Thursday, June 11, 2015

Thu Jun 11th Todays News

Bolt report Instructions follow the publishing news. 
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The hatred of the left to anything progressive in terms of prosperity is never ending. They long for the glory days to come when banks and financial institutions fail. Part of their current campaign against life is to oppose coal seam gas. It seems that Clive Palmer has paid Alan Jones to campaign against it. This suited Palmer in his successful campaign against the LNP in Queensland. But coal seam gas is the 'planet saving' substance timid environmental campaigners campaigning against Carbon Dioxide have yearned for. It burns clean. For all the fear generated about water tables, managed properly, Coal Seam Gas is safer than wind or solar power for the environment, for extraction and for function. 

 Cheating in high schools is becoming an issue with so many devices helpful in aiding it. Overseas, a boy dressed as a girl to help his girlfriend with a test. They were caught. That wasn't the fault of technology, but available online are essays on any subject, or smart phones with incredible functions. A Masterchef candidate was booted for keeping his phone in the competition. He had allegedly used it to get an advantage on acquiring ingredients. The question is how it is dealt with. It is important that pubic tests become cheaper to manage. It is also important that the creation process is given strong recognition, so those who acquire answers without thought don't prosper. 

 A boy walking in Martin Place is holding his father's hand as his dad pushes a pram. As images go it would be a great image celebrating fatherhood. Only the boy, who seems about seven or eight years old is carrying a Kalashnikov Rifle copy. It is fun for boys to play wars at home or in a private setting, but to carry it in public is reminiscent of the child abuse perpetrated by Hezbollah. And to do so metres away from the Sydney Siege is thoughtlessness of the father of the highest order. The issue of legality is tricky. If the child can carry that gun in public, can his older cousins? Can it be carried into a chocolate shop? Into a bank? Into parliament? And what happens if a policeman panics? 
In 1184 BC, Trojan War: Troy was sacked and burned, according to calculations by Eratosthenes. 173, Marcomannic Wars: The Roman army in Moravia was encircled by the Quadi, who had broken the peace treaty (171). In a violent thunderstorm emperor Marcus Aurelius defeated and subdued them in the so-called "miracle of the rain". 631, Emperor Taizong of Tang, the Emperor of China, sent envoys to the Xueyantuo bearing gold and silk in order to seek the release of enslaved Chinese prisoners captured during the transition from Sui to Tang from the northern frontier; this embassy succeeded in freeing 80,000 Chinese men and women who were then returned to China. 786, a Hasanid Alid uprising in Mecca was crushed by the Abbasids at the Battle of Fakhkh. Idris ibn Abdallah fled to the Maghreb, where he later founded the Idrisid dynasty.

In 1118, Roger of Salerno, Prince of Antioch, captured Azaz from the Seljuk Turks. 1157, Albert I of Brandenburg, also called, The Bear (Ger: Albrecht der Bär), became the founder of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, Germany and the first Margrave. 1345, the megas doux Alexios Apokaukos, chief minister of the Byzantine Empire, was lynched by political prisoners. 1429, Hundred Years' War: start of the Battle of Jargeau. 1488, Battle of Sauchieburn: fought between rebel Lords and James III of Scotland, resulting in the death of the King. 

In 1509, Henry VIII of England married Catherine of Aragon. 1594, Philip II recognised the rights and privileges of the local nobles and chieftains in the Philippines, which paved way to the stabilisation of the rule of the Principalía (an elite ruling class of native nobility in Spanish Philippines). 1770, British explorer Captain James Cook ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. 1775, the American Revolutionary War's first naval engagement, the Battle of Machias, resulted in the capture of a small British naval vessel. 1776, the Continental Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence. 1788, Russian explorer Gerasim Izmailov reached Alaska.

In 1805, a fire consumed large portions of Detroit in the Michigan Territory. 1825, the first cornerstone was laid for Fort Hamilton in New York City. 1837, the Broad Street Riot occurred in Boston, fuelled by ethnic tensions between Yankees and Irish. 1865, the Naval Battle of Riachuelo was fought on the rivulet Riachuelo (Argentina), between the Paraguayan Navy on one side and the Brazilian Navy on the other. The Brazilian victory was crucial for the later success of the Triple Alliance (Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina) in the Paraguayan War. 1892, the Limelight Department, one of the world's first film studios, was officially established in Melbourne, Australia. 1895, Paris–Bordeaux–Paris was sometimes called the first automobile race in history or the "first motor race". 1898, Spanish–American War: U.S. war ships set sail for Cuba. Also 1898, the Hundred Days' Reform was started by Guangxu Emperor with a plan to change social, political and educational institutions in China, but was suspended by Empress Dowager Cixi after 104 days. The failed reform though led to the abolition of the Imperial examination in 1905.

In 1901, the boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand were extended by the UK to include the Cook Islands. 1903, a group of Serbian officers stormed royal palace and assassinated King Alexander Obrenović and his wife queen Draga. 1907, George Dennett, aided by Gilbert Jessop, dismissed Northamptonshire for 12 runs, the lowest total in first-class cricket. 1917, King Alexander assumed the throne of Greece after his father Constantine I abdicated under pressure by allied armies occupying Athens. 1919, Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown. 1920, during the U.S. Republican National Convention in Chicago, U.S. Republican Party leaders gathered in a room at the Blackstone Hotel to come to a consensus on their candidate for the U.S. presidential election, leading the Associated Press to first coin the political phrase "smoke-filled room".

In 1935, inventor Edwin Armstrong gave the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States at Alpine, New Jersey. 1936, the London International Surrealist Exhibition opened. 1937, Great Purge: The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin executed eight army leaders. 1938, Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Wuhan started. 1942, World War II: The United States agreed to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union. 1942, Free French Forces retreated from Bir Hakeim after having successfully delayed the Axis advance. 1944, USS Missouri, the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, was commissioned. 1955, eighty-three spectators were killed and at least 100 were injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports. 1956, start of Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riot that targeted minority Sri Lankan Tamils in the Eastern Province. The total number of deaths was reportedly 150.

In 1962, Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly became the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island. 1963, American Civil Rights Movement: Governor of Alabama George Wallace defiantly stood at the door of Foster Auditoriumat the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalised National Guard troops, they were able to register. Also 1963, Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burned himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam. Also 1963, John F. Kennedy addressed Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that would revolutionise American society. Proposing equal access to public facilities, end segregation in education and guarantee federal protection for voting rights. 1964, World War II veteran Walter Seifert ran amok in an elementary school in Cologne, Germany, killing at least eight children and two teachers and seriously injuring several more with a home-made flamethrower and a lance. 1968, Lloyd J. Old identified the first cell surface antigens distinguishing cells of different lineages, introducing the concept of cell surface antigens that could differentiate different cell types.

In 1970, after being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially received their ranks as U.S. Army Generals, becoming the first females to do so. 1971, the U.S. Government forcibly removed the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control. 1978, Altaf Hussain founded the students' political movement All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) in Karachi University. 1981, a Richter scale 6.9 magnitude earthquake at Golbaf, Iran, killed at least 2,000. 1982, the Sentosa Musical Fountain was officially opened as part of the second phase of construction on the island of Sentosa, Singapore. 1987, Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant were elected as the first black Parliamentarians in Great Britain. 1998, Compaq Computer paid US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the then largest high-tech acquisition. 2001, Timothy McVeigh was executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing. 2002, Antonio Meucci was acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress. 2004, Cassini–Huygens made its closest flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe. 2008, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a historic official apology to Canada's First Nations in regard to a residential school abuse in which children were isolated from their homes, families and cultures for a century.
2014
Thinking of the future is not a luxury. It is an expectation of good government. People want their nation to prosper and that happens with careful planning. However, when Shorten invited someone to think of their future, he wasn't discussing prosperity, but threatening their welfare. That is not the behaviour of someone fit to be leader. 

Reading on the history of the day, I find a fascinating reference to Eratosthenes who created a sieve for finding prime numbers by exhaustion. He also calculated the exact day Troy was sacked and burned .. today, 1184 BC. Alexander the Great died today, 323 BC. A stoic leader fought in a rainstorm and achieved a remarkable victory today, 173 AD. Marcus Aurelius had been leader when a failed peace treaty meant he was surrounded, isolated and inferior in number. Besieged and without water, Aurelius considered surrender .. and then the storm came and the soldiers had all the water they needed. A bit like when we were promised Global Warming would end rain .. but it didn't. As comparisons go, it fails, but is to me, irresistible. 

In 631, the great Chinese Emperor Taizong of Tang sent an envoy with silk to an enemy and freed 80,000 Chinese peoples held prisoner. It wasn't charity. If the slavers had resisted he would have killed them all. In 1837, Boston remained at type, with rioting between Irish and Yankees. On this day in 1920, GOP discussed their leadership in a smoke filled room. The resulting presidencies would juggernaut a great period of prosperity. In '36, surrealists had an exhibition in London. In '37, on this day, Stalin executed eight of his generals. On this day in 1963, Democrat Governor Wallace stood in the door to prevent Black students from going to school. National guard would escort those students to school later that day. A buddhist monk burned himself to death in protest in Vietnam. JFK had a thought bubble about equal rights which Nixon implemented. I guess JFK was thinking of the future. 
Historical perspectives on this day
In 1184 BC, Trojan War: Troy was sacked and burned, according to calculations by Eratosthenes. 173, Marcomannic Wars: The Roman army in Moravia was encircled by the Quadi, who had broken the peace treaty (171). In a violent thunderstorm emperor Marcus Aurelius defeated and subdued them in the so-called "miracle of the rain". 631, Emperor Taizong of Tang, the Emperor of China, sent envoys to the Xueyantuo bearing gold and silk in order to seek the release of enslaved Chinese prisoners captured during the transition from Sui to Tang from the northern frontier; this embassy succeeded in freeing 80,000 Chinese men and women who were then returned to China. 786, a Hasanid Alid uprising in Mecca was crushed by the Abbasids at the Battle of Fakhkh. Idris ibn Abdallah fled to the Maghreb, where he later founded the Idrisid dynasty.

In 1118, Roger of Salerno, Prince of Antioch, captured Azaz from the Seljuk Turks. 1157, Albert I of Brandenburg, also called, The Bear (Ger: Albrecht der Bär), became the founder of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, Germany and the first Margrave. 1345, the megas doux Alexios Apokaukos, chief minister of the Byzantine Empire, was lynched by political prisoners. 1429, Hundred Years' War: start of the Battle of Jargeau. 1488, Battle of Sauchieburn: fought between rebel Lords and James III of Scotland, resulting in the death of the King. 

In 1509, Henry VIII of England married Catherine of Aragon. 1594, Philip II recognised the rights and privileges of the local nobles and chieftains in the Philippines, which paved way to the stabilisation of the rule of the Principalía (an elite ruling class of native nobility in Spanish Philippines). 1770, British explorer Captain James Cook ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. 1775, the American Revolutionary War's first naval engagement, the Battle of Machias, resulted in the capture of a small British naval vessel. 1776, the Continental Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence. 1788, Russian explorer Gerasim Izmailov reached Alaska.

In 1805, a fire consumed large portions of Detroit in the Michigan Territory. 1825, the first cornerstone was laid for Fort Hamilton in New York City. 1837, the Broad Street Riot occurred in Boston, fuelled by ethnic tensions between Yankees and Irish. 1865, the Naval Battle of Riachuelo was fought on the rivulet Riachuelo (Argentina), between the Paraguayan Navy on one side and the Brazilian Navy on the other. The Brazilian victory was crucial for the later success of the Triple Alliance (Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina) in the Paraguayan War. 1892, the Limelight Department, one of the world's first film studios, was officially established in Melbourne, Australia. 1895, Paris–Bordeaux–Paris was sometimes called the first automobile race in history or the "first motor race". 1898, Spanish–American War: U.S. war ships set sail for Cuba. Also 1898, the Hundred Days' Reform was started by Guangxu Emperor with a plan to change social, political and educational institutions in China, but was suspended by Empress Dowager Cixi after 104 days. The failed reform though led to the abolition of the Imperial examination in 1905.

In 1901, the boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand were extended by the UK to include the Cook Islands. 1903, a group of Serbian officers stormed royal palace and assassinated King Alexander Obrenović and his wife queen Draga. 1907, George Dennett, aided by Gilbert Jessop, dismissed Northamptonshire for 12 runs, the lowest total in first-class cricket. 1917, King Alexander assumed the throne of Greece after his father Constantine I abdicated under pressure by allied armies occupying Athens. 1919, Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown. 1920, during the U.S. Republican National Convention in Chicago, U.S. Republican Party leaders gathered in a room at the Blackstone Hotel to come to a consensus on their candidate for the U.S. presidential election, leading the Associated Press to first coin the political phrase "smoke-filled room".

In 1935, inventor Edwin Armstrong gave the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States at Alpine, New Jersey. 1936, the London International Surrealist Exhibition opened. 1937, Great Purge: The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin executed eight army leaders. 1938, Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Wuhan started. 1942, World War II: The United States agreed to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union. 1942, Free French Forces retreated from Bir Hakeim after having successfully delayed the Axis advance. 1944, USS Missouri, the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, was commissioned. 1955, eighty-three spectators were killed and at least 100 were injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports. 1956, start of Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riot that targeted minority Sri Lankan Tamils in the Eastern Province. The total number of deaths was reportedly 150.

In 1962, Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly became the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island. 1963, American Civil Rights Movement: Governor of Alabama George Wallace defiantly stood at the door of Foster Auditoriumat the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalised National Guard troops, they were able to register. Also 1963, Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burned himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam. Also 1963, John F. Kennedy addressed Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that would revolutionise American society. Proposing equal access to public facilities, end segregation in education and guarantee federal protection for voting rights. 1964, World War II veteran Walter Seifert ran amok in an elementary school in Cologne, Germany, killing at least eight children and two teachers and seriously injuring several more with a home-made flamethrower and a lance. 1968, Lloyd J. Old identified the first cell surface antigens distinguishing cells of different lineages, introducing the concept of cell surface antigens that could differentiate different cell types.

In 1970, after being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially received their ranks as U.S. Army Generals, becoming the first females to do so. 1971, the U.S. Government forcibly removed the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control. 1978, Altaf Hussain founded the students' political movement All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) in Karachi University. 1981, a Richter scale 6.9 magnitude earthquake at Golbaf, Iran, killed at least 2,000. 1982, the Sentosa Musical Fountain was officially opened as part of the second phase of construction on the island of Sentosa, Singapore. 1987, Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant were elected as the first black Parliamentarians in Great Britain. 1998, Compaq Computer paid US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the then largest high-tech acquisition. 2001, Timothy McVeigh was executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing. 2002, Antonio Meucci was acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress. 2004, Cassini–Huygens made its closest flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe. 2008, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a historic official apology to Canada's First Nations in regard to a residential school abuse in which children were isolated from their homes, families and cultures for a century.
=== Publishing News ===
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.
===
Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August https://www.createspace.com/4124406, September https://www.createspace.com/5106914, October https://www.createspace.com/5106951, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4  The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows the purchase of a kindle version for just $3.99 more. 
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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

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.
=== Bolt Report Items ===
On Bolt Report an ongoing policy is that any Islam post can only be on the pinned leader. Normal rules apply in that if it is merely foul and abusive it will be deleted. Otherwise comments are welcome.  
===
Dear Members (YOU MUST READ THIS THREAD)
As of today, the rules of this forum are going to be enforced more rigorously. This includes the instant removal of members who personally abuse other members of this forum.
Whilst the use of bad language is often invoked as colourful descriptors of politicians, we ask that people refrain from the C word as there are many people on this forum who do not want to see that as part of every day language here.
Blatant racism, homophobia and religious slurs will be removed from the forum, along with the person who posted them.
Crass, vile & vitriolic hate posts will also be removed along with the person who posts those comments or threads.
Generally we will give people a 24 hour time out to cool off after they have been removed and those people will be welcome back to the forum once they have applied via an admin..... we will however, permanently remove repeat offenders with a rule of "3 strikes and you're out".
We are trying to encourage legitimate debate, conversation and discussion on this forum where people are able to have free thought and their own opinions without "mob" rule attacking them for thinking differently, however, in saying this, members who are here to deliberately cause trouble or "troll" will be removed without warning.
The standard of this forum needs to be better and people are responsible for their own behaviour.... bullying of others or bullying of admins will also result in that person being removed.
Legitimate criticism is appreciated, along with logical and rational commentary.
Admins decisions are final.... so make of this forum what you want of it and do not complain if you are removed for behaviour that is contrary to the posting protocols.
If you feel intimated or threatened by another person, contact an admin immediately so the situation can be monitored and mediated.
Regards
Admins
===
Happy birthday and many happy returns Frank Zumbo. On your day, in 1594, Spain's King recognised the rights of local Philippine leaders to rule, so long as they converted to his religion. in 1776, a committee of five was made, including Adams, Jefferson and Franklyn, tasked to draft a declaration of independence. In 1955, 80 motor car enthusiasts were killed after a collision on the 23rd running of the 24 hour Le Mans. In 2008, Stephen Harper apologised to native american peoples who were forced to assimilate. You have the authority to lead, if you are the right religion, and if you are not, we are sorry. Enjoy your sport, safely. 
Deaths
Alexander I of Greece
Philip recognised us! The committee of five seemed more balanced than the gang of four. Hail King Alex. It is better to be a driver than a fan. The Captain of his soul went walkabouts. I'm not sorry for what my ancestors did. Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
===
2015
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Coal seam gas: How left-wing groups are closing Australia to business

Piers Akerman – Thursday, June 11, 2015 (5:46pm)

LEFT-WING pressure groups are closing Australia to business.
The latest blow to the economic wellbeing of the nation and future generations is the proposal by some members of the NSW National Party to buckle before Green extremists and oppose coal seam gas mining in the Northern Rivers region as outlined before the State election. 

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Coal seam gas: How left-wing groups are closing Australia to business'
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SHEPHERDS FLOCKED

Tim Blair – Thursday, June 11, 2015 (7:23pm)

The world’s dumbest activists cop a whale-sized fine: 
The US arm of anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd has agreed to pay $3.332 million to Japanese whalers for breaching a court injunction …
Sea Shepherd’s board president Ethan Wolf said the group did not agree with the court’s finding but would pay the whalers the fine.
He said it would not be paid from donations received from supporters. 
Speaking of dumb: “Someone has to be the dumbest politician in Australia. Why is it sexist to nominate a top contender just because she’s a woman?”
(Via J.F. Beck)
===

NO TELEMOVIE, NO JUSTICE

Tim Blair – Thursday, June 11, 2015 (3:30am)

Caroline Zielinski isn’t coping well with the decision by network chiefs not to fund a Julia Gillard telemovie: 
Denying Gillard a telemovie is tantamount to denying her even the smallest of dignities against a merciless machine of hatred which would have ground a weaker person into the ground – literally …
Much like Germany has been forced to grapple with its past – it can neither ignore it, nor celebrate it – Australia’s treatment of Julia Gillard should never be hidden … 
Germany’s involvement in two world wars may have caused tens of millions of deaths, but surely Bill Shorten voting against Gillard in 2013 is at least equal to those atrocities.
===

YOU SAY COW, I SAY SOW

Tim Blair – Thursday, June 11, 2015 (2:56am)

An email chat yesterday with not at all bitter and vengeful former News Corp employee Amanda Meade, now working for the Guardian: 
Amanda: Hi Tim. I was listening to Chris Kenny’s show on Sky. Did you say SHY may get the code name “swamp cow” now she has revealed her code name is Raven? Cheers, Amanda
Tim: Hi, Amanda. Here’s the relevant section of the show. Cheers, Tim
Amanda: Yes thanks I have watched it but I couldn’t hear you very well and wanted to check if you said “swamp cow”. What does it mean anyway?
Tim: It’s an homage to a celebrated Saturday Night live sketch from 1978, which is the only place I’ve ever previously heard the phrase. 
Let’s see what Amanda does with this.
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If Hanson-Young is our dumbest politician, it’s not because her critics are sexist

Andrew Bolt June 11 2015 (5:39pm)

Sexist?  Isn’t crying sexism now the last refuge of the scoundrel?:
Radio shock jock Ray Hadley and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton have been accused of “sexist claptrap” after playing a song on his show labelling Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young as the “Dumbest Politician in Australia"…
The Greens deputy leader Senator Larissa Waters said both men were involved in “sexist claptrap” by playing the song on air.
Someone has to be the dumbest politician in Australia. Why is it sexist to nominate a top contender just because she’s a woman?
Noticed how when a woman criticises a man that’s just criticism, but when a man criticises a woman, that’s “bullying” and “intimidation”?
Ms Hanson-Young said Mr Dutton was engaging in intimidation.
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Abbott: wind farms are “visually awful”

Andrew Bolt June 11 2015 (11:57am)

First Joe Hockey was savaged for saying the bleeding obvious - that if you want to buy a house in Sydney, the first step is to get a good job.
Watch the media Left now faint in horror over Tony Abbott’s truism today:
When I’ve been up close to these wind farms, there’s no doubt, not only are they visually awful, they make a lot of noise.
What we did recently in the Senate was reduce, Alan, reduce, capital R-E-D-U-C-E the number of these things that we are going to get in the future… Now I would frankly have liked to have reduced the number a lot more.
I often say that in politics you can rely on your enemies to advertise your virtues more noisily than will your friends.
Watch, and you will see again what I mean. 
===

Unemployment down again

Andrew Bolt June 11 2015 (8:52am)

More very promising news for the Abbott Government:
The unemployment rate dropped to 6 per cent, following a downwardly revised 6.1 per cent result in April, according to official data…
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast the unemployment rate to hold steady at 6.2 per cent in May… The jobless rate is now well below January’s 12-year high figure of 6.4 per cent...
The Government must show gain for its pain. This is a sign - no more than that - that it will have something to boast about come the election. 
===

Are Hockey’s critics mad?

Andrew Bolt June 11 2015 (8:38am)

LABOR, the Greens and ABC and Fairfax journalists insist Treasurer Joe Hockey was “insensitive” and “insulting” when he dropped a “mighty clanger” in a “crazy rant”.
We’re told this buffoon had a “let them eat cake” moment when he suggested a “fantasy land” way to buy a house.
But here is all Hockey actually said during a press conference on Tuesday: “The starting point for a first-home buyer is to get a good job that pays good money.
“If you’ve got a good job and it pays good money and you have security in relation to that job, then you can go to the bank and you can borrow money and that’s readily affordable.”
What should Hockey have advised instead? That to buy your first house first find a lousy job that pays peanuts?
Or why not try shaking the magic money tree in the Government’s garden?
No, Hockey’s sin is to have confronted journalists with the plainest common sense: that if you want to buy the most expensive thing in your life, first get a steady job to pay for it.
(Read full article here.) 
===

Gillian Triggs was right so should resign

Andrew Bolt June 11 2015 (8:13am)

LAST week proved it. Gillian Triggs should quit as Human Rights Commission president, but not because she once again said something wrong, exaggerated or biased.
No, she should quit because this taxpayer-funded activist this time made a reasonable point.
Triggs complained that the Abbott Government was going too far with a plan to let a minister — rather than a court — decide whether to strip a terrorist suspect of their Australian citizenship.
“No man is to be outlawed or exiled except by the law of the land,” Triggs protested. Fine words. But here is the problem: that Triggs said them meant they cut no ice.

The Government shrugged them off, and I suspect most voters either ignored what Triggs said or filed it under “there she goes again”.
See, even when Triggs is right she’s ineffective.
Worse, her entire commission, given $25 million a year to be our moral policeman, is now widely regarded as just a bunch of Leftist activists of no more account than a Julian Burnside, the “human rights” activist who at least hates the Government for free.
(Read full article here.) 
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Warren Mundine has destroyed the chances of a race-based Parliament. Praise him

Andrew Bolt June 11 2015 (7:30am)

Greg Sheridan comes to praise Warren Mundine - and bury Noel Pearson’s radical plan for an Aboriginal Parliament:
Warren Mundine has made a magnificent and devastating intervention in the debate on a ­referendum for indigenous recognition in the Constitution. He has surely destroyed any prospect of the Noel Pearson model of constitutional change getting approved.
In describing Pearson’s proposal for a separate declaration on indigenous recognition, as well as the creation within the Constitution of a special indigenous body that must be consulted on all legislation that affects indigenous people, as the most radical ever proposed for a referendum, as very dangerous and as entering bizarre territory, Mundine has surely ensured this option is dead…
Mundine has offered a splendid, historic reassertion of basic liberalism in racial and constitutional matters. He did this in a conversation with my colleague Chris Kenny on Sky TV last Sunday night....
When asked about the idea of a special constitutional body to advise on legislation affecting Aborigines, Mundine magnificently declared: “I have a legislative body already. It’s called the NSW parliament, it’s called the commonwealth parliament. I get the chance to vote in elections for those parliaments that make decisions. We’ve had more Aborigines going into state and federal parliament than ever before.”
Mundine, the chairman of the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council, also said: “Either we’re all equal under the Constitution or we’re not."…
Mundine argues, incontrovertibly, that the objective has been to get race out of the Constitution and that the Pearson proposal would put race back into the Constitution. He describes the idea not only as radical but very dangerous, weird and unpredictable in its consequences…
If you cannot sell this proposal to Warren Mundine, you can’t sell it to middle Australia…
And of course, as Mundine argues, the referendum really has nothing to do with the key issues confronting Aborigines.
“Everyone’s confusing constitutional change with fixing everything,” he says. The real priorities, he argues, are jobs, education, school attendance rates, business formation, incarceration rates, crimes against women and children. None of these requires constitutional change. The truth is, though Mundine doesn’t go quite this far, the more the agenda of ever greater symbolism is ­embraced, the more Aboriginal leaders will be convinced advancement for Aborigines lies in ever more symbolism. This is a sterile and dangerous road.
My own take back in September, when Pearson, aided by constitutional law expert Greg Craven, first floated his idea of an Aboriginal representative body, enshrined in the Constitution, to advise on all legislation affecting Aborigines:
In fact, Aborigines have a representative body already. It’s called the Australian Parliament. (There are also state parliaments and local councils.)
In that Parliament each Aborigine has the same say as each non-Aboriginal Australian. In that Parliament there are even Aboriginal politicians, including Ken Wyatt, Nova Peris and (she says) Jacqui Lambie.
What Pearson wants is a further parliament just for one “race”, to give members of that “race” more power than members of other “races”, and a different legal status.
This would dismember our polity and our community.
No to racism. No to racial division. No to this racist change to our constitution.
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Big Green pays for Fairfax warmist

Andrew Bolt June 11 2015 (6:58am)

The French Government pays for a Sydney Morning Herald warmist who bags his own country over global warming:

Nicholas Hulot, ... a special envoy to the French president for the protection of the planet, said he was “saddened” by stance on climate change taken by Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
And at the bottom of the story, this admission:
Peter Hannam is in France as a guest of the French government.
Strange. The Sydney Morning Herald is outraged when a think-tank pays a sceptic yet happily accepts cash for a warmist.
The difference? 
===

What did the bill from AWU actually buy? More votes for Shorten’s political rise?

Andrew Bolt June 11 2015 (6:53am)

This could be very damaging for Shorten, especially now that Labor members have half the vote in a leadership ballot:
Bill Shorten oversaw a controversial deal under which a Melbourne builder paid his union hundreds of thousands of dollars over a decade for its employees’ union dues.
The deal, with builder Winslow Constructors has been criticised by current Australian Workers Union state secretary Ben Davis, who told the Royal Commission into union corruption it had “profoundly” weakened the union’s industrial position in the workplace.
Receipts and emails provided to the inquiry show that in 2005, Mr Shorten’s Australian Workers Union Victorian branch invoiced Winslow Constructors for $38,228.68 to pay for 105 union memberships. The invoice shows the AWU requesting payment from the company in 2004/5.
Separate documents indicate the payments continued at a similar rate the following financial year when Mr Shorten, now opposition leader, was still branch secretary.

Deals such as Winslow’s boosted the AWU membership numbers and, in turn, Mr Shorten’s factional power within the Labor Party, including over preselection of parliamentary candidates…
On Wednesday, a well-placed Winslow insider ...  said it was well understood that the AWU would accept lower rates of pay and conditions, allowing the company to undercut its competitors. 
Shorten won’t comment, but will have to.
UPDATE
More questions, including for GetUp:
Cleanevent was owned by the “old-money” Liberman family — via Jagen Nominees — when Victoria AWU entered into the 2010 deal to not take industrial action against Cleanevent in return for an annual payment of $25,000.
The royal commission into union corruption has heard that “side deal” saved Cleanevent $2 million a year in wages, while allowing Victoria AWU to create phantom members, artificially boosting its support base....
In 2006, Cleanevent and Victoria AWU entered into an enterprise bargaining agreement that, according to Cleanevent’s human resources head at the time, Michael Robinson, was “extremely favourable” for Cleanevent....
Even the Victoria AWU state secretary at the time, Cesar Melhem, has told the inquiry he now considers the [2006] deal to have been a poor one for Cleanevent’s workers…
Melhem on Monday stood down as upper house whip over the controversy, but remains a Labor member of Victoria’s Legislative Council.
The Australian can reveal that following that deal in July 2007, the Libermans’ Jagen made a $50,000 donation to left-wing political advocacy group GetUp!…
At the time of the donation GetUp! was a darling of trade unions…
Shorten was the immediate predecessor of Melhem as Victoria AWU state secretary [until 2006], and was national secretary of that union between 2001 and 2007.
He was also a director of GetUp! from 2005 until he legally resigned on March 3, 2007, four months before the group received the $50,000 donation from the Libermans…
A GetUp! spokesman said the organisation was not aware of any link between Shorten and the donation and directed The Australian to the Liberman family, which has declined to comment. 
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Cesar Melham’s troubled memory

Andrew Bolt June 11 2015 (12:08am)

Cesar Melham was forced to resign as a Labor Whip in the Andrews Government on Tuesday. Having been exposed trading workers conditions in change for a donation to the union may not fully explain that decision.
Let’s turn to the transcript of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption.
2 June 2015:
MR STOLJAR (Counsel Assisting):
Q. Have you had any discussions with Mr [John-Paul] Blandthorn [former AWU official and now staffer to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews] recently?
MELHEM: I would have had discussions with him recently, yes, but - yes.
Q. When was the last time you spoke to him?
A. It would have been a few weeks ago, very brief discussions.
Q. A few weeks ago?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you give me a date?
A. No, I can’t give you the exact date, because --
Q. What was the purpose of the discussion?
A. Oh, basically I just - just work matters, nothing to do with this. Because Mr Blandthorn worked in the Premier’s Department, and I do visit that office from time to time for meetings and so forth, so - have I had discussions in relation to this? No. We were discussing other matters.
Q. Did you ask him about the evidence he might give in the Commission?
A. Absolutely not.
Q. This was a conversation you had with him in person, was it?
A. No, I think on the phone. I would have rang regarding some other matters, but not this one. I’ve not had any discussion with him in relation to his evidence whatsoever.

3 June 2015:
MR STOLJAR:
Q. When did you last speak to Mr Melhem?
BLANDTHORN: I received a phone call from him on about the 22nd of last month.
Q. 22 May?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Where were you?
A. I was in Minister Hutchins’ office.
Q. Was this a call on your mobile?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Doing the best you can, what did Mr Melhem say?
A. Mr Melhem asked me - he wanted to speak about the upcoming Royal Commission on three matters. The call lasted less than a minute. I didn’t want to engage, so I sort of said to him, “Mate, I can’t really talk now. I’m in a meeting. I don’t want to be talking on the phone.” He then said, “Look, you know, if the AWU’s struggling to pay your legal bills, there’s a fund with the Attorney General’s office”, or something. I said, “I really can’t be talking about this. I’ve got to go back to my meeting.”
Q. You began that answer by saying he wanted to speak about the upcoming Royal Commission on three matters.
A. Yes.
Q. Without summarising, can you just do your best to say exactly what he said when you answered the phone?
A. He said, “Hey, I hear you are being called before the Royal Commission in relation to Cleanevent, jockeys and netballers.” He then started to talk about - he went on to talk about - at that stage, I said, “Sorry, I’m unable to speak about this. I’m in a meeting. I’ve got to get back”, and that’s what happened.
Q. How long was the conversation?
A. It lasted less than a minute.  
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Genocide and Julia

Andrew Bolt June 11 2015 (12:04am)

Germany murdered 6 million Jews, Australians criticised Julia Gillard. Now a News Corp columnist urges us to confront our past, too:
Much like Germany has been forced to grapple with its past — it can neither ignore it, nor celebrate it — Australia’s treatment of Julia Gillard should never be hidden, and certainly not for reasons such as “Everyone hates Julia Gillard”.
Incredible. And I was assured that the Murdoch media was conservative.
(Thanks to reader James.) 
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Here is a really stunning Diamond Engagement Ring with matching Diamond Wedding Band.....Both these rings were custom...
Posted by Diamond Imports on Wednesday, 10 June 2015

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“Should we look to kings and princes to put right the inequalities between rich and poor? Should we require soldiers to...
Posted by Tim Andrews on Wednesday, 10 June 2015

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Lots of shelf clouds and sculpted clouds graced the Nebraska landscape today.  70 mile per hour winds were common.  What...
Posted by Matt Granz on Wednesday, 10 June 2015

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Our Government restricts land for new developments, fails to build roads, restricts and fails to develop non-CBD areas...
Posted by Dean Hamstead on Wednesday, 10 June 2015

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=== Posts from last year ===

THINK OF YOUR FUTURE

Tim Blair – Wednesday, June 11, 2014 (4:42pm)

This is big: 
Labor leader Bill Shorten told a senior union official not to blow the whistle on dodgy dealings by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s union boss ex-boyfriend Bruce Wilson, a Royal Commission has heard.
Former AWU Victorian branch official Robert Kernohan told the Royal Commission into trade union governance that he was “bloody horrified” by what he had discovered.
The Commission heard Mr Kernohan was served with papers about a slush fund called the AWU Members Welfare Association that Mr Wilson is alleged to have used to pay for repairs to Ms Gillard’s house in Fitzroy.
“It laid bare the whole sorry saga of the fraud perpetrated by Wilson. I was just horrified and couldn’t believe it. When I realised the extent of what was going on I felt sick in the stomach,” he said. 
According to Kernohan, then-AWU boss Shorten told the former unionist to “move on”: 
“Shorten cut me off, not in a nasty way, and he said words like, “Bob think of your future. There’s been a pay out, we are just all moving on.” 
Bill’s call might turn out to be accurate, but not in the way he imagined.
UPDATE. As of 5pm, no mention of this at the ABC’s site. No mention at the top of ABC 24’s 5pm bulletin, either.
===

GREENS RIDE IN STYLE

Tim Blair – Wednesday, June 11, 2014 (1:10pm)

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon and Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi arrive at a climate-saving anti-coal protest. In an SUV.
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DADDY THINKS YOU’RE DOOMED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, June 11, 2014 (12:42pm)

Fairfax’s Sam De Brito, father of a terrified child, reports: 
A couple of Sundays ago, I was watching TV with my four-year-old daughter and we caught a news story about climate change. I zoned out and got us some chocolate from the kitchen but when we started to snuggle again she asked me “Will we die if the world gets too hot, daddy?”
I said “of course not”, stuffed some chocolate in her mouth and changed the subject but her guileless concern stayed with me. Later I tweeted the conversation, asking my followers words to the effect “What do you say to a kid? ‘I won’t die. You might’?” …
When I picked up my daughter from her mum’s house later in the week, my ex told me Noush had beencrying, saying the world was going to get too hot and we’d all die. We both went to work on her, explaining it wasn’t a certainty this would happen, and that we all had to do our part to help the planet.
As I spoke the comforting white lies to her … 
This is an intriguing glimpse into the doom-minded. Apparently De Brito believes he was lying when he told his little girl that death by warming wasn’t a certainty. If he’s so convinced about the planet’s looming fate, why did he have a kid in the first place? Besides consigning her to a cauldron, was De Brito unaware that children are only making things worse?
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FAREWELL CLAUDIE

Tim Blair – Wednesday, June 11, 2014 (12:06pm)

Dreadfully sad news from our New Jersey friend Mr Bingley. Claude was one wonderful dog.
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DOT MANIA

Tim Blair – Wednesday, June 11, 2014 (12:00pm)

Last Friday’s Age, and an earlier column by me:

image image
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7.30 picks an alarmist know-nothing to hector us on global warming

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (7:42pm)

The ABC is skewing its entire reporting of Tony Abbott’s trip to the US to conform to its global warming agenda. Its reports are all underpinned with unexamined (and false) assumptions: that global warming is critically important, that what Australia does is decisive, that global warming should be the focus of what essentially a business and trade trip, and that Barack Obama’s position in far superior to Abbott’s.
Tonight 7.30 interviews Democrat Henry Waxman who makes all the predictable and familiar alarmist points, even making the tired link between global warming “denialism” and denial of the link between smoking and cancer. That crassness alone should disqualify him as profoundly unserious.
But just to put Waxman’s credentials - or lack of them - in context, judge his grasp of science by this comment from an earlier interview:
 “We’re seeing the reality of a lot of the North Pole starting to evaporate, and we could get to a tipping point. Because if it evaporates to a certain point – they have lanes now where ships can go that couldn’t ever sail through before. And if it gets to a point where it evaporates too much, there’s a lot of tundra that’s being held down by that ice cap..” 
This is the US politician whose views the ABC thought we just had to have. We could have had any number of US politicians who are sceptics, but we had to have Waxman. 
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Claims in commission:  union boss paid for Gillard’s renovations

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (6:56pm)

The AWU scandal

Michael Smith has the royal commission covered with reports on the evidence given by Bob Kernohan, Wayne Hem and builder Athol James, who says AWU official Bruce Wilson paid for the renovations he did to Julia Gillard’s house.
The Australian reports:
A BUILDER who renovated Julia Gillard’s Melbourne home says she told him that her then boyfriend, former union official Bruce Wilson, was paying for the work. 
Athol James also said during sworn evidence to a royal commission today that he saw Mr Wilson hand to Ms Gillard “wads of notes” that amounted to a “large amount of cash” on at least two occasions, and she said she would pay him by cheque as Mr Wilson brought the cash.
The evidence to the royal commission into union corruption from Mr James directly contradicts the former Labor prime minister’s claims over the years that she paid for the renovations in the early 1990s herself.
The commission is investigating corruption allegations including the claim that money to pay for Ms Gillard’s home renovations was given to her by her then boyfriend, Australian Workers Union official Bruce Wilson, and that he took it from a union slush fund he had set up with the assistance of legal advice from Ms Gillard…
Both Ms Gillard and Mr Wilson have denied that money for the renovations came from Mr Wilson or Mr Wilson’s slush fund, called the AWU Workplace Reform Association…
Mr James told the commission ...  early in his contact with Ms Gillard that she said Mr Wilson was paying for the work… 

Wayne Hem, a former AWU official, told the commission today 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.
Mr Hem said he was also accompanied an AWU official Bill “the Greek” Telikostoglou, a close associate of Mr Wilson, when they went to Ms Gillard’s house in mid-1995.
According to Mr Hem, he saw Mr Telikostoglou hand one of the painters an envelope that he assumed contained some money. He did not see the painter count the alleged money.
In early 1995, Mr Hem said he performed an errand for Mr Wilson by taking papers to Ms Gillard at Slater & Gordon that were allegedly related to the “AWU Welfare Fund”.
The welfare fund was another alleged slush fund, in addition to the AWU Workplace Reform Association, and Ms Gillard has had no alleged connection with it until now. Ms Gillard has denied any wrong doing over her legal advice on the Workplace Reform Association, or any other matter related to Mr Wilson. 
UPDATE
Then there was this:

Labor leader Bill Shorten told a senior union official not to blow the whistle on dodgy dealings by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s union boss ex-boyfriend Bruce Wilson, a Royal Commission has heard. 
Former AWU Victorian branch official Robert Kernohan told the Royal Commission into trade union governance that he was “bloody horrified” by what he had discovered.
The Commission heard Mr Kernohan was served with papers about a slush fund called the AWU Members Welfare Association that Mr Wilson is alleged to have used to pay for repairs to Ms Gillard’s house in Fitzroy.
“It laid bare the whole sorry saga of the fraud perpetrated by Wilson. I was just horrified and couldn’t believe it. When I realised the extent of what was going on I felt sick in the stomach,” he said…
“Shorten cut me off, not in a nasty way, and he said words like, “Bob think of your future. There’s been a pay out, we are just all moving on.” 
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Islamists seize Iraq’s second-biggest city

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (6:47pm)

Ultimately it is for Iraq to defend itself against this religious brand of fascism, but Barack Obama’s weakness in both Syria and Iraq has not helped:

Islamist insurgents seized control of Iraq’s second-largest city on Tuesday in a brazen military operation that underscored the weakness of the central government across vast swaths of the country… 
Mosul was captured by rebels from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS—a group that evolved from al Qaeda’s Iraq affiliate. The takeover of a major industrial and oil center and the main city in northern Iraq marked a major coup for a group that only months ago was operating in the country’s vast desert hinterlands.
It was the latest evidence of the disorganization that has beset Iraqi security forces since the U.S. military withdrew from the country in December 2011. It also underlined the determination of ISIS to establish an Islamic emirate encompassing the Iraqi-Syrian frontier, to weaken the already fragile Iraqi state and to expand the theater of the three-year-old civil war in neighboring Syria…
Following nine years of U.S.-led war, at a cost of thousands of lives and billions of dollars, the attacks touched off Republican criticism of the Obama administration’s failure to negotiate a security agreement that would have allowed the U.S. to keep troops in the country beyond 2011… U.S. counterterrorism officials said the attacks show the degree to which Islamist militants have established a revolving door between Iraq and Syria, with fighters flowing easily between the two countries and fueling conflict in both.
But even now:
Pentagon officials said they don’t view the attack as a dangerous turning point that requires urgent action. 
“It is important, we are watching it,” said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Defense Department press secretary. “But our efforts to help them with counterterrorism is not something that we turn off-and-on like a light switch.”
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What corruption inquiry? What allegations against Gillard?

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (6:35pm)

The AWU scandal

Complete uninterest from the ABC’s The World Today in the royal commission into union corruption and the allegations against Julia Gillard. News from Germany, Iraq, Manus and Britain is of far more importance, to judge from today’s menu:
Analysts warn Mosul takeover could lead to widespread regional destabilisation…

Iraq army was not prepared for ISIS, says former White House advisor…

International summit to end war rape… 

Global growth forecast falls, but Australian dollar set to rise
Whistleblower warns of more violence if refugees settled on Manus Island
Pathologist gives autopsy testimony at Baden-Clay case
Suspending rogue MP will put intense pressure on speaker
Inequality report: Australians, including the PM, can no longer afford to ignore the problem
Rebel Nationals MPs argue PPL discriminates against rural women German cave rescue plumbs new depths
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ABC protects Gillard yet again

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (9:30am)

What a joke. The only reference to the AWU slush fund scandal on the ABC News home page is a report on whether there’s a conspiracy to get Julia Gillard:
image
As Hedley Thomas put it to me last night. the ABC seems to be running a protection racket for Gillard.
It is out of control.
(Thanks to reader old44.) 
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Who do we trust on Abbott: Plibersek or Beazley?

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (9:04am)

Tony Abbott is “Nigel no-friends” overseas, claims Labor’s foreign affairs spokesman Tanya Plibersek, appealing to the Twitter creche.
Former Labor leader Kim Beazley begs to differ:

AUSTRALIA’S Ambassador to the US Kim Beazley has revealed that the Obama administration was “intrigued” by Tony Abbott’s accomplishments in Asia and would now be looking to him to become their man in the region… 
“He has them somewhat intrigued,” Mr Beazley said in a rare interview on his assessment of the US/Australia relationship…
“And they are very interested in the Prime Minister’s visits to Asia…and what he has arranged in the region.
“They are intrigued by his relationship with the Japanese Prime Minister and the fact Australia is looking to do more and more with Japan and how he managed to balance that out with quite a reasonable dialogue with China.
“They think that was a little risk taking by the Australian Prime Minister….and he seemed to pull it off, so in their minds that is a plus… They see a bloke who has done pretty well in Asia in the last little while."…

Mr Beazley dismissed suggestions that President Obama, who Mr Abbott once described as leading one of the most left wing US administrations in 50 years, would offer a cool reception for the Australian PM… Mr Beazley also played down speculation that the two leaders would clash over climate change and President Obama’s recent announcement of a global action plan to cut greenhouse emissions. “I would be surprised if climate change weren’t discussed….but I wouldn’t expect it to be a clash,” he said.
The authentic voice of an adult.
UPDATE
More praise from abroad, rather more significant than the utterly meaningless “gaffes” that have been so wildly beaten up by the media, like an instantly corrected reference to “Canadia”:

The head of the world’s leading economic agency, Angel Gurria, has praised the Federal Government’s recent budget, calling it a ‘sustainable, durable solution’ to deficits. 
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s secretary-general says that the budget highlights a serious commitment to maintain Australia’s stable government finances.
“We have seen with very great interest, and I think really with great expectations, that they are dealing very directly and decisively with the budget deficit,” he told ABC television’s The Business program.
(Thanks to readers Ken, Jeff of FNQ, Mark S, Nathan, Josh, CA, Peter of Bellevue Hill, Ancient Marriner and others.) 
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Obama dodges blame for Bergdahl

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (8:59am)

If the Bergdahl release was a triumph, Obama wouldn’t be ducking the responsibility:
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel – not President Obama – executed the administration’s final call to proceed with the prisoner exchange of five ranking Taliban detainees for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, administration officials told Congress today in a classified briefing today. 
“They indicated [it was] Secretary Hagel [who made the final call],” House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon, R-California, told reporters following the briefing Monday evening. “It was the president of the United States that came out [in the Rose Garden] with the Bergdahls and took all the credit and now that there’s been a little pushback he’s moving away from it and it’s Secretary Hagel?”
(Thanks to reader The Realist.) 
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AWU scandal a crime, says commission’s counsel

Andrew Bolt June 11 2014 (7:42am)

The AWU scandal

The AWU slush fund scandal is formally exposed:
JULIA Gillard’s ex-boyfriend, former union official Bruce Wilson, should face criminal charges over the creation of sham invoices that led to hundreds of thousands of dollars being paid into a secret slush fund, a royal commission has heard. 
Counsel assisting Jeremy Stoljar SC told the royal commission into union corruption yesterday that Mr Wilson, along with his then Australian Workers’ Union sidekick, the confessed bagman Ralph Blewitt, committed fraud and conspiracy offences that could bring up to 10 years in jail.
Mr Stoljar said it was Mr Wilson’s idea to create a slush fund called the Workplace Reform Association in 1992 for the purpose of issuing false invoices to the Thiess construction company.
Ms Gillard, the former Labor prime minister, was at the time Mr Wilson’s girlfriend and a salaried partner of legal firm Slater & Gordon. She had a role in helping Mr Wilson set up the Workplace Reform Association by providing legal advice, although she insists she did nothing wrong.
The association was meant to provide safety services to Thiess for its Dawesville Channel project near Perth, but Mr Stoljar said it did not engage in any genuine work…

In a 1995 formal interview with Slater & Gordon’s head partner, Peter Gordon, Ms Gillard admitted that she thought the association was a union “slush fund” for election purposes, but said she had no knowledge of its operations and did not play any role in the fund after providing legal advice to help set it up…
Ms Gillard did not tell fellow legal partners in 1992 about her role in providing legal advice for Mr Wilson. Nor did she create a file note — the usual practice — when she worked for the AWU as a Slater & Gordon solicitor at the same time. Ms Gillard left Slater & Gordon after her formal interview with Mr Gordon on the matter…
Evidence had been established that “does not seem controversial”, Mr Stoljar said, that money from the slush fund was used to partly fund the purchase of a house in the Melbourne suburb Fitzroy in Mr Blewitt’s name. Mr Wilson lived in the house…
Ms Gillard ... attended the auction with Mr Wilson and was involved in the drafting of a power of attorney document at Slater & Gordon giving him the authority to bid for it. She also arranged the conveyancing work by Slater & Gordon.
Mr Stoljar said evidence further established that money from the Wilson slush fund was also used to pay for renovations on another Melbourne house in Abbotsford owned by Ms Gillard — but he added “there is factual controversy about this”.
As prime minister in 2012, Ms Gillard insisted that she paid for the renovations herself… At one point the slush fund ­"association" held $156,849 in one bank account and $383,332.60 in a cheque account.  
Witnesses are expected to differ on who paid for Gillard’s renovations:
Melbourne builder Konstantinos Spyridis will provide evidence about building work he did at the offices of the Australian Workers Union in Carlton and at Ms Gillard’s property in the Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford. He says Ms Gillard paid for all the work he did at her home in 1994, according to Jeremy Stoljar, counsel assisting the royal commission ... 
Another builder, Athol James, who helped with renovations at the house, will allege that he saw Ms Gillard’s then boyfriend, Bruce Wilson, hand cash to Ms Gillard to pay him for his work. Wayne Hem, a former employee of the AWU, will claim he deposited $5000 in cash into Ms Gillard’s bank account at the request of Mr Wilson.
...former AWU official and self-confessed bagman Ralph Blewitt ... told the royal commission last month he used $7000 from a union “slush fund” to pay for renovations to Ms Gillard’s house. Mr Blewitt, who has confessed to fraud, alleged he attended Ms Gillard’s home in 1994 and handed $7000 to a builder. He said Ms Gillard was home on the day but was not in the room when he handed over the cash.
Hedley Thomas is astonished by ABC presenter Jon Faine’s attempt to discredit the royal commission:
While the ABC and many in the Canberra press gallery chose to run a protection racket of the former PM when these matters were in plain view, Stoljar takes evidence from credible witnesses — former union officials like Ian Cambridge, a serving Fair Work Commissioner; Bob Kernohan, a former AWU president in Victoria; and the tradesmen who received cash while renovating Gillard’s house in the 1990s… 

Faine thinks it is professional journalism to ignore reams of corroborated evidence since 2012, then latch on to one self-serving witness statement — Wilson’s — and expend taxpayers’ resources in an on-air bid to imbue it with credibility.
Faine’s previous bias on the AWU scandal, which he calls a “house of cards”, was such that even the ABC found him guilty, following a separate and earlier admonishment from the ABC’s Media Watch. He now seems to believe Wilson’s statement to the royal commission, leaked to him and read on his radio show yesterday, is the real story.
Faine told listeners that in this statement, Wilson claims he was offered $200,000 to tell his story in 2012 to Harry Nowicki, a former union lawyer, and to make stuff up to the detriment of the serving PM. A vast right-wing conspiracy, anyone?
Nowicki, who was introduced to me in 2012 by a senior Labor figure, has been a seeker of truth. The idea that he would corruptly pay a corrupt union official to lie about corruption is ludicrous… Nobody would need to lie that there was a fraud; the evidence of the fraud is everywhere. But Nowicki turned over rocks, talked to witnesses, tracked down documents, lodged Freedom of Information applications and told the likes of Wilson they would be better off coming clean and telling the truth. In other words, a retired lawyer who once worked for the BLF has done what Jon Faine and the ABC have conspicuously failed to do.
Former union lawyer Harry Nowicki on why he’s worked so hard on investigating the case:
HARRY NOWICKI: I think it’s important for the facts of this story to come out, because it is a link in the chain of Ms Gillard becoming Prime Minister. 
How is it possible that someone involved in… in, in questionable behaviour becomes Prime Minister? Now that’s a political story, that’s not my story.
But this is not true, and I expect it is a memory slip:
SARAH FERGUSON: Have you at any time discussed this case with members of the parliamentary Labor Party? 
HARRY NOWICKI: No.
SARAH FERGUSON: No-one?
HARRY NOWICKI: No-one, no.
SARAH FERGUSON: Past or present? HARRY NOWICKI: No, no.
Nowicki has in fact discussed this with a former Minister of the Gillard Government who was deeply concerned by the scandal. 
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Pastor Rick Warren
God wants you to THINK wisely. You are to be "transformed by the renewal (not removal!) of you mind." Rom 12:2
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The headline is digital, but if you click on it it changes
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Anyone could benefit Eric has the skill and experience to teach you.
Don't want to join the gym?
Bored of doing the same old gym routine?
Sick and tired of mundane gym machines?
Intimated to train by yourself?
Don't know what to do to reach your goals?

Well... ScarE-ric is now offering 1 on 1 personalised outdoor sessions

PM me for more information
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Larry Pickering
SHORTEN A CHAMELEON FOR ALL SEASONS

A confidential US cable, discloses a secret meeting Bill Shorten had with the US Consul General in Melbourne on the 11th June 2009. The meeting, solely to present his Prime Ministerial credentials, was within the time-frame of the unions' decision to replace Rudd with either him or Gillard. 

A desperate attempt to gain the nod over Gillard failed as his profile was not equal to her's of Deputy PM.

In the end, Bill Ludwig and the NSW Right opted for Gillard, at the same time giving Shorten an assurance he could consider himself heir apparent.

Seeking to pad a somewhat dull union CV, Shorten had discussed his political leanings and ambitions with the Consulate. His description of himself varied wildly from reality.

A US diplomat in attendance wrote, “Shorten was highly critical of current Australian union leadership. He was at pains to show he was business friendly. He said he had an MBA from Melbourne University and he kept talking about how close he was to the late cardboard king billionaire, Richard Pratt.

“He continually criticised union leaders saying he, unlike them, was willing to listen to business concerns.”

Shorten also told the diplomat that the Federal Government “already has plenty of duties” and that he, “did not want to see additional powers delegated to Canberra.”

In his written report back to Washington the Consul General wrote: “Shorten makes no bones about his ambitions. Despite his lukewarm relationship with Prime Minister Rudd, he struck us as highly ambitious but willing to wait (at least for a while) for his moment in the sun.”

Mmmm, it appears when appearing to be rational to the Yanks, Shorten’s Marxist views are nowhere to be seen.

This cable was buried in thousands of a Wikileaks bulk release.
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Retaliation?

Master Sgt. Nathan Sommers, who was told not to read books by conservative authors while in uniform, now faces charges -- which cropped up shortly after he went public with his complaints.

Sommers' attorney and retired Navy Commander John Bennett Wells said, "It's suspicious. No matter what's happening, it looks like a graduated attempt to build a case against him on some really ridiculous charges."

Read more from Todd Starnes: http://tinyurl.com/k2t22er
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Quote of the day from Barry Shaw, The View from Israel.

"Israel is the one country in the Middle East that is not going up in flames , going down the drain, or going back to the Middle Ages, so leave us alone and stop telling us how terrible we are."
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"Everything changes. Only God's love is permanent." -- Pastor Rick Warren
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Allyson Christy via Barry Shaw
"What a strange perverted world we live in. At a time when Bahrain calls Hezbollah a terrorist organization, and a Jordanian leader calls for jihad against them, it is cultured Europe that refuses to define Hezbollah as synonymous with terror." - Barry Shaw
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“Holding a grudge is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die”
Love fulfills the law - ed
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The ETU demonstrates how low the Left will go

Andrew Bolt June 11 2013 (1:59pm)

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The Electrical Trades Union digs deep into the sewer to run this full-page ad in the Courier Mail. If they really believe this stuff, they are mad. If they don’t, they are bad.
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Alexander I of Greece
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“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”Colossians 3:13 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"We live unto the Lord."
Romans 14:8
If God had willed it, each of us might have entered heaven at the moment of conversion. It was not absolutely necessary for our preparation for immortality that we should tarry here. It is possible for a man to be taken to heaven, and to be found meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light, though he has but just believed in Jesus. It is true that our sanctification is a long and continued process, and we shall not be perfected till we lay aside our bodies and enter within the veil; but nevertheless, had the Lord so willed it, he might have changed us from imperfection to perfection, and have taken us to heaven at once. Why then are we here? Would God keep his children out of paradise a single moment longer than was necessary? Why is the army of the living God still on the battle-field when one charge might give them the victory? Why are his children still wandering hither and thither through a maze, when a solitary word from his lips would bring them into the centre of their hopes in heaven? The answer is--they are here that they may "live unto the Lord," and may bring others to know his love. We remain on earth as sowers to scatter good seed; as ploughmen to break up the fallow ground; as heralds publishing salvation. We are here as the "salt of the earth," to be a blessing to the world. We are here to glorify Christ in our daily life. We are here as workers for him, and as "workers together with him." Let us see that our life answereth its end. Let us live earnest, useful, holy lives, to "the praise of the glory of his grace." Meanwhile we long to be with him, and daily sing--
"My heart is with him on his throne,
And ill can brook delay;
Each moment listening for the voice,
Rise up, and come away.'"

Evening

"They are they which testify of me."
John 5:39
Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega of the Bible. He is the constant theme of its sacred pages; from first to last they testify of him. At the creation we at once discern him as one of the sacred Trinity; we catch a glimpse of him in the promise of the woman's seed; we see him typified in the ark of Noah; we walk with Abraham, as he sees Messiah's day; we dwell in the tents of Isaac and Jacob, feeding upon the gracious promise; we hear the venerable Israel talking of Shiloh; and in the numerous types of the law, we find the Redeemer abundantly foreshadowed. Prophets and kings, priests and preachers, all look one way--they all stand as the cherubs did over the ark, desiring to look within, and to read the mystery of God's great propitiation. Still more manifestly in the New Testament we find our Lord the one pervading subject. It is not an ingot here and there, or dust of gold thinly scattered, but here you stand upon a solid floor of gold; for the whole substance of the New Testament is Jesus crucified, and even its closing sentence is bejewelled with the Redeemer's name. We should always read Scripture in this light; we should consider the word to be as a mirror into which Christ looks down from heaven; and then we, looking into it, see his face reflected as in a glass--darkly, it is true, but still in such a way as to be a blessed preparation for seeing him as we shall see him face to face. This volume contains Jesus Christ's letters to us, perfumed by his love. These pages are the garments of our King, and they all smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia. Scripture is the royal chariot in which Jesus rides, and it is paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem. The Scriptures are the swaddling bands of the holy child Jesus; unroll them and you find your Saviour. The quintessence of the word of God is Christ.
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Joram

[Jō'ram] - jehovah is high.
  1. A son of Toi, king of Zobah (2 Sam. 8:10). Called Hadoram, meaning "Hadah is exalted" (1 Chron. 18:10).
  2. A son of Jehoshaphat, who reigned for eight years (2 Kings 8:16-19; 11:2; 1 Chron. 3:11; Matt. 1:8). Called also Jehoram.
  3. A son of Ahab, king of Israel, who reigned for eleven years. With him the dynasty of Omri ceased ( 2 Kings 8:16-29). Called also Jehoram.
  4. A Levite, descendant of Eliezer the son of Moses (1 Chron. 26:25).
  5. One of the priests sent by Jehoshaphat to instruct the people (2 Chron. 17:8).
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Today's reading: 2 Chronicles 34-36, John 19:1-22 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: 2 Chronicles 34-36

Josiah's Reforms
1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and followed the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.
3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols....

Today's New Testament reading: John 19:1-22

1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they slapped him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him." 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!"
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