Happy birthday and many happy returns Dean Hamstead,Peter Mac Lovin and Bubbé Tran. Born on the same day, across the years. Enjoy it, because birthdays are healthy for you. Each one a celebration of life and testimony of blessings.
===
- 1862 – American Civil War: The Confederate Armybegan an attempt to gain control of the Southwestwith a major victory in the Battle of Valverde.
- 1918 – The Carolina Parakeet (pictured), the onlyparrot species native to the eastern United States, became extinct when the last individual died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
- 1921 – Rezā Khan seized Tehran to make himself the most powerful person in Iran, which eventually led to the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty.
- 1965 – Black nationalist Malcolm X was assassinated while giving a speech in New York City's Audubon Ballroom.
- 1973 – After accidentally having strayed into Israeli airspace, Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 was shot down by two Israeli fighter planes.
===
Events
- 362 – Athanasius returns to Alexandria.
- 1245 – Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery.
- 1440 – The Prussian Confederation is formed.
- 1543 – Battle of Wayna Daga – A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeats a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn.
- 1613 – Mikhail I is elected unanimously as Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.
- 1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
- 1808 – Without a previous declaration of war, Russian troops cross the border to Sweden at Abborfors in eastern Finland, thus beginning theFinnish war, in which Sweden will lose the eastern half of the country (i.e. Finland) to Russia.
- 1842 – John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
- 1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Valverde is fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory.
- 1874 – The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first edition.
- 1878 – The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
- 1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
- 1913 – Ioannina is incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.
- 1916 – World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.
- 1918 – The last Carolina Parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
- 1919 – Kurt Eisner, German socialist, is assassinated. His death results in the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and parliament and government fleeing Munich,Germany.
- 1921 – Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution.
- 1921 – Rezā Shāh takes control of Tehran during a successful coup
- 1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
- 1937 – Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile.
- 1937 – The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
- 1945 – World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damage the Saratoga.
- 1947 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
- 1948 – NASCAR is incorporated.
- 1952 – The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free".
- 1952 – The Bengali Language Movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
- 1958 – The Peace symbol, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.
- 1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
- 1970 – Swissair Flight 330: A mid-air bomb explosion and subsequent crash kills 38 passengers and nine crew members near Zürich, Switzerland.
- 1971 – The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
- 1972 – President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
- 1972 – The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
- 1973 – Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108.
- 1974 – The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.
- 1975 – Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
- 1976 – The inaugural Winter Paralympic Games opened in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden.
- 1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
[edit]Births
- 1484 – Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg (d. 1535)
- 1556 – Sethus Calvisius, German calendar reformer (d. 1615)
- 1621 – Rebecca Nurse, English colonist executed during Salem witch trials (d. 1692)
- 1675 – Franz Xaver Josef von Unertl, Bavarian politician (d. 1750)
- 1703 – Shah Waliullah, Islamic Scholar and Reformer (d. 1762)
- 1705 – Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, British naval officer (d. 1781)
- 1721 – John McKinly, American physician (d. 1796)
- 1723 – Louis-Pierre Anquetil, French historian (d. 1808)
- 1728 – Tsar Peter III of Russia, husband of Catherine the Great (d. 1762)
- 1783 – Princess Catharina of Württemberg, Queen consort of Westphalia (d. 1835)
- 1791 – Carl Czerny, Austrian composer (d. 1857)
- 1794 – Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican president (d. 1876)
- 1801 – John Henry Newman, English Catholic cardinal (d. 1890)
- 1817 – Jose Zorrilla y Moral, Spanish dramatist (d. 1893)
- 1821 – Charles Scribner I, American publisher (d. 1871)
- 1836 – Léo Delibes, French composer (d. 1891)
- 1844 – Charles-Marie Widor, French composer (d. 1937)
- 1860 – Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod, Czech journalist (d. 1927)
- 1860 – Goscombe John, Welsh sculptor (d. 1952)
- 1865 – John Haden Badley, English school founder (d. 1967)
- 1867 – Otto Hermann Kahn, German millionaire (d. 1934)
- 1875 – Jeanne Calment, French super-centenarian (d. 1997)
- 1876 – Pyotr Konchalovsky, Russian painter (d. 1956)
- 1878 – Mirra Alfassa, Indian spiritual leader (d. 1973)
- 1880 – Waldemar Bonsels, German writer (d. 1952)
- 1880 – Otto Christman, Canadian football player (d. 1963)
- 1882 – William Jeremiah Tuttle, American freestyle swimmer and water polo player (d. 1930)
- 1885 – Sacha Guitry, Russian dramatist (d. 1957)
- 1887 – Korechika Anami, Japanese general (d. 1945)
- 1888 – Clemence Dane, British novelist and playwright (d. 1965)
- 1893 – Celia Lovsky, Russian-born actress (d. 1979)
- 1893 – Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987)
- 1895 – Henrik Dam Danish biochemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1976)
- 1896 – Suryakant Tripathi, Indian Poet.(d.1961)
- 1900 – Madeleine Renaud, French theater actress (d. 1994)
- 1903 – Fairfax M. Cone, American advertising executive (d. 1977)
- 1903 – Anaïs Nin, French diarist (d. 1977)
- 1903 – Raymond Queneau, French poet and novelist (d. 1976)
- 1903 – Scrapper Blackwell, American blues guitarist and singer (d. 1962)
- 1904 – Alexei Kosygin, Soviet-Russian politician (d. 1980)
- 1907 – W. H. Auden, English poet (d. 1973)
- 1909 – Hans Erni, Swiss painter
- 1910 – Douglas Bader, British pilot (d. 1982)
- 1910 – Carmine Galante, American gangster (d. 1979)
- 1910 – Eddie Waring, British sports commentator (d. 1986)
- 1912 – Marjorie Lane, American actress and singer (d. 2012)
- 1912 – Nikita Magaloff, Russian pianist (d. 1992)
- 1913 – Roger Laurent, Belgian race car driver (d. 1997)
- 1914 – Ilmari Juutilainen, Finnish pilot (d. 1999)
- 1914 – Park Su-geun, Korean painter (d. 1965)
- 1915 – Ann Sheridan, American actress (d. 1967)
- 1917 – Lucille Bremer, American actress (d. 1996)
- 1919 – Kehat Shorr, Israeli shooting coach (d. 1972)
- 1921 – John Rawls, American philosopher (d. 2002)
- 1921 – Peter Whalley, Canadian cartoonist and sculptor (d. 2007)
- 1924 – Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe 1987–present
- 1925 – Sam Peckinpah, American director (d. 1984)
- 1927 – Erma Bombeck, American humorist (d. 1996)
- 1927 – Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer
- 1927 – Pierre Mercure, Canadian musician and composer (d. 1966)
- 1929 – James Beck, English actor (d. 1973)
- 1929 – Roberto "Chespirito" Gómez Bolaños, Mexican actor
- 1930 – Pedro R. Dean, Filipino Metropolitan Archbishop-emeritus of Palo
- 1933 – Nina Simone, American singer (d. 2003)
- 1934 – Rue McClanahan, American actress (d. 2010)
- 1935 – Mark McManus, Scottish actor (d. 1994)
- 1935 – Jean Pelletier, Canadian political operative
- 1936 – Barbara Jordan, American politician (d. 1996)
- 1937 – King Harald V of Norway
- 1937 – Gary Lockwood, American actor
- 1938 – Bobby Charles, American singer and songwriter (d. 2010)
- 1939 – Richard Beymer, American Actor
- 1940 – Peter Gethin, British racing driver (d. 2011)
- 1940 – John Lewis, American politician and civil rights activist
- 1940 – Wong Jim, Hong Kong composer (d. 2004)
- 1942 – Tony Martin, Trinidadian-American historian (d. 2013)
- 1942 – Margarethe von Trotta, German actress and director
- 1943 – David Geffen, American record producer
- 1945 – D'Anna Fortunato, American mezzo-soprano
- 1945 – Walter Momper, German politician
- 1945 – Paul Newton, British musician (Uriah Heep)
- 1946 – Tyne Daly, American actress
- 1946 – Anthony Daniels, British actor
- 1946 – Alan Rickman, English actor
- 1946 – Bob Ryan, American sports columnist
- 1946 – Vito Rizzuto, Sicilian-born Canadian head of Rizzuto crime family
- 1947 – Johnny Echols, American musician (Love)
- 1947 – Olympia Snowe, American politician
- 1947 – Victor Sokolov, Russian journalist (d. 2006)
- 1949 – Jerry Harrison, American musician (Talking Heads and The Modern Lovers)
- 1949 – Ronnie Hellström, Swedish footballer
- 1951 – Wolfgang Frank, German footballer
- 1951 – Vince Welnick, American musician (The Grateful Dead and The Tubes) (d. 2006)
- 1952 – Jean Jacques Burnel, British musician (The Stranglers)
- 1952 – Jeffrey Shaara, American novelist
- 1953 – Christine Ebersole, American actress
- 1953 – William Petersen, American actor
- 1954 – Mike Pickering, English disc jockey and musician (Quando Quango and M People)
- 1954 – Ivo Van Damme, Belgian athlete (d. 1976)
- 1955 – Kelsey Grammer, American actor
- 1958 – Jake Burns, Irish singer (Stiff Little Fingers)
- 1958 – Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer
- 1958 – Jack Coleman, American actor
- 1958 – Alan Trammell, American baseball player and manager
- 1959 – José María Cano, Spanish musician (Mecano)
- 1959 – Emmett McAuliffe, American radio show host and lawyer
- 1960 – Laurent Petitguillaume, French radio and television host
- 1960 – Steve Wynn, American singer/songwriter (Dream Syndicate)
- 1961 – Christopher Atkins, American actor
- 1961 – Bertha Faye, American wrestler (d. 2001)
- 1961 – Martha Hackett, American actress
- 1962 – Vanessa Feltz, British television presenter
- 1962 – Chuck Palahniuk, American writer
- 1962 – David Foster Wallace, American writer (d. 2008)
- 1963 – William Baldwin, American actor
- 1964 – Huw Higginson, British actor
- 1964 – Mark Kelly, American astronaut
- 1964 – Scott Kelly, American astronaut
- 1964 – Jane Tomlinson, British cancer campaigner (d. 2007)
- 1967 – Leroy Burrell, American runner
- 1967 – Silke-Beate Knoll, German athlete
- 1969 – James Dean Bradfield, Welsh musician (Manic Street Preachers)
- 1969 – Aunjanue Ellis, American actress
- 1969 – Corey Harris, American musician
- 1969 – Tony Meola, American footballer
- 1969 – Chen Wei, Chinese dissident
- 1970 – Michael Slater, Australian cricketer
- 1970 – Eric Wilson, American bass player (Sublime, Sublime with Rome and Long Beach Dub Allstars)
- 1971 – Randy Blythe, American musician (Lamb of God)
- 1972 – Seo Taiji, Korean musician (Sinawe)
- 1973 – Jacob M. Appel, American bioethicist
- 1973 – Heri Joensen, Faroese musician (Týr)
- 1973 – Brian Rolston, American ice hockey player
- 1973 – Justin Sane, American musician (Anti-Flag)
- 1973 – Marina Stets, Belarusian tennis player
- 1973 – Bowie Tsang, Taiwanese singer and TV host
- 1974 – Iván Campo, Spanish footballer
- 1974 – Roberto Heras, Spanish cyclist
- 1975 – Wish Bone, American rapper (Bone Thugs-N-Harmony)
- 1975 – Troy Slaten, American actor
- 1976 – Michael McIntyre English Comedian
- 1976 – Ryan Smyth, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1977 – Steve Francis, American basketball player
- 1977 – Chad Hutchinson, baseball and football player
- 1977 – Owen King, American writer and journalist
- 1977 – Kevin Rose, American businessman and television host, founded Digg
- 1978 – Park Eun-hye, South Korean actress
- 1978 – Kim Ha Neul, South Korean actress
- 1978 – Nicole Parker, American actress
- 1979 – Pascal Chimbonda, French footballer
- 1979 – Carly Colón, Puerto Rican wrestler
- 1979 – Lonnie Ford, American football player
- 1979 – Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress
- 1980 – Brodus Clay, American wrestler
- 1980 – Brad Fast, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1980 – Tiziano Ferro, Italian singer
- 1980 – Yannick Lupien, Canadian freestyle swimmer
- 1980 – Parthiva Sureshwaren, Indian racing driver
- 1980 – Jim Vandermeer, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1980 – Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 5th king of Bhutan
- 1980 – Brendan Sexton III, American actor
- 1981 – Jun Kaname, Japanese actor
- 1982 – Bernhard Auinger, Austrian racing driver
- 1982 – Andre Barrett, American basketball player
- 1982 – Chantal Claret, American singer (Morningwood)
- 1982 –Tebogo Jacko Magubane, South African DJ and Radio Producer
- 1983 – Braylon Edwards, American football player
- 1983 – Franklin Gutiérrez, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1983 – Mélanie Laurent, French actress and director
- 1984 – Andrew Ellis, New Zealand rugby player
- 1984 – David Odonkor, German footballer
- 1984 – Marco Paoloni, Italian footballer
- 1984 – Karina, Japanese model and actress
- 1984 – James Wisniewski, American ice hockey player
- 1984 – Damien Molony, British actor
- 1985 – Jarrod Atkinson, Australian rules footballer
- 1985 – Bob Burton, American speedcuber
- 1985 – Simon Cusden, English cricketer
- 1985 – Georgios Samaras, Greek footballer
- 1985 – Jamaal Westerman, Canadian football player
- 1986 – Charlotte Church, Welsh singer
- 1986 – Prince Amedeo of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este
- 1987 – Ellen Page, Canadian actress
- 1987 – Ashley Greene, American model and actress
- 1987 – Enrique David Mateo, Brazilian footballer
- 1988 – Matthias de Zordo, German javelin thrower
- 1989 – Corbin Bleu, American actor and singer
- 1989 – Kristin Herrera, American actress
- 1989 – Jem Karacan, English-born Turkish footballer
- 1989 – Scout Taylor-Compton, American actress
- 1989 – Josh Walker, English footballer
- 1990 – Mattias Tedenby, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1990 – David Addy, Ghanaian footballer
- 1992 – Phil Jones, English footballer
- 1993 – Steve Leo Beleck, Cameroonian footballer
- 1996 – Sophie Turner, English actress
- 2001 – Isabella Acres, American actress
[edit]Deaths
- 1437 – King James I of Scotland (b. 1394)
- 1471 – John of Rokycan, Czech Hussite theologian
- 1513 – Pope Julius II (b. 1443)
- 1543 – Ahmed Gragn, Sultan of Adal
- 1554 – Hieronymus Bock, German botanist (b. 1498)
- 1595 – Robert Southwell, English Jesuit priest and poet
- 1668 – John Thurloe, English Puritan spy (b. 1616)
- 1677 – Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher (b. 1632)
- 1715 – Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Governor of the Province of Maryland (b. 1637)
- 1730 – Pope Benedict XIII (b. 1649)
- 1788 – Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (b. 1723)
- 1821 – Georg Friedrich von Martens, German diplomat (b. 1756)
- 1824 – Eugène de Beauharnais, son of Napoleon's wife, Josephine (b. 1781)
- 1846 – Emperor Ninko of Japan (b. 1800)
- 1862 – Justinus Kerner, German poet (b. 1786)
- 1891 – James Timberlake, American lawman (b. 1846)
- 1900 – Marthinus Nikolaas Ras, South African Gunmaker (b. 1853)
- 1901 – George Francis Fitzgerald, Irish mathematician (b. 1851)
- 1919 – Kurt Eisner, German socialist (assassinated), leader of socialist revolution of 1918 in Bavaria (b. 1867)
- 1920 – Jacinta Marto, witness of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima (b. 1910)
- 1926 – Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
- 1934 – Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino, Nicaraguan revolutionary (b. 1895)
- 1938 – George Ellery Hale, American astronomer (b. 1868)
- 1941 – Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1891)
- 1944 – Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (b. 1873)
- 1945 – Eric Liddell, Scottish runner (b. 1902)
- 1946 – José Streel, Belgian World War II collaborator (b. 1911)
- 1949 – Tan Malaka, Indonesian nationalist activist and communist leader (b. 1894)
- 1958 – Duncan Edwards, English footballer (b. 1936)
- 1960 – Jacques Becker, French film director and screenwriter (b. 1906)
- 1965 – Malcolm X, Black American civil rights leader (b. 1925)
- 1966 – Paul Comtois, French Canadian politician (b. 1895)
- 1967 – Charles Beaumont, American writer (b. 1929)
- 1968 – Howard Walter Florey, Australian-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1898)
- 1972 – Zhang Guohua, Chinese general and politician (b. 1914)
- 1972 – Bronislava Nijinska, Polish-Russian ballet dancer (b. 1891)
- 1972 – Eugène Tisserant, French Catholic Cardinal (b. 1884)
- 1974 – Tim Horton, Canadian hockey player (b. 1930)
- 1977 – Nolan Strong, a Detroit doo-wop singer with The Diablos (b. 1934)
- 1978 – Mieczysław Żywczyński, Polish historian and priest (b. 1901)
- 1980 – Alfred Andersch, German writer (b. 1914)
- 1981 – Erika Köth, German coloratura soprano (b. 1927)
- 1982 – Murray the K, American impresario and disc jockey (b. 1922)
- 1982 – Gershom Scholem, German-born Israeli Jewish philosopher and historian (b. 1897)
- 1984 – Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- 1985 – Louis Hayward, British actor (b. 1909)
- 1986 – Helen Hooven Santmyer, American writer (b. 1895)
- 1987 – Noel Odell, English mountaineer, last person to see Mallory and Irvine alive (b. 1890)
- 1989 – Alex Thépot, French footballer (b. 1906)
- 1991 – Dorothy Auchterlonie, Australian academic, literary critic and poet (b. 1915)
- 1991 – Nutan Behl, Indian actress (b. 1936)
- 1991 – Dame Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer (b. 1919)
- 1994 – Johannes Steinhoff, German fighter pilot & NATO commander (b. 1913)
- 1995 – Jorge José Emiliano dos Santos, Brazilian Football Referee (b. 1954)
- 1996 – Morton Gould, American composer (b. 1913)
- 1999 – Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1918)
- 1999 – Ilmari Juutilainen, Finnish fighter pilot (b. 1914)
- 1999 – Wilmer David Mizell, baseball player (b. 1930)
- 2000 – Antonio Díaz-Miguel, Spanish basketball coach (b. 1933)
- 2002 – Harold Furth, Austrian-born physicist (b. 1939)
- 2002 – John Thaw, English actor (b. 1942)
- 2003 – Eddie Thomson, Scottish football player and coach (b. 1947)
- 2004 – John Charles, Welsh footballer (b. 1931)
- 2004 – Guido Molinari, Canadian artist (b. 1933)
- 2005 – Ara Berberian, American opera singer (b. 1930)
- 2005 – Gérard Bessette, French-Canadian novelist and poet (b. 1920)
- 2005 – Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban novelist (b. 1929)
- 2005 – Eugene Scott, American religious broadcaster (b. 1929)
- 2008 – Ben Chapman, American actor (b. 1928)
- 2008 – Neil Chotem, Canadien conductor, composer and arranger (b. 1920)
- 2008 – Sunny Lowry, first British woman to swim the English Channel (b. 1911)
- 2011 – Abdulredha Buhmaid, Bahraini protester killed by army (b. 1982)
- 2011 – Bernard Nathanson, American abortionist turned pro-life activist (b. 1926)
- 2011 – Dwayne McDuffie, American writer of comic books and television (b. 1962)
- 2012 – Benjamin Romualdez, Filipino politician (b. 1930)
- 2012 – Colin Ireland, British serial killer (b. 1954)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- International Mother Language Day (UNESCO)
- Language Movement Day (Bangladesh)
- The first day of Musikahan Festival, celebrated until February 27. (Tagum City)
- Feralia (Roman Empire)
===
Morality is cast adrift on a sea of arrogance
Piers Akerman – Thursday, February 21, 2013 (7:31pm)
IT seems like yesterday but it was in fact last October when then immigration minister Chris Bowen wrung his hands and cited the deaths at sea of more than 1060 people trying to reach Australia as reason to establish a processing centre in PNG. More than 700 of those deaths had occurred since October 2009, he said.
===
Gillard, Plibersek try health funding scam
Piers Akerman – Thursday, February 21, 2013 (6:33am)
THE Prime Minister pro tem Julia Gillard has been forced to restore a $107 million cut to Victorian hospitals.
Typically, the Gillard government has lied about the action.
In doing so, the disgraceful Tanya Plibersek, one of Gillard’s kitchen coven of men-hating Emily’s Listers, has been further revealed as a failed Health Minister.
Both Gillard and Plibersek attempted to blame the Victorian Liberal government for the federal Labor-Green-Independent minority government’s stuff-up.
But the Victorian government has been supported in its claims that the Gillard government used outdated figures to justify its slashing of the hospital budget.
According to reports in The Herald-Sun, the architect of Medicare John Deeble slammed the federal government’s budget cuts and described the misuse of population figures to justify them as “contentious” and “extraordinary” in a submission to a Senate inquiry.
“They deliver cuts that should be spread over several years in just a single year,” he said.
Evidence to the same Senate inquiry which begins hearings in Melbourne today also shows the federal government ignored the advice of the Australian Bureau of Statistics when recalculating population growth.
Victorian Greens Senator Richard Di Natale said the backdown by the government came on the eve of a Senate inquiry forced by the Greens that would have embarrassed it.
“It appears that the government manipulated ABS data to justify the cuts,” he said.
Federal Opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton said the Gillard Government had been incompetent.
“Doctors and nurses have been put off and people contacted to have their elective surgeries cancelled,’’ Dutton said.
“Tanya Plibersek should be ashamed and should resign.’’
And pigs might fly.
Victorian Health Minister David Davis welcomed the return of the 2012-13 funding as a “first step”, but said he would push for ongoing cuts to be returned over the next three years.
“The Federal Government now needs to follow up and restore the full amount of $475 million,” he said.
Mr Davis said the cuts had crippled Victoria’s health system and it would take a long time for the impact to be reversed, even with the return of this year’s funding.
Gillard, who held a taxpayer-funded “community Cabinet” meeting in the South Australian Liberal seat of Boothby last night to promote the local Labor candidate, claimed her backdown would deliver what she called a “rescue package”.
This is clearly the new model for Labor spin.
Create a problem, then rip borrowed money out of other areas of government expenditure to apply a temporary fix.
What is a political game for Gillard and Plibersek is a chilling horror for those involved.
Hospitals in Victoria have announced plans to cut about 20,000 elective surgeries over the next four months, close 350 hospital beds, shut overnight emergency departments and axe staff.
The hospitals affected ranged from the Royal Children’s, The Alfred and Peter MacCallum to Bendigo, Colac and Lilydale.
The so-called fix will be paid for through the extraordinary step of ripping away other money earmarked for Victoria for occupational health and safety and will “count against” future projects.
Showing pure spite, Gillard accused Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu of running a “a disingenuous and purely political campaign”.
She said the state was to blame for the cuts because it managed the hospital system and despite receiving other federal money, it had decided to hurt patients.
But the funding cut was announced in Treasurer Wayne Swan’s Budget update in October and based on a complex formula and controversial population estimates that Victoria said were outdated.
Who do you believe? Not Gillard and Plibersek.
===
POPCORN O’CLOCK
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 21, 2013 (1:29pm)
Christine Milne versus Labor:
‘’Before we would have tried to help them sort this mess out, now they’re on their own …”
Kevin Rudd versus the Greens:
‘’They like to call themselves the Greens as if it’s a social movement,’’ Mr Rudd said.‘’It’s a political party which organises itself for political purposes. The same principled environmental party which voted twice against and supported the Liberals in refusing to pass an emissions trading scheme in the period I was Prime Minister. I think the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has had more than a few challenges on her hand in dealing with minority parties.’’
Julia Gillard versus polls:
“The choice that matters is not the choice that you gabble down the phone to someone who rings up from a polling company,” Ms Gillard said.
Fate versus Sarah Hanson-Young:
In South Australia, senator Sarah Hanson-Young is in grave danger of losing her seat.
UPDATE. Labor versus the Greens and Labor:
An unnamed Labor Party source accurately told the Australian Financial Review yesterday: ”We are smelly and the Greens don’t like the stench and they know we will take them down with us.”
They’ve gone from “we are us” to “we are smelly” in just 415 days.
UPDATE II. Joe versus the Greens:
===
FOOL BRITANNIA
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 21, 2013 (1:27pm)
Our energy policy is no longer dictated by the need to keep supply plentiful and cheap which for decades was the basis of all planning. Today energy policy is framed with only one factor in mind: satisfying the green lobby.It is, to be blunt, mad. Next month we are forcing 10 per cent of our energy production plants to close in order to meet environmental targets.They are in full working order.No matter. They will be boarded up by order of the state.
As James Delingpole notes, there’s no going back.
===
NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 21, 2013 (1:17pm)
If you’re going to go for Big Government, you might as well have something to show for it. Sweden and Denmark have the Oresund Bridge, Britain and France the Channel Tunnel, Russia the St. Petersburg flood barrier. But, four years after Obama’s first stimulus bill, America still isn’t shovel-ready. A New York flood barrier? As the president would say, you didn’t build that, and neither will he.
Likewise, in Australia we have Big Government minus any useful Big Things. Our current mob can’t even get a Big Tax right:
‘’Would the government have been worse off in the past six months with the original resource super profits tax? Yes. That’s a big fat yes,’’ said Chris Richardson, a former Treasury economist now at Deloitte Access …‘’People are screaming that the revised tax is a disaster because it has hardly raised any money. But they would have been screaming more if we had the original tax – it would have cost the government money.’’
Beautiful.
===
MADE IN HEAVEN
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 21, 2013 (11:08am)
The AFR’s Phil Coorey on the Labor/Greens divorce:
The government … has been suffering politically from its association with the Greens, especially over the carbon tax …A Greens insider said the party’s internal polling showed it was being dragged down by its association with what was perceived as a dysfunctional government.
Stabilidy meets cerdundy.
UPDATE. Bulgaria finds itself in a plausibly Australian scenario:
Bulgaria’s government has announced it is resigning after nationwide protests against high electricity prices and austerity measures, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov has said.The PM tried to calm the protests on Tuesday by promising to slash prices and by sacking his finance minister …It was not immediately clear whether or not a parliamentary election scheduled for July would now be brought forward.
According to Nick Thorpe’s analysis, at the same link:
The immediate concern in Bulgaria is stability.
===
Why did it take the IPA to spot this grotesque threat?
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY212013(7:47pm)
The Human Rights Commission wanted new laws against free speech that were so tough even Labor - which proposed them - is now backing off.
Almost no one in the Leftist media or the usual “civil liberties” groups seemed to care.
The Grattan Institute, a think-tank set up with $30 million of grants from the Victorian and federal Labor governments at a Labor-friendly university, was silent.
Even Coalition politicians seemed asleep to the danger.
It actually took a small, privately-funded think-tank to raise the alarm about legislation so draconian that public fury has now forced the Gillard Government back down. John Roskam, head of the Institute of Public Affairs, describes - with perfect justification - how the IPA led the fight for freedom against a threat many journalists, “human rights” bureaucrats and politicians nearly waved through:
===
If Wilders is wrong, explain this conference
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY212013(6:45pm)
Geert Wilders, the Dutch political leader now on a speaking tour of Australia, has not only had his speeches blockaded by violent demonstrators trying to stop Australians from hearing him.
He has not only been vilified in the media for trying to warn that Islam as an ideology is a menace to Western values and freedoms - from the freedom to speak to even identify as gay.
Depressingly, he has even been shunned by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Jewish community leaders. It seems to me that political or community advantage is being put before principle - and fear is preventing a rational discussion of Wilders’ message.
It’s driven Abbott, even Abbott, to misrepresent what Wilders is in fact saying and play blind to the issue he actually raises - which is about the nature of Islam, not its followers:
Mr Abbott said Wilders’ was “substantially” wrong about Islam and the preparedness of Muslims living in Australia to integrate.
“He is entitled to his view but I think that the Muslims in this country see themselves rightly as fair dinkum, dinky-di Australians, just as the Catholics and the Jews and Protestants and the atheists, we see ourselves as Australians,” Mr Abbott told host Neil Mitchell.
This hypocrisy and fear is exposed best by what is misleadingly called a ”Peace Conference and Exhibition” being organised in Melbourne in March.
The conference is advertised on billboards in Broadmeadows, Altona, Dandenong and South Melbourne and is organised by the Islamic Information Services Network of Australasia and Islamic Research and Educational Academy. It is also and backed by the Islamic Council of Victoria and a range of other Muslim groups, mosques and communities.
It is fronted by Melbourne Muslim activist Wazeem Razvi, who in a recorded speech, boasted of the range of speakers:
Our guest speakers are … more than 15 international speakers, the chief guest that we have is Abdul Rahman Al-Sudays, the imam of Mecca ... and the big news is alhumdulillah he has agreed to come to Australia and he has agreed to come to our Islamic conference … Also Brother Imran from India, Sheikh Abdul Hadi who is one of the speakers from PeaceTV from UK, Sheikh Anwar Sahib from New Zealand , one of the speakers from the Islamic Online University, run by Dr Bilal Philips … Brother Eddie [Eddie Redzovic] from USA, Sheikh Hussain Yee of Malaysia, the Buddhist convert to Islam, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, the Board of Imams president in Australia … Sheikh Issa from the Werribee mosque, Abu Hamza from IISNA , Abu Ayman from Ahl As-Sunnah wal Jama’ , Sheikh Mohamad Abou Eid from Preston mosque, and ... Sheikh Mishari Alafasy from Kuwait, … Mishari from Emirates Dubai in the UAE … Sheikh ‘Assim alHakeem, the English speaker from Saudi Arabia…We have to invite Dr Zakir Naik from India. He is, I reckon, inshallah, a very good scholar of Islam and comparative religion. He is my boss’ boss, so we are definitely going to invite him....
The big news is, alhumdulillah, that we have approached the Prime Minister, Miss Julia Gillard, now this word has to be made between us, don’t let it go out, alhumdulillah, she has agreed to be present in the conference ...
With such wide backing, and so many prominent speakers, it would be fair to say it represents Muslim thought today in Australia and the world.
And when you check precisely what a number of the speakers have said, you come up with a picture of Islam remarkably similar to the one Geert Wilders is trying to warn against.
Take the main organiser himself. In a lecture recorded last December in Melbourne, Waseem Razvi, who supports Sharia law in Australia, said Islam allowed violence in defence of the faith:
Take the main organiser himself. In a lecture recorded last December in Melbourne, Waseem Razvi, who supports Sharia law in Australia, said Islam allowed violence in defence of the faith:
You don’t have to try to convince by being compromising on Islam … you don’t have to say that Islam is all about peace, “no we don’t fight, we are not violent.” You know, the Prophet fought 30 wars … yes, we are not non-violent, we are violent but when there is a need for it. We are battles people. We are not like Buddhists wearing an orange dress and always saying we want peace, and you never get your own country. No, we fight for our country. We have in Islam Jihad, yes, but we will never do terrorism. Yes Jihad is very Islamic, so you don’t have to retreat from that.
Here are some facts you should know about the other invited speakers.
Al-Azhar Sheikh Abdur-Rahman Al-Sudais, imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, is the highest-ranking cleric in the Sunni Muslim world. He has prayed to God to “terminate” the Jews and is a virulent anti-Semite to judge from his sermons:
[Jews are] the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the violators of pacts and agreements, the murderers of the prophets, and the offspring of apes and pigs…Read history and you will understand that the Jews of yesterday are the evil fathers of the Jews of today, who are evil offspring, infidels, distorters of [others’] words, calf-worshippers, prophet-murderers, prophecy-deniers... the scum of the human race ‘whom Allah cursed and turned into apes and pigs...’ These are the Jews, an ongoing continuum of deceit, obstinacy, licentiousness, evil, and corruption...
Another invited speaker is Sheikh Assim Al-Hakeem, who says the punishment for gays is death:
In a video on YouTube in which he is asked whether being gay is wrong, Al-Hakeem says homosexuality is ‘unnatural’.‘If you refer to the Old Testament, you will find that homosexuality is forbidden and the punishment for that is stoning to death. In Islam, the same thing applies.He added: ‘Homosexuality is an abnormality which should be treated and should not be accepted as a normal thing.’In answer to a question on his website, Al-Hakeem also compares gay people to ‘animals that seek only their sexual satisfaction through their weird ways’.
What is the penalty on a person who change his religion from islam to some other religion ?This is apostasy and it is punishable by death in an Islamic society.
Another invited speaker - described by the conference organiser as “my boss’s boss” - is Sheikh Zakir Naik, who has said he was a supporter of Osama bin Laden if he was attacking enemies of Islam:
Every Muslim should be a terrorist.
It is a blatant, open secret that this attack on the Twin Towers was done by George Bush himself.
Another invited speaker is Abu Hamza from Melbourne-based IISNA, who has offered Muslims advice on ”how to beat your wife” to make them “shape up”:
In a lecture titled “The Keys to a Successful Marriage”, ... Mr Hamza said men could beat their wives, “to shape them up"…He also said women “must respond” if their husbands wanted to have sex, and ridiculed laws that prohibit rape within marriage…In the sermon Mr Hamza initially tells his listeners “don’t hit your wife”.But he goes on to detail how men should hit their wives, according to his interpretation of Islamic teachings.He says it is permissible to hit women as a “last resort” but that “the beating the Mohammed showed is like the toothbrush that you use to brush your teeth”.“You are not allowed to bruise them, you are not allowed to make them bleed...”
Sheikh Yee, another invitee, claims Jews celebrated the September 11 attacks, which weren’t the work of Muslims, and Jews are the real extremists:
The most extreme nation in this world is the Jews. So if they use ‘extremists,’ it doesn’t apply to Muslims. It applies to the Jews. They are the extremists of the world. That’s why they kill Palestinians every day.... [Jews] go to Hell.
I dispute any evil action linked to bin Laden.
He is a good man in some ways, and not in other ways.
But the choice of Philips is even odder given the United States named him as an “unindicted co-conspirator” over the 1993 bombing of New York’s World Trade Centre, and our own security agencies judged him such a threat he was banned from coming here.Philips insists he rejects terrorism and considers al-Qaida a “deviate” group. But ... he was hired by the Saudi air force during the first Gulf War to preach to American soldiers stationed in Saudi Arabia and convert them to Islam…Philips didn’t just take down their names; he also visited them back in America. “My role was confined to encouraging them to train Muslim-American volunteers and go to Bosnia to help the mujahidin and take part in the war (against Serbia),” he boasted. That worked, too.Philips says his name was dragged into the investigation of the first World Trade Centre bombing, in which six people were killed, because some African-American soldiers he’d converted were offered by someone else to Sheik Abdel Rahmen, spiritual head of the terrorists behind the attack....
If interfaith visitors do visit the Melbourne Showground for the ‘Peace Conference’ they might inquire what Koranic verses they are being asked to listen to, and whether the following passages will be included:Jews are pact breakers – Sura 5:13 and 2:27
Allah turned some Jews into apes (and pigs) (the inference being that some of today’s Jews are descendants of those people who were turned into apes and pigs: hence they referred to as ‘grandsons’ or ‘descendants’ ‘of apes and pigs’) – Sura 2:65, 5:60 and 7:166
Jews are murders of the prophets – Sura 3:181, 2:55What sense are the people of Melbourne meant to make of the proposition that they needn’t worry that the preacher [ Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid, who will recite the Koran at the conference] has called for the annihilation of Jews, because he was only speaking Arabic?
But for me there are even bigger questions. Why are politicians, journalists and Jewish leaders now demonising Geert Wilders for warning against exactly the ideology of Islam as preached by many speakers at this conference?
Why do they pretend Wilders has misrepresented Islam when the very things he describes are preached openly?
Why are they silent over or even complicit in attempts to silence or frighten Wilders - who has not advocated violence - yet apparently happy that true hate-preachers who preach death for gays, Jews and enemies of Islam may speak freely in this country?
Why the hypocrisy? Why the fear?
(An earlier version of this post misidentified Sheikh Abdur-Rahman Al-Sudais.)
===
Paul Howes on being “so nasty, so personal”
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY212013(5:14pm)
AWU boss Paul Howes, whose union keeps Julia Gillard in power, claims not to like all this personal abuse:
Mr Howes bemoaned how politics had become ‘’so nasty, so personal‘’.
This complaint followed this speech by Howes at the AWU conference:
‘’We know what type of man Tony Abbott is. We know what type of man Eric Abetz is. We know what kind of joker Joe Hockey is. Hell, we even know who Barnaby Joyce is even if he doesn’t know it himself.’’Mr Howes ridiculed the image of Senator Joyce as an average Australian, saying: ‘’He’s a guy who goes on cruise ship holidays with Gina Rinehart. He’s a guy who writes letters to Gina Rinehart’s children begging them to stop litigation against their mother.’’Mr Howes labelled Mr Abbott as ‘’the most inconsistent so-called conviction politician that this nation has ever seen’’, pointing to contradictory statements over climate change and WorkChoices.He said Mr Abbott was only consistent on ‘’extreme social conservative’’ positions on reproductive rights.‘’It’s hard to actually call Tony Abbott a conservative because he’s so extreme; because he’s so brash; because he resorts to the politics of smear and innuendo so much. That’s not conservative; that’s extreme. And when nations have extremist politicians and when extremists gain power it’s a very, very scary thing.’’
Mr Howes, the union’s national secretary, will use his opening address to 300 delegates to ridicule former Rio Tinto chief Tom Albanese, Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer as “titans of industry, who can’t even make a profit in the middle of a resources boom”.“It’s these people who have the gall to try to buy an election with a $30 million advertising campaign, just because they don’t want to pay their fair share of tax,” he will say, according to speech notes seen by The Australian…“These corporate robber barons, in their shiny suits, think they own our country,” he will say.
I like Paul. I don’t like hypocrisy.
===
Another 100 boat people lured to their deaths by Labor’s “compassion”
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY212013(11:02am)
Another 100 boat people lured to their deaths by Labor’s much-praised “compassion”:
ALMOST 100 dead asylum seekers headed for Australia were thrown overboard one by one by starving shipmates - and new Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor admits he has no short-term solution to slow down the influx of boats.Mr O’Connor said 98 Burmese refugees died terrible deaths as they drifted without food. Their boat was found off Sri Lanka this week…The Sri Lankan navy released shocking photographs of some of the 32 emaciated survivors, who ran out of food 21 days ago and had been at sea for two months…Australia has seen more than 33,000 people arrive since Labor was elected in November 2007
Labor scrapped Australia’s tough border laws in 2008, claiming it wanted to be more compassionate. In the six years before then, an average of just three boats a year had arrived. Now the death toll alone since Labor’s catastrophic decision is around 1000 boat people.
Julia Gillard says she was the ”substantive author” of laws that have proved deadly. She for years denied people were dying as a consequence.
Has any public policy been so disastrous? So why has not a single person lost their job?
AUSTRALIAN authorities have rescued 91 people who were aboard a suspected asylum-seeker boat that capsized en route to Christmas Island.
The boats are arriving almost daily, even if the media seems too bored to report them all. From the Home Affairs Minister website:
18 February 2013 - Border Protection Command intercepts vesselHMAS Parramatta, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel north-east of Christmas Island on Friday. Earlier HMAS Albany had responded to a request for assistance that was believed to have been sent from the vessel.18 February 2013 - Border Protection Command intercepts vesselsHMAS Pirie, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel north-north-east of Ashmore Islands on Saturday evening.17 February 2013 - Border Protection Command intercepts vesselHMAS Albany, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel north-east of Christmas Island on Friday night.15 February 2013 - Border Protection Command assists vesselHMAS Pirie operating under the control of Border Protection Command has rendered assistance to a suspected irregular entry vessel that sought assistance north-west of Browse Island overnight…14 February 2013 - Border Protection Command intercepts vesselHMAS Albany, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, detected and intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel north of Christmas Island on Tuesday night
That makes 399 boat people in a week.
===
Shorten: Who, me?
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY212013(10:29am)
Great skills. Bill Shorten has managed both to become a likely successor to Julia Gillard andMr No-Blood-On-My-Hands:
Asked whether he had been approached by members of Labor’s caucus to end the paralysis within the government on the question of leadership, Shorten rolled his eyes and threw up his hands. “I’m visiting remote Australia, mining communities, to see firsthand how we assist productive and skilled workforces,” he told The Australian, which is accompanying him.
Who first leaked the claim that Shorten had been approached. Shorten himself? And who approached him? Was one indeed the Communications Minister, Steve Conroy?
UPDATE
Tom Switzer is dismayed that some want simply to swap one hypocrite for another:
Above all else, Gillard is an oxymoron. This is a woman who once championed an ‘independent’ foreign policy (left-wing code for snubbing Washington) only to now march in lockstep with Uncle Sam in a way that would make Harold Holt proud. A woman who implemented a carbon tax after promising she would do no such thing. A childless, unmarried feminist who is to the right of Dick Cheney on gay marriage.
But Rudd?
His constant striving to be all things to all men merely insulted the electorate’s intelligence. Of all his flip-flops, one stands out as particularly staggering: border protection. In 2007, he tried to neutralise a Coalition strength by pledging to ‘turn the boats back’. In 2008, he won plaudits from the sophisticates for discarding the Pacific Solution. In 2009, he appealed to Howard’s ‘battlers’ by preaching a ‘hardline’ policy against ‘evil’ and ‘vile’ people-smugglers. Then, in June 2010, in a last-minute pitch to Labor’s left to rescue his besieged leadership, he warned the party not to ‘lurch to the right’ on illegal immigrants. Why no journalist worth his or her pay has bothered asking Rudd what explains his twists and turns on one of the most important public policy challenges is a great mystery of the modern media.
For the full article, buy the latest Spectator, always excellent reading.
===
A warmist academic plans his arrest
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY212013(10:03am)
The global warming cult appeals to closet totalitarians and salvation seekers. It gives them permission to do almost anything to anybody - and to break whatever laws - on the grounds that the threat is so great and the opponents so manifestly evil.
It also appeals to the narcissistic - those who fancy themselves as The Hero. As Moses.
THEIR ABC spreads the word. Fiona Armstrong, ABC online’s environment page, Tuesday:ENERGY Policy Like “Profiting From Slavery” ... Speaking to the roundtable of around 40 healthcare leaders, Professor Colin Butler from the school of public health at Canberra University said: “Australia’s reliance on the export of coal is no more justifiable than profiting from slavery or the supply of cocaine.”From professor Colin Butler’s blog, February 8:EARTH Poisoning Diary (week 1): I just passed the 30th anniversary of the last time I was arrested ... during the successful Franklin Dam protest. ... “Earth criminals” like Martin Ferguson are getting away with poisoning our common future. They need to be brought to justice. Exporting coal in vast quantities is as immoral as Britain profiting from the slave trade ... Minister Ferguson has global influence about coal policy and has reportedly used his influence to try to intimidate protesters trying to protect the public good. His political party, the Australian Labor Party, has become notoriously corrupt.Week 1. Early Feb 2013: Made four comments declaring willingness to go to prison, to protest Earth poisoning, sanctioned by our society and both major Australian political parties.Feb 5-8: Attended Society for Human Ecology conference in Canberra. Told several groups of my intention to be arrested; someone suggested I start a diary.Feb 9: I am currently equivocating ... I am willing to go to prison, I am less sure that I want to terminate my Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, nor my employment as a professor at the University of Canberra ... I may postpone action ‘til second half 2014, when my fellowship is coming to an end.February 9, 2013: Wrote to Malcolm Turnbull MP (with whom I and two others met for 30 minutes a while back; I was very impressed).Dear Malcolm, Hope you are well. The combination of the record heat, the fires and the floods have triggered my decision to be arrested, and if necessary go to gaol, perhaps late next year, when my research fellowship is almost finished ... Very best wishes, you are my only hope ... and it’s pretty faint, I have to say!!
===
Gillard dresses self-inflicted wound with $107m
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY212013(9:25am)
Bad politics. By coughing up the cash, Julia Gillard takes responsibility for the initial cuts, despite her denials. By cutting Victoria’s grants in other areas she simply seems punitive:
Ms Gillard announced the backdown in what she called a “rescue package” that could be passed on to hospitals immediately.Hospitals have announced plans to cut about 20,000 elective surgeries over the next four months…It will be paid for through the extraordinary step of ripping away other money earmarked for Victoria for occupational health and safety and will “count against” future projects.
UPDATE
The Gillard Government has sprung another massive funding leak with this cave-in - and with the blunder that started it all:
The Gillard Government has sprung another massive funding leak with this cave-in - and with the blunder that started it all:
JULIA GILLARD has warned state governments she will “rearrange” their budgets if they agitate for the return of $1.6bn in health funding in dispute with the commonwealth…“So if we see any other premier playing this kind of politics, the way that (Victorian) Premier (Ted) Baillieu has, then there is a very clear message to those premiers.“If we see this conduct from another state we will go round them, we will deal direct with hospitals and we will cut them back in another area."…Ms Gillard’s comments follow demands today by Queensland and NSW for the Commonwealth to return hospitals funding after Canberra restored $107 million cut from Victoria’s health budget.Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek caved in to pressure from the Victorian government to reclaim the money that was cut from the state health budget based on “outdated” population figures…Earlier, Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said Ms Plibersek should do the same for Queensland as she had done for Victoria, with his state set to lose $103m in federal funding this financial year…NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner says the same population figure adjustment has left NSW out of pocket to the tune of $50m a year, and her government had made up the shortfall.“This strange deal to directly fund hospitals in Victoria does not relieve the federal government of its responsibility to restore health funding to all states and territories,” she said.
===
Australia’s new authoritarians
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY212013(9:25am)
The government’s determination to control our lives did not stop at a media inquiry. The draft Human Rights and Anti-discrimination Bill 2012 seeks to further restrict our freedoms. While softened somewhat following strong criticisms, including from eminent retired judges, the reverse onus of proof remains, along with an expansion of victimhood.The government says it never intended to restrict free speech, but the fact is, while it preaches liberty, it is about coercion. The bill is an ambit claim. We may ask, to whom is the government appealing? Since when has limiting our basic freedoms been advocated in an election campaign?There is no popular groundswell. The government is responding to the collectivist instincts of those intellectuals who hold liberty in low regard. It isn’t so long ago that an academic floated the idea that we “suspend democracy” to silence climate change sceptics. Authoritarian government appeals to these people.
===
Let the puppet Prime Minister fall
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY212013(8:51am)
JULIA Gillard is now exposed as the puppet Prime Minister who sold her soul for power.
In this most humiliating week of her career, the Greens proved she’d been their dupe and the Australian Workers Union proved - almost literally - it still pulls her strings.
===
No wonder they’d rather shut down the Wilders debate
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY212013(8:22am)
One of these tweets is from Geert Wilders and one from British imam Ajmal Masroor, who on Radio National’s Breakfast this morning flayed Wilders as ignorant and probably racist:
If Wilders had written the imam’s tweet, it would be held in evidence against him.
Here is the difference between the two: one says Islam, not more Muslims, is the problem. The other says Muslims, not Islam, is the problem.
This should be the start of an important and interesting debate. Instead we get this from the Left:
Reader Peggy writes:
Last night I attended the Geert Wilders event.I was shocked to find at the gates of the La Mirage a gang of violent protesters who actually charged at me as I tried to enter the entrance gate. They were pushing and shoving patrons and it was very ugly and quite violent. One woman actually lunged at me and pushed me, and I had to exit sideways and hide behind the police horses. It really was very rattling. Those protesters are the worst I have seen. They were forcibly trying to stop us from getting into the venue, and that included middle aged and even older patrons in their 70’s and beyond.I’ve never seen anything like it.I wish I got footage but was too busy trying to stay safe.
UPDATE
Sadly, Cory Bernardi is the only Liberal to dare speak up in support Wilders right to free speech, and to denounce those using force and fear to stop Australians from hearing him:
The reaction to his visit showed there was a ‘’double standard’’ in Australia when it came to expressing viewpoints, Senator Bernardi said.It didn’t matter whether people agreed with the Dutchman, but it was important that people were prepared to support free speech even if they didn’t like what they heard, he said.In a blog post on Wednesday, he pointed to reports that Jewish and gay people in the Netherlands no longer felt safe from attack by Islamic fundamentalists.‘’These fundamentalists are the same people who want to kill Wilders and establish sharia law under a global Caliphate because Muhammad commanded them to back in the 7th century,’’ Senator Bernardi wrote.‘’And yet, it is Wilders who is characterised as an extremist.’’
West Australian Premier Colin Barnett said he may have ‘’played some role’’ in Mr Wilders being forced to cancel his speech after saying he was not welcome at government buildings.
Any Liberal boasting about having helped stop people from speaking is no liberal at all.
===
Wilders is the threatened, not the threatening
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY212013(8:13am)
THIS week I had lunch with Geert Wilders, the Dutch political leader we’re told is a “racist” and “fascist” who could “incite violence”.
In fact, the only violence has come from anti-Wilders protesters in Melbourne attacking older Australians trying to hear him speak.
“Racist” and “fascist” are equally untrue. Wilders has Indonesian ancestry, his friends include Somali-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali and he is a supporter of Israel.
In Holland, a famously liberal country, Wilders leads the third-biggest party and now the second-most popular in the polls.
On one issue he is shockingly frank.
===
Our athletes stripped of justice
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY212013(7:59am)
NATURAL justice is a vague concept. Brownlow medallist Jobe Watson wouldn’t have cared about it until two weeks ago.It was then the Australian Crime Commission threw the concept out of the window…You see, before going public with its findings, the ACC did not interview a single Essendon player. Imagine how you’d feel if someone said you’d stolen money at your workplace or taken a bribe or made some other damaging allegation, without even asking you if it were true. Without even thinking about it, you’d expect a chance to explain yourself. That’s only fair, right?…But the ACC ... doesn’t have any evidence of drug cheating at all. How can I be so absolute in that assertion? Because ACC chief executive John Lawler told a Senate estimates committee nine days ago, less than a week after the release of the report, that the operation had gathered “intelligence” rather than “evidence”. He noted the big difference and said it was up to the bodies such as Victoria Police to gather the evidence.Hang on a minute. That means the ACC went public claiming Australian sport was dirty without a shred of evidence. And Justice Minister Jason Clare and the Minister for Sport, Kate Lundy, lined up to get in on the scaremongering.
When will the five sports chiefs who allowed themselves to be paraded at that press conference as representatives of the guilty step up and fix the damage done?
===
Warmist UN discovers a more real danger
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY212013(7:51am)
Would make more sense than the UN’s crusade to save us from global warming:
===
If the Greens are so crazy, why share power with them?
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY212013(7:40am)
So why did she make a power-sharing deal with the Greens in 2010 - and stay with it until the Greens themselves declared it dead?
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has given the go-ahead for her MPs to attack the Greens, saying the minor party has shown it was never going to be anything more than a protest movement and was not serious about government…... the government was unperturbed [by the Greens ending of the agreement] because it has been suffering politically from its association with the Greens, especially over the carbon tax.
It says something that when Labor shares power with the Greens, its the Greens who feel most damaged by the association:
A Greens insider said the party’s internal polling showed it was being dragged down by its association with what was perceived as a dysfunctional government.“It was about not wanting to go down with the sinking ship,’’ the person said. “If we are to hold our base and get re-elected, our polling showed we had to stand up to Labor.’’
===
Rudd wins the youth vote in the US
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY202013(7:18pm)
If Kevin Rudd can excite voters like he can excite students - and a teacher - at a Virginia university, he’ll get Labor over the line with ease.
Shorten seems excellent value:
===
Two years ago, the Fogel family was senselessly murdered by a terrorist in Itamar, Israel. Udi, Ruth and their three children Yoav (11), Elad (4) and Hadas (three months) were stabbed to death in their own home. Today, the town of Itamar remembers them - and we do too.
Please share.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
A family. Part of our family. Murdered for terror. Who dares stand for the killers? Why aren't there marchers against the killers in Islam, appalled that they are bringing Islam into disrepute? - ed
===
Morning at McWay Falls
===
Published on Apr 26, 2012
Jesus' sacrifice at Calvary settled the sin issue once and for all. Today, you are so perfectly justified that God's holiness is and will forever be on your side! The question is whether or not you choose to believe it, and walk in holiness by revelation. This powerful landmark message by Joseph Prince not only establishes your heart in this fundamental truth, but also answers many commonly asked "difficult" questions, such as what the fear of the Lord is. Get your answers to those tough passages in this highly recommended message and set your heart at rest!
Get the full message at:
JosephPrince.com - http://bit.ly/IpRVZu
iTunes - http://bit.ly/T5iQTY
Amazon - http://amzn.to/TtXCO4
Find us at:
http://www.facebook.com/JosephPrince
https://twitter.com/JosephPrince
Get the full message at:
JosephPrince.com - http://bit.ly/IpRVZu
iTunes - http://bit.ly/T5iQTY
Amazon - http://amzn.to/TtXCO4
Find us at:
http://www.facebook.com/JosephPrince
https://twitter.com/JosephPrince
===
Before you judge her, her mom was a real bitch.
===
A great white shark unexpectedly veered toward California last week in a surprising winter trip never before tracked by researchers.http://oak.ctx.ly/r/2hzo
===
Panther Beach
===
I love when balloons start to die. I hold them when they're new and whisper, "this too shall pass" and then nod knowingly on their last day - Community Channel
===
You can have faith that move mountains, you can give to the poor, you can have the gift of prophecy and leadership etc ..... but if you don't have love then you will gain nothing.
Refer to (1 Corinthians 13:1 - 3)
===
Gas prices rising early this year. Are taxes to blame? http://tinyurl.com/bdzwggh
===
My column today: The Anti-Choice Left’s Disarming of the American Woman. I'll be talking about this tonight on Fox in the 9pm Eastern hour. Tune in! ==>
http://michellemalkin.com/
===
Hidden in a necropolis situated high in the mountains of the Caucasus in Russia, researchers have discovered the grave of a male warrior, who died over 2,000 years ago, filled with jewelry and weapons. http://oak.ctx.ly/r/2hzf
===
===
===
Point Arena
===
Lol ive been on a selling spree lately. With 100% success rate. Heres the final thing.
*Moving out sale*
Large 8 seater modular couch. Comes apart so you can have separate pieces. Less than a year old. Super comfy. Perfect condition. Leather and Suade.
Urgent Sell. Owner is throwing in other household items like a sound system etc. Aprille Love
===
4 TMN
===
===
Immediately after Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, the Bible tells us in Mark 1:11 that a voice came from heaven saying, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Notice that at this point, Jesus had neither begun His ministry, nor performed any miracle. Yet, the Father was well pleased with Him.
Beloved, today, your Father in heaven loves you the same way. Because of Jesus’ perfect finished work on the cross for you, the words that the Father spoke over Him at the Jordan River are the very same words He is speaking over you right now!
Your Father’s love for you is not dependent on your qualifications, your looks or your achievements. His love for you is unconditional. He delights in you before you have even done a single thing right!
So take some time to meditate on this thought today: “I am my Father’s beloved and He is well pleased with me!” Know that as you go about your daily activities, He is smiling at you with delight in His eyes!http://josephprince.com/
===
===
Hi peeps! Thank you for all the nice comments and likes on the art I have been posting up here, it keeps me motivated and encouraged to keep pushing! I'm always striving to learn and grow more as an artist and person and I'm humbled that I can share this part of myself with you. I just started a new Tumblr, and you can journey alongside me there too: www.vote4may.tumblr.com May Wa Leng
===
This is insane! The world's first pen that lets you draw 3D sculptures. Watch the video on Colossal... it's like magic.
http://
===
===
For God who made the heavens and the earth, there is no problem in your life too hard for Him to resolve (Jeremiah 32:17)! Check out today's devotional. Be sure to click "like" to help spread the word! Thanks, all!http://bit.ly/X67vlw
===
===
 |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment