Happy birthday and many happy returns Tania Tu Phuong Huynh and Cally Tran. Born on the same day, across the years. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
===
Gillard isn’t playing ball
Piers Akerman – Saturday, March 09, 2013 (4:33pm)
THE federal ALP’s “say anything, do anything” policy is catching up with it. The rapid-fire release of stunt announcements has been the hallmark of both the Rudd and Gillard governments at an enormous cost to the nation.
===
- 1842 – Nabucco, an opera by Italian Romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi that established his reputation as a composer, premiered at theTeatro alla Scala in Milan.
- 1910 – A massive seventeen-month-long strike action, which at its peak involved 15,000 coal miners represented by the United Mine Workers across 65 mines, began in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.
- 1915 - The Panama–California Exposition (guide book pictured) opened in San Diego's Balboa Park, celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal.
- 1925 – The Royal Air Force began a bombardment and strafing campaignagainst the mountain strongholds of Mahsud tribesmen in South Waziristan.
- 1956 – In Tbilisi, Georgia, Soviet military troops suppressed mass demonstrations against Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy.
===
Events
- 141 BC – Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne over the Han Dynasty of China.
- 632 – The Last Sermon (Khutbah, Khutbatul Wada') of Prophet Muhammad.
- 1009 – First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.
- 1230 – Bulgarian tsar Ivan Asen II defeats Theodore of Epirus in the Battle of Klokotnitsa.
- 1276 – Augsburg becomes an Imperial Free City.
- 1500 – The fleet of Pedro Alvares Cabral leaves Lisbon for the Indies. The fleet will discover Brazil which lies within boundaries granted to Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas.
- 1566 – David Rizzio, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, is murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland.
- 1765 – After a campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762on the charge, though his son may have actually committed suicide.
- 1796 – Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.
- 1811 – Paraguayan forces defeat Manuel Belgrano at the Battle of Tacuarí.
- 1841 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.
- 1842 – Giuseppe Verdi's third opera, Nabucco, receives its première performance in Milan; its success establishes Verdi as one of Italy's foremost opera writers.
- 1842 – The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.
- 1847 – Mexican-American War: The first large-scale amphibious assault in U.S. history is launched in the Siege of Veracruz.
- 1862 – American Civil War: The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.
- 1896 – Prime Minister Francesco Crispi resigns following the Italian defeat at the Battle of Adowa.
- 1910 – The Westmoreland County Coal Strike, involving 15,000 coal miners represented by the United Mine Workers, begins.
- 1916 – Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico.
- 1925 – Pink's War: The first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army or Royal Navy begins.
- 1933 – Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress, the first of his New Deal policies.
- 1944 – World War II: Japanese troops counter-attack American forces on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that would last five days.
- 1945 – The Bombing of Tokyo by the United States Army Air Forces began, one of the most destructive bombing raids in history.
- 1946 – Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster at Burnden Park, Bolton, England, 33 killed and hundreds injured
- 1954 – McCarthyism: CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy", produced by Fred Friendly.
- 1956 – Soviet military suppresses mass demonstrations in the Georgian SSR, reacting to Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy.
- 1957 – A magnitude 8.3 earthquake in the Andreanof Islands, Alaska triggers a Pacific-wide tsunami causing extensive damage to Hawaii and Oahu.
- 1959 – The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
- 1960 – Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner implants for the first time a shunt he invented into a patient, which allows the patient to receive hemodialysis on a regular basis.
- 1961 – Sputnik 9 successfully launches, carrying a human dummy nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich, and demonstrating that Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight.
- 1967 – Trans World Airlines Flight 553, a Douglas DC-9-15, crashes in a field in Concord Township, Ohio following a mid-air collision with a Beechcraft Baron, killing 26.
- 1976 – Forty-two people die in the 1976 Cavalese cable-car disaster, the worst cable-car accident to date.
- 1977 – The Hanafi Muslim Siege: In a thirty-nine hour standoff, armed Hanafi Muslims seize three Washington, D.C., buildings, killing two and taking 149 hostage.
- 1989 – Financially troubled Eastern Air Lines filed for bankruptcy.
- 1990 – Dr. Antonia Novello is sworn in as Surgeon General of the United States, becoming the first female and Hispanic American to serve in that position.
- 1991 – Massive demonstrations are held against Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade.
- 1997 – Comet Hale-Bopp: Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia are treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permits Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day.
- 2010 – The first same-sex marriages in Washington, D.C., take place.
- 2011 – Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights.
- 2012 – Polish mountaineers Adam Bielecki and Janusz Gołąb make the first winter ascent of Gasherbrum I.
[edit]Births
- 1213 – Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy, French crusader (d. 1271)
- 1285 – Emperor Go-Nijō of Japan (d. 1318)
- 1454 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer and cartographer (d. 1512)
- 1564 – David Fabricius, German astronomer (d. 1617)
- 1568 – Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian saint (d. 1591)
- 1627 – John Bowne, English-born American Quaker (d. 1695)
- 1629 – Tsar Alexis I of Russia (d. 1676)
- 1695 – Martín Sarmiento, Spanish writer and scholar (d.1772)
- 1720 – Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, English politician (d. 1790)
- 1727 – Johann Gottlieb Preller, German cantor, composer, and land surveyor (d. 1786)
- 1737 – Josef Mysliveček, Czech composer (d. 1781)
- 1749 – Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, French writer and politician (d. 1791)
- 1753 – Jean-Baptiste Kleber, French general (d. 1800)
- 1758 – Franz Joseph Gall, German neuroscientist (d. 1828)
- 1763 – William Cobbett, English journalist and author (d. 1835)
- 1806 – Edwin Forrest, American actor and philanthropist (d. 1872)
- 1814 – Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet (d. 1861)
- 1815 – David Davis, American politician and jurist (d. 1886)
- 1820 – Samuel Blatchford, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (d. 1893)
- 1833 – Frederick A. Schroeder, industrialist and mayor of Brooklyn (d. 1899)
- 1839 – Phoebe Knapp, American hymn writer (d. 1908)
- 1856 – Eddie Foy, American singer and dancer (d. 1928)
- 1856 – Tom Roberts, Australian artist (d. 1931)
- 1877 – Stuart Stickney, American golfer (d. 1932)
- 1886 – Kenneth Edwards, American golfer (d. 1952)
- 1887 – Fritz Lenz, German geneticist (d. 1976)
- 1887 – Phil Mead, English cricketer (d. 1958)
- 1890 – Rupert Balfe, Australian footballer (d. 1915)
- 1890 – Vyacheslav Molotov, Russian politician (d. 1986)
- 1891 – José P. Laurel, 3rd President of the Philippines (d. 1959)
- 1892 – Vita Sackville-West, English writer and gardener (d. 1962)
- 1894 – Frank Arnau, German writer (d. 1976)
- 1900 – Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, Italian aristocrat (d. 1948)
- 1902 – Will Geer, American actor (d. 1978)
- 1904 – Paul Klipsch, American engineer (d. 2002)
- 1905 – Gerard Helders, Dutch politician (d. 2013)
- 1909 – Derk Bodde, American sinologist (d. 2003)
- 1910 – Samuel Barber, American composer (d. 1981)
- 1915 – Johnnie Johnson, British fighter pilot (d. 2001)
- 1918 – George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party (d. 1967)
- 1918 – Mickey Spillane, American writer (d. 2006)
- 1919 – Cengiz Dağcı, Crimean Tatar novelist and poet (d. 2011)
- 1920 – Frank J. Dixon, American immunologist (d. 2008)
- 1921 – Carl Betz, American actor (d. 1978)
- 1921 – Dimitris Horn, Greek actor (d. 1998)
- 1923 – James L. Buckley, American politician
- 1923 – André Courrèges, French fashion designer
- 1923 – Walter Kohn, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel laureate
- 1923 – Nicola Zaccaria, Greek opera singer (d. 2007)
- 1928 – Gerald Bull, Canadian artillery designer (d. 1990)
- 1929 – Desmond Hoyte, Prime Minister and President of Guyana (d. 2002)
- 1929 – Zillur Rahman, President of Bangladesh
- 1930 – Ornette Coleman, American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer
- 1930 – Taina Elg, Finnish-American actress and dancer
- 1931 – Thore Skogman, Swedish entertainer (d. 2007)
- 1932 – Walter Mercado, Puerto Rican astrologist and actor
- 1932 – Keely Smith, American singer
- 1933 – Mel Lastman, Canadian politician
- 1933 – Lloyd Price, American singer
- 1934 – Del Close, American actor, writer and teacher (d. 1999)
- 1934 – Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut and the first human in space (d. 1968)
- 1934 – Marlene Streit, Canadian golfer
- 1934 – Joyce Van Patten, American actress
- 1935 – Andrew Viterbi, American scientist and businessman
- 1936 – Mickey Gilley, American musician and singer
- 1936 – Marty Ingels, American actor and comedian
- 1936 – Tom Sestak, American football player (d. 1987)
- 1937 – Bernard Landry, Premier of Quebec from 2001 to 2003
- 1937 – Harry Neale, Canadian ice hockey coach, general manager and commentator
- 1937 – Brian Redman, English racing driver
- 1938 – Lill-Babs, Swedish singer
- 1940 – Raúl Juliá, Puerto Rican actor (d. 1994)
- 1941 – Ernesto Miranda, American litigant (d. 1976)
- 1942 – John Cale, Welsh musician (The Velvet Underground)
- 1942 – Mark Lindsay, American musician (Paul Revere & the Raiders)
- 1943 – Bobby Fischer, American chess player (d. 2008)
- 1943 – Charles Gibson, American journalist
- 1943 – Trish Van Devere, American actress
- 1944 – Lee Irvine, South African cricketer
- 1944 – Paul McIlhenny, American businessman (d. 2013)
- 1945 – Robert Calvert, English singer (Hawkwind) (d. 1988)
- 1945 – Dennis Rader, American serial killer
- 1945 – Robin Trower, British rock musician (Procol Harum and The Paramounts)
- 1946 – Jim Cregan, British rock musician (Blossom Toes and Family)
- 1947 – Richard Adams, Filipino-American activist (d. 2012)
- 1947 – Keri Hulme, New Zealand writer
- 1947 – Chris Thompson, British rock musician (Manfred Mann's Earth Band and Night)
- 1948 – Emma Bonino, Italian politician
- 1948 – Jeffrey Osborne, American singer (L.T.D.)
- 1949 – Jamie Lyn Bauer, American actress
- 1949 – Tapani Kansa, Finnish singer
- 1950 – Doug Ault, American baseball player (d. 2004)
- 1950 – Danny Sullivan, American race car driver
- 1951 – Zakir Hussain, Tabla player and Musician
- 1951 – Michael Kinsley, American journalist and editor
- 1951 – Helen Zille, South African politician
- 1952 – Bill Beaumont, English rugby player
- 1954 – Bobby Sands, IRA member (d. 1981)
- 1955 – Teo Fabi, Italian racing driver
- 1955 – Ornella Muti, Italian actress
- 1955 – Józef Pinior, Polish politician
- 1956 – Mark Dantonio, American football coach
- 1956 – Shashi Tharoor, Indian author & United Nations Under-Secretary General
- 1956 – David Willetts, UK Minister of State for Universities and Science (Conservative)
- 1957 – Faith Daniels, American journalist
- 1957 – Mark Mancina, American composer
- 1957 – Mona Sahlin, Swedish politician
- 1958 – Linda Fiorentino, American actress
- 1958 – Martin Fry, English pop singer (ABC and Vice Versa)
- 1958 – Jack Kenny, American television writer and producer
- 1959 – Tom Amandes, American actor
- 1959 – Lonny Price, American actor and director
- 1960 – Finn Carter, American actress (Tremors (film))
- 1961 – Mike Leach, American football coach
- 1961 – Rick Steiner, American wrestler
- 1961 – Darrell Walker, American basketball player
- 1962 – Jan Furtok, Polish footballer
- 1963 – Ivan Henjak, Australian rugby league footballer
- 1963 – Terry Mulholland, American baseball player
- 1963 – David Pogue, Technology columnist
- 1963 – Jean-Marc Vallée, Canadian film director and screenwriter
- 1964 – Juliette Binoche, French actress
- 1964 – Herbert Fandel, German football referee
- 1964 – Phil Housley, American ice hockey player
- 1964 – Valérie Lemercier, French actress
- 1964 – Steve Wilkos, American police officer and talk show host
- 1965 – Brian Bosworth, American football player
- 1965 – Benito Santiago, Puerto Rican baseball player
- 1966 – Brendan Canty, American musician (Fugazi)
- 1966 – Tony Lockett, Australian footballer
- 1966 – Michael Patrick MacDonald, Irish-American activist and author
- 1968 – Youri Djorkaeff, French footballer
- 1968 – Brian Heidik, American reality-show contestant on Survivor: Thailand
- 1968 – Johnny Kelly, American drummer (Type O Negative, Danzig, A Pale Horse Named Death and Seventh Void)
- 1968 – Robert Sledge, American musician (Ben Folds Five)
- 1969 – Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, American basketball player
- 1969 – Stefie Shock, Canadian singer and songwriter
- 1969 – Kimberly Guilfoyle, Fox News Analyst
- 1970 – Martin Johnson, English rugby player
- 1970 – Shannon Leto, American drummer and actor (30 Seconds to Mars and The Wondergirls)
- 1970 – David Guido Pietroni, Italian director and producer
- 1971 – Emmanuel Lewis, American actor
- 1971 – C-Murder, American rapper
- 1971 – Diego Torres, Argentine singer
- 1972 – Spencer Howson, Australian broadcaster
- 1972 – Jean Louisa Kelly, American actress
- 1972 – Kerr Smith, American actor
- 1973 – Aaron Boone, American baseball player
- 1975 – Roy Makaay, Dutch footballer
- 1975 – Didiayer Snyder, Australian television personality
- 1975 – Chaske Spencer, American actor
- 1975 – Juan Sebastián Verón, Argentine footballer
- 1976 – Ben Mulroney, Canadian television host
- 1977 – Yamila Diaz-Rahi, Argentine supermodel
- 1977 – Radek Dvořák, Czech ice hockey player
- 1978 – Lucas Neill, Australian footballer
- 1979 – Melina Perez, American professional wrestler
- 1980 – Chingy, American rapper
- 1980 – Trent Croad, Australian rules footballer
- 1980 – Matthew Gray Gubler, American actor
- 1981 – Antonio Bryant, American football player
- 1981 – Anders Nøhr, Danish footballer
- 1981 – Clay Rapada, American baseball player
- 1982 – Mirjana Lučić-Baroni, Croatian tennis player
- 1983 – Clint Dempsey, American footballer
- 1983 – Ioannis Masmanidis, German footballer
- 1983 – Maite Perroni, Mexican singer (RBD)
- 1983 – Wayne Simien, American basketball player
- 1984 – Abdoulay Konko, French footballer
- 1984 – Joe Gilgun, English actor
- 1984 – Julia Mancuso, American skier
- 1985 – Jesse Litsch, American baseball player
- 1985 – Rachel Nabors, American cartoonist
- 1985 – Parthiv Patel, Indian cricket player
- 1986 – Brittany Snow, American actress
- 1987 – Bow Wow, American rapper and actor
- 1988 – Alodia Gosiengfiao, Filipina cosplay artist and model
- 1989 – Taeyeon (Kim Tae-yeon), South Korean singer (Girls' Generation)
- 1990 – Daley Blind, Dutch footballer
- 1990 – Bilel Ifa, Tunisian footballer
- 1990 – Aras Özbiliz, Turkish footballer
- 1991 – Domo Genesis, American rapper (OFWGKTA)
- 1992 – Luis Armand Garcia, American actor
- 1993 – Larnell Cole, English footballer
- 1995 – Natalia Mzyk
- 1996 – Darsheel Safary, Indian actor
[edit]Deaths
- 1202 – King Sverre of Norway
- 1422 – Jan Zelivsky, Hussite priest (b. 1380)
- 1440 – Saint Frances of Rome, Italian nun (b. 1384)
- 1566 – David Rizzio, Italian secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots (b. 1533)
- 1649 – James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, Scottish statesman (b. 1606)
- 1649 – Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, English soldier (executed) (b. 1590)
- 1661 – Cardinal Mazarin, French cardinal and statesman (b. 1602)
- 1709 – Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, English diplomat (b. 1638)
- 1808 – Joseph Bonomi the Elder, Italian architect (b. 1739)
- 1810 – Ozias Humphrey, English artist (b. 1742)
- 1825 – Anna Laetitia Barbauld, English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and children's author (b.1743)
- 1851 – Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist (b. 1777)
- 1888 – William I, German Emperor (b. 1797)
- 1895 – Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Austrian writer and journalist (b. 1836)
- 1897 – Jamal-al-Din Afghani, Afghan political activist and Islamic nationalist (b. 1838)
- 1897 – Sondre Norheim, Norwegian skier (b. 1825)
- 1905 – Nikolai Anderson, Baltic German philologist (b. 1845)
- 1918 – Frank Wedekind, German writer (b. 1864)
- 1926 – Usui Mikao, Japanese founder of Reiki (b. 1865)
- 1937 – Paul Elmer More, American critic and essayist (b. 1864)
- 1945 – Margot Frank, German-born Dutch Jewish holocaust victim (b. 1926)
- 1947 – Jhaverchand Meghani, Indian poet (b. 1896)
- 1949 – Charles Bennett, British athlete (b. 1870)
- 1954 – Eva Ahnert-Rohlfs, German astronomer (b. 1912)
- 1954 – V. Walfrid Ekman, Swedish oceanographer (b. 1874)
- 1960 – Jack Beattie, Northern Irish politician (b. 1886)
- 1964 – Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (b. 1870)
- 1966 – Pablo Birger, Argentine racing driver (b. 1924)
- 1969 – Abdul Munim Riad general and chief of staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces (b. 1919)
- 1971 – Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria, Coptic Orthodox Patriarch (b. 1902)
- 1974 – Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr., American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
- 1975 – Gleb W. Derujinsky, Russian-American sculptor (b. 1888)
- 1983 – Faye Emerson, American actress (b. 1917)
- 1983 – Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- 1985 – Harry Catterick, English football manager (b. 1919)
- 1988 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger, German politician (b. 1904)
- 1989 – Robert Mapplethorpe, American artist (b. 1946)
- 1991 – Jim Hardin, American baseball player (b. 1943)
- 1992 – Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1913)
- 1993 – Bob Crosby, American bandleader and vocalist (b. 1913)
- 1993 – C. Northcote Parkinson, British historian and writer (b. 1909)
- 1994 – Charles Bukowski, American writer (b. 1920)
- 1994 – Eddie Creatchman, Canadian wrestler manager (b. 1928)
- 1994 – Maurice Purtill, American Big Band drummer (b. 1916)
- 1994 – Fernando Rey, Spanish-born actor (b. 1917)
- 1994 – Gilbert Rondeau, Canadian politician (b. 1928)
- 1996 – George Burns, American actor and singer (b. 1896)
- 1997 – Jean-Dominique Bauby, French Journalist & Author (b.1952)
- 1997 – Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (b. 1972)
- 1997 – Terry Nation, Welsh novelist and screenwriter (b.1930)
- 1999 – Harry Somers, Canadian composer (b. 1925)
- 2000 – Jean Coulthard, Canadian composer (b. 1908)
- 2000 – Ivo Robić, Croatian singer and songwriter (b. 1923)
- 2001 – Louiza Podimata, Greek actress (b. 1920)
- 2003 – Stan Brakhage, American filmmaker (b. 1933)
- 2003 – Bernard Dowiyogo, President of Nauru (b. 1946)
- 2004 – Gerald Deskin, clinical child psychologist (b. 1929)
- 2004 – Rust Epique, American guitarist and singer (Crazy Town and pre)Thing) (b. 1968)
- 2004 – Albert Mol, Dutch actor (b. 1917)
- 2005 – Chris LeDoux, American country singer and rodeo competitor (b. 1948)
- 2005 – Kurt Lotz, German business executive, second postwar CEO of Volkswagen (b. 1912)
- 2005 – István Nyers, Hungarian footballer (b. 1924)
- 2005 – Jeanette Schmid, Austrian professional whistler (b. 1924)
- 2006 – Geir Ivarsøy, Norwegian programmer, co-founder of Opera Software ASA (b. 1957)
- 2006 – John Profumo, British cabinet minister (b. 1915)
- 2006 – Laura Stoica, Romanian singer, composer and actress (b. 1967)
- 2007 – Brad Delp, American singer (Boston, RTZ and Beatlejuice) (b. 1951)
- 2007 – Glen Harmon, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1921)
- 2007 – Jeanne Hopkins Lucas, North Carolina politician (b. 1935)
- 2010 – Willie Davis, American baseball player (b. 1940)
- 2010 – 'Granny D', American political activist (b. 1910)
- 2011 – David Broder, American journalist (b. 1929)
- 2012 – Peter Bergman, American comedian The Firesign Theater. (b. 1939)
- 2012 – Joy Mukherjee, Indian actor and director (b. 1939)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Teacher's Day or Eid Al Moalim (Lebanon)
===
Curse of the mummy bloggers
Miranda Devine – Saturday, March 09, 2013 (4:43pm)
ONE thing we have learned about Mummy bloggers this week is that they are very good at taking umbrage.
All week they railed against being called mummy bloggers. They insisted indignantly that being invited to dinner with the Prime Minister in Rooty Hill had nothing to do with any political agenda.
On their blogs, on Twitter, on any website that would listen, out came the mummies to denounce those who dared call them mummy bloggers.
Guilty as charged.
But I do not know why bloggers who happen to be mothers who happen to write about their children would pretend to be anything else.
There is nothing to be ashamed of. “Mummy blogger” is an accurate description of a genre of online writing that is proving increasingly lucrative. It is not a pejorative.
These women blog about parenting, relationships, school lunches, cupcakes, baby names, water births and getting rid of pantry moths.
The best manage to tap into a daily conversation women have been having with each other for time immemorial.
The most successful attract thousands of readers and make a decent living from companies keen to sell to their niche audiences. In fact, so lucrative has mummy blogging become for a select few that they have had to hire an agency to manage all the product placement deals.
Good for the mummy bloggers. Good for anyone who manages to make a dollar online.
But if mummy bloggers who reject the description feel what they are doing is not respectable, they should find another line of business.
And when you are invited for a private tete-a-tete with the prime minister, don’t pretend it is because she wants to learn how to fold napkins.
Julia Gillard is wooing mummy bloggers to win the votes of their female readers. It is about neutralising Tony Abbott’s beefed up image as an average family man with three daughters.
Ironically, her attacks on Abbott as a misogynist are what led to the extra publicity for his family.
Presumably, photos of Gillard and partner Tim Mathieson frolicking at The Lodge with their new dog were designed to counter the Opposition leader’s family friendly image.
The same goes for Gillard’s new catch phrase “modern family”, new Twitter avatar featuring her with a child, and more prominent role for Mathieson, sadly cut short after his “small Asian female doctor” gaffe.
For the Prime Minister the Mummy blogger demographic is her base, instinctively antagonistic to Abbott, and understandably she wants to keep it that way.
Unfortunately her timing last week was woeful. The imagery of a prime minister eating Alaskan King Crab in a private dining room with a group of women who live on the lower north shore, northern beaches, Blue Mountains and the Southern Highlands, was not helpful to the Labor cause.
Warren Brown’s cartoon “The Real Julias” said it all. It showed Gillard dining at the Rooty Hill RSL with five identikit Mummy bloggers: “It’s great to be out mingling with everyday Australians”.
What attracted the ridicule wasn’t that the women were mummy bloggers. It wasn’t even that one had the same red hair and glasses. It was that Gillard had gone to western Sydney with the express purpose of communing with Labor’s supposed heartland and then had studiously avoided contact with locals, except in the most stage-managed circumstances.
The quarantine reached farcical heights when TV stations, which had set up temporary studios inside the RSL, found Gillard would not walk 50 metres to the club across a covered forecourt for interviews. Instead a camera had to be dispatched to the Novotel and the prime minister’s words were beamed next door via satellite.
It had TV technicians shaking their heads.
But far worse at the start of the week was the snub to veterans who staged a respectful protest outside the Novotel over the prime minister’s refusal to meet them to discuss military pensions.
For three days the Diggers “called out to the fleeting lady but she just went into her car,” says Alf Jaugietis, executive director of the Defence Force Welfare Association
After a critical story in The Daily Telegraph, the men were finally invited into the Novotel on Thursday for a cup of tea with the PM. Those present described an “amicable” 20-minute meeting during which Gillard promised to meet them later this month in Canberra with Minister for Defence Materiel, Mike Kelly, a former Australian Army lawyer.
The Diggers’ concern is that military pensions are not linked to cost of living increases so their real value has been falling for 20 years.
Jaugietis, 70, a retired air force engineer, says they were forced to protest outside the Novotel because the government was ignoring them, despite promises from Kelly.
“He did nothing. We’re pretty snarky with him. He promised it would happen in the next budget.”
But the veterans have since been told there will be nothing for them in May. Jaugietis is hopeful that Gillard will understand their plight.
“We’re not asking for something special,” he said. “We’re just asking to be treated like aged pensioners.”
With a new generation of veterans returning from a decade of war in Afghanistan, Iraq and East Timor, their welfare needs to be our top priority.
I know young returned soldiers with chronic injuries, who have been treated very shabbily, at the mercy of a defence health system which they say is “falling apart”.
Budget cuts mean they have been denied proper treatment.
“More effort is put into retiring a Land Rover than an injured soldier,” says one.
Our veterans have risked everything for their nation and now their nation must fulfill its side of the bargain.
If the Prime Minister had invited those Diggers waiting outside the Novotel for dinner on Monday night instead of the mummy bloggers, she would have earned respect rather than ridicule.
===
Tim’s Tony tanty
Miranda Devine – Saturday, March 09, 2013 (3:54am)
THIS story from Chris Kenny and Kate Legge suggests a rather inappropriate sense of entitlement from the Prime Minister’s partner Tim Mathieson:
AN email obtained exclusively by The Weekend Australian reveals Julia Gillard’s partner, Tim Mathieson, sought to involve her office in pressuring a major sporting club to freeze out Tony Abbott.
After attending an AFL clash at the MCG as a guest of the Richmond Football Club, Mr Mathieson emailed its chief executive, Brendon Gale, copying in the Prime Minister’s office, to complain about the Opposition Leader’s access to the team’s inner sanctum and his prominent seating at a pre-game function.“Mate u need to speak with Ben Hubbard on why abboott was taken down to the rooms ... “ Mr Mathieson fumed. “ ... it’s just not on Who authorised it < it was a shocker it was a Don's function and he should not have gone down there… this sort of crap has to be addressed ASAP ... .also why the dons had abbott his chief of staff and his 2 daughters on the head table is a disgrace ... ."Richmond has accommodated Mr Mathieson's requests for tickets, hospitality and memorabilia since his move into The Lodge.At the Dreamtime game in Melbourne, the first bloke invited ABC Insiders host Barrie Cassidy to join him on the Richmond table. Both men visited the Richmond room before the contest, where they crossed paths with Mr Abbott, who was a guest of Essendon's chairman David Evans.
... Government sources say Mr Mathieson has a habit of firing off emails and texts to Ms Gillard's personal staff when he senses a perceived injustice.
Kate Legge’s magazine profile makes for excruciating reading.
===
Rudd drops his meat axe
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(5:14pm)
Kevin Rudd on Sunrise yesterday talking about meat axes:
The core message is don’t take the meat axe to basic government services.
Rudd at the National Press Club just before the 2007 election, talking about meat axes:
One final point: when I talk about a razor gang, I’m dead serious. And it’s probably not the right town or a popular place to talk to talk about it here in Canberra. But I have lived in Canberra, Therese and I have lived in Canberra and it just strikes me as passing strange that this Government, which supposedly belongs to the conservative side of politics, has not systematically applied the meat axe to its own administrative bloating for the better part of a decade. I am not talking here about a reduction in federal government services, I am talking about the administrative budgets of departments. And therefore I’m very mindful of what can be done through a razor gang process as far as non-core functions of government.
===
No comment
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(4:36pm)
I was told it’s racist to suggest people of various ancestry could choose their “race’. I was told to my astonishment that my views on this issue were unlawful.
I do not want to go through any more legal nightmares, so will not comment on today’s reportin The Australian:
... Ngambri elder Shane Mortimer… had no inkling of his own aboriginality until early middle age. The son of a successful engineer, he’d enjoyed a “life of privilege” growing up in Sydney’s north; weekends were spent at the Ku-ring-gai Motor Yacht Club, or game fishing, or ice-skating. At the age of 34, when he was living in Manly and working as a theatre publicist, he was looking one day at a family photo album with his wife when she mentioned that his Aunty Vi looked Aboriginal. No, he said, my mum’s side are of Pacific Islander stock. But it piqued his curiosity, and led him to the Office of Aboriginal Affairs, where he discovered an amazing thing: a maternal line going back to his great-great-great-grandmother Ju Nin Mingo, who was born to a Ngambri woman and pastoralist James Ainslie in 1827.
There are important points to make about this, in my opinion, particularly since they involve matters of public policy.
But our absurd laws against free speech make it too dangerous to make those points. How dangerous are those laws?
POOR Don Aitkin.The former University of Canberra vice-chancellor never dreamed they’d come for him, too.
He never imagined a fair-skinned man in a possum cloak would front him and say hoy, I’m an Aborigine offended by your racist “slur” about my complexion.Hand over $6 million…So Aitkin will now take my place in the dock for allegedly breaching the same law in the same kind of way, by wondering on his blog why Shane Mortimer was harping on about being an Aboriginal elder and performing “welcome to country” ceremonies in Parliament House, when his looks suggested he also had many ancestors from other ethnicities and cultures.“He looks about as Aboriginal as I do, and his constant references to his ancestors make me scratch my head,” wrote Aitkin.I admit that before the Federal Court washed my mind and reprogrammed it, I might have said the same. In fact, I did. But now I know better.Now I know such stuff breaches the law and could get you accused in court of sharing the ideology of the Nazis who drew up the Nuremberg race laws.
Now I know such opinions are considered genocidal - likely to make young, pale-skinned children too terrified to say “I’m Aboriginal, too”. Now I weep for Mortimer, who wails that judging his Aboriginality by the colour of his skin “treats me contemptuously, disrespectfully and offensively”.
(Thanks to reader Kevin.)
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The Bolt Report tomorrorw
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(1:26pm)
On Channel 10 at 10am: have we been too mean to Gillard that she’s too scared to meet voters in the street?
Plus: meet the surprising new face of the Liberals that explains Labor’s woes out West.
On the panel: Amanda Vanstone and John Della Bosca.
And a little fact-checking of our biggest alarmist....
Talking about Tims, another one might get a mention, too.
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The real Julia is Pauline
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(11:39am)
One of these speeches was made by Pauline Hanson in 1997. The other was made by Julia Gillard this week.
Try to tell the difference between this:
I want to see our unemployment queues dwindle down to what they should be and give Australians the jobs first, instead of allowing other people onto Australia’s shores.
We will support your job and put Aussie workers first.... I have a plan to deliver… To stop foreign workers being put at the front of the queue with Australian workers at the back.
Apparently the woman Labor vilified as a racist a decade ago is now Gillard’s muse:
The PM did not so much as blush when her anti-foreign worker sentiments were endorsed by Pauline Hanson. Gillard said: “That is a matter for her.”
Labor strategists regarded praise from the former One Nation leader not as cause for embarrassment, but as an indication of success in getting their message to the target constituency.
If that is so, could Labor now apologise to Hanson for having so viciously attacked her? Some Labor membership forms would be a nice gesture.
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Liberals half-pregnant on climate change waste
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(11:02am)
The Coalition plans $20 billion in budget savings from cuts to the climate change bureaucracy and industry carbon assistance…
Outlining for the first time details of the opposition’s climate change policy, environment spokesman Greg Hunt said the .... $20 billion in savings over four years would come from merging the departments of Environment and Climate Change, abolishing carbon assistance to companies, and closing down three climate change agencies: the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which funds “green” technology; the Climate Change Authority, an independent government adviser; and the Climate Commission, which promotes the science of climate change… Existing contracts with business would be honoured, except those entered into by the CEFC, resulting in a further $10 billion of off-budget savings from the abolition of the agency.
All of that colossal spending would made no difference to the climate anyway, even if man were heating the world - and even if that heating were bad for us.
But the Coalition does not dare make the argument. So it remains half-pregnant, keeping other schemes that will cost billions we don’t have to make even less difference to global warming:
[An Abbott Government would] keep the Clean Energy Regulator, which Liberal leader Tony Abbott once dubbed the “carbon cop”.
The decision to retain the regulator, which now reports to Climate Change Minister Greg Combet and administers the carbon price, may help the Coalition deflect Labor claims that its direct action plan will not do much to reduce carbon emissions.
The Carbon Farming Initiative, which allows farmers to earn carbon credits by planting trees and reducing land clearing, would be expanded to enable new forms of abatement to be verified by the Clean Energy Regulator.
The Coalition tries to claim these schemes have side benefits that make them worth doing anyway:
The Carbon Finance Initiative was created by the Labor government to enable farmers and other landholders to generate carbon credits through tree planting, increasing soil carbon, savannah burning and other activities.
Sounds more like pork for the rural vote to me.
That scheme will be broadened to make essentially no difference to the temperature - which is why the Coalition isn’t game to give that figure, preferring the vague measure of tonnes of gasses abated instead:
The Emissions Reduction Fund will commence with an initial allocation of $300 million, increasing to $500 million in Year 2, $750 million in Year 3 and $1 billion in Year 4. This would support 140 million tonnes of annual abatement.
But this scheme has zero benefit to anything, and I suspect the Liberals will not go ahead with it - unless they are mad:
In an effort to reassure business, Mr Hunt said the Coalition’s “Direct Action” policy of buying dirty power stations ... would not require complex legislation.
What a stupid policy: buying working power stations only in order to close them. And replace them with what? To make exactly what difference to the world temperature?
That’s just throwing away a couple of billion dollars on absolutely nothing.
Before an Abbott Government does any such mad thing, here is what it should do: set up an inquiry with both sceptics and warmists to settle the following questions:
- How much is man heating the world really? What does the 16-year pause in warming mean?- Is the expected warming, if any, good for Australia or bad?- What difference would cuts in Australia’s emissions make to the global temperature and to our climate?- Is the cost of cutting our emissions worth the net gain from any change to the climate?- What is cheaper: to deal with whatever a warming climate may one day bring or to try to “stop” that warming?
These fundamental questions have never been properly answered.
Before the Coalition promises billions in spending it should demand those answers. It rightly insists Labor should have demanded a cost-benefit analysis of the NBN. Let it commission one on global warming spending, which in the long term threatens to waste even more money on less.
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I’m giving Napthine a go
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(9:32am)
Denis and Peggy Napthine ... were in their late 20s. They’d taken on the role of parents for the Hamilton house that cared for up to 10 intellectually disabled residents.
Little Jack was one of them. On his first night, at 4am, they heard his footsteps along the passageway. He walked in and crawled under the covers between the couple.He had claimed his new parents. As he wormed his way into their affections, they realised they would never give him up.He learned to speak with careful coaching. Dr Napthine had a game, challenging Jack to investigate the eye colour of someone new. It taught him to make eye contact.They were adamant he should slot into a mainstream school. He’d last only half a day, an hour, a day in some places they tried. Then they struck a Lutheran school in Tarrington. He stayed there for primary school, mixed with other kids, and reached his potential.Jack taught the couple the most helpful of life’s lessons - resilience. And in politics, that’s a good thing to learn early.THE little boy with autism is now 37.When he was a teen, he became big brother to two other boys, Edward and Tom. They were a long time coming and the Napthines had figured there might not be more children.
Family was important to them.
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Exactly what is the Sharks’ crime?
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(9:21am)
Benjamin Koh says it’s not clear that what the Cronulla Sharks are accused of is actually illegal doping. He goes through the pharmacology and the rules:
In last month’s Australian Crime Commission report into organised crime and drugs in sport, thymosin was listed as a substance used in injury recovery, but the report seemed to be conflicted in terms of thymosin’s legality in sport.
The ACC report listed it as an unregulated substance that is prohibited under section S2 of WADA’s list of substances prohibited in-competition.
But the report also referred to it as a substance prohibited only if “subject to the form used” – a statement on legality which presumably (but not clearly) refers to how the substance is administered (intravenously, by intramuscular means, or orally).
Read on.
This all reeks of violation of due process.... The players and the club need support from the best legal eagles and medical authorities that money can buy.
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Nice mums make good sons
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(9:16am)
He did a good job, and now I like him even more:
THERE was one small moment of light during Brisbane’s siege when Sky News reporter Joel Philp tried to show a photo of the alleged gunman sent to his mobile phone. As Philp held the screen up to the camera, the phone started ringing and, as the electronic cherry on the cake, the word “Mum” appeared in a corner of the screen. Philp did not disguise his embarrassment and we applaud him.
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I guess it didn’t work out so well
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(9:01am)
Dennis Rodman the ex-NBA star went on a so called basketball diplomacy tour to North Korea ...
North Korea threatens the United States with a preemptive nuclear strike
(Thanks to colleague Steve.)
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Just to remind journalists Labor will hurt
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(8:54am)
The Gillard Government, with impeccable timing, decides to remind all journalists just before the election that a returned Labor government would stifle their free speech and punish critics:
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says the government will bring forward media law changes before the September election
UPDATE
Of course, journalists who write from a certain point of view will find Stephen Conroy fuming at any barrier put in their way:
Nick Ross on the ABC’s Technology + Games blog on January 23:
WITH it being election year, there is a great deal to be done in informing the public about the current NBN policy and the consequences of ditching it in favour of a Coalition alternative.
How very dare they, the dreadful brutes. Stephen Conroy fuming with Jon Faine on ABC 774:
CONROY: There now seems to be a policy of trying to intimidate ABC personnel. Malcolm Turnbull is constantly attacking and trying to bully some of your journalists. And today I read in The Australian, and I know you shouldn’t always believe everything you read in The Australian, but a very disturbing thing where another journalist on the ABC staff has been internally disciplined because they’re not prepared to just accept every policy pronouncement or claim that’s made publicly. Now this cannot go on. These internal procedures of the ABC have to be more open and more transparent. Journalists cannot work on a basis that they’re going to be bullied and intimidated, and have complaints lodged against them in a process that is not transparent and open. This is the second ...Faine: Well, now, by way of background, the ABC has disciplined one of its editors, a man called Nick Ross, who edits a forum on the ABC’s online publications, who has been critical of the Coalition. Mr Ross has been critical of the Coalition’s broadband policy, and supportive of yours. And it’s been determined by the ABC internal complaints process that his reporting has not been even-handed.Conroy: Well, while I don’t agree with all of Nick Ross’s findings, he’s not someone I’ve ever met, except for I think at press conferences. I don’t agree with everything that Nick Ross writes in his columns. But what he’s been prepared to do is compare policies, now that is the job of journalists. To be prepared ...
Faine: No, he’s been accused of being part of your fan club.
(Thanks to reader Jono.)
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Unemployed First Bloke furious at sharing footy privileges with an Opposition Leader
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(8:05am)
Tim Mathieson, an eager user of freebies at the footy, is upset to see Opposition Leader Tony Abbott also given VIP treatment:
After attending an AFL clash at the MCG as a guest of the Richmond Football Club, Mr Mathieson emailed its chief executive, Brendon Gale, copying in the Prime Minister’s office, to complain about the Opposition Leader’s access to the team’s inner sanctum and his prominent seating at a pre-game function.Mr Mathieson demanded that Mr Gale raise the matter with the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Ben Hubbard.
His fiery outburst occurred on a Sunday evening after the Dreamtime AFL match between Essendon and Richmond on May 19 last year...
Mate u need to speak with Ben Hubbard on why abboott [sic] was taken down to the rooms ... .it’s just not on. Who authorised it. it was a shocker ... this sort of crap has to be addressed ASAP ... .also why the dons had abbott his chief of staff and his 2 daughters on the head table is a disgrace ... .
Gillard wasn’t there, but Mathieson brought along an old friend to enjoy the hospitality to which Mathieson has eagerly accustomed himself:
Mr Mathieson is a fanatical supporter of the Richmond “Tigers"… Richmond has accommodated Mr Mathieson’s requests for tickets, hospitality and memorabilia since his move into The Lodge.
At the Dreamtime game in Melbourne, the first bloke invited ABC Insiders host Barrie Cassidy to join him on the Richmond table. Both men visited the Richmond room before the contest, where they crossed paths with Mr Abbott, who was a guest of Essendon’s chairman David Evans...
A SUMMER afternoon watching cricket from the catered comfort of the chairman’s room at the Gabba in Brisbane cheered members and guests as they settled in for the one-day international between Australia and Sri Lanka.
Lips curled disapprovingly, however, when Tim Mathieson breezed in with three mates and his son Kane. The First Bloke’s untucked, open-necked denim shirt irked some sticklers keen to enforce the formal dress code, but forbearance prevailed amid whispered speculation about who had invited the party of five described by one of those present as “a motley crew”.
Over dinner their boisterous criticism of the Liberal Party grated on conservative ears. The mates ribbed Mathieson about his previous Coalition connections (his first wife, Diane Stark, worked briefly for former National Party MP Bruce Lloyd). His group included a former used car salesman who has been in the odd scrape, but what rankled an observer that day in mid-January was not so much the visitors’ backgrounds as their lack of deference. “It was a fairly unedifying performance,” according to a businessman seated at their table. “Given Tim Mathieson was there primarily because of the Prime Minister you’d expect a bit of grace. It is not as if he was paying his own way.”
No:
Tim Mathieson has not been in paid work since 2009, when Melbourne property developer and Labor benefactor Albert Dadon put him briefly on the payroll selling luxury apartments.
The list of freebies Mathieson has had to declare shows he can work hard when it comes to finding a free seat:
His registry since 2009 reads like a sports junkie’s almanac. He’s present at almost every major event on the Australian calendar: Formula 1 Grand Prix; Derby Day; Oaks Day; Twenty20 games; Test Matches; the Australian Open; State of Origin; the Bradman Oration; Sports Australia Hall of Fame dinner; final series for AFL and NRL. Cricket Australia and Richmond Football Club have been generous providers of tickets, hospitality and memorabilia.
That’s 900 ways government can say no
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(7:51am)
Many bureaucracies gain their power from saying no, so too many of them tend to make governments sclerotic.
Many bureaucracies gain their power from spending as much as they can on busy-busy, so too many of them tend to make governments wasteful.
So this is no good:
LABOR is being urged to cut into more than 900 agencies and bodies that add to spending and slow down decisions, amid a growing political row over ways to slash government waste…The Weekend Australian has confirmed that the federal government had at least 932 “bodies and governance relationships” in the last count by the Department of Finance but no survey had been done for more than two years…Most commonwealth employees work for 107 agencies, such as federal departments and statutory regulators. The number of agencies is up from 87 five years ago…Federal government payments, including administration as well as program costs such as health and welfare, are on course to reach $363.3bn this year, down on the previous year but up from $271.8bn when Labor took power in 2007…A spokeswoman for Finance Minister Penny Wong said the list referred to relationships that were treated “like bodies” but included office-holders, trusts, partnerships and joint ventures to facilitate the work of departments. The CSIRO had five ventures listed when in fact they were simply part of the one science agency, she said.“So in terms of actual agencies and entities that exist, there are, in fact, 197, not 932. In March 2006, there were 194,” she said.
Too many.
How many could be slashed without a tear from the taxpayer?
Pick which ones you’d scrap. A more concise list here.
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What is Labor waiting for this time?
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(7:32am)
Dennis Shanahan compares Labor’s vote under Julia Gillard to its vote when Labor MPs dumped Kevin Rudd, Kim Beazley, Simon Crean and Bob Hawke as losers.
Labor’s primary vote under Gillard - now at 31 per cent - is below that of Rudd (35 per cent), Beazley (39 per cent), Crean (35 per cent) and Hawke (36 per cent). For the sake of completeness, the ALP’s primary vote under Mark Latham when he resigned as leader was 37 per cent.On a two-party preferred basis Labor’s position under Gillard is also below the level it was when all the previous Labor leaders were successfully challenged and dumped from their jobs.On the question of voter satisfaction with the Labor leader’s performance, Gillard (30) is ahead of Beazley (28), Crean (22) and Hawke (27) but behind Rudd when he was removed on 36 per cent.
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Labor lying about foreign workers
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(7:20am)
JULIA Gillard’s decision to exploit foreign worker xenophobia in western Sydney contradicts her immigration policy, weakens her political authority and reveals yet again the flawed judgment that bedevils Gillard’s election agenda.Let’s get the facts on the table. Despite Labor’s cynical rhetoric it runs an expansive 457 temporary foreign workers visa intake into this country that in January this year totalled 105,325 workers, or 189,784 people when family members are included - far in excess of the Howard years…Are there rorts in the program? Yes, at the margins… The real story, however, is that 457 visas are a brilliant innovation of immense benefit to Australia’s economy and society…So what is Labor doing in its campaign? ... It’s bagging the 457 program… It’s putting the odious foreign worker rorting stamp on the scheme. It’s deliberately exaggerating the rorts, ... and attacking Tony Abbott on the grounds that he will give the scheme free licence and sell out “Aussie jobs”.This script is a farce. It shows how debased our politics has become. Labor is not telling the truth about its own policy or the Opposition Leader’s policy or the operation of 457 visas. It assumes the Australian public are dumb and people in Sydney’s western suburbs are the dumbest of them all.
When Kelly says “Labor” is lying, he’s too polite to name just who.
The Opposition Leader says what the Press Council says journalists must not:
A prime minister who tolerates people coming illegally to this country and then going on welfare and is now trying to demonise people coming legally to this country, paying taxes and making a contribution from day one.
UPDATE
“It’s so crass, it’s just embarrassingly bad,” one of her cabinet ministers despaired privately.And this was in the same week that the BRW inaugural Women’s Rich List declared that the richest self-made woman in Australia, co-founder of a $600 million-a-year Sydney company that employs over 900 workers, broadband provider TPG, was Vicky Teoh, an immigrant from Malaysia.The same week that the NSW Art Gallery announced an ambitious $400 million expansion plan, with the support of the gallery’s president, Steven Lowy, son of the Jewish refugee Frank Lowy, founder of Westfield, a $4 billion-a-year Sydney-based company that employs 4000 workers, and chairman of Football Federation Australia.The same week Gillard’s Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Kate Lundy, announced that resources had gone online to help promote Harmony Day for schoolchildren to “encourage students to think about their own heritage and the important concepts of diversity, harmony and belonging”.Gillard’s xenophobia in pursuit of low political advantage is a shameful moment, divisive and damaging in a country built on immigrants.
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Oakes verbals Abetz
Andrew BoltMARCH092013(7:01am)
Abbott had also declined to condemn - even to comment on - another front-bencher’s attempt to link asylum seekers and paedophiles in the public mind.
What actually happened, when Senator Eric Abetz fielded questions about residents in, say, an aged care facility being informed if asylum seekers are to be housed with them:
Journalist: The Government doesn’t inform the community when paedophiles are released from prison (inaudible) so why should they-Abetz: Well, there is a register in relation to those sex offenders and the community has spoken in relation to that, but they do want a register and communities do want to be notified, and if I might say, you know, I wouldn’t put the two in the same category necessarily.
A journalist made the link. Abetz refuted it. Oakes then accuses Abetz.
A wonderful game.
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Trust in God's love for you and you will see His favor bringing an abundance of blessings into your life! Check out today's devotional. Be sure to click "like" to help spread the word! Thanks, all! http://bit.ly/XVXgTJ
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Beloved, God wants you to live in the finished work of Christ—the realm of “done”. Everything you need—be it healing, provision or deliverance—has been accomplished for you by Jesus at the cross.
Long before you see your healing, know that God has already finished the work of your healing. If you are in lack, see that all the work for your provision has been finished.
Today, live in the place of rest. Live in the finished work of Christ!
http://josephprince.com/
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This week's audio and video podcasts are now available! Subscribe to or download Joseph Prince's podcasts today!http://www.josephprince.org/
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Health and healing flow when you keep hearing the gospel of Christ preached. Check out today's devotional. Be sure to click "like" to help spread the word! Thanks, all! http://bit.ly/XVXOZD
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Happy International Women's Day!
To celebrate, here are a few female scientists that you might not have heard of (but definitely should have). I haven't included Marie Curie, because as much as we all love her, she is the automatic "female scientist" that always springs to mind and I think it's time we branched out.
1. Ada Lovelace
Analyst, metaphysician, and founder of scientific computing. Read more about her life here:http://bit.ly/V3im
2. Rosalind Franklin.
Biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer who made critical contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. She received no credit for her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA. More on her life: http://bit.ly/4CJMC0
3. Rachel Carson
Marine biologist and conservationist whose book Silent Spring and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement. More on her life: http://bit.ly/16f4Hcm
4. Lise Meitner
A physicist who worked on radioactivity and nuclear physics. She was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, but was overlooked for the Nobel Prize in favour of male colleagues. More on her life: http://bit.ly/3js4zk
5. Cecilia Payne
Astronomer and astrophysicist who, in 1925, proposed in her Ph.D. thesis an explanation for the composition of stars in terms of the relative abundances of hydrogen and helium. More on her life: http://bit.ly/n4RNqS
6. Mary Anning
A paleontologist who made many important finds in the Jurassic marine fossil beds at Lyme Regis in Dorset. More on her life: http://bit.ly/rGXKq
<You probably need to look a little deeper into the life of Rachel Carson and the Silent spring. Evidence has come to light that a lot of what she got up to was fabricated and that indeed the banning of DDT has had many not so beneficial effects. The banning indeed was more a product of lobbying and convincing a court as to the deleterious effects rather than actual effects.>
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"It's never too early to learn that the government is a greedy piglet that suckles on a taxpayer's teat until they have sore, chapped nipples" Ron Swanson
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PLEASE ASK ANY LOGICAL PERSON FROM THE LEFT OR RIGHT THIS SIMPLE QUESTION....
HERE IS A SIMPLE QUESTION.. WITH A VERY LOGICAL ANSWER....
If a man grew up with communist Grandparents and a leftist Mother, who "married" a Muslim Socialist from Kenya, ( Maybe!! But no proof!! ) and was mentored by a Black Communist agitator on the FBI list in his teens ( Frank Marshal Davis) was promoted and helped by James Bowman a Communist Sympathizer ( Valerie Jarretts Father) and lived in Indonesia as a Muslim in his younger years, then came to America and was financed through College by Khalid Mansour (a PRO PALESTINIAN ANTI ISRAELI BIGOT) through the Saudi Government and then joined the Church of Black Liberation Theology run by Reverend Jeremiah Wright for 20 years and also became a Radical follower of Saul Alinsky... and befriended Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dorn.. (the Weather Underground Bombers) ...and then became the Lawyer for Acorn and then wehen he ran for elected office was endorsed by the Communist Party of America in his first run...made Valerie Jarrett who was Born in Shiraz Iran his main adviser...and openly announced that he wants to "FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORM THE UNITED STATES...."
YOU THINK THIS MAN LOVES AMERICA THE WAY IT IS..... OR DO YOU THINK HE MIGHT WANT TO CHANGE IT TO HIS WAY OF THINKING ???
Hmmmmmmmmm THINK ABOUT IT AND SHARE THIS WONT YOU !!
I Have a strong suspicion unless we do something about it this is not going to end well for regular Americans!
(BTW....THIS IS A REAL MAP OF OBAMA'S NEIGHBORHOOD IN 1995.
BEAR IN MIND HE KNOWS ALL THESE PEOPLE WELL. YOU HANG WITH THOSE YOU ASSOCIATE WITH!
Obama was neighbors with Farrakhan back in Hyde Park, and attended his “Million Man March” in 1995)
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Diana Vreeland. "You Don't Have to Be Pretty. You don't owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don't owe it to your mother, you don't owe it to your children, you don't owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked "female"."
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By Daniel Greenfield
Every year college campuses across the country hold a festival of hatred aimed at Jews and the Jewish State. Israeli Apartheid Week has become notorious for the targeted harassment of Jewish students, support for Hamas and even physical violence.
This year the David Horowitz Freedom Center has responded to Israeli Apartheid Week with Islamic Apartheid Week. Unlike Israeli Apartheid Week, which is based on a lie, Islamic Apartheid Week addresses the sexism, homophobia and religious bigotry threatening minorities in the Muslim world. To promote Islamic Apartheid Week, the Freedom Center attempted to place an ad in forty college papers.
The ad called "Faces of Islamic Apartheid" drew attention to the victims of Islamic sexism, homophobia and theocracy by briefly telling the stories of gay men hanged in Iran, women and girls murdered by their governments and their families for the crime of falling in love and the Christian Minister for Minorities Affairs in Pakistan's cabinet who was murdered for trying to reform his country's theocratic blasphemy laws.
These four women, three men and one little girl were the victims of Islamic Apartheid. Five of them have been murdered. Their memory lives on only when they are remembered. One has been on death row for six years. Telling her story may help save her life. The remaining two live under threat of death.
Instead of listening to their stories, the campus culture of political correctness drowned out their voices and apologized for even allowing their stories to be told.
Nine college papers turned the ad down, five of them in the University of California system which has been criticized for tolerating anti-Semitism. When the California State Assembly passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism on campus and warned that no public resources should be used for anti-Semitic hate, the University of California objected on free speech grounds. However free speech for Israeli Apartheid Week did not translate into free speech for Islamic Apartheid Week.
Seven college papers took the advertisement. Of those papers, Tufts University's Tufts Daily and Austin's Daily Texan both ran apologies from their editors for even printing the ad.
Tufts Daily editor Martha Shanahan called the decision to run the ad an "editorial oversight." Daily Texan editor Susannah Jacob denounced the attempt to tell the stories of victimized women and children as "hateful" and "an unspoken incitement to violence."
Martha Shanahan spent two pages apologizing for the existence of the "Islamophobic and violently offensive" advertisement, the existence of Tufts Daily, its staff and her own existence. At no point during her long series of apologies, did Martha acknowledge that her paper had run four editorials in a single week from Students for Justice in Palestine attacking Israel and promoting hatred for the Jewish State. And in an unequal response to this, it also ran a brief letter from Tufts Friends of Israel distancing itself from the ad and politely suggesting that apartheid shouldn't be used to refer to Israel.
Anthony Monaco, the President of Tufts University, took to Twitter to denounce the advertisement for vilifying Islam, but made no such denunciation of the Tufts Daily's op-ed, "The Case for Israeli Apartheid" which (not coincidentally) appeared on the same day as the ad. At Tufts, no one apologizes for accusing democratic Israel of apartheid. There are only apologies when theocratic Iran and Pakistan are accused of practicing Islamic Apartheid.
When anti-Israel voices are outweighed 4-to-1 and the editor apologizes for publishing another perspective that would have made it 4-to-2 then the freedom of debate at Tufts University is in a very sad state. When that same editor prints editorials describing Israel as an apartheid state, but promises to put in place an entire system of oversight to make certain that no advertisement challenging Islamic Apartheid is ever printed again, then a system of censorship has been put into place silencing the voices of victims and encouraging their persecutors.
The Daily Texan's Susannah Jacob claimed that the crosshairs over the faces of the victims were an incitement to violence when they were actually a way of bringing urgency to the violence that had been committed against them. And making it clear that she never even saw the advertisement that she was denouncing, Susannah described the ad as depicting six women, when it included two gay men, one Christian man and one little girl.
Susannah further distorted the truth about Islamic Apartheid when she described the pervasive sexism, homophobia and theocracy that these people fell victim to as "discrete incidents of violence by Muslims" being used "to implicate all Muslims" while ignoring the fact that five of the victims in the ad had been targeted by their governments or with government backing.
Can the Daily Texan's editor honestly claim that Iran's persecution of women and gay men or Pakistan's persecution of Christians are "discrete incidents of violence", rather than state policy? Could she find a single human rights organization that would agree with such a dishonest whitewashing of the terror under which millions live?
The responses to the advertisement have established once again that some forms of apartheid are privileged on campus and that some forms of persecution cannot be talked about. Demonizing the Israeli victims of Islamic terror is within the realm of campus free speech, but speaking about the vulnerable minorities in the Muslim world is not.
If the advertisement was wrong, then there would have been no need to censor it. False claims can easily be disproven. Five minutes with Google would have told every reader and editor whether there was any truth to the Faces of Islamic Apartheid.
It is never necessary to censor lies. It is only necessary to censor truth.
That is why the majority of campus papers – ten so far, including Harvard whose editors said they would not print it under any circumstances -- refused to run this paid advertisement. It is why those few who did have begun making ritual apologies while lying about its contents. It is why the attacks on the advertisement have taken refuge in vague platitudes about offensiveness, without a single attempt at a factual rebuttal. It is why every response to the advertisement has consisted of claiming that speaking about Islamic bigotry is the real bigotry.
There were eight faces and eight names in the censored advertisement that the President of Tufts, the editors of Tufts Daily, the Daily Texan and the editors of ten college papers that turned down the ad, did not want their students to see or know about because it might disturb the manufactured campus consensus that they have constructed with great effort around Israel and Islamic terrorism.
These are the names. Amina Said. Sarah Said. Afshan Azad. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Shahbas Bhatti. Rimsha Masih. Mahmoud Asgari. Ayaz Marhoni.
They were repressed as individuals. Now their story is being repressed on the American campus.
Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center
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