Thursday, May 09, 2013

Thu May 9th Todays News


FEELINGS EXPRESSED

Tim Blair – Thursday, May 09, 2013 (3:31pm)

Remarkably, this is the first prison sentence given to anyone involved in last year’s Islamic riots: 
A rioter who was in the middle of every aggressive confrontation with police during last year’s violent Muslim protests in the Sydney CBD has been sent to prison for more than four years.
And a magistrate said she would have sent father-of-one Mahmoud Eid, 26, to jail for even longer if she was allowed. 
Well done, Deputy Chief Magistrate Jane Culver. Mr Eid’s antics included general rioting, kicking a police dog and shoving a female police officer to the ground. Here’s Eid’s lawyer: 
Elie Rahme said his client was a man who clearly struggled to “control his emotions” and “express his feeling passively”.
“He joined a mob which, it appeared, had similar people in it who were poor in expressing their emotions and poor at expressing their feelings,” he said.
To the contrary, this “mob” of “similar people” seem to express themselves very clearly.

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LOOK WHO’S TALKING

Tim Blair – Thursday, May 09, 2013 (1:10pm)

A selective boycott from someone possibly hasn’t thought this through: 
Stephen Hawking’s decision to boycott an Israeli conference in protest at the state’s 46-year occupation of Palestine was derided as hypocritical by some, who pointed out that the celebrated scientist and author uses Israeli technology in the computer equipment that allows him to function …
According to Shurat HaDin, an Israel law centre which represents victims of terrorism, the equipment has been provided by an Israeli hi-tech firm, Intel, since 1997. 
Hawking should just switch over to Palestinian technology. Good luck with that.
UPDATE. Counterclaims that Hawking withdrew from the conference due to poor health have now been dismissed: 
Britain’s Cambridge University, where Professor Hawking has worked since 1962, initially said the physicist, who suffers from motor neurone disease, had pulled out for health reasons on the grounds that doctors had advised him against flying.
But it later confirmed it was because of the boycott. 
The University of Cambridge released a statement Wednesday indicating that Hawking had told the Israelis last week that he would not be attending “based on advice from Palestinian academics that he should respect the boycott.”
University officials said they had “previously understood” that Hawking’s decision was based solely on health concerns — he is 71 and has severe disabilities — but had now been told otherwise by Hawking’s office. 

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SECOND SANDWICH THEORY

Tim Blair – Thursday, May 09, 2013 (3:38am)

Texas, 1963: A man arrested for shooting the US President during a visit to Dallas denied he did it.
Queensland, 2013: A student suspended for throwing a sandwich at the Prime Minister during a visit at a Logan school has denied he did it.
Texas, 1963: Lee Harvey Oswald, 24, was one of many area residents who mobbed Kennedy during a visit to Dallas, south of Sherman.
Queensland, 2013: Kyle Thomson, 16, was one of many teens who mobbed Julia Gillard during a visit to Marsden State High School, south of Brisbane.
Texas, 1963: While riding past onlookers a bullet was fired in the direction of President Kennedy, flying past him and hitting Governor John Connally.
Queensland, 2013: While speaking to students a vegemite sandwich was hurled in the direction of Ms Gillard, flying past her and hitting another student.
Texas, 1963: A nightclub owner declared Oswald was the one who did it and he was subsequently shot.
Queensland, 2013: A teacher declared Kyle was the one who threw it and he was subsequently suspended for 15 days.
Texas, 1963: The House Select Committee on Assassinations’ final report contained a shocking finding: “Scientific acoustical evidence establishes a high probability that two gunmen fired at President John F. Kennedy.”
Queensland, 2013: “I hit the sandwich out of the kid’s hand because he threw it,” [Kyle] told Channel 9. “There was another one, so I hit it out of his hand.”

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THERE WAS A WOMAN IN DISTRESS

Tim Blair – Thursday, May 09, 2013 (2:56am)

Cleveland hero Charles Ramsey was raised right:



He was also born to perform. The man knows how to work a camera. 

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Say it in Arabic instead, Professor

Andrew Bolt May 09 2013 (9:07pm)

Tim Blair is right. If Professor Stephen Hawking really wants to boycott Israeli stuff, let him start with the equipment he uses to communicate. 

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The ABC’s Green says only those vile conservatives would say he’s biased

Andrew Bolt May 09 2013 (2:47pm)

ABC presenter Jonathan Green, who celebrated John Howard’s defeat with a party at which guests could bash a Howard pinata, says it shouldn’t matter that the ABC’s hosts are almost all of the Left, apparently because only the Left practice quiet, dispassionate and thoughtful journalism:
And then we have the opinion formers of the tabloid blogosphere. Little s-bends of ill-humour like the Daily Telegraph’s Tim Blair, or great vaulted Taj Mahals of polished ego like the Herald Sun’s Andrew Bolt. They are not for profit. They are for politics and influence, pivots of opinion, so loud, so insistent, so ubiquitous that they are capable of turning the national mind.
And they deny the fundamental spirit of this vanishing craft of journalism, while arguing furiously for their own well-established right to speak, and against the apparently creeping menace of leftist collusion that dominates most other media - particularly the ABC - that labours under the great misfortune of not being them.
Lately from this politicised fringe we have had a repeated argument: that journalism here at the ABC is some act of leftist collectivism, a case made conclusive by the absence of figures that might be clearly identified, by the likes of Bolt or Gerard Henderson, as being “of the right”.
Which misses the point entirely. Journalism is neither of the right or left; it is, for want of something less pompous, of the truth. In any journalism worth its salt the convictions of the reporter are an irrelevance and the journalism that might be produced under the influence of personal prejudice is a betrayal of professional practice and the implied trust of all who consume it.
So only journalists of the Left, curiously enough, seem able to divorce their politics from their reportage.
Here are samples of the dispassionate reportage, free of the “influence of personal prejudice”, which Green as editor of Crikey published about a certain meek but, alas, conservative blogger, as detailed in a letter to Crikey:

Last week I drew your attention to comments and blog postings you had published over the space of just a few days calling me a “proven liar”, “nutty”, “unhinged”, “underhand”, “loopy”, “paranoid”, a “hypocrite”, a “racist”, “dishonest”, “hysterical”, “petty”, “evasive”, “deluded”, “irrational”, lacking in morality, someone guilty of “deliberately misrepresenting” people, “full of poisonous shit”, and a “notorious liar” who practices “lies, misrepresentations, and deceit”, “lies, distortions and smears”, “fakery” and “cowardice and dishonesty”, while giving “tacit approval” to “extremist sickos” and “playing the paranoid schizo’’, resembling in my person an “asylum for the criminally insane”. You conceded that these comments included a number of statements that were “untrue and unnecessarily personal in tone”.
Sometimes I wish I’d overcome my silly prejudice against suing…
Green also invites us to believe his politics had no role in persuading him to, say, fall for the Arlene Composta hoax, mock the Down syndrome child of Sarah Palin with a reference to ”a mongrel called Trig”, or write bracing sermons from his air-conditioned office on the need to sacrifice comfort for the planet:

I’d suggest another role for government: it should have urged folk, where possible, to curb their use and decrease the load. It’s nice to have, but air conditioning is not compulsory or necessary… It doesn’t say a lot for the sort of sacrifice that will probably be necessary to bring big long-term changes to climate to heel, that we can’;t get through three days of high heat without bringing our power system to its keens due to the over use of various comforting appliances.
Clearly Green lives in a house with no mirrors. He is precisely the caricature Leftist I’ve described, holding bog-standard Leftist positions while utterly convinced he’s actually a fiercely independent thinker. “Yes, we’re all individuals. Yes, we are all different,” chanted the crowd in The Life of Brian.
But the ultimate stupidity of Green’s piece is that it so clearly confirms - even more so than Jonathan Holmes’ effort - my argument that the ABC leans hard to the Left, and suffers from groupthink.
He pretends to argue there is no Leftist bias at all, yet in his piece repeatedly - and exclusively - attacks the journalism of the so-called “Right” as bad, sinister and no journalism at all.  Fox News inhabits “an entirely parallel universe that determines its own agenda, facts and logic according to an often bellicose political mission”. The Australian is “a paper whose political purpose and occasional flights of “truthiness” can routinely obscure its better journalistic angels”.  Gerard Henderson is of the “politicised fringe”.  Tim Blair produces “little s-bends of ill-humour”. I maintain “great vaulted Taj Mahals of polished ego”. And together we deny the “fundamental spirit of this vanishing craft of journalism”.
There you have the Green thesis - a much more prolix version of that which former ABC Media Watch David Marr first advanced, on the ABC, naturally:

The natural culture of journalism is kind of vaguely soft-Left inquiry sceptical of authority. I mean, that’s just the world out of which journalists come. If they don’t come out of that world, they really can’t be reporters. I mean, if you’re not sceptical of authority, find another job. You know, just find another job. And that is kind of a soft-leftie kind of culture.
How monstrously vain. How ultimately self-contradictory: “We’re not biased, and only conservatives would say so.”
Clearly many in the ABC are simply unable to see themselves as others do. I suspect it comes in part from not having colleagues to challenge and contradict them.
Which, of course, was my point.
Time the ABC hired a few conservatives, or got sold.
UPDATE
I was accused of misquoting Monty Python. I actually quoted the less memorable part of the quote. Fixed now. I hope, to the satisfaction of all. 

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Combet announces the death of the warming scare

Andrew Bolt May 09 2013 (9:15am)

I watched the global warming scare this week drowning in a pool of red ink, right on my television screen.
I don’t just mean Climate Change Minister Greg Combet being forced yesterday to eat his mendacious words, having blown a gigantic hole in the Budget .
First there was Monday night’s Q&A on the ABC, where students fired earnest questions at Prime Minister Julia Gillard on such things as bad sexism, poor boat people, and evil Israel.

But not one of these well-coached idealists asked a question on global warming.
When Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister faced students on Q&A in 2010, he was asked at least a dozen.
Back then, and after, Labor was so sure global warming was the new moral crusade that it gave us a carbon tax we didn’t want and didn’t vote for.
It was just as sure – and just as wrong – the rest of the world would also impose stiff carbon taxes, so we would not be alone in driving up power prices and killing jobs .
Greg Combet was so certain that he last year linked Australia’s carbon trading scheme - to replace the carbon tax in 2015 - to Europe’s, the world’s biggest.
He was betting a committed Europe would ramp up its own price to $29.
The Government then figured how much it would earn from all that loot – and blew the lot, with $1.4 billion promised in tax cuts from 2015.
You couldn’t tell Combet he was mad – Europe was too broke to slug business like that.
But now the truth can be denied no longer.   

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Gillard is gone. Abbott should now try winning 2016

Andrew Bolt May 09 2013 (9:08am)

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ANOTHER week and the clown show called the Gillard Government loses another billion dollars and breaks three more promises.
Conclusion: Tony Abbott should worry less about the next election and more about the one after.
He risks paying too much - take his absurd parental leave scheme - to win what is his already. 

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How Kenny excuses the worst government in living memory

Andrew Bolt May 09 2013 (8:07am)

Mark Kenny, chief political correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, reminds me of Tom Lehrer’s old gag:

Apart from that Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?
Here is Kenny seeking to praise Julia Gillard:
...how will people shorthand the Gillard era once the fog of war has cleared? Perhaps this: good at policy/bad at politics.

Critics will bristle even at this concession, pointing to the carbon ‘’tax’’, the mining tax, the dissembling confusion over asylum seekers, the botched media laws, the live cattle debacle and so on.
Certainly in some policy areas this government has failed to make progress - with border protection leading the field.
Pardon? The Government merely ”failed to make progress” on border protection?
That’s a truly astonishing way of describing the debacle Gillard has presided over.
In the last six years of the Howard Government, boat arrivals averaged just three a year. Under Gillard, we have had an average of around 100 boat people arriving every single day over the past five weeks. More than 1000 have died since Labor scrapped Howard’s laws and replaced them with ones largely drawn up by Gillard. That catastrophic mistake has caused costs to blow out by $5 billion as 40,000 boat people have flooded in.
And this is waved away as merely a ”failure to make progress”?
Yes, the Titanic failed to make progress, too.
Kenny then turns to Gillard’s glittering successes - her “actual achievements”:

...the list of actual achievements stacks up well. It includes: settling the supposedly unfixable Murray-Darling Basin wrangle (remember that?); building the NBN; reforming school funding (a work in progress); establishing paid parental leave for the first time; reforming aged care; investing more in rail than all previous governments put together; articulating a new foreign policy by balancing the divergent interests of the US, China, India and Indonesia; becoming a world leader against the scourge of smoking through hard-fought reforms such as plain packaging of cigarettes; initiating a royal commission on institutional sex abuse; and, most recently, a national disability insurance scheme - itself a social and economic reform to rival any. 
How many of these “actual achievements” are “actual”, let alone an “achievement”?
Let’s check:
- The Murray-Darling Basin fix was a compromise after a debacle to half fix with mega-dollars an exaggerated problem.
- The NBN is a promise of a white elephant that is badly behind schedule and is now tipped by some to cost an astonishing $90 billion if allowed to go on much longer.
- Even Kenny admits the “actual achievement” of “reforming school funding” is merely a “work in progress”, rather than an “actual achievement”. It involves merely promising more than $4 billion a year - essentially unfunded - to make no defined improvement to school standards.
- “Balancing the divergent interests of the US, China, India and Indonesia” means who-knows-what, but seems to involve alarming the US by slashing defence spending to dangerous lows, offending Indonesia by stopping beef supplies, annoying India by cosying to China, and placating China because we have no credible defence force left.
- Becoming a “world leader against the scourge of smoking” by bringing in plain packaging is to win a risible title with a legislative change of still-indeterminate effect.
- The royal commission into child sex abuse - an undoubted scandal - looks set to be a massively prolonged, massively expensive exercise in group therapy with a tinge of anti-Catholicism. It may do some good and uncover some as-yet-undiscovered crimes, but it is also likely to do much harm without doing anything to stop child sex abuse today.
- As for the disability scheme, that, too, involves merely a promise of massive spending of billions we don’t have on a system not yet designed to achieve improvements which no one can yet guarantee. This, too, is only a promise, and not an “actual achievement”.
There seems nothing Kenny cannot forgive in Labor:
Again, we see this gap between policy reality and political reality. An $11 billion or $12 billion deficit would not be a bad result measured against the real economy and last year’s $44.4 billion deficit.
Er, Mark: one reason a $12 billion deficit would not look so “bad” when “measured against ... last year’s $44.4 billion deficit” is that the Government deliberately and deceitfully pulled planned spending for this year into last year’s figures to trick up a fake surplus. Take the early payment of the Schoolkids Bonus and pull-forward of local council grants. Another reason is that other spending commitments were pushed to the outer years.
The fact is the “real economy” is giving this spendthrift Government more than 7 per cent higher tax revenues this year:

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And here is what someone with a firmer grasp of economic reality (and, relax, he’s from a left-leaning think tank) says of Labor producing its sixth straight Budget deficit during a mining boom:

As the Grattan Institute’s John Daly said this week: “(Growth is) at 2.5 per cent, unemployment’s at 5.5 per cent—you know, this is about as good as it gets. If we’re not running a surplus at this point in the cycle, exactly when is it that we are planning to run one?”
Kenny reads like a Labor apologist, and not even a skilled one. 

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The ABC gives the Dalai Lama a title it denies the Pope

Andrew Bolt May 09 2013 (7:45am)

ABC Radio National just played a cheery promo for a “Happiness and its Causes Conference” the ABC is holding featuring “His Holiness the Dalai Lama”. On the ABC website the honorific is repeated: ”his Holiness the Dalai Lama”.

Why does the ABC refer to “his Holiness the Dalai Lama” but not ”his Holiness the Pope”?
Surely it’s either both or neither?
(Not surprisingly for the ABC, the Dalai Lama is the only religious leader invited to speak. The only Christian cleric at its conference is Father Bob McGuire, the favorite Catholic priest of critics of Catholicism in general and the Pope in particular.) 

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Defend human rights. Scrap the Human Rights Commission

Andrew Bolt May 09 2013 (7:18am)

Here is one useful cut the Abbott Government could make that would not only save money but improve the culture and protect our freedoms.
It could scrap the Human Rights Commission that backed the Gillard Government’s attempt to make it unlawful to offend people’s political views and which failed to defend free speech.
Savings: $27 million.
Whatever the commission does that’s deemed useful can be devolved to the state anti-discrimination agencies, or left to the countless NGOs and human rights lawyers to do for free:

The Human Rights Commission, as it is now known, had a budget of $27.5 million last year, and let’s not forget its little cousins: the Anti-Discrimination Board of NSW; the Anti-Discrimination Commission of Queensland; the Equal Opportunities Commission of Western Australia, the NT Anti-Discrimination Commission; the Office of the Anti-Discrimination Commission (Tasmania); the South Australia Equal Opportunity Commission; the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission; and the ACT Human Rights Commission...
John Howard put the matter well yesterday:
JOHN Howard has branded border protection Labor’s “greatest policy failure by a country mile”, reflecting the rise of a “morally snobbish intellectual class” including politicians who had never had “any job outside of politics"…
In a wide-ranging speech in Sydney launching The Lucky Culture - and the Rise of an Australian Ruling Class by Nick Cater, The Australian’s chief opinion editor, Mr Howard said he agreed with Cater that human rights had become a “debased currency” in the hands of the new political elite.
“Despite their very best endeavours, human rights practitioners have failed to unearth convincing evidence of institutionalised discrimination in any layer of public life in Australia,” Mr Howard said.
And here is the poison. Unable to find enough evil to justify their existence, our human rights bodies press for more laws and broader definitions to help their catch more Australians in their nets:

In 2001, for instance, Equal Opportunity Commission Victoria’s chairman admitted: “I am not aware of any conclusive evidence that suggests that discrimination is increasing.”
But instead of celebrating a good job well done, the EOCV decided it needed to find more customers…
It pushed the then Labor Government to pass absurdly wide new laws against racial and religious vilification that would define even more Australians as racists and bigots.
It worked brilliantly, catching people you’d never have dreamed would be hauled before the thought police.
They included a Salvation Army prison chaplain who handed biblical literature to a sex offender who was a witch, two Christian pastors who’d made their congregation laugh by accurately quoting passages from the Koran urging jihad, and a humble Herald Sun columnist who had outraged a One Nation supporter by praising Asian students generally for their study ethic — a comment that apparently “demeaned” Anglo Saxons.
Sure, the complaints in each case were eventually dismissed, but at what cost? What worry?
Our federal race commissioners have lusted for the same solution.
One, Zita Antonias, admitted a decade ago that complaints of racism had fallen by more than a third, but we couldn’t possibly be that nice: “The figures are incongruent with anecdotal evidence.”
Tom Calma, who succeeded her, was so frustrated at being unable to prove we had many (white) Australian racists that he asked the Rudd government to boost the supply by changing the law, so that people accused of being racists now had to prove they were not, a reversal of the burden of proof that makes us all racists until we can show otherwise. 
Shockingly, the Gillard Government nearly gave Calma just what he wanted and a lot more besides with its draconian anti-discrimination bill, since withdrawn:

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The Government is broke because it believed its own bull

Andrew Bolt May 09 2013 (6:38am)

How much of the Gillard Government’s budget troubles have been caused by Labor believing its own bullshit?

THE Coalition has accused Labor of creating a $5 billion black hole in its asylum-seeker budget the next three years by forecasting a substantial slowdown of boats despite record-breaking arrival numbers.
This Government built a budget on the prediction that it would miraculously cut boat people arrivals to 450 a month despite leaving the door wide open.  Instead, it’s had about 2000 a month.
This Government built a budget on the prediction that its mining tax, designed by miners themselves, would raise $2 billion a year in a mining boom that would last for many years. Instead, it’s had less than half that.
This Government built a budget on the prediction that Europe’s carbon permits would trade at $29 a tonne from 2015, because the whole world shared its global warming evangelism. Instead, it now accepts the permits will trade at $15 (at best) earning it $3 billion a year less.
This Government built a budget on the prediction that tax revenue this financial year would somehow soar 11 per cent. Instead, it’s risen - but by 7.6 per cent, leaving it about $17 billion behind.
This Government built a budget on the prediction that it would raise $3 billion from a sale of digital spectrum from telcos who could be forced to wear read underpants on their heads. Instead, it raised only $2 billion.
Having believed it’s own mendacious spin, Treasurer Wayne Swan a year ago delivered his 2012 Budget with these words - greeted with derisive laughter by the Opposition:

This Budget delivers a surplus this coming year, on time, as promised, and surpluses each year after that, strengthening over time.
Scoundrels. 

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If we’re about to fry, Combet wouldn’t cut like this

Andrew Bolt May 09 2013 (6:33am)

These aren’t cuts you’d make if you truly thought man was heating the world catastrophically and Australia had to help stop it:
The federal government is set to slash around $100 million in funding for solar and other renewable energy projects to help cover an expected plunge in the price of carbon in three years time.
Funding for manufacturers to adopt low-emissions technology – worth $1.2 billion – and initiatives in regional ­Australia to improve carbon storage are also likely to be reduced in next week’s budget.
The great green scare is dying. Check not what Labor says but what it does.
UPDATE
More reason to relax:

SEA level rises triggered by Greenland’s melting glaciers will be far less severe than previously thought, new modelling suggests.
European and US researchers predict the impact on sea levels from the island’s melting glaciers could be as little as 7 per cent of previous projections of more than half a metre.
The “state-of-the-art ice-flow model” calculates that melting ice from Greenland’s 50-odd glaciers will raise sea levels by between 40mm and 85mm by the end of the century.

The estimates, reported today in the journal Nature, ...  are based on mid-range forecasts that would see global temperatures rise 2.8C this century.
Except, of course, the warming has paused for the past 16 years.
(Thanks to reader Hmmm.) 

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A Labor adviser’s spin, thrice repeated

Andrew Bolt May 09 2013 (12:08am)

Professor Sinclair Davidson notes this paragraph from a column on Tuesday by the ABC’s Emma Alberici:
Back to that $96 billion “Labor debt” inherited by the Howard government in 1996 – which actually comprised $40 billion of Fraser government debt that carried through the Hawke-Keating years taking the true level of Labor debt in 1996 to $56 billion. Bringing down that debt wasn’t all about constrained spending and higher taxes, in fact neither of those things were characteristics of the Howard-Costello years. Government asset sales between 1996 and 2007 worth $72 billion wiped the net debt out entirely with $16 billion to spare.
He notes this very similar paragraph in an article in March by a Don Kelly in the Illawarra Mercury:

...  $96 billion “Labor debt”, comprised of $40 billion carried over from the Fraser government through the Hawke/Keating period, meaning that the true level of Labor debt was $56 billion. To pay that off, the Howard Government sold almost $72 billion of Government assets (Telstra, DASFLEET, etc), meaning that the move to negative net debt was not really due to any miraculous and bold fiscal settings, but owed everything to a series of asset sales.
And an equally familiar paragraph - with all the same figures and arguments - appeared originally last June in an article by Stephen Koukoulas, Julia Gillard’s former economics adviser:

The $96 billion “Labor debt” inherited by the Howard Government in 1996 comprised $39.9 billion of Fraser Government debt that carried through the Hawke/Keating period meaning that the true level of Labor debt in 1996 was $56 billion. To pay that $56 billion off, the Howard Government sold almost $72 billion of Government assets meaning the move to negative net debt was not really due to any miraculous and bold fiscal settings, but owed everything to a series of asset sales.

Sinclair asks:
So how can we be be so sure the paragraph has been taken from The Kouk?
Two reasons, Sinclair then demonstrates. In short, the figures are massaged and misleading. Read on.

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Bad omens: Q&A students heart Iran, hate Israel

Andrew Bolt May 09 2013 (12:05am)

These exchanges between the Prime Minister and students on Q&A on Monday are disturbing, not least because the Julia Gillard’s answer to the anti-Israeli admirer of Islamist Iran was so weak - and the contempt of students for two democracies so strong:

TONY JONES:  Our next question comes from Dalia Qasem of Northmead Creative and Performing Arts High in New South Wales.

DARIA QASEM: Australia has always pushed for a just peace between the Israeli and Palestinian people, although the attitude by the Government has seemed to be biased towards Israel. For example, why are you ready to impose sanctions on Iran due to their nuclear weapon program although nothing has been mentioned about Israel’s existing nuclear weapons or their violation of the past in peoples’ rights?
JULIA GILLARD: Well, thank you for that questions. In terms of Iran, I take the view and I think it is being taken broadly by nations like Australia around the world, that the regime in Iran should not have access to nuclear weapons, given the war-like statements that come from that regime, including statements that Israel should be, you know, sort of bombed into oblivion, that the Israeli state should be brought to an end by violent means. So I don’t think people who preach war should have the most destructive weapons the world knows. I don’t believe that. Nuclear weapons are around the world in the hands of democracies. Would we be a better world if no-one ever invented nuclear weapons? Well, yes, we probably would be a better world and if there was…
TONY JONES: So a brief question there. I mean are you saying that Australia is actually just comfortable with the idea that Israel has nuclear weapons?
JULIA GILLARD: Well, I think it would be a better world if no-one had nuclear weapons but…
TONY JONES: But in the case of Israel?
JULIA GILLARD: But at least when nuclear weapons are in the hands of democracies that are not preaching violence, that is aggression, they are not looking to go to war, that is more reassuring than what we have heard from Iran and its aim to get a nuclear weapon and the war-like rhetoric that we heard…
TONY JONES: There’s a young guy there. Go ahead.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You were saying Iran is the aggressor. For almost a decade now Israel has been murdering thousands, tens of thousands of Palestinians. Now, let me ask you a question, is Israel the murderer and the aggressor or is Iran the aggressor because Iran is feeding the Palestinian people. Today the Palestinians have food in their bellies because of Iran and not Israel.
TONY JONES: Okay. All right. It is turning into a comment but we’ll take the question.
JULIA GILLARD: Well, in part, Palestinians have humanitarian supplies because of what Australia provides. We do a lot of aid work with the Palestinian people and I am proud that we do. We should. It is the right thing to do. But I don’t think you can, you know, stack these things up and say therefore it is right for Iran to get nuclear weapons. What I would like to see in the Middle East is I would like to see a two-state solution where Israel and the Palestinian people have their own countries with defined and secure borders and they live in peace. I actually think…
TONY JONES: Okay. All right.
JULIA GILLARD: ...the prospect of that is not in any way advanced by Iran getting a nuclear weapon. In fact, I think the reverse is true.
TONY JONES: All right. We’ll just take one more hand. Sorry, we’ve got so many of you have got your hands up but that young lady down in the corner there.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Surely it is important to acknowledge the fact that the only country to have dropped nuclear bombs on another country has been America, who prides itself as one of the leading democracies in the world? So surely it’s important to consider that fact that it is not necessarily a good indicator that democracy is right to hold nuclear weapons or that they will use them wisely. It’s a subjective opinion but something to consider.
Not promising.  

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Larry Pickering
ALP CRIME ENDEMIC

PM Julia Gillard and her hero, Big Bill Ludwig, are no strange bedfellows when it comes to crime and NSW’s Eddie Obeid and his army of corrupt ALP mates should not feel left out. Nor Should the HSU’s Williamson and Thomson. And if you believe that Combet endorsed a dodgy coal mine without knowing it was dodgy then go play with the fairies at the bottom of your garden.

But now it’s Queensland and a series of ALP rorts involving 200 million dodgy dollars that's about to suffer the microscope of a Newman Commission of Inquiry.

No prizes for guessing who’s involved. Yep, Bill Ludwig, the racing industry (RQL) and the Bligh Government.

Just days before the QLD electorate delivered a death sentence to the Bligh Government, $20 million was transferred from QLD Treasury to Racing Queensland Limited’s trust account.

Was Anna Bligh was trying to make something favourite at Doomben? Not really. More likely to line the pockets of her corrupt supporters on the QLD Racing Board and her government employees who were about to be thrown on the job heap.

RQL and the Bligh Government then entered into funding contracts for over $60 million of public works in key Labor electorates.

Interesting also is the arrangement between RQL and Sunshine Coast engineering firm, Contour Consulting. This little deal involved tens of millions of dollars and more than 30 contracts that were awarded without one going to tender.

Coincidentally, two key executives resigned from RQL and immediately took up positions with guess who, Contour Consulting.

The two executives were handed astoundingly large payouts by RQL, the subject of which is now under investigation by ASIC. But there’s more!

The Inquiry will also probe Queensland Race Product Co’s (a non-profit subsidiary of RQL) grant of almost $100 million in deductions to gaming giant Tatts Group. And against legal advice.

Now stay with me here... the boss of QRL is the notorious Bob Bentley and Mr Bentley is also on the board of Tatts Group.

Bob Bentley remained boss of QRL for over ten years without ever facing re-election as required under the RQL’s Constitution.

Both Bill Ludwig and Bob Bentley have insisted they did nothing wrong. Phew! For a moment I was a bit worried there.

Of course Julia has learnt from her friend Anna how to empty Treasury coffers prior to the dreaded conservatives taking over.

Anna was a friend of mine but I guess not now she reads this and Julia hated me anyway.

Bugger, I don’t seem to have much luck with some women.

But some women seem to have a lot of luck getting away with murder!
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Before they had a chance to demolish the food we had to play the awesome slideshow Helen prepared for us, and boy did everybody LOVE IT! #team9lives #9livesparkour #powerhouseyouththeatre
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Some of the catering Helen brought for the class on Friday to celebrate her photographic journey of capturing us all at training! To say this all vanished when the Warriors got there would be an understatement! TRAIN LIKE WARRIORS, EAT LIKE BEASTS! #team9lives #9livesparkour
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SWAMI VIKEVANANDA was made famous when he made a speech, over 100 years ago, at a world wide conference of religions. He, more than anyone, called for religious tolerance. His speech made headlines in the major newspapers. His own religious orientation was mystic Hinduism (Vedanta) which calls for nonviolence - AND YET here is what he had to say about the followers of Islam:
“...Every step forward (for the Mohamadeans) was made with the word of the Koran in the one hand and the sword in the other. Take the Koran, or you must die; there is no alternative”. [The speech, delivered in the Universalist Church, Pasadena, California, USA, on 28th January, 1890]
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Today, we have released the Coalition’s Policy to Improve the Fair Work Laws.

You can read it here: http://ow.ly/kQYAm
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Central Coast motorists will be relieved to know that the Coalition government will end the frustration of Central Coast motorists and get the missing F3 to M2 link underway.
Lucy Wicks and I met today to discuss this vital infrastructure that will mean shorter travel times, reduced congestion and safer roads for the residents of the Central Coast. 
This project has been talked about for decades and only the Coalition can be trusted to deliver this major piece of economic infrastructure. Labor in NSW had 16 years to deliver this project and the Rudd/Gillard Government has had almost six years. As Australians have learned to their cost in recent years, Labor Budget announcements cannot be trusted nor believed.
We aim to have the F3 to M2 link started by late 2014, pending the finalisation of commercial agreements between the private sector and the NSW Government.
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Imagine Captain Jack Harkness in the new Star Trek movie?
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When they do that .. they are chasing rats .. -ed
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From Larry Pickering .. I disagree with article .. Europe has a similar problem in places .. as does the US - ed
THE COST OF ISLAMIC INCEST

[Editor’s note: Several days ago, an interview with Nicolai Sennels on Muslim inbreeding was published but taken down soon after at the request of the author, as it was decided that several themes needed to be buffered by more evidence and research. The final product ended up working best as an article by Nicolai Sennels himself, which is presented below].

By Nicolai Sennels

A tragic phenomenon which is taking a terrible toll on everyone involved.

There is a dire phenomenon rising in Europe that is crippling entire societies and yet the continent sleeps, refusing not only to confront the destructive elephant in the room, but also to admit its very existence.

The troubling reality being referred to is the widespread practice of Muslim inbreeding and the birth defects and social ills that it spawns.

The tragic effect of the Left’s control of the boundaries of debate is that any discussion about vital issues such as these marks an individual as an “Islamophobe” and a “racist.”

A person who dares to point at the pathology of inbreeding in the Muslim community is accused of whipping up hatred against Muslim people.

But all of this could not be further from the truth. To fight against inbreeding anywhere is to defend humanity and to defend innocent babies from birth defects.

Fighting against this Islamic practice stems from a pro-Muslim calling, since identifying destructive ideologies and practices in Islam enables the protection of the Muslim people from harm.

Massive inbreeding
Massive inbreeding among Muslims has been going on since their prophet allowed first-cousin marriages more than 50 generations (1,400 years) ago. For many Muslims, therefore, intermarriage is regarded as being part of their religion.

In many Muslim communities, it is a source of social status to marry one’s daughter or son to his or her cousin. Intermarriage also ensures that wealth is kept within the family.

Islam’s strict authoritarianism plays a large role as well: keeping daughters and sons close gives families more power to control and decide their choices and lifestyles.

Westerners have a historical tradition of being ready to fight and die for their country.

Muslims, on the other hand, are bound together less by patriotism, but mainly by family relations and religion.

Intermarrying to protect the family and community from outside non-Islamic influence is much more important to Muslims living in a Western nation than integrating into that nation and supporting it.

Today, 70% of all Pakistanis are inbred and in Turkey the amount is between 25-30% (Jyllands-Posten, 27/2 2009 “More stillbirths among immigrants“).

A rough estimate reveals that close to half of everybody living in the Arab world is inbred.

A large percentage of the parents that are blood related come from families where intermarriage has been a tradition for generations.

A BBC investigation in Britain several years ago revealed that at least 55% of the Pakistani community in Britain was married to a first cousin.

The Times of India affirmed that “this is thought to be linked to the probability that a British Pakistani family is at least 13 times more likely than the general population to have children with recessive genetic disorders.”

The BBC’s research also discovered that while British Pakistanis accounted for just 3.4% of all births in Britain, they accounted for 30% of all British children with recessive disorders and a higher rate of infant mortality.

It is not a surprise, therefore, that, in response to this evidence, a Labour Party MP has called for a ban on first-cousin marriage.

Medical evidence shows that one of the negative consequences of inbreeding is a 100% increase in the risk of stillbirths.

One study comparing Norwegians and Pakistanis shows the risk that the child dies during labour increases by 50%. The risk of death due to autosomal recessive disorders — e.g., cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy — is 18 times higher.

Risk of death due to malformations is 10 times higher. Mental health is also at risk: the probability of depression is higher in communities where consanguine marriages are also high.

The closer the blood relative, the higher the risk of mental and physical retardation and schizophrenic illness.

And then there are the findings on intelligence. Research shows that if one’s parents are cousins, intelligence goes down 10-16 IQ points. The risk of having an IQ lower than 70 (criterion for being “retarded”) increases 400% among children from cousin marriages.

An academic paper published in the Indian National Science Academy found that “the onset of various social profiles like visual fixation, social smile, sound seizures, oral expression and hand-grasping are significantly delayed among the new-born inbred babies.”

Another study found that Indian Muslim schoolboys whose parents were first cousins tested significantly lower than boys whose parents were unrelated in a non-verbal test on intelligence.

It is estimated that one third of all handicapped people in Copenhagen have a foreign background and 64% of school children in Denmark with Arabic parents are illiterate after 10 years in the Danish school system.

The same study concludes that in reading ability, mathematics, and science, the pattern is the same: “The bilingual (largely Muslim) immigrants’ skills are exceedingly poor compared to their Danish classmates.”

These problems within Islam bring many detriments to Western countries. Expenses related to mentally and physically handicapped Muslim immigrants, for instance, severely drain the budgets and resources of our societies.

Denmark, for example: One third of the budget for the country’s schools is spent on children with special needs. Muslim children are grossly over-represented among these children.

More than half of all children in schools for children with mental and physical handicaps in Copenhagen are foreigners — of whom Muslims are by far the largest group. One study concludes that “foreigners inbreeding costs our municipalities millions” because of the many handicapped children and adults.

What must our role be as a humanitarian society to this rising crisis?

We know that the greatest concern among pregnant women and their husbands is for their child to be healthy.

It is not difficult to imagine the sorrow and stress among interrelated couples who are forced to marry and pressured to have children.

Is it not our duty to fight for the rights of these human beings subjected to such Barbaric and inhuman predicaments?

What is it we can do?
Denmark is a pioneering example of where to begin: In order to counter forced marriages, the country does not allow Danish citizens to marry foreigners younger than 24 years old.

It also offers non-Western immigrants up to 15,000 Euros or 20,000 Dollars to emigrate back to their countries of origin.

Immigrants who are not Danish citizens are banished from Denmark if they commit violent crimes. The state does not support families economically for having more than the country’s average amount of children.

This prevents foreigners from coming to Denmark who have plans to have a lot of children and live off the State’s child support system.

The country also denies resident permits to foreigners who are marrying their cousin in Denmark.

Right now, the country is working on a complete halt to immigration from countries that are not oriented towards Western values (mainly Muslim countries).

No more intermarriage
We must simply forbid intermarriage among first cousins. Doing so will not only help slow down all the terrible consequences of inbreeding, but also prevent Muslims who insist on practising this damaging practice from moving to our countries.

Let us keep in mind that Muslims are the first — though maybe not the biggest — victims of Islam.

As long as we know that our motivation is to help them, then our conscience is clear in the face of the Left’s accusations that we are somehow “anti-Muslim” when we show our concern about Muslim babies who are born with mental and physical defects — and about their parents who endure endless suffering and worry.

In fact, it is the Left’s callous silence on this issue (and on so many others) that exposes who is truly “anti-Muslim.”

As long as we stick to facts, have a compassionate motivation, and are still able to be brave, we can be certain that not only are we right to reach out to protect Muslim people, but that in doing so we are also protecting ourselves from destroying our own basic humanistic and Western values while struggling against anti-human and aggressive practices and ideologies.
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I get the frustration. Maybe if the student got a hair cut and wore a uniform. Then the teacher might find time to prepare a lesson with interaction on a collegiate level. But some teachers .. many .. aren't in a position to interact with the class. Misbehaviour related to how a teacher looks or sounds can make a classroom unworkable.

it goes to a theory of cultural assets, which may not be one you agree with, and what I wrote was not as a course of action .. but according to the theory of cultural assets people prefer to identify with successful groups and assets which self identify such groups should be promoted. It remains to be seen what those are at an institution like a school. That classroom wasn't any of mine. But I have seen ones like it and know a history which leads to it .. I know what goes into bad teaching .. I also know about turning around situations .. can I point out some good things about that video? The teacher got the student to leave the room and the student didn't take others with them. In fact, it looks so calm I'd say it was set up. In Australia we have school uniforms. Uniformly disliked, they clearly serve a purpose .. whatever that may be .. possibly buried in a theory of cultural assets .. possibly to allow police to identify truants more easily .. I know students who truant in uniform ..
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ALLEGED MJ ABUSE: A key Australian witness and supporter of Michael Jackson during his 2005 molestation trial, is now saying he was a victim. 

Read more on Ninemsn:http://ninem.sn/0KgYAOg 

9 News will cover this story throughout our daytime bulletins today.
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Pastor Rick Warren
You'll be a lot happier, and far more blessed, if you learn to genuinely love people you disagree with.

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Real American Heroes: John Wayne - American (Video)

http://independentfilmnewsandmedia.com/real-american-heroes-john-wayne/

“My hope and prayer is that everyone know and love our country for what she really is and what she stands for.” – John Wayne
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$10Bn GREEN BRIBE SLIPPING THOUGH ABBOTT’S FINGERS Larry Pickering

Money desperately needed to fill Swan’s black holes is being hastily squandered in a desperate attempt to have it spent before Abbott can get his hands on it.

The Gillard government, under a Green agreement, has offered doomed green ventures access to a $10 billion “renewable energy fund”. 

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) is not due to start until July 1st this year but dozens of contracts have already been drawn up and ready to sign on the commencement date.

It will offer up to $2 billion each year from 2013, for five years.

Jillian Broadbent, Chair of CEFC, has mailed out hundreds of request for submissions from oddball greens with aspirational ideas to rid Australia of coal at any cost.

The pre-requisite for access to the kitty is that a green venture must have been previously denied a loan from a commercial finance source.

In other words, if the venture is considered commercially unviable, it immediately qualifies for borrowed taxpayer funds.

The CEFC is able to provide loans with concessional terms and conditions for up to $300 million in any one year.

Bankrupt solar panel maker, Solyndra, had received a loan that was part of the Department of Energy fund that was expanded under the stimulus package.

The Solyndra debacle, which cost taxpayers over half a billion dollars, clearly demonstrates the government’s inability to pick winners in a commercial world.

Shadow environment spokesman, Greg Hunt, told the ABC: ''We believe that it (CEFC) is literally shovelling billions out the door and we believe that the Government should stop trawling for dodgy programs behind the scenes to shovel taxpayers' money out the door in a last ditch roll of taxpayer money.''

The list of green ventures already approved is far too long to post here but makes interesting reading.

The CEFC Chair said, “Tony Abbott will not be able to reverse these contracts without control of both Houses of Parliament.”

Anyway it’s certain the green beneficiaries will have found ways to usurp billions in irrecoverable funds before September 14.
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Mr BARRY O'FARRELL (Ku-ring-gai—Premier, and Minister for Western Sydney) [12.35 p.m.], by leave: I move: 

That this House:

(1) notes that on 17 April 1997, this House recognised and condemned the Genocide of the Armenians by the then Ottoman Government between 1915 and 1922, and designated 24 April of every year thereafter as a day of remembrance of the 1.5 million Armenians who fell victim to the first genocide of the twentieth century;

(2) recognises that Assyrians and Greeks were subjected to qualitatively similar genocides by the then Ottoman Government between 1915 and 1922;

(3) reaffirms its condemnation of the genocide of the Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks, and all other acts of genocide as the ultimate act of intolerance;

(4) recognises the importance of remembering and learning from such dark chapters in human history to ensure that such crimes against humanity are not allowed to be repeated;

(5) acknowledges and pays tribute to the contribution of the Anzac servicemen who aided the survivors of the genocide; and

(6) acknowledges the significant humanitarian relief contribution made by the people of New South Wales to the victims and survivors of the genocide.

The horrors of genocide live deep within the hearts of many people within our community. When migrants choose to make a new life in Australia they often leave behind the marginalisation they experienced in their homelands. For many the decision to migrate can be a very painful one and being forced to leave one's motherland due to oppression or persecution is devastating. Genocide has been something from which too many settlers on these shores have escaped. I have moved this motion in recognition of the genocide of the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians that occurred after 1915. The motion reflects the community's determination to ensure that genocide is never forgotten and that it is recognised around the world.

We can take pride in the fact that New South Wales offered a safe haven for people around the world who faced genocide—those that we are remembering in this motion or those that we have remembered in subsequent times. We can take pride from the fact that individuals in communities in New South Wales have rebuilt their lives, salvaged their identities and can now be identified as Australian here and in their homelands. The Armenian, Assyrian and Greek communities continue to play a significant role in helping to shape the vibrant cosmopolitan culture that characterises New South Wales.

In the small business sector individuals and families from these communities are shining examples of the benefits to this State and nation of multiculturalism. Having left war-torn countries in the Middle East, many Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks established small businesses which continue to thrive decades later. I make special mention of the member for Smithfield, Andrew Rohan, Liberal for Smithfield, whose parents were amongst the refugees who fled these atrocities and settled in this country. The member for Smithfield has previously recognised in this Parliament the national day of remembrance of the genocides.

In moving this motion I acknowledge a similar motion moved in the Legislative Council by Reverend the Hon. Fred Nile, MLC. Just as the motion passed with the support of both sides of politics in this place 16 years ago, this motion should continue to enjoy the support of this Parliament. To address such horrific crimes of the past maintains our vigilance to prevent such acts against humanity in the future.
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Hedgewick's World of Wonders: the perfect theme park day out. And ground zero for a deadly silver resurrection… don't miss 'Nightmare in Silver' this weekend!

Check out the Next Time trailer here:http://bit.ly/17JWH2Z
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In a rare sight, lighting struck through a double rainbow over Badlands National Park in South Dakota last week, captured beautifully by Joan Wallner. http://bit.ly/18YpvTV
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J.John
Every life without Christ is a mission field; every life with Christ is a missionary.

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J.John
Lets innovate and not just imitate. Chris Bowater
Copy that - ed

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J.John
A woman said, 'I didn't get anything out of the Worship this morning', the Pastor replied, 'we weren't worshipping you' Chris Bowater

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Dear Patriot,
Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle have been in secret, back-room talks for months about how to exempt themselves and their staff from ObamaCare.
The house is on fire, and they're trying to sneak out the back door!
This is the worst example of "ruling class" behavior I have ever seen. And that's why we need to put these American "aristocrats" in their place immediately.
These Congressmen and Senators are supposed to be working for us. That's why we call them "public servants."
If ObamaCare is such a disaster (and it is!), they should be repealing it for all of us, not just exempting themselves from it!
But instead, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and many, many others are trying to abandon ship - and leave us to drown.
And they'll get away with it unless we act NOW!
These inside-the-beltway elitists think they're above the law. They think they can force this unconstitutional monstrosity on us, and then exempt themselves from the consequences.
I haven't seen such pompous elitism since Marie Antoinette.
That's why Patriot Voices is going to hold them accountable until they clean up this mess. We're preparing to spread the word far and wide via social media, radio, and TV appearances. And we're mobilizing the grassroots for action this very moment.
The "aristocrats" in Washington need to be reminded that we're all in this together, and it's their job to fix this disaster.
Now isn't the time to run from the problem. Now's the time to solve it!
I'm doing everything I can to get that message through to them, but I need thousands and thousands more Americans rallying with me. I can't do this on my own.
Thank you, and God bless.
Sincerely,
Rick Santorum

Contributions to Patriot Voices, Inc. are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. Patriot Voices, Inc. is a 501 (c)(4) nonprofit organization. There are no contribution limits. Corporate contributions are permitted.
Patriot Voices | PO Box 247 | Verona, PA 15147

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Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for May 8th. Enjoy!

From the Blog

Operation Smear Benghazi Whistleblowers

It’s on. As the White House grapples with a growing backlash over its Libya lies and lapses, President Obama’s apologists are gearing up for battle. Put on your hip-waders. Grab those tar buckets. Get ready for Operation Smear Benghazi Whistleblowers...

Sebelius asks pediatricians to start helping sign people up for Obamacare

If a pledge to “abstain from helping promote a train wreck” isn’t part of the Hippocratic Oath, it should be...

More From the Right Side of the Web

Ace of Spades HQ: WaPo profiles Sharyl Attkisson

Featured Video

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Last night on "Hannity," Charles Woods, father of slain SEAL Tyrone Woods, spoke out against the Hillary and the State Department's gross mishandling of Benghazi eight months ago and ever since.

Michelle's Top Tweets

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And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

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Eloquent.

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May 9: Victory Day in various Eastern European countries; Europe Day/Schuman Day in the European Union; Independence Day in Romania (1877)
Mihail Kogălniceanu

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Events [edit]

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