=== Todays Toon ===
The battle between Taft and Roosevelt bitterly split the Republican Party; Taft's people dominated the party until 1936.
Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919. Was the 26th President of the United States. He is well remembered for his energetic persona, range of interests and achievements, leadership of the Progressive Movement, model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" image. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party of 1912. Before becoming President (1901–1909) he held offices at the municipal, state, and federal level of government. Roosevelt's achievements as a naturalist, explorer, hunter, author, and soldier are as much a part of his fame as any office he held as a politician.
Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919. Was the 26th President of the United States. He is well remembered for his energetic persona, range of interests and achievements, leadership of the Progressive Movement, model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" image. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party of 1912. Before becoming President (1901–1909) he held offices at the municipal, state, and federal level of government. Roosevelt's achievements as a naturalist, explorer, hunter, author, and soldier are as much a part of his fame as any office he held as a politician.
=== Bible Quote ===
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8 === Headlines ===
Tony Abbott's belief that recognition of traditional owners at functions is misplaced political correctness has been labelled "totally disrespectful" and a "cheap political shot".
Naval officer Juan Ramos may be the one serving at sea but his entire family knows what it means to be in the Navy, as Fox News' Greg Burke takes a look at what military families give up for all of our freedom.
Dems: Have a Little Faith
Democratic leaders ask their party members to trust them, approve health care and then go back and amend law
Kandahar Blasts 'Warning' to NATO
Deadly bombings in southern Afghan city are Taliban's way of telling NATO top general they are ready for offensive
Family of American freed in alleged terror plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist doesn't know where Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, or her 6-year-old son, may be.
'Jihad Jamie' Raising Baby Bomber?
Six-year-old son of a Colorado woman in terror probe was turned into hate-filled Islamic fundamentalist, family says.
Former Astronauts Criticize Decision to Stop Moon Missions
Two former astronauts have said they are disappointed with the U.S. government's decision to cancel NASA's moon landing program. Jim Lovell, who led the Apollo 13 mission in 1970, told the BBC the cancellation could be disastrous. "Personally, I think it will have catastrophic consequences in our ability to explore space and the spin-offs we get from space technology," Lovell said. "They haven't thought through the consequences." Eugene Cernan, part of the 1972 Apollo 17 mission, said the U.S. has a responsibility to lead the world in space exploration and technology and that he hopes people will be back on the moon "sooner than later." "I'm quite disappointed that I'm still the last man on the moon. I thought we'd have gone back long before now," Cernan said. "But I am absolutely committed to the fact that we will go back at some time." Cernan and Lovell spoke to the BBC on Friday in London at an event at the Royal Society. The decision to cancel NASA's $100 billion Constellation program was announced last month. Much of the money is earmarked for rocket research.
Sheik Mansour Leghaei has until Friday to get out of Australia because ASIO says he is a threat, but he's determined to stay.
Employers paying out on women
WOMEN are paid up to 17 per cent less "simply because they're female", a landmark study finds.
China warns of double-dip recession
THE world is not out of the danger zone yet, says Premier in rare two-hour news conference.
Girls ordered to visit sex offender dad
MAN convicted for child porn allowed access to daughters - if he puts lock on their room.
Scientists attack climate change sceptics
CSIRO weighs into global warming row, accusing sceptics of "smokescreen" tactics.
I should be so lucky - on $18,000 a day
KYLIE Minogue in no danger of losing her appeal as she is making more money than ever.
Howard: Labor will likely win election
FORMER Prime Minister attacks "do-nothing" Rudd but concedes second term on the cards.
Last rites for English at Sydney church
AFTER 57 years, English-speaking parishioners have now been forced out of a church in Sydney's north with its service now to be heard solely in Korean.
Bloody end to police chase
BLEEDING profusely from a head wound, this is the dramatic moment an alleged car thief was arrested after ramming a police car in a desperate bid to get away. Officers surrounded the 31-year-old man, who allegedly stole a Holden Commodore in the inner city before colliding head-on with the police car on O'Dea St, Zetland about 11.40am. Both the police car and the allegedly stolen Commodore were badly damaged.
Families in fear of 'fuel poverty' as energy costs soar
The little girl says "Thank you Mr Rudd"
SOARING electricity prices will force more working families into "fuel poverty" where they simply cannot afford to pay for power. That is the grim prediction from an energy ombudswoman, who revealed that the number of people fearing they will have their electricity disconnected had surged by a third.Mum 'brainwashed' son with radical Islam
RELATIVES of suspected terrorist claim she has filled her six-year-old boy with hate for Christians and violent thoughts.
Thaksin rally issues ultimatum to Thai government
RED-clad protesters loyal to deposed Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra have vowed to march on military barracks housing the government as they step up their campaign amid tight security. At least 80,000 so-called "Red Shirts" converged on rally grounds near the government's offices in Bangkok, giving Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva an ultimatum to dissolve parliament or face further demonstrations. "We will leave here to listen to the government's answer at the 11th Infantry Unit, where the government is," Red Shirt leader Nattawut Saikuar told reporters behind the rally stage on Sunday. "If they fail to answer our demands we will announce our next step."
Classrooms being turned into mini-jails
SCHOOLS are turning into mini-jails in which teachers must act as wardens, as violence increasingly leads to lockdowns and court orders. Such lockdowns have almost tripled since 2006. One school locks down its students to protect them an average of once a fortnight, Education Department figures released under Freedom of Information reveal.
Britain poised to axe House of Lords
BRITAIN'S House of Lords could be abolished and replaced with an upper house full of elected politicians under plans being considered by the UK Government. The 700-year-old House of Lords has about 740 members, none of whom are elected. Most obtained their upper house seat in parliament upon an appointment by the Queen on the recommendation of the prime minister or an appointments committee. Others simply inherited the right to sit in the Lords - last desperate gasp of a dieing Labor Party, or part of a new initiative to retain power? - ed.
=== Comments ===
The Lost Art of HonorBy Rev. Bill Shuler
To merely recognize the need for honor is to fall short. To restore our country to health, we Americans must return to it as a way of life.
Honor is a lost art in America. It is too often denied and delayed. The concept of honor has once again been brought to the forefront as the motion picture academy struggles to explain why Farrah Fawcett was omitted from their Oscar’s tribute to members of the industry who had died in 2009. It is revived again as a committee in Texas decides who will merit placement in the telling of American history in textbooks to be distributed nationwide. It was on display this week as over 1,000 female Air Force service pilots finally received recognition when they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal that they so richly deserved.
To honor is to express respect. It is a recognition of the value of another. As a culture we reserve such expressions for moments marked by finality. We are comfortable sharing our feelings of love and appreciation at retirement ceremonies and funeral services. The word honor is often never heard because it comes too late, resulting in the greatest of all regrets unexpressed love.
Dishonor is prevalent on the national scene. Our public leaders are fodder for late night comedians. Parents are blamed for all our woes. The elderly are under-valued and neglected. The scriptures tell us to honor all people, to love one another, to fear God and honor those in authority. It is a prescription for a healthy society. It does not mean that we will agree or that others have earned honor but it eliminates the hate based, disrespectful dialogue that is so prevalent today.
To merely recognize the need for honor is to fall short. It is a way of life. Its target is as near as a family figure, a mentor or a friend. Honor disarms, heals and strengthens. It calls forth the best in all of us.
Rev. Bill Shuler is pastor at Capital Life Church in Arlington, Virginia and a frequent contributor to the Fox Forum. For more visit Capital Life.org.
===
ALSO, THEY CAUSE WARMENING
Tim Blair
The 35 reasons why V8 Supercars are better than the NRL, AFL and cricket.
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IT WILL SOON BE A LOBSTER FARM THAT WILL BENEFIT US ALL
Tim Blair
Imagined intrusions from China’s Department of Twitter Corrections:
===
I AM ALIVE
Tim Blair
Just returned from a weekend in Adelaide.
Highlight #1: After booking in at night, the next morning I observe the view from my hotel room: a panoramic expanse of graveyard.
Highlight #2: I purchase several items from a petrol station; bottles of Coke, cigarettes, newspapers etc. There is an awkward pause after I ask for the items to be placed in a plastic bag. The sales kid explains: “Plastic bags are banned in South Australia.”
Highlight #3: A advertising billboard above a pub features K.G. Cunningham promoting a building supplies store or similar. The tagline: “Trust the guys I trust.” Except that a rogue comma changes the meaning from a simple request to trust K.G.’s mates into a general plea for faith in men: “Trust the guys, I trust.”
Highlight #4: An Adelaide contact tells the story of a relative’s new work friend. It’s one of the Snowtown killers. (The relative is a prison guard.)
Highlight #5: For their excellent Hammond organ version of California Girls, The Essential Rhythm Band deserve to appear in a David Lynch film.
Highlight #6: A Saturday night fireworks display in which no individual firework rose higher than a three-storey building, yet could be seen from across the city.
===
Quiggin complains of his own behaviour
Andrew Bolt
Professor John Quiggin complains of smears by sceptics:
In recent years, science and scientific institutions have come under increasingly vociferous attack, with accusations of fraud, incompetence and even aspirations to world domination becoming commonplace… Scientists have been constrained in fighting back by the fact that they are ethically constrained to be honest, whereas their opponents lie without any compunction.Ethically unconstrained, Professor John Quggin smears a sceptic:
In writing my previous post on the “Climategate” break-in to the University of East Anglia computer system, I remained unclear about who was actually responsible for the break-in theft of the emails, which were then selectively quoted to promote a bogus allegation of scientific fraud. Looking over the evidence that is now available, I think there is enough to point to Steven McIntyre as the person, along with the actual hacker or leaker, who bears primary moral responsibility for the crime…Evidence for this smear? Zero. But what’s evidence to a Quiggin?
So, to sum up, McIntyre organised the campaign which led to the creation of the file, obtained information from the CRU file system by means he declined to reveal, received the stolen emails shortly after the theft and made dishonest and defamatory use of the stolen information. Whether or not he was directly involved in the theft, or merely created the opportunity and benefited from the proceeds is impossible to determine, and essentially irrelevant.
(Thanks to reader Professor F.)
===
Barbarian savages Christians
Andrew Bolt
Melbourne’s atheist convention actually strengthens the case for a civilising religion such as Christianity:
MARY MacKillop’s canonisation by ‘’Pope Nazi’’ was ‘’pure Monty Python’’, the world’s most famous atheist told the world’s first global atheist conference in Melbourne yesterday.I’m no Christian, but I do know that the Pope and Fielding are so influenced by their faith that they would never be as personally vicious as a Dawkins. If only Dawkins could assure us that a life free of religion would not leave us at the mercy of humankind’s nastier impulses.
And Family First Senator Steve Fielding was less intelligent that an earthworm, according to biologist Richard Dawkins…
‘’When I’m accused, ‘Why are you going after easy targets, the fundamentalist nutbags, why don’t you take on the real theologians?’, well, the real theologians like Pope Nazi believe in miracles.’’
Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Joseph Ratzinger, was conscripted into Hitler Youth, as were all German boys, when he turned 14.
UPDATE (inserted):
Not a very brave man when it comes to criticising those religions which preach less civility:
When asked when he would be willing to criticise Islam as he did Christianity, the response was pragmatic. “I personally believe we shouldn’t go out of our way to do things that will get our heads cut off.” To the Islamist he would make it clear that this reticence is “because I fear you. Don’t think for one moment it’s because I respect you.”Shouldn’t Dawkins give Christianity more credit for its civilising influence, when he counts on that very thing for keeping him safe to abuse?
(Thanks to reader Tasman.)
UPDATE
ABC presenter Robyn Williams was just as troublingly abusive:
“I can give you a devastating argument against religion in two words,” Williams said in his introduction.A public apology for such a nasty crack would be the least we could expect. A public reflection on the civilising virtues of Christianity, after all, would be what we could hope for.
“Senator Fielding. Richard Dawkins said his IQ is lower than an earthworm, but I think earthworms are useful.”
UPDATE 2
In another speech, delivered last week, Williams complains of extreme language of condemnation:
So, is that fair, enough, what you should expect in big time, 21st century politics. Say what you will, draw blood, condemn with the most extreme language? Is it what we deserve?From the same speech, Williams abuses with extreme language of condemnation:
...so called deniers like Jan Plimer, or the incongruous toff Lord Monkton…Williams condemns what he himself tragically is. And his utter lack of self-awareness is evident again and again.
...right-wing fanatic radio hosts and moronic ex-governors (does he perchance mean Sarah Palin?)…
...By all means debate the widest range of credible views, but recognise the cowboys, the misfits and the sons and daughters of Dr Goebbels for what they are.
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The CSIRO calls this proof?
Andrew Bolt
It’s a bizarre way to “prove” their case:
AUSTRALIA’s two leading scientific agencies will release a report today showing Australia has warmed significantly over the past 50 years, and stating categorically that ‘’climate change is real‘’.Why is this surprisingly scanty propaganda pamphlet bizarre, and not quite honest?
The State of the Climate snapshot, drawn together by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology partly in response to recent attacks on the science underpinning climate change, shows that Australia’s mean temperature has increased 0.7 degrees since 1960. The statement also finds average daily maximum temperatures have increased every decade for the past 50 years.
The report states that temperature observations, among others indicators, ‘’clearly demonstrate climate change is real’’, and says that CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology ‘’will continue to provide observations and research so Australia’s responses are underpinned by clear empirical data’’.
The report also found that the 2000s were Australia’s warmest decade on record; that sea levels rose between 1.5 and three millimetres a year in Australia’s south and east, and between seven and 10 millimetres in the north between 1993 and 2009; and that sea surface temperatures have risen 0.4 degrees since 1960.
First, no one is doubting that “climate change is real”. Climate changes all the time. This is not the debate.
Second, we’re talking about global warming, so why does the CSIRO and BOM’s pamphlet give only Australian temperatures? Is that because it knows that to show world temperatures stayed flat since 2001 actually casts doubt on just how much man’s gases are driving the post-mini-ice-age warming?
Third, given the CSIRO praised the since-discredited An Inconvenient Truth, claiming ”its scientific basis is very sound”, can we really trust its advocacy science?
Fourth, the CSIRO and BOM’s document does not address any of the recent challenges to the processes which produced the concensus that man is almost certainly to blame for most of the recent warming. Nor does it mention recent debate about adjustments made to Australian temperature records of the kind that increase the reported warming trend.
Fifth, what’s most at issue (other than man’s contribution to any warming) is whether any warming will in fact be disastrous, and something we must spend billions to help avert. The record so far of alarmists such as Al Gore, Tim Flannery, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, the IPCC and even the CSIRO itself is that the catastrophism is wildly exaggerated and we might often do better to keep our money in our pockets for the day that we’re called on to cope with whatever happens in the far-off future. But on this, again, this document adds zero to our understanding.
But, of course, this brazenly political document got the unquestioning hero treatment on the ABC’s AM program, in what sounded like the two fingers to its chairman.
UPDATE
How much can this propaganda sheet be trusted to tell you the let-the-cards-fall-where-they-may truth? Judge from this example:
...total rainfall on the Australian continent has been relatively stableStable? Why didn’t the CSIRO and BOM tell the reassuring truth - that total rainfall has in fact increased?
From the BOM’s own website (but not included on the propaganda sheet):
(Thanks to reader David Stockwell, who has more.)
UPDATE 2
More CSIRO cherrypicking. Its pamphlet shows a steep and alarming rise in methane concentrations over the past century:
But what’s missing on the graphic, or anywhere else on the propaganda sheet, is this detailed look at methane concentrations over the past decade:
Why did the CSIRO and BOM not note that the failure of methane emissions to rise as predicted in the past decade also challenges the theory that man’s gasses are most to blame for recent warming?
In fact, where in the pamphlet is any attempt to address what IPCC lead author Kevin Trenberth privately confessed to in one of the Climategate emails:
(W)here the heck is global warming? ... The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.(Thanks to reader Tom.)
UPDATE 3
Physicist Dr Nicola Scafetta checks the IPCC models and theories on which the CSIRO and BOM rely, and says they exaggerate the problem:
At least 60% of the warming of the Earth observed since 1970 appears to be induced by natural cycles which are present in the solar system. A climatic stabilization or cooling until 2030-2040 is forecast by the phenomenological model.
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Women firies put out an ideological bonfire
Andrew Bolt
On the other hand, these women seem smarter than their with-it male bosses:
NEARLY half the women firefighters at the Metropolitan Fire Brigade have publicly rejected claims of a ‘’closed culture’’ and say setting diversity targets is ‘’patronising and forever taints applicants’’....
In a a letter published in The Age today, 24 women firefighters say they are ‘’offended by the implication of the MFB’s gender inclusion action plan’’ that women need ‘’special assistance’’. Only 56 out of 1737 firefighters at the MFB are women, or 3.2 per cent, and the organisation is trying to boost the number of women and people from under-represented backgrounds.
The MFB denies its diversity programs involves any lowering of standards and the gender plan would ‘’aim’’ for 20 per cent of women in pre-employment training, not in the job itself.
A female firefighter with more than a decade’s experience at the MFB, Mac Hanson, said the women felt strongly about the issue and wanted to be selected on merit, not through special programs.
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Fraser nailed again for a falsehood
Andrew Bolt
In his first rebuttal of Malcolm Fraser’s new autobiography, David Smith, former secretary to five governors-general, revealed Fraser to be both an unreliable witness and a sneak.
In his second rebuttal today, Smith gives another damning proof of Fraser’s invention of history:
Fraser claims that he received a phone call from the governor-general, John Kerr, on the morning of November 11, 1975. That is true. Fraser goes on to describe what the governor-general said to him. Fraser’s account is not true.
When the governor-general called me back into the study he told me that he had just received a phone call from prime minister Gough Whitlam to say that he would be coming out to see him before lunch to recommend a half-Senate election, to be held on December 13.
Kerr also told me that he had then phoned opposition leader Fraser, who confirmed that there had been no change in the opposition’s position and that it would continue to block supply in the Senate....
There was no mention of any other matter being discussed. The governor-general and I then completed our checking of ... a letter that I had drafted on instructions from Kerr which Fraser would be asked to sign in the event of a change of government.
In signing that letter, Fraser would undertake to seek to ensure the passage of the appropriation bills then before the Senate, and to observe the customary caretaker conventions between the calling of an election and polling day, and would make no appointments or dismissals or initiate new policies before a general election was held.
Contrary to Fraser’s claim in his memoirs, that letter made no mention whatsoever of a “guarantee that no action would be taken against the ministers of the Whitlam government over the loans affair, and that there would be no royal commission”, nor were such matters ever mentioned to me by the governor-general as we considered the drafting of the letter that Fraser would be asked to sign.
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Carlton’s mistake: to assume his foes are just as unprincipled
Andrew Bolt
So much of the tribal Left’s criticisms of wicked conservatives seems mere projection. Take this effort by the blustering Mike Carlton of the Sydney Morning Herald:
YOU can imagine the uproar if the Rudd government had come up with the scheme that Tony Abbott dropped upon us this week. The right-wing commentariat would have screamed blue murder about Labor’s social engineering, and those tedious hack economists at the conservative think tanks would be queuing up to denounce this ruinous attack on free enterprise. But no, not a peep from any of them. The rich lode of hypocrisy runs deep.Carlton seems not just dumb, but deaf and blind as well. Here’s Jessica Brown, of the Centre for Independent Studies:
TO fund this extravagant scheme, Abbott has flagged a 1.7 per cent levy on the company tax paid by larger businesses. The details of Abbott’s proposal are ringing alarm bells. A danger is that [the] levy will force business to hire fewer staff or cut the wages of existing staff, or raise prices.Here’s John Roskam of the only other big conservative think tank, the Institute for Public Affairs:
“It’s a tax on business and ultimately tax on businesses are passed on to the consumers,” Mr Roskam said.And here’s, well, me:
“From our perspective it’s strange. We certainly support Tony Abbott’s views on the ETS as being a great big tax and here’s potentially another great big tax on business.”
LET’S count how many ways Tony Abbott blew it by promising to pay working mothers up to $75,000 to take six months off to have a baby.So we find, yet again, that Carlton has said something completely false - something that a mere minute of research would have revealed to be false, too.
I make it a dozen....
First, Abbott has broken a promise even before he’s won the election… Sixth, a government’s first aim should not be to make it easier for parents to have babies, but to make it easier for parents to raise those babies well.
So what drove him to say it? My guess: it’s his feeling that, had he been in our position, he’d have done precisely what he claims conservatives did, and defended what he should damn. Which says it all about his intellectual honesty, really, or lack of it.
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Don’t welcome me to my own country
Andrew Bolt
Welcome to Country ceremonies are racist and anything but welcoming to non-Aborigines who were born right here:
TONY Abbott has opened up a new front in the culture wars by declaring that Kevin Rudd and other Labor ministers demonstrate a misplaced sense of political correctness when acknowledging the traditional owners of land at official functions.The tragedy is that these racist ceremonies are spreading into schools and even our parliament.
Mr Abbott’s dismissal of the modern practice of acknowledging traditional owners as “out-of-place tokenism” also won support among some Aboriginal leaders, who have described the trend as “paternalistic”.
The Opposition Leader said Labor politicians felt obliged to observe the practice, despite the fact it was inappropriate in many instances…
“Sometimes it’s appropriate to do those things, but certainly I think in many contexts, it seems like out-of-place tokenism."…
The motive behind the practice - effectively mandated by the public service in some states at official functions - was also questioned yesterday by former federal intervention taskforce chairwoman and retired children’s court magistrate Sue Gordon.
“When different governments first started it, it seemed like it was paternalistic,” she told The Australian…
“Comment has been made to me that it’s just become a money making venture for some Aboriginal people,” she said. “There’s certain people who always know they will be asked because you get paid $300.”
Five years ago I suggested a new kind of welcome that would not divide but unite:
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Howard observes do-nothing Rudd
Andrew Bolt
He’s right, of course:
JOHN Howard has launched a scathing attack on his successor, claiming Kevin Rudd has “done nothing” in government, that the economic stimulus was “too big” and that Labor lacks the courage for reform…
But Mr Howard concedes Labor will probably be re-elected. “Apart from spending a lot of money, which is easy to do because everybody puts their hand up for it, he (Mr Rudd) has not done anything,” Mr Howard said. “This is his big problem. Even comparing him with Hawke and Keating in their first couple of years, they’d done a lot more...”
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Warming to some lethal policies
Andrew Bolt
It’s not global warming but Kevin Rudd’s global warming policies that are most dangerous:
NSW Energy and Water Ombudsman Clare Petre yesterday said calls from people who feared they would have electricity disconnected were up a third this financial year… Prices shot up 18-22 per cent on July 1, adding about $200 to the average annual bill and the number of people struggling to pay soared…
But the real concern is that more big increases will be too much for many of these households to bear…
Pricing regulator IPART proposed rises of 44-62 per cent over three years to pay for a backlog of network maintenance and the Federal Government’s proposed ETS.
The Ombudsman said these increases could cause “fuel poverty”. “It may well, that’s our concern, particularly if the [ETS] comes in,” she said. Fuel poverty - a household spending more than 10 per cent of income for an adequate 21C warmth - contributed to nearly 37,000 English and Welsh deaths in 2008-09.
In Australia, it isn’t the cold, it’s the heat. High temperatures were linked to 374 deaths in Victoria last year.
IPART said a single aged pensioner would spend 7-12 per cent of income on electricity after the ETS and an average household up to 6 per cent more.
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China warns
Andrew Bolt
It may not be over:
CHINA’S Premier, Wen Jiabao, has warned that the world risks sliding back into recession and says his country faces a difficult year trying to maintain economic growth and spur development.
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Democracy proposed for Britain
Andrew Bolt
Elected politicians? Now there’s a revolutionary idea:
Labour Party ministers will unveil plans to abolish the House of Lords and replace it with a 300-member, wholly elected second chamber in a key political move before the general election…But the plans still have a few problems:
The proposals, expected to be announced soon, would sweep away centuries of tradition and set ministers on a collision course with the 704-member House of Lords, which is resolutely opposed to having elected members.
One third of the new chamber would be elected on each occasion, with members serving three terms - up to 15 years - in a system similar to that used for the US Senate.
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Another Rudd green scheme goes haywire
Andrew Bolt
The insulation fiasco, the Green Loans blowout, the Solar Hot Water rebate cons ... and now another government big-money green scheme hits the rocks:
ANNE KRUGER::… Now what was once touted as the country’s largest non-hydro renewable-energy project is days away from going into receivership. If it does, the federal department that’s meant to foster green-energy projects will cop a lot of blame. ,,All this is from the same people now planning a total reconstuction of our economy with their great big new carbon emissions tax, which they haven’t even yet costed.
PIP COURTNEY: Cogeneration was going to put an end to these annual bonfires (in NSW of sugarcane waste). Instead of being burnt in the paddock, the trash would be harvested along with the cane, and burnt at the mill with the trash, the fibre left after crushing… Investing in cogeneration was a bold move, for it hadn’t been tried anywhere in the world. To fund it the milling cooperative partnered with the State Government-run Delta Energy to form Sunshine Electricity. $220 million was spent converting two sugar mills into 30 megawatt power plants…
GREG MESSITER, FORMER CEO NSW SUGAR MILLING CO-OP: ...Providing base load power for 60,000 homes, it was just the sort of investment the Federal Government needed to meet its target of 20 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020....
PIP COURTNEY: While the seriousness of the harvesting problems were being absorbed, the project was then dealt a crippling blow from an unexpected quarter, the Federal Government. It changed solar-energy rebates causing a plunge in the price of renewable-energy certificates, or RECs...Instead of claiming a rebate, homeowners who installed solar panels received a solar credit and four bonus RECs…
CHRIS CONNORS: They flooded the marketplace, (REC) prices dropped over $50. They were $52 on the last sale prior to this system coming in, dropped down to $24. We dropped something like $8 million out of our cash flow simply because the Government introduced this scheme.
PIP COURTNEY: The Government had predicted REC prices would sit at around $60, and could go as high as $90 this year. At $42, Sunshine Electricity can survive. At $24, it’s not viable...Sunshine Electricity hit financial trouble in November. Now, there’s talk of receivership....
IAN CAUSLEY: (Wong) has to stop the renewable-energy certificates handed out like confetti, to stabilise the market.
(Thanks to reader Biota.)
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