Thursday, November 27, 2014

Thu Nov 27th Todays News

The death of international cricket player Phillip Hughes in a Sheffield Shield match between NSW and South Australia was a tragic accident. The delivery of Abbott was short pitched and slower than full pace, so that Hughes was through his shot too early. The ball hit him flush, beneath his helmet, on the side of the neck. It compressed a major artery and the artery subsequently split, bleeding into the brain. At first Hughes stood stunned, then fell face first onto the pitch. He never regained consciousness. He was surrounded for days by family and loved ones. He was a few days before turning twenty six years old. It is doubtful that legislation or protective equipment could have prevented the injury. It happens very rarely in cricket, even so. In 1974, twenty four year old Ewen Chatfield, a very accurate medium paced bowler was batting at number eleven when English fast bowler Peter Lever tested him with a bouncer which hit Chatfield's temple and he swallowed his tongue. Heart massage saved him. But nothing could have saved Hughes whose internal injuries were too devastating. I made a mistake previously in publicly calling on God to intercede. I had thought Hughes would survive and welcomed the possibility of being challenged. But this is not for him, but for his family. And their faith is private. I wish them well. 

 How the nation responds to the tragedy of Phil Hughes' death will expose the national character. An ABC presenter, poet and comedian, Ben Pobjie (also writes for New Matilda, SMH and Age) tweeted "Sean Abbott hits Phil Hughes in the head. Continuing the tradition of Abbotts fXXXing up Australia." ABC Grandstand tweeted insensitively about his possible death soon after the delivery. It was very different in 1933 when twenty three year old Archie Jackson died from tuberculosis. At the time, the ABC did not see the need to trumpet his death or link him disparagingly to an MP, the PM. The then Premier of NSW unveiled a headstone paid for by public subscription which read "He played the game." Some will say Hughes was cut short in his sporting career, and it is true his average did not reflect his talent in test cricket. But he leaves behind some exquisite innings only he could have executed. Too young. Too soon. But Phillip Hughes led a life blessed, and at the end he was surrounded by family and loved ones. He died having lived well, and the tragedy is he won't have the opportunity to finish it right. 

 Eighteen members of the ALP were ejected from federal parliament's lower house for poor behaviour in one day. They were elected to serve their constituents, but fail. Rudd was made ALP leader to save the furniture, and the furniture is failing to show any leadership, or reform for any future hope. But, because of their senate numbers, they can stop important legislation and then claim it is the government's fault. Worth considering as Victoria goes to election and considers voting for a corrupt and inept ALP. 

The US went to election and voted for Obama twice. It isn't only Ferguson county suffering for the racist divisions fracturing America. There is injustice in the US, but it is overstated and with the recent shooting of a black man by a white policeman and the reaction of rioters suggest that the issue is more political than real. Even jihadists are asking rioters to join causes. In Ferguson, the policeman shot the man who tried to take his weapon. That will happen to anyone regardless of race. Those calling for riots are little different to jihadis. In another shooting a twelve year old boy playing with a realistic looking toy gun in a public area was shot dead by another policeman. Maybe the boy's parents have an excuse, but if they have it is not as public as outrage from rioters. 
Historical perspective on this day
In 25 Luoyang was declared capital of the Eastern Han dynasty by Emperor Guangwu of Han. In 176, Emperor Marcus Aurelius granted his son Commodus the rank of "Imperator" and made him Supreme Commander of the Roman legions. In 395, Rufinus, praetorian prefect of the East, was murdered by Gothic mercenaries under Gainas. In 511, King Clovis I died at Paris ("Lutetia") and was buried in the Abbey of St Genevieve. The Merovingian dynasty was continued by his four sons, Theuderic I, Chlodomer, Childebert I and Chlothar I, who divide the Frankish Kingdom and ruled from the capitals at Metz, Orléans, Paris and Soissons. In 602, Emperor Maurice was forced to watch his five sons be executed before being beheaded himself; their bodies were thrown into the sea and their heads were exhibited in Constantinople. In 1095, Pope Urban II declared the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont. In 1703, the first Eddystone Lighthouse was destroyed in the Great Storm of 1703. In 1727, the foundation stone to the Jerusalem Church in Berlin was laid. 

 In 1807, the Portuguese Royal Family left Lisbon to escape from Napoleonic troops. In 1810, the Berners Street hoax was perpetrated by Theodore Hook in the City of Westminster, London. In 1815, adoption of Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1830,  Saint Catherine Labouré experienced a vision of the Blessed Virgin standing on a globe, crushing a serpent with her feet, and emanating rays of light from her hands. In 1835, James Pratt and John Smith were hanged in London; they are the last two to be executed for sodomy in England. In 1839, in Boston, Massachusetts, the American Statistical Association was founded. In 1856, the Coup of 1856 led to Luxembourg's unilateral adoption of a new, reactionary constitution. In 1863, American Civil War: Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and several of his men escaped the Ohio Penitentiary and returned safely to the South. Also, American Civil War: Battle of Mine Run: Union forces under General George Meade took up positions against troops led by Confederate General Robert E. Lee. In 1868, American Indian Wars: Battle of Washita River: United States Army Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led an attack on Cheyenne living on reservation land. In 1886, German judge Emil Hartwich sustained fatal injuries in a duel, which would become the background for Theodor Fontane's Effi Briest. In 1895, at the Swedish–Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he died.

 In 1901, the U.S. Army War College was established. In 1912, Spain declared a protectorate over the north shore of Morocco. In 1924, in New York City, the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was held. In 1940, In Romania, the ruling Iron Guard fascist party assassinated over 60 of arrested King Carol II of Romania's aides and other political dissidents, including former Prime Minister Nicolae Iorga. Also, World War II: At the Battle of Cape Spartivento, the Royal Navy engaged the Regia Marina in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1942, World War II: At Toulon, the French navy scuttled its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands. In 1944, World War II: RAF Fauld explosion: An explosion at a Royal Air Force ammunition dump in Staffordshire killed seventy people. In 1954, Alger Hiss was released from prison after serving 44 months for perjury. In 1963, the Convention on the Unification of Certain Points of Substantive Law on Patents for Invention was signed at Strasbourg. In 1965, Vietnam War: The Pentagon told U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned operations were to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam had to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000. In 1968, Penny Ann Early became the first woman to play major professional basketball, for the Kentucky Colonels in an ABA game against the Los Angeles Stars.

 In 1971, the Soviet space program's Mars 2 orbiter released a descent module. It malfunctioned and crashed, but it was the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars. In 1973, Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States Senate voted 92 to 3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States. (On December 6, the House would confirm him 387 to 35). In 1975, the Provisional IRA assassinated Ross McWhirter, after a press conference in which McWhirter had announced a reward for the capture of those responsible for multiple bombings and shootings across England. In 1978, in San Francisco, city mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated by former supervisor Dan White. Also, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was founded in the city of Riha (Urfa) in Turkey. In 1983, Avianca Flight 011: A Boeing 747 crashed near Madrid's Barajas Airport, killing 181. In 1984, under the Brussels Agreement signed between the governments of the United Kingdom and Spain, the former agreed to enter into discussions with Spain over Gibraltar, including sovereignty. In 1989, Avianca Flight 203: A Boeing 727 exploded in mid-air over Colombia, killing all 107 people on board and three people on the ground. The Medellín Cartel would claim responsibility for the attack.

 In 1991, the United Nations Security Council adopted Security Council Resolution 721, leading the way to the establishment of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia. In 1992, for the second time in a year, military forces try to overthrow president Carlos Andrés Pérez in Venezuela. In 1997, twenty-five were killed in the second Souhane massacre in Algeria. In 1999, the left-wing Labour Party took control of the New Zealand government with leader Helen Clark becoming the first elected female Prime Minister in New Zealand's history. In 2000, in the Canadian federal election the Liberal Party of Canada won its third consecutive election with a gain in the number of its members. In 2001, a hydrogen atmosphere was discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet. In 2004, Pope John Paul II returned the relics of Saint John Chrysostom to the Eastern Orthodox Church. In 2005, the first partial human face transplant was completed in Amiens, France. In 2006, the Canadian House of Commons approved a motion tabled by Prime Minister Stephen Harper recognizing the Québécois as a nation within Canada. In 2009, Nevsky Express bombing: A bomb exploded on the Nevsky Express train between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, derailing it and causing 28 deaths and 96 injuries.
2013
Since 2008 I have worked to promote people I'm in touch with. I have several reasons for doing so. I hope to found what I call the Cabramatta/Fairfield/Smithfield Digital Cultural museum. I intend it will allow the local community to film, in television broadcast ready standard, material, from martial arts, through to cultural dance. One Ethiopian Christian Pastor I know could use it to produce crossover material for people in Ethiopia, where he has founded hundreds of churches, through to people living in Australia wishing to learn more about there. But these neighbourhoods are not merely one culture or ethnicity, but many. It would be good to have facilities to allow local schools to send drama students to hone all aspects of production skills. My dream will cost $ millions. But it could make money too through licensing and production. I note many skilled actors with martial arts back grounds struggle with employment between Underbelly shooting schedules. Offer work to them, and the material that will be produced would be valuable. 

But the dream is far distant. The reality is I am struggling. My place was flooded with raw sewage a few months ago and I live in a concrete shell, having lost everything I valued as a keepsake. I have no job because of government corruption from the ALP involving pedophilia and the death through apparent negligence of a school boy. I am unemployed for six years through no fault of my own, and am being forced to sell my only asset, my home, should insurance ever repair it. And just as I'm righting myself, I was slapped with a tax audit into my superannuation. 

I need help. I have done nothing wrong. I beg The PM or NSW Premier to come to my home. I post an event where they might become aware of my need. And eleven have bothered to list themselves as supporting. Many whom I promote, and will continue to promote, were invited. The only comment Andrew Bolt has ever made regarding me, of which I'm aware, is that he doesn't like my kind of poetry. I had shared with him my postings on freeing Korean hostages from Afghanistan, or of Clare Oliver's appeal to end sun beds. His criticism feels harsh, and his condemnation unwarranted, but I am aware that there are people who don't like me. They are embellishing things I post. So local newspapers like the Fairfield Advance or Fairfield Champion censor my letters to them, but post letters written by others using my name. Or when a former friend contacted me recently, someone posted to them so that they broke the contact and spoke of my having a mental illness (I don't). 

I don't agree with Bolt on all things, but I support him and will continue to do so. Should I set up another event? I don't know what the future holds, but I will fight so that our future is democratic, free and fair. I tend to conservative (and some libertarian, but not drug use) values as the key to achieving that end. 

Daily Mail might open a centrist news service in Australia, being very different to Fairfax, ABC, Guardian or regional papers. I don't think they will find fifty conservative journalists, and they are masting with Channel 9 which is extreme left, along with Sunrise, but not as far left as the ABC. ABC is fighting to be vile. Craig Thomson rejects a gift from prosecutors. ALP are united in opposing Australia .. remember how Gillard claimed she had no choice but to proceed with a Carbon Tax because the Greens were making her? They are continuing with it even though Greens aren't supporting them. Good news is, cold kills, but warming saves. Pyne has not broken a promise, but uses ALP cuts to education to make teachers more efficient. Naturally press call it a back flip. Bob Katter may be insignificant, but also, he doesn't count. Maybe he should do the 'Christian' thing and resign? A point of difference between Bolt and I is that I look forward to Australia's population exceeding 400 million. Before that happens, we will have built infrastructure. When that happens, opposition to a big Australia will be viewed as provincial and backwards, impeding economic growth. 
===
This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
===
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

Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR
Douglas Sutherland-Bruce via David Daniel Ball
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed

Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
===

Happy birthday and many happy returns Sherry Ku and David Duong. Born on the same day, across the years. Along with
November 27: Thanksgiving in the United States (2014)
Colonial Williamsburg view of Duke of Gloucester Street
We've weathered the storm. Our signature has flourish. We are restored. We lost milk. As great as Clark's election was, her defeat was better for NZ. Let us party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
===
2014
===

Triggs makes her Human Rights Committee look a witchhunt

Andrew Bolt November 27 2014 (8:44pm)

LABOR loves using your taxes to pay activists to push its causes. Take the Human Rights Commission, led by the now-damaged Gillian Triggs.
Created by the Hawke government in 1986, the HRC has ever since promoted the Left’s causes on the taxpayers’ dime.
It is largely responsible for creating the stolen generations myth, for example.
Its Bringing them Home inquiry suggested up to 100,000 Aboriginal children were stolen for racist reasons in a cultural “genocide”, even though no one since could identify even 10 such examples.
That inquiry accepted without cross-examination the claims of witnesses whose identities it kept secret — including claims that fell apart when tested in the Federal Court “stolen generations” test case.
Yet no Coalition government has had the courage or conviction to scrap the HRC as a propaganda arm for the Left — and a $27 million waste.
So taxpayers today pay HRC commissioners more than $300,000 each to do the nagging that thousands of other activists already do free.
But more Coalition MPs will now wonder exactly why we fund the HRC after Triggs’ astonishing performance last Thursday.
The HRC president’s evidence to the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee suggested her commission is every bit as politically biased as its critics feared.
Triggs was called to answer questions about the inquiry she announced in February into our detention of boat children. [Watch here.]
That timing always seemed bizarre.
As Liberal senator Barry O’Sullivan noted, when the Rudd Labor government took office there were just four boat people left in detention, none children.
(Read full article here.) 
===

Phillip Hughes dies

Andrew Bolt November 27 2014 (8:21pm)

What a terrible, terrible loss. His poor family. He was just 25.
UPDATE
Bravo, Michael Clarke, for your leadership these past days:
UPDATE
Callers to our 2GB show are urging Cricket Australia and our team to go ahead with the First Test against India next Thursday.
They want day one to be a celebration of Hughes life and have offered some wonderful suggestions. The best I have heard is for Hughes to be named 12th man. 
===

Jack the Insider is cross

Andrew Bolt November 27 2014 (6:18pm)

Jack the Insider discusses the Right:
May 21, 2014 - Right-wing columnists often moan they are chronically under-represented in the media.... The deeper irony is that most of the scribblers of the Right are actually living in self-exile from the Left.

March 28, 2014 - Prior to World War II conservative politics was so brutal that right wing political parties in Australia were utterly destroyed every three years or so.

December 16, 2009 - I believe that it’s refreshing to find a group of right-wing nut jobs

Jack the Insider pins his hopes on the Left:
January 6, 2012 - I despair of the Left because the fundamentals of left-wing politics at or around the centre are where I have always believed this country’s future best lies.
But Jack the Insider is upset when he is given his own label:
A couple of days ago I was amused to read Andrew Bolt’s blog. This particular entry featured a long roll of News Corp columnists described by Bolt as ‘leftist’. Guess what? I made the list.
I suppose it’s just a matter time before I will be made to front the House Un-Australian Committee to be asked, “Are you now or have you ever sculled a beer with Bob Hawke?” Under oath, I would be obliged to say yes.
Jack is cross that someone else is playing with his labels:

However, his list of ‘leftist’ journalists which has me in the Top Ten reveals Bolt has become the self-appointed key master of the political spectrum. :
Jack says the labels he’s been using are meaningless, now one is pinned on him:
This is more a discussion about ideology and a plea to recalibrate the current political nomenclature for the primary reason that a single left-right axis is a lazy, unsophisticated and largely anachronistic means of codifying a set of beliefs, views and opinions. It does not allow for distinction, exception, gradation or nuance. 
Jack nevertheless thinks these labels are not lazy, unsophisticated and largely anachronistic, failing to allow for distinction, exception, gradation or nuance, as long as they are pinned on you-know-who:
This is odd given there aren’t many who sit to the right of [Bolt] - maybe Tamurlane and the 3rd Duke of Alba.
Jack seems in his pleas for “nuance” not to understand the critical difference between a conservative and someone on the Right, or, indeed, that the relevant axis is not Left to Right, but anarchy to Left/Right, or individual to coercive collectivism:

Ultimately, the left-right axis is about as helpful in understanding people’s views as it might be knowing which footy team they barrack for.
Jack the Insider should be slower to dismiss those he brands of the “Right” and should not write in anger. 
===

Your safety in Jacqui Lambie’s hands

Andrew Bolt November 27 2014 (11:54am)

Senator Jacqui Lambie, September:
BARRIE CASSIDY: And do you feel the Government’s got a handle on the terrorism issue at home?
JACQUI LAMBIE: I believe it’s heading in the right direction, absolutely. Yep, but it certainly needs to put its foot down. There’s no 50 per cent here. It needs to go in hard and it needs to go in fast.
BARRIE CASSIDY: And do you think then the Government can rely on Palmer United as they introduce the new laws this week?
JACQUI LAMBIE: I would certainly hope so, yes. They can certainly rely on me - we’ll put it that way.
Jacqui Lambie yesterday:
A THIRD tranche of counter-terrorism laws passed the Senate yesterday, despite independent senator Jacqui Lambie voting against expanding the Australian Defence Force’s capability to combat terrorism…
The Tasmanian senator, who has repeatedly accused her political opponents of being untrustworthy, complained the legislation had been rushed through parliament after only four weeks’ scrutiny.
“As a legislator I want to be careful I don’t unwittingly get rushed again and again by the government to pass laws only to find out at the end of it we now have a police state,” she said.
The legislation will enable Australia’s foreign spy agency ASIS to co-operate with the ADF on intelligence matters and military operations overseas.
It also expands the scope of Australian Federal Police control orders and enables certain intelligence agencies, including ASIS, to launch emergency operations without government approval. 
===

How to cripple Victoria on Saturday

Andrew Bolt November 27 2014 (10:23am)

Victoria seems about to vote for the kind of union culture not seen since the Kirner years. The Financial Review warns:
Victorians must ask themselves if Labor is equipped to return to government so soon. There are grave concerns as to whether Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews and his team have the character or the ability to do the job…
The lack of a transparent cost-benefit study [of the East West Link] is a concern, but the project needs to start happening… Labor’s promise to rip up the contract would be absurdly costly, as well as pandering to Green voters who threaten Labor members in inner Melbourne…
Labor should make any voter concerned about the state economy shudder. It is stacked with Trades Hall types; 16 of its front benchers hail from unions.
Mr Andrews is an exception, but he belongs to the ALP’s Socialist Left faction. Deputy leader James Merlino is a former shop assistants’ union state secretary, shadow treasurer Tim Pallas is a former ACTU official, and would-be planning minister Brian Tee is a paid-up member of the CFMEU – a lawless union that has blockaded Melbourne’s CBD, consorted with criminals and intimidated and boycotted law-abiding companies.
Incredibly, Mr Andrews wants to scrap the Napthine government’s building and construction code of practice, one of the few constraints on union and contractor unlawfulness on government projects. This in itself makes Mr Andrews and Labor not fit to govern. The Productivity Commission has recommended that the code be taken up nationally. Yet Mr Andrews does not have the political spine to stand up to Labor’s trade union bosses over a lawless labour monopoly that is undermining Victoria’s investment climate and job prospects.
===

New York Times publishes police officer’s address as mobs rage

Andrew Bolt November 27 2014 (9:39am)

Much of the media persists in portraying the Ferguson riots as the price of white racism rather than evidence of black racism - and a mindless violence.
Much of the media seems to believe an innocent white police officer, Darren Wilson, should have been punished for shooting the black thief, Michael Brown, who attacked him. Worse, many seem to believe this innocent officer should be punished just to appease the race resentments of a violent and unreasoning mob:
We now know that just before Monday night’s riots, Michael Brown’s stepfather screamed “Burn this bitch down!” to a mob as Brown’s mother stood silently by. The end result was utter chaos. More than a dozen businesses were looted and set on fire, a 20 year-old man is dead, and the Brown Family’s own church was burnt to the ground.
But for sheer bastardy, the Leftist New York Times now publishes Wilson’s street name - a detail the mob seems already to have noted. It’s as if the Times actually wants Wilson murdered:
image
The International Business Times notes:

But printing his street name in the nation’s most influential newspaper on the day the grand jury is expected to hand up a decision on the indictment could reignite interest in — and awareness of — the location, and some critics worry that it could result in protesters descending on his home. Slate even went a step further than the Times, publishing an article featuring a photo of the modest, red-brick house on Monday.
A number of Twitter users — some of whom have identified themselves as planning to protest the grand jury decision — have tweeted the location of Wilson’s home as they gear up for rallies. The house number was not printed in the Times, but the street in the St. Louis suburb of Crestwood where it sits is only about two blocks long, and the house number can be easily located via online sources using only the street name and Wilson’s name.
Evil.
The issue that the media Left prefer not to discuss?. Former New York City police chief and mayor Rudi Giuliani notes it:
After noting how he diversified the New York City police force, Giuliani said it was very disappointing that “we are not discussing the fact that 93 percent of blacks are killed by other blacks.”
Check the link for the million ways the Washington Post tries to knock down Giuliani’s argument - with no success.
Reader Jono:
An academic replies that those remarks reinforce the problematic perspective that prevails in the culture whatever that means.
UPDATE
Barack Obama has done nothing tangible to bridge the racial divide. Worse, he seems to be legitimising the victimology driving this violence:
BARACK OBAMA, US PRESIDENT: Burning buildings, torching cars, destroying property, putting people at risk - that’s destructive and there’s no excuse for it. Those are criminal acts. And people should be prosecuted if they engage in criminal acts.
[REPORTER]: But the President also acknowledged the frustrations of the peaceful protestors around the country who feel the law isn’t always enforced equally.
BARACK OBAMA: That may not be true everywhere and it’s certainly not true for the vast majority of law enforcement officials, but that’s an impression that folks have and it’s not just made up. It’s rooted in realities that have existed in this country for a long time.
(Thanks to readers Gab, The Realist and Terry.) 
===

Eggs broken. Time Abbott talked omelettes

Andrew Bolt November 27 2014 (9:25am)

Niki Savva despairs at Tony Abbott making the same blunders that killed Julia Gillard:
It’s as if they have been cursed to repeat each other’s mistakes, wilfully treating voters like idiots. It is plain in the Opposition Leader’s responses to every savings measure announced by the government. One day he will pay, like Abbott has had to pay for those few words to SBS the night before the election ruling out any changes to the GST, cuts to health, pensions, the ABC and SBS that have been slowly killing him.
One stupid line at the end of a long campaign shouldn’t be enough to hang someone — unless they behave even more stupidly later by refusing to make a simple admission: I stuffed up or I was wrong to say what I said, or circumstances forced me to make a difficult choice.
Abbott undermined an eminently defensible case for cuts to the ABC, shredded his credibility and forced his colleagues into humiliating verbal jousts with journos to cover for him. They despair.
As Savva suggests, what makes this latest reckoning over the ABC cuts painful is that Abbott’s colleagues know they themselves look shifty trying to defend it.
What is so frustrating for those who wish Abbott well is that this disaster was utterly predictable - and, indeed, predicted.
In April, even though it killed me, I warned through gritted teeth that the Government should honor its promise to the ABC:
In May I warned:
TONY Abbott wants to break a promise, after all. But his deficit tax would break the wrong one and risk killing his Government… Why is Abbott planning a new [2 per cent wealth tax] tax that will be jeered when he could instead scrap his $5 billion leave scheme — hated even by many Liberals — and be cheered?
Why is Abbott planning a new tax that the Senate would likely block when he could scrap a parental leave scheme the Senate may not pass either? ...
But why is Abbott thinking about breaking any promise at all? ...
Abbott was so desperate to win the last election — and voters seemed so hooked on Labor’s reckless spending — that he promised more than he should have. On election eve he summed up the promises: “No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS.” Not even a cut to the bloated ABC? ...
Labor knows this is its big chance to destroy Abbott by doing to him what he did to Julia “No Carbon Tax” Gillard. It can paint him as a liar to voters now hypersensitive to being lied to…
But why would Abbott even think of breaking a promise? He’d just give Labor all it needs to call him a liar until election day. Voters would then distrust his every word, just as they did with Gillard. Those voters may want more than government can afford, but they also want another deficit fixed — the moral deficit in politics. They demand promises be kept. Abbott’s survival may demand that, too.
Well, the damage is now done. The solution?
1. Abbott must now discount the advice of anyone who told him so many promises could be broken.
2. Abbott must now discount the advice of anyone who told him he could pretend those promises hadn’t been broken.
3. He must hire a communications guru, a startling absence in his office.
4. He should recast himself in ways that don’t flatter him and offend his self-image, but which are at least plausible given what’s happened. Yes, he broke promises but he’s a tough bastard who’d do anything to rescue this country from the disaster it’s heading to thanks to Labor’s reckless spending in government and its mindless sabotage in office.
5. Remember that you do not have to be pure in politics. You just have to be better than the other bastard. So don’t defend, but attack. Fight, fight, fight.
6. The eggs are now broken. Sell the omelette instead. (And show you wouldn’t feed a dog what Labor is cooking.) 
===

Which battle must the Government fight - to seem honest or seem financially competent?

Andrew Bolt November 27 2014 (9:18am)

The Abbott Government has lost the battle to save its reputation for keeping promises. But now there’s a more critical challenge - to save its reputation for fixing Budget disasters:
The Federal government is rapidly running out of time to fix fundamental budget weaknesses likely to be exposed by collapsing commodity prices, a lack of productivity growth and declining workforce participation, research by the Parliamentary Budget Office suggests.
In wake-up call to a Senate still mired in a grinding budget stalemate, the independent budget office has for the first time quantified what would happen if Australia’s 23-year run of economic growth is suddenly derailed…
The budget office report ... shows the budget would still be in deficit to the tune of $33.1 billion in 2024-25 if productivity growth fails to recover from last decade’s slump…

The modelling also shows if workers and companies can boost productivity growth to 2 per cent a year over the next ten years - a performance that has only been bested once, during the 1990s - the budget’s 2024-25 surplus would be a massive 2.5 per cent of GDP, or 1.1 per cent larger than the government currently predicts.
Debt would also have been wiped out under a high productivity scenario and the Commonwealth would be sitting on a cash pile equivalent to 4.3 per cent of GDP, or $69 billion in today’s dollars.
So getting the money may now ultimately prove more critical than seeming this sneaky and mean:

THE federal government will put a new price signal on visits to the doctor by using regulations to overcome a Senate veto of its $7 GP co-payment…
Sticking to its goal of charging more for primary healthcare from next July ... it is drafting a second option that keeps some of the key aspects of the reform including a medical research future fund that could grow to $20 billion by 2020…
Tony Abbott moved yesterday to rescue remaining budget reforms by scheduling a meeting with newly independent senator Jacqui Lambie next Monday, in the hope of winning her vote.
But Senator Lambie issued a new ultimatum to Mr Abbott over an increase in Defence Force pay, telling The Australian she would not compromise on her demand for a 3 per cent pay rise and the ­restoration of Christmas leave…
Her remarks are a challenge to the government’s hopes of passing an amended version of its $5bn cuts to higher education funding, while other budget measures are also in doubt.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

Hypocrite alert

Andrew Bolt November 27 2014 (9:08am)

Jennifer Rajca, 26 November:

Shadow Defence Minister Stephen Conroy said the Prime Minister needed to show leadership and make [the Defence Minister] say sorry to Parliament.
“Tony Abbott should demand that David Johnston go into the chamber and apologise publicly to the workforce, to the people of Australia for undermining our national security.
“He is the Defence Minister, this is a very serious situation that he’s put himself in.”
AAP, 26 February:

DEFENCE force chief David Hurley says it’s not enough that Labor’s Stephen Conroy has withdrawn his accusation that border commander Angus Campbell has been engaged in a political cover-up.
“Unfortunately, once said, the shadow will linger,’’ General Hurley said ... adding Lieutenant-General Campbell had a reputation in Australia and beyond of being an officer of integrity, intellect and studied impartiality…
Senator Conroy withdrew the accusation against Lieutenant-General Campbell after Senate estimates…
Senator Conroy ... insisted it was not for him to apologise.
UPDATE
Anyone would think Labor is the military’s best friend and not a pack of hypocrites.
7.30 yesterday:

PENNY WONG, LEADER OF OPPOSITION IN SENATE: He is a disgrace! He is an utter disgrace! ...
[The Defence Minister’s] position is untenable.
Radio National, 26 February:

FRAN KELLY: ... (Y)esterday in Senate Estimates Labor Senator Stephen Conroy launched a pretty extraordinary attack on Lieutenant General Angus Campbell the head of Operation Sovereign Borders ... In your view is that appropriate, to speak to a senior military officer like that accusing him of a political cover up?
WONG: I think it’s entirely appropriate for Labor Senators to probe the cloak of secrecy this government is applying to so many areas of public policy and clearly Operation Sovereign Borders is one of them.
KELLY: A political cover up?
WONG: You and I both know that this government has refused to be fully frank with the Australian people
David Johnston in his own defence:
Senator Johnston, speaking to a Senate censure motion, attacked the Labor Party for “playing callously” with national security and doing “big fat nothing” on the future submarine program during their tenure.
“You simply were the greatest underminers of confidence in Australia’s defence capability,” Senator Johnston shouted across the chamber.
“You ripped $16 billion out of the portfolio and delivered an unsustainable mess.”
Senator Johnston claimed the greatest insult to military personnel in recent years was Julia Gillard’s decision as deputy prime minister to send her bodyguard to sensitive national security meetings on her behalf.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

How low will ABC and Fairfax comedians go?

Andrew Bolt November 27 2014 (8:07am)

Ben Pobjie is a comedian and ABC regular, as well as a Fairfax columnist. And with all the sensitivity and genuine humor for which ABC comedians and Fairfax columnists are now famous he tells a ”joke” about Phil Hughes.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

Murdoch’s debate terrifies ABC defenders

Andrew Bolt November 27 2014 (7:35am)

THE Abbott Government’s cuts to the bloated ABC are too tiny to explain these hysterics.
A 5 per cent cut to a $1.2 billion budget still leaves the ABC with four TV stations, five radio stations, 220 websites, an online newspaper, magazines and a publishing house.
Yet listen to the screams.
I don’t mean Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s bellowing about “our ABC”. He naturally wants this voice of the Left kept strong.
I mean instead the people freaking that a skinnier ABC might encourage people to read a newspaper of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp instead. One like this.
Take ABC presenter Quentin Dempster, who called the ABC cuts “a piece of Tony Abbott/Rupert Murdoch bastardry”.
(Read full article here.) 
===

Clive Palmer tries to stop fraud ruling

Andrew Bolt November 27 2014 (7:21am)

Clive Palmer is trying to block a Supreme Court judge from ruling on whether he acted acted dishonestly or fraudulently when allegedly siphoning $12 million from his Chinese partner to fund his election campaign:

Mr Palmer’s legal team revealed he would not give evidence personally, or call witnesses or tender documents in the trial [which started yesterday]. Barrister Simon Couper QC made a series of concessions on Mr Palmer’s behalf, in an attempt to stop the public examination of fraud and dishonesty allegations. Mr Couper told Justice Jackson the concessions meant the question of fraud was now irrelevant, an argument rejected by Citic.
Mr Palmer withdrew the $12.167m in Citic funds in August and September last year, from a “Port Palmer Operations” bank account set up to pay for the management of a West Australian port linked to the Sino Iron project. He personally wrote cheques for more than $4m to Media Circus for political advertising and funnelled $6m through his company Cosmo Developments into the PUP. Citic’s central claim is that the cash in the account, which it argues was a trust, was strictly for port-related expenses. Citic wants Justice Jackson to declare that Mr Palmer dishonestly procured a breach of trust, and to force him to pay compensation.
Mr Palmer argues there was no breach because the account was not a trust, so he could spend the money as he saw fit.
Mr Couper yesterday conceded that if Justice Jackson ruled the cash was trust money, and Mr Palmer knew it was, it would be a breach of trust. He said, if that occurred, Citic would win the right to collect compensation from Mr Palmer, without the need to delve into the fraud allegations…
Dr Bell [for Citic] highlighted Mr Palmer’s failure to explain why he made the two payments, why he drafted the “sham” document and other “gaping holes” in his story. He said Mr Palmer would not explain why the two payments were wrongly described as port-related in Mineralogy’s books, when Mr Palmer conceded neither Media Circus nor Cosmo had anything to do with the port.
===

Labor offers ABC mates cash we can’t afford

Andrew Bolt November 27 2014 (7:15am)

Labor knows the ABC has been overfunded, so won’t promise to restore the cuts:
PRESENTER Nicole Chvastek: Would you reverse the cuts (to the ABC) if you took office?
Bill Shorten: We don’t think the cuts need to be as deep as they are, absolutely ...
Chvastek: Bill Shorten, you won’t say whether you would or wouldn’t reverse the cuts if you took office ...
Shorten: ... just to correct you ever so slightly, we wouldn’t be making the same extent of cuts to the ABC, so there is a difference.
But Labor also know that to win the ABC’s support it must at least offer more money than do the Liberals, even though the country’s deficit keeps growing.
That is how over-mighty the country’s biggest media outlet has become. 
===

===

Post by UNILAD.

===

Post by Matt Granz.

===

Pig-headed BDS Movement.
The incident that got BDS banned from demonstrating at Woolworths stores in South Africa was when members of a political party in support of BDS trespassed into one of the stores and placed pigs heads in what they thought was the kosher foods section.
What kosher food has to do with a cynical anti-Israel provocation was clear to everyone. Kosher means Jewish. Jewish means Israel. BDS is anti-Semitic.
BDS in South Africa has a number of Muslims among its hierarchy. They recruit support from thousands of Muslims in that country who despise the Jewish state of Israel which they view as an abomination against the Islamic will.
It was against this backdrop that the porky protest flopped - badly.
The ignorant anti-Israel idiots thought they had placed the pigs heads in the kosher section. They photoed themselves holding the heads in triumph, grinningly exposing themselves to publicity. But they had made a huge mistake. Instead of being in the kosher food section they were in the halal section where they had unkoshered the Muslim food shelves with pigs.
The Muslim community had broadly supported this act only to be horrified to learn that their food supply had been defiled. The swine!
Ah well. That's what you get when you are pig-headed. .. from B Shaw
===

Post by Denis Napthine.

The ABC has been successful in preventing effective responsible government, and soon they will have effective corruption. Kudos ABC. Conservatives need vision to hold government .. this adfail, as JFo notes, suggests babies should not indulge in cage fighting.
===

Post by Borat.

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

One can find an excuse for every single person involved in this tragedy. But can one excuse the tragedy? A man with a gun in a public area .. alone .. we know now he was a child playing .. I don't lay blame at the police .. or the despatcher, they omitted the 'fake' detail probably following regulation so that police could act on their own recognisance. I was raised with toy guns .. some realistic were prized. But at age 12 I would not have been alone with a toy gun in a public area ..
===

===

===

=== Posts from last year ===
Sarah Palin
Friends,

Thanksgiving offers us invaluable time to spend with our family and reflect on our many blessings. In 1789, George Washington declared a day of national Thanksgiving for our new country to render unto God our "sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection."

But even before that first proclamation from a new nation, pioneers across America celebrated Thanksgiving as a time to give praise to God for full harvests and Divine Providence.

And indeed, America has been richly blessed. From coast to coast, we enjoy an abundance of natural resources, plentiful harvests, beautiful cities and our most precious gift of all—a people who value liberty and continue to stand as an example to the world of all that can be accomplished by a free and hard-working people.

This Thanksgiving, join me in a moment of prayer to give thanks for the thousands of American men and women in our armed forces who will spend Thanksgiving away from their homes and families, facing danger overseas to protect our way of life.

When we sit down to enjoy a family meal on Thursday, I will give thanks to God for the blessing of a strong and diverse family life that has taught me so much about loyalty, selflessness, and compassion. I will pray for God's continued blessings on my family, and on yours, and on this great nation of ours.

From my family to yours, God bless you and Happy Thanksgiving!

With an Alaskan heart,

Sarah Palin

P.S. Be sure to check out the latest video from my book tour here: http://youtu.be/hYSfpWWHpqI
===
Lawmaker: Benghazi operatives likely communicated with Al Qaeda leaders before, after attack
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/11/26/lawmaker-benghazi-operatives-likely-communicated-with-al-qaeda-leaders-before/
Some of the main operatives in the Benghazi terror attack were part of the Al Qaeda network and likely sought to communicate with Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan leading up to and after the strike which killed four Americans, according to the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
After Obama released Sufian bin Qumu in 2010 (he had been a Gitmo detainee), he went on to Benghazi .. ed
===
Did Hillary Clinton’s globetrotting ways as Secretary of State contribute to Benghazi disaster?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/11/26/did-hillary-clinton-run-away-from-benghazi-disaster-by-traveling-world/?intcmp=HPBucket
According to urban legend, Roman Emperor Nero fiddled as Rome burned for six days in A.D. 64, destroying 70% of the city.
===
American Humanist Association sues teacher who prayed for sick student
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/11/26/american-humanist-association-sues-teacher-who-prayed-for-sick-student/?intcmp=HPBucket
The allegations from the American Humanist Association are shocking, titillating, and (cue the 1950s soap opera organist) downright scandalous.
===
Four reasons why your doctor might not want to keep you under ObamaCare
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/11/26/four-reasons-why-your-doctor-might-not-want-to-keep-under-obamacare/?intcmp=HPBucket
As the rollout of the Affordable Care Act continues to falter, the growing concern for consumers and patients will not only be the affordability of insurance plans and the difficulty in actually being able to buy one, but more importantly the ability for them to keep their doctor.
===
Sony files patent for bizarre 'SmartWig' with vibrating sideburns
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/11/26/sony-files-patent-for-bizarre-smartwig/?intcmp=features
If you're already over the smartwatch craze, why not try a 'smartwig'? Sony filed for a patent for a hairpiece with vibrating sideburns.
The SmartWig is jammed packed with sensors that vibrate on the user's head to send them messages. The patent also says the wig may include special fibers that look natural and can change shape.
The hair-raising idea will monitor your health, give directions and could "be made from horse hair, human hair, wool, feathers, yak hair or any kind of synthetic material."
The wig has already been tested on Sony employees who switched slides during a presentation by tapping their sideburns.
Intelligent hair .. giving hope for Obama legacy .. ed
===
10,000-year-old house uncovered outside of Jerusalem
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/11/26/10000-year-old-house-and-6000-year-old-cultic-temple-uncovered-outside/?intcmp=features
An archaeological excavation near Jerusalem revealed a 10-millennia-old house and a 6,000-year-old cultic temple.
rent overdue? .. also .. first tool shed! - ed
===
"Imagine Romney In The White House" - His Defeat Was a Significant Loss For Israel And America's National Security - Romney's Policy Is The Opposite of Obama's
By Ambassador Oded Eran, Jerusalem Post 
"When it comes to dealing with the new political leadership in Tehran, does it matter that Obama, rather than Romney, occupies the White House? The President should take a cue from his former opponent and insert some much-needed toughness into negotiations with Iran." The Ambassador made the following comments:

• Romney developed his views on the Iranian file over several years. He publicly declared seven years ago that Iran must and can be stopped, that sanctions should be toughened, and that Iran should be isolated.
• In the October 2012 debate, Romney said he would tighten economic sanctions, increase the diplomatic isolation of Iran, and indict then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He accused the Obama administration of signaling weakness to the Iranian regime.
• Romney said he would insist on a complete halt to Iran’s nuclear effort, “To be clear, the objective is get Iran to stop spinning centrifuges, stop enriching uranium, shut down its facilities. Full stop."
• "Existing fissile material will have to be shipped out of the country.”
• Romney would not have sent his secretary of state to Congress to try and stop new sanctions on Iran.
• It is also fair to say that Romney’s secretary of state would have been more courteous to the Israeli prime minister.
• Although Romney was not elected president, it is not too late for Washington to integrate some of Romney’s ideas.

Oded Eran was Israel’s ambassador to Jordan and the European Union. He is now a fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
No conservative will ever lean far enough to the left to get leftwing support. Yet hardcore conservative leaders like Howard got support from some in the left by being true to his own policy. The best GOP candidates didn't run because it isn't the GOP's turn. Reagan won out of cycle and although he was great, the parties became unbalanced. Democrats became even weaker .. All you need do to rattle a left wing leader and make them question the very things they most value in their existence is to say they aren't popular. - ed
===
<$900 headphones. "Wear them at the gym," it says...haha, yep, right.>
NEW V-MODA Crossfade LP Over-Ear Noise-Isolating Metal Headphone (Pearl White)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-V-MODA-Crossfade-LP-Over-Ear-Noise-Isolatin-wbr-g-Metal-Headphone-Pearl-White-/190761118074?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276
US $939.95 New in Consumer Electronics, Portable Audio & Headphones, Headphones
===
Deric Ly
We are back... Choco Tart & Vanilla Slice to Frangipani Tart & Cookies and Creme... From $3.50 to $4.50 Get yours today at Hamel Road Bakery...33 Hamel Road Mount Pritchard
===
Sarah Palin'
They’re still pulling the wool over some eyes, friends. So let’s call them out yet again. I was recently interviewed on Fox News Sunday. One question I answered was prefaced with the supposed “fact” that “30 million MORE people will be covered by Obamacare.” That statistic is about as credible a promise as “if you like your health care plan you can keep your health care plan.”

Obamacare is presently hitting people who buy insurance on the individual market because they may not receive health coverage through their employers. It’s hurting millions! But you ain’t seen nuthin' yet. Just wait until the Obamacare employer mandate kicks in next year. As I told Fox News Sunday, despite what the White House and media report, tens of millions more Americans are set to lose their employer provided insurance plans. The ramifications of this WILL fundamentally transform America.

The article linked today at the top of Drudge confirms my point, which is significant because my point was mocked until this article confirmed it. Headline: “Almost 80 million with employer health care plans could have coverage canceled, experts predict.”

Companies that provide health insurance plans that aren’t compliant with new burdensome Obamacare mandates will obviously decide it’s cheaper to dump employees into the government-run Obamacare exchanges and pay the penalty than try to provide an expensive Obamacare-approved plan.

No one in America will be left unscathed by Obamacare. Please trust me on this. The media can repeat all the bogus White House stats they want about false claims like the individual mandate “only affects 5% of the public,” but they can’t change reality – NUMBERS DON'T LIE – and America is about to get “mugged by reality” very soon, to paraphrase Irving Kristol.

Far from providing more Americans with insurance, Obamacare is ironically hurting the very people it was sold to as some kind of health care savior. More people will choose to pay the IRS penalty and go without insurance because they can’t afford the increased rates slamming them, plus they now have fewer options in this one-size-fits-all expensive bureaucratic exchange which forces people to buy coverage for things they don’t want nor need. We’re talking about one-sixth more of our economy controlled now by big government, remember.

Do not forget that Obamacare contains health care rationing. When I warned America about “death panels,” I was denounced as a liar. But now the reality of “death panels” is openly admitted, even touted by some liberals as their solution. Just yesterday yet another prominent liberal media lapdog joined the chorus in finally admitting that death panel-style rationing is “built into the plan. It's not like a guess or like a judgment. That's going to be part of how costs are controlled." This guy and his ilk need to apologize to all of you, NOW, who knew what I was talking about, repeated my warnings, and were mocked and criticized for it. (Don't hold your breath.)

The truth is the “enlightened ones” knew all along that rationing was in the plan. They were angry with me for saying it out loud. The twin pillars of Obamacare have always been redistribution and rationing. Take away one of those pillars and the whole thing crumbles. That’s why Obamacare is doomed. You were smart enough to know that, while they were arrogant enough to keep up a deceitful ruse until their White House control was guaranteed. They’re busted now, though. And that’s why they’re scrambling to distract you and hope you won’t realize how enormously important upcoming elections are to save our economy.

The redistribution aspect will be Obamacare’s undoing. Not enough young or healthy people will apply for Obamacare because it’s simply unaffordable. It makes NO economic sense for them to voluntarily sign up. They’ll choose to pay the IRS fine instead. This will bankrupt the whole Ponzi scheme, which is premised on young and healthy people paying for those who are sick or have pre-existing conditions. And when Obamacare fails, the left will push to have us move to full socialized medicine under a so-called “single payer plan.” This is exactly what Barack Obama touted as a candidate, as did many of his bureaucratic appointees, but the media glossed over that all these years.

Friends, the only way to fix Obamacare is to scrap this stuffed turkey and start over with genuine free market, patient-centered reforms that allow people to purchase insurance across state lines, enact tort reform, and give individual insurance buyers the same breaks we give employer provided insurance. And we need to elect leaders who will fight for us to get it done.

Keep all of this in mind this week as we break for Thanksgiving. Be warned the White House is arming leftist supporters with “talking points” to try to convince family and friends around the Thanksgiving table that Obamacare is the greatest thing since sliced pumpkin bread. You should politely let them know you’re not swallowing that turkey.

Thank you for doing your own homework, for trusting the truth I've expressed, and for refusing to let the “enlightened ones” keep America in the dark.

- Sarah Palin

===
Ah, my friends .. and yes .. I know I will die .. and so you will view this as double edged. But know this. I know that I will one day go home. I don't know his plan for me. I only know the promise. I'm not looking for death, but to live. Isn't that what everyone does? No. Some fear death so much .. they don't live. - ed
===
How U.S Policy Is Betraying Not Only Israel, but also Sunni Arabs
http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2013/11/25/how-u-s-policy-is-betraying-not-only-israel-but-also-sunni-arabs/
In 1948, there were hopes that the Arab-Israeli conflict would be resolved in the long-run. But it wasn't. In 1967, there was hope that the magnitude of Israeli victory meant that the Arabs would even
===
Diplomacy is best but... :: Gatestone Institute
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4067/diplomacy-is-best-but
The Obama Administration's preference for diplomacy with Iran over military action is commendable. There is a chance that diplomacy may even achieve more than sanctions. This possibility lies at the root of the deal recently undertaken with regard to
===

===
Allyson Christy
Caroline Glick has 'nailed it' and then some, summarising an analysis quite encompassing a sinister, yet menacing scope of the Obama Administration's underlying political goals. 

Yet distressingly, clarity comes finally into focus, of those who have craftily hurled accusations of lunacy, insanity, war-mongering and a desire for bloodshed relative to the dynamics of security's integrity.

Ms. Glick has effectively outlined a twisted, yet prevailing mode of grave disproportion of diplomatic magnitude; one of far-reaching and dangerous manipulation facilitated and presently implemented by the current White House. 

The situation with America's leadership-helm is far worse than I'd even imagined until just very recently.
……………………..
"With Iran building military bases all over Central and South America, Obama never bothered trying to make the case to the American people that they would be more secure with this regime in possession of the capacity to kill millions of Americans with one bomb.

He never explained how allowing Iran to continue to enrich uranium decreases the likelihood of war.

So what did Obama need the last year for? If he wasn’t concerned with getting a less dangerous deal, and he didn’t care what the American people though about his facilitation of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, what prevented him from okaying the agreement last year?

To ascertain the answer, it is worth considering Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s comments Sunday morning. Beyond noting the nuclear deal’s danger to Israel’s security, Lapid said, “I am worried not only over the deal but that we have lost the world’s attention.”

And indeed, Israel has lost the world’s attention. 

Its appropriately deep concerns over Iran’s nuclear behavior were belittled, ignored and derided, first and foremost by the Obama administration. 

Worse than belittling Israel’s concerns, which are completely shared by the Sunni Arab world, Obama and Kerry have castigated as warmongers those Americans who agree with Israel’s concerns and have attacked them as traitors who seek to push America into an unnecessary war. 

At the same time, they have presented the dispute as one of Israel against the rest of the world, ignoring that the Sunni Arab world shares Israel’s concerns.

The US has also weakened Israel’s capacity to take steps short of war to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons possessing state by leaking key components of Israel’s covert operations against Iran’s nuclear program." - excerpts

Read the article…..truth is sometimes disgusting and despicable.
The Goal of Obama’s Foreign Policy | FrontPage Magazine
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/caroline-glick/the-goal-of-obamas-foreign-policy/#.UpSuxMy16v8.facebook
What we can conclude from the Iranian nuke deal.
===
Germs Carried by Wounded Syrians 'Endangering Israelis'
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174485
Report: Syrians being treated in Israeli hospitals carry bacteria that are highly resistant to antibiotics.
===
Netanyahu Warned Obama, Says MK
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174478
MK Hanegbi says PM told US leader his policy toward Iran could end in failure similar to North Korea, Pakistan.
===
EU Rejects Netanyahu's Compromise Attempt on Boycott
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174488
In urgent meeting with Ministers, Netanyahu instructs resumption of negotiations with EU to soften their boycott of Judea, Samaria.
===
"When I first ran for president, I said it was time for a new era of American leadership in the world, one that turned the page on a decade of war and began a new era of engagement with the world," added Obama. "As president and as commander in chief, I've done what I've said." And he sure has, in every foolish and treacherous way.
Obama on Iran Critics: It's Always Easy to Talk Tough
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174473
President Obama hits back at critics of Iran deal, says U.S. “cannot close the door on diplomacy.”
===
Arab Report: Egypt Arrests 'Mossad' Spies
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174493
'Seventeen people in 3 spy rings' arrested, reportedly connected to Mossad and another spy agency.
===
Widow of Slain Actor Demands Death Sentence
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174489
Tzofia Borovsky not satisfied with military court's sentence of life + 20 for murderer of Evyatar Hy"d.
===
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,”Hebrews 12:28 NIV
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."
Ecclesiastes 9:10
"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do," refers to works that are possible. There are many things which our heart findeth to do which we never shall do. It is well it is in our heart; but if we would be eminently useful, we must not be content with forming schemes in our heart, and talking of them; we must practically carry out "whatsoever our hand findeth to do." One good deed is more worth than a thousand brilliant theories. Let us not wait for large opportunities, or for a different kind of work, but do just the things we "find to do" day by day. We have no other time in which to live. The past is gone; the future has not arrived; we never shall have any time but time present. Then do not wait until your experience has ripened into maturity before you attempt to serve God. Endeavour now to bring forth fruit. Serve God now, but be careful as to the way in which you perform what you find to do--"do it with thy might." Do it promptly; do not fritter away your life in thinking of what you intend to do to-morrow as if that could recompense for the idleness of today. No man ever served God by doing things to-morrow. If we honour Christ and are blessed, it is by the things which we do today. Whatever you do for Christ throw your whole soul into it. Do not give Christ a little slurred labour, done as a matter of course now and then; but when you do serve him, do it with heart, and soul, and strength.
But where is the might of a Christian? It is not in himself, for he is perfect weakness. His might lieth in the Lord of Hosts. Then let us seek his help; let us proceed with prayer and faith, and when we have done what our "hand findeth to do," let us wait upon the Lord for his blessing. What we do thus will be well done, and will not fail in its effect.

Evening

"They shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel."
Zechariah 4:10
Small things marked the beginning of the work in the hand of Zerubbabel, but none might despise it, for the Lord had raised up one who would persevere until the headstone should be brought forth with shoutings. The plummet was in good hands. Here is the comfort of every believer in the Lord Jesus; let the work of grace be ever so small in its beginnings, the plummet is in good hands, a master builder greater than Solomon has undertaken the raising of the heavenly temple, and he will not fail nor be discouraged till the topmost pinnacle shall be raised. If the plummet were in the hand of any merely human being, we might fear for the building, but the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in Jesus' hand. The works did not proceed irregularly, and without care, for the master's hand carried a good instrument. Had the walls been hurriedly run up without due superintendence, they might have been out of the perpendicular; but the plummet was used by the chosen overseer. Jesus is evermore watching the erection of his spiritual temple, that it may be built securely and well. We are for haste, but Jesus is for judgment. He will use the plummet, and that which is out of line must come down, every stone of it. Hence the failure of many a flattering work, the overthrow of many a glittering profession. It is not for us to judge the Lord's church, since Jesus has a steady hand, and a true eye, and can use the plummet well. Do we not rejoice to see judgment left to him?
The plummet was in active use--it was in the builder's hand; a sure indication that he meant to push on the work to completion. O Lord Jesus, how would we indeed be glad if we could see thee at thy great work. O Zion, the beautiful, thy walls are still in ruins! Rise, thou glorious Builder, and make her desolations to rejoice at thy coming.
===

Today's reading: Ezekiel 27-29, 1 Peter 3 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Ezekiel 27-29

A Lament Over Tyre
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, take up a lament concerning Tyre. 3 Say to Tyre, situated at the gateway to the sea, merchant of peoples on many coasts, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
“‘You say, Tyre,
“I am perfect in beauty.”
4 Your domain was on the high seas;
your builders brought your beauty to perfection.
5 They made all your timbers
of juniper from Senir;
they took a cedar from Lebanon
to make a mast for you.
6 Of oaks from Bashan
they made your oars;
of cypress wood from the coasts of Cyprus
they made your deck, adorned with ivory.
7 Fine embroidered linen from Egypt was your sail
and served as your banner;
your awnings were of blue and purple
from the coasts of Elishah.
8 Men of Sidon and Arvad were your oarsmen;
your skilled men, Tyre, were aboard as your sailors.
9 Veteran craftsmen of Byblos were on board
as shipwrights to caulk your seams.
All the ships of the sea and their sailors
came alongside to trade for your wares....

Today's New Testament reading: 1 Peter 3

1 Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives,2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 3Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. 5 For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, 6 like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.
7 Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers....
===
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)