Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Tue 9th Apr Todays News


Happy birthday and many happy returns Daniel Nastevski. Born the same day Henry V was crowned King of England! I think Grace should give a pay rise.
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Vale Margaret Thatcher - a giant among leaders

Piers Akerman – Tuesday, April 09, 2013 (4:50am)

THE death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher serves to remind us what pygmies now strut the world political stage.
Baroness Thatcher, truly the “Iron Lady” died following a stroke last night at the age of 87.
Unlike Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Thatcher had no need to enter any gender war - she was an outstanding individual who made no excuses and did not seek special status because of her sex.

Under Thatcherism, millions of Britons were liberated from the dead-end future of creeping socialism.
She was as British Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron said, “a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Briton”.
Calling her death “sad news”, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev said Baroness Thatcher was a “great politician” who would go down in history.
“Margaret Thatcher was a great politician and a bright individual. She will do down in our memory and in history,” the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who held frequent meetings with Baroness Thatcher at the end of the Cold War, told Interfax news agency.
“Thatcher was a politician whose words carried great weight. Our first meeting, in 1984, gave the start to relations that were at times difficult, not always smooth, but which were serious and responsible for us both.”
Thatcher and the late US President Ronald Reagan were committed to ending Communism and largely succeeded – but for China which is now giving nations like Australia an overdue lesson in capitalism.
An emotional former Polish president and Solidarity founder Lech Walesa said the staunchly anti-communist Baroness Thatcher was key in hastening the fall of the Iron Curtain.
“She was a great person. She did a great deal for the world, along with Ronald Reagan, pope John Paul II and Solidarity, she contributed to the demise of communism in Poland and central Europe,” Walesa said.
“I’m praying for her.”
European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso paid tribute to Baroness Thatcher’s “contributions” to the growth of the EU, despite her reservations about European integration.
Expressing his “deepest regrets” to the UK government, Barroso said she had been “a circumspect yet engaged player in the European Union” who “will be remembered for both her contributions to and her reserves about our common project”
Thatcher came late to the debate about the European Union and I can say that she initially underestimated the enormous influence the EU would have on British sovereignty.
I met her on several occasions while I working in the UK in the 1980s and notably she initially complained that a series of articles The Times newspaper had run on the effect the EU would have on Britain after 1992.
I was responsible for the series and was able to convince her that the newspaper was correct.
She summoned Lord Cockfield, her representative in Brussels for talks, and later admitted The Times view was, unfortunately, accurate. (The series was later edited into a short book: The “Times” Guide to 1992: Britain in a Europe Without Frontiers: a Comprehensive Handbook.)
She will be remembered by the Left for smashing the coal miners union – a long overdue reform.
She will also be remembered for taking Britain into the Falklands War and winning – ending the corrupt colonels’ reign of Argentina.
But she will be remembered primarily for giving Britons reason to stand tall and proud and believe in themselves again.
As Senior Conservative MP David Davis said: “Margaret Thatcher was the greatest of modern British prime ministers, and was central to the huge transformation of the whole world that took place after the fall of the Soviet Union.
“Millions of people in Britain and around the world owe her a debt of gratitude for their freedom and their quality of life, which was made possible by her courageous commitment to the principles of individual freedom and responsibility.”
Vale Margaret Thatcher, a great leader, the greatest British Prime Minister since Winston Churchill led the UK in WW2.

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AUSTRALIAN VICTORIES

Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 09, 2013 (3:25pm)

Rupert Murdoch on free markets and preventing the drift to socialism, among other topics:


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FROM BIKES TO BOATS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 09, 2013 (2:47pm)

The most ignored things in Sydney are Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s dinky little bicycle path traffic lights. For all the notice anybody takes of them, they may as well be Italian speed limits. Or Labor policies.

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CHOMP CHOMP

Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 09, 2013 (1:04pm)

The leftist media eats itself: 
Fairfax business journalist Paddy Manning has been sacked for writing an opinion piece fiercely critical of the publisher’s recently-announced restructure and its use of so-called “advertorials”.
The senior reporter was dismissed yesterday afternoon after writing an online piece for Crikey, in which he attacked the company’s restructure plans and the editorial practices at the Australian Financial Review. 
Assuming Manning will lose less than $450,360, this is nothing for him to worry about.
UPDATE. And now the SMH is having a stopwork meeting.

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WE PAY $1 BILLION FOR THIS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 09, 2013 (5:32am)

In previous decades, Australia’s national tax-funded broadcaster may have marked the death of a globally transformative figure by interrupting light entertainment programming for a news report. In 2013, however, the ABC’s Tony Jones asks the opinion of a book-promoting former prostitute. Her response: 
And me with no champagne! 
This significant cultural indicator occurred at the 23rd minute of last night’s Q & A.

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Don’t bother with Christmas Island

Andrew Bolt April 09 2013 (5:34pm)

Boat people policy
Now sailing into Australian ports:

An asylum seeker boat has arrived in Geraldton, further south than any asylum seeker boat has travelled in recent years…
Geraldton Guardian editor Alex McKinnon told Radio 6PR that there were 72 Sri Lankan people on board.
UPDATE
The boat arrivals now are unprecedented. Another boat was met this morning with more than 60 on board.
Yesterday was even crazier:
8 April 2013 
HMAS Melville, operating under the coordination of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Centre, has rendered assistance to a suspected irregular entry vessel that sought assistance east of Christmas Island last night.
Initial indications suggest there are 127 people on board.
HMAS Childers, operating under the coordination of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Centre, has separately rendered assistance to a suspected irregular entry vessel that sought assistance north of Ashmore Islands yesterday.
Initial indications suggest there are 72 people on board.
8 April 2013
HMAS Melville, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel north-west of Christmas Island overnight.
Initial indications suggest there are 81 passengers and two crew on board. 
(Thanks to readers Alan, Dion and Stephen.) 

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Barbarians celebrate death of 87-year-old lady

Andrew Bolt April 09 2013 (4:31pm)

Many in the Left claim Margaret Thatcher made Britain more savage. Their celebrations over her death suggest where Britain’s real savages - cultural and political - reside.
For instance, a former hooker-turned-writer on the ABC’s Q&A last night, hearing the news of Thatcher’s death, smirks:

And me without champagne...
The comment, thankfully, fell like a lead balloon, even with a Q&A audience.
But as I said last night, even the way host Tony Jones asked his question overlooked one central fact that destroys his premise. Thatcher actually won three elections, suggesting the public did not share the savage hatred of her that the media class had and which Jones falsely presumes was widely shared:
Elvis Costello once wrote a song saying that he would stamp the dirt down on her grave, but I think time has passed now and people have a slightly different view of Margaret Thatcher. Do you think that’s true or not?
More savages celebrate:


Maggie, Maggie, Maggie. Dead, dead, dead.
From the Thatcher’s Dead Party website:

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She’s carked it!!!!
All good union women and men, all progressives, all anti-war activists are duty bound to celebrate this great occasion to mark the death of a British Conservative responsible for destroying so many lives. From the miners of Britain to the soldiers and civilians slaughtered in wars and coups from Latin America to Ireland to Iraq, few people can claim to be responsible for as much misery and hardship as this woman, who did it all to increase the profits of the 1%.
So, what better way to respond than with a celebration! ... The night will involve footage of the strikes and protests against Thatcher, music from the period, quizzes, prizes and working-class refreshments of all sorts!
With such people, I try to imagine a world run by their like.  The pictures which reoccur are of the French Terror, Stalin, Pol Pot and Mao. Of people once described by Bertrand Russell:

Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.
Or the “moral thugs” of whom CS Lewis wrote:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
And among their like today is George Galloway, the MP who notoriously praised Saddam Hussein:

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UPDATE
On Melbourne ABC 774, host Red Symons marks the event by reading out Thatcher jokes.
UPDATE
Let’s hear more bracing sermons from the Left on the misogyny of conservatives:

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Footsoldiers of an ideology responsible for most of the greatest slaughters in modern history:

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UPDATE
One fool rings up ABC 774 to sing “Ding dong the witch is dead”, and then accuses Thatcher of having been “divisive”.
Tough question: is he a greater hypocrite than he is a barbarian?
UPDATE
Fairfax celebrates:
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UPDATE
You sometimes forget how cruel and silly some children can be, and then along comes the Melbourne University Students Union in full Lord of the Flies mode to vote for this:

That Students’ Council recognise the horrific legacy of Margaret Thatcher and her neoliberal policies that destroyed the lives of millions, her violent crushing of the miners’ strike, her oppression of the Irish and murder of Bobby Sands and other hunger strikes, her unconditioned support for right-wing dictators like Pinochet and Suharto and her support for apartheid in South Africa, among many other things and celebrates her death unreservedly. Students’ Council also commits to organising a screening of the Ken Loach film ‘Which side are you on?’ to further celebrate this event.
Yes, I know they are just children. But do they know this, too?
When I find the names of the five students who voted for this resolution, I’ll let you know. After all, chances are some may later want your vote for Parliament, and it’s best you knew what they’re like.
I’ll also name the three who opposed this motion. People of character should be encouraged. 

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NBN: Liberals offer a bit less for a lot less

Andrew Bolt April 09 2013 (12:48pm)

The Coalition rolls out another policy. It involves persuading Australia to accept less for lots less, while warning the Government is struggling to deliver more for much more:
The Coalition’s plan to transform the NBN will see:
- Download speeds of between 25 and 100 megabits per second by the end of 2016 and 50 to 100 megabits per second by 2019.
- The rollout of the NBN under the Coalition will be complete by the end of 2019.
- Regions with substandard internet services will receive priority rollout.
- Basic broadband plans will always be more affordable under the Coalition than under Labor. Projections show that prices will be $24 cheaper a month by 2021 than under Labor’s NBN projected prices.
- The Coalition’s NBN will cost tens of billions less to complete than Labor’s NBN.
Under the Coalition’s NBN all premises will have access to download speeds 25mbps to 100mbps by the end of 2016. The minimum speed will rise to 50mbps by the end of 2019 for 90 per cent of fixed line users…
By 2021, the projected retail cost of the average broadband plan under a Coalition NBN would be $66 per month, compared to at least $90 per month with Labor’s NBN…
Labor’s NBN will cost more than $90 billion to complete.  Our plan will cost $29.5 billion…
Under Kevin Rudd, Labor promised fast broadband for all Australians by 2013 for a cost of $4.7 billion. After more than 5 years in Government, only 10,400 users have signed up to the Labor’s fibre network despite $7.5 billion in cash injections to the NBN by June – already almost double the money Kevin Rudd said was needed to complete the entire NBN.
Based on the NBN’s own targets – which they have consistently failed to meet – the rollout will not be finished until 2021.  On its current pace, the rollout will take years longer.
Labor now claims its NBN will cost $37 billion but latest estimates and available data indicate this projection is completely misleading. The real cost of Labor’s NBN is likely to be more than $90 billion by 2021.
Read the policy here.
UPDATE
The battleground:
..OPPOSITION communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull has conceded his broadband plan will offer slower speeds than Labor’s, but says unlike the government’s his is capable of being built.
The Coalition’s fibre-to-the-node plan has been costed at $29.5 billion, including $20.4 billion in capital expenditure.
This compares with the $44.1bn in peak funding needed for Labor’s $37.4bn National Broadband Network, which provides fibre to the home.
Mr Turnbull said the cheaper price tag came with a compromise in terms of speed, but the fibre-to-the-node network would be fast enough for all but the most demanding users…
“...our goal is to ensure that all Australians have access to at least 25 megabytes per second… And of course while most Australians would have access to considerably higher speeds than that, 25 megs will enable everybody in residential situations to do everything they want to do or need to do in terms of applications and services, and is six times faster than the average speed people are getting now.”
Labor is promising 100 megabytes per second for users of its fire-to-the-home network.

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Hear what the Left tried to stop

Andrew Bolt April 09 2013 (12:34pm)

Tony Abbott’s speech to the IPA anniversary last week. Another one of the speeches which protesters of the Left tried to stop you hearing.
Why is the Left so offended by the culturally literate? 

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Now the war over union power gets serious

Andrew Bolt April 09 2013 (12:30pm)

The Coalition steps up the policy roll-out, developing a mandate for winding back union power but giving the chance for Labor to attack:
The Coalition is considering giving employers the power to unilaterally determine workplace agreements for major new projects if negotiations with unions fail under a policy designed to partially reverse what business believes is a pro-union shift in the industrial relations system…
Under the Coalition policy, employees would be required to nominate a union as their representative before the union could be involved in workplace bargaining on their behalf, a change designed to make it harder for unions to approach non-unionised workplaces.
The Coalition’s favoured approach for new, or greenfields, projects is to allow employers in effect to make agreements with themselves if they have reached a stalemate with unions. They would have to be approved by the Fair Work Commission, which would ensure the wages were similar to equivalent projects and the deals fulfilled the requirements of the Fair Work Act.
The draft policy is said to remove restrictions on people under 18 working short shifts. Some awards require young people to be employed for a minimum of three hours a shift.

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Two more charges for Williamson

Andrew Bolt April 09 2013 (12:26pm)

Labor’s bleeding sore keeps bleeding - and will keep doing so until the election:
FORMER Health Services Union boss Michael Williamson faces two new charges over alleged corruption in the union’s NSW branch.
Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court heard today from Mr Williamson’s lawyer Vivian Evans that police would bring further charges against her client, and the matter was adjourned until June 18.
A NSW police spokesman said later that Mr Williamson, 59, had been charged with two additional alleged offences: cheating or defrauding as a director, and money laundering…
The new charges bring to 50 the total levelled against the former Labor powerbroker and ALP national president. Last year Mr Williamson was served with two tranches of charges which included attempting to get others to impede a police investigation, and dishonestly dealing with $600,000 of union funds. 

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Another excuse to buy a good red

Andrew Bolt April 09 2013 (10:18am)

There has been no statistically significant global warming for 16 years, but that detail doesn not appear in The Age’s latest preposterous scare:
Huge tracts of potential wine-producing country are expected to vanish from Australia over the next few decades as climate change bites, and winemakers may need to head for higher, cooler ground.
Even author Ben Cubby, a fervent warmist, seems unconvinced by his own story:
But that figure comes with caveats, because most existing wine districts, such as the Hunter Valley in NSW and Western Australia’s Margaret River, should be able to adapt their farming practices to cope with the change.
But any such scare is meat and drink drink drink to professional alarmists:

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UPDATE
But while the wine still flows in first class, the great jamboree continues:
TAXPAYERS forked out nearly $900,000 to send Julia Gillard and her 52-strong contingent to last year’s climate change summit in Brazil despite the global talkfest being labelled an ‘’epic’’ failure.
In one of the most expensive delegations ever to travel overseas, the cost of airfares soared to $240,951 while accommodation in some of Rio de Janeiro’s better hotels came to $220,000. Labor has spent millions of dollars attending climate change summits with the ill-fated Copenhagen meeting in December 2009 costing $1.5 million while a 38-member delegation to Mexico in 2011 cost $360,000.
(Thanks to reader handjive.) 

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No, Thatcher was far smarter than the warmists claim

Andrew Bolt April 09 2013 (8:44am)

Paul Bongiorno on Radio National today repeats a half truth about Margaret Thatcher:

She was convinced of the science of global warming.
Bongiorno cites Thatcher’s 1990 speech at the second World Climate Conference, and quotes this passage:

The danger of global warming is as yet unseen, but real enough for us to make changes and sacrifices, so that we do not live at the expense of future generations.
But Bongiorno, in praising the speech and noting Thatcher was a trained chemist, neglects to add that Thatcher later changed her mind after studying further evidence.
In fact, notes Christopher Booker, she became one of the early and most prominent sceptics:
Certainly, Mrs Thatcher was the first world leader to voice alarm over global warming, back in 1988, With her scientific background, she had fallen under the spell of Sir Crispin Tickell, then our man at the UN. In the 1970s, he had written a book warning that the world was cooling, but he had since become an ardent convert to the belief that it was warming…
She found equally persuasive the views of a third prominent convert to the cause, Dr John Houghton, then head of the UK Met Office. She backed him in the setting up of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988…
It is not widely appreciated, however, that there was a dramatic twist to her story. In 2003, towards the end of her last book, Statecraft, in a passage headed “Hot Air and Global Warming”, she issued what amounts to an almost complete recantation of her earlier views.
She voiced precisely the fundamental doubts about the warming scare that have since become familiar to us. Pouring scorn on the “doomsters”, she questioned the main scientific assumptions used to drive the scare, from the conviction that the chief force shaping world climate is CO2, rather than natural factors such as solar activity, to exaggerated claims about rising sea levels. She mocked Al Gore and the futility of “costly and economically damaging” schemes to reduce CO2 emissions. She cited the 2.5C rise in temperatures during the Medieval Warm Period as having had almost entirely beneficial effects. She pointed out that the dangers of a world getting colder are far worse than those of a CO2-enriched world growing warmer. She recognised how distortions of the science had been used to mask an anti-capitalist, Left-wing political agenda which posed a serious threat to the progress and prosperity of mankind.
In other words, long before it became fashionable, Lady Thatcher was converted to the view of those who, on both scientific and political grounds, are profoundly sceptical of the climate change ideology.
Will Bongiorno correct his statement? Will he again impress on us Thatcher’s scientific credentials?
UPDATE
Another Leftist journalist urges us to heed the scientifically-trained Thatcher, not realising we only wish he would:

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(Thanks to reader Year of the Dragon.) 

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National Bull… Numbers

Andrew Bolt April 09 2013 (8:32am)

Get the feeling that Communications Minister Steve Conroy isn’t quite on top of the gigantic cost of the NBN?

Stephen Conroy on 2UE, December 20, 2010:

CONROY: It’s $35.7 billion.
Host, Michael Smith: $35bn? Plus how much are you paying Telstra?
Conroy: That’s included. It’s all included.
Smith: $35bn includes your $11bn you’re paying to Telstra?
2UE May 19, 2011:

MICHAEL Smith: Were you wrong or right there? What’s the go?
Conroy: I had confused two different aspects in the somewhat robust discussion we were having and the operating expenses and the operating revenue are separate.
Smith: You got it wrong by about . . .
Conroy: I’m saying you were right.
Smith: Yeah, I understand that. But jeez it worries me mate, with great respect to you, you were out by about $11 billion.
And on the ABC’s AM, yesterday:

STEPHEN Conroy: The corporate plan, audited by the Auditor-General, is produced each year, and what you’re seeing in that corporate plan is $37.4 billion is the cost of building the NBN not, as today the Coalition is claiming, $90bn.
I mean, the Coalition are a fact-free zone. They don’t have any facts to support these claims. They rely on misleading statistics and misleading data to try and make these scare campaigns. 
Sky News Agenda, yesterday:
STEPHEN Conroy: The point that I’ve been making, and I was making this morning, though I described it inaccurately this morning, was this is the annual report of the NBN Co. It is audited by the Auditor-General of Australia. The figures here are audited by the Auditor-General of Australia. This is the annual report.
Host, David Speers: You said the Auditor-General had audited the corporate plan.
Conroy: I meant the annual report. This is the annual report of the NBN. This is the annual report . . .
Speers: Not the corporate plan.
Conroy: No, I meant to say the annual report. This is the annual report that details expenses, it details income. So you can’t make numbers up. You can’t pretend numbers to the Auditor-General of Australia. This is the annual report.
Speers: But the Auditor-General is not looking at the assumptions and numbers and underlying modelling behind the annual report.
Conroy: No, but if we say we’ve signed a contract for X, it has to be the right number. You can’t pretend that the cost is $37 billion if the cost is $90 billion. The Auditor-General might notice.
Speers: So it can’t go more than $37.4 billion?
Conroy: No, we’re saying these are the signed contracts.
UPDATE
I really don’t think the NBN rollout is going well:

EMMA ALBERICI: Can you tell us how many homes are currently paying a subscription once a month and using the NBN?
STEPHEN CONROY: It’s roughly around 50,000 Australians are using the NBN at the moment and it’s growing each week. That’s 50,000, including satellite, fixed wireless and fibre.
EMMA ALBERICI: So what are the chances then that 600,000 premises will be signed up by June of this year?
STEPHEN CONROY: Well we’ve said consistently that we’ve had some ramp-up mobilisation issues for the last few months… We’re now going to reach about 220,000. 
But questioning the Communications Minister like this is naughty of the media:

EMMA ALBERICI: Can I take you back to December, 2010 when you held a joint press conference with the Prime Minister ... ?
STEPHEN CONROY: Well you can waste the time of - you can waste the time of Lateline. We have ...
EMMA ALBERICI: I just want a little bit of clarification… So are you now saying that it’s construction delays that are responsible for the quite enormous shortfall?
STEPHEN CONROY: Well now you sound like Malcolm Turnbull, Emma.
He’s warned you once already, Emma:
EMMA ALBERICI: Yep. So, then - let me say this then: back in 2010 - I hate to keep taking you back there ...
STEPHEN CONROY: As I say, Malcolm Turnbull goes there all the time.
EMMA ALBERICI: Well, this was the corporate plan that said that by June of this year, you would have 1.7 million ...
STEPHEN CONROY: And it was superseded in August last year.
EMMA ALBERICI: That 1.7 million premises would have access to the NBN.
STEPHEN CONROY: Well that was superseded because we started nine months later…
EMMA ALBERICI: OK, so tell us what is the figure now?
STEPHEN CONROY: So, the number of premises passed will be around 240,000 I think is the number that - about 220,000, sorry; it’s down from 340,000.
Not surprised, with that fumbling, that Conroy hates questioning. So can he let go of that dream of putting the media under state control?

EMMA ALBERICI: Now this morning you said on ABC Radio that the Auditor-General had audited your figures. You’ve since recounted that. Who is auditing the Government’s figures - the NBN figures?
STEPHEN CONROY: No, this is the annual report. I meant to say annual report this morning....  You can’t just make up numbers and put it in this report. You can’t just fantasise like Malcolm Turnbull did with the Daily Telegraph this morning. I mean, let’s be clear: today’s Daily Telegraph is back to the bad old days. It’s back to a campaign against the NBN Co, a campaign against the Government… This is the Daily Telegraph back to the bad old days…
EMMA ALBERICI: And in fact that was part of the reason why you and your government suggested media reform was urgently required.
STEPHEN CONROY: No, that’s not correct.
EMMA ALBERICI: Well certainly some of the examples given to the Finkelstein inquiry surrounded claims about the NBN that had featured in the News Limited press.
STEPHEN CONROY: Well they weren’t claims made by me. ... but, they’re back to the bad old days.
EMMA ALBERICI: Let me ask you this: you’ve said the media reforms - the media reforms, as you put them to the Parliament, are essentially dead and buried. What will you take to the election as far as your new policy on media reform?
STEPHEN CONROY: Well clearly the old policy, unfortunately, wasn’t able to pass the Parliament. We haven’t had a chance yet to digest what we want to propose ...  so we’ll work through over the next month or two what we will consider taking forward to the election, but what we said is that is dead, that is no longer our policy…
EMMA ALBERICI: Will Labor take a new media policy to the election?
STEPHEN CONROY: We’ll take a policy…
I wouldn’t be surprised:

Senator Conroy is tipped to quit politics at the next election, opening up a vacuum in the Labor Unity faction.
(Thanks to readers watty and rambo.) 

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And still no player charged after sport’s “blackest day”

Andrew Bolt April 09 2013 (8:16am)

And still not a single player charged, not a single test failed:
Sports scientist Stephen Dank says he never administered a single product or substance to any athlete without the prior consent of ASADA or WADA…
Dank’s tenure at Cronulla, Manly and Essendon has come under particular scrutiny, and those clubs were named in the Australian Crime Commission’s report into doping and the integrity of sport…
‘’Before I’ve done anything in any forum, we have always had conversations with WADA [the World Anti-Doping Agency] or ASADA [Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority] - or in some cases both,’’ Dank told Fairfax
‘’...Nothing was ever used without asking them first and, in some cases, both parties were asked.....’’
ASADA is in the process of interviewing 31 NRL players of interest as part of their investigations. Up to 14 Cronulla players are expected to be involved in the process, which is expected to take six weeks…
As yet, no Cronulla players have been interviewed by ASADA amid fears the investigation could overshadow the Origin series and potentially even the NRL play-offs.
Really? That’s the excuse now? First the great smear, and months later still no evidence to back it up. 

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Thatcher was not merely a female Prime Minister

Andrew Bolt April 09 2013 (1:18am)

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Good heavens. Even now, Gillard is playing the gender card that Thatcher never did - other than in jest.
UPDATE
Reader Gab notes this passage from Gender Forum:

Her daughter Carol writes in 2008 about the relation between her mother and the feminist movement in the early 1970s, when Margaret was Minister of Education in the Heath Cabinet. 
Feminists didn’t think she was doing enough for their cause. This was the era of “Women’s Lib” but my mother was a stratosphere away from the bra-burning demonstrations of the time. On the contrary, she felt the movement had done very little for her.  She was a hard-working example of female success from relatively lowly beginnings who had achieved cabinet rank by pragmatically getting on with the task in hand rather than by manning barricades and wasting precious time protesting.[/url] (Carol Thatcher 2008, 47,48)
Thatcher needed to hold her own in a world where female politicians were in danger of not being taken seriously. The Henigs comment on how a British female member of parliament needed to behave in the 1960s as follows:

To be successful, and to make their mark in such a male-dominated environment, women had to compete with men on their terms and be tough.” (Henig and Henig 19)
Being tough as a female politician meant, among other things, to avoid ‘women’s issues’, such as health, social work and legislative emancipation. In the course of her political career, Thatcher always sought to concentrate on ‘men’s issues’ such as finance and economy. She had already specialised in fiscal law when studying for her second degree. Her ambition in the 1960s was to become the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer (Thatcher 1996, 95). But her fear of being undervalued as a woman surfaces in a remark she made when taking office as Prime Minister: “I don’t think of myself as the first woman Prime Minister.” (Quoted in Pilcher 495)

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“Misogyny!” cries Labor, pointing at itself

Andrew Bolt April 09 2013 (1:13am)

Now Labor finds the real misogynists are within its own ranks:
Former attorney-general Nicola Roxon has lashed out at ‘’misogyny’’ within Labor ranks, after the release of an anonymous dirt sheet attacking a candidate in the preselection battle for the safe seat of Gellibrand.
A dirt sheet on candidate Katie Hall, who is being backed by Ms Roxon, was circulated over the weekend ahead of local member votes on Sunday and Monday.
The dirt sheet, or ‘’shit sheet’’ as Labor members call it, made several allegations about Ms Hall, who is a former staffer of Ms Roxon, including reference to Ms Hall’s time at the Health Services Union, which was mentioned in the Fair Work Australia report into the beleaguered union…
Ms Roxon wrote to local members saying ... ‘’It is frustrating that every time a capable woman puts up her hand to run for office, she has to deal with false allegations about her sexual history. We might expect this misogyny and sexism from our Liberal opponents, but surely it has no place within modern Labor?’’ ...
Nice reverse smear there.   

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Labor recovers! To just 10 points behind

Andrew Bolt April 09 2013 (1:04am)

Newspoll has good news for Labor. It’s completely dead, but less so:

The Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Australian at the weekend, shows the Coalition primary vote is down from 50 per cent two weeks ago - the highest in a year - to 48 per cent as the ALP’s primary vote moved from 30 per cent to 32 per cent. The Greens’ primary vote returned to its 2010 election level of 11 per cent, up one percentage point…
Based on preference flows at the 2010 election, the Coalition’s two-party-preferred support is down three points to 55 per cent and Labor’s support is back up to 45 per cent. 

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Thatcher dies

Andrew Bolt April 08 2013 (11:18pm)

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A great leader is dead. Margaret Thatcher was not merely Britain’s first female Prime Minister. She was one of its greatest, overshadowed only by Winston Churchill among her nation’s Prime Ministers in the 20th Century.
Her great achievement was to smash the sclerotic and suffocating state socialism that had made Britain weak and contemptible, and in doing so she made her country more a nation of opportunity.
Thatcher left Britain richer, stronger and more confident than it had been since the World War II. She also fought the great battles for freedom for other peoples, combining with Ronald Reagan to help destroy communism in East Europe.
A giant, right on the big arguments and courageous in prosecuting them:
The centrepiece of her first administration was the reform of trades unions and the restructuring of the British economy. The top rate of tax was soon cut to 60 per cent from 83 per cent, and a punitive rate of 98 per cent on unearned income was brought down to the standard tax rates…
The proof that the Trades Unions were tamed was seen not merely in better industrial relations and improved performance of the economy, but also in the way the once-mighty National Union of Mineworkers, led by Arthur Scargill, was defeated in a year-long strike in 1984-85. With that dragon finally slain, Mrs Thatcher could now unpick what she considered one of the most wasteful legacies of state socialism, the nationalised industries. A succession of privatisations — of gas, electricity, coal, telecommunications and airlines — created a nation of shareholders and raised a fortune for the Treasury, enabling taxes to be cut at the top rate to 40 pence in the £ in 1988. A similar drive to spread prosperity as widely as possible was seen in the sale of council houses to their owners. By the end of the second Thatcher term in 1987 the British economy had been transformed, by these and by other important deregulatory measures, into one of the strongest in the western world…
By the time Mrs Thatcher won her third mandate in June 1987 she was a world statesman, a go-between for her old friend Ronald Reagan with her new friend Mikhail Gorbachev, and with an eye to winning the Cold War. The part she played in urging Gorbachev into reforms, and into a more moderate attitude towards satellite states in the Soviet bloc, led to the fall of the Berlin wall in November 1989 and the collapse, almost like a house of cards, of the other Soviet bloc regimes over the next two years.
When the going got tough, the Iron Lady got going:

What made her a great leader was a firm grasp of the values informing her politics:

Those were her values at the start, and she was true to them to the end:

Thatcher stood against the great European mirage, too, such a threat to democracy:

And she had no times for fools, especially in the media:

Perhaps her most famous quote:
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UPDATE
The early footage is fascinating:

An outsider against the elites, and not least the cultural elite. And yet she triumphed.
UPDATE
Thatcher stared down the academic elite, who in 1981 signed a joint letter with 364 signatories saying her tough Budget would never work:
The whole of the academic establishment - including some luminaries of today - stood against the government. The 364 included Third-Way guru Anthony Giddens; the current Governor of the Bank of England; Monetary Policy Committee member Stephen Nickell; and former and future Nobel Prize winners…
In many walks of life, we listen to experts with respect. Three hundred and sixty-four experts would normally command a lot of respect…
On the face of it, they were wrong. The economic recovery that the 364 said would not happen began more or less as soon as the letter appeared. Unemployment continued to rise, but this was in the face of a highly regulated and unionised labour market and wholesale industrial restructuring. A long-term fall in the rate of unemployment had to wait until labour market and trade union reforms became embedded some years later.
The 364 were wrong because they believed the Keynesian consensus of the time. Indeed, they taught it to nearly every undergraduate in the country. The textbooks used by nearly all British undergraduates did not pay any attention whatsoever to alternatives. It was as if economic theory began and ended with the naïve Keynesianism of Keynes’s immediate followers.
I think Tony Abbott will in many ways face the same challenges, not least the groupthink of the elites.
UPDATE
The Sydney Morning Herald even now can’t believe Thatcher was right, blaming her for the “winter of discontent” actually created (as reader Jono notes) by the previous Labor Government of Jim Callaghan:

From 1979 to 1990 she led the country through a turbulent decade of change … She deregulated the financial sector, privatised many state-owned companies, and took on the then-powerful trade unions.
The resulting ‘winter of discontent’ – a spike in unemployment accompanied by protests and inner-city riots - tested her early leadership …
UPDATE
Few leaders suffered such vicious abuse, and the more barbaric elements of the Left aren’t going to let up even now. Reader Turtle notes one contribution on the ABC:

And on Q&A; the reaction, by a celebrity ex prostitute called Brooke Magnanti: “And me without champagne “. No class. Disgusting.
You’d think a woman who’s sold her body could at least afford to rent a brain.
Even the way host Tony Jones asked his question overlooked one central fact that destroys his premise. Thatcher actually won three elections, suggesting the public did not share the savage hatred of her that the media class had and which Jones presumes was widely shared:
Elvis Costello once wrote a song saying that he would stamp the dirt down on her grave, but I think time has passed now and people have a slightly different view of Margaret Thatcher. Do you think that’s true or not?
And here’s the picture the Sydney Morning Herald has chosen for the main illustration on its web site:
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Ditto The Age.

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Essential poll: still no Labor pulse

Andrew Bolt April 08 2013 (6:55pm)

Labor 44, Coalition 56.

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Holden crashes, taking our money with it

Andrew Bolt April 08 2013 (6:36pm)

Your money lost - taken from good businesses to be wasted on (heavily unionised) bad:

A $275 million taxpayer subsidy has failed to prevent another round of job cuts at Holden’s Australian operations, with the car maker slashing 500 positions today.
Holden announced it will cut its Elizabeth workforce north of Adelaide by 400, with a further 100 jobs to be lost from its product development workforce in Victoria.
The car maker blamed a fall in demand for its locally-made Cruze car and difficult market conditions, including the strong Australian dollar.
The announcement comes a year after the Gillard government committed $215 million to the company to “secure” its Australian car-making operations, with an additional $60m from the South Australian and Victorian governments.
UPDATE
How Labor - and the Liberals before that - got us to this point:
February 2011:

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the Minister for Innovation Kim Carr today welcomed the launch of the Australian-made Holden Cruze at the company’s Elizabeth Plant in South Australia.
The Gillard Government is very proud to have supported the production of this low emission car through a $149 million investment from the Government’s New Car Plan for a Greener Future.
February 2012:

Let us look at the Holden Ltd Enterprise Agreement. It was made with six unions… Between 1997 and 2010 the company gave pay increases of 63.33 per cent, a median increase of 4.87 per cent a year, hardly appropriate for a struggling business relying on government support… Yet the agreement prohibits the company from increasing, decreasing or rearranging the workforce without union approval… Holden cannot choose the labour hire company; they can only use a business selected by the unions.
February 2012:

GM Holden has agreed to an extraordinary wage deal that will lift the income of 4000 employees by up to 22 per cent by 2014, despite the carmaker seeking a taxpayer-funded assistance package from the Gillard government. In a deal hailed by union leaders as “spectacular”, workers will receive a “guaranteed” 18.3 per cent increase over the next three years, with some workers to receive up to 22.3 per cent… The Australian has obtained full details of the agreement, which the union said contained no productivity trade-offs…
March 2012:
The federal government has announced $275 million to keep Holden in Australia, as Manufacturing Minister Greg Combet warned that without government support, the car manufacturer would likely shut down in Australia.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the investment - shared by the South Australian and Victorian governments -today in a bid to keep the car manufacturer in the country until at least 2022. 
August 2012:

Cruze sales were down some 40.0 per cent to just 1875 units – the small car’s worst month since September 2009, 18 months before local production commenced – while the small-car segment overall rose 3.3 per cent.
November 2012:

HOLDEN has announced it will axe 170 manufacturing jobs at its factory in Elizabeth South Australia because of record-low sales of the Commodore and softening demand for its Cruze small car.
April 2013:

Figures released by Holden show it received $2.17 billion in state and federal government assistance over the past 12 years, compared to $1.1 billion for Ford and $1.2 billion for Toyota, News Limited can reveal.
This equates to Holden receiving an average of $180 million a year compared to Toyota taking $95.8 million a year and Ford getting $87.8 million a year.

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Greens advertise for free foreigners

Andrew Bolt April 08 2013 (5:54pm)

Fanatics lack a sense of humor, which may explain a blindness to irony. Take the Greens:

ACT Greens campaign manager Ellen Sandell..., who is managing former GetUp! chief Simon Sheikh’s bid for the Senate, was looking to hire staff.
The email sent to campaign operatives around the world looking for “people to come to Australia and help out on the campaign” cast a wide net. “In particular,” Sandell wrote, “we need a data manager to manage our Nation Builder system (manage our volunteer, donor and voter contact data), as well as help with website and emails."…
...aside from the fact that the Greens were not looking for an Australian to perform the role, they did not intend to pay somebody to do it…
But at the same time they are looking for foreigners to be employed for free, they have been trying to win support for a bill to compel employers “to advertise locally before they bring in overseas workers,” as deputy leader Adam Bandt puts it.
...the advertisement for a foreign worker makes a mockery of the comments of Greens leader Christine Milne. “If the Prime Minister was serious about protecting local jobs,” the senator said last month, it should “get behind the Greens legislation to advertise jobs locally first.”
UPDATE
Simon Sheikh demonstrates his usual level of plausibility:
ACT Greens Senate candidate Simon Sheikh today denied seeking cut price foreign campaign workers, but The Australian can reveal the letter in which the appeal was made.
Mr Sheikh, the former head of the GetUp! activist group, claimed on Twitter today that a story about the letter was wrong and attacked the journalist who wrote it, The Australian’s Troy Bramston.
“@TroyBramston was informed that his story was incorrect before it went to print. Chose to ignore. Sloppy work from an ex ALP staffer,” he said.
But here is the letter he seeks to deny. 

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Just saw an episode of Masterchef USA from Sydney. It was an episode where the contestants were divided into two teams and served at a truck stop the gourmet cuisine of .. Hamburger .. ed
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A little boy asked his mother, "Why are you crying?" "Because I'm a woman," she told him.

"I don't understand," he said. His Mom just hugged him and said, "And you never will."

Later the little boy asked his father, "Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?"

"All women cry for no reason," was all his dad could say.

The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry.

Finally he put in a call to God. When God got on the phone, he asked,

"God, why do women cry so easily?"

God said, "When I made the woman she had to be special.

I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world, yet gentle enough to give comfort.

I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children.

I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining.

I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly.

I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart.

I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him And finally, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed."

"You see my son," said God, "the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart the
place where love resides."
I thought it was because she liked that toy. And I broke it. - ed
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CONROY’S NBN A DRUNKEN THOUGHT BUBBLE Larry Pickering

When you think of something terrific to do when you’re pissed, don’t pretend it’s just as terrific when you’re sober. 

In 2008, Kevin Rudd and Stephen Conroy were enjoying a few after dinner wines in Qantas first class when Conroy came up with a crazy NBN idea. 

He drew a few diagrams on the back of an envelope. Kev squinted at it and told Conroy to go ahead. Kev has since given up drinking on Qantas.

It would prove to be a very expensive absurdity, even for an ex Pom union buffoon like Conroy.

His idea was simply this: Use the half-century old technology of glass fibre to deliver fast broadband to every house in Australia and then flog the system off to some rich bastard.

The problem was that digging trenches to every house in Oz sounded easy with a belly-full of red.

In reality it’s rapidly proving to be a nightmare and union buffoons with single digit IQs are averse to admitting they were pissed at the time.

So, Aunty Dot and Uncle Arthur in Arden Street North Melbourne will have the same access to the same high-speed broadband as the iconic Children’s Hospital over the road.

The trouble is that Uncle Arthur can’t figure out how email works yet and Aunty Dot would kill him if he forked out $7,000 for anything.

Perhaps we should put ninety five billion in numbers so Conroy can understand the extent of his folly: $95,000,000,000,000.00.

Now that’s just a bunch of noughts to Conroy but to us it’s our grandchildren’s taxing interest payments.

When you see Conroy, Gillard and Independents all cheering and pressing a big orange NBN button with lights flashing everywhere and nothing connected to bloody anything, then you know you are in the process of being conned.

And those who promised to prop up Gillard are naturally first cabs off the rank.

Take-up rates in the first part of Australia to get the NBN is flatlining, with just over 100 extra “customers” signing up over the past year.

The whole drunken thought bubble of a project is going backwards at terabyte speed.

Of the very first Tasmanian towns to get the NBN (Smithton, Scottsdale and Midway Point) 702 premises had signed up out of a possible 3,987 that were passed by the network.

The fact is that hard glass to the node allows those who want, or need, such high-speed broadband to access it. But to connect hard glass to every single house where it may not be needed or wanted is lunacy only Labor is capable of.

Anyway if you think that Conroy’s “glass fibre to the premises” won’t be obsolete by his completion date of 2021 (more likely 2051) then you better have a quick look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=r13uYs7jglg
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I play like a fat man walking upstairs .. ed

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General Eisenhower Warned Us.

It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect:
"Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened".

Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet.. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This is in memory of the, six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests Who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated' while many in the world looked the other way!

Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets. 
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Two years ago we came to Government inheriting an administration in a mess and with an agenda for real change. Whilst we have faced challenges I am pleased with what we have achieved: -
  • The first Budget to come in on budget in seventeen years;
  • The second lowest unemployment rate of all the Australian states and almost 100,000 new jobs;
  • A focus on the frontline with nearly 4,000 additional teachers, nurses and police officers; and
  • A $61.8 billion infrastructure agenda that includes the South West Rail Link, North West Rail Link and Pacific Highway upgrade.
There is still more to be done and I need your help to ensure we can continue delivering major reforms, making NSW Number One Again. To ensure that our great vision for New South Wales can continue, we need your support to keep a Liberal led Government. The next State election is less than 2 years away and we need to start planning for our campaign now.

Become a monthly Liberal Party donor and help us take the fight up to the Labor Party and their Union backers.

Your donations will assist the Liberal Party to run grassroots campaigns in must win seats and combat the targeted activities of special interest groups such as Get Up who spend millions on issues based campaigns against the Coalition.

Please click on the link, http://www.nsw.liberal.org.au/state_donation and support the Liberal Party in the on-going effort to keep the momentum moving forward and to turn New South Wales towards greater growth and prosperity.


Yours Sincerely
 

Barry O’Farrell
Premier of NSW

Authorised by Mark Neeham Liberal Party of Australia (NSW Division) Level 12, 100 William St, East Sydney, NSW. Copyright © 2013 Liberal Party of Australia (NSW Division), All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you may have contacted the Liberal Party of Australia (NSW Division) in the past, opted in at the Liberal Party of Australia (NSW Division) website or are a current, pending or former member of the Liberal Party of Australia (NSW Division). If you are no longer interested in hearing from us please click unsubscribe below.
Our mailing address is:
Liberal Party of Australia (NSW Division)
Locked Bag 2
Kings Cross, NSW 1340
Australia

Add us to your address book

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Photo credit: John W. Pope Civitas Institute
Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for April 8th. Enjoy!

From the Blog

The Iron Lady passes: Margaret Thatcher, R.I.P.

She was an irrepressible force for liberty...

EndTheCoverUp.com: 700 Special Ops vets call on Congress to establish special select committee on Benghazi

Via the Center for Security Policy, 700 Special Ops veterans sent a letter to Congress today calling on Congress to establish a select committee to investigate the Benghazi cover-up...

Taxpayer-backed Fisker lays off 75 percent of workforce; poor sales attributed to global shortage of people named Leonardo DiCaprio

Cue the inevitable layoffs...

More From the Right Side of the Web

Mark Steyn: The anti-declinist

Featured Video

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Lady Thatcher on socialism. Brilliant.

Michelle's Top Tweets

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And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

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Enough.

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Patriot Voices Joins HSLDA to Fight for Rights of Homeschooling Families
Living in the United States, we all have the freedoms to provide the education we feel is best for our children.  Every family is different; every child is different and our educational priorities are all different.  That is why finding the best education arrangement for your child is a freedom that we all hold very dear.
But in some countries, there are no education choices. You attend the schools your government tells you to, and if you don't you may face serious fines, police intimidation or worse.  Take the Romeike family for instance.  They are German citizens who fled to the United States to avoid punishment from German authorities because they were homeschooling their children.
They were granted asylum by an immigration judge in Tennessee and now Attorney General Eric Holder is disputing the case suggesting Germany's intolerance to homeschooling doesn't violate the Romeike's rights.  It's important to realize this is more than about one family - it could affect homeschooling families in our own country.   This is about a parent's right to determine what's best for their children.
A petition on the White House website was set up by the Home School Legal Defense Association urging the Obama Administration to grant permanent legal status to the Romeike family.  Please sign this petition now to show your support for this family to find the right educational choices for their family.  They need 100,000 signatures by April 18 for the White House to take action, and as of Monday morning they had about 85,000 signatures.   
You'll have to set up an account on the White House website to sign the petition.  It is a short form and you do NOT have to provide your address.
Thanks for joining this important fight,
santorum-signature

Rick Santorum 

Patriot Voices Radio
Patriot Voices Radio will air again on Tuesday. If you haven't tuned it yet, you should!  It's a great way to stay up to date on what Patriot Voices is doing! Listen live on our website tomorrow at noon ET or on your phone by calling 347.857.3462.
And we'd love to hear from you! Call our Radio Shout-Out Line at 512.827.0033 and tell us about your American dream and what you're doing to make it happen. We just might play your message during the show!

Help Pick our American Dream Instagram Contest Winners 
Last week, we issued this challenge on Instagram: Tell us in pictures about your American dream! 

Now we've uploaded the 15 finalists to our Facebook page and voting ends at 6pm ET today. Vote for your favorites by clicking "like" on those photos. The top five will join Rick Santorum in our upcoming American Dream Google+ Hangout!

Thank you for hosting an Our Sacred Honor party
Thanks to those who've hosted an "Our Sacred Honor" party! Take a look at the photos sent in by some of our hosts. Interested in hosting a party of your own? Click here to learn more.  
Must Read: What's Your American Dream? 
I wrote my latest column about what we need to do to restore the American dream for hardworking Americans and future generations.  I highlighted many of the submissions you posted on our website.  Take a look at the column here.
Help Patriot Voices carry out our mission
Your financial support is critical to ensuring that Patriot Voices can carry out its mission of fighting for faith, family, freedom and opportunity in America. Help us in our efforts by making a contribution of $25, $50, or $100 so we can keep fighting for our conservative values. 

Donate Today button

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Hey Facebookers I'll be your host tonight for Chatterbox on FOXTEL ch 183 at 7pm. Feat.Ramos D-Artist , Genesis and more.
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Metamorphosis.

The end of day comes, the sun sets and the tornadic storm starts to die… This cloud mass had previously put down three tornados and was now dying, or rather transforming into a lightning producing machine, dropping 1-1/4" hail by the truckload. Here you see it sucking in a band of storm clouds in to get more power so that it could last the night. — in Boise City, OK.
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Outside Ben Thanh markets - Such an awesome photographer you are Mrs @jnguyen04 hehe! #Vietnam #Overwhelmed #Beautiful #Markets #Exploring #Fun #People
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I don't get leftist humour .. Wilcox is left .. but how is this, a comic about Penny Wong, funny? - ed
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How awesome is this bag?! 
Buy in Target and here:http://shop.target.com.au/p/hello-kitty-black-fashion-bag/P51915124
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Specialists from the Department of Hand Surgery Hospital in Rehovot saved from complete amputation the fingers of a young man. Three fingers of his hand were crushed by a machine and presented with 3rd degree burns. 
A month after having his fingers sewn into his abdomen to provide them with ample blood supply, the fingers have been restored, and have regained movement almost completely. 

((sent to us by our great colleague Dr Nima IR- With respect)) 
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"Margaret Thatcher arrested the decline of Britain and gave the British people renewed confidence. She ensured the British people no longer simply dwelt on the glories of the past but could enjoy a strong and prosperous future." Tony Abbotthttp://lbr.al/7j8t

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for Blake Knapp… another pic from 2010. I need to chase again!
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SYRIA-CRISIS/

Um Jaafar, a woman fighter in the Free Syrian Army, sits with her husband Abu Jaafar, a Sawt al-Haq (Voice of Rights) battalion commander, and her daughter Faten at their home in Aleppo February 12, 2013. Um Jaafar was a women's hairdresser before the revolution and after being trained by her husband, she is now a member of a Sawt al-Haq battalion on the frontline of Aleppo's Sheikh Saeed neighbourhood. REUTERS/Muzaffar Salman (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3DOSC REUTERS
<... When will the world ever learn from their mistakes ?

When will Arabs stop killing Arabs and stop blaming liberal and democratic society for their own savage demise ?>
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4 her
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Where else will one find a leader who could close down coal mines and still be despised by the left? - ed
to my left wing pals celebrating the death of lady thatcher: she voted for gay rights and legal abortion, brought inflation down from 18% to 8%, substantially raised employment (contrary to popular song...) and took a leading role in ending the cold war liberating millions from authoritarian rule in eastern europe. she also co-invented soft serve ice cream which is delicious. it's not all peaches and sunshine but if all you know about her is what you learned from elvis costello and billy bragg you may not have the full picture of the woman whose grave you're dancing on.

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History will enshrine Margaret Thatcher as a transformational leader who helped defeat communism, promote freedom, and bring hope to the oppressed. Her penetrating words and compelling vision will last for generations. - Mitt Romney
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For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. — Romans 8:38-39
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RIP Baroness Thatcher

"My policies are based not on some economics theory, but on things I and millions like me were brought up with: an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, live within your means, put by a nest egg for a rainy day, pay your bills on time, support the police." Thatcher, September 1981
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“Laura and I are saddened by the death of Baroness Margaret Thatcher. She was an inspirational leader who stood on principle and guided her nation with confidence and clarity. Prime Minister Thatcher is a great example of strength and character, and a great ally who strengthened the special relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. Laura and I join the people of Great Britain in remembering the life and leadership of this strong woman and friend.” George W Bush
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We’re deeply saddened at the loss of Margaret Thatcher. While the Iron Lady is sadly gone, her iron will, her unfailing trust in what is right and just, and her lessons to all of us will live on forever. She was a trailblazer like no other. We lost an icon, but her legacy, as solid as iron, will live on in perpetuity.

- Sarah Palin
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‘Crack open the champagne’: Twisted Twitter users dance on Margaret Thatcher’s grave ==>http://twitchy.com/2013/04/08/crack-open-the-champagne-twisted-twitter-users-dance-on-margaret-thatchers-grave/
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"Do not let the behaviour of others destroy your inner peace." ~ The Dalai Lama ♥

Poster by Buddha heart, image © Liddy Hansdottir - Fotolia.com
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Tired of the same old photos in your news feed? Like our page for an injection of freshness from NZ!
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France
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PUBLIC EDUCATION/INDOCTRINATION PROPAGANDA SPOKESPERSON...

"We have never invested as much in PUBLIC EDUCATION as we should have, because we've always had a kind of a private notion of children. 

Your kid is yours and totally your responsibility. We haven't had a very COLLECTIVE notion of these are OUR children. 

So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to our families and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.

Once it's everybody's responsibIlity and not just the households... then we start making better INVESTMENTS."

-Melissa Harris Perry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=N3qtpdSQox0
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We held a Community Forum on Ageing policy today in Mortdale with Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells. It was a good discussion about this important and complex policy area. The Senator is the Coalition's Shadow Minister and talked about our plans for reform if we are elected in September.
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ראש הממשלה השתתף בטקס ''לכל איש יש שם'' שנערך בכנסת. בטקס המרגש, הקריא רה''מ את שמות משפחתו של שמואל בן ארצי ז''ל, אביה של רעיית רה''מ הגברת שרה נתניהו, שנספתה כולה בשואה: 

האבא: (סבה של אשתי) משה הון (בן זאב הון).

אשתו: אִיטָה הון.

אחותו התאומה: (של חמי ז"ל) יהוּדִית בת משה הון, בת 24.

האחים:
מאיר הון, בן 18.
שמעון צבי הון, בן 16.
אריה (לֵייבּ) הון , בן 13
ואחותו הקטנה: פֶּיסָלֶה הון, בת 10

מהעיירה טָארְנוֹגְרוֹד:

דודתו (אחות האבא) – מָאטֶל קֶנִיגְשֶטֶיין ובנה הִילל בן יחזקאל ובתה הבכורה, (בת זאב הון). הדוד – מנדל הון, אשתו ושני ילדיהם.

מהעיירה בִּילְגוֹרַיי:

הדוד אברהם טאוּבֵּר, אשתו, ביתו ובנו.

הדודה רחל טאוּבֵּר, שלושת בניה: אברהם,

יעקב ושלמה, נשותיהם וילדיהם.

הדודה הִינְדָה ובעלה יחזקאל.

הדודה הֶנְדֶל, בעלה וילדיהם.

הדודה פָאלֶה ושתי בנותיה.

יהי זכרם ברוך.

The prime minister participated in the "every person has a name" ceremony that took place at the Knesset. In the moving ceremony, the prime minister recited the names of the family of the late Shmuel ben Artzi, father of Ms. Sarah Netanyahu the prime minister's spouse that perished entirely during the holocaust. May their memory be blessed
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Gabby Giffords falsely implies that her shooter evaded a background check ==>http://twitchy.com/2013/04/07/gabby-giffords-falsely-implies-that-her-shooter-evaded-a-background-check/
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Check out today's devotional to find out how Jesus alone is the perfect atonement for your sins, and that He is the only sacrifice that can satisfy God! Be blessed!http://bit.ly/10TlLCk
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What is uppermost in God's heart for His people? In this video excerpt, catch a glimpse of Christ's immeasurable mercy and grace toward His people. Find yourself running to Jesus, your Rock, to receive all that you need from Him!
http://josephprince.com/
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Trust God’s timing in your life. He makes all things beautiful in His time (Eccl 3:11).
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Claim your victory by proclaiming Jesus' death when you partake of the Lord’s Supper! Check out today's devotional and be blessed! http://bit.ly/10Tjjfa
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With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.—Ps 91:16

God's heart is never for you to die young, nor for you to live a long, but miserable life. 

In Ps 91:16, He promises you that with long life He will satisfy you, and show you His salvation. This means that God promises you not just long life, but also a satisfying one full of His goodness, wholeness and peace! 

In the verse, the word “salvation” is the Hebrew word Yeshua, the name of Jesus. God will satisfy you with a long life that is full of Jesus! Expect a long, full life where you walk in all the blessings that you have in Christ—health, wholeness, provision and contentment!http://josephprince.com/
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Beloved, rest in your righteous identity in Christ and release God’s awesome, mighty power to reign in life!

Click below to watch a short clip of this powerful message. Be sure to click 'Like' and share this with your friends! Amen!
http://bit.ly/10DJh2P
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We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His love… (1Jn 4:16, NLT).
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For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.—2Cor 8:9

The apostle Paul tells us in 2Cor 8:9 that for our sakes Jesus became poor so that we through His poverty might be made rich. At the cross, Jesus took on all our sin and poverty. He was humiliated, spat upon and stripped naked. The Roman soldiers even gambled for His clothes.

The One who fed more than 5,000 people, gave fishermen a net-breaking, boat-sinking load of fish, and who placed the gold, diamonds and rubies in the earth, took your place of poverty at the cross, just so that you can take His place of abundance. A divine exchange occurred at Calvary—your sin for His righteousness and your poverty for His provision.

My friend, Jesus is the reason you can be the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath. He is the reason you can be blessed to be a blessing. Put your trust in His presence in your life and what His finished work has accomplished for you!

This post is from today’s Meditate & Believe Right devotional. Click on the link to receive this complimentary series of inspiring devotionals in your mailbox each day!http://josephprince.com/meditate/
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April 9: Vimy Ridge Day in Canada; Day of National Unity in Georgia (1989);Bataan Day in the Philippines
The Mercury Seven

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