Monday, May 06, 2013

Mon May 6th Todays News

Happy birthday and many happy returns Patrick Poulou and Peter Lambert. Born on the same day across the years. Born on the same date the Hindenburg dream came to an end. You are like phoenix.
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WHATEVER UNFLOATS YOUR BOAT

Tim Blair – Monday, May 06, 2013 (5:11am)

Prime Minister Julia Gillard swung by Tasmania’s new $4 million Bass Strait Maritime Centre last week. This low-key visit set in train a sequence of events that eventually led to an extremely rare media outcome: an excellent Fairfax headline.
The Maritime Centre features a simulator that allows Bass Strait transport enthusiasts to experience the challenges of docking a 1925 steam ship. Considering Tasmania’s unemployment rate – the highest in Australia – this also allows locals to experience what it might be like to have a job.

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In any case, the Prime Minister gamely stepped up for a try. You’d think the PM or one of her advisors might have thought twice about this, what with the Gillard government’s unfortunate maritime history. Hundreds of new asylum seekers were heading towards Australia as the PM took the simulator’s controls and attempted to manoeuvre the SS Woniora along Devonport’s Mersey River.
Naturally, Gillard sunk the thing immediately.

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UNBORN UNREPRESENTED

Tim Blair – Monday, May 06, 2013 (4:44am)

At The Conversation, PhD candidate Luke Kemp wishes to discuss: 
How Australia’s ageing population threatens our democracy 
By voting, apparently. Do continue, Luke: 
An ageing population will skew voting power and political clout towards older generations. Research suggests that there may be some link between ageing and conservatism, but this has never been conclusively proven. But there is little doubt that older generations have priorities that often differ from those of younger generations or the unborn. 
The priorities of the unborn are mostly limited to being born. Polling is conclusive on this. 
Worryingly, it is the interests of youth and future generations that require the greatest representation. Addressing issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, crumbling infrastructure, and youth unemployment are all necessary for our continued prosperity. Unfortunately such reform is unlikely to be the main priority for older voters. The interests of youth and future generations are becoming increasingly important to all of society, yet their democratic voice is proportionally shrinking every day. 
This important information is brought to you by millions of dollars of your taxes.
(Via Evil Pundit)

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DREAMLAND NSW

Tim Blair – Monday, May 06, 2013 (4:14am)

The Future Party – “a new movement of people who are dedicated to thinking of long term solutions to advance our society” – has a few good ideas. This isn’t one of them: 
Establishment of a new Australian university charter city called ‘Turing’. This city will:
Lie between Sydney and Canberra on a high speed rail line. 
So it’s never going to happen. 
Be established as a university town, focusing on low-capital-cost science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects. 
Nerdville! 
Have a mandated high population density (for example, 50 000 people per square kilometre). 
As a university town, a certain level of density is already guaranteed. 
Be designed from the outset to reduce surface congestion by creating subterranean roadways, which will increase surface area that is available to public space and parks 
An easier way to avoid “surface congestion” might be to spread the population out a little. 
Have slightly different immigration rules to the rest of Australia, allowing the city to grow in size, while allowing Australia to take advantage of the large number of potential immigrants that Australia turns away under current immigration rules. 
This sounds more like the establishment of another nation within Australia than another city. Perhaps the party leader can clarify things.
(Via TimT)

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NICE PETE

Tim Blair – Monday, May 06, 2013 (2:44am)

Powderweight pundit Peter van Onselen promised war but delivered mush.

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SHOP SMART

Tim Blair – Monday, May 06, 2013 (1:39am)

Intriguing research: 
A study out Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined attitudes about energy efficiency in liberals and conservatives, and found that promoting energy-efficient products and services on the basis of their environmental benefits actually turned conservatives off from picking them …
[Study author Dena] Gromet said she never expected the green message to motivate conservatives, but was surprised to find that it could in fact repel them from making a purchase even while they found other aspects, like saving cash on their power bills, attractive. The reason, she thinks, is that given the political polarization of the climate change debate, environmental activism is so frowned upon by those on the right that they’ll do anything to keep themselves distanced from it. 
There could be another reason. Such as, for example, the fact that anything marketed with a green message is always rubbish. To conservatives, that message isn’t a selling point. It’s a warning.

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COMBAT

Tim Blair – Monday, May 06, 2013 (1:05am)

The powerful Stop Brisbane Coal Trains movement demands – via Facebook, if you don’t mind – the resignation of Greg Combet: 
What the hell he is doing masquerading as a Climate Change Minister? He is a former Mining Engineer and used to work in the coal industry - for gods sake?! He is living in Newcastle, the city with the biggest coal export port in the world? To our knowledge he hasn’t mentioned Australian Coal exports and their accompanying Global Climate Change consequences once in his tenure …
We reiterate in no uncertain terms, that tenure should end forthwith. 
Over to you, Minister. Good luck.

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Dear Jonathan, about your bias and Media Watch

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (8:57pm)

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I received an email today from the host of Media Watch, Jonathan Holmes. He plans a little revenge for what I’ve said about the ABC, and specifically for my pointing out that not once in 24 years has Media Watch had a conservative as host.
You may find the exchange worth reading:   

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Poll: voters fed up, minds made up, politics tuned out

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (8:02pm)

This will be far worse for Labor than the Liberals, if more votes are now locked in:

A national survey by Melbourne University also found most Australians believe the quality of leadership and the tone of debate is worse than usual. And 70 per cent lack confidence in the federal government, including almost half of Labor voters…
The survey, undertaken in March and April, found:

- 43 per cent say they usually take a ‘’good deal’’ of interest in politics, but just 36 per cent say they are now interested.
- 36 per cent say they have little or no interest in this year’s federal election.
- 58 per cent say the quality of federal leadership is ‘’noticeably worse’’ that it used to be.

UPDATE
Julia Gillard’s big disability package hasn’t done much for her poll numbers.
Essential Media has the gap widening: Labor 44 to the Coalition 56. 

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Anything But Caucasian

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (4:17pm)

No whites need apply:

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(Thanks to reader C.) 

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NSW Labor as dead as it can be

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (11:40am)

It simply can’t get any worse for NSW Labor, although you do wonder who could possibly prefer it:

NSW Labor continues to be regarded as toxic by voters, but there’s little evidence that the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s inquiry into the last ALP state government is doing any further damage to the party’s already moribund standing…
The poll, taken during March and April, has the Labor primary vote at 28 per cent, one percentage point higher than the previous poll…
On a two-party-preferred basis the Coalition leads Labor 61-39....

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Gillard stops a boat

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (9:39am)

The Prime Minister finally stops a boat:
[Tasmania’s] Maritime Centre features a simulator that allows Bass Strait transport enthusiasts to experience the challenges of docking a 1925 steam ship. Considering Tasmania’s unemployment rate – the highest in Australia – this also allows locals to experience what it might be like to have a job.
In any case, the Prime Minister gamely stepped up for a try. You’d think the PM or one of her advisors might have thought twice about this, what with the Gillard government’s unfortunate maritime history. Hundreds of new asylum seekers were heading towards Australia as the PM took the simulator’s controls and attempted to manoeuvre the SS Woniora along Devonport’s Mersey River.
Naturally, Gillard sunk the thing immediately.
UPDATE
Meanwhile, the second ferry in a week suggests we really are seeing what the Press Council tells journalists not to call illegal immigration:
A FERRY carrying 160 asylum seekers has dropped anchor between the heads of Darwin Harbour - just 2.5km from the shore…
This brings the total number of boat arrivals for the first week of May to 645 people.
The rate of arrival over the past five weeks is 100 boat people a day. This would fill the MCG in just three years.
The number of boats is now so huge that I suspect an Abbott Government will be unable to fulfil its promise to “stop the boats” - or not without provoking a dangerous confrontation with Indonesia.
(Thanks to reader watty.) 

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NBN needed so badly that no school has signed up

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (9:23am)

Julia Gillard two years ago explained to students in Armidale why schools needed her $44 billion NBN:
JULIA GILLARD: We can’t have the kids of Singapore and other places using this technology whilst our kids get stranded behind the standards of the world with their education…
On the naysayers like Barnaby Joyce, I’d simply say he’s out of touch. He’s dreadfully out of touch with the way people want to live today and the kind of services they want to have in regional Australia.

Out of touch? Left behind?

NSW public schools are yet to switch to the National Broadband Network because it offers “no identified benefits” to the state’s 1.2 million students and teachers.
The education department - locked into an existing long-term contract until 2015 - said it already has a powerful fibre optic network with child protection filters while the NBN only offers basic internet access…
After complaints from parents, Duval High School’s bandwidth on the DEC network was increased to 100megabits per second to match the capacity of the NBN. An education department spokesman said the majority of its 2660 schools and TAFEs are connected by scalable symmetric fibre broadband services ”ranging in speed up to 200 megabits per second”.
(Thanks to readers William and Peter.) 

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The ABC coverup makes its bias more outrageous

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (9:17am)

Culture wars, Media


LAST week, I tried to save the ABC one last time by offering to take over as host of Media Watch.
I even wrote an open letter to ABC managing director Mark Scott to announce my willingness to replace Jonathan Holmes now that he’s stepping down
I suspected Scott might otherwise gloomily assume I was not available, since I have my own much-loved show at Network Ten.
But I reassured him I’d tear up my contract for The Bolt Report. I’m kind of like that. I knew Scott was in a terrible fix.
As I wrote: “You must be mortified that in the 24 years of Media Watch devoted to detecting such media sins as bias and group-think, not once has it had a host not of the Left.
“How worried you must be that its eighth host will be from the same cookie-cutter that’s given us Stuart Littlemore, Richard Ackland, Paul Barry, David Marr, Liz Jackson, Monica Attard and Holmes.”
Poor Scott. The staff who really run the ABC are making him look a real dupe.
They’ve already put every mainstream ABC current affairs show in the hands of the Left, from Q&A’s Tony Jones to Radio National Breakfast’s Fran Kelly.
This ideological monoculture is actually a breach of the ABC’s contract with taxpayers, who give it more than $1 billion a year.
The ABC’s own Equity and Diversity Annual Report says: “The ABC Charter requires the broadcasting of programs that . . . reflect the cultural diversity of the Australian community.
“ABC Editorial Policies support the diversity of perspectives.”
But within hours of my letter, the ABC rushed forward the announcement of Media Watch’s new host - yet another man of the Left, Paul Barry.
But more shocking were Scott’s explanations for turning down my offer.
(Read full column here.)
UPDATE
I’m prepared to pass on Play School. But for the rest:
(Thanks to reader Stu.) 

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If Mann is bad, why does the ABC still hire 100-metres Williams?

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (9:09am)

Global warming - dud predictions
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Notorious climate alarmist Michael ”Hockey Stick” Mann is rightly attacked for this sea level scare:

He said sea levels could rise six to nine feet by the end of the century. “We’re not talking the 20 feet that would be necessary to submerge Manhattan. But the Jersey Shore of my youth will not exist if we continue on this course.”
If Mann is damned as a baseless fear-monger for warning of a rise of less than three metres in a century, what do we conclude about the ABC’s chief science presenter, Robyn Williams, who six years ago warned of potential rises of not three metres but 100?

Andrew Bolt: I’m telling you, there’s a lot of fear out there. So what I do is, when I see an outlandish claim being made...so Tim Flannery suggesting rising seas this next century eight stories high, Professor Mike Archer, dean of engineering at the University of NSW…
Robyn Williams: Dean of science.
Andrew Bolt: Dean of science...suggesting rising seas this next century of up to 100 metres, or Al Gore six metres. When I see things like that I know these are false. You mentioned the IPCC report; that suggests, at worst on best scenarios, 59 centimetres.
Robyn Williams: Well, whether you take the surge or whether you take the actual average rise are different things.
Andrew Bolt: I ask you, Robyn, 100 metres in the next century...do you really think that?
Robyn Williams: It is possible, yes. The increase of melting that they’ve noticed in Greenland and the amount that we’ve seen from the western part of Antarctica, if those increases of three times the expected rate continue, it will be huge.
(Thanks to reader fulchrum.) 

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Economy slowing. So why whack it with new taxes?

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (9:05am)

Is this really the time to be promising new taxes and no big changes in workplace laws?

Federal Treasury has downgraded its economic growth forecast for this year and next by a quarter of a percentage point, predicting a slowdown that would dent tax revenue and make it even harder to deliver a budget surplus.
As it finalises the budget’s economic forecasts, Treasury has been working on the assumption of 2.75 per cent growth for 2012-13 and 2013-14. In the October Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, it forecast real GDP growth of 3 per cent in both years…
A quarter point cut to growth in gross domestic product this year would reduce government revenue by $1.75 billion in the following year because of weaker corporate profits and jobs.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 

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Revolting against the New Class

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (8:37am)

Christopher Booker on the astonishing success of Ukip in the weekend’s council elections, in which it won a quarter of the votes:

[In 1997] I had been invited to give the keynote address to the first Ukip national conference in Central Hall Westminster. I told the 900-strong audience that there would be only two parties fighting that election. One consisted of the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems who, not just on Europe but on a whole range of issues, had become almost identical. The other was Ukip, the only party trying to fight for the people of Britain against a “political class” that, in alliance with Brussels, had hijacked our democracy…
The sense that we are now ruled over by a political class cut off from the rest of us in a bubble of unreality has become the most conspicuous feature of our politics. We see it everywhere, from the powerlessness people feel over uncontrolled immigration to the insanity of our energy policy. Above all, we see it in the all-pervasive power of that weird system of government centred in Brussels, which has so blatantly now lost people’s trust not just in Britain, but also across Europe. It is not only here that this profound sense of alienation is finding political expression in the rise of new parties not dissimilar to Ukip. We can see it in Finland, Holland and, above all, Germany, with the startling emergence of the AfD, now scoring 20 per cent and more in the polls.
As with the rise of Pim Fortuyn’s party or Geert Wilders, the media class is fiercely hostile, sensing a challenge to its power and orthodoxy.
But AM this morning did try to give some insight into what seem to me the sometimes ugly, often legitimate but always predictable concerns that find their expression in Ukip:
As Europe correspondent Philip Williams reports from London, it’s a stunning success for the UKIP which has been derided as a party of fruitcakes and closet racists.
PHILIP WILLIAMS:  While UKIP’s brand is built on antipathy towards Europe, the issue that fuelled its spectacular success was immigration, tapping into a widespread feeling in some areas that the country was being overrun by foreigners.
The rural Lincolnshire town of Boston has seen a big influx of eastern Europeans who work on local farms, like Mark Everett’s horticultural enterprise.
MARK EVERETT: Some of the local people that if they were rained off at two o’clock would nip home and that’s it, they’re quite happy they’ve gone home early. But those from overseas, they’re here to earn as much money as they can and they really want to be kept working until it’s dark…
SHERYL JOHNSON: There’s just loads of them, they’re everywhere. It’s like we’re a foreigner walking around in our own country. I think it’s got more unsafe, just lately, there’s more crime…
PHILIP WILLIAMS: Just how the established parties tap into that frustration without being labelled racist or intolerant may end up defining the new political landscape.
Speaking of which:
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Nick Cater, a senior editor at The Australian, is one of Australia’s most gifted and insightful writers. His new book, The Lucky Culture, argues that Australia has prospered not because of dumb luck, as Donald Horne argued, but thanks to the enterprise, energy and ingenuity of the Australian people. This prosperity, however, is under threat due to the rise of a sophisticated ruling class who look down on others but are out of touch with the Australian mainstream.
The book will be launched by Professor Geoffrey Blainey, Australia’s greatest living historian.
The details of the event are:
Monday 13 May 2013
5.00pm for 5.30pm - 7.30pm
Rendezvous Grand Hotel Melbourne
328 Flinders Street, Melbourne
This event is complimentary for IPA members and $10 for non-members. Bookings are essential and places are limited.
Click here to book or call Sarah Duncan on 03 9600 4744 or email sduncan@ipa.org.au.

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Napthine’s tears show Gillard’s scheme isn’t for nothing

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (8:26am)


VILE politics made the Gillard Government’s disability scheme smell. But then Premier Denis Napthine choked up.
I haven’t seen any public policy instantly made decent by one politician’s tears.
Even Prime Minister Julia Gillard, beside Napthine on Saturday as he apologised for breaking down, looked softer.
(Read full article here.)
UPDATE
But the need for more help for the disabled is not an excuse for a new tax and a blank cheque. Henry Ergas:

Gillard’s maxim has been to spend first, pay never. Now, faced with overwhelming support for the NDIS -now called DisabilityCare -she has abruptly reversed course.  And turning the dross of circumstance into the glitter of opportunity, she has successfully draped a new tax with the aura of moral urgency.
Yet she has said nothing about exactly how the money will be outlaid. And that is unsurprising. For it is the specifics that raise the painful choices.
Where will the cut-off be in the degree of disability covered? What will be done about disabled people turning 65? Given those decisions, how much funding will be involved in total and where will it come from? And how will that funding be increased to accommodate a disabled population that, according to the Commonwealth Actuary, is growing by 1 per cent a year, while service costs are rising even more rapidly than that? With an election looming, it is easier to leave those questions hanging.
UPDATE
Voters might like Gillard’s idea, but don’t trust her competence:

VOTERS have backed the Coalition over the national disability insurance scheme, despite supporting Labor’s decision to impose a levy to pay for the policy.
A Seven News/ReachTEL poll found Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was viewed by a considerable margin as the most trusted person to deliver the scheme - the preferred choice of 57 per cent of those polled. Only 42 per cent opted for Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The policy was also found not to be a vote winner for Labor, with 41 per cent saying they were now less likely to vote ALP compared to 26 per cent who said it made them more likely to vote for the government.
But the notion of a levy to help fund the scheme was supported - 52.5 to 33.5 per cent, according to the poll of almost 3000 people across the country after the government’s announcement last week.
Support for a new tax sounds noble, but doesn’t say much for economic nous. I also wonder how sincere that support really is.
(Thanks to reader Peter.) 

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“We” at the ABC aren’t what Scott claims

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (8:14am)

Mark Scott needs a far more frank defence - or, even better, an admission:
How do they vote at the ABC? ABC managing director Mark Scott with Rafael Epstein, ABC radio 774, last Thursday: 
EPSTEIN: There’s a text here from Josh in Ashburton. Please ask Mark Scott what Liberal conservative presenters he will hire to balance people like Fran Kelly, Philip Adams, Jonathan Holmes, Tony Jones and Leigh Sales in the interests of reflecting and serving all Australians…
Scott: ... Now I think it’s a very curious list that’s presented in the text message. I don’t know how our journalists vote. I don’t know what their personal views are ... If they do express personal views they get into trouble.
A clue? We’re headed for a big loss? ABC1’s Insiders yesterday:
BARRIE Cassidy: Now just finally, there was more speculation over the weekend that we’re headed for a, well, at least the government is headed for a big loss in September, some 40 to 45 seats is one estimation, and we do read that many in your own party expect as much. Do you detect that sense of foreboding among some of your colleagues?
Another clue? Kerry O’Brien, CV, Celebrity Speakers:

HE (Kerry O’Brien) had three years as a press secretary, first for Labor leader Gough Whitlam in 1977 and then in the post-Whitlam era, with Deputy Labor leader, Lionel Bowen.
Another clue? Fran Kelly tells SameSame, The Same Same, a celebration of 25 Most Influential Gay and Lesbian Australians, 2008:

WHAT I am, really am, is an activist. 

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A pearl on the harbor, or just the shell?

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (7:22am)

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How can one building - James Packer’s proposed $1 billion hotel and casino complex at Barangaroo (left)- inspire such wildly different aesthetic judgments?

Former prime minister Paul Keating, who was chairman of the Barangaroo Design Excellence Review Panel:
...heading in the direction of being a significant building for Sydney.
Joe Agius, NSW president of the Australian Institute of Architects:
Mr Packer’s misguided comparison of his designs with the Sydney Opera House - a public cultural building that is highly responsive to its context - is both ludicrous and offensive… [The designs are] so unconscious of their context they may as well be in Dubai.

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Waiting for all that warming

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (6:47am)

Global warming - dud predictions
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Lord Monckton plans to send around a monthly graph of global temperature, contrasting what the warmist models predicted with what actually happened:

A monthly benchmark graph, circulated widely to the news media, will help to dispel the costly notion that the world continues to warm at a rapid and dangerous rate…
The IPCC’s interval of temperature projections from 2005 is taken from the spaghetti-graph in AR5, which was based on 34 models

The 34 models’ central projection… is that warming from 2005-2050 should occur at a rate equivalent to approximately 2.3 Cº/century. This is below the IPCC’s long-established 3 Cº centennial prediction because the models expect warming to accelerate after 2050. The IPCC’s upper-bound and lower-bound projections are equivalent to 1.1 and 3.6 Cº/century respectively…
Here is the outturn graph. The IPCC’s projections are shown in pale blue.
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The monthly global mean UAH observed lower-troposphere temperature anomalies (vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/data/msu/t2lt/uahncdc.lt) are plotted from the beginning of the millennium in January 2001 to the latest available month (currently April 2013)…
The entire trend-line is beneath the interval of IPCC projections… The principal result, shown in the panel at top left on the graph, is that the 0.5 Cº/century equivalent observed rate of warming over the past 12 years and 4 months is below a quarter of the 2.3 Cº/century rate that is the IPCC models’ current central projection of warming to 2050.  

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No good side in Syria. Obama backs off

Andrew Bolt May 06 2013 (6:02am)

Obama watches, Israel acts:
Israeli jets devastated Syrian targets near Damascus on Sunday in a heavy overnight air raid that Western and Israeli officials called a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah…
The Syrian government accused Israel of effectively helping al Qaeda Islamist “terrorists” and said the strikes “open the door to all possibilities”; but Israeli officials said that, as in January, they were calculating Assad would not pick a fight with a well-armed neighbor while facing defeat at home.
Denying it was weighing in on the rebel side on behalf of Washington - which opposes Assad but is hesitating to intervene - officials said Israel was pursuing its own conflict, not with Syria but with Iran, and was acting to prevent Iran’s Hezbollah allies receiving missiles that might strike Tel Aviv if Israel made good on threats to attack Tehran’s nuclear program.
Meanwhile President Obama is backing off one of his last-last-last ultimatums.
Here’s Obama last August:
President Obama warned Syria on Monday that it would face American military intervention if there were signs that its arsenal of unconventional weapons was being moved or prepared for use....
“We cannot have a situation in which chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people,” Mr. Obama said in response to questions at an impromptu news conference at the White House. “We have been very clear to the Assad regime but also to other players on the ground that a red line for us is, we start seeing a whole bunch of weapons moving around or being utilized.”
“That would change my calculus,” he added. “That would change my equation.”
But then evidence emerged suggesting Syria may indeed have used chemical weapons (WARNING - GRAPHIC PICTURES AT LINK)
So here’s Obama’s team now:
“The idea was to put a chill into the Assad regime without actually trapping the president into any predetermined action,” said one senior official, who, like others, discussed the internal debate on the condition of anonymity. But “what the president said in August was unscripted,” another official said. Mr. Obama was thinking of a chemical attack that would cause mass fatalities, not relatively small-scale episodes like those now being investigated, except the “nuance got completely dropped.”
The trouble is not just that Obama doesn’t have the money for war, or doesn’t want to do anything suggesting George Bush was right to intervene in that region.
The big problem with Syria is that however loathsome the regime, with its Iranian ally, the rebels could be far worse:

A top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee on Sunday cautioned against arming Syrian rebels, saying “al Qaeda elements have a lot of control” within the Middle Eastern nation’s opposition groups…
Peter King, a New York Republican who chairs the committee’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, ... [said it] is in “everyone’s interest” to see the current Syrian leadership leave power, but ”by arming the rebels, we could be strengthening al Qaeda...”

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Anybody out there in the mood for a world famous Israeli breakfast! 
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Kung fu action and cooking fun is coming back on ya TV with the lovely Alice Zaslavsky (Masterchef 2012) and I. Kitchen Whiz season 5 airs from 7:30am MAY 20 on GO! Mon-Fri. The phone APP will be released on MAY 12. Woo!
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Stars of David over Hollywood: From ‘The Jazz Singer’ to ‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,’ the way Jews are portrayed on the silver screen reflects their acceptance into American society, says author Eric A. Goldman. 

Read more at http://toi.sr/18eBGP6
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Fairfield City Council celebrates International Composting Awareness Week Australia starting from today to Saturday 11 May 2013.
Composting is a valuable organic resource and to help residents recycle their green organics Council offers a FREE tree branch chipping service.

Residents can drop off tree branch materials to the The Recycling Drop Off Centre and Council will chip the tree branch prunings into a mulch.

Residents can collect the organic mulch from the stockpile to take home and use on their gardens.

The Centre is located at the corner of Davis and Widemere Road, Wetherill Park.

To learn more about using the mulching service and items you can recycle through the Recycling Drop Off Centre for free visit http://isustainfairfield.org.au/Waste-Recycling-Services/waste-and-recycling-overview
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4 her
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There are lessons to be learned from David Cameron's abandonment of his party's core principles: http://www.corybernardi.com/2013/05/the-ukip-lesson.html
Not my view .. but Cory Bernardi has a conservative following - ed
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A Truly fantastic Doctor Who themed Cake by

Imaginative Icing - York - Cake Decorating & Specialist Sugarcraft Shops

Give them some likes and support! 
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A fabulous Emerald Cut Diamond Ring with Trapezoid and Cadi Step Cut Diamond should stones. Centre Emerald Cut Diamond 5.01ct F VS1
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CCTV A VITAL POLICING TOOL

The Members for Hawkesbury, Riverstone and Londonderry said they would fight for the continued use of Closed Circuit TV to help fight crime.

Last week the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal ruled that cameras installed by Shoalhaven City Council breached privacy laws and had to be switched off, which has raised doubts about Councils ability to use the technology.

“CCTV is a proven weapon which helps police drive down crime – we want to ensure our local police, council and other law enforcement agencies have access to cameras to drive down crime in our area,” Mr Williams, Conolly and Bassett said.

“While there is a role for privacy laws, this decision flies in the face of the views of most law-abiding citizens who support CCTV and its role in the fight against crime.

“We have seen in a number of recent high profile cases the invaluable assistance CCTV provides police in tracking down offenders.

“I will be conveying these views to the Attorney General so the situation is resolved as soon as possible.”

Attorney General Greg Smith SC is seeking urgent legal advice about the implications of the tribunal’s decision and whether legislation is required to validate the continued use of CCTV.

“We are urgently seeking to resolve this situation in the interest of the people of NSW,” Mr Smith said.
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In hostile situations, a fish's personality may matter more than size, according to new research.http://oak.ctx.ly/r/4p38

An animal's "personality" is characterized if it consistently displays an observed behavior, given certain conditions or environments, the researchers said.
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WAYNE SWAN... PLEASE EXPLAIN? Larry Pickering

New Zealand was on the brink of recession prior to the Conservative government of John Key taking the reins in 2008. This small economy of 4.4 million people is now preparing for a series of record surpluses... and without the help of a mining industry.

Helen Clarke’s Labour Government left the country facing severe recession with a bloated Public Service sector and disastrous losses due to her takeover of the NZ rail system.

Abbott could do worse than take a look across the Tasman when attempting to repair the damage left by the union government of Julia Gillard and the incompetency of Kevin Rudd.

Unions have assisted in bringing Euro Communist/Socialist governments to their knees. North America broke its corrupt union stranglehold years ago but when a union movement actually becomes the Government, as it has in Australia, prepare for a catastrophe we were totally unprepared for.

Unfortunately Wayne Swan’s and Julia Gillard’s response to our parlous economic state is to tell lies:

“We guided the nation through a global financial crisis”, says Gillard. Wrong! Australia was almost immune from the GFC. Our major client, China, averaged a 9 per cent growth, we were in the middle of a mining boom, we were not exposed to the US sub-prime rate, we had low unemployment, historically high terms of trade and our financial institutions were never at risk.

“Government revenue is down”, says Swan. Wrong again! Government revenue is up 7.5% this year alone, has risen each year of this government’s tenure and is up a massive $100 billion since 2008.

If Swan was to tell the truth he would say that his spending was predicated on unrealistic revenue expectations that, with the help of a compliant Treasury, were consistently and grossly overstated. That’s all.

We are now where NZ was four years ago... in a heap of Labor pain.

So, what’s different? NZ’s dollar has risen to exactly the same extent our dollar has. Helen Clarke’s socialist government went on the same spending spree and faced the same endless deficits. We had our floods, they had their earthquakes.

Fortunately, both countries possess the same resilience to bounce back from Labor disasters.

So, how did NZ tackle Labour’s, loss-making legacy? Luke Malpass, a research fellow at The New Zealand Initiative, a conservative think tank, explains it this way:

“First were tax cuts. The top tax rate for someone on about $45,000 a year went from 33 per cent to 17.5 per cent, the top income tax rate was slashed from 39 per cent to 33 per cent at $70,000, aligned with the trust tax rate. Company tax was reduced to 28 per cent, GST was increased to 15 per cent to encourage savings ahead of consumption.

“Second, employing people was made easier. A probationary working period was introduced, and the modest emissions trading scheme was drastically trimmed back. Compulsory employer co-contributions to Kiwisaver, New Zealand’s voluntary savings scheme, were reduced from 4 per cent to 2 per cent. (This has been increased to 3 per cent as conditions have improved.)


“Third, the government produced a series of so-called “zero budgets” allowing no new money for any area except health and education. New programs were funded from within existing budgets.

“Fourth, 49 per cent slices of several power companies are being privatised to improve market disciplines, deepen capital markets and encourage a share-owning democracy.”

Of 4.4 million people, 440,000 have enthusiastically pre-registered for the IPO. (Initial Public Offering)

Wow! And back to surplus, all within four years!

But we are five times the size of New Zealand with five times the damage wrought on our economy and social structure... and without one thing to show for it.

Still, Abbott could learn much from the NZ labour/union experience, but one critical mistake must never be repeated: The outdated Marx and Trotsky ideologies of unions are fine within their own arenas, but a blatant annexation of government by unions and the far Left, via unrepresentative Greens, must never be allowed to happen again.

The electorate doesn't want it.

The endless, feel-good “initiatives” of Labor in election mode must be put aside until surpluses re-emerge through sound management.

The awesome responsibility on Abbott’s shoulders will leave little time for bike rides as he will certainly face the full force of organised union militancy.

These corrupt, destructive little cretins must be banished back to the shop floor in a Thatcher style purge.

They, including the Prime Minister, must face a Royal Commission and eventually pay the penalties for their crimes against their own kind and the Australian people.

But there is one glaring difference in the NZ experience. Helen Clarke did not face the NZ electorate while under investigation by a Major Fraud Squad.
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Movie of the Week: Zulu

http://independentfilmnewsandmedia.com/movie-of-the-week-zulu/

Zulu is a 1964 historical war film depicting the Battle of Rorke’s Drift between the British Army and the Zulus in January 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War where 150 British soldiers, many of which were sick and wounded as patients at that field hospital, successfully held off an army of 4000 Zulu warriors.
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Just 201 Days until the Doctor Who 50th.

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Charlton Heston – Patriot at The Podium – The Reagan In You – 2002 (Video)

http://independentfilmnewsandmedia.com/charlton-heston-patriot-at-the-podium-the-reagan-in-you-2002-video/

The public life of NRA President Charlton Heston – excerpt from 2002 NRA address – The Reagan in You.
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Beloved, look to Jesus your good shepherd today. When you feed on His love for you and on His living words, you will find rest for your soul, victory over the most trying circumstances and an abundance of every good thing!

Click below to watch a short clip of this uplifting message. Be sure to click 'Like' and share this with your friends! Amen!
http://bit.ly/1049u9S
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The presence of your problem doesn’t mean the absence of God. You might not feel it, but God is right now working behind the scenes to work things out for your good.
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May 6: St George's Day in Bulgaria
The Hindenburg disaster

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