Happy birthday and many happy returns Janet Diane and Guy Buchanan. Born on the same day, across the years. The same date when in 1810 Beethoven composed "Für Elise" aka "Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor." A day of beauty. Thank you.
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Abbott declares (cultural) war
Andrew Bolt April 27 2013 (5:39pm)
Is Tony Abbott now feeling confident enough to fight some cultural wars?
Yesterday he attacked Melbourne University for allowing gender segregation at halls hired out by Muslim groups.
Today he introduced his local candidates at a Liberal rally in South Australia like this:
I’ve noted already how Abbott’s recent media appearances have been impressively polished and self-assured. “He’s arrived,” I said.
I’d add today’s rally to the list. An easier ask, true, but Abbott performed with real verve, unscripted and optimistic. His final words gave a message I think will resonate:
Yesterday he attacked Melbourne University for allowing gender segregation at halls hired out by Muslim groups.
Today he introduced his local candidates at a Liberal rally in South Australia like this:
We are a good team but we are going to be an even better team. We are going to be an even better team because we are going to take some great South Australians to Canberra. Matt Williams, stand up Matt, a senior lawyer who is prepared to put that at risk to serve his country. Sue Lawrie, stand up, candidate for Makin, who helped to expose the secret women’s business sham.UPDATE
I’ve noted already how Abbott’s recent media appearances have been impressively polished and self-assured. “He’s arrived,” I said.
I’d add today’s rally to the list. An easier ask, true, but Abbott performed with real verve, unscripted and optimistic. His final words gave a message I think will resonate:
Our challenge is to build a better nation. Our challenge is to help unlock the potential that exists in our country and in our state. Our challenge is to try to ensure that every single Australian is helped, encouraged, enabled to be the very best self that that person can be. As I look around this audience I can see optimism, I can see confidence. Yes, we have got 140 days to go and sometimes those 140 days will drag on and on and endlessly on but we know things can be better. We know we can have a government that doesn’t try to divide Australians. We know we can have a government that doesn’t play the outdated class war card. A false war if ever there was one in this country. We know we can have a government which doesn’t try to set people against people with this class war, with this gender war, with this birthplace war, we know all that is so wrong because Simon Crean himself has said so. Labor to the bootstraps and what has he said? He said, ‘the government in which I was a cabinet Minister is setting Australian against Australian, trying to start a class war, betraying the best values of the Party I thought I knew because it is led by someone with a tin ear. It’s led by someone who is delusional.’ That’s what he said in the paper today. Well, it is time for a change. It is time for a change. That is what we will deliver this country. This is the supreme challenge that I face. This is the supreme challenge that all of us face and I tell you this, we will not let our country down.
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Who takes responsibility for the dead?
Andrew Bolt April 27 2013 (9:08am)
Labor has lured some
1000 people to their deaths by dismantling John Howard’s “cruel” border
laws. Now it’s arguing about who should save those drowning in this
armada of arrivals:
AUSTRALIA’S maritime rescue authority passed responsibility to Indonesia for two boat emergencies that resulted in 187 deaths even though Indonesia had a “limited capacity” to effect sea rescues.
A 2012 federal government document, released under freedom of information laws, has emerged ... as a record number of asylum-seekers—2899—have made the dangerous boat journey to Australia this month alone…
Sydney University associate professor of law Tim Stephens warned Australian authorities against “going through the motions” in passing incidents to Indonesia to handle “when they know full well that (the Indonesians) cannot actually do what they are obliged to do"…
Among summaries of “significant events” in the key issue brief are the incidents of June 19-21 and August 29-31 last year, during which AMSA transferred responsibility to Indonesia, but its ineffective responses were followed by mass drownings.
Australia eventually re-took control of both rescues, 30 hours later in the June incident in which 92 people drowned between Java and Christmas Island, and 12 hours later in August when 95 people died about 80km west of Java. On April 12 this year AMSA passed a report to Basarnas about a possible sinking in the Sunda Strait in which an estimated 58 people drowned.
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What interested the police in Gillard’s interview
Andrew Bolt April 27 2013 (8:52am)
Hedley Thomas on the police investigation into the AWU scandal - and Julia Gillard’s role:
Here is the part of Fordham’s interview with Gillard which has interested detectives:
IN the days after a heated 2GB radio interview in March, during which Julia Gillard was questioned closely about the AWU slush fund scandal, a detective in Victoria’s Fraud Squad, Ross Mitchell, made a strategic decision.(To repeat: Gillard says she knew nothing of her boyfriend’s scams and did not profit from them. She says she did nothing wrong.)
One answer the Prime Minister gave during a dogged tussle in her interview with Ben Fordham stood out. Mitchell knew it when he heard it. The other detectives knew it too.
Although seemingly innocuous to those not involved in the probe, Gillard’s answer was new and pivotal. It meant police in Melbourne would need a sworn statement from Fordham in Sydney, even though as a journalist he would be expected to subsequently disclose some key facts.
The actions that Mitchell and other police took in seeking further information from Fordham led to him stating in unequivocal terms on his radio show this week something that had been previously cryptically and very carefully inferred - the Prime Minister is under formal Victoria Police investigation as a result of the 18-year-old Australian Workers Union fraud…
With questioning so far of witnesses in Queensland, Victoria, NSW and Western Australia, up to a dozen detectives are particularly interested in the creation and operation of a union election slush fund, misleadingly called the AWU Workplace Reform Association.
The entity was set up and formally registered in Perth with the help of Gillard’s legal advice (as a solicitor at Slater & Gordon) to her then boyfriend and client, AWU official Bruce Wilson, and his union sidekick, Ralph Blewitt. The two men allegedly used it as a slush fund to siphon hundreds of thousands of dollars from Thiess during the construction company’s development of a major project that required both labour and industrial peace from AWU members.
Some of the money, which was kept secret from everyone else in the union, would go into a $230,000 terrace house at 85 Kerr Street, Fitzroy, bought by Wilson (in Blewitt’s name) at an auction he attended with Gillard, whose firm would manage the conveyancing… In his only recent public statements Wilson has backed Gillard, saying she knew nothing about any wrongdoing…
One of the planks of Blewitt’s story, which 2GB’s Fordham latched on to in his interview with the Prime Minister in March, concerns a “power of attorney” document bearing Gillard’s signature as the official witness. According to Blewitt, it was a false document…
The document permitted Wilson to buy the Fitzroy terrace house (in Blewitt’s name) at auction. Blewitt, who was living in Perth at the time, claims it is bogus - that Gillard could not have “witnessed” it as they were thousands of kilometres apart at the time.
In previous rejections of Blewitt’s claims about this document, the Prime Minister insisted she always witnessed such documents properly as a solicitor. But Fordham tells Inquirer that all of Gillard’s previous answers seemed to avoid declaring outright that she and Blewitt were in the same room when the power of attorney was witnessed…
Gillard finally confirmed to Fordham that she and Blewitt were in the room when the document was signed. It is an assertion that could only be wrong if Victoria Police have evidence placing them on opposite sides of Australia.
Here is the part of Fordham’s interview with Gillard which has interested detectives:
BEN FORDHAM:As I said at the time:
You… can see that money from the slush fund may have been used to buy a house in Melbourne. Now you attended the auction with your then boyfriend Bruce Wilson, but the property was purchased in the name of Ralph Blewitt even though he’d never seen the house. Now in order for this to be done legally, a power of attorney would need to be signed allowing ... Bruce to buy the property on Ralph’s behalf.... So, when this property was purchased on Ralph’s behalf, the law states that you would have to be present when Ralph Blewitt signed the documents. Ralph Blewitt claims that you were not present. He claims that Bruce Wilson flew to Perth to get him to sign the documents and that you signed it at a different time in a different place. Now you did not fly to Perth to witness those documents, did you?JULIA GILLARD:
And I’ve consistently dealt with this too. I properly witness documents as a lawyer. So you can believe Mr Blewitt or you can believe me Ben. I’m not overly fussed what you conclude, but I witnessed documents properly as a lawyer.BEN FORDHAM:
Ok, if you’ve always obeyed the law in carrying out your duties, you’d be able to make a statement to police confirming that you’ve never witnessed one of these documents without the relevant person being present.JULIA GILLARD:
Ben, excuse me, that is incredibly offensive and I’m not going to let it go past. I have done nothing wrong in this matter. I have said that for 20 years. I will continue to say that, because it is the truth. Anybody who wants to know anything about this matter from my perspective has already got the benefits of it being canvassed publicly and in Parliament over the best part of 20 years. I’ve given full details and I never did anything wrong and please don’t use forms of words that imply the contrary.BEN FORDHAM:
Prime Minister, you and Ralph Blewitt were there together and signed the documents together – that’s what you’re saying just to confirm?JULIA GILLARD:
I’ve witnessed documents properly as a lawyer.BEN FORDHAM:
Yeah, you and Ralph Blewitt were in the room together, you signed them together yes?JULIA GILLARD:
Look Ben, these documents were of – as a lawyer I witness thousands of documents, so as a lawyer for eight years I witnessed thousands of them. I don’t remember each document, but I witnessed documents properly.BEN FORDHAM:
And if you always witnessed them properly, then you and Ralph Blewitt were in the room together and signed at the same time.JULIA GILLARD:
Well absolutely. I witness documents properly.BEN FORDHAM:
And this one?JULIA GILLARD:
What’s your point? I witness documents properly.BEN FORDHAM:
Ok, it just sounds like one of those things Prime Minister where I’m asking about a specific moment whether or not…JULIA GILLARD:
And over eight years, I can’t sit here on the phone with you and go through every document over eight years as a lawyer.BEN FORDHAM:
Sure, but it would stand out though.JULIA GILLARD:
…that this document was of no particular significance at the time that my practice as a lawyer was to witness documents properly.BEN FORDHAM:
Yeah, it was of significance, because it was the only time that you were witnessing a document that involved the purchase of a property that your then boyfriend was involved in. That’s why it would stand out.JULIA GILLARD:
But it’s like asking you, can you give me the opening words of an interview you did three years ago. The matter had no particular significance at the time. It has the significance now because of how politically used it’s been. It wasn’t significant then.
Note the bit in bold. The audio of it picks up a hesitation that makes the answer more ambiguous that the transcript suggests. Is Gillard really for the first time insisting she was in the room with Blewitt to witness his document, as required by law? Or is she saying, absolutely she witness documents properly - a more general assertion?The full transcript, a copy of the power of attorney and a link to the audio of the interview here.
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No kidding
Andrew Bolt April 27 2013 (8:31am)
Treasurer Wayne Swan concedes the obvious:
I know the Labor Party isn’t exactly the flavour of the month at the moment and we haven’t always pulled the right rein every single time over the last few years.I’d love Swan to list those wrong rein-pulls.
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Our money gone, defences down. And when China cools…
Andrew Bolt April 27 2013 (8:09am)
Paul Kelly:
I’d rather talk first about spending cuts before discussing tax rises. But there is no doubt we’re in strife:
In an interview with Inquirer, the University of Melbourne’s Ross Garnaut, China specialist and former adviser to Bob Hawke, says: “If we continue with the current economic policy settings and current mentality, then a recession is very likely and the economy may kick along the bottom for a long while...”Terry McCrann:
Current reports that both Labor and Liberal now admit the reality of budget deficits barely scrape the surface of the new politics required…
The economic convulsion Garnaut sees arises not from the end of China’s growth but the demise of its particular resources boom that dramatically boosted Australia’s national income....
“...This will be a hit to the Australian economy that we have not experienced in modern times.”
The spectacular growth in export volumes and prices of the post-2009 period have cemented an assumption that this is the “new normal”.UPDATE
But it is a very uncertain stability that requires Chinese demand to keep growing at extraordinary rates.
China doesn’t have to sneeze for us to catch cold. It merely has to have the slightest sniffle. And if it does sneeze?
I’d rather talk first about spending cuts before discussing tax rises. But there is no doubt we’re in strife:
Australia’s longest-serving finance minister, Liberal Nick Minchin, said the federal government had to look at increasing the GST rate or broadening its base in the next decade to deal with a long run of budget deficits that will make the central bank’s job tougher.
Mr Minchin, who was one of the architects of the 10?per cent GST, also said spending should be cut as part of a five to ten year medium-term fiscal strategy to deal with “huge” structural problems and a looming funding crisis.
“The GST, in terms of its rate and its scope, will have to be revisited in the medium term,” Mr Minchin told the AFR Weekend on Friday. “It’s unavoidable in terms of a revenue side and a consumption tax is the best way to address the revenue problem.”
Mr Minchin said the fiscal outlook was at a “critical” level, and the aid budget and health expenditure needed to be urgently reviewed.
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Crean keeps probing Gillard’s wounds
Andrew Bolt April 27 2013 (7:45am)
The most interesting thing about Simon Crean’s story today - of having for months contemplated the March leadership spill against Gillard - is that he’s telling it. Still stirring that pot:
Twenty-four hours after Kevin Rudd squibbed the caucus ballot, the former prime minister said the “spontaneous combustion” of Mr Crean’s call for a spill had “caught many of us off guard”.
Yet ... Mr Crean reveals how he first held talks with Mr Rudd late last year before a series of “one-on-one” meetings early this year to test whether the former prime minister was ready for a more inclusive style of leadership…
After consulting his closest confidants and ministerial allies, he began dealing with Mr Rudd’s loyal lieutenants in earnest.
More Crean revelations - significant only in that he’s making them:
“No battle plan survives contact with the enemy,” laments a Rudd supporter of Crean’s visit to Ms Gillard’s prime ministerial sanctum on that Wednesday evening.And Martin Ferguson, who quit as Minister after the attempted spill failed, makes a rare public comment on Gillard’s sacking of Crean:
“I wanted to have the honest discussion,” Mr Crean said of his candid appeal to the Prime Minister, during which he catalogued the political unrest he felt she’d brought upon herself.
“I said: ‘You just can’t blame it on destabilisation, you’ve got to look at your own contribution to this. It had to be resolved one way or another.’ It had to be called on.”
She was defiant. She said to me: ‘I’m not going to do it. If he’s going to challenge, let him do it.’”
The Prime Minister began phoning MPs that night to shore up her position. When Mr Crean went public, she sacked him promptly, then sprung the ballot on an unsuspecting caucus.
“I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe what she’d done after all he had done for her. He should not have been sacked for telling the truth."…Who are these people that Labor keeps offering as leaders?
“I knew what he [Crean] did to advance her career,” he explains later. “She would not be where she is today if it hadn’t been for Simon...”
When I ask Crean what he thinks of Gillard, the pause that follows is so long and painful I buckle eventually and allow him to speak off the record. His measured language picks apart her performance. Vitriol and personal denigration are not his style but he doesn’t cut Rudd any slack. “Spineless,” he says of the former PM’s failure to stand in the leadership spill. “Delusional?” I suggest. “In many ways both of them are, for different reasons,” Crean reflects.There is stirring among Labor…
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
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I vote for character
Andrew Bolt April 27 2013 (7:18am)
Joseph Curl went to a gathering of the five living US presidents and saw one outclass the others:
Shortly after Barack Obama was elected in 2008, a fellow reporter who’d covered President George W. Bush all eight years told me she’d had enough of the travel and stress and strain of the White House beat, that she was moving on…UPDATE
I asked her if she’d miss covering President Obama.
“Not at all. He’s an inch deep. Bush is a bottomless chasm, a deep, mysterious, emotional, profound man. Obama is all surface — shallow, obvious, robotic, and, frankly, not nearly as smart as he thinks. Bush was the one.”
...By the way, she’s a hardcore Democrat.
But she was right. And that contrast was apparent to all who watched Thursday’s ceremonial event to open W’s new presidential library in Dallas....
Jimmy Carter ... was first to speak. But he was, as always, befuddled.
...he opened with, “In 2000, as some of you may remember, there was a disputed election for several weeks.” Nice way to start. He then took credit for giving W the idea to intercede in Sudan… He never mentioned 9-11 and the war on terror, or the commander in chief’s leadership during America’s most trying hour. Which is why his comments lasted just 3¼ minutes.
Bill Clinton followed. He, of course, spoke twice as long, filling his speech with jokes and faux humility. He was his usual affable self… But… Mr. Clinton, for all his prodigious gifts, will always be the class clown…
George H.W. Bush, turning 90 in June, was a welcome respite. Somewhat frail now, he spoke only briefly from his wheelchair, but garnered two standing ovations — and the biggest laugh of the day from his oldest son. After his remarks, just 24 seconds, he shook his boy’s hand and said, deadpan, “Too long?”
President Obama took the podium next. Every bit as cunning as Slick Willy, his speech too was filled with fake self-effacing insights, including one on “the world’s most exclusive club,” which he said “is more like a support group."… Then, on a day that was intended to be without politics, he hawked his push for amnesty…
Mr. Obama skipped the praise he had laid on W the night before. “Whatever our political differences, President Bush loves this country and loves its people and shares that same concern and was concerned about all people in America, not just those who voted Republican. I think that’s true about him, and I think that’s true about most of us.”
Except it’s not. Especially not this president. He has made his presidency about dividing America — along lines of class, sex, race, sexuality, you name it…
Then, finally, W took the podium.... He gave a profound lesson to his successor and his predecessor: “In democracy, the purpose of public office is not to fulfill personal ambition. Elected officials must serve a cause greater than themselves…
“As president, I tried to act on these principles every day. It wasn’t always easy and it certainly wasn’t always popular … And when our freedom came under attack, we made the tough decisions required to keep the American people safe,” he said to loud applause.
But it was the end that gave us the truest glimpse of the man… With tears in his eyes, his voice breaking, he said: “It’s the honor of a lifetime to lead a country as brave and as noble as the United States....” By the end he was in tears, barely able to creak out: “God bless.”..
But there was one last classy move not many saw. The program nearly over, Sgt. 1st Class Alvy R. Powell Jr. came to the side of the stage to perform the “Star Spangled Banner.” A big, powerful black man, Mr. Powell belted out the anthem. With the crowd applauding, the sergeant moved along the line of people, shaking hands with all. After greeting W, he turned to go. But the 43rd president put his hand on the sergeant’s arm and said, “Stay,” just as a chaplain stepped forward to give a benediction.
Peggy Noonan saw the same ceremony and is more gracious to Carter ("gracious and humorous") and Clinton ("generous to others” and “funny"). But on Obama she is agreed:
This week something changed. George W. Bush is back, for the unveiling of his presidential library. His numbers are dramatically up. You know why? Because he’s the farthest thing from Barack Obama.
Obama fatigue has opened the way to Bush affection.
In all his recent interviews Mr. Bush has been modest, humorous, proud but unassuming, and essentially philosophical: History will decide. No finger-pointing or scoring points. If he feels rancor or resentment he didn’t show it. He didn’t attempt to manipulate. His sheer normality seemed like a relief, an echo of an older age.
And all this felt like an antidote to Obama—to the imperious I, to the inability to execute, to the endless interviews and the imperturbable drone, to the sense that he is trying to teach us, like an Ivy League instructor taken aback by the backwardness of his students. And there’s the unconscious superiority…
Here’s a hunch: The day of the opening of the Bush library was the day Obama fatigue became apparent as a fact of America’s political life.
When Bush left office, his approval rating was down in the 20s to low 30s. Now it’s at 47%, which is what Obama’s is. That is amazing, and not sufficiently appreciated…
The headline of the Bush Library remarks is that everyone was older and nicer… (But) President Obama was more formal than the other speakers and less confident than usual, as if he knew he was surrounded by people who have something he doesn’t… He veered into current policy disputes, using Mr. Bush’s failed comprehensive immigration reform to buttress his own effort. That was manipulative, graceless and typical.
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First the allegations. Now a promise of some evidence
Andrew Bolt April 27 2013 (6:58am)
Rebecca Wilson says some evidence will come out next week to justify some of the smear in February of Australian sport.
Let’s see if it matches the claims that sport - with the AFL, NRL, rugby union, cricket and soccer presented on stage - was riddled with widespread taking of illicit drugs, matchfixing and links to organised crime.
Wilson:
Evidence first, then allegations.
Let’s see if it matches the claims that sport - with the AFL, NRL, rugby union, cricket and soccer presented on stage - was riddled with widespread taking of illicit drugs, matchfixing and links to organised crime.
Wilson:
I have been an extremely vocal critic of the Australian Crime Commission and the investigation into alleged systemic doping in professional football.I have no reason to doubt Wilson. But even on this account, contested allegations against one NRL club, and also Essendon, with players yet to be interviewed, do not to me go anywhere near justifying the original press conference.
There is little doubt that elements of the investigation have been marred by the media conference at which senior government ministers and ACC personnel claimed they had uncovered widespread doping, possible match-fixing and the involvement of organised crime in professional football in Australia…
Now, however, the chickens are coming home to roost.
Next week will see more facts uncovered in what is becoming Australia’s biggest doping investigation.
The independent report compiled by senior counsel Trish Kavanagh [on the Cronulla club] underlines her and independent oncologists’ deep concerns about the possible causal link between peptides and the acceleration of Jon Mannah’s cancer…
This week, I have been blown away by the level of information I have received from various credible sources which vindicates to a large extent the original stand taken by the ACC.
That information leaves very little doubt that the use of peptides has been uncovered at the Cronulla rugby league club and led to the compilation of a damning independent report by the club which is now in the hands of the NRL, ASADA and NSW Police.
Legal constraints mean that a large portion of the evidence cannot yet be published. Suffice to say that what will unfold in coming weeks will be damning for Cronulla and, almost certainly, the Essendon AFL club…
[Cronulla] sources believe more than a dozen players are implicated along with coaching staff and others involved at the club.
Evidence first, then allegations.
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Forget everything they said last year about a surplus
Andrew Bolt April 27 2013 (6:21am)
Last year the Gillard Government said we must reach a surplus this year - or else:
Treasurer Wayne Swan:This year the Gillard Government says we must not reach a surplus this year - or else:
Our commitment to return the budget to surplus in 2012-13 is even more important in the environment that we’ve got in Europe. We’re seeing the consequences of lax fiscal policy in many of those countries with the sovereign debt problems and the flowthrough effects there to the banking system. It’s very important, it’s very important that we demonstrate to the world our record of fiscal discipline which has been second to none over the past four years of this government.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard:
IT’S in the interests of families right around the nation that we bring the budget to surplus; there couldn’t be anything more in their interest.Finance Minister Penny Wong:
If we look at the world that we live in now, this post-global financial crisis world, there has never been more punishment meted out to countries that don’t meet their fiscal targets than there is today.
Australia’s economy is moving back towards trend growth, we have relatively low unemployment and we are experiencing a once in a generation investment boom.
Given these strengths, returning the budget to surplus is the right thing to do…
A surplus positions the nation well in the face of global uncertainty and sends a strong message of confidence to investors both domestically and overseas.
Treasurer Wayne Swan:
When expenditure in an economy is savagely slashed, aggregate demand is suppressed and unemployment rocks up, and ultimately savings in the economy (including the budget position) deteriorate, and in the long run we are all poorer.Prime Minister Julia Gillard:
When you’ve got that kind of problem with the amount of money coming in you can do one of two things. You can say well, we’ll keep cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting on the expenditure side, which would really hurt people, or you can take the approach that we’re taking and say well, you know, the revenue coming in will recover over time… We’ve got to keep our economy strong. Cutting and cutting and cutting wouldn’t help our economy stay strong. It would hurt people.Finance Minister Penny Wong:
What we won’t do is cut to the bone, cut the wrong things, which is the approach Tony Abbott would take.
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Will the ABC promote diversity within Media Watch?
Andrew Bolt April 27 2013 (12:02am)
The ABC is very, very keen on diversity - including of opinion:
The ABC now has a perfect chance to prove it really does embrace diversity by appointing its first ever non-Leftist to host Media Watch. So far, every one of the seven presenters in the show’s history has been of the Left - Stuart Littlemore, Richard Ackland, Paul Barry, David Marr, Liz Jackson, Monica Attard and Jonathan Holmes. That monpoly - that monoculture - is astonishing, undeniable and inexcusable.
But now the ABC can finally redress this embarrassing breach of its own standards and requirements. Holmes is said to be resigning at the end of next month.
Will the ABC do the right thing? Or will it appoint its eighth straight Leftist?
The answer seems obvious.
UPDATE
Reader janama:
The ABC Charter requires the broadcasting of programs that contribute to a sense of national identity and reflect the cultural diversity of the Australian community. ABC Editorial Policies support the diversity of perspectives.But, oddly enough, that commitment to diversity - and that requirement to “reflect the cultural diversity of the Australian community” - seems to have been completely overlooked when appointing the presenters of the ABC’s main news and current affairs shows, every one of whom is of the Left.
The ABC Values include respect and collegiality and the reference to embrace diversity.
The ABC now has a perfect chance to prove it really does embrace diversity by appointing its first ever non-Leftist to host Media Watch. So far, every one of the seven presenters in the show’s history has been of the Left - Stuart Littlemore, Richard Ackland, Paul Barry, David Marr, Liz Jackson, Monica Attard and Jonathan Holmes. That monpoly - that monoculture - is astonishing, undeniable and inexcusable.
But now the ABC can finally redress this embarrassing breach of its own standards and requirements. Holmes is said to be resigning at the end of next month.
Will the ABC do the right thing? Or will it appoint its eighth straight Leftist?
The answer seems obvious.
UPDATE
Reader janama:
My recommendation is Jean Kitson. She’s part of the lefty clicque in the ABC, a regular on Thank God it’s Friday yet deep down there is a conservative carefully treading on thin ice.
For example, last night on TGIF on 702 she was asked for the winners and losers of the week. She nominated Barry O’Farrell as loser of the week for falling for Julia’s Gonski funding trick and nominated Julia Gillard as winner of the week for finding a once in a lifetime mug like Barry O’Farrell. Hardly the views of a lefty.
She is smart, quickwitted and well informed on current politics. No, she’s not a journalist but maybe that’s a good thing for the head of Media Watch.
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Rope access Vietnamese style , 20mm shipping rope , no harness
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Not all that is gold glisters - ed
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"A thing that looks like a Police Box, standing in a junkyard, it can move anywhere in time and space?" - Ian Chesterton, 1963
In the build up to Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS on Saturday, I've decided to make a trailer that summarises the "need-to-know" aspects of the Doctor's wonderful time machine whilst also celebrating the many memories associated with it.
I hope you enjoy,
Dom :D
Like Doctor Who? Of course you do, and if you haven't already come and join in with all things who over on Facebook at:
www.facebook.com/The.Doctor.Who.Tardis
CLIPS COPYRIGHT TO THE BBC NO INFRINGEMENT INTENDED.
MUSIC COPYRIGHT IMMEDIATE MUSIC.
TARDIS IMAGE TRADEMARKED BY THE BBC.
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I'm holding a candle 4 her
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Still a better love story than twilight
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There is always one
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Spanish national anthem has no lyrics .. and so crosses language barriers
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"I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe." Smith Wigglesworth
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But beer. It has lots of beer
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Last night's full moon started out pink and quickly transitioned to yellow once it cleared a cloud layer. I accidentally caught it in both colors at the same time.
And the first person who says this is photoshopped gets bopped on the head because 1) I suck at Photoshop, and 2) Seriously, I suck at Photoshop.
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Want to know how The Bible Series was able to achieve such amazing visual effects? Check out the exclusive featurette on your DVD or BluRay!http://bit.ly/Yrs9Ap
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Frank and John
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A new "nanosponge" could soak up toxins ranging from anthrax to snake venom by camouflaging as a red blood cell, new research suggests.http://oak.ctx.ly/r/4ew2
Here, a cross section of nanosponge that may be able to protect against infections and venoms.
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Frank Sinatra – Old Man River
- Music Video -
At this link:
http://
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LORD, You Alone are my portion and my cup; You make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will Praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes Always on the LORD. With Him at my right hand, I will Not be shaken. -Psalm 16:5-8
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The hockey stick model has been one of the main targets of climate skeptics, however, a string of subsequent studies by a number of scientific groups from around the world have all yielded essentially the same result.
Most recently, a paper co-authored by 78 experts from 60 scientific institutions found yet another hockey stick, explains Anne-Marie Blackburn, expert on environmental policy, and environmental scientist Dana Nuccitelli, in this op-ed article: http://oak.ctx.ly/r/4eu4
It is their continued lies which discredit them most. But to be fair, I still publish the liars who spruik AGW - ed
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HISTORY IN THE HEADLINES: A rare binary star system has put Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity to its most challenging test to date.http://histv.co/Y2xvSc
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Film Clip of the Day - April 24, 2013
Frank Sinatra Palm Springs Golf – Hollywood Backstage
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Honored to receive the TriBeCa Disruptive Innovation award today. Proud and excited about what we're doing at TheBlaze. And we're just getting started. http://bit.ly/15NDVJE
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Larry Pickering
CLIVE A POOR RICH BOY
Clive Palmer’s antics prove you don’t need to be smart to be rich. Australia’s mining boom fortuitously threw up some odd characters and Palmer is by far the oddest, so what’s behind his ill-fated new political party? Actually a severe case of frustration.
There are certain things money can’t buy, one is humility, another is a brain in good working order. Palmer is bereft of both.
Chucking copious amounts of lucre at major political parties may work for union bosses but apparently not for Palmer and his lost benefactor, the Coalition.
They, understandably, have had a gutful of him and now he wants revenge.
He is not politically naive enough to actually believe he can get his “United Australia Party” to the blocks and contesting Federal seats before September.
He could strike it lucky and flum a Qld Senate seat, but any bastard can do that. Just look at who warms the red benches now.
This latest stunt from the spoilt dinosaur boy is all about having donated millions to the conservatives without receiving anything but a condescending grin in return.
Palmer’s intention is to split the conservative vote and fragment preferences out of spite. That’s about the most he can achieve, even Clive should know that.
The media is content to waste time feeding a grossly inflated ego rather than report on a small matter of an Australian Prime minister seeking re-election while under investigation by a major fraud squad.
Oh well, them’s media priorities.
Anyway Clive, for Christ’s sake get over it! You present as a grossly overweight knob with a small dick complex who craves attention.
Want to prove otherwise, Clive?
I think the image is wide of the mark. One of the successes of the Howard government was that its ministers held diverse views and could test them publicly .. So both Turnbull and Howard could be in the same government but have opposing views on Monarchy. In this case I feel that Palmer is attracting those who would normally vote ALP, but don't wish to vote Lib. Naturally the media wish to portray it as division among the Libs .. - ed
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Looks like King Nebuchadnezzar's statue reinflated in Hinchinbrook. (See below traffic light) Teresa L
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There are two kinds of evil people....People who do evil stuff,and people who see evil stuff being done and don't try to stop it. - Holly
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Must-See Video: "I will never forgive you, and I will never come home, ever! I will use drugs until I overdose and am dead. And then you’ll feel bad, won’t you?" http://bit.ly/DRP042613Vid
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MAKING IT EASY FOR THE TERRORIST - Larry Pickering
There’s nothing more tragi-comical than 50 excited US cop cars, with sirens screaming, chasing one enterprising miscreant down an eight-lane highway.
Boston cops, in league with the FBI and many other conflicting law agencies, were just as comically keystone in their hunt for injured bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
After cordoning off an area in which they knew he was hiding, they instructed all residents to remain inside their homes for their own safety.
Yet residents’ safety suddenly became unimportant after they failed to find him and an order was made for residents and go about their normal business. Why?
Well, because the endangered residents were now being asked to do what the cops couldn’t do... find him!
And sure enough, within an hour, the suspect was located at risk to an aged resident.
As we now know, he was hiding, well-armed, in the homeowner’s boat that, according to the FBI, had already been searched. Mmmm.
Whether or not a boat is an obvious hiding place, is not the point. It seems not one agency knew of what any other agency was doing.
Cops were too busy backslapping each other and raiding non-related homes to check their own damn records while conducting a massive world-wide media blitz of photos of the two brothers already on their suspected terrorist List. Amazing!
Ominous Russian reports that older brother Tameran may have been radicalised in a Chechen mosque incredibly were sloppily dismissed after the FBI interviewed the budding terrorist.
This bloke was already in the system somewhere yet no-one bothered to look.
A spokeswoman for the ‘Boston Police Department’ said the ‘Boston Regional Intelligence Center’ was never even notified about the original FBI investigation prompted by Russian advice. Wow! Even more amazing!
David Procopio, the spokesman for the ‘Massachusetts State Police’, which oversees the ‘Fusion Center’, said the FBI didn’t share the information with other anti-terror centres.
He said, “Even if the FBI had informed the ‘Fusion Center’ of its inquiry, State officials would probably not have put Tsarnaev under any additional scrutiny”.
Procopio added, “... because the FBI had decided he did not pose a threat. We were not privy to the tip”.
That’s about six agencies on the job so far while ‘The Office of Homeland Security’ was busy in the Pentagon with their coffee percolators.
Other anti-terrorism intelligence units in Massachusetts were not even aware that FBI agents had previously investigated Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s jihad ties.
A spokeswoman for the ‘Boston Police Department’ said the ‘Boston Regional Intelligence Center’ also was never notified of the FBI investigation.
The Boston Globe reported: “As evidence of poor co-ordination and sharing of information among key security agencies continues to build, the White House has launched an internal investigation into the handling of the Tsarnaev case and will focus on weaknesses in the nation’s system of tracking suspected terrorists.”
The FBI is now claiming that State and local officials had open access to information about the Tsarnaev investigation through their participation in a Boston FBI unit called the ‘Joint Terrorism Task Force’. WTF!
Perhaps another security agency can be set up to co-ordinate all the other security agencies.
But there are good lessons for we Aussies in this US security debacle.
Australia has no fewer than five separate security agencies and none talks to another in a highly dangerous game of competitive ineptitude.
As I suggested in a previous article about what should be one of Abbott’s many cost-cutting opportunities, our bumbling security agencies must be merged, shedding hundreds of unneeded Public Servants.
At the same time we could give Aussies a modicum of protection from the many jihadist cells so obviously now in our midst, courtesy of this Labor Government.
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A recently excavated plaza and pyramid, which would have likely served as a solar observatory for rituals, is the oldest ancient Maya ceremonial compound ever discovered in the Central American lowlands and dates back 200 years before similar sites pop up elsewhere in the region, archaeologists announced yesterday (April 25). http://oak.ctx.ly/r/4dwf
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WILL ABBOTT BE A DUD? Larry Pickering
According to many posters on this site Abbott will be just a bad as Gillard. They may well be right, but who knows? Nobody knows.
It’s difficult to judge from his position in Opposition because his job is to oppose, and not much more.
He is certainly politically adept but will need the patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon to navigate his way around a Conservative Party with a massive majority.
His stoicism and ability to hold the party line under pressure is impressive. Yet Opposition leaders don’t make many mistakes... they don’t do anything!
Some skilful advisers have paved the way for him in Opposition but that won’t be sufficient for him to succeed at the coal face in government.
The tag I have as a vile, right-wing, misogynistic redneck nut job is indicative of just how bad PM Gillard actually is.
I will fully deserve the tag of left-wing, commo, Labor, pinko if Abbott approaches Gillard’s level of incompetence.
My guess is he won’t, but I’ve been wrong before.
Tony Abbott isn’t my sort of bloke but that’s a problem for me, not him.
He has a pre-programmed, robotic style that drains whatever personality he has but post Gillard, let’s face it, even Clive Palmer could look acceptable.
But there is one thing he must do to retain credibility (and I know I have harped on this before) he needs to dump his ill-advised 6-month parental leave nonsense.
That's six months' leave at full replacement wage, capped at $75,000 for six months.
It’s totally unaffordable and belongs in better times and with successive surpluses.
The suffocating weight of the NDIS (now named Disability Care Australia) the NBN, Gonski, Carers Recognition, Dental Scheme and array of other “initiatives” Gillard has left for Abbott to deal with puts his Parental Leave firmly in the trash can for now.
One and a half years of paid parental leave would be a devastating impost on struggling small businesses.
If implemented, the policy, which is a blatant attempt to pander to the women who had deserted him, will also severely disenfranchise those same women in the workforce.
The very thought of ripe ovaries would be enough to turn employers white.
How could an employer keep a position open for 6 months? That’s far too long for a temp, so someone would have to fill that vacant permanent position leaving the employer in a quandary in 18 months’ time.
Okay, it would be subsidised, costing billions we don’t have, but a period of 18 months is so much of an overreach that any female even considering pregnancy would target the employment that would serve her best.
Mmmm, so you think a prospective employer wouldn’t see that coming, eh?
The nomenclature was originally paid “Maternal" Leave, it was changed to the non-sexist “parental" benefit but let’s be realistic, what would be the percentage of men taking paid paternal leave?
Three per cent maybe? And they would be gay male adoptive “parents”.
So, if I was an employer I would certainly steer clear of all women of child-bearing age, as would all employers, and on a purely economic basis only.
Abbott should U-turn on this one soon or risk his own private Carbon Tax backflip later.
Prospective mums should be careful what they wish for... and so should Tony Abbott.
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Celebrating with the A League Champions at the Mariners civic reception on the Central Coast today. It was fantastic to see the huge crowd that turned out today to support the team. Best of luck to the players in their continuing campaign in the Asian Champions League.
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animal story!!
During a California wildfire rescue workers ran out of crates to place rescued animals, forcing them to put a fawn and a bobcat kitten in an office together. When they got back they found that fawn and the bobcat cuddling and the pair became inseparable.
Visit our Page -► Beautiful Amazing World
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Marty Robbins – My Own Native Land
- Music Video -
At this link:
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With Andrew Rohan MP, Clr Ken Yeung and Ece Hasan and Gary Young from Fairfield Police at the Bandaged Bear fundraising tonight. — atBonnyrigg Sports Club.
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Nice undies pal... #interesting #lol #filming #new #tv #Show #TheClubhouse #BradFitler #superheroes #WillMcCoy
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You are abundantly blessed because you have peace with God and the peace of God! Check out more in today's devotional and be blessed! http://bit.ly/11ps0OF
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The righteousness of faith speaks. So say "I am righteous in Christ! God's favor, wisdom and good success are mine today!"
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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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Check out today's devotional to find out why you can live the abundant life that Jesus came to give you! Be blessed!http://bit.ly/10ylVwt
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And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you…—Deut 28:2
Rejoice! God doesn’t just say that He wants to bless you. He says in His Word that His blessings will come upon you and overtake you!
In the Hebrew, the words God used are even stronger—His blessings will chase you down! That means you can’t run fast enough to escape them.
And the best news of all is: You don’t have to do anything to qualify for these blessings. Someone else has done all the work and paid the price for you to enjoy them—His name is Jesus.
So simply thank Him and receive every blessing that is yours today because of His finished work on the cross!
http://josephprince.com/
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- 1522 – Italian War of 1521–1526: The combined forces of Spain and the Papal States defeated a French and Venetian army at the Battle of Bicocca.
- 1667 – John Milton, blind and impoverished, sold thecopyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British Armyregulars defeated Patriot militias in the Battle of Ridgefield, galvanizing resistance in the Connecticut Colony.
- 1810 – Ludwig van Beethoven composed his "Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor", better known as "Für Elise", one of his most popular compositions.
- 1865 – An explosion destroyed the steamboat SS Sultana (drawing pictured) on the Mississippi River, killing an estimated 1,800 of the 2,400 passengers.
- 1967 – The Expo 67 world's fair opened in Montreal, with 62 nations and more than 50 million visitors ultimately attending.
- 1993 – Members of the Zambia national football team were killed in a plane crash en route to play a 1994 World Cup qualifying match againstSenegal.
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Events
- 33 BC – Lucius Marcius Philippus, step-brother to the future emperor Augustus, celebrates a triumph for his victories while serving as governor in one of the provinces of Hispania.
- 395 – Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of the more powerful Roman empresses of Late Antiquity.
- 1296 – First War of Scottish Independence: John Balliol's Scots army is defeated by an English army commanded by John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Dunbar.
- 1509 – Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.
- 1521 – Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
- 1522 – Combined forces of Spain and the Papal States defeat a French and Venetian army at the Battle of Bicocca.
- 1539 – Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (now Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
- 1565 – Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
- 1578 – Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favourites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
- 1650 – The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army from Orkney invades mainland Scotland but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
- 1667 – The blind and impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
- 1749 – First performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks in Green Park, London.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Ridgefield: A British invasion force engages and defeats Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut.
- 1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' hymn).
- 1810 – Beethoven composes Für Elise.
- 1813 – War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Upper Canada in the Battle of York (present day Toronto, Canada).
- 1840 – Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, is laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
- 1861 – President of the United States Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
- 1865 – The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution.
- 1865 – The steamboat SS Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom are Union survivors of theAndersonville and Cahaba Prisons.
- 1904 – The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
- 1909 – Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.
- 1911 – Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
- 1914 – Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1927 – Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) are created.
- 1936 – The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
- 1941 – World War II: German troops enter Athens.
- 1941 – World War II: The Communist Party of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Socialists, the left-wing Slovene Sokols (also known as "National Democrats") and a group of progressive intellectuals establish the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People.
- 1945 – World War II: German troops are finally expelled from Finnish Lapland.
- 1945 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.
- 1950 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
- 1953 – Operation Moolah is initiated by General Mark W. Clark against Communist pilots.
- 1960 – Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
- 1961 – Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
- 1967 – Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.
- 1974 – 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for the impeachment of US President Richard Nixon
- 1977 – 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.
- 1978 – Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
- 1981 – Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
- 1987 – The U.S. Department of Justice bars the Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
- 1992 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
- 1992 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.
- 1992 – Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
- 1993 – All members of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cupqualifying match against Senegal.
- 1994 – South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote. The Interim Constitution comes into force.
- 1996 – The 1996 Lebanon war ends.
- 2002 – The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.
- 2005 – The superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
- 2006 – Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.
- 2007 – Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.
- 2011 – The April 25–28, 2011 tornado outbreak devastates parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. 205 tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more.
[edit]Births
- 1623 – Johann Adam Reinken, German organist and composer (d. 1722)
- 1650 – Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1714)
- 1701 – Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (d. 1773)
- 1718 – Thomas Lewis, Irish-American surveyor and lawyer (d. 1790)
- 1724 – Thomas Gardner, American politician and soldier (d. 1775)
- 1737 – Edward Gibbon, English historian (d. 1794)
- 1748 – Adamantios Korais, Greek scholar (d. 1833)
- 1755 – Marc-Antoine Parseval, French mathematician (d. 1836)
- 1759 – Mary Wollstonecraft, English author and philosopher (d. 1797)
- 1791 – Samuel Morse, American inventor and painter, co-inventor of the Morse code (d. 1872)
- 1806 – Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies (d. 1878)
- 1812 – Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (d. 1883)
- 1812 – William W. Snow, American politician (d. 1886)
- 1820 – Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (d. 1903)
- 1822 – Ulysses S. Grant, American general and politician, 18th President of the United States (d. 1885)
- 1840 – Edward Whymper, English mountaineer (d. 1911)
- 1848 – Otto I of Bavaria (d. 1916)
- 1850 – Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German general (d. 1921)
- 1853 – Jules Lemaître, French critic and dramatist (d. 1914)
- 1857 – Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian artist (d. 1914)
- 1862 – Rudolph Schildkraut, Turkish-American actor (d. 1930)
- 1866 – Maurice Raoul-Duval, French polo player (d. 1916)
- 1878 – Frank Alvin Gotch, American wrestler (d. 1917)
- 1887 – Warren Wood, American golfer (d. 1926)
- 1888 – Florence La Badie, Canadian actress (d. 1917)
- 1893 – Draža Mihailović, Serbian-Yugoslav military commander (d. 1946)
- 1893 – Allen Sothoron, American baseball player (d. 1939)
- 1894 – George Petty, American artist (d. 1975)
- 1894 – Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian composer, conductor, musician, critic, and author (d. 1995)
- 1896 – Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player (d. 1963)
- 1896 – Sir William Hudson, Australian engineer, head of construction for the Snowy Mountains Scheme (d. 1978)
- 1898 – Ludwig Bemelmans, American author and illustrator (d. 1962)
- 1899 – Walter Lantz, American cartoonist (d. 1994)
- 1902 – Tiemoko Garan Kouyaté, French communist (d. 1942)
- 1903 – Horace Stoneham, American baseball team owner (d. 1990)
- 1904 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet and writer (d. 1972)
- 1904 – Nikos Zachariadis, Greek politician (d. 1973)
- 1906 – Yórgos Theotokás, Greek novelist (d. 1966)
- 1910 – Chiang Ching-kuo, Chinese-Taiwanese politician, President of the Republic of China (d. 1988)
- 1911 – Bruno Beger, German anthropologist (d. 2009)
- 1912 – Jacques de Bourbon Busset, French novelist, essayist, and politician (d. 2001)
- 1912 – Zohra Segal, Indian actress and dancer
- 1913 – Philip Abelson, American physicist (d. 2004)
- 1913 – Irving Adler, American mathematician, scientist, and author (d. 2012)
- 1913 – Luz Long, German athlete (d. 1943)
- 1916 – Enos Slaughter, American baseball player (d. 2002)
- 1918 – Sten Rudholm, Swedish jurist (d. 2008)
- 1920 – Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (d. 1956)
- 1920 – Edwin Morgan, Scottish poet (d. 2010)
- 1920 – Mark Krasnosel'skii, Ukrainian-Soviet mathematician (d. 1997)
- 1920 – James R. Mann, American attorney and politician (d. 2010)
- 1921 – Robert Dhéry, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2004)
- 1921 – John Stott, English theologian and clergyman (d. 2011)
- 1922 – Martin Gray, Polish Holocaust survivor and author
- 1922 – Jack Klugman, American actor (d. 2012)
- 1926 – Tim LaHaye, American author
- 1927 – Coretta Scott King, American civil rights activist, wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. (d. 2006)
- 1927 – Joe Moakley, American politician (d. 2001)
- 1927 – Sheila Scott, English aviator (d. 1988)
- 1927 – Tato Bores, Argentinian comedian (d. 1996)
- 1931 – Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist
- 1932 – Anouk Aimée, French actress
- 1932 – Pik Botha, South African politician
- 1932 – Maxine Brown, American singer (The Browns)
- 1932 – Casey Kasem, American actor and radio personality
- 1932 – Gian-Carlo Rota, Italian-American mathematician and philosopher (d. 1999)
- 1935 – Theodoros Angelopoulos, Greek director and screenwriter (d. 2012)
- 1936 – Geoffrey Shovelton, English singer and illustrator
- 1937 – Sandy Dennis, American actress (d. 1992)
- 1937 – Robin Eames, Irish clergyman
- 1938 – Earl Anthony, American bowler (d. 2001)
- 1938 – Alain Caron, French-Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1986)
- 1939 – Judy Carne, English actress and comedian
- 1939 – Stanislaw Dziwisz, Polish Cardinal
- 1939 – Jerry Mercer, Canadian drummer (Mashmakhan and April Wine)
- 1941 – Jennings Michael Burch, American author
- 1941 – Lee Roy Jordan, American football player
- 1941 – Pat Choate, American economist
- 1942 – Ruth Glick, American writer
- 1942 – Jim Keltner, American drummer (Traveling Wilburys, Plastic Ono Band, and Delaney & Bonnie and Friends)
- 1943 – Helmut Marko, Austrian race car driver
- 1944 – Michael Fish, English meteorologist
- 1944 – Cuba Gooding, Sr., American singer (The Main Ingredient)
- 1944 – Herb Pedersen, American singer-songwriter and musician (The Desert Rose Band)
- 1945 – Helen Hodgman, Australian author
- 1945 – August Wilson, American playwright (d. 2005)
- 1946 – Nicholas Serota, English director
- 1947 – George Kenneth Butterfield, American politician
- 1947 – Pete Ham, Welsh singer-songwriter and musician (Badfinger) (d. 1975)
- 1947 – Keith Magnuson, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2003)
- 1947 – Ann Peebles, American singer-songwriter
- 1948 – Frank Abagnale, American security consultant
- 1948 – Kate Pierson, American singer-songwriter and musician (The B-52's and NiNa)
- 1948 – Amrit Kumar Bohara, Nepalese politician
- 1949 – Grant Chapman, Australian politician
- 1951 – Ace Frehley, American musician and songwriter (Kiss, Wicked Lester, and Frehley's Comet)
- 1952 – George Gervin, American basketball player
- 1952 – Ari Vatanen, Finnish World Rally Champion (1981) and Member of the European Parliament (1999-2009).
- 1952 – Larry Elder, American political commentator
- 1953 – Arielle Dombasle, French singer, actress, model, and director
- 1954 – Herman Edwards, American football player and coach
- 1954 – Frank Bainimarama, Fijian politician, 8th Prime Minister of Fiji
- 1955 – Gudrun Berend, German hurdler (d. 2011)
- 1956 – Douglas P., English musician, photographer, and actor (Death in June and Crisis)
- 1956 – Bryan Harvey, American singer-songwriter and musician (House of Freaks) (d. 2006)
- 1957 – Rosanna Scotto, American news anchor
- 1957 – Michel Barrette, Canadian actor and comedian
- 1957 – Willie Upshaw, American baseball player
- 1957 – Adrian Utley, English musician (Portishead)
- 1959 – Sheena Easton, Scottish singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
- 1959 – Louis Lortie, French-Canadian pianist
- 1959 – Neil Pearson, English actor
- 1960 – Mike Krushelnyski, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1961 – Andy Schlafly, American attorney and activist, founder of Conservapedia
- 1962 – Ángel Comizzo, Argentine footballer
- 1962 – James LeGros, American actor
- 1962 – Choi Min-sik, South Korean actor
- 1962 – Im Sang-soo, South Korean director and screenwriter
- 1963 – Cali Timmins, Canadian actress
- 1963 – Russell T Davies, Welsh producer and screenwriter
- 1964 – Michael Mahonen, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1964 – Lisa Wilcox, American actress
- 1966 – Matt Reeves, American writer, director and producer
- 1967 – Aki Avni, Israeli actor
- 1967 – Tommy Smith, Scottish jazz musician, composer, and educator
- 1967 – Erik Thomson, Australian actor
- 1967 – Jason Whitlock, American journalist
- 1967 – Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange
- 1968 – Dana Milbank, American reporter and columnist
- 1969 – Cory Booker, American politician
- 1969 – Darcey Bussell, English ballerina
- 1969 – Grahame Cheney, Australian boxer
- 1969 – Vladimir Kozlov, Ukrainian-American wrestler and actor
- 1969 – Mica Paris, English singer and actress
- 1970 – Kylie Travis, English actress and model
- 1971 – Tess Daly, English television host
- 1972 – Nigel Barker, English photographer
- 1972 – Almedin Civa, Bosnian footballer
- 1972 – Mehmet Kurtuluş, German actor
- 1972 – David Lascher, American actor
- 1972 – Maura West, American actress
- 1973 – Duško Adamović, Serbian footballer
- 1973 – Andre Gower, American actor
- 1973 – Sébastien Lareau, Canadian tennis player
- 1974 – Frank Catalanotto, American baseball player
- 1974 – Johnny Devine, Canadian wrestler
- 1974 – Richard Johnson, Australian footballer
- 1975 – Rabih Abdullah, American football player
- 1975 – Chris Carpenter, American baseball player
- 1975 – Pedro Feliz, Dominican baseball player
- 1976 – Isobel Campbell, Scottish singer-songwriter, musician, and composer (Belle & Sebastian)
- 1976 – Sally Hawkins, English actress
- 1976 – Walter Pandiani, Uruguayan footballer
- 1976 – Faisal Saif, Indian director, critic, and writer
- 1976 – Olaf Tufte, Norwegian rower
- 1977 – Khalid Zoubaa, French runner
- 1979 – Will Boyd, American musician (Evanescence, American Princes, and The Visitors)
- 1979 – Natasha Chokljat, Australian netballer
- 1980 – Sybille Bammer, Austrian tennis player
- 1980 – Talitha Cummins, Australian journalist
- 1980 – Christian Lara, Ecuadorian footballer
- 1980 – Ananda Mikola, Indonesian race car driver
- 1981 – Fabrizio Faniello, Maltese singer-songwriter
- 1981 – Joey Gathright, American baseball player
- 1981 – Patrik Gerrbrand, Swedish footballer
- 1982 – Katrina Johnson, American actress
- 1982 – François Parisien, Canadian professional cyclist
- 1982 – Alexander Widiker, German rugby player
- 1983 – Ari Graynor, American actress
- 1984 – Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1984 – Daniel Holdsworth, Australian rugby player
- 1984 – Patrick Stump, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer (Fall Out Boy and Arma Angelus)
- 1985 – José António de Miranda da Silva Júnior, Brazilian footballer
- 1986 – Elena Risteska, Macedonian singer-songwriter
- 1986 – Dinara Safina, Russian tennis player
- 1986 – Jenna-Louise Coleman, English Actress
- 1987 – Taylor Chorney, American ice hockey player
- 1987 – William Moseley, English actor
- 1987 – Elliott Shriane, Australian speed skater
- 1987 – Emma Taylor-Isherwood, Canadian actress
- 1988 – Kris Thackray, English footballer
- 1988 – Semyon Varlamov, Russian ice hockey player
- 1989 – Lars Bender, German footballer
- 1989 – Sven Bender, German footballer
- 1989 – Emily Rios, American actress
- 1990 – Martin Kelly, English footballer
- 1991 – Jennifer Braun, German singer
- 1991 – Isaac Cuenca, Spanish footballer
- 1992 – Allison Iraheta, American singer
- 1994 – Elmo Magalona, Filipino actor and singer
[edit]Deaths
- 630 – Ardashir III of Persia
- 1272 – Zita, Italian saint (b.1212)
- 1404 – Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1342)
- 1463 – Isidore of Kiev (b. 1385)
- 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese explorer (b. 1480)
- 1530 – Jacopo Sannazaro, Italian poet (b. 1458)
- 1599 – Maeda Toshiie, Japanese general (b. 1538)
- 1605 – Pope Leo XI (b. 1535)
- 1613 – Robert Abercromby, Scottish missionary (b. 1532)
- 1625 – Mori Terumoto, Japanese warrior (b. 1553)
- 1656 – Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter (b. 1596)
- 1694 – John George IV, Elector of Saxony (b. 1668)
- 1695 – John Trenchard, English statesman (b. 1640)
- 1702 – Jean Bart, French admiral (b. 1651)
- 1782 – William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (b. 1710)
- 1813 – Zebulon Pike, American frontiersman and explorer (b. 1779)
- 1873 – William Charles Macready, English actor (b. 1793)
- 1882 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist (b. 1803)
- 1896 – Henry Parkes, English statesman and politician (b. 1815)
- 1915 – John Labatt, Canadian businessman and brewer (b. 1838)
- 1915 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (b. 1872)
- 1921 – Arthur Mold, English cricketer (b. 1863)
- 1932 – Hart Crane, American writer (b. 1899)
- 1936 – Karl Pearson, English mathematician (b. 1857)
- 1937 – Antonio Gramsci, Italian Communist, writer, and politician (b. 1891)
- 1941 – Penelope Delta, Greek author (b. 1874)
- 1952 – Guido Castelnuovo, Italian mathematician (b. 1865)
- 1961 – Roy Del Ruth, American director (b. 1893)
- 1962 – A. K. Fazlul Huq, Bengali statesman (b. 1873)
- 1965 – Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (b. 1908)
- 1967 – William Douglas Cook,New Zealand founder of Eastwoodhill Arboretum and Pukeiti (b. 1884)
- 1969 – René Barrientos, Bolivian politician, President of Bolivia (b. 1919)
- 1970 – Arthur Shields, Irish actor (b. 1896)
- 1972 – Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanaian leader, 1st President of Ghana (b. 1909)
- 1973 – Carlos Menditeguy, Argentine race car driver (b. 1914)
- 1977 – Stanley Adams, American actor (b. 1915)
- 1977 – Scott Bradley, American composer, pianist and conductor (b. 1891)
- 1981 – Münir Nurettin Selçuk, Turkish tenor and musician (b. 1968)
- 1988 – David Scarboro, English actor (b. 1968)
- 1988 – Fred Bear, American bow-hunter (b. 1902)
- 1989 – Konosuke Matsushita, Japanese industrialist, founder of the Panasonic Corporation (b. 1894)
- 1992 – Olivier Messiaen, French composer (b. 1908)
- 1992 – Gerard K. O'Neill, American physicist (b. 1927)
- 1995 – Willem Frederik Hermans, Dutch writer (b. 1921)
- 1996 – William Colby, American director of the Central Intelligence Agency (b. 1920)
- 1996 – Gilles Grangier, French director and screenwriter (b. 1911)
- 1998 – Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian writer (b. 1925)
- 1998 – John Bassett, Canadian publisher (b. 1915)
- 1998 – Dominique Aury, French novelist (b. 1907)
- 1998 – Browning Ross, American runner (b. 1924)
- 1999 – Al Hirt, American trumpeter and bandleader (b. 1922)
- 1999 – Rolf Landauer, American physicist and electrical engineer (b. 1927)
- 1999 – Dale C. Thomson, Canadian professor and historian (b. 1923)
- 2000 – Vicki Sue Robinson, American actress and singer (b. 1954)
- 2002 – George Alec Effinger, American author (b. 1947)
- 2002 – Ruth Handler, American businesswoman, created the Barbie doll (b. 1916)
- 2002 – Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Swiss industrialist and art collector (b. 1921)
- 2005 – Red Horner, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1909)
- 2006 – Julia Thorne, American writer, ex-wife of John Kerry (b. 1944)
- 2007 – Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor (b. 1927)
- 2008 – Marios Tokas, Cypriot composer (b. 1954)
- 2009 – Frankie Manning, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1914)
- 2009 – Feroz Khan, Indian actor (b. 1939)
- 2009 – Woo Seung-yeon, South Korean actress and model (b. 1983)
- 2011 – Marian Mercer, American actress(b. 1935)
- 2012 – Bill Skowron, American baseball player (b.1930)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Day of the Uprising Against the Occupying Forces (Slovenia)
- Freedom Day (South Africa), and its related observances:
- UnFreedom Day (South Africa, unofficial)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Sierra Leone from United Kingdom in 1961.
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Togo from France in 1960.
- National War Veterans' Day (Finland)
- King's Day (Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten) (from 2014)
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