Sunday, October 09, 2011

News Items and comments

Step to the left would be Labor’s death knell

Piers Akerman – Saturday, October 08, 11 (09:15 pm)

Saddled with the unapologetic liar Julia Gillard as its leader, elements within the ALP are hoping to elevate the role of the party’s national president beyond that of an administrative figurehead in a bid to halt Labor’s slide into irrelevancy.

Having had power in the states and recently federally for so long one might wonder why people were saying the ALP is in bad straights. Surely it isn’t because of recent polls? As late as last year the ALP were elected and federally with enough to hold government. Admittedly the electorate weren’t aware that was what they were voting for. The electorate had been told they wouldn’t be voting for a CO2 tax if they voted ALP. The electorate had been told there was a plan that would solve the boat people issue. The electorate had been told that Windsor and Oakeshott could be relied on the support conservative choices.

Viewed from space the ALP doesn’t have a problem. They are taxing and spending at will.

But it is a house of cards. Which bottom card will fall first? Rudd? One decent, honest ALP lower house member (if there be one)? Wilkie?

One thing is certain. The ABC doesn’t know. And if the ABC did know they wouldn’t tell. Like when Rudd was trounced. One thing worth remembering, no media group got the ALP to answer the questions of Gillard’s leadership before the election in 2010.

DD Ball of Carramar/Sydney (Reply)
Sat 08 Oct 11 (11:00pm)
DT replied to DD Ball
Sun 09 Oct 11 (11:17am)

DD Ball the voters in the electorates of Oakshott and Windsor clearly did not vote for a Labor government last October, both electorates have traditionally been held by the Country/National Party and the two now former Independent members were part of the Nationals before standing as Independents and therefore considered by their constituents to be conservatives not Labor supporters.

By signing an agreement with the prime minister to support her government these men ignored what the majority of their electors wanted.

To add to the shame of it Windsor recently commented on ABC Capital Hill that he had given both Gillard and Abbott opportunity to form a government and call a new election, I knew that was not the case and did some research, at News.Com and others I found that he had in fact told media at the time that he could not choose to support Abbott because he believed that Abbott would call a new election and win it.

We can’t trust anything these people say, it is a disgraceful state of affairs.

===

A teen’s plight no photo op for Rudd

Miranda Devine – Saturday, October 08, 11 (09:09 pm)

THE way our Foreign Minister has jumped on the Bali case smacks more of Rudd’s ambition than altruism.

I made mistakes as a youth which I am not proud of. I didn’t ask prostitutes for drugs but then maybe I just didn’t have that opportunity. Luckily, I didn’t have Rudd on my side either.

DD Ball of Carramar/Sydney (Reply)
Sat 08 Oct 11 (11:04pm)
===

Mr. Robert Samuelson, Columnist
Washington Post
Washington, DC

Dear Mr. Samuelson:

You argue that we Americans are harmed by foreign subsidies that lower the prices of our imports (“Our one-sided trade war with China,” Oct. 7). But why? Why are we harmed by these lower-priced imports if (as I know you agree) we benefit from imports whose prices are lowered by natural market forces?

In both cases, some U.S. workers lose jobs. And in both cases, not only does Americans’ cost of living fall, but, also, opportunities are thereby opened in America for the creation of new industries and new opportunities that would otherwise be economically out of reach. Absolutely nothing about jobs lost to imports whose prices are made lower by foreign subsidies distinguishes them from jobs lost to imports whose prices are made lower by natural market forces.

If you’re skeptical of my claim, ask first: Would you oppose the successful private efforts of a Chinese physician to invent an inexpensive pill that safely and completely cures people of cancer? I’m sure not, despite the fact that such a pill would destroy many American jobs – from those of physicians to hospital orderlies. Now ask, would you oppose the successful efforts of the Chinese government to subsidize the invention and production of such a pill for export to America?

The logic of your position is that such subsidies would hurt Americans and, therefore, Uncle Sam should retaliate with measures to protect us from the scourge of such a low-priced cancer-curing pill.

But honestly, would Americans really be made better off by retaliatory tariffs that prevent us from buying this pill – or that forces up the price of this pill to levels sufficient to protect the jobs of oncology physicians, nurses, and other health-care workers? If you (rightly) suspect that the answer is no, then you should realize that your case for retaliatory trade restrictions against whatever goods Beijing might now subsidize for export is without merit.

I attach, fyi, a just-published paper of mine that answers in the negative the question “do foreign subsidies justify retaliatory protectionist measures?”

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030

===

Quotations of the Day…

by DON BOUDREAUX on OCTOBER 8, 2011

in ECONOMICS, STATE OF MACRO

… are from John Eatwell’s 1987 essay “Keynesianism,” reprinted in John Eatwell, Murray Milgate, & Peter Newman, eds. The World of Economics (1991), pp. 367-370; this quotation is found on page 368:

[A]cceptance of Keynes’s argument implied rejection of the neoclassical theory of value and distribution in toto.

Yep.

Eatwell goes on to point out, quite correctly, that Keynes conceded that the main tenets of neoclassical economics become valid – but are valid only – when there is full employment. Here’s Eatwell again (also on page 368; original emphasis):

Keynes appears to rehabilitate the price mechanism as an efficient means of allocation, whilst at the same time denying its efficiency as a means of assuring full utilization of available factor services, even though these are two aspects of the same phenomenon.

===

The Bolt Report - global warming special

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, October 09, 11 (04:43 pm)

Feel free to pass this on. People need to know that scientists dispute what the Government claims is settled.

===

Passionately wooing Crook to cast a pointless vote

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, October 09, 11 (04:58 am)

West Australian National Tony Crook is feeling the love:

Suddenly, Crook is the man of the moment. Last week he was wooed intensively by both the government and opposition because, they reckoned, he’d be the crucial vote in the House of Representatives on Gillard’s legislation to revive the Malaysia people swap.

It’s rather bizarre, because even if the House approved the bill, an opposition-Green alliance would defeat it in the Senate. But for Gillard the House vote - due after the debate on Thursday - is a symbolically important battle to outmanoeuvre Abbott, albeit temporarily. It is high-risk for her, though. If the government lost its own bill in the House, this would be a big slap-down. Internal Labor criticism of Gillard for persisting with the bill would intensify.

Gillard needs four of the six crossbenchers. She has Windsor and Oakeshott. Independent Andrew Wilkie and Greens’ Adam Bandt are no’s. Labor is confident of getting Queensland maverick Bob Katter, though predicting Katter is always brave. Assuming it is right on Katter, Crook’s vote is the decider.

===

Tackling the Corby syndrome

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, October 09, 11 (04:29 am)

I suspect this story won’t stop many from sympathising to some extent with the boy over his treatment, but, more constructively, might stop the usual xenophobic slagging off of the Balinese police as corrupt whenever one of ours gets picked up there over alleged drug offences:

THE 14-year-old NSW boy arrested for alleged possession of cannabis in Bali boasted about his purchase, waving a small bag of the drugs in front of local shopkeepers and massage therapists before police pounced on him, witnesses say.

UPDATE

Miranda Devine wonders about Kevin Rudd’s reaction:

In his wall-to-wall media appearances last week, Rudd was making the familiar appeal to domestic jingoism about “one of ours” entrapped by foreign barbarians, rather than handle the issue in the understated way the Indonesians would prefer.

The episode reminds us what a stager Rudd is, always overdramatising and setting the wrong tone....

He boasted of “instructing” Indonesian ambassador Greg Moriarty to drop everything, rush to Bali from Jakarta, and make the case his “number one priority” more crucial to the national interest than, say, counter-terrorism, people smuggling, or the live cattle trade.

But consul-general Brett Farmer, a seasoned diplomat who has served in New Delhi, Hanoi, Abu Dhabi, Dhaka, Colombo, Manila, Bangkok, and Jakarta, has been handling the matter deftly with no need for high-handed intervention....

Perhaps it is unfair, but you can’t help but think Rudd’s high-octane approach has less to do with the boy’s welfare than with his campaign to regain his old job.

In the current fetid atmosphere in Canberra, it wasn’t hard, for instance, to detect a dig at the childless Julia Gillard in his repeated declarations that “I have kids”, “We both have teenage kids”; “I think anyone who’s a parent and you are, I am”, “both as a parent, but also as Foreign Minister”.

Even if his motivations are entirely pure, Rudd’s rhetoric just heightens anxiety. Indonesians have shown themselves in the past to be completely unmoved—if not irritated into obstinacy—by Australian theatrics, whether over Schapelle Corby or cattle.

(No commnets for legal reasons.)

===

Should never have left the door open

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, October 09, 11 (04:20 am)

Good for the Greens, less so for everyone else:

ADAM Bandt is likely to hold the seat of Melbourne even if the Liberals direct preferences against him next election, a Galaxy poll suggests....

The voter survey, taken two weeks ago, found Mr Bandt would have won Melbourne with a two-party vote of 56-44 per cent - even with the Liberals preferencing Labor. If the Liberals didn’t preference Labor, his victory would have been even more resounding: 65-35 per cent.

===

Defamation removed

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, October 09, 11 (12:01 am)

I am pleased that The Monthly has removed from its website a despicable defamation of my wife that was written by Anne Summers in her “profile” of me. Actually, I presume that was the reason for what it’s done, since the magazine removed not only that vile smear but the whole tawdry article with it. This raises the question: was the editor also worried about the many other laughable errors, from my supposed previous “engagement” to the apparent assumption that some clearly fake Twitter account was actually mine? Did the magazine perhaps regret the shameless smearing of my late mother? The pathetic sledging of my wife by an unnamed ex-girlfriend of mine from more than a quarter of a century ago? Who knows?

Still waiting for a public apology to my wife, though.

To my critics: If you have a quarrel with what I say, have that quarrel with me. Attacking me through my wife and parents is contemptible.

===

Labor’s captains fight with the passengers

Andrew Bolt – Saturday, October 08, 11 (08:49 pm)

It seems Labor’s activists and apparatchiks are more radical than the voters:

VICTORIAN Labor has flatly rejected the Gillard government’s stance on offshore processing and demanded federal MPs adhere to the party platform on asylum-seekers.

At the State ALP Conference held at the Moonee Valley Racecourse, delegates voted unanimously to urge the Labor caucus to reject the so-called Malaysia solution and to act consistently with the principles established by the recent High Court ruling.

It came after the Victorian state conference also rejected Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s position on same-sex marriage, voting overwhelmingly to back same sex marriage to become part of the national platform when it is debated at the ALP national conference at the end of the year.

===
He is worthless in any position. It is sad so many troops are dying under his watch, but he gets his own back by smearing them with sex scandals.
www.news.com.au
DEFENCE Minister Stephen Smith says he has no intention of switching to state politics despite rumours of a "secret plan" to install him as the ALP leader in Western Australia.
===
The federal government is lying about the benefits
www.news.com.au
CLUBS have secretly drafted plans to wheel in trailer-mounted ATMs in a brazen attempt to circumvent the Federal Government's poker machine reforms.
===
Cuba ..
www.news.com.au
A LEADING Cuban sexologist Saturday urged young men who are worried about the size of their penis not to take advantage of the communist nation's free health care to have surgery to enlarge their manhood.
===
Lack of parental supervision
www.news.com.au
HUNDREDS of teenagers have been charged over producing or distributing child pornography amid growing concern that "sexting" has reached epidemic levels.
===
Tragedy averted through the miracle of skill
WHEN one of Tasneem Winkler's twins was flatlining in her womb, an emergency caesarian revealed it was her other baby who was in even bigger trouble.
===
Great guy
SHADOW treasurer Joe Hockey is supporting a worthy cause by auctioning off his time - a coffee meeting for two at a North Shore pizza place.
===
Possibly the issue involves online trade
THE word "Angel" has triggered a bizarre legal stoush between a tiny northern Sydney maternity shop and the US sporting giant Major League Baseball.
===
OFarrell is doing a great job
RENOVATING or building a house is one of life's most stressful experiences.
===
Clever. ALP have to hose down their heartland which feels betrayed. Normally the ALP then promote independents. But that won't work for a while, again
THE federal Liberal Party has begun fast-tracking preselections in eight key seats it has identified as vital for victory.
===
So the kid didn't have enough to bribe police?
AS I heard the news of a young Australian boy's arrest in Bali, my spine chilled with memories of the day I was the victim of an attempted police sting on the very same patch of Indonesian "paradise".
===
The rest of that spineless mob failed to put their hand up.
KEVIN Rudd -- who is now widely believed to be engineering a tilt at the Julia Gillard's job -- yesterday pledged support for the Prime Minister during yet another campaign-style shopping centre tour ...
===
I won't work with him
NSW'S most wanted man, accused killer Anthony Tan, has been tracked down by The Sunday Telegraph - living in the lap of luxury in Vietnam.
===
Thank you Jason Clare for failing to address their needs
DIGGERS are using their own money to buy miniature video cameras for helmets and weapons in a bid to avoid military prosecution for mishaps during firefights in Afghanistan.
===
Rudd is complicating matters
THE 14-year-old boy arrested in Bali spent his first day under gruelling interrogation by Balinese police yesterday, while the Australian government feverishly tries to free him.
===
Fun ride
It looks like a video game that’s come to life, that because it is.
===
Because the Juror knows the face of a murderer?
One of the jurors who overturned Amanda Knox's murder conviction said Friday he was never convinced by the "conjecture" of the prosecution's case.
===
‎@b2sfan I don't feel this is a race issue. I think there is an underclass of people in the West which is regardless of race. It wasn't a class of people responsible for these riots here or in London recently. Redfern riots seem to have been the re...
Source: www.youtube.com
Part two of the Picking Cotton series regarding the death of policewoman Nicola Cotton. The 2004 Redfern Riots had nothing to do with Nicola, but they were to do with unreasoned hatred of police. This series seeks to educate about the role of poli...
===
A short step in a long walk
Federal-Mogul developing revolutionary new ignition system.
===
Releasing her was a mistake. I hope no one else dies for it.
www.news.com.au
AMANDA Knox claims she was sexually harassed by a prison official in Italy during her four years behind bars, according to a TV program to be aired this weekend.

No comments: