Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Tue Jun 4th Todays News


Happy birthday and many happy returns Robert Tram and 'Mattie Gir. Born on the same day, across the years. You won't believe what happened on your day. In 1855, Major Henry C. Wayne departed New York aboard the USS Supply to procure camels to establish the U.S. Camel Corps. In 1913, Emily Davison, an activist for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, was fatally injured when she was trampled by King George V's horse at the Epsom Derby. In 1920, The Kingdom of Hungary lost 72% of its territory and 64% of its population with the signing of the Treaty of Trianon in Paris. In 1944, A United States Navy task group captured German submarine U-505, which survives today as a museum ship at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. In 1996, The maiden flight of the Ariane 5 failed, with the rocket self-destructing 37 seconds after launch because of a malfunction in the control software—one of the most expensive computer bugs in history. I guess the moral is that Bill Clinton had the wrong software, and royally backed the wrong horse in WW1, offending women, while looking for salvation in great depths with a camel. I'm not much with morals, but hope you have an awesome day.
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Public servants line up with Labor in fight to the death

Piers Akerman – Tuesday, June 04, 2013 (12:45am)

THE Gillard minority government’s slash and burn policy as it moves toward the election is going to devastate the nation for years to come.
Having politicised the Treasury to an obscene degree, it has ensured that other agencies are just as compliant to its political goals.
Yesterday it was revealed that the board of the CSIRO sent a text message to opposition science spokeswoman Sophie Mirabella to let her know the institution’s boss had been reappointed for an extra year.
The move was a “politeness”, Science Minister Don Farrell told a Senate committee.
CSIRO yesterday announced its chief executive Megan Clark would stay in her role for an extra year, until the end of 2014, while an international search for her successor took place.
That reappointment was a decision for the CSIRO board but was approved by Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the cabinet, the estimates hearing was told.
Senator Farrell said the CSIRO board chairman, Simon McKeon, had tried to contact Ms Mirabella on Thursday and Friday last week to inform her of the decision.
Mr McKeon told Ms Mirabella’s office he had an important issue to discuss with her.
When he was unable to talk to her, he sent a text message directly to the Liberal MP, also stating he needed to discuss an important issue.
In April, Tony Abbott said he was concerned the Labor government was trying to appoint a number of key positions before September’s poll in a bid to reach out from “beyond the political grave”.
But Senator Farrell said that Mr Abbott wasn’t prime minister at the moment and his view about appointments was not relevant in this case.
“It is, given the term wasn’t due to expire until after the next election,” opposition parliamentary secretary for science Richard Colbeck replied.
“We made a polite request asking you not to make any appointments.”
Senator Farrell replied: “We politely declined.”
“I’d hardly call that polite, minister,” Senator Colbeck shot back.
Senator Colbeck is correct.
Later, Ms Mirabella said that contrary to evidence to the hearing, it was not Mr McKeon who tried to contact her office but a female bureaucrat.
She said the text message she received on Friday said Mr McKeon wanted to speak with her briefly about a CSIRO issue that could be of interest.
Ms Mirabella got another text message informing her about the appointment yesterday, about 40 minutes before Dr Clark informed CSIRO staff.
“There was no urgency in the text sent by Mr McKeon on Friday,” Ms Mirabella said.
“It’s a bit cute and somewhat curious that they waited until the 11th hour to raise the issue.”
Not really.
The CSIRO is on a hiding to nothing over its defence of the government’s global warming scare campaign.
It has gone out of its way to promote those who support the nonsense and it has stifled those scientists who don’t think science supports the humbug.
Global warming science took another knock yesterday with The Australian reporting that banned aerosols were probably to blame for temperature increases since the 1970s – not carbon dioxide.
So much for the useless carbon tax.
Expect more of government department’s to try and fight the inevitable as the election approaches.
Labor has long held the public servants captive and they are now fighting for their sinecures. 

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Eddie McGuire’s career is just one long gaffe

Miranda Devine – Saturday, June 01, 2013 (10:35pm)

EDDIE McGuire claimed his racist King Kong outrage on radio last week was a slip of the tongue, an aberration in an impeccable public life of service to others and the pursuit of equality. 


In defence of McGuire, I note Miranda’s assertion regarding Sydney is tenuous. McGuire is smart and articulate but clearly not in Devine’s class. But that doesn’t mean he is a fool. A lot of those who left 9 did so not because Eddie didn’t like them, but because 9 had overspent on talent previously. 9’s current failings are more closely related to abysmal programming. They have consistently failed to find good programs since they stole Babylon 5 from 7.
McGuire is a buffoon. But a capable one. I’d be happy for him to MC my wedding. It is a particular personality type that is good at public speaking in a relaxed atmosphere. He doesn’t have the precision to compere Ready, Steady Cook .. but that is because of experience .. he doesn’t have to. - ed

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THE MINNOW WILL BE LOST

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 04, 2013 (1:39pm)

Advice for Julia Gillard: 
NSW MP Laurie Ferguson, who Ms Gillard saved in a 2010 preselection contest, told the Prime Minister: “Unless you personally get out there and campaign on boats, we’re dead”. 
The last time the Prime Minister campaigned on a boat, she immediately sank it. 

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CLUES OFFERED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 04, 2013 (1:27pm)

One or two hints emerge about the possible motivation behind last month’s London street killing: 
Michael Adebolajo, one of the men accused of murdering soldier Lee Rigby, asked to be called Mujaahid Abu Hamza when he appeared in court for the first time. 
Hmmm. Abu Hamza is the celebrated hook-handed, mono-eyed cleric currently resident in an American prison. 
The 28-year-old waved, smiled and appeared to blow a kiss to a relative in the public gallery as he entered the dock at Westminster magistrates’ court clutching a copy of the Koran. 
All signs point to Presbyterianism, but we should wait until cultural detectives at the ABC and SBS have finished their investigations. Meanwhile: 
An inquest into Drummer Rigby’s death was opened and adjourned at Southwark coroner’s court last week.
It heard that the father-of-one had to be identified from dental records … 

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TREND EVIDENT

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 04, 2013 (3:06am)

Newspoll highlights:
• Labor down to primary support of 30 per cent.
• Coalition up to primary support of 49 per cent.
• Labor down to two-party preferred support of 42 per cent.
• Coalition up to two-party preferred support of 58 per cent.
• Julia Gillard’s approval down to 28 per cent.
• Tony Abbott’s approval up to 36 per cent.
Were this sentiment to be reflected electorate-wide, Labor would be reduced to around 38 seats in the next parliament. Labor is also losing Victoria: 
Julia Gillard’s home state has abandoned her with as many as six seats in Victoria now at risk of falling to the Coalition, including that of her Attorney General Mark Dreyfus …
An exclusive JWS/Herald Sun poll reveals a 15.4 per cent swing against Mr Dreyfus in the once-safe seat of Isaacs, enough to remove him. If repeated in neighbouring seats, the PM’s hopes of retaining the furniture in her home state could be dashed. 
And in Queensland: 
Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan looks set to lose his Brisbane seat of Lilley, with internal polling suggesting Labor will struggle to retain any Queensland seats at the September 14 federal election.
In a result even worse than the 1996 ‘’baseball bats’’ election, when Labor was reduced to two of the then 26 seats in Queensland, Labor may retain only one MP – former prime minister Kevin Rudd. 
Just 101 days to go.

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TO THE BONE

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 04, 2013 (2:29am)

It’s going to be a tough year for election campaign slogans. Labor’s most famous slogan – “It’s Time”, from 1972 – just wouldn’t work in 2013. Today, in reference to Labor, it suggests a priest’s doleful final words to a death row prisoner.
Bless them, for still they hope. The Labor government has been chanting “cut to the bone” ever since the budget, attempting to make something of the fearful reductions in services we can expect under an austere Tony Abbott regime.
This is in contrast to the slogan wheeled out online by Labor last June, when the government was still telling everybody that a surplus was on the way. “Cash for you” promoted Labor’s Schoolkids Bonus program. Or maybe it was a late-night ad for pawn shop hucksters.
Considering the current Labor cabinet, it’s difficult to pick the difference. Probably the hucksters are turning a profit.

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CITY OF CORPSES

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 04, 2013 (2:05am)

The perfect Adelaide event: 
Acclaimed Swedish crime writer Hakan Nesser will be a guest at an unusual new Adelaide festival calledThe Body in the Garden …
Australian writers who have accepted invitations include Gabrielle Lord, Paul Bangay and the Melbourne duo, Fabian Capomollo and Mat Pember. 
All invitees appear to already possess Adelaide names.

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BOOTLEG MARGARINE

Tim Blair – Tuesday, June 04, 2013 (2:01am)

Mark Steyn on my favourite Canadian law: 
At the behest of dairy manufacturers, margarine was banned outright in Canada from 1886 to 1948. Indeed, in the same period when Americans were getting bootleg liquor smuggled in from Canada, Canadians were getting bootleg margarine smuggled in from Newfoundland, not yet part of the Dominion of Canada. It’s not often I get the chance to type the phrase “bootleg margarine”, so I just thought I’d throw that in …
Provincial strictures on margarine remained for decades. Quebec’s ban on colorized margarine was not repealed until 2008 … I am no fan of state coercion in matters of butter-substitute coloration, but I confess to a slight pang of regret when the Quebec yellow margarine ban was overturned. 
Latest news from the lawful north: a Toronto Star reporter was arrested, put in headlock, handcuffed and charged with trespassing for taking pictures of an injured railway officer: “News photographers are not allowed to take photoswithout permission at Union Station.”

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The word “asbestos” is all it took to make the NBN look sick

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (5:32pm)

In one blow, NBN turns from a Labor boast into a Labor embarrassment to match the pink batts disaster:
LABOR is fighting off new safety fears over its National Broadband Network as more cases of asbestos exposure during its construction fuel a growing political brawl over the management and cost of the $37.4 billion project.
The health risks spread to all mainland states yesterday after the Queensland safety regulator revealed three new incidents and federal authority Comcare warned of an “alarming” spate of asbestos safety breaches by contractors.
While Labor sought to blame Telstra for the failures, the Coalition declared the government and its agency, NBN Co, bore ultimate responsibility for managing the risk to public health.
An emergency meeting in Canberra yesterday confirmed the scale of the problem as NBN contractors rebuild many of the eight million pits on the Telstra network, of which 10 to 20 per cent contain asbestos.
The Gillard Government insists it is in no way responsible.
Trouble is, what it says is contradicted by what it has done - calling meetings with Telstra and the NBN, demanding assurances and holding press conferences. The public will conclude that if the Government can act now, it could also have acted sooner. And indeed it could:
[Workplace Relations Minister Bill] Shorten was yesterday challenged in parliament over three letters he wrote to Telstra showing he was aware of the asbestos risks in 2009. Mr Shorten asked Telstra in his 2009 letters to consider removing all its asbestos. Mr Thodey responded in December 2009 by saying a pro-active program to remove it was not justified at that point because of the cost, the risk of disturbing the material and the looming rollout of the NBN.
But here’s what puzzles me. In the huge media storm, I’ve seen almost no attempt to measure the actual risk involved. Several licensed asbestos removers and people who’d once handled the stuff rang me on 2GB last night to claim the health scare was a huge beat-up. Hear them give their reasons here.
I don’t know one way or the other, but I do know it’s a beat up Labor would not dare call out for fear of seeming heartless, and one the Liberals would not play down given the opportunity to damage the Government. And the media has always liked a good environmental scare.
UPDATE
Not a very convincing performance by Shorten in Parliament yesterday. Again I note his unfortunate habit of snarking when he’s under most pressure to simply answer the damn question.
UPDATE
I suspect a lot of vested interests in whipping up needless panic - vested interests in politics and the media:
Professor Bruce Armstrong is a public health specialist, who’s been investigating asbestos related disease for decades and he says that in this instance, the dangers of asbestos contamination have been exaggerated.
Professor Armstrong told Eliza Harvey that he blames politicians and asbestos groups for failing to ease the concerns of affected residents.
ELIZA HARVEY: What do you see is the risk associated with the asbestos that we find bound within these concrete fibres?
BRUCE ARMSTRONG: It’s very low. Provided it remains bound in the asbestos cement form then the risk from it is negligible.
ELIZA HARVEY: So therefore how should we be discussing this risk in light of this week’s debate about the dangers of excavating the pits?
BRUCE ARMSTRONG: The hazard that was generated, to the extent that I know anything about exactly what happened, would have been to the workers knocking the asbestos around and not to people living nearby.
Those fibres, to the extent that they were present around the workers would be very rapidly diluted in a large volume of air and the probability that anyone else is exposed is going to be very low.

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The other story in Newspoll - Greens dying

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (4:44pm)

Newspoll hasn’t just measured the fall of Labor, but the dying of the Greens. At the election, it won; 11.8 per cent of the vote. Now it’s at 9 - a quarter of its support gone.
Good.  

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How bankrupt Labor now is

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (4:08pm)

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How Cheap Labor has become. How bankrupt of vision.
Raffling the PM like this. And for no higher purpose than simply to “stop Tony Abbott”.
(Thanks to reader Richard.) 

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Labor’s identity politics are for little people, not David Feeney

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (2:58pm)

Labor MP David Feeney is all for affirmative action except when he’s the man who should make way for a token woman:
Senator Feeney said he was a strong supporter of the party’s affirmative-action policies but they should not rest on the outcome of the Batman preselection.
How we laughed.
The fact is Feeney is exactly the kind of man who should stand aside, if his principles mean anything:
Ms Macklin on Sunday endorsed the executive manager of Plan International, Mary-Anne Thomas, for the prized Labor seat and made some rare public comments on the party, saying the ALP was failing to meet its rules that required 40 per cent of candidates in winnable seats to be women…
“...I am very concerned that if a woman is not preselected for Batman, the ALP in Victoria will have only 27 per cent of candidates in held seats who are women,’’ Ms Macklin said.
Funny, how Feeney is now arguing against the identity politics he once championed, saying performance should count for more than gender - at least in his case:

Senator Feeney said the seat should not become the litmus test for the ALP’s affirmative-action rules. He said preselectors should instead consider his own abilities ...
Why shouldn’t all male candidates get the treatment Feeney demands for himself - to be judged on performance, not penis?
UPDATE
But let’s not make Feeney too much the victim of identity politics. It’s not as if his candidacy is all about abilities:

In a lengthy political career, Feeney’s backing of Gillard has been his biggest, and worst, call.
But before the electoral axe falls on Labor, one of Gillard’s last political favours has been to offer her backing for Feeney to win preselection in the northern Melbourne electorate of Batman, at nearly 25 per cent the nation’s safest....
He survives because he backed Gillard in 2010.
No more, no less.
UPDATE
A far more sinister form of identity politics is urged by Guy Rundle, the Fukushima hysteric and correspondent for the far-Left Crikey. From his letter to Labor today (no link):
Please, in arrogantly concluding that the seat is ALP personal property, ignore the most important lesson of US politics—that you fit the candidate to the district, and allow the candidate to adopt the district’s values. Please instead, impose one of Parliament’s most fervent Zionist-shills on a multicultural electorate with a large Middle Eastern presence.
Seriously? Labor should not appoint any pro-Israel politicians in seats with lots of Muslim voters? Could Guy tell us if Jews are allowed to stand in such electorates?
This country is heading down a dangerous path when such politics are not just urged - but, alas, now practised by Labor.  

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Rumor: Bob Carr asks Julia Gillard to resign

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (2:50pm)

Julie Bishop to Julia Gillard in Question Time:

Can she confirm media reports that Bob Carr asked her to step down for the good of the party?
Gillard:
Reports are “entirely untrue”.
Remember when Carr denied plotting against Gillard - a claim Canberra journalists treated as a complete lie? Not sure this latest claim is true, but am sure Carr’s previous denials were not.
UPDATE
Another rumor of the Gillard Government looking after its mates - while stacking the judiciary. A political insider writes:
For what it is worth there is a rumour circulating around the Victorian Bar that the government is going to appoint Nicola Roxon to the Federal Court.
I would be appalled if that were true. I trust it is not. 

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Snarky Bill Shorten needs lessons on how to seem sincere

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (2:46pm)

I discussed in an earlier post today the habit of Workplace Minister Bill Shorten to resort to snark and sanctimony when under pressure just to answer a question. 
His responses to heavy questioning of his handling of the asbestos risk of the NBN rollout has badly exposed his weakness. Shorten, if he has leadership pretentions, needs a serious course on how to seem humble and less sanctimonious. No wonder Labor polling suggests there is a huge swing against him in his own seat.
I raise this again having listened to his performance in Question Time today.
The normally urbane Opposition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull was thrown out of Parliament for an excellent jibe, asking the Speaker to remind Shorten mid-bluster he was “not in a North Carlton pie shop”.
Shorten then continued struggled badly under precise questioning over what steps he took, after being alerted in 2009 to the asbestos hazard in the Telstra pits, to warn the Government of the risks involved in the NBN roll out.
He was warned by the Speaker against abusing the Opposition, rathern than answering it, before Abbott asked him again what he did to warn the Government of the asbestos risk in disturbing millions of Telstra pits in the NBN roll out. Could he also confirm he did nothing?
In two goes at the questions, Shorten gave not one direct answer, resorting again to abuse. The Speaker asked him to withdraw the word “hypocrite”.
I don’t think Shorten realises that most people listening to him shout and snark think they are listening to a phony.
UPDATE
In his press conference yesterday, Shorten gave a typical example - five times - of the kind of sanctimony and hypocrisy that sets my teeth on edge.
BILL SHORTEN: There are people who have not yet been exposed that if we don’t prevent their exposure, will die. More people will die from asbestos in Australia than died in the fields of Flanders in World War I.  [Really?] This is not acceptable and we do need to tackle it and we need to do it not in a partisan way but in a way which goes towards actually dealing with the scourge of asbestos. But you do have to say we’re happy to look at the track record of our Opposition when they were in government, what they did on asbestos.
Let’s not play politics with this awful issue. But how about that rotten Opposition?

I tell you what, I didn’t trip over any Federal Liberal MPs when I went out to Penrith on Saturday.  The residents didn’t say they’d been inundated with calls from the front bench of the Opposition to see how they’re going. And whilst one shouldn’t point score, a search of Hansard in the last nine years shows that the Opposition Communications Minister has not mentioned the word asbestos until last Thursday.
Let’s not play politics with this awful issue. But how about this heartless Opposition?

Does anyone here seriously think that the Opposition would be tackling the issue of asbestos in the way they tried to if it wasn’t for NBN Co and the politics of that?  Let’s call it for what it is in Australia, the rubbish has to stop. What worries me is people in Penrith have been exposed.  What worries me is a thirty-two-year old cable layer could spot problems with contractors and yet he’s got his eleven week old son potentially exposed.  What worries me is that his aunt, a very good woman, Catherine, her husband died of asbestos, of mesothelioma. Now we’ve got the Liberals carrying on about who knew what when… I think it is important that the Opposition try to resist the temptation to play politics about health and safety ...
Let’s not play politics with this awful issue. But how about these Opposition vultures?
But by the same token, this is a subtle issue, because frankly, if you’ve had a pit remediated in your street, or my street, and your kids or my kids might have been exposed, nothing less than all the details is acceptable. And of course, what struck me about these residents in Penrith, when I met them on Saturday, is they just don’t want other people to go through this tension. You know, we get all the politics of the issues and the Libs trying to score points for whatever reasons and what have you. For me, it is not about Liberal or Labor, this issue. For me, this issue is about Matthew O’Farrell, I think his name is - in Penrith.  Got a beautiful young child - two children, his wife. 
Let’s not play politics with this awful issue. But why can’t this vicious Opposition be more like noble me, weeping tears of compassion for people whose names I got staff to jot down for this moment?
What the Government will do is we will work with Telstra, we will work with everyone in the chain of communications who has a duty of care, we will make sure that asbestos exposure does not occur. We will have our Comcare inspectors and we will work with state regulators. We will work with the Opposition when they’re so minded to work with us on this. This issue is above politics. I just feel particularly motivated when I think about this thirty-two year old chap, living in a street in Penrith, who’s not sure if as a parent he’s failed his kids because somehow a possible exposure may have taken place. That is what I keep in my mind when I answer all your questions Michelle.
Let’s not play politics with this awful issue. But how about this cruel Opposition, refusing to work with non-partisan me to help what’s-his-name in Penrith?
In Question Time yesterday, the same transparent and tawdry hypocrisy from a man of bluster:

BILL SHORTEN: What is it about asbestos that you think is the need pollute with your political palaver?… The first point I want to make in coming to the answer of the Member’s question is this: asbestos should not be a political football… And I met with a family, I met with a family whose 11-week-old child may have been exposed to asbestos.
The same hyocrisy six times in the one day. The same fake emotion, the same confected outrage.
If Shorten wishes to ever become Prime Minister, nothing will help him more than a careful study of this post - and of his own words within it.
Those words do not seem sincere, Bill. Indeed, I believe they are not sincere. Just when you think you are responding with strength, you are digging your grave.
You can deny it all you will. But while you deny it, you will never succeed. 

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Joel Fitzgibbon mocks the spin as Gillard dies in the polls

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (1:34pm)

Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon, a Rudd supporter who knew long ago Julia Gillard was hopeless, can only laugh at the polls and the Labor spin.
UPDATE
ABC AM’s political correspondent struggled on this morning, after Newspoll showed Labor’s preferred vote sinking from a 44-56 split to a catastrophic 42-58:
Well we’re seeing there’s no great change in Newspoll. The two party preferred vote is pretty much the same but the Prime Minister’s own personal approval ranking has taken a bit of a hit there.
More realism:

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has come under fire from one of her strongest Caucus supporters, the western Sydney MP Laurie Ferguson, who has told her she needs to sell the Government’s message better otherwise “we are dead”, the ABC understands.
It is believed that Mr Ferguson, the Labor MP for the seat of Werriwa, challenged Ms Gillard in today’s Caucus meeting about the issue of asylum seekers, telling her “we are dead” in reference to crucial seats in western Sydney.

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Mopping up some “Dickensian” spin

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (12:03pm)

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Too lazy to even go find one of their own members. Union spin unspun:
Marie Angrilli is the 64-year-old face of the union movement’s push to raise the minimum wage. Year after year.
In 2007, The Age described her life as “Dickensian”; in 2008, the part-time cleaner told SBS TV’s Insight that rising cost-of-living pressures meant “everything’s more expensive”; in 2011, she complained to the Herald-Sun the annual minimum wage rise was “not enough” and in 2012 she told Bloom­berg that people in her industry were “underpaid and we need to band together for better rights”.
What wasn’t reported is that Ms Angrilli is the unpaid Victorian president of the United Voice union, which recently boasted that its members are “among the best-paid cleaners in the country”.
Following the Fair Work Commission’s self-described “modest” 2.6?per cent pay rise on Monday, which directly affects 1.5?million employees, Ms Angrilli was presented by ACTU national secretary Dave Oliver as an example of a minimum-wage worker.
The latest rise, which will push minimum weekly wages up to $622.20, or about $32,300 a year – the highest in the world in current exchange rates – was a “kick in the guts for low-paid workers”, she said.
But is her life Dickensian?
“I don’t know if I would say it was Dickensian; I think our wages have gone up since the 1830s but it is still very difficult to live on the minimum wage,’’ Ms Angrilli later said in an interview.
Ms Angrilli is not well paid. She takes home $463.85 a week and without the help of her son, who lives at home, she would struggle to pay the bills. But she owns her home in the Melbourne suburb of Diamond Creek because of an inheritance and drives to work every day for the 3.30am starts.

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Anti-racism lets Sam de Brito be what he says he hates

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (10:16am)

Fairfax columnist Sam de Brito has a disturbing way of expressing himself to people who think the adoration of the lead singer of indigenous rock group Yothu Yindi has gone too far:
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When losing an argument, as Schopenhauer observed, the very last tactic of the desperate is to abuse:
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I often marvel how noisy moralists feel licensed to be vicious - but isn’t that the story of the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Cultural Revolution, the Khmer Rouge etc etc?:

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Give such a man real power, as well as a “moral” cause, and how funny would his jokes soon be?

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This from the same columnist who recently wrote:

The less attractive you are, the more outraged you tend to get on the internet.
For the third time in this mad week, I will quote the only too apposite Bertrand Russell: 
Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.
Take de Brito. Anti-racism seems to have made him exactly what he purports to damn. He seemingly feels licenced to indulge in abuse and fantasies of violence, as he dreams of a race-based punishment of whites for sins dredged from a lurid imagination:
Racism? We don’t get it, because there are no consequences for being an ignorant, smug arsehole in this country.
Had Eddie McGuire made his King Kong remark on US radio, he would not work in the American mainstream media again. Game over, Ed. Buy a yacht.
If NSW State of Origin NRL assistant coach Andrew Johns had called an opponent on another team “a black c---” in American sport, he’d first have been knocked out by the closest black player and may now, possibly, be coaching some high school team in Alabama while nursing a prescription drug addiction.
If a 13-year-old white girl called LeBron James an “ape” at an NBA game, not only she, but her entire entourage, would have had to have been escorted from the arena FOR THEIR OWN SAFETY. I guarantee there would have been a 13-year-old black girl so in her face, whitey could sketch her from memory…
We do not understand the anger, the shame, the frustration, the bitterness and sorrow of what was taken from indigenous Australians.
We can’t even be honest enough to call it “slavery”: like black folks just loved the idea of working on cattle stations seven days a week so they could get some beans and flour and see their daughters raped on weekends.
We said “sorry”, but for what? Crippling your culture? Raping your women? Murdering your children?…
You make a King Kong statement like Eddie McGuire did in that studio, you’ve got 25 people in the newsroom who are gonna press you against the lift doors and tell you why you’re a maggot and you need to LEARN. FAST.
I’m not suggesting violence is the best response to racism - whether that racism is casual, unintentional or sharpened to puncture hearts like so much of the muck we read from white apologist news commentators.
I’m saying we need to get real about punishing it.
This does not sound the voice of compassion, humanity and reconciliation. It certainly does not sound the voice of someone who judges people not by the colour of their skin but the content of their character. 
UPDATE
Reader Blair neatly skewers the racist construct of de Brito’s rant:

”We said “sorry”, but for what? Crippling your culture? Raping your women? Murdering your children?…” I was born in 1946; have murdered no indigenous children, raped no indigenous women and crippled no indigenous culture. So whom are you talking about? The de Brito family?
Reader Steve:
Sam has revealed a clear unconscious prejudice in that column. Basically his argument shows that he sees African Americans as a people who can only respond with violence, rather than reason, argument or intellect. He has conferred this trait on an entire race, which is textbook racism.
UPDATE
Sam de Brito raises an interesting point. Is it actually possible to take a tweet out of context?
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If the tweets - and the rant I quoted - were indeed “out of context”, can someone please explain what context was overlooked to justify such language, such hatred, such stereotyping, such legitimising of violence? 

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Bess Price calls out the urban Aboriginal spokesmen

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (8:11am)

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It is too dangerous for me to comment in detail, being white and conservative, but I could not agree more:
ABORIGINAL culture is being “fetishised” and indigenous women, particularly the young, are lambs on the “altar of culture sacrificed to assuage white guilt” according to Aboriginal woman Bess Price and her husband, Dave Price, in a new book.
The pair argue that southern indigenous and non-indigenous people have no understanding of the experience of Aborigines in remote Australia.
Ms Price, the Northern Territory Country Liberals member for the seat of Stuart, and her husband ...  argue that key parts of traditional culture need to be “discarded” if there is to be hope for the future of remote community residents…
And in comments that will offend scores of indigenous people—particularly in Sydney and Melbourne—they argue that the majority of Australians who identify as indigenous speak English, live in suburbs, and have children with Australians who do not identify as indigenous.
“Many of them do quite well in the mainstream economy and society, supplying indigenous Australia with its middle class and the majority of its spokespeople.
“They are regularly asked by journalists to define the ‘indigenous view’ on any issue. Unless they have studied anthropology and linguistics, their understanding of traditional law and culture will come from the half-remembered musings of aged relatives, themselves several generations removed from the traditional life,” they assert.
Asked who they were specifically writing about, Mr Price said the “term would certainly include Larissa (Behrendt), Tiga Bayles, Barb Shaw, and many, many others”.
Bess and Dave’s essay is published in In black and white: Australians all at the crossroads. Order here.
POSTSCRIPT
Note those deadly words: “in comments that will offend scores of indigenous people—particularly in Sydney and Melbourne...”
Such are our laws that to offend indigenous people on the basis of race is actually grounds for legal action under the Racial Discrimination Act - an obscene restriction on free speech. Bess Price will be betting that those she offends will not risk making that law look even more stupid by trying to shut up someone blacker than them.
UPDATE

As if to illustrate the point, here comes Anita Heiss, author of Am I Black Enough For You?, a book on Aboriginal identity asking a question l was legally prevented from answering - even having several posts removed on legal advice.
Heiss now tweets the name of a famous dead Aboriginal singer before being alerted to what is said to be Aboriginal custom:

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UPDATE
Some consternation:

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UPDATE
Heiss, who earlier claimed she knew the protocol, now refines that claim:

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It’s strange. I certainly knew of the protocol.  Then again, I grew up with Aboriginal friends and teammates out bush. 

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Gillard was dead two years ago. Why did Labor keep her?

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (8:02am)

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With Labor now at 42 per cent to the Coalition’s 58 in Newspoll, Labor MPs must ask how they for three years let the utterly inept Julia Gillard lead them to this utterly predictable disaster, with the party about to be destroyed and its reputation trashed.
Did they let machine men hijack a party they’d rather control in defeat than lose power over in victory?
Did they believe too readily in the cheer squad of the Canberra press gallery, urging them on in their carbon tax folly and politics of hate?
Did they let the party by overrun by New Labor lawyers, who could execute a brief but never write one? Who had a magisterial contempt for the very people they purported to represent?
Did they fall for the foolishness of the identity politics of the New Racists and dated feminists, and seek to divide Australians into warring tribes - to the dismay of voters who instead prefer to look for what unites us?
Did they fall for the old failing of the Left - that love of seeming above doing, of myth above substance? Did they let themselves get carried away by the collectivist mirages of the global warming crusade, the class war, the New Racism?
I said this disaster was predictable because I did predict it. Here is some of a column I write in March 2011, more than two years ago:

JULIA Gillard is finished. It seems she’s lied too brazenly and nothing in her erratic performance suggests she can recover…
Clearly, many voters are livid that Gillard will now impose the “carbon tax” that she promised just before the election she wouldn’t…
Some Labor supporters may still hope Gillard’s tax will at least, as Channel 9’s Laurie Oakes put it, give her finally “something to fight for. A cause.”
But what makes them think she’d be any good at this fighting?
Didn’t she lose the election debates? Is it really likely, with Abbott rampant, that she can now win an argument over this painful tax that she claims will somehow help stop global warming?
Dream on. You are talking about a leader with such disastrous political judgment that she decided a winning strategy involved these three elements:
First, to lie to the public and bring in the tax she swore before the election to never inflict.
Second, to stake everything on this tax that will drive prices higher without driving temperature lower.
Third, to please the Greens extremists who hold just one of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, rather than appeal to the voters who chose the other 149, not one of which campaigned for her tax.
Gosh, you mean voters don’t like this? What a surprise…
Gillard can’t even buy them off by pointing to a string of achievements.
Truth is, her record in office is of unbroken failure—the still undecided mining tax, the still unbuilt East Timor detention centre, the still unstopped boats, the stillborn “cash for clunkers"…
No, can’t govern and can’t even sell.
If even I could see Gillard was finished two years ago, how could Labor MPs be so blind - or, if not blind, so powerless?
This will be the great reckoning Labor must have when it starts to rebuild. What was so wrong with the party that for the past two years it kept marching straight to disaster under a zombie PM?
UPDATE
Dennis Shanahan notes another case of tin ear:
JULIA Gillard appears to have suffered the most ... [over] the bipartisan plans to hit taxpayers for $20 million more in public election funding…
For his part, the Opposition Leader appears to have escaped voters’ censure over the funding deal because he went out publicly, said the people had spoken and listened to his Liberal colleagues who told him it was immoral.

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Dreyfus, face of New Labor, losing a once-safe working class seat

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (7:52am)

Other polls confirm the scale of the devastation described in Newspoll, which puts Labor’s vote after preferences to an astonishing 42 per cent to the Coalition’s 58.
A (small) JWS Research poll shows Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus could lose even the once-safe seat of Isaacs, taking in much of working class Dandenong:

IN two-party terms the Liberals have a 55-45 per cent lead in Isaacs - a swing of 15.4 per cent.
JWS Research managing director John Scales said Labor was suffering in Isaacs from “poor perceptions” of Mr Dreyfus and Ms Gillard…
“One source of Mr Dreyfus’s problem is his own poor name ID, with 53 per cent of Isaacs voters either having not heard of him or having no view of him.”
No wonder people in Dandenong have “no view” of Dreyfus when he actually lives in a rich suburb 20 kms away. Here is a true representative of New Labor, a pompous QC addicted to wagging fingers and passing oppressive laws as he prays to the gods of global warming.
Internal Labor polling suggests Kevin Rudd could again lead Labor - since there will be next to nobody else to either lead or be led, with even Treasurer Wayne Swan tossed out:

The Queensland polling is believed to show [Swan’s] primary vote has collapsed to just 28 percent, compared to 41 per cent at the last election.
A “worst case” scenario indicates former prime minister Kevin Rudd could be the only Queensland MP to retain his seat.
As the Newspoll results leaked last night, Rudd posted this:

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UPDATE
How much is Dreyfus the symbol of New Labor? He promotes government handouts - in this case the Schoolkids bonus - not just in English but in Vietnamese, Albanian, Arabic, Khmer and Sinhalese.
Free money for those too unassimilated to even know English and not obliged to learn enough for even a handout.
And people wonder why the boats are full.
(Thanks to reader M.) 

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Is kissing the Koran enough of a clue?

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (7:23am)

SBS is probably still wondering what motivated him:
One of two main suspects in the killing of a British soldier in London made his first appearance in court Monday, kissing a copy of the Koran…

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A freezing kind of global warming

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (12:24am)

Global warming - dud predictions
More signs of the failure of the world to warm as the warmists predicted:

According to the Central England Temperature Series, England has just experienced its coldest Spring since 1891.

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Are the ACTU’s ads moaning about Gillard?

Andrew Bolt June 04 2013 (12:09am)

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The script for the ACTU’s new ads raises several questions.
Why must this sad family look Greek or Italian? Does the ACTU think Greeks and Italians are more likely to feel like losers? Or does the ACTU think the rest of us think that way about Greeks and Italians?
Why are there still bastard bosses after years of the most pro-union Labor Government in decades?  What more does the ACTU want from this lot?
Or are more workers doing it tough because Labor has hurt the economy?
And why, in this election year, does this script have nothing to say in Labor’s favor? 

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Essential poll:  Labor dead. UPDATE Newspoll has Labor down to 42 to 58

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (10:45pm)

Groundhog day at Essential Media: Labor 45, Coalition 55.
Interestingly, the Greens primary vote - 11.8 per cent at the election - now bumps along at just 8 per cent.
UPDATE
The poll explains why Gillard Government Minister Jason Clare now chooses to campaign in Liberal blue:

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UPDATE
Newspoll has Labor on just 42 to the Coalition 58, after preferences.
It could hardly be worse for Labor, having fired all its big guns - the Budget, the disability scheme and the Gonski “reforms”. It has also used up its big Abbott-the-woman-hater scare, and has nothing left. Apart from a change of leadership, but even that’s been left too late.
Changing leaders might help, though. Gillard is now being beaten badly even in the preferred PM contest once touted hard by her media sympathisers: 35 to Abbott’s 43.
Don’t think Gillard couldn’t now be dumped. Labor is letting itself be led to destruction by a woman so deservedly unpopular that her approval is just 28 per cent and disapproval 62.
Labor’s primary vote is now 30 per cent. The Coalition could almost win the election on its primary vote - now 49 per cent.
A question for any Labor MP putting up their hand for a leadership role after the election: why should we trust you when you put your trust in Gillard?
(Thanks to reader EndGame.) 

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Did warmist David Karoly actually read the paper he told the ABC was wrong?

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (7:27pm)

Global warming - propaganda, Media
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The study challenged the “consensus”:


Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are to blame for global warming since the 1970s and not carbon dioxide, according to new research from the University of Waterloo published in the International Journal of Modern Physics B this week.
CFCs are already known to deplete ozone, but in-depth statistical analysis now shows that CFCs are also the key driver in global climate change, rather than carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
“Conventional thinking says that the emission of human-made non-CFC gases such as carbon dioxide has mainly contributed to global warming. But we have observed data going back to the Industrial Revolution that convincingly shows that conventional understanding is wrong,” said Qing-Bin Lu, a professor of physics and astronomy, biology and chemistry in Waterloo’s Faculty of Science. “In fact, the data shows that CFCs conspiring with cosmic rays caused both the polar ozone hole and global warming.”

So the ABC went to a reliable warmist to atttack it:

Professor David Karoly is one of Australia’s leading experts on climate change. He was a lead author on the fourth intergovernmental panel on climate change assessment report. He’s a review editor on the fifth assessment report…

DAVID KAROLY: ...  My assessment of this is the study is completely wrong. A number of other studies have looked at the magnitude of the likely impact of chlorofluorocarbons on changing global temperatures.
This has been done in both the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) assessments and in a number of other studies and yes, chlorofluorocarbons are a small contributor to global warming through their role as a greenhouse gas. But, much, much smaller than the role of carbon dioxide…
This research would not have survived peer review by experts in the area…
MARTIN CUDDIHY: So the prediction put forward in this study, that global temperatures will fall for the next 50-70 years, can we put any stock in that?
DAVID KAROLY: That prediction is wrong and is based purely on the global warming influence of chlorofluorocarbons. The replacement chemicals for chlorofluorocarbons are hydrofluorocarbons, which are used as refrigerants, have already got as large a greenhouse influence as the reductions in the chlorofluorocarbons. And, in fact, the global warming influence of these chemicals, the hydrofluorocarbons, is already growing more rapidly than the reductions in chlorofluorocarbons.
Karoly, incidentally, has still not been tackled by the ABC over the embarrassing withdrawal of his own co-authored paper claiming unprecedented warming of Australasia, thanks to global warming, after sceptics picked up flaws that got through peer-review. The ABC hyped that alarmist paper, but said nothing I’ve heard about its withdrawal. Why not?
But Karoly’s debunking of this latest paper has sure puzzled its author, who suggests Karoly can’t possibly have read it. Marc Hendrickx got this reply from Professor Lu after passing on Karoly’s claims:
Here are my brief answers to your questions:

Q: “Do you have any comments regarding Dr Karoly’s criticism of your paper?”
A: From reading Dr. Karoly’s comments, unfortunately, it seems obvious that he did not read my recent paper published in IJMPB, not even the abstract of my paper.  For example, he argues “That prediction is wrong and is based purely on the global warming influence of chlorofluorocarbons. The replacement chemicals for chlorofluorocarbons are hydrofluorocarbons, which are used as refrigerants, have already got as large a greenhouse influence as the reductions in the chlorofluorocarbons. And, in fact, the global warming influence of these chemicals, the hydrofluorocarbons, is already growing more rapidly than the reductions in chlorofluorocarbons.” This criticism is quite wrong, as the greenhouse effect of hydrofluorocarbons (HCFCs) is included in my results presented in my paper and can be easily seen even at the abstract “Then natural and anthropogenic contributions to these phenomena are examined in detail and separated well through in-depth statistical analyses of comprehensive measured datasets of quantities, including cosmic rays (CRs), total solar irradiance, sunspot number, halogenated gases (CFCs, CCl4 and HCFCs), CO2, total O3, lower stratospheric temperatures and global surface temperatures.”
He mentioned the IPCC models to criticize my work. But in my paper, I do point out the key assumption in the IPCC models, namely using a logarithm relationship to calculate the radiative force of CO2 with CO2 concentration, does not agree with the observations and is wrong.  Otherwise, there is no major difference in maths between IPCC models and my calculations…
Since he is a professor, I believe that Dr. Karoly is a scientist; I would wish that he would have given his criticisms in a scientific rather than political way. Perhaps he was too busy and did not get enough time to read my paper before he made the comments...

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Racist red head .. - ed
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It's Not About the Nail from Jason Headley on Vimeo.
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A beautiful Golden Beryl dress ring handmade by Diamond Imports set with a matching pair of Brilliant Cut Trapezoid Diamonds on either side
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Al and owl. In England with a European eagle owl
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Because of the crystal-clear water, Flathead Lake in Montana seems shallow, but in reality is 370 feet in depth.
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4 her
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Just a few of the diamond set ring designs and diamond engagement ring mounts available from Diamond Imports
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You may not do everything right, but God knows your heart.  Holly
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Supporting the Barnabas fund in their campaign to recognise the plight of persecuted Christians worldwide. The petition has the support of over 15,000 people from across the country. 

Support their work here:https://barnabasfund.org/AU/
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********** OPERATION TABELLA ****************

Fairfield LAC will be holding another "special fitting station", this time at Bunnings Villawood to provide "one-way" or irreversible number plate screws to drivers, FREE OF CHARGE!

Help us to reduce the theft of number plates.

Date: Friday, 7 June 2013
Time: 10:00am to 3:00pm
Location: Bunnings Villawood, Cnr Tangerine Road & Woodville Rd, Villawood
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Just saw this on FB feed. For those who are starting out in their career--don't be easily derailed--this cartoon accurately describes the challenges--I've been there. Follow your dream and passion--go get it!

Speaking of which--time to chase! 
Tim died from a tornado the other day. But his legacy was substantial. - ed
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"No government should be determining what is and isn’t legitimate Islam. What they should be doing is addressing threats emanating from Islam. There is no need to study the Koran in order to understand those threats. Muslim terrorists have been willing to patiently explain that they are killing us in the name of Islam... "
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saudi body
Under Sharia law she was guilty of being raped. - ed
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NT Centrelink .. standing in a queue
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4 her
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A relationship with no trust is like having a phone with no service, you just play games.
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Friend,
It could come up as early as tomorrow, which is why we are renewing our efforts to stop the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).  This treaty would give the U.N. oversight of the healthcare and education choices parents with special needs kids make.  It is outrageous that the government could tell you and me what is best for our children, particularly when they've never met our children or know what makes them unique.
If CRPD is ratified, it would become the law of the land under the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause, would trump state laws, and could be used as precedent by state and federal judges. This treaty would give the government, acting under U.N. instructions, the ability to determine for all children with disabilities what is best for them. It also would give the U.N. discretion over decisions about how we educate our special needs kids, and could potentially eliminate parental rights for the education of children with disabilities.
We at Patriot Voices have been fighting CRPD since last year.  And we had a huge victory when it was defeated in the U.S. Senate last December.  But it's a new year and a new Congress so it is going to come up again for consideration.
That's why we need you to use our new digital tool to quickly and easily email your senators to tell them to VOTE NO on CRPD.
Simply click HERE and you'll be directed to our online tool which will ask you for your zip code then generate customizable letters that will go directly to your Senators.  It is easy and fast to do.  Already, more than 2,600 emails have been sent. 
Please take 2 minutes to email your senators right now to tell them to VOTE NO on CRPD.
Many thanks,
Rick Santorum signature 
Rick Santorum
PS: After you send your emails, please forward this email to five friends and ask them for their critical help!
  
Donate Today button

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michelle at garden of the gods
Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for June 3rd. Enjoy!

From the Blog

Video: Obama/Nixon comparisons gaining speed

The number of people comparing Obama to Nixon is on the rise...

Electric car advocate pays $16k a minute to personally ask Obama to push carbon tax

Possible alternate headline: Man pays big bucks to lobby for Energy Department job...

Big surprise: Wife of former IRS director works for liberal group ‘laying the foundation for reform’

Before we get to the story, cue Drebin...

More From the Right Side of the Web

National Review: EPA honors fake employee

Michelle's Top Tweets

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And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

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Because it's totally hilarious to joke about killing people.

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German submarine U-505

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