Thursday, June 12, 2014

Thu Jun 12th Todays News

I do not know precisely how it happened, but it was only a few days before her camp was liberated by the Allied forces. It happened sometime in March 1945. Her mother, Margaret, had died, falling from a bunk. There was typhoid killing many. And a few days later, Anne Frank died. Two years earlier, on this day, her thirteenth birthday, she had been given a diary by her dad. She was born in 1929, and saw many terrible things in her fifteen years. My Dutch Jewish family had been located in Amsterdam too. The only survivor of the holocaust in my family had been a member of the resistance. Another lived in a house similar to one in which Anne's family had hidden. But he was alone, and went mad. 

 They killed a fifteen year old girl. They killed her family. They tortured her. But her spirit, indomitable, survives. She wasn't the only child to be murdered by the Nazis. Another young girl is referred to in the documentary The World at War. She was ordered to strip naked in a mixed crowd, but her modesty kicked in. She joked with a few guards that she was a virgin. They pulled her aside, beat her then made her to strip. Some old folk shielded her. And they were all gassed that way. Once dead, any gold teeth implants were removed. Hair was harvested for material, and the bodies dumped in a mass grave. 

 It wasn't for her religion, Anne was not particularly devout, but might have become so had she been able to make adult choices. The cruelty and callousness was not sanctioned by Christian churches, although infamously they had turned their backs at senior levels. Many fine individuals worked despite great peril to save many. But not enough. They killed a fifteen year old girl. 

 The killing was not for a functional purpose. It did not aid a war effort. It was not for law and order. It was an abuse of power. Some, many had admired the abuse of power as being efficient and effective, but they were wrong. It wasn't noble. It wasn't smart. A high price was paid at defeat. But the high price was not proportionate. There was an unsettled debt. They killed a fifteen year old girl. 

 A relative of mine, sick and elderly was taken by the Nazis some time in '42, I suppose, and afterward, her family was sent demands by the Nazis for medication .. but it is thought they had already killed her. They killed a sickly old woman, and a fifteen year old girl. 

 Today, laws are passed in Europe preventing Jewish people from practicing their faith. Some states try to prevent male circumcision which is a health factor which improves the health of adult males. But governments deny it because they don't know how to ban the barbaric practice of female circumcision otherwise. Some governments ban Kosher foods. The religious observance of Jews is not a hindrance to modern government. There is no practical need to limit it. Nations with Jewish peoples seem to prosper. Can Jews complain to anyone about the anti semitic laws in Europe? Some say, when Jews complain, they are being disproportionate. How is one proportionate in addressing the torture and murder of a fifteen year old girl, and her family? 
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For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball
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Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns Aprille Love. On your day in 1776, The Fifth Virginia Convention adopted a declaration of rights, a hugely influential document that proclaimed the inherent rights of men. In 1954, Pope Pius XII canonised Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old when he died, to make him the youngest non-martyr saint in the Roman Catholic Church. And in 1963, African American civil rights activist Medgar Evers was murdered by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith. All of which suggests to me that you, though young, are mighty. And stand for the oppressed. Thank you.

Matches
Despatches
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WARM HUGS

Tim Blair – Thursday, June 12, 2014 (5:20pm)

Let’s hug ‘em and pet ‘em and squeeze ‘em:

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Be careful, everybody. Physical contact may be interpreted as an act of violence. 
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MINDLESS SLOGAN URGED

Tim Blair – Thursday, June 12, 2014 (4:12pm)

The ABC’s Jonathan Green offers advice to the US president ahead of his meeting with Tony Abbott: 
Barack, you might like to try this as an opening gambit: “Tony, there are no jobs on a dead planet.” It might help break the ice, it might not. It’s entirely possible that our PM might just blink uncomprehendingly at first mention, but as with any decent slogan, repetition is the key, so keep nagging away, again and again until you think the thing is so worn with use that it might fall apart at the softest touch. Then say it again. 
Your taxes paid for this.
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SURFBOARD ONE

Tim Blair – Thursday, June 12, 2014 (3:14am)

Whatever your opinion might be of Tony Abbott or Barack Obama, there is no doubt that this is a killer surfboard:

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Shown with the board – presented by Abbott to President Obama this week and inspired by the design on Air Force One – are Greg Bennett and Tom Wentworth from Manly’s Bennett Surfboards. Great work.
UPDATE. The Australian‘s surfing editor Fred Pawle predicts: 
Obama will nervously accept the board, not sure of the most stylish way to tuck it under his arm, and crack a joke about rising sea levels one day making it possible to surf out the front of the White House.
But Abbott’s point will have been made. Having established that he’s the Bra Boy, Mick Fanning and surfing tycoon in this situation, they can now get down to business. 
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THE HOWLING

Tim Blair – Thursday, June 12, 2014 (3:00am)

In his illustration for this week’s Miranda Devine column, John Tiedemann included a personal detail:

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“The screaming kids in the Defender silhouette,” emails John. “That’s me.”
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PLEASE END SOON

Tim Blair – Thursday, June 12, 2014 (2:34am)

For those keeping track of Margo’s moods:
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Children are being crushed, people! Be alert for squished kids at intersections and other areas where loss of traction may present motoring hazards.
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No. Margo must continue forever. 
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HE SHOULD BE THE AMBASSADOR TO THE US

Tim Blair – Thursday, June 12, 2014 (1:54am)

Sir Les Patterson reviews cultural and diplomatic issues:



Further from Sir Les, and a delightful song from Dame Edna. 
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What dead planet is this man on?

Andrew Bolt June 12 2014 (5:20pm)

Media

Jonathan Green proves why he’s a better ABC presenter than he’d ever be an American president - or, actually, why he shouldn’t be either. 
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Bruce Wilson gives evidence

Andrew Bolt June 12 2014 (11:23am)

The AWU scandal

Michael Smith is live-blogging on Bruce Wilson’s evidence to the royal commission into union corruption. Wilson has admitted he was paid by Theiss for services not actually delivered.
Watch Wilson’s evidence live here.
From Smith’s account so far:
Wilson states Ms Gillard filled in more forms at a meeting in Perth for the purpose of incorporating the association.  Wilson is questioned about the certification that the association has more than 5 members.  he sees that the certification is present on the form.  Wilson admits that the association did not have more than 5 members.  he knew that the certificate was false - he didn’t think in terms of it being a false certification, just that he didn’t have 5 members.
Wilson is being hammered about the falsehoods in the application.
Wilson is questioned about being in a room with Ms Gillard when the false application was made.
He said yes he was....
you accept that no training work was done in january to march.  yes.  you accept that the invoice was false.  that was the agreement with Thiess that we would invoice them from the beginning of the contract to the end.
UPDATE
Smith now liveblogging the next session of the royal commission, with Bruce Wilson shown a document he wasn’t aware of that seems to contradict some important parts of his evidence so far.
UPDATE
Ouch:
BRUCE Wilson, former boyfriend of ex-PM Julia Gillard, has been confronted with a denial from beyond the grave by the man he says was central to a purported workplace safety scheme that has been described as a corrupt union slush fund. 

Mr Wilson told the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption today that the late Glen Ivory had been appointed as training officer on a Western Australia building site on behalf of the Workplace Reform Association (WRA) — an organisation he set up with the assistance of his then-girlfriend and union lawyer Ms Gillard.
However, Mr Wilson was presented with a statement, made by Mr Ivory before his death, in which the one-time president of the WA branch of the Australian Workers’ Union said no training officer was ever appointed and he was never aware of around $2000 a week billed to construction firm Thiess to pay for the role.
Mr Ivory died in 2004 but in a statement given to West Australian police in 1997, said the union had never authorised establishing the WRA or opening bank accounts in its name.
UPDATE
Michael Smith liveblogs the session after lunch.
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What royal commission? What union corruption? What claims against Gillard?

Andrew Bolt June 12 2014 (9:50am)

Media, The AWU scandal

I thought the ABC’s astonishing reluctance to cover the allegations against Julia Gillard at yesterday’s royal commission into union corruption could not be matched.

ABC TV’s Queensland and South Australian main news bulletins at 7pm did not cover any of yesterday’s news from the commission. The flagship World Today program also ignored the commission. So did 7.30.
But today an even more startling example of don’t-mention-the-war: today’s edition of The Age, fanatically of the Left, does not have a single word about the royal commission in all its 48 pages.
No, wait: there is one exception: a page three advertisement placed by the commission itself to appeal for witnesses to give yet more evidence that The Age will deliberately bury.
In case you assume that this refusal to report just reflects an absence of any news, here is just some of what the royal commission was yesterday told - but which The Age refused to print:
JULIA Gillard was handed “a large amount of cash” to pay for renovations on her Melbourne home by her then boyfriend, union official Bruce Wilson, a builder who did the work told the royal commission yesterday. 

Athol James said during evidence to the royal commission into union corruption that the ­future prime minister told him during renovations on her house in 1993 that payments were coming from Mr Wilson.
He also saw the Australian Workers Union official give Ms Gillard “wads of notes” on two ­occasions to cover cheque payments she made to him, he said.
The evidence from Mr James — during the commission’s investigation into a union slush fund set up by Mr Wilson with legal assistance from Ms Gillard that amassed hundreds of thousands of dollars — is potentially very damaging to the former Labor prime minister.
It directly contradicts her claims over the years that she paid for the renovations herself.

Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten was also dragged into the slush fund scandal yesterday when former AWU official and whistleblower Bob Kernohan claimed Mr Shorten was part of an attempted cover-up when he was an up-and-coming official with the AWU in Melbourne in 1996…
“Bill Shorten looked at me, and he said, ‘Look Bob, a lot of people are going to get hurt if this is pursued. No one wants to go any further with this. You know, Bruce Wilson and the others have gone’.
“I said, ‘Gone? Gone with a payout. With their record, they should be bloody well being investigated and locked up for this sort of conduct’.
“And Bill — this is what shocked me more than anything — Bill said, ‘Well, Bob, think of your ­future, you’re going into parliament shortly’. And by all reasonable chances I would have entered parliament.”..
The Labor leader, who rose to be the AWU’s national and Victorian secretary before entering parliament in 2007, denied through a spokesman in February the claim by Mr Kernohan that he told Mr Kernohan to “move on” from the slush fund issue in 1996…
Wayne Hem, a former AWU official, told the commission yesterday that he paid $5000 into Ms Gillard’s bank account on the orders of Mr Wilson in late 1995… Ms Gillard has said she had no recollection of this deposit.
UPDATE
Hedley Thomas:
These two witnesses yesterday were unhelpful for Gillard’s position that she had never benefited from Wilson’s slush fund. Thousands of dollars in cash from union figures paying off tradesmen at her house could cause the royal commission to see her role in a different light. For natural justice, and to be true to the inquiry’s terms of reference, the former PM will have to be called to respond to these alle­g­ations and others.
That would pose a dilemma for The Age. How could it refuse to report even the former Prime Minister in the dock? 
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Memo to ABC: Obama is in no position to lecture Abbott on global warming

Andrew Bolt June 12 2014 (9:27am)

Global warming - propaganda, Media

The ABC is campaigning for Tony Abbott to make global warming the true focus of his US trip to promote business and trade, and is salivating at the prospect of him being lectured by Barack Obama.
It’s so obsessive.
Lateline:
EMMA ALBERICI: One area where the two leaders could have some disagreement is over the issue of climate change. How prominent is that likely to be in their discussions?
MICHAEL VINCENT: It will be a - I would suspect, a significant element of their discussions.
AM:
JAMES GLENDAY: The PM is now starting the pointy end of his trip. He’s in the capital for a series of top level talks. The centrepiece will be a meeting with Barack Obama tomorrow… But even friends have differences. Senior democrat Henry Waxman’s labelled the PM a “lagger”, not a leader, on climate change.
7.30:
SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: This time tomorrow, Tony Abbott will be preparing for his Oval Office meeting with President Obama and the gulf between the two leaders on climate change has never been wider… All eyes will be watching to see how the two men resolve the difference…
SABRA LANE: The most sensitive issue that Mr Abbott will face when he gets to Washington is the issue of climate change, with the Abbott and Obama administrations opposed in how to respond to it. Mr Abbott meets the President tomorrow with his desired carbon tax repeal within sight… That comes as President Obama bypasses the US Congress to impose strict regulations on power stations to cut their CO2 output by 30 per cent by 2030… The US is keen for climate change to be on the official G20 agenda in Brisbane in November, but the host, Tony Abbott, wants other priorities addressed, like growth and infrastructure.
7:30 again:
SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: Democrat Congressman Henry Waxman has been one of the biggest players in US climate policy for decades....  How important is climate change policy now to President Obama?
HENRY WAXMAN: This is the most important issue for him, for his legacy, and quite frankly, it’s the most important issue of our time....
SARAH FERGUSON: A number of senior Australian ministers have said they don’t want climate change on the agenda at the G20, that it will get in the way. What’s your response to that?…
SARAH FERGUSON: Does that mean now that the Australian Government is effectively in opposition to the US Government on climate change?…
SARAH FERGUSON: So how damaging is it to have Tony Abbott and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on a unity ticket on this issue?…
SARAH FERGUSON: Given how important you say this policy is to President Obama, what sort of reception do you except Tony Abbott to get in Washington?
AM again:
CHRIS UHLMANN: Finally, should climate change be on the G20 agenda?
JOE HOCKEY: No, the G20 is an economic forum.
CHRIS UHLMANN: That’s a massive economic issue, isn’t it?
PM:
JAMES GLENDAY:… The PM faces an all together tougher task from tomorrow night when he flies out to the United States. There, the tricky issue of action of climate change is likely to be on the agenda.
But Niki Savva says the ABC’s green God has oily feet:
BARACK Obama is in no position to lecture anybody, including Tony Abbott, for not doing enough to tackle climate change…

Six years ago, on June 3, 2008, when he won the Democrat nomination for the presidency, Obama promised people would look back and see “this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal”.
Three years after that, on September 21, 2011, he revealed it was a tad harder than he expected to stop the waters rising or even part them a fraction: “We’ve got enough challenges. It is technically difficult to figure out how we are going to deal with climate change — not impossible, but difficult.”
Now, with time running out, not for the planet but for himself, Obama finally announced something dramatic, by directing that existing American power plants should reduce emissions 30 per cent below 2005 levels [by 2030] ... Apart from placing the major burden for delivery on the states, there is still a risk it will be blocked by congress…
So suggestions that US-Australia relations are threatened by Abbott’s approach, or that Australia will be humiliated if climate change is not placed prominently on the G20 agenda are so much gaseous emissions…
Abbott at least is trying to keep his promise to repeal the carbon tax. Despite action pledges during two campaigns, Obama has previously made clear there will be no carbon tax under a government he leads.
On November 12, 2012, a journalist asked Obama if the political will existed in Washington to legislate “some kind of a tax on carbon”.
The short answer was no, but this is what Obama actually said: “….that if the message is somehow we’re going to ignore jobs and growth simply to address climate change, I don’t think anybody is going to go for that. I won’t go for that …. we’re still trying to debate whether we can just make sure that middle-class families don’t get a tax hike.”
Abbott couldn’t have put it better himself.
UPDATE
Greg Sheridan, as usual, punctures the hype with some reality:

IN foreign policy terms, Tony Abbott is having an extremely successful trip… The Prime Minister presided over pretty much the full repair of relations with Indonesia at the start of his trip.
In Europe, he honoured the Australians who died in France in World War I and ... had good meetings with Euro­pean leaders.
In Canada, Abbott pioneered an altogether new level of intim­acy with Ottawa.
In the US, he is doing two somewhat unusual things. One, he has taken a substantial business delegation with him. And two, he is making a serious pitch for US investment… The most important aspect of the relationship is the security alli­ance, and that will get a lot of atten­tion when Abbott meets US President Barack Obama…
However, you would know very little of this from Fairfax (The Australian Financial Review excepted) or the ABC. Melbourne’s The Age, in particular, perhaps now Australia’s weakest and feeb­lest major newspaper, has run a series of front-page stories saying that Australia’s relationship with the US is in jeopardy because Abbott’s view of climate change is different from Obama’s. There is no factual basis to this assertion.
Sheridan points out another ABC fraud:
This week has seen another colossal episode in ABC and Fairfax climate propaganda, devoid of facts. Here are a few facts.
According to tables developed by Australia’s Environment Department, the US, even with Obama’s latest announcements, will by 2020 have reduced its 1990-level greenhouse gas emissions by 5 per cent. Australia will have reduced its emissions by 4 per cent over the same period.
Given Australia’s high rate of population and economic growth, and the structure of our economy, that is basically a dead heat…
Half the ABC’s commentators this week have been talking as though China is committed to a national emissions trading scheme and is phasing out coal. In fact, the seven city- or province- based trading schemes in China give out almost all their carbon permits for free. Yes, for free.
One day, in 50 years time or so, these schemes may mean something. Right now they mean nothing.
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Obama pulled out, Islamists moved in - and now Iraq may fall

Andrew Bolt June 12 2014 (8:00am)

One of the reasons given for the US invasion of Iraq was that it couldn’t be allowed to develop chemical and biological weapons which would one day fall into the hands of Islamist terrorists.
But the next worst has now happened:
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (Isis) has become the richest terror group ever after looting 500 billion Iraqi dinars - the equivalent of $429m (£256m) - from Mosul’s central bank, according to the regional governor.
Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi confirmed Kurdish televison reports that Isis militants had stolen millions from numerous banks across Mosul. A large quantity of gold bullion is also believed to have been stolen.
Something is seriously wrong with Iraqi security forces:
Iraqi officials told the Guardian that two divisions of Iraqi soldiers – roughly 30,000 men – simply turned and ran in the face of the assault by an insurgent force of just 800 fighters.
UPDATE
Frida Ghitis suggests Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama’s former secretary of state, will distance herself from Obama’s foreign policy disasters:
On Syria, Clinton was one of the early advocates of arming moderates fighting President Bashar al-Assad. Obama chose to largely stay out, while declaring that al-Assad must go.
Now, in what should be a profound embarrassment for the administration, Obama’s man in Damascus has turned on the President.
Former Ambassador Robert Ford said he resigned because “I was no longer in a position where I felt I could defend American policy.” Terrorist groups are running free. “We warned this would happen, and it has,” Ford said. “The State Department thought we needed to give much more help” to the opposition. That is what Clinton has recommended.
Another area of disagreement was Afghanistan. Clinton supported Obama’s 2009 surge, but she opposed his decision to announce an early date for the troops’ withdrawal… Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote that she “argued forcefully” against the Afghanistan withdrawal date.
Obama’s decision to announce an Afghanistan withdrawal date sent a message to the Taliban that they could wait out the U.S. presence, undermining the impact of Obama’s surge, as Clinton warned. Obama’s reluctance to take on a more assertive international leadership position, to follow a more muscular foreign policy - which she had advocated—arguably empowered extremists everywhere.
She also advised Obama against turning his back on Egypt’s Mubarak, urging the President to advocate a more gradual transition to democracy. Obama rejected her advice and things did not go well for Egypt or for relations between the two countries.
Clinton recommended that the U.S. leave behind a substantial residual force in Iraq to help prevent a return to sectarian violence and terrorism, a version confirmed by former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey. Obama sought a smaller force.
In the end, the two countries could not reach agreement and all Americans left. Perhaps it would not have been possible to keep a U.S. force there, but recent events underline that her instincts were correct. Iraq is now teetering, with an al Qaeda spin-off gaining key territory from the central government.
I’d actually argue Obama should have held his nose and support Assad in Syria rather than arm insurgents only too prey to Islamist extremists. But into the general vacuum left by Obama has stepped militant Islam.
But if Clinton was the hawk of the Obama administration, be very afraid. Here is her astonishing defence of the swap of five top Taliban terrorists for one US deserter, Bowe Bergdahl:


HILLARY CLINTON: These five guys are not a threat to the United States. They are a threat to the safety and security of Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is up to those two countries to make the decision once and for all that these are threats to them.
Releasing terrorists who threaten the security of Pakistan and Afghanistan is no problem to Clinton - or to the US? Were threats to the security of Iraq of no concern to Obama - or to the US?
UPDATE
Charles Krauthammer:
This is an issue of national security of the United States in the Middle East. What we’re seeing now, al Qaeda has control of the largest city it has ever controlled in its history. It has control of the largest area of territory—from the outskirts of Aleppo in the west to Mosul in the east—than it ever has in its history.
This is an enormous threat and it is a direct result of the two decisions that Obama made. Leaving Iraq, he says he ended the war in Iraq. No. David Petraeus ended the war in Iraq. He defeated al Qaeda and ended the civil war. Obama threw away the fruits of victory as General [Buck] McKeon said when he did not negotiate a status of forces agreement, which he argues in Afghanistan is necessary as a way to retain our gains and to redeem our sacrifices…
At the same time, you have an attack on Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan, an attack on the airport. You’ve got—and that is a country with nuclear weapons. The al Qaeda is arguably now the strongest it has ever been and it’s a result of Obama’s policies.
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Mark Scott should do his job - and tackle ABC bias

Andrew Bolt June 12 2014 (7:41am)

The ABC is running an absurd jihad to force Tony Abbott to make global warming the focus of his economic meetings. It is running dead on the royal commission exposing union corruption and ties to Labor figures.
To make this bias more troubling, the ABC is by far the biggest news organisation in the country, with twice as many Canberra journalists as its nearest rival. It is suffocating political debate.
So I fully understand not just the concern but the alarm of Coalition MPs:
THE ABC should concentrate on key services and tackling claims of bias instead of publicly whingeing, angry government members have told managing dir­ector Mark Scott.
Mr Scott used a forum on public broadcasting in London on Tuesday to take a thinly disguised swipe at his critics in the Coalition
“At times, I’ve felt in Canberra that they’re not quite attuned in the way our audiences are attuned to the breadth of ABC content,” Mr Scott said.
“...At times, I think the focus is too narrowly on political programming and political coverage."…
Queensland MP George Christensen described Mr Scott’s funding remarks as “in­appropriate”. “...The continued political war that the ABC seems to be waging against the government since it got elected really brings into question whether he should stay.”
South Australian senator Anne Ruston acknowledged that the ABC enjoyed broad support but warned of “constant questions over bias” in some programming.
“Maybe Mr Scott needs to address himself to those issues ...”.
Her remarks were echoed by former minister Ian Macdonald, who praised much of the ABC’s programming, but said: “Their flagship current affairs programs, they just lack balance. Their lack of balance is just patent… I have the suspicion that, quite frankly, Mark governs as part of a collective, that he’s not really the boss.”
The taxpayer-funded ABC, unlike the Age newspaper, is not entitled to be biased:
THE Age newspaper has defended its decision to run a double-page feature by a union secretary on the eve of budget rallies aimed against the Abbott government — and give the details of where to meet for the protest.
The article by United Voice Victoria secretary Jess Walsh details personal stories of some of the union’s members who will join the “Bust the Budget” protest in Melbourne today, highlighting their fears about the federal budget changes.
UPDATE
Greg Sheridan is right, of course:
Indeed, the ABC seems to have lost all sense of restraint, professionalism, fairness or even decency in relation to Abbott, routinely mocking and insulting the Prime Minister, not only in its dreary satire programs, but in what are meant to be serious news and current affairs broadcasts.
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It wasn’t sexism. Voters just disliked Gillard because she was no good

Andrew Bolt June 12 2014 (7:33am)

ANYONE elected prime minister cannot be much of a victim. But Julia Gillard is now trading furiously on her scars. Her soon-to-be-released biography, My Story, promises to tell of the “resilience and dignified courage” she showed against “the vicious hate campaigns directed against her”.
I suspect she’s also mentioned her supposed suffering to former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who in her own book, Hard Choices, complains: “Even leaders like former prime minister Julia Gillard of Australia have faced outrageous sexism which shouldn’t be tolerated in any country.”

But this whingeing is a con. For a start, the sexism Gillard encountered was as likely to help her as hurt. From the start she enjoyed the support of Emily’s List, which backs only female politicians, and throughout most of her prime ministership she had more support from women voters than men.
That was often interpreted as men disliking her simply because she was a woman. In fact, it was more likely that women tended to vote for her simply because she was a woman.
Tellingly, Gillard didn’t complain about sexism while her poll figures were high.
(Read full article here.) 
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“No-friends” Abbott has too many for alarmist Tanya Plibersek

Andrew Bolt June 12 2014 (7:26am)

Global warming - general, Politics - federal

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I APOLOGISE to Tanya Plibersek, Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman. I had thought she was just another global warming liar.
But the truth is now clear. No, she’s simply spectacularly ignorant of the most basic facts about climate science and politics.
No liar with brains would tell a lie on Saturday knowing just two days later it would probably be exposed on almost every TV bulletin. But there was Plibersek on Saturday, mocking the Prime Minister and his plan to scrap Labor’s carbon tax.
“As the rest of the world moves forward on climate change, Tony Abbott is Nigel No-friends on the world stage,” she jeered.
Really? No friends?
(Read full article here.)   
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=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her


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German bank clerk accidentally puts £190million into pensioner’s account after falling asleep on his keyboard
That 'instant' resulted in a multimillion-euros transfer instead. In fact the pensioner received a huge €222,222,222.22 that day, according to the Telegraph
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ABORTION GILLARD’S LOWEST CARD YET

Just when you think she can’t stoop any lower, she goes and does it. Her promotion of late- and up to full-term abortion has been no secret. It was integral to her Socialist Forum manifesto and she promoted it as a leader of the AUS along with her claims that “married women are whores” and “a heterosexual relationship should be the non-preferred option for young people”.

This base woman is a disgrace and an embarrassment to all decent Australian women. Men now treat her with disdain.

Now that she is politically cornered the real Julia is shining through in all her glory. Polls indicate the vast majority of Australians, despite the plans of John McTernan, discovered the real Julia long ago.

If McTernan had thought that we ex-convict, dumb Aussies would be putty in his hands, he has experienced a nasty surprise. We won’t cop his contemptible campaigning style.

I have wrestled with showing a pic of a late-term abortion and chickened out... Facebook would not be suitable.

I will apologise in advance for showing it atwww.pickeringpost.com (a warning, this pic may cause distress) but I believe words alone can never describe the horror of Gillard’s ideal world.

A late-term abortion shows an empyreal disrespect for life itself. Instruments are inserted to dismember the baby before extracting it in small pieces. It's small limbs are easily torn from its underdeveloped torso.

The child has a functioning nervous system so pain is experienced during this horrific process but it can’t express it, it can’t breathe, it suffers, muted, without anaesthetic.

The process of cattle slaughter horrifies Gillard and her followers but not the process of slaughtering babies. She demands men have no say, yet a man’s genes are 50% of the unborn child’s.

Couples go through hell in in-vitro programs experiencing year after year of disappointment only to concede heartbreaking defeat while a baby they longed for is somewhere in bloody pieces on a floor.

Okay, so I’m venting an unpopular bigotry, but it's one I will never retreat from, and I squirm in my seat when I see Gillard caressing a beautiful child for political gain.
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Geek Speed Dating . . . . Doctor Who Style!
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
Your job as a Christian, is not to make a non believer believe... That's way too hard!!!... you just spread His word the best way you can, and let God do the rest...
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During a robbery in Guangzhou, China, the bank robber shouted to everyone in the bank: "Don't move. The money belongs to the State. Your life belongs to you."

Everyone in the bank laid down quietly. This is called "Mind Changing Concept” Changing the conventional way of thinking.

When a lady lay on the table provocatively, the robber shouted at her: "Please be civilized! This is a robbery and not a rape!"

This is called "Being Professional” Focus only on what you are trained to do!

When the bank robbers returned home, the younger robber (MBA-trained) told the older robber (who has only completed Year 6 in primary school): "Big brother, let's count how much we got."

The older robber rebutted and said: "You are very stupid. There is so much money it will take us a long time to count. Tonight, the TV news will tell us how much we robbed from the bank!"

This is called "Experience.” Nowadays, experience is more important than paper qualifications!

After the robbers had left, the bank manager told the bank supervisor to call the police quickly. But the supervisor said to him: "Wait! Let us take out $10 million from the bank for ourselves and add it to the $70 million that we have previously embezzled from the bank”.

This is called "Swim with the tide.” Converting an unfavorable situation to your advantage!

The supervisor says: "It will be good if there is a robbery every month."

This is called "Killing Boredom.” Personal Happiness is more important than your job.

The next day, the TV news reported that $100 million was taken from the bank. The robbers counted and counted and counted, but they could only count $20 million. The robbers were very angry and complained: "We risked our lives and only took $20 million. The bank manager took $80 million with a snap of his fingers. It looks like it is better to be educated than to be a thief!"

This is called "Knowledge is worth as much as gold!"

The bank manager was smiling and happy because his losses in the share market are now covered by this robbery.

This is called "Seizing the opportunity.” Daring to take risks!

So who are the real robbers here?
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Underwater bedroom at Poseidon Undersea Resort located in Fiji. Who wouldn't like to live in a place like this?
Like>> Amazing Things 
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
Heavenly Father, I thank You that deep within me, You never stop working, completing what You have begun, and that nothing can foil Your perfect plan. Help me to be patient not only with others, but with myself. Strengthen me to resist frustration and self-condemnation and replace them with glory and praise for what You are doing, and will ever continue to do in the process of making me a new creation in Your Son. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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Alice busting out her kung fu moves! @aliceinframes #kitchenwhiz #KitchenNinja #channel9
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American, Jewish student detained at Heathrow after hijab clad private security contractor notices that his passport indicates visits to Israel. After being detained for several hours and subjected to bad treatment, he is turned away from the UK without explanation & sent back to the US.
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You need to focus on the name .. hold that image .. -ed
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POOR TASTE: A menu from a Liberal National Party event containing derogatory references to the Prime Minster has spread like wildfire after being leaked over social media.

The menu was used at a Brisbane fundraiser for Mal Brough back in March, and contains offensive descriptors of the PM, Kevin Rudd, Wayne Swan and the Greens.

Mr Brough has confirmed the menu was used at his event, while Opposition leader Tony Abbott has since condemned it. More Federal Politics coverage in 9 News at 6pm on Channel 9.
Turns out it was a fake .. will Channel 9 apologise? - ed
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The Primary Growth Partnership is boosting primary sector productivity. Share this if you agree this is important to increase jobs, boost incomes, and improve exports.
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Eliyahu Federman on the Lubavitcher Rebbe on the 19th anniversary of his passing: "He was a leader who created leaders, not just mindless followers." Read more here http://toi.sr/19lgJE0(photo credit: Chabad.org)
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June 12: Dia dos Namorados in Brazil; Independence Day in the Philippines; Russia Day in the Russian Federation; Loving Day in the United States
Boeing 777
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“He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”” Psalm 46:10NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"We love him because he first loved us."
1 John 4:19
There is no light in the planet but that which proceedeth from the sun; and there is no true love to Jesus in the heart but that which cometh from the Lord Jesus himself. From this overflowing fountain of the infinite love of God, all our love to God must spring. This must ever be a great and certain truth, that we love him for no other reason than because he first loved us. Our love to him is the fair offspring of his love to us. Cold admiration, when studying the works of God, anyone may have, but the warmth of love can only be kindled in the heart by God's Spirit. How great the wonder that such as we should ever have been brought to love Jesus at all! How marvellous that when we had rebelled against him, he should, by a display of such amazing love, seek to draw us back. No! never should we have had a grain of love towards God unless it had been sown in us by the sweet seed of his love to us. Love, then, has for its parent the love of God shed abroad in the heart: but after it is thus divinely born, it must be divinely nourished. Love is an exotic; it is not a plant which will flourish naturally in human soil, it must be watered from above. Love to Jesus is a flower of a delicate nature, and if it received no nourishment but that which could be drawn from the rock of our hearts it would soon wither. As love comes from heaven, so it must feed on heavenly bread. It cannot exist in the wilderness unless it be fed by manna from on high. Love must feed on love. The very soul and life of our love to God is his love to us.
"I love thee, Lord, but with no love of mine,
For I have none to give;
I love thee, Lord; but all the love is thine,
For by thy love I live.
I am as nothing, and rejoice to be
Emptied, and lost, and swallowed up in thee."

Evening

"There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle."
Psalm 76:3
Our Redeemer's glorious cry of "It is finished," was the death-knell of all the adversaries of his people, the breaking of "the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle." Behold the hero of Golgotha using his cross as an anvil, and his woes as a hammer, dashing to shivers bundle after bundle of our sins, those poisoned "arrows of the bow;" trampling on every indictment, and destroying every accusation. What glorious blows the mighty Breaker gives with a hammer far more ponderous than the fabled weapon of Thor! How the diabolical darts fly to fragments, and the infernal bucklers are broken like potters' vessels! Behold, he draws from its sheath of hellish workmanship the dread sword of Satanic power! He snaps it across his knee, as a man breaks the dry wood of a fagot, and casts it into the fire. Beloved, no sin of a believer can now be an arrow mortally to wound him, no condemnation can now be a sword to kill him, for the punishment of our sin was borne by Christ, a full atonement was made for all our iniquities by our blessed Substitute and Surety. Who now accuseth? Who now condemneth? Christ hath died, yea rather, hath risen again. Jesus has emptied the quivers of hell, has quenched every fiery dart, and broken off the head of every arrow of wrath; the ground is strewn with the splinters and relics of the weapons of hell's warfare, which are only visible to us to remind us of our former danger, and of our great deliverance. Sin hath no more dominion over us. Jesus has made an end of it, and put it away forever. O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end. Talk ye of all the wondrous works of the Lord, ye who make mention of his name, keep not silence, neither by day, nor when the sun goeth to his rest. Bless the Lord, O my soul.
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Today's reading: Ezra 1-2, John 19:23-42 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Ezra 1-2

Cyrus Helps the Exiles to Return
1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:
2 "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
"'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. 3 Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. 4 And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.'"

Today's New Testament reading: John 19:23-42

23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 "Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it."
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
"They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment."
So this is what the soldiers did.
25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, "Woman, here is your son," 27and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home....

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