Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Tue May 14th Todays News

Happy birthday and many happy returns Doreen Margaret YatesPeter Phanand Kelly Cheng Huynh. Born on the same day, when in 1796 Edward Jenner began testing cowpox to cure smallpox. Another bovine success story culminating with McDonalds. How is them milkshakes? Lewis and Clark, in 1804 tried to get to the Pacific and back, discovering almost anything was good enough to swallow.
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DELETION DAY

Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 14, 2013 (1:57am)

I’ll be inside a locked room within Parliament House all day for budget purposes. Unless Skywhale – praise be upon her – smashes me out of there, I won’t be able to post anything or load any comments.
So let’s make this a positive thing. As a therapy exercise, readers from all sides of politics are invited to submit their most defamatory, obscene and indefensible comments during my brief imprisonment. When I’m eventually liberated, I give my word that all comments will be published.
Minus, of course, anything defamatory, obscene or indefensible. Aim high! Aim for complete deletion! 

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BE GENTLE WITH THE CUDDLE PUPPIES

Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 14, 2013 (1:27am)

ABC types and their supporters are becoming anxious ahead of September’s federal election. They fear a government led by Tony Abbott will eviscerate or even entirely privatise the public broadcaster, which currently struggles by on a mere $1 billion of your taxes every year.
The Sydney Morning Herald‘s Mike Carlton stood up for the ABC in his Saturday column, mainly because the broadcaster’s network of country radio stations are “a vibrant part of their communities, especially at flood or bushfire time”. One billion dollars seems rather a lot to provide a support system for rural disaster alerts, especially given recent developments in communications technology, but there you go.
In any case, the ABC won’t – and shouldn’t – be privatised. For one thing, Tony Abbott isn’t the vicious ABC-hating rationalist the left fear and the right wishes for. He’ll likely make a few tiny incisions here and there, but, alas, nothing major.
Secondly, it would just be unfair on ABC staff to have them thrown on to the open market. How could they cope in a world where budgets are dependent on earnings, unpopularity leads to cancellation and funding involves something more complicated than simply asking the government for money? It would be like dumping a bunch of timid city-born cuddle puppies into a piranha-infested Amazonian river. They’d be skeletonised within seconds.
Instead, I propose a gradual process that will gently introduce the ABC to reality. Under the Blair Reforms, ABC staffers would have sufficient time to adapt and possibly even thrive outside of their protective tax shell.
Central to the reforms would be legislation to cut ABC funding by a set amount every year. This would encourage ABC management to very slowly excise non-essential ABC programming from the broadcaster’s central mission (which is, as Carlton points out, providing vibrancy to regional Australians whose houses are on fire or underwater).
The amount to be cut should be set at $10 million per year, every year, until ABC funding is finally at zero. Think of it as analogous to the treatment of drug users. At current funding levels, these minor cuts will give the ABC more than 100 years before it is completely free of government dependence.
By then, even the shakiest ABC tax junkie should be able to cope.

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SANITY HAS LEFT THE BUILDING

Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 14, 2013 (1:23am)

Former Fairfaxer Roger Franklin laments the Age‘s switch to leftoid genuflection. “An audience reduced to an amen choir,” writes Roger, “is no part of any sane business plan.”

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Swan’s final gift: three more big deficits

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (8:27pm)

Wayne Swan’s Budget last year promised a surplus this financial year and the years after:

This Budget delivers a surplus this coming year, on time, as promised, and surpluses each year after that, strengthening over time…
The deficit years of the global recession are behind us. The surplus years are here.
Instead, utter failure:

In a surprise to markets and economic commentators, even after being softened up with pre-budget warnings of a current $17 billion revenue write-down, Mr Swan has revealed a fiscal shortfall for 2012/13 of $19.4 billion in place of what was forecast to be a budget surplus of $1.1 billion…
Delivering what might well be his last budget, Mr Swan said next year’s balance sheet would show a similar deficit of $18 billion, shrinking to $11 billion in 2014/15, and tipping into the black by just $0.8 billion in 2015/16.
Go, Mr Swan. Just go.  

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In the name of Australia, go

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (1:14pm)

I’m off to read the Budget - Wayne Swan’s final reckoning. And I’m in a mood to channel some of Oliver Cromwell’s speech on the dissolution of Parliament in 1653:
It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonoured by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.
Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter’d your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?
Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil’d this sacred place, and turn’d the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress’d, are yourselves gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. In the name of God, go!

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Let the Liberals restore the surplus first

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (11:17am)

Cut the entitlement and cut the tax to pay for (most) of it. When we’re in debt, this is a luxury for later - and possibly not even then:

ANOTHER Liberal figure has cast doubt on the coalition’s proposed paid parental leave scheme.
West Australian senator Alan Eggleston agrees in principle with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s plan - which offers 26 weeks’ paid leave for women earning up to $150,000 - but has concerns about its high cost.
“I think it should be supported but there seems to be widespread concern that the cost is pretty high at this current time,” he told AAP on Tuesday.
“Perhaps the broad outline (of the scheme) should be reviewed.”
The long-serving senator is the fourth Liberal member to speak against Mr Abbott’s plan after colleagues Alex Hawke, Dennis Jensen and Mal Washer labelled it economically irresponsible last week.

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Praise Giles, and save victims of the “stolen generations” myth

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (9:28am)

The "stolen generations"

Adam Giles doesn’t like being racially typecast as the first indigenous Chief Minister, yet his heritage gives him license to tackle the ”stolen generationsmyth that has left so many Aboriginal children in danger - and led to some being raped or killed:

NORTHERN Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles says he will remove neglected Aboriginal children from their parents and place them in adopted homes if necessary.
Mr Giles, Australia’s first indigenous state or territory leader, said governments had failed Aboriginal children because of fears they would be accused of creating a new Stolen Generation, but he would not be put off by such accusations…
Mr Giles said despite the federal intervention, only one Aboriginal child had been adopted in the past decade.
“There are situations in the Northern Territory where nobody has been prepared to support a permanent adoption of a child for fear of Stolen Generation...”
I have tried to warn of this for years, and been called a racist for it:

[The] theory of the “stolen generations” is actually killing children...
Here is one example. Five years ago the Victorian government was told that child abuse involving Aboriginal children had soared, and the then Community Services Minister responded: “The solution is not to continue to take disproportionately high numbers of Koori children into care...” That’s right: Don’t remove them so much.
As the then family services coordinator of the Mildura Aboriginal Co-operative angrily noted: “Things have to be a hundred times worse for Kooris before the department will become involved.”
She is right. We consciously leave Aboriginal children in dangers we would never tolerate if these children were of any other race.
Just ask the New South Wales Child Death Review Team, which investigated why Aboriginal children of drug addicts were 10 times more likely to die under the noses of welfare officers than were children of white addicts.
It blamed a fear of the “stolen generations”, pleading: “A history of inappropriate intervention with Aboriginal families should not lead now to an equally inappropriate lack of intervention for Aboriginal children at serious risk.’’
In 2001, Western Australia’s deputy coroner tried again to warn us after investigating the death of a three-year-old Aboriginal boy from malnutrition and pneumonia.
She found the boy had been admitted to hospital three times before for pneumonia, and suffered many other infections as well as scabies, anaemia and impetigo. His mother wouldn’t give him prescribed medicines or feed him properly.
A doctor testified that she’d begged the Aboriginal case worker to at least remove the boy’s even more sickly twin sister, but had been told she didn’t understand Aboriginal ways of child-rearing.
The coroner concluded: “Experience has shown that in the long term taking Aboriginal children from their communities is not an effective solution socially, although in this case it may have been medically advisable. We have a dead child . . . ‘’
We have a dead child, she said. How many others must die in our homage to the “stolen generations’’?
One of the worst cases:
I quote from yesterday’s Australian:

A senior departmental official (said) the child involved was sexually abused at age seven and, as a safety measure, was put with various foster families, eventually ending up in 2005 with a non-indigenous family . . .
“These non-indigenous people were fantastic—ensuring she went to school, and the father actually took a year off his work to personally supervise this girl,” he said.
“But two new social workers were appointed to the north and they expressed the view, which was repeated many times to the investigating committee, that putting an indigenous child with white foster parents was another stolen generation . . .”
And so this girl was sent back to Aurukun, to be pack-raped again.
More victims of the “stolen generations"myth:

Read for yourself:

A 12-year-old girl who died from blood poisoning after allegedly being left in the dirt outside her Darwin home would still be alive if she had been taken to a doctor, the Darwin Magistrates’ Court heard today.
The girl’s foster carers ... are charged with manslaughter.. [They were found not guilty.]
A niece of the accused women told the court she saw the girl on the morning she died, lying outside in the dirt. She said she asked why the 12-year-old was outside on the ground and one of the women replied she had “peed herself and soiled herself so we put her outside . . .” Yesterday the court heard that on the day the girl died, she was outside covered in ants and said she could see “fairies in the trees”.
The court also heard evidence two Family and Children’s Services officers came to the home the day before the girl died and saw her lying on the floor crying.
When they knelt down beside her and asked what was wrong, the accused women allegedly said she was just scared she would be taken away.
An Aboriginal girl taken away? Horror! Instead, the dying girl was left where she was, for reasons untold.
And there’s this, from Sydney:

The day before five-month-old Mundine Orcher died, officers from the Department of Community Services went to the home of his carers and delivered a fridge and a washing machine, but did not look at the boy.
The Aboriginal boy died the next day, after enduring attacks over the previous four weeks . . .
Explained another report:

DoCS said the “indigenous community needs to be treated, in child protection terms, with constant sensitivity to the historical impact of . . . the stolen generations”.
However, the Ombudsman warned that the needs of children were easily overshadowed when such concerns are considered. In the case of Mundine and another member of his family, the Ombudsman found “evidence that the focus of intervention was other than their needs”.
Here is the ghastly irony. I can name more dead children, betrayed by the “stolen generations” myth, than Manne can name children truly stolen.
Praise Giles for saying what desperately needs saying - and saying it in a way that might finally be believed.
But that Giles’ sane, obvious and tempered proposal should be tagged “controversial” tells us much that’s tragic. 

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Had he just butchered the babies in the womb instead…

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (9:20am)

The difference between an abortionist killing a baby in the womb, or soon after birth is a charge of murder:

A PHILADELPHIA abortion doctor has been found guilty of first-degree murder and could face execution in the deaths of three babies who authorities say were delivered alive and then killed with scissors at his grimy clinic, in a case that became a flashpoint in the nation’s debate over abortion.
This case has received little publicity in the mainstream media not just because the details are so horrific. It is also uncomfortable because it challenges so many comfortable assumptions about abortion just being about a woman’s right to choose, and not about a baby’s right to live. 

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Death knell of the NBN?

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (9:17am)

Many readers today are rightly wondering what this means for the Gillard Government’s fixed-wire NBN, which will cost up to $90 billion to build:

Samsung on Sunday announced that it had developed a core component of its 5G network by solving a problem that has stymied the wireless industry, Yonhap News reported. Using the 28GHz waveband, Samsung says it has achieved download and upload speeds of tens of gigabits per second (Gbps). Current 4G LTE networks top out at around 75 megabits (Mbps).
In practice, that speed would allow wireless users to download a full HD movie in seconds. Samsung executives see the technology enabling a wide range of rich applications.
Samsung used 64 antenna elements in order to accomplish the high-speed data transfer, and said the company expects that it can commercialize the technology by 2020. 

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Problem identified: McTernan thinks Labor is an army at war with other Australians

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (8:55am)


Julia Gillard’s fatal flaw is that she has tried to survive by dividing Australians and destroying her critics, rather than by simply governing well and for all.
That problem is illustrated perfectly by this anecdote:
On Monday, the eve of the federal budget, Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s communications director John McTernan called Labor’s media advisor platoons together in Canberra’s parliament house for a motivational session.

He chose as his backdrop a large powerpoint screen featuring the opening scene from the 1970 Hollywood movie, Patton… And so blared out the immortal lines of tough-guy Patton addressing the US 6th Armored Division of the Third Army, revving them up in preparation for the bloody D-Day landings in France, in 1944.
“No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country,” Scott channels Patton. ”You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."…
Explaining his decision to harden-up government staffers in the style of a US general’s roughnecks preparing for one of World War II’s most famous battles, Mr McTernan later told Fairfax Media: “We fight and we fight to win.”
But Patton demanding that his soldiers make “the other poor dumb bastard die”?
“They’re good words,” Mr McTernan said.
(Thanks to reader watty.) 

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A space oddity is an astronaut who just does his job

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (8:40am)


I didn’t realise billions were spent for the purpose of making music videos in space, but at least the astronaut can sing:
In an online video, astronaut Chris Hadfield sings the David Bowie song “Space Oddity” while floating around in zero gravity aboard the International Space Station.
The video features shots of a floating guitar that would look like a Hollywood special effect anywhere else. It also shows arresting images of the space station orbiting over Earth.
Might actually boost recruiting for astronaut school, too. But it’s odd that an astronaut singing now gets infinitely more publicity than an astronaut doing their real job.
Once an astronaut was famous for going to the moon. Now they’re famous for singing about it. 

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Big Government rounds up its critics

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (8:20am)

Astonishing. The US Internal Revenue Service singled out conservative political groups for treatment, demonstrating how easily Big Government can be turned against critics of the politicians who promote it:
...the IRS began targeting “Tea Party or similar organizations” in March 2010. That was when the Cincinnati-based IRS unit responsible for overseeing the applications for tax exempt status starting using the phrases “Tea Party,” “patriots” and “9/12? to search for applications warranting greater scrutiny.
During this first phase, 10 Tea Party cases were identified. By April of 2010, 18 Tea Party organizations were targeted, including three that had already been approved for tax-exempt status.
By June 2011, the unit had flagged over 100 Tea Party-related applications and the criteria used to scrutinize organizations had grown considerably, flagging not just “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in group names, but also groups that were working on issues like “government debt,” “taxes” and even organizations making statements that “criticize how the country is being run.”
The report, done by the Inspector General for the IRS, also shows that senior IRS officials in Washington was aware of what was going on as early as August 4, 2011 when, according to the report, the IRS chief counsel held a meeting with the IRS’s Rulings and Agreements unit “so that everyone would have the latest information on the issue.”
The Richmond Tea Party was one of the groups who received an intrusive and onerous demand for details of all who’d backed it:
image
Hand over the names. You do trust Big Government with them, don’t you?
Coincidence?
In April 2012, VanderSloot, who served as the national co-chair of Mitt Romney’s presidential finance committee, was one of eight Romney backers to be defamed as “wealthy individuals with less-than-reputable records” in a post on the Obama campaign’s website. The post… singled out VanderSloot for being a “litigious, combative and a bitter foe of the gay rights movement.”
Two months later, the IRS informed VanderSloot he and his wife were going to be audited… Two weeks after that, VanderSloot was notified by the Labor Department that it was going to “audit workers he employs on his Idaho-based cattle ranch under the federal visa program for temporary agriculture workers...”

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Referendum:  giving Gillard and co. the power to run your council, too

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (8:06am)

One very prominent Liberal tells me he and a former Ministerial colleague are likely to campaign against Labor’s referendum proposal, which the Opposition has unaccountably failed to oppose.
Tim Wilson explains the issue:

Last week Julia Gillard announced a referendum to amend the Constitution allowing the federal government to fund local government directly…
It will say no to local communities, and yes to a Canberra takeover…
Canberra freely will be able to direct local government by attaching policy strings to funding…
Part of the reason Labor and some Coalition MPs support the referendum is because it enables them to become kingmakers in their communities by tying federal government largesse to their preferred local outcomes.
If the referendum is successful the worst, sleazy NSW Labor Party behaviour will go national. 

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If Palmer can’t even manage his own party …

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (7:58am)

The clown show continues:
Mining magnate Clive Palmer ... was given the news that the Australian Electoral Commission has rejected his party’s registration on a technicality as he appeared on ABC TV’s Q&A program on Monday night…
‘’The party submitted a list greater than 700 members and the AEC then advised they would only accept the application with 550 members,’’ he said in a media release…
On Sunday, he changed the party’s name from the United Australia Party to the Palmer United Party to avoid a legal battle with the AEC…
The party has resubmitted an application with 550 members in a bid to meet the Monday registration deadline before the election on September 14.

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Who’s the wombat now, Richard?

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (7:48am)

Former ABC Media Watch host Richard Ackland demonstrates my argument perfectly - that a Leftist bias may indeed influence how you see the world, and the ABC should not maintain a monoculture of the Left:

Richard Ackland rewrites history, minus some inconvenient facts. The Sydney Morning Herald, May 10:
(THE federal Coalition’s George) Brandis likes to wrap himself in his free speech virtue by proclaiming his support for journalists’ shield laws. His proposed amendments to the Evidence Act sought to give journalists some limited right to protect their confidential sources of information against courtroom discovery. “I’m a supporter of shield laws. In fact, I’m the author of the commonwealth’s shield laws,” he told Lateline host Emma Alberici on Tuesday night. Er, not quite. He put up one set of amendments ... allowing enough room for several stagecoaches and fours of horses to drive through. 
Chris Merritt, The Australian, September 28, 2010:
BY shifting position and embracing the need for strong shield laws for journalists’ sources, Labor has turned a looming parliamentary defeat into a victory. But the price of this victory is high: in essence, it has adopted a policy of the Coalition - and independent senator Nick Xenophon - that it had rejected during its first term. Labor’s turnaround started before the election but the pressure for change intensified once it was obvious the Coalition and independents had the numbers to make their scheme law ... The push for this form of shield law can be traced to May last year when the Coalition, independents and Greens members of a Senate committee rejected an alternative scheme Labor was then backing. 
Ackland omits more inconvenient facts - in the same SMH article:
THEN there was (Brandis’s) claim that it was wrong for the commonwealth to settle its part of the case brought by James Ashby (against former Speaker Peter Slipper). He criticised the settlement as a breach of commonwealth litigation guidelines, saying “the commonwealth should never settle litigation merely to avoid future costs”. Again, he must have forgotten that Fair Work cases come under a no-costs jurisdiction.
Here’s what the commonwealth’s special general counsel Damien O’Donovan wrote in the settlement offer he sent to Ashby’s lawyers on September 26 last year:

IN our assessment there are significant problems in fastening primary liability on the commonwealth ... However, in order to avoid the very significant expenses associated with ventilating these issues at trial, the commonwealth is prepared to make an offer based on a worst-case scenario analysis.
Commonwealth Legal Services Directions, Appendix C, clause 2:

SETTLEMENT is not to be effected merely because of the cost of defending what is clearly a spurious claim.
Who is the wombat now? Ackland again:
I’M sceptical that Brandis will make much of an attorney-general ... As an experienced lawyer confided: “Better to appoint a wombat ... “ 

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If we’re doing so well, how did Swan go broke?

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (7:33am)

Economy
On the day of Labor’s Götterdämmerung, Treasurer Wayne Swan today boasts:

...our economy has grown more than 13 per cent, generating more than 950,000 jobs, since Labor came to government in 2007. Tonight’s budget will show that by mid-2015, our economy will be 22 per cent bigger than before the global financial crisis, outpacing every major advanced economy.
So how can that have possibly lead to this?:
In five previous budgets, the Treasurer has racked up deficits of $173 billion and analysts tip the promised $1.5 billion surplus in last year’s budget papers will be replaced a deficit of between $10.9 billion to $22 billion.
This is deceitful:
This, along with the lingering impacts of the GFC and structural changes in our economy, has resulted in a very substantial revenue hit across the forward estimates, with revenues down $17 billion in 2012-13 compared with last budget.
“Compared with last budget” is meant to suggest Swan has less money now than what he had a year ago. That is false. Swan has at least 7 per cent more money than a year ago. He just has less than he then so foolishly predicted - and which he promptly spent.
Judith Sloan explains:
The projected revenue increase [in last year’s Budget] of nearly 12 per cent from 22.3 per cent of gross domestic product in 2011-12 to 23.8 per cent in 2012-13 was always ludicrous and should have been picked up by every economic journalist worth his or her large salary.
No excuses, please.
UPDATE
Former Treasurer Peter Costello drafts Swan’s speech:

Mr Speaker,
I guess by now you have all figured out that I don’t know what I’m doing. That awful truth has finally dawned on me as well. I hadn’t been too good before, but last year’s Budget was the one where I totally blew myself up - you remember? It was May 8 last year. I thought I needed a dramatic opening to my Speech. So I began by saying, ‘The four years of surpluses I announce tonight . . .’
No one heard the rest of the sentence because of the guffaws from the other side. That smart alec Costello called it some of the best stand-up comedy ever delivered in the House of Representatives. But the thing is I really believed it. I’m not good at numbers - of the financial kind.
Terry McCrann says Swan makes wood ducks look like Einsteins:
A year ago, he was in the process of admitting that the deficit for the 2011-12 year was going to be $20 billion bigger than he had projected in the 2011 Budget.
And yet no bell went off in his head to suggest that just maybe, he was at risk of something similar happening again in the 2012-13 year…
And what wonderful timing that would so disastrously be. A few months out from an election, at which the Government’s wafer slim chances pivoted entirely on trying to project economic credibility and fiscal responsibility.

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Up go the GP bills, too

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (7:25am)

It is crazy to expect doctors can long keep charging just $36 per consultation when they have staff, insurance, rent and other overheads to pay for. Especially if you expect that consultation to be thorough:

DOCTORS will be hit with a freeze on Medicare service charges with the Gillard government aiming to save $1.5 billion over four years to help fund its DisabilityCare program.
GPs’ indexation of what they are paid under the Medicare Benefits Scheme will be capped at $36 a visit...
But Australian Medical Association president Steve Hambleton warned last night the steps would lead to a decline in the use of bulk billing, under which doctors are paid the Medicare rate directly by the government and patients are left with no additional costs for a GP visit, and adversely affect older Australians. And if doctors chose not to absorb the higher costs the measure could ultimately lead to higher out-of-pocket expenses for patients.
It is understood the government wants doctors to absorb the extra cost of the rebates...
Some extra co-payment for each consultation may well be good public policy, building in a price signal to prevent consultations for mere colds and splinters. But to pretend prices won’t go up is disingenuous. 

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Up go the GP bills, too

Andrew Bolt May 14 2013 (7:25am)

It is crazy to expect doctors can long keep charging just $36 per consultation when they have staff, insurance, rent and other overheads to pay for. Especially if you expect that consultation to be thorough:

DOCTORS will be hit with a freeze on Medicare service charges with the Gillard government aiming to save $1.5 billion over four years to help fund its DisabilityCare program.
GPs’ indexation of what they are paid under the Medicare Benefits Scheme will be capped at $36 a visit...
But Australian Medical Association president Steve Hambleton warned last night the steps would lead to a decline in the use of bulk billing, under which doctors are paid the Medicare rate directly by the government and patients are left with no additional costs for a GP visit, and adversely affect older Australians. And if doctors chose not to absorb the higher costs the measure could ultimately lead to higher out-of-pocket expenses for patients.
It is understood the government wants doctors to absorb the extra cost of the rebates...
Some extra co-payment for each consultation may well be good public policy, building in a price signal to prevent consultations for mere colds and splinters. But to pretend prices won’t go up is disingenuous. 

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Govt says #Budget is about "jobs and growth", yet it delivers higher unemployment and lower growth.

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#Budget2013 summary: MORE DEBT, MORE CHAOS, MORE SPIN 

This year’s Budget delivers more debt, more deficits, more taxes, more broken promises and more uncertainty.

At a time when Australians are desperately seeking stable and competent economic management, the Budget just delivers more chaos, debt and spin.

For local families, this Budget does nothing to help deal with cost of living pressures, economic uncertainty and poor services.

Federal Labor has again broken its word to locals in our community. They promised no carbon tax and a surplus. Instead we got a carbon tax, record deficits and in this Budget, Labor scrapped tax cuts, family payments and the baby bonus.

Wayne Swan said this Budget was about “jobs and growth” but the Budget actually forecasts an increase in unemployment (up to 5.75%) and lower growth (down to 2.75%).
This Budget means less jobs and slower growth.

key areas of concern in the Budget include:

- total gross debt to breach the $300 billion debt ceiling in coming years;
- no credible path back to surplus;
- at least a $4.7 billion blowout in the management of Australia’s borders since last year’s Budget;
- new borrowings of $49 million every single day, and
- more than $25 billion in higher taxes over the next four years – with 99% of these new taxes starting after the next election.
Families and businesses have to live within their means, but this government doesn’t.
Over the last 5 years, the Gillard Government has spent $191 billion more than it has raised.

Only the Coalition has the Plan, experience and discipline to return the Budget to sustainable surpluses, reduce debt and provide real support to Australian families to help them get ahead again.

Tony Abbott’s Budget Reply to be delivered on Thursday night would provide more details of the Coalition’s Real Solutions Plan that will build a strong, prosperous economy. http://bit.ly/ZjyTjR

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But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Corinthians 15:57)
Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
No matter what bondage, stronghold, sin or addiction has held you captive in the past, when you acknowledge Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you receive His power — His burden-moving, yoke-destroying anointing. Sin can’t hold you back because who the Son sets free, is free indeed! (See John 8:36.) It all starts by believing and receiving this promise. Then, as you meditate on His Word and draw close to Him, more of His power becomes alive in you.Receive His truth and life and celebrate true, eternal victory.God bless you.
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4 her
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DID YOU KNOW SYDNEY HAS A FLOATING FOREST?
Hey you, with the DSLR! This abandoned shipwreck overrun with mangroves is one of our city's best kept secrets. Where is it? Click here to find out more: www.urbansociety.com.au/urban-insider/things-to-do/sydney-s-floating-forest/
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Melissa Ohden

My thoughts on the Gosnell trial. I am a bleary, teary mess right now. In a world that by and large wanted to overlook and avoid looking at this atrocity, justice was served today. But justice needs to continue to be served today, tomorrow, and in the days and weeks that come. My thoughts: 

I will likely never stand face to face with the abortionist, who thirty-five years ago, executed his job duties and attempted to kill me. I will never stand face to face with that abortionist, who thirty-five years ago, did not, as many pro-abortion people have said, “do his job properly” that day. As we know, by saying that he “didn’t do his job properly,” they mean, “didn’t kill you like he was supposed to.”

I will likely never stand face to face with that abortionist, but because I was blessed to survive the abortion procedure and was provided medical care after it was discovered that I wasn’t dead like I should have been, like it was initially believed I was, I can now stand face to face with abortionists like Dr. Gosnell. In comparison to his victims, I believe that Dr. Gosnell is lucky. Today he was found guilty on 3 of 4 counts of murder. Compared to the children whose lives he ended in the womb, and the children whose lives he ended outside of the womb, he is lucky, indeed. He is lucky to have experienced life, albeit filled with horrific choices that he made. He is lucky to have experienced what it was like to be loved by someone in his life. He is lucky to have been born.
Justice was served today. But it does not stop the other ‘Gosnell’s’ that exist in our world today, who not only end life inside the womb but attempt to end it through their own actions or inactions once the child is outside of the womb. I pray that justice be served for the rest of the children who are affected by abortion and infanticide every day.

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"As an American I regret [UN Resolution 3379 - Zionism is Racism], but I don't let that piece of paper deter my commitment to the survival of freedom and liberty and democracy in Israel. That resolution is bothersome, it is a problem, but it doesn't have anything to do with the substance or the content of our belief. As a Black American, who understands racism, I know that it makes no sense to equate it with Zionism."

Barbara Jordan (1936–1996) 
* First African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction 
* First southern black female elected to the United States House of Representatives
* Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Lincoln
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Click on the yellow tag .. 
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Labor revised actual Budget hole 3 times in two weeks($7bn,$12bn then $17bn). They now say trust me with 10 year estimates.

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Chris Spence

NSW GOVERNMENT WEEKLY UPDATE – 10 May 2013
20,000 JOBS CREATED IN APRIL
NSW has recorded another strong month of employment growth pushing the total number of jobs created in the first term of the NSW Liberals & Nationals Government to 130,600.
The latest ABS Labour Force figures show there were almost 20,000 (19,746) new jobs created in April, on top of the 4,300 new jobs created during the previous month.
The NSW unemployment rate fell to 5.3 per cent from 5.5 per cent the previous month – the second lowest of all the states.
With the national unemployment figure at 5.5 per cent, NSW has spent 15 consecutive months under the national average.
CHEAPER GREEN SLIPS FOR NSW MOTORISTS
Motorists will soon be paying up to 15 per cent less for their Compulsory Third Party insurance, with the NSW Government introducing legislation to make the green slip scheme fairer and more affordable.
At the moment the scheme is nothing more than a lawyers’ picnic, with accident victims getting less than half of all premiums collected by insurers.
Under the new ‘no fault’ scheme those injured in motor vehicle accidents will be compensated sooner, without argument or lengthy legal battles.
Under the changes green slip premiums will be more competitive with other states - at the moment NSW is the most expensive state and that needs to change.
COMMUNITY SAFETY PROTECTED THROUGH CONTINUED USE OF CCTV
The NSW Government is introducing exemptions to ensure local councils can continue to use CCTV cameras to prevent crime.
The decision was taken after the Administrative Decisions Tribunal ordered the CCTV in the Shoalhaven Council area be turned off after it found they breached privacy laws.
The NSW Government is now drafting a regulation to provide appropriate exemptions under privacy laws to allow local councils to continue using CCTV.
The NSW Government will not allow this tribunal decision to undermine police efforts to reduce crime on our streets.
POLICE GANG CRACKDOWN GETTING RESULTS
Efforts to crackdown on gang-related crime have been getting results – with hundreds of people arrested and thousands of guns taken off our streets in a range of Police operations.
Operation Apollo was established in February 2013 to reduce public place shootings and since its inception more than 220 people have been arrested and more than 420 charges have been laid.
Operation Apollo builds on the success of Operation Spartan, which has resulted in 690 arrests and almost 1,200 charges laid.
NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell has congratulated Commissioner Andrew Scipione and the men and women of the NSW Police Force for the good results they are achieving in locking up crooks and making our streets safer.
FASTER AND MORE EFFECTIVE HELP FOR VICTIMS OF CRIME
A new Victims Support Scheme will focus on giving victims of crime assistance when they most need it and make it easier to access free counselling and other services to aid them in their recovery.
Financial support will be provided for urgent medical and dental treatment, home security upgrades or for crisis accommodation to keep victims safe from further violence.
The new processes are designed to drastically reduce waiting times and make sure the $72 million available to victims of crime each year goes to helping more people more quickly.
An independent report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers found the current scheme is financially unsustainable and not meeting victims’ needs in a timely manner.
YOUNG OFFENDERS TO LEARN ABOUT MILITARY HISTORY
The NSW Government has teamed up with the RSL in an innovative new scheme targeted at young offenders who desecrate War Memorials.
New sentencing options will be introduced so young offenders who damage war memorials can be required to undertake voluntary work with the RSL.
Suitable young offenders will spend time with veterans by volunteering with the Corps of Guards and assisting the ANZAC Memorial Guardians with Memorial tours.
Attacks on War Memorials are an insult to the entire community, but particularly hurtful to our current and former servicemen and women and their families.
The NSW Government has also announced grants totalling $107,000 to restore and maintain community War Memorials in the lead up to the Centenary of Anzac – details can be found at www.veterans.nsw.gov.au.
BILLIONS ALLOCATED TO RESTART NSW
The NSW Government’s fund to drive the renewal of infrastructure in NSW - Restart NSW - has reached $4.7 billion following the long term lease of Port Botany and Port Kembla.
Restart NSW is now enabling us to get on with the job building the infrastructure the people of NSW want and deserve including $1.8 billion for the WestConnex motorway.
Other commitments from Restart NSW currently include $403 for the Pacific Highway upgrade, $170 million for the Princes Highway upgrade, an Illawarra Fund worth $100m from the lease of Port Kembla, and Bridges for the Bush – a $135 million program for replacing and upgrading 17 bridges in regional NSW.
Along with $4.3 billion in net proceeds from the Ports transaction, Restart NSW has received $312 million from the lease of the Sydney Desalination Plant, $96 million from windfall tax revenues announced at the Half Yearly Review, and $46 million to date from Waratah Bonds.
NEW APP TO HELP PEOPLE EXPERIENCING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
A new smart phone app has been launched for people who are experiencing domestic and family violence.
The app is gives users the ability to create a trusted network of friends who can be easily contacted with an agreed message and a GPS system to ‘call-for-help’ and alert recipients of the sender’s location.
The Aurora domestic violence app has been developed by the NSW Government to help people who are experiencing abuse make informed, empowered choices.
The app was developed in consultation with the NSW Police Force, with input from experts from the domestic and family violence sector.
GOVERNMENT MOVES TO EASE SHORTAGE OF BURIAL SPACE
An additional 6,700 burial spaces are now available for people of the Jewish and Muslim faiths at Rookwood Cemetery to ease critical burial space shortages.
The area known as Lot 10 has been allocated equally to Muslim and Jewish communities to secure their burial needs for the next decade.
We are seeking additional burial space in the greater Sydney region for the future needs of people of all religious and cultural beliefs.
Minister for Citizenship and Communities Victor Dominello congratulated the Muslim and Jewish communities for their input and leadership on this issue.
MAJOR EVENTS DRIVE CONTINUES TO BLOOM
The NSW Government drive to attract major events continues to bloom with two more secured this week.
This week it was confirmed Sydney will host the Australian Garden Show for the next three years – estimated to contribute at least $12 million into the state’s economy
Meanwhile, in a major coup for Western Sydney, the internationally recognised motorsport event, Monster Jam, will make its first and only Australian appearance at ANZ Stadium, Homebush.
This monster truck event has proven a hit right around the world, attracting a TV audience of more than 30 million people a year.

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Something odd in the translation, as he predates by hundreds of years a prevalent monotheistic view. However the answer is simple .. what a person considers evil or distasteful is not the same as God's view. I don't like waking up early, but I should. A good man should not sacrifice their own son .. but Abraham was willing. A person can't resurrect three days after being crucified to death, but Jesus did. - ed
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Roy Rogers Yodels – The Cowboy Night Herd Song
- Music Video -

At this link:
http://independentfilmnewsandmedia.com/roy-rogers-yodels-the-cowboy-night-herd-song/
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iPad Music Station..Perfect desktop Music Machine.. Pads, Keyboard, and knobs all for your MIDI fun.. hook it up to your laptop or desktop too..
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Leadership is neither showmanship nor dictatorship. Leadership is a stewardship and a partnership.

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Quick Pix: Harry Carey, Jr. w/Video

http://independentfilmnewsandmedia.com/quick-pix-harry-carey-jr-wvideo/
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שבנו אתמול עד שעה מאוחרת על תקציב הביטחון, והחלטתי להביא בפני הממשלה החלטה שעיקרה מיתון בקיצוץ המוצע בתקציב הביטחון, מיתון של מיליארד שקל שלא יבוא על חשבון הציבור. 

צה"ל על מפקדיו, על לוחמיו, על כלי הנשק שלו - הם חיוניים לביטחון ישראליים. חיוניים הן בהגנה והן בהתקפה - אלה שתי חזיתות מרכזיות. 

The IDF – including its commanders, soldiers and weapons – is vital, in both defense and offense, to Israelis' security; these are two main fronts
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"Beware these BAFTA creatures!" Yesterday the Doctor and Clara found a BAFTA in the TARDIS - which caused some confusion for the Doctor... 

Check out the clip from the British Academy Television Awards here: http://bit.ly/18F35d6
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You have a right to expect restoration of the things that the devil has stolen from you! Find out more in today's devotional and be blessed! http://bit.ly/12Hbt9q
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If God is for us, who can be against us?—Rom 8:31

God doesn’t bless you because you have been good. He blesses you because of the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on the cross for you! Jesus’ precious blood has washed you whiter than snow. That is why God is for you today even when you fail! 

And if God Himself is for you, who can come successfully against you? What adversity or adversary can stand against you? There are none! Hallelujah!
http://josephprince.com/
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Beloved, have you been blessed by the testimonies of other believers? Has reading about what Jesus has done for them built your faith to receive the breakthrough you’ve been praying for? Then help to encourage fellow Christians and share your own praise report using this link:http://bit.ly/R6fa43

We love to hear how you have been impacted by the gospel of grace, and transformed by knowing Jesus more personally as your Lord and Savior. So tell us what the Lord has done for you, and let us rejoice in His grace and goodness together!
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Friend,
May 13 is a special day in our home. Our sweet daughter, Isabella Maria "Bella," turns 5 today!  She was born with Trisomy 18, a severe genetic condition that makes every day with her a gift from God. Children with Trisomy 18 have an extra chromosome, are born underweight and suffer a number of health issues that lead in most cases to a shortened life. It is true that 90 percent of babies with Trisomy 18 die at or before birth, many by abortion. Only one in 10 who survive birth see their first birthday, so for our Bella to celebrate her 5th birthday is a wonderful miracle and a cherished milestone. I wrote about Bella in my latest column:
"A few days after she was born, the doctors told us that Bella had a genetic abnormality, trisomy 18, and that her life would be measured in days and weeks, not years. My first thought was that we would have to endure the death of another child, but this painful journey would not be measured in hours, but perhaps weeks or months. Thanks to Bella's momma-bear mom, we quickly rallied from despair to resolve, to do all we could to accept her for who she is and give her the best and happiest life.
We took it a day at a time; in fact, we celebrated a birthday for Bella every week, with the fervent hope that she would have as many weeks as our other children would have years on this earth.
Well, this week Bella, is celebrating her 260th-week birthday. Five incredibly blessed years that have transformed me, Karen, our family and others who have been touched by Bella's beautiful spirit. And as we celebrate her life this week, we can't help but be grateful to so many who supported us on our journey - prayer partners, her doctors, nurses and therapists, our friends and family. But of all these amazing people she has been blessed to have in her life, there has always been a special patron."
Bella has enriched our lives beyond measure, and her life teaches us and those she meets that everyone has a God-given right to life and each life should be treated with dignity and unconditional love.
If you have a moment, I hope you'll visit Bella's Corner where we provide some information and resources about Trisomy 18 kids.  And if you want to wish Bella a happy 5th birthday, please visit myFacebook page and post a greeting there.
Thank you for all of your prayers and warm wishes for Bella!
Sincerely,
Rick and Karen Santorum

P.S. Please tune in tomorrow at noon ET to Patriot Voices Radio.  I'll be joining the broadcast to talk about Bella's birthday, the Benghazi scandal and many other topics.  Listen online atwww.patriotvoices.com/radio or on your phone by calling (347) 857-3462.  I also want to invite you to call our "Shout-Out Line" 24/7 to leave a message for Patriot Voices or me about what's on your mind.  We might play your message on our next show!  The Shout-Out Line is (512) 827-0033.

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JensenSutta-Malkin-1
Photo credit: www.jensensutta.com
Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for May 13th. Enjoy!

From the Blog

HHS Secretary Sebelius to health industry: How about you make a donation to help implement Obamacare?

A letter from the head of a government agency soliciting “donations” from companies in the same industry she regulates might as well say “nice little business ya got there — shame if something were to happen to it”...

Beware of IVAW nutball-turned- 'gun rights organizer' Adam Kokesh

One of the advantages of having fought conservative battles in the blogosphere for a decade and in traditional media for more than two decades is that I never forget a fraudster...

AP: Federal oversight group says claim that senior IRS officials were unaware of extra tea party scrutiny isn’t entirely accurate; Updated

Friday Michelle wrote about the IRS admitting to giving extra scrutiny to conservative groups (specifically ones that were self-described as “tea party” or “patriot” organizations) seeking tax exempt status in 2011 and 2012...

More From the Right Side of the Web

Michelle's Top Tweets

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And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

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Pink_Barbie's own mother must be so proud!

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May 14Shavuot begins at sunset (Judaism, 2013); Feast day of Saint Matthiasand Saint Mo Chutu (Roman Catholicism)
Edward Jenner

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