congress should well and truly tax into inactivity before he or she succeeds in killing off the suffocating, but economically blessed, bugs.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
===
… is from page 253 of Sir Henry Sumner Maine’s brilliant 1861 book Ancient Law:
It is certain that the science of Political Economy, the only department of moral inquiry which has made any considerable progress in our day, would fail to correspond with the facts of life if it were not true that Imperative Law had abandoned the largest part of the field which it once occupied, and had left men to settle rules of conduct for themselves with a liberty never allowed to them til recently. The bias indeed of most persons trained in political economy is to consider the general truth on which their science reposes as entitled to become universal, and, when they apply it as an art, their efforts are ordinarily directed to enlarging the province of Contract and to curtailing that of Imperative Law, except so far as law is necessary to enforce the performance of Contracts.
Cavaletta,
I would think a white feather for disapproval would be an appropriate gift for for Juliars birthday.
Sat 24 Sep 11 (10:38pm)
Sun 25 Sep 11 (06:54am)
I don’t get the white feather reference, unless it is the cowardice thing. But I think it right.
Sun 25 Sep 11 (08:01am)
I love this game that Cav has started.
IQ,for Miss Gillard’s birthday, I would arrange a birthday lunch for her with Sophie Mirabella and the editor of The Age. I would love to hear the real feisty one (Sophie Mirabella) give it to the real pathetic one (Julia Gillard). I would like to hear the editor of ‘The Age’ defend the decision by Fairfax to run it’s story on Mrs Mirabella and a past lover, and explain why Fairfax is running a protective covering over the story on Miss Gillard and her past lover.
The story about Mrs Mirabella is a personal one that has nothing to do with the public but the story about Miss Gillard and her lover has everything to do with her judgement then and now. It looks like Fairfax and Miss Gillard have a lot in common. They both stink. Mrs Mirabella might have to leave the lunch early or at least be prepared to sit through it with a peg on her nose.
Sun 25 Sep 11 (10:00am)
Yes thanks for the suggestion I will add a white feather to the compass. Ms Gillard does not have the courage to go to the people with her Carbon Dioxide, economy-wrecking tax.
Sun 25 Sep 11 (11:02am)
Possibly an Ostrich feather would be a more fitting gesture.