Thursday, August 27, 2015

Thu Aug 27th Todays News

Hate crime perpetrated by mentally ill journalist on air. He had been sacked a few years ago. He felt inspired by psychotic killers. He felt he didn't have dignity. He killed some good people and then himself. Obama immediately exploited his atrocity in the hopes of weakening gun laws, making it harder for good people to obtain guns. 

 Corrupt ALP add more lies to the smear of Heydron hoping to force him to stand aside. It would be a dangerous precedent if he does, meaning any future Royal Commission could be derailed by smears and innuendo. 

 ALP lying about free trade with China threatens agreement.

 CFMEU sued for $28 million.

 Australia's parliament keeps using the word 'equality' and yet each member of the top 1% of earners pays the same as 70 Australians in the bottom quartile. Australia needs to be business and investor friendly to prosper. 

 Melbourne University illustrates anti semitism in her journalism course mock press conference

 Gillard backflips over gay marriage. She opposed it as PM in '12.

 Greens lie about dredging and Barrier Reef. Flannery lied about Dams never filling again. 
=== from 2014 ===
A tenth Liberal Party member has stood aside after being fingered by the ICAC. The member denies the allegations which are not within three orders of magnitude of Eddie Obeid's property management which the ICAC passed without comment during the reign of Bob Carr and Iemma. It wasn't that the ALP corruption was hidden. One Liberal affiliated businessman was assassinated by ALP backers and it wasn't uncovered until a Liberal link was found. Earlier in the week the assassination of Donald Mackay was discussed with a previously dismissed alleged witness claiming to be ready to step forward. Thing is, the ALP are not clean over the issue, being too connected to drug crime and politically opposed to the victim. But the press are running with an allegation against Mr Abbott that he had claimed to have been late to a party function because he had to claim entitlements. ALP leader Shorten, who never notices if he has entitlements or other ALP do, said that it was telling someone within the Liberal Party was leaking to damage the Liberal Party. It is telling. It would never happen with the ALP, where gross corruption goes unreported and ignored. However, there appears to be no substance to the allegation against Mr Abbott. Even so, it would be nice for these allegations to be cleared regarding the Liberal Party. And it would be better to see them addressing extant issues, like the bizarre cover up of the death of Hamidur Rahman. 

Palmer can say *anything* to anyone and none of it can be considered reliable. This is illustrated by his recollection of a trip to China in 1962 and notes taken at the time. Girls are raped in a British village and the (approximately 1400) victims are ignored because of the race and religion of their abusers. Say 'no' for the proposed change to the Australian constitution to introduce race. Race is not needed for the state to function. ASIO is asking for special laws to protect Australians. There is good reason for extraordinary rules in extraordinary times, and if they have a sunset clause, they sound worthwhile. Paul Keating has released a book about himself, and he reminds the world he was another incompetent who protected other incompetents while he was in government, so that no one knows who was the most incompetent. 
=== 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. 
===
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 Chris Berg, Geoff Bradley and Sultans Favorite. Born on the same day, across the years. Along with Ashikaga Yoshikazu (1407), Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770), Giuseppe Peano (1858), Charles Rolls (1877), C. S. Forester (1899), Donald Bradman (1908), Barbara Bach (1947), Gerhard Berger (1959) and Sarah Hecken (1993). On your day, 1859 – Edwin Drake successfully drilled for oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania, US, resulting in the Pennsylvania oil rush and the birth of the modern oil industry.
1896 – The United Kingdom and Zanzibar went to war, with Zanzibar surrendering less than an hour after the conflict broke out.
1922 – Turkish forces re-captured Afyon, the first victory of their counterattack during the Greco-Turkish War.
1991 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Moldova declared its independence during the aftermath of the failure of the Soviet coup d'état attempt.
2003 – The first round of six-party talks to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns as a result of the North Korean nuclear weapons program opened. You have oil. Victory is quick. Greece is losing (geddit? Oil and grease?). But the most evil of modern empires has collapsed. Now we discuss peace. And party.
Deaths
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Heydon delays his decision on resigning

Andrew Bolt August 27 2015 (5:19pm)

Dyson Heydon has postponed until Monday his decision on the demands by unions to quit as head of the royal commission into union corruption for what they claim is the impression he’d give bystandards of bias - an impression the unions have themselves frantically tried to create to nobble this corruption buster.
The delay follows today’s story in The Australian which as far as I can tell raised only one tricky point:
At 5.30pm on August 12, a staff member at the NSW Bar Assoc­iation took a call from Marcus Priest, lawyer, journalist and a former senior adviser to oppos­ition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus.
Chris Winslow, the association’s publications manager, [was asked by Priest] about a bar association alert, put out in April, about the Sir Garfield Barwick lecture — the one that had Dyson Heydon, who was conducting the politically sensitive royal commission into trade ­unions, as its keynote speaker.
Priest expressed surprise that Heydon had agreed to speak at the event because of its connection to the Liberal Party and asked for a copy of the invitation.
Winslow sent an email to Priest, with the invitation ­attached, at 5.50pm.
However, as he headed home that evening, Winslow thought about the conversation and alarm bells rang. Was a story was about to ­appear in the media?…
As an officer of the bar association, Winslow felt he had an ­obligation to inform the commission about a possible ambush. He emailed Jeremy Stoljar SC, the counsel assisting the royal commission, just after 7pm: “Re the Barwick lecture: Does Dyson know this is connected to the Liberal Party?”
He received a reply almost ­immediately: “I’ll raise that with him.”
The Australian does not know if or when Stoljar had that conversation.
The tricky point? Heydon said he’d released all documents relating to the invitation and his decision ultimately to decline it. Now he’s released Stoljar’s diaries and other documents, which is embarrassing.
But it was also suggested that this undermines Heydon’s claim that it was before any media inquiry that he emailed the organisers to say he was pulling out if the function could be seen as a Liberal event. I see no evidence that this statement is false. The first reports hit online a good hour after he sent that email. Priest describes himself as ”former journalist” and is not with the media. Not is there any evidence that he works for the media or that Heydon even knew Priest had raised the issue. This is just more dust thrown in people’s eyes to create a false impression against a good judge.
Be very clear what is going on: unions and Labor are trying to destroy a royal commission that has already uncovered so much corruption and unlawful activity that 26 union officials former and present have been arrested or had charges recommended against them.
This is an attempt in my opinion to pervert if not the course of justice then to pervert the bringing to justice of the corrupt.
And next year this protection racket could control the government of the Commonwealth of Australia.
PS: there is one small ray of hope here. Had Heydon already decided to step down he could have gone ahead with tomorrow’s announcement. He would not have needed to give the ACTU more time to prepare its arguments in the light of this new information.
UPDATE
The allegations are just more bull. Stoljar’s diary reveals he had a conversation with Heydon in which Heydon clearly did not believe the lecture he had agreed to give was a Liberal party fundraiser:
Mr Heydon also released a note from senior counsel assisting Jeremy Stoljar’s diary, indicating he and the commissioner discussed the possible controversy about 9am on August 13.
The note read: “Following conf – discussion JDH (Heydon) re Garfield Barwick address and my email from Chris Winslow saying it was a Liberal Party fundraiser. However JDH showed me an email from Greg Burton to him, also yesterday 12/8, saying it is not a fundraiser. JDH: Burton is closer to the action than Winslow – he ought to know. So OK to go ahead if JDH writes clarifying + response OK.”
The letter from Heydon’s solicitor assisting to the ACTU’s counsel makes the point I suggested above - at no time was Heydon told, or did he understand, Winslow had been contacted by a journalist. Indeed, Priest is not a journalist.
And again I ask: how does an apprehension of Liberal bias, even were this true, lead to an apprehension of anti-union bias?
UPDATE
The case remains this: the unions in their evidence could cite no examples of bias in Heydon’s actual conduct of the commission.  In fact, they praised him as a jurist.
Their laywers’ argument was purely that bystanders would think Heydon biased for accepting an invitation to a Liberal function - even though he in fact eventually declined it on the grounds that it was indeed a Liberal function.
But do those bystanders actually care?
In fact, the vast majority of bystanders would have no opinion at all in the matter.
Many of those who would have an opinion would, I suspect, see exactly what’s going on - the unions and Labor trying to shoot the sheriff.
And those bystanders who do now think Heydon is biased would have thought so not because of what Heydon actually did but because of what Labor, the unions and the Leftist media falsely claimed he’d done - that Heydon had “agreed to attend a Liberal fundraiser”, or even that he’d actually attended it. They’re opinions would be shaped by the smear campaign.
If this union case succeeds then no royal commissioner will ever be safe from what Heydon has endured - unions smearing him as biased and then telling him to resign because their smears worked. This would reward character assassination and demagoguery, with justice the loser.
Heydon cannot give in. I know this is bruising for a man who has spent his life being praised and admired, but the crooks and their apologists cannot be allowed to win. And Heydon cannot allow his fine career end with him stepping down for seeming biased. That would be unjust.
UPDATE
Alister Henskens SC, the member for Ku-ring-gai in the NSW Parliament, is appalled by the attacks on the man he’s worked with and admires:
Everything that has been said recently about the exceptional quality of Mr Heydon’s intellect is well deserved…
Everyone who worked with him was left in no doubt that his intellectual integrity and independence was at the core of his professional ethos.  I cannot imagine that his approach to the Unions Royal Commission is any different.
I believe that Mr Heydon has lived in the Ku-ring-gai electorate and in the federal electorate of Bradfield for at least the last 20 years.  I have been a member of the local Liberal Party for the last 16 years, including from 2008 to 2015 when I was the Bradfield FEC President which is the senior voluntary position in the local Liberal Party.  To my knowledge Mr Heydon has had nothing whatsoever to do with the Liberal Party during the years of my membership and active local involvement in the Party.  In my experience, the comment attributed recently in the media to one of Mr Heydon’s former High Court colleagues, who said that Mr Heydon is “apolitical” is correct…
The people who know Mr Heydon are not just Liberal Party members like me or conservatives.  For example, Mr Richard Cobden SC, a former president of the Sydney gay and lesbian Madi Gras and an intellectual property law expert, last week wrote a letter to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald expressing similar sentiments to mine about Mr Heydon.
When good decent people like Mr Heydon, who have had a life of exceptional service to our community, are unfairly berated and denigrated, we all as a society lose out.  I have been very saddened by the events of recent weeks.  I think it has reflected very badly on those who have conducted the public attack on of one of our country’s greatest lawyers.
His full speech to Parliament:

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Heydon delays his decision on resigning'
===

But where’s the equality among taxpayers?

Andrew Bolt August 27 2015 (5:14pm)

Mikayla Novak on the overuse of a deadening word:
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Yet each of the top 1 per cent of taxpayers on average pays as much tax as 70 Australians in the bottom quartile of taxpayers. 
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Why Finkelstein?

Andrew Bolt August 27 2015 (2:33pm)

image
Quadrant has a question for Melbourne University:
(M)odern journalism, as defined by our tertiary institutions, requires the correct perspectives and passions, which is why one of [a Melbourne University] course’s videos ... is something of an education in itself. A mock press conference, it presents a sleazoid property developer detailing his plan to drain a marsh and build 89 new homes.
The general and obvious wisdom to be drawn: shifty businessmen despoil Mother Nature to line their pockets ... councils are the handmaidens of conscienceless profiteers ... shifty businessmen don’t like to answer questions ... development is bad.
But they are not the only lessons Melbourne University’s Dr Margaret Simons and Dr Denis Muller would appear to be imparting. Do notice the name of the developer…
To which ethno-religious group do you reckon the fictional “Mr Robert Finkelstein” might belong? Why that particular surname?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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The Islamic State and the invasion of Europe

Andrew Bolt August 27 2015 (11:02am)

THE Abbott Government says we must destroy the Islamic State in Syria to save lives. But we must save Europe, too.
The Islamic State, now ruling half of Syria and much of Iraq, is not just murdering civilians and training Australian jihadists.
It has also helped to force four million Syrians to flee their country.

Many have joined millions of illegal immigrants from the Middle East, Africa, Bangladesh and Pakistan now on the move — and especially to Europe, so much richer and safer.
The UN says 160,000 illegal immigrants have poured into Greece since January, four times more than in all 2014. At least 80 per cent are Syrians.
Another 110,000 illegal immigrants have sailed to Italy this year, mainly from Libya, also torn apart by jihadists and operating as a transit point for economic refugees from Africa.
Just last Saturday, 4400 people were picked up off Libya from a flotilla of 20 vessels.
Europe is in shock.
(Read full article here.) 
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“Even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems”

Andrew Bolt August 27 2015 (9:02am)

Warming alarmist Tim Flannery in 2007:
Sydney’s Warragamba dam today: 
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Murdered on air

Andrew Bolt August 27 2015 (8:48am)

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A black man, two whites and talk of race revenge before the shooting starts.  But it doesn’t fit the preferred victim narrative, so this live-to-air murder will not by hyped into the standard story of American race-hate violence.
UPDATE
The killer filmed himself murdering his former colleagues. I won’t link to his pictures. Social media is brutalising us, making the shocking seem commonplace and clicks an affirmation.
UPDATE
John Hinderaker:
One thing we have learned is that some murders are important and others aren’t. White policeman kills black person: important! Black person kills white policeman: unimportant. White lunatic kills black people in South Carolina: important! Gay black lunatic kills white people in Virginia: something tells me this one is going in the “unimportant” column. It doesn’t advance the narrative. Except, of course, the gun control narrative.
Speaking of which:
The White House didn’t wait an hour before using the murders committed by Vester Flanagan in Virginia as an excuse to push for gun control. Josh Earnest began his press conference with this soliloquy:


… This is another example of gun violence that has becoming all-too-common in communities large and small.
Violent crime, and homicide in particular, has been cut by approximately half since the mid-1990s, a time that coincides with liberalized gun laws in many states and more widespread ownership of handguns. Why do gun control advocates never acknowledge these basic facts?
UPDATE
image
Three people shot and eight reportedly held hostage by a gunman who rammed his car into a store in Louisiana.
Another report clarifies:

According to the Sheriff, 2 People were stabbed and the responding Officer was shot Wednesday in Sunset.
===

Labor’s lying campaign against the China deal will cost us

Andrew Bolt August 27 2015 (7:53am)

Greg Sheridan on Labor’s reckless pandering to a racist union campaign that puts Australia’s future in danger:

Almost everything Labor says about the [China-Australia Free Trade Agreement] is untrue or distorts the facts....
The misinformation is staggering. The clause in the FTA that says there is no need for prior labour market testing applies only to projects over $150 million. But in any event, as later clauses make abundantly clear, it is up to the Australian government in the context of any agreed project to set out what labour market testing is required… Not only that, any ­Chinese worker coming for any project will still have to come in under the normal 457 visa process, which can be tightened at any time an Australian government wants.
There are a couple of tiny classes of people not subject to any market testing, such as those receiving business visas. How could you possibly market test someone applying for a business visa?
The whole Labor campaign is fearmongering and old-style protectionism… Labor’s retrograde campaign has already damaged Australia’s reputation in the eyes of investors and Chinese government officials… What they have never previously thought is that we are untrustworthy and capable of ratting on an agreement 10 years in the making…
This is an appalling show from Shorten’s Labor Party, one of the most nationally irresponsible ­episodes I have witnessed in the past quarter century.
Ed Gannon:

THE Labor Party’s campaign to derail Australia’s trade agreement with China borders on treachery…
For the sake of making some cheap political, and populist, points at the behest of its union mates, the federal Opposition threatens to wreck an agreement vital to this nation…
China is now our biggest trade partner. And with the tariff reductions under this trade agreement, the export possibilities are huge, particularly for food.
What makes this deal so special is that unlike the iron ore boom of the past decade, our supply of food is renewable… It also means extra income will flow into the pockets of millions, not just those lucky few who hold mining licences.
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Gillard changes mind on gay marriage, but still attacks Abbott for allowing what she wouldn’t

Andrew Bolt August 27 2015 (7:43am)

Julia Gillard climbs on the same-sex marriage bandwagon without being able to explain why:

Julia Gillard has declared her support for gay marriage three years after voting against the change in federal parliament, admitting that her “odd” and “idiosyncratic” position had surprised advocates for the social reform.
The former prime minister revealed that she would now vote in favour of the change, sparking harsh criticism online from those who remain angry that she did not help to enact the reform when she had the chance…
“I think for our culture, for our heritage, the Marriage Act and marriage being between a man and a woman has a special status,” Ms Gillard told The Daily Telegraph in March 2011…
In the new speech, Ms Gillard said the current debate had led her to reconsider her old assumptions about gay marriage including her idea that it would be better to legislate civil unions between same-sex couples rather than amend marriage.
“I thought the better approach was not to change the old but to create something new through civil unions,” she said in her speech.
But Gillard has no shame in attacking Tony Abbott for doing what she never dared - letting the public vote for the change that she blocked:
Ms Gillard lashed the Coalition government’s proposal for a “people’s vote” on marriage law ...
“There is no logical reason for having such a vote on same sex marriage,” she said....  “With no logic to support it, the only foundation stone for the idea of a plebiscite or referendum is an appeal to the all too popular sentiment that politicians are inadequate, that their decision-making is somehow deficient.”
Coming from Gillard, it’s no wonder voters would feel the decision-making of politicians is deficient. 
===

ABC out of control. Mark Scott must go

Andrew Bolt August 27 2015 (7:37am)

The Herald Sun editorial:
IT’S time for a clean-out at the ABC following the crude insult against Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Q&A.
UPDATE
But the ABC keeps up its war against conservatives. On ABC Radio National Breakfast this morning, Fran Kelly and Paul Borngiorno hail Bill Shorten as a union reformer and spruik republicanism and same sex marriage (again). Then on to the next story: another anti-mining spray.
The ABC is out of control. 
===

CFMEU, a major Labor donor, sued for $28 million

Andrew Bolt August 27 2015 (6:51am)

This case could have very interesting consequences:
UNDERWORLD heavyweight Mick Gatto demanded $100,000 from concrete giant Boral to settle a bitter dispute with the rogue CFMEU, a judge has heard.
Boral is suing the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union in the Supreme Court for $28 million damages over a two-year blockade the construction company says caused chaos that drove customers to competitors.
The blockade began after Boral refused to stop supplying concrete to construction giant Grocon — an enemy of the union.
(No comments for legal reasons.) 
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Green Waters drowns the facts

Andrew Bolt August 27 2015 (6:37am)

One of the exciting things about being a Green is that you no longer have to tell the truth. Any falsehood or exaggeration you utter is just a sign of your commitment, not of your deceit:

A little hyperbole never hurt anyone. Greens co-deputy leader Larissa Waters on the Adani coal project, ABC Radio 612 Brisbane, Tuesday:

They should not start digging up the Great Barrier Reef.
So the facts won’t, either. Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche, also Tuesday:

No proposal for (the) development of Abbot Point port ever involved “digging up the reef”. The small area to be dredged … is outside the marine park and in fact some 53km from the reef.
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One law for all, and that should count for the AFL as well

Andrew Bolt August 27 2015 (6:23am)

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THE AFL has been speared by Richmond star Dustin Martin as a hypocrite. And so scared to seem racist that it’s, well, racist.
The AFL’s match review committee this week referred Martin to the football operations department for “making a gesture to the crowd” at the Collingwood game — to wit, giving the two fingers.

He faces a fine of up to $2500, because inciting the crowd like that is not just rude but inflammatory. No wonder TV commentators were tut-tutting.
But wait. These same people had only praise in May when Adam Goodes, the Sydney champion, also made a gesture to the crowd, which I consider even more inflammatory.
(Read full article here.)
UPDATE
Martin is fined $2000. The hypocrites. 
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The new inquisition: do not argue, just conform

Andrew Bolt August 27 2015 (6:22am)

Tim Black on Brendan O’Neill’s confrontation with Australia’s new straighteners:

The parameters of public debate, the areas in which ideas and opinions can do battle, are shrinking before our eyes. A few years ago, arguing that the institution of marriage is a heterosexual institution would have been considered an unremarkable, and perfectly legitimate, view. But now this view is being pushed beyond the boundaries of what is acceptable, of what is appropriate. To defend traditional marriage today is to ask for the tweet-happy to brand ‘bigot’ across your face, turn you into a mocking meme, or just shame you back under the supposed rock from whence you crawled. Criticism of gay marriage is called hateful, discriminatory, backward. In the garb of progress, a virulent illiberalism is taking over public life, delineating what views are permissible and what views are not, what views aid the progressive cause, and what views are to be silenced.
Australia is not a trailblazer here. Throughout the Western world, the drive to institutionalise gay marriage has been shot through with authoritarianism. In France two years ago, thousands of protesters against gay marriage were dispersed by tear-gas-deploying riot police. In America, opposition to gay marriage often prompts a public ‘outing’, vilification, and sometimes job loss, as Mozilla’s co-founder Brendan Eich found to his cost in April last year – ‘purge the bigots’, urged one commentator…
The right-thinking and progressive might not realise it yet, but they are at the vanguard of a new Dark Ages.
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Abbott has some rats in his ranks

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (9:56am)

The most significant thing about this disputed report about not much is that some Liberals - ones I’m guessing suffer from Thwarted Ambition Syndrome - are now happy to trash their leader and hurt their party to work off their spleen:
Prime Minister Tony Abbott told government MPs he had to schedule an early morning visit to a cancer research centre in Melbourne on Tuesday so that he could justify billing taxpayers to be in the city for a “private function” the night before. 
Mr Abbott made the admission at the regular meeting of Liberal and Nationals MPs [in Canberra] after being taken to task by one his own senators for turning up an hour late.
Several MPs told Fairfax Media that the Prime Minister described the private function as a “fund-raiser” to the party room.
The issue came to a head when LNP senator Ian Macdonald, who has been a frequent critic of his own side since he was demoted from the frontbench after the election, told Mr Abbott his priority should have been the regular party room meeting, which is held every Tuesday morning when Parliament is sitting.
But Senator Macdonald was swiftly rebuked by colleagues including backbencher Ewen Jones, who said Senator Macdonald’s constant criticism of his own team had “overstepped the mark"…
Several government sources told Fairfax Media they were stunned to hear the Prime Minister respond to Senator Macdonald’s complaint by saying he had to schedule an official function on Tuesday morning so he could justify being in Melbourne for a fund-raiser the night before under entitlements. Cabinet Minister Malcolm Turnbull told ABC Radio on Wednesday morning Mr Abbott was “upfront” about why he was in Melbourne on a parliamentary sitting day but said he “did not recall” the prime minister saying anything about entitlements.  
Memory lane:

Julia Gillard yesterday flew to northern NSW on a taxpayer funded VIP jet for a staffer’s wedding and several low key announcements.  

Ms Gillard, along with Treasurer Wayne Swan and Finance Minister Penny Wong, will today attend the Byron Bay wedding of her press secretary Laura Anderson and Mr Swan’s chief-of-staff Jim Chalmers.
Her office confirmed the PM flew to northern NSW on a RAAF VIP Challenger aircraft. MPs are only entitled to use the RAAF special purpose flights for “commitments associated with their official responsibilities and other purposes including parliamentary business"… Yesterday, Ms Gillard and local MP Justine Elliot - a Kevin Rudd loyalist - held a press conference at Titenbar at the side of a new stage of the Pacific Highway duplication, which started in October and is not due to be completed until the end of next year. 
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Clive Palmer’s excellent Chinese adventure, even more lurid than his father recalled

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (9:32am)

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Three years after visiting Mao’s China Clive Palmer’s father talked to the Australian Women’s Weekly of that remarkable visit.
He recalls:
- the trip was on a freighter which “visited Red Chinese ports for two months”.
- the Palmer family did manage to visit the Great Wall and a Catholic church, where daughter Jean allegedly “bravely asked the guard: ‘Is the fence there to keep God in our out?’.
- but there is no mention of meeting Mao himself, or Premier Chou En-lai. No mention, either, of seeing any former Emperor working as a gardener. 
Now hear Clive Palmer, four decades later, add many florid details:

I think so, but I went up to China in 1962 with my father and mother and my sister who was nine years older than me and we stayed in China for around about six to nine months, I think it was somewhere in that order. I’ve still got a lot of movies of me on the Great Wall and in Beijing and stuff like that and it was an interesting time to be in China. I remember sitting on Chairman Mao’s knee. We were up there, he said something in Chinese, I didn’t know what it was, but everyone laughed. Many years later when my father died I looked at his diary and he said “Which imperialist capitalist country is this boy from?” And someone said “Australia” and then it’s in the diary that he said “Australians are the running dogs of the American imperialists.” 
The trip to the church gets even wilder, the way Clive now tells it:
In earlier tellings of his China tale - in which he met the legendary premier Chou En-lai and saw the former emperor Pu Yi working in the gardens of the Forbidden City in Beijing - Palmer said his recollections were aided by reading his father’s diaries as an adult. So now ... I ask what he remembers of China himself, without recourse to the diaries. He doesn’t hesitate. 
“I remember going to Beijing and seeing the machine-gun nest on top of the Catholic church. I remember a guard in the church with a bayonet. I remember going in the church and seeing a priest there with a little light on the side of the altar. I remember my [late] sister [Jean, then 18] talking in French with the priest. I remember them [earlier] going next door to get the priest, and him being bayoneted on the way over to see us ...”
He saw that? “I saw it,” says Palmer. “He was bayoneted in the leg. And I remember my father asking the guy that bayoneted him, through an interpreter, why there were guards on the church, and whether they were there to keep the people from practising their religion. I thought my father was a very courageous guy to do that. And I remember the answer that he got. The guy said that a priest in China was a pretty busy guy, and if you want to see him you have to make an appointment. Then I remember my sister stepping forward and asking was the guard there to protect the priest or to stop people getting in. And the guard said the people of the People’s Republic of China hated God so much that the guard was there to protect God.”
Speaking only for myself, I would not believe a word Palmer said about anything unless I had independent verification.

(Thanks to reader Nathan.) 
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Girls left to be raped to protect multicultural ‘harmony’

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (8:53am)

Culture wars, Immigration

 An incredible report by an independent inquiry that details depravity and social disintegration in Britain’s Rotherham:
No one knows the true scale of child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Rotherham over the years. Our conservative estimate is that approximately 1400 children were sexually exploited over the full Inquiry period, from 1997 to 2013. 
In just over a third of cases, children affected by sexual exploitation were previously known to services because of child protection and neglect. It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered. They were raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten, and intimidated. There were examples of children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone. Girls as young as 11 were raped by large numbers of male perpetrators. This abuse is not confined to the past but continues to this day. In May 2014, the caseload of the specialist child sexual exploitation team was 51.
The report also details a great cowardice:
By far the majority of perpetrators were described as ‘Asian’ by victims, yet throughout the entire period, councillors did not engage directly with the Pakistani-heritage community to discuss how best they could jointly address the issue. Some councillors seemed to think it was a one-off problem, which they hoped would go away. Several staff described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so.
Multiculturalism at its very worst, tolerating an us-against-them that weakens a sense of duty to all, stifling criticism of values hostile to the host community’s and bolstering reactionary traditions and structures in the immigrant communities:

There was too much reliance by agencies on traditional community leaders such as elected members and imams as being the primary conduit of communication with the Pakistani-heritage community. The Inquiry spoke to several Pakistani-heritage women who felt disenfranchised by this and thought it was a barrier to people coming forward to talk about CSE… 
Census information from 2011 showed that Rotherham had nearly 8000 people with Pakistani or Kashmiri ethnicity, or 3.1% of the Borough population, an increase from 2% in the previous census. 77% of this population lived in one of three central wards of Rotherham. There are eight mosques in Rotherham. There were few references in any minutes to ethnic minorities or migrant families until 2006, when concern was raised at the Safeguarding Board about the living conditions of migrant families. Young people were thought to be at risk of physical or sexual abuse for a variety of reasons. Some had been separated from their own families. There were also issues of poverty, forced marriage and child abduction. In the early months of 2005, twelve cases of forced marriage had been dealt with in Rotherham - the highest in the South Yorkshire Police area. Of particular concern was the young age of many of the girls involved… Dr Heal, in her 2003 report, stated that ‘In Rotherham the local Asian community are reported to rarely speak about them [the perpetrators].’ The subject was taboo and local people were probably equally frightened of the violent tendencies of the perpetrators as the young women they were abusing. In her 2006 report she described how the appeal of organised sexual exploitation for Asian gangs had changed. In the past, it had been for their personal gratification, whereas now it offered ‘career and financial opportunities to young Asian men who got involved’. She also noted that Iraqi Kurds and Kosovan men were participating in organised activities against young women. 
The new anti-racism now betrays the very people it pretends to shield:
Dr Heal, in her ... 2006 report, ... stated that ‘it is believed by a number of workers that one of the difficulties that prevent this issue [CSE] being dealt with effectively is the ethnicity of the main perpetrators’. 
She also reported in 2006 that young people in Rotherham believed at that time that the Police dared not act against Asian youths for fear of allegations of racism. This perception was echoed at the present time by some young people we met during the Inquiry, but was not supported by specific examples.
Several people interviewed expressed the general view that ethnic considerations had influenced the policy response of the Council and the Police, rather than in individual cases. One example was given by the Risky Business project Manager (1997- 2012) who reported that she was told not to refer to the ethnic origins of perpetrators when carrying out training. Other staff in children’s social care said that when writing reports on CSE cases, they were advised by their managers to be cautious about referring to the ethnicity of the perpetrators…
The issue of race, regardless of ethnic group, should be tackled as an absolute priority if it is known to be a significant factor in the criminal activity of organised abuse in any local community. There was little evidence of such action being taken in Rotherham in the earlier years. Councillors can play an effective role in this, especially those representing the communities in question, but only if they act as facilitators of communication rather than barriers to it. One senior officer suggested that some influential Pakistani-heritage councillors in Rotherham had acted as barriers. Several councillors interviewed believed that by opening up these issues they could be ‘giving oxygen’ to racist perspectives that might in turn attract extremist political groups and threaten community cohesion.
So the fact that dozens of girls were being raped by Pakistani gangs was hushed up so that people wouldn’t think badly of, er, Pakistani gangs.
(Thanks to reader the Evil ABC.) 
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Recognise what?

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (8:36am)

I don’t believe the principle should even be conceded. We are Australians together, not to be divided by “race”, and the Constitution is not to be treated as a history lesson, either. But Gary Johns and Wesley Aird are at least trying to minimise the damage:
FORMER Labor minister Gary Johns will campaign against changing the Constitution to recognise indigenous Australians and demand funding for a No case unless three conditions are included in a minimalist Yes proposal.

Mr Johns, who is cautious about any change, said a Yes case must have three elements. Firstly, he says the recognition must sit in a preamble with an express statement that: “The preamble to this Constitution has no legal force and shall not be considered in interpreting this Constitution or the law in force in the commonwealth or any part of the commonwealth.’’ 
Secondly, he says, it must contain the words: “The parliament, on behalf of the people of Australia, recognises that the continent and the islands now known as Australia were first occupied by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.’’
Thirdly, it must not mention any characteristics of a people, such as “culture’’. “If these three conditions for a Yes case were not met, I would back a No case and demand government funding for it,’’ he said.
Mr Johns has joined forces with conservative indigenous adviser Wesley Aird to start Recognise What?, an organisation aimed at warning voters of the “dangers of many forms” of constitutional recognition of indigenous people.
===

So does Palmer think the Reds are coming or not?

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (8:28am)

Clive Palmer apologised for calling the Chinese “mongrels”, but his feral offsider is too proud to admit she was just as big an idiot:

Mr Palmer has apologised to the “Chinese people everywhere” for last week describing China’s government as “mongrels” and “bastards” who shoot their own people. 
[Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui] Lambie said the PUP leader had little choice because “people are still quite irate about his comments”.
However, she would not offer a similar apology for her China invasion warning, in which she said Australia needed to double the size of it military to “stop our grandchildren from becoming slaves to an aggressive, anti-democratic totalitarian foreign power"… “I don’t see why I would offer an apology when I’m actually speaking about the Chinese communist regime and not the Chinese people,” she told ABC Radio. 
===

Scrap this expensive energy target. It is an insult to our reason

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (8:24am)

Why are we being forced to use more expensive green power when it makes no difference to a global warming that’s actually paused for 16 years anyway? It simply makes no sense, and to compromise like this is to compromise with unreason - and green carpetbaggers:
SUBSIDIES on renewable-energy power generation would be frozen at current levels until overall electricity demand recovered, under a plan the Abbott government is considering to ease pressure from the Renewable ­Energy Target on power prices.

The Australian has confirmed that one scenario in businessman Dick Warburton’s RET review, which has been handed to the government, would freeze the scheme at near its current level until electricity demand stops falling. But the option would provide an opportunity for the amount of renewable energy to be increased if electricity demand started to rise before 2020.
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If it stops a Khaled Sharrouf from walking our streets it can’t be all bad

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (8:14am)

Why not wait to see the draft laws first before dismissing the kind of power ASIO says it needs to protect us?
As three-quarters of Australians endorse the proposed crackdown on foreign fighters, crossbenchers have joined Labor and the Greens to voice concerns about handing the government a blank cheque with its sweeping changes. 
One of the sticking points is the proposal to erode the presumption of innocence by making it an offence to travel to a designated area — such as Iraq or Syria — without a valid reason…
MPs are yet to see legislation but Family First senator Bob Day has backed the concerns of crossbench colleague David Leyonhjelm, who yesterday warned against “moral panic’’ and said powers curbing liberties and freedoms of all Australians would mean “the terrorists win essentially if we lose our rights’’.
The Greens warned against being “panicked into changes that undermine our legal protections’’ and Labor’s legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus said the opposition had concerns about “reversing the presumption of innocence’’… ASIO director-general David Irvine will today outline the need to empower security agencies to combat an evolving threat in a rare address to the National Press Club. He is expected to say: ... “The draw of foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq is significant and includes more Australians than all other previous extremist conflicts put together. The number of Australians of potential security concern to ASIO has increased substantially.’’ 
===

No riots if the dead man is white

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (8:07am)

One fits the agenda of the media Left, and the other doesn’t:
On the surface, the cases appear nearly identical: Michael Brown and Dillon Taylor, two young, unarmed men with sketchy criminal pasts shot to death by police officers two days apart. 
But while the world knows of the highly publicized situation involving 18-year-old Mr. Brown, whose Aug. 9 death in Ferguson, Missouri touched off violence, protests and an angry national debate, most people outside Utah have never heard of 20-year-old Mr. Taylor.Critics say there’s a reason for the discrepancy in media coverage: race. Mr. Brown was black and the officer who shot him was white. Mr. Taylor wasn’t black — he’s been described as white and Hispanic — and the officer who shot him Aug. 11 outside a 7-Eleven in South Salt Lake wasn’t white.
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Another Labor lie conceded

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (7:34am)

Kevin Rudd lies in 2009:
The Australian Prime Minister has rejected Opposition claims that a group of asylum seekers aboard the Australian customs ship Oceanic Viking is being given special treatment…  
The Government has offered the Sri Lankans quick re-settlement in Australia or other developed countries if they agree to spend a short time in an Indonesian detention centre…

“The Indonesian Government and the Australian Government have agreed to a set of arrangements regarding the time frame for the processing for the group in Indonesia consistent with an international practice and settlement procedures,” Mr Rudd said in Parliament. “That among other things, contained in a letter that I’m about to table, clearly articulates from the perspective of the Secretary of the Department of Immigration that these are not preferential arrangements.” 
Julia Gillard admits in 2014, according to Paul Kelly’s new book:
The Sri Lankans won a preferential deal based on a much faster than usual resettlement timetable. Rudd denied point-blank to the media they won any preferential treatment. He made the same denial in parliament. His statements were false. 
Rudd’s office asked Metcalfe to write a letter covering the terms of the agreement. Under attack in parliament, Rudd tabled the letter, claiming it showed that “these are not preferential arrangements”. The letter did not verify Rudd’s claims. Metcalfe was prudent enough to alter the draft. Gillard says: “I wasn’t involved in this personally but it is obvious to anybody who looks at it, as a government we did a deal to get them off the boat. They got a favourable deal.”
Brazen liars. 
===

Rudd’s dream, your billions lost

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (7:17am)

It is astonishing that we get this analysis only years after Kevin Rudd decided to splash billions on his grandiose dream. It’s amazing that Labor for years justified its waste with bogus claims about the benefits to health services and education:
THE former Labor government’s decision to pursue a fibre-to-the-home, super-fast, broadband network would have a net cost to taxpayers of $22.2 billion, but the Coalition’s model still leaves them paying billions to deliver access to the bush and urban fringes, a landmark cost-benefit analysis reveals.
The Coalition-commissioned analysis finds the expense of providing high-speed internet access to people who live in uncommercial rural and regional areas, as well as urban fringes, would cost nearly $5bn but the benefits are only a fraction of that. 

What a waste the Labor plan was:
The Abbott government’s pared-back broadband plan is three times more cost effective than Labor’s ambitious scheme and would leave Australians $16 billion better off, according to the first independent cost-benefit analysis of the national broadband network… 
The much-anticipated report finds households and businesses will benefit from quicker downloads but the much-vaunted societal benefits of fast broadband – such as improvements to health and education services – will probably be extremely limited.
The cost benefit analysis panel, led by former Victorian Treasury head Michael Vertigan, ... finds the [Government’s] multi-technology mix model outperforms a fibre to the premises plan in net economic benefits in 98 per cent of scenarios.
A multi-technology mix NBN would cost $24.9 billion to launch from 2015 compared with $35.3 billion for fibre to the premises (FTTP), the report finds.
A multi-technology mix would deliver download and upload speeds of 20-100 megabits a second, while FTTP would deliver speeds above 100Mbps.
The report finds the most cost-effective option would be an unsubsidised launch in which the free market delivers high-speed broadband to 93 per cent of homes. This would have a net economic benefit of $24 billion, but would leave 7 per cent of premises in regional and rural areas without fast broadband. Providing fast broadband to the bush through wireless and satellite services – as envisaged under both Labor and the Coalition’s plans – will cost nearly $5 billion but produce only $600 million in economic benefits.
===

No riots if the dead man is white

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (8:07am)

One fits the agenda of the media Left, and the other doesn’t:
On the surface, the cases appear nearly identical: Michael Brown and Dillon Taylor, two young, unarmed men with sketchy criminal pasts shot to death by police officers two days apart. 
But while the world knows of the highly publicized situation involving 18-year-old Mr. Brown, whose Aug. 9 death in Ferguson, Missouri touched off violence, protests and an angry national debate, most people outside Utah have never heard of 20-year-old Mr. Taylor.Critics say there’s a reason for the discrepancy in media coverage: race. Mr. Brown was black and the officer who shot him was white. Mr. Taylor wasn’t black — he’s been described as white and Hispanic — and the officer who shot him Aug. 11 outside a 7-Eleven in South Salt Lake wasn’t white.
===

Another Labor lie conceded

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (7:34am)

Kevin Rudd lies in 2009:
The Australian Prime Minister has rejected Opposition claims that a group of asylum seekers aboard the Australian customs ship Oceanic Viking is being given special treatment…  
The Government has offered the Sri Lankans quick re-settlement in Australia or other developed countries if they agree to spend a short time in an Indonesian detention centre…

“The Indonesian Government and the Australian Government have agreed to a set of arrangements regarding the time frame for the processing for the group in Indonesia consistent with an international practice and settlement procedures,” Mr Rudd said in Parliament. “That among other things, contained in a letter that I’m about to table, clearly articulates from the perspective of the Secretary of the Department of Immigration that these are not preferential arrangements.” 
Julia Gillard admits in 2014, according to Paul Kelly’s new book:
The Sri Lankans won a preferential deal based on a much faster than usual resettlement timetable. Rudd denied point-blank to the media they won any preferential treatment. He made the same denial in parliament. His statements were false. 
Rudd’s office asked Metcalfe to write a letter covering the terms of the agreement. Under attack in parliament, Rudd tabled the letter, claiming it showed that “these are not preferential arrangements”. The letter did not verify Rudd’s claims. Metcalfe was prudent enough to alter the draft. Gillard says: “I wasn’t involved in this personally but it is obvious to anybody who looks at it, as a government we did a deal to get them off the boat. They got a favourable deal.”
Brazen liars. 
===

Rudd’s dream, your billions lost

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (7:17am)

It is astonishing that we get this analysis only years after Kevin Rudd decided to splash billions on his grandiose dream. It’s amazing that Labor for years justified its waste with bogus claims about the benefits to health services and education:
THE former Labor government’s decision to pursue a fibre-to-the-home, super-fast, broadband network would have a net cost to taxpayers of $22.2 billion, but the Coalition’s model still leaves them paying billions to deliver access to the bush and urban fringes, a landmark cost-benefit analysis reveals.
The Coalition-commissioned analysis finds the expense of providing high-speed internet access to people who live in uncommercial rural and regional areas, as well as urban fringes, would cost nearly $5bn but the benefits are only a fraction of that. 

What a waste the Labor plan was:
The Abbott government’s pared-back broadband plan is three times more cost effective than Labor’s ambitious scheme and would leave Australians $16 billion better off, according to the first independent cost-benefit analysis of the national broadband network… 
The much-anticipated report finds households and businesses will benefit from quicker downloads but the much-vaunted societal benefits of fast broadband – such as improvements to health and education services – will probably be extremely limited.
The cost benefit analysis panel, led by former Victorian Treasury head Michael Vertigan, ... finds the [Government’s] multi-technology mix model outperforms a fibre to the premises plan in net economic benefits in 98 per cent of scenarios.
A multi-technology mix NBN would cost $24.9 billion to launch from 2015 compared with $35.3 billion for fibre to the premises (FTTP), the report finds.
A multi-technology mix would deliver download and upload speeds of 20-100 megabits a second, while FTTP would deliver speeds above 100Mbps.
The report finds the most cost-effective option would be an unsubsidised launch in which the free market delivers high-speed broadband to 93 per cent of homes. This would have a net economic benefit of $24 billion, but would leave 7 per cent of premises in regional and rural areas without fast broadband. Providing fast broadband to the bush through wireless and satellite services – as envisaged under both Labor and the Coalition’s plans – will cost nearly $5 billion but produce only $600 million in economic benefits.
===

Scrap this expensive energy target. It is an insult to our reason

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (6:24am)

Why are we being forced to use more expensive green power when it makes no difference to a global warming that’s actually paused for 16 years anyway? It simply makes no sense, and to compromise like this is to compromise with unreason - and green carpetbaggers:
SUBSIDIES on renewable-energy power generation would be frozen at current levels until overall electricity demand recovered, under a plan the Abbott government is considering to ease pressure from the Renewable ­Energy Target on power prices.

The Australian has confirmed that one scenario in businessman Dick Warburton’s RET review, which has been handed to the government, would freeze the scheme at near its current level until electricity demand stops falling. But the option would provide an opportunity for the amount of renewable energy to be increased if electricity demand started to rise before 2020.
===

So does Palmer think the Reds are coming or not?

Andrew Bolt August 27 2014 (12:28am)

Clive Palmer apologised for calling the Chinese “mongrels”, but his feral offsider is too proud to admit she was just as big an idiot:

Mr Palmer has apologised to the “Chinese people everywhere” for last week describing China’s government as “mongrels” and “bastards” who shoot their own people. 
[Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui] Lambie said the PUP leader had little choice because “people are still quite irate about his comments”.
However, she would not offer a similar apology for her China invasion warning, in which she said Australia needed to double the size of it military to “stop our grandchildren from becoming slaves to an aggressive, anti-democratic totalitarian foreign power"… “I don’t see why I would offer an apology when I’m actually speaking about the Chinese communist regime and not the Chinese people,” she told ABC Radio. 
===
J.John

If you remove“Christ” from Christian,you are left with “Ian” and Ian just isn’t going to help you!” I wonder who first said that!
===
THE Greens continue to be tied in knots by their stance on Israel, with NSW senator-elect Lee Rhiannon forced to admit she marched in protest with Taj Din al-Hilali after initially denying any association with the controversial Islamic cleric.
Photographic evidence shows Ms Rhiannon and her former NSW upper house Greens colleague Sylvia Hale marching with Sheik Hilali at a protest in Sydney on June 5 last year, holding a banner that reads, "End the siege of Gaza -- break ties with Israel".
Press reports of another rally four days earlier, including reports in Green Left Weekly, list Sheik Hilali and Ms Rhiannon among the speakers, with Sheik Hilali denouncing Israel as a "terrorist state" and Ms Rhiannon condemning the Israeli attack on an aid flotilla to Gaza as "a crime against humanity".
Sheik Hilali provoked outrage in 2006 when he compared scantily clad women to "uncovered cat meat".
When asked by The Australian if she had spoken alongside Sheik Hilali at the first rally, Ms Rhiannon said: "I did not appear with Sheik Hilali as you state.
"I did not see him or hear him speak. I was not aware that he was at the rally. I reject The Australian's attempt to associate me with controversial views held by Sheik Hilali. I condemn Sheik Hilali's comment comparing women in casual clothing to cat meat. I oppose all forms of racism, bigotry and sexism."
But shown the media reports, Ms Rhiannon clarified her movements on June 1, saying parliament had been sitting on the evening in question. "We jumped in a taxi to go down there and as soon as we got there, we were put on to speak," Ms Rhiannon said. "I did not see Sheik Hilali."
Shown the photograph taken on June 5, in which she is marching about 2m from the Sheik, Ms Rhiannon did not deny her presence. "I was not alongside Hilali and the photo shows I am not alongside Sheik Hilali," she said. "The rally was about Gaza and that's why I went along."
Ms Rhiannon's difficulties in distancing herself from Sheik Hilali follow criticism of the NSW Greens during the recent state election for their support of a boycott of Israel. The issue contributed to the defeat of the Greens candidate in Marrickville, Fiona Byrne, after Ms Byrne made contrary comments on whether she planned to introduce the boycott into state parliament, if elected.
Ms Rhiannon later claimed the Greens needed to explain the policy more forcefully and was carpeted by federal Greens leader Bob Brown, who called the policy a "mistake".
Ms Rhiannon last night denied there was any conflict between her alleged speaking engagement with Sheik Hilali and her referral of Cardinal George Pell to the NSW parliamentary privileges committee, for contempt, in 2007. The move occurred after Cardinal Pell warned Catholic state MPs who voted in favour of stem-cell research to consider their place in the life of the church. "Cardinal Pell's comments were attempting to influence a vote in parliament," Ms Rhiannon said. "The sheik's comment (on Israel as a terrorist state), which I oppose, was not linked to legislation before the NSW parliament."
Federal opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop last night described Ms Rhiannon's comments regarding Israel as "extreme, highly prejudicial and deeply troubling".
===
Holly Sarah Nguyen
  • Best Father, Best Friend, Best Counselor, Best Healer, Best Helper, and Best Retirement Planner Ever Unless you got something better, I'm stickin' with the Lord...
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Thanks to Kevin Rudd and Labor everything from electricity, gas, education, and medical services has gone up.

Calculate exactly how much Labor is costing you by clicking the link below:http://apps.facebook.com/costoflabor/
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another cruel blow to leftie hopes of demonising Tony Abbott
, The Age reports he saved lives during the Bali Bombing. I expect a litany of furious letters from Northcote to the editor now about the "right-wing" bias of the Fairfax press.>===
<Dot connections continue amid a whirlwind of confused ethics, gross hypocrisies, who supports whom, ignorance, convoluted and hidden agendas, and of course, egos intent on elevating statuses quite beyond otherwise, well-deserved criticism and exposed scandals...Dots increasingly muffle the the chessboard.>
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If anyone had any doubts about what Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas meant when he met last weekwith members of the Israeli leftist party Meretz, an officialstatement from his Fatah party on Sunday made things clear.
After Thursday’s meeting, members of Meretz said that Abbas had reassured them that if a peace agreement is reached with Israel, it would bring an end to his people’s demands of the Jewish state.
"I know your concerns, but guarantee that at the conclusion of successful negotiations, we undertake to end all the demands. We will not ask to return to Yafo, Akko and Tzfat,” he reportedly said.
Members of Meretz said that Abbas told them a “fair agreement” will end the conflict with Israel and that a “peace agreement with Israel will be final and binding." He did not, however, specify what is meant by a fair peace agreement and did not commit to the fact that the PA would give up its demand for the “right of return”, which would see millions of Arabs who fled Israel in 1948 and their descendants flood Israel.
On Sunday, Abbas chaired a meeting of the Central Committee of the Fatah movement, at the conclusion of which Fatah spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement that "the main goal of the negotiations with Israel is to establish an independent Palestinian state within the [pre-]1967 borders with its capital Al-Quds (Jerusalem -ed.), and the return of refugees in accordance with resolutions by international legitimate institutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.”
Abu Rudeineh stressed that "all issues related to the permanent status agreement are on the negotiating table, within the time frame of the nine months that was agreed upon with the U.S. government."
He added that the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria “is an obstacle to reaching a just peace based on the rights of the Palestinian people that cannot be canceled.”
The meeting between Abbas and the Meretz members took place several days after the latest meeting between Israeli and PA negotiators, as part of the current round of peace talks.
So far, details of the discussions between the sides have not been revealed, apparently consistent with a request from Washington last week for a strict news blackout.
At the same time, the PA’s chief negotiator Saeb Erekat  revealed, in aninterview with the Nazareth-based Arabic language A-Shams radio station on Tuesday, that the PA would not have returned to the negotiating table with Israel had it not received a letter of assurances from the United States, guaranteeing its main negotiating preconditions.
Meanwhile, not all PA factions are on board the peace talks. On Friday, hundreds of people in Gaza protested against Israeli-PA peace talks, in marches organized by the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups.
Marchers set off from mosques across the coastal strip before converging on a square in the middle of Gaza City, with protesters brandishing signs saying "No to negotiations" and slamming Abbas's "political failure."

there are no moderates from Palestinian/Jordanian side? ed
===
Journalists protest security crackdown in Ramallah, August 25, 2013 (photo credit: Issam Rimawi/Flash90)
The Palestinian journalists’ syndicate has decided to boycott coverage of the activities of the Palestinian Authority’s security apparatus in the West Bank to protest the security crackdown on journalists during a recent demonstration.
Way too often journalists participate and don't report ed
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===
I replied .. having watched Media Watch last night I yearned for an unbiased media .. ABC and Fairfax favor ALP while news limited is balanced .. it isn't fair on conservatives. I note it suits conservatives in the electoral cycle as it occasionally works for them .. but as in '07 it is also a cancer which eats at the fabric of society .. ed
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ISRAEL – CENTER OF THIS STORM , From Iran to Syria, Hamas to Hezbollah and more. 
Asymmetrical Rocket Warfare and State sponsors of terrorism. Such states do not have to declare war upon their opponent, fight through a proxy and can strike where, when and how at their own choosing. In the age of Asymmetrical Rocket Warfare, the tiny state of Israel is in the center of this storm. This chapter facilitates a more thorough insight towards understanding the magnitude of the deadly threat of these weapons and CBRN. This is a primer for understanding SCUD missiles, Kassam Rockets, cruise missiles, UAVs, solid-fueled, liquid-fueled, hyper-sonic, subsonic, and stealth capabilities.”
http://iranthreatassessmentcbrn.com/downloads/chapter-6-the-basics-for-understanding-qassams-scud-missiles-to-cruise-missiles-drones-to-uavs-cbrn-warfare/
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General William Howe
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“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Romans 12:4-5 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning


"He hath commanded his covenant forever."
Psalms 111:9

The Lord's people delight in the covenant itself. It is an unfailing source of consolation to them so often as the Holy Spirit leads them into its banqueting house and waves its banner of love. They delight to contemplate the antiquity of that covenant, remembering that before the day-star knew its place, or planets ran their round, the interests of the saints were made secure in Christ Jesus. It is peculiarly pleasing to them to remember the sureness of the covenant, while meditating upon "the sure mercies of David." They delight to celebrate it as "signed, and sealed, and ratified, in all things ordered well." It often makes their hearts dilate with joy to think of its immutability, as a covenant which neither time nor eternity, life nor death, shall ever be able to violate--a covenant as old as eternity and as everlasting as the Rock of ages. They rejoice also to feast upon the fulness of this covenant, for they see in it all things provided for them. God is their portion, Christ their companion, the Spirit their Comforter, earth their lodge, and heaven their home. They see in it an inheritance reserved and entailed to every soul possessing an interest in its ancient and eternal deed of gift. Their eyes sparkled when they saw it as a treasure-trove in the Bible; but oh! how their souls were gladdened when they saw in the last will and testament of their divine kinsman, that it was bequeathed to them! More especially it is the pleasure of God's people to contemplate the graciousness of this covenant. They see that the law was made void because it was a covenant of works and depended upon merit, but this they perceive to be enduring because grace is the basis, grace the condition, grace the strain, grace the bulwark, grace the foundation, grace the topstone. The covenant is a treasury of wealth, a granary of food, a fountain of life, a store-house of salvation, a charter of peace, and a haven of joy.

Evening

"The people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him."
Mark 9:15
How great the difference between Moses and Jesus! When the prophet of Horeb had been forty days upon the mountain, he underwent a kind of transfiguration, so that his countenance shone with exceeding brightness, and he put a veil over his face, for the people could not endure to look upon his glory. Not so our Saviour. He had been transfigured with a greater glory than that of Moses, and yet, it is not written that the people were blinded by the blaze of his countenance, but rather they were amazed, and running to him they saluted him. The glory of the law repels, but the greater glory of Jesus attracts. Though Jesus is holy and just, yet blended with his purity there is so much of truth and grace, that sinners run to him amazed at his goodness, fascinated by his love; they salute him, become his disciples, and take him to be their Lord and Master. Reader, it may be that just now you are blinded by the dazzling brightness of the law of God. You feel its claims on your conscience, but you cannot keep it in your life. Not that you find fault with the law, on the contrary, it commands your profoundest esteem, still you are in nowise drawn by it to God; you are rather hardened in heart, and are verging towards desperation. Ah, poor heart! turn thine eye from Moses, with all his repelling splendour, and look to Jesus, resplendent with milder glories. Behold his flowing wounds and thorn-crowned head! He is the Son of God, and therein he is greater than Moses, but he is the Lord of love, and therein more tender than the lawgiver. He bore the wrath of God, and in his death revealed more of God's justice than Sinai on a blaze, but that justice is now vindicated, and henceforth it is the guardian of believers in Jesus. Look, sinner, to the bleeding Saviour, and as thou feelest the attraction of his love, fly to his arms, and thou shalt be saved.
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Today's reading: Psalm 119:89-176, 1 Corinthians 8 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 119:89-176


89 Your word, LORD, is eternal;
it stands firm in the heavens.
90 Your faithfulness continues through all generations;
you established the earth, and it endures.
91 Your laws endure to this day,
for all things serve you.
92 If your law had not been my delight,
I would have perished in my affliction.
93 I will never forget your precepts,
for by them you have preserved my life.
94 Save me, for I am yours;
I have sought out your precepts.
95 The wicked are waiting to destroy me,
but I will ponder your statutes.
96 To all perfection I see a limit,
but your commands are boundless....

Today's New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 8

Concerning Food Sacrificed to Idols
1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that "We all possess knowledge." But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 3 But whoever loves God is known by God.
4 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that "An idol is nothing at all in the world" and that "There is no God but one." 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
7 But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do....
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Japheth

[Jā'pheth] - beauty, let him enlarge orhe that persuades. The second son of Noah, born in the patriach's five hundredth year, and founder of those who spread over the north and west regions of the earth (Gen. 5:32; 6:10; 7:13). The Medians, Greeks, Romans, Russian and Gauls are referred to as descendants of Japheth. Most of the nations springing from him reappear in the endtime period under Gog (Ezek. 38; 39). For Greece seeZechariah 9:13.
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