Happy birthday and many happy returns Nicholas Comanos and Toni Patsias. Born on the same day, across the years. The same day in 1863 in which Seventh Day Adventism began and humour became a part of theology in a way never seen before. It is ok to give blood, if you are sincere .. it is your birthday and that makes all the difference.
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MIKE NO LIKE
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 21, 2013 (5:11pm)
It’s been a tough 24 hours for our mate Mike Carlton, who failed to impress on Q & A last night and is now at war with the ABC:
Mike Carlton has launched a stinging attack on the ABC’s Australian Story, claiming his comments were “selectively edited” by the show’s producers to give a glowing account of his former radio nemesis Ray Hadley.Carlton launched his tirade via his Twitter account, describing the program, which aired on Monday night, as a “travesty”, “disgrace” and “garbage” …Carlton said: “They absolutely have editorial control over the program but they also have a responsibility to present what I said in its entirety and not distort and misrepresent my comments to present a false impression of my views.”
You want your interview presented in its entirety, Mike? The show was about Hadley, not you. Anyway, Carlton is now putting on his top hat and monocle for a formal complaint. In other lefty fury news, Labor speechwriter Bob Ellis is alternately threatening to sue or kill Fairfax columnist (and former dining companion) John Birmingham. No response yet from Birmingham, who is usually extremely sensitive to any perceived dangers.
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TWISTED
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 21, 2013 (1:22pm)
How long does it take for idiots to use the Oklahoma tornado deaths – we’re still some days away from a final body count – as global warming propaganda? Try instantly. (Very persuasive piece there, Rebecca. Nuanced. Sensitive.)
Here’s a less-obscene version of the same thing.
UPDATE. Democrat senator Sheldon Whitehouse uses the disaster to attack “polluters and deniers”.
UPDATE II. The warmy swarm is on.
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SUBURBS ERASED
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 21, 2013 (12:09pm)
Horror in Oklahoma:
A monstrous tornado at least a half-mile wide roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds up to 200 mph.
At least 51 people were killed, and officials said the death toll was expected to rise, according to CBS News.
The storm laid waste to scores of buildings in Moore, a community of 41,000 people south of the city. Block after block lay in ruins.
UPDATE. Before and after.
UPDATE II. Video:
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GIMME A T FOR TICKETS
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 21, 2013 (4:23am)
Tim “Don’t you know who I am?” Mathieson, Australia’s leading ticket mooch, tours Texas:
Julia Gillard said her partner Tim Mathieson travelled to the US in an unofficial capacity despite being spotted at a Texan car race wearing accreditation tagged “Office of the Prime Minister”.
Gridwalker: Texas Tim steps out at the Circuit of the Americas
The First Bloke was spotted enjoying VIP treatment at the V8 Supercar races held in Austin over the weekend, looking relaxed in an open checked shirt and belting out the Australian national anthem.
According to the Prime Minister, no public money was spent on Mathieson’s brief time away from his Canberra couch.
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OUR MAN INSIDE THE BBC
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 21, 2013 (1:15am)
Guido Fawkes looks at the BBC’s latest star hire:
Fair, balanced and impartial Ian Katz will have no trouble fitting in at his new role as Newsnight editor … Katz certainly has top drawer left-wing credentials. Back in 2004, he was editor of the Guardian’s G2 magazine during their infamous ‘Operation Clark County’ plot to swing the state of Ohio in favour of John Kerry and against George W. Bush. Katz organised thousands of letters written by lefty Britons to be sent to individual voters in Ohio, imploring them to cast their ballot for Kerry. The result was uproar, a near diplomatic incident, and victory for Bush.
Operation Clark County, for those unaware, was one of the more spectacular leftoid fails of the past 20 years. The whole debacle began when I mockingly suggested that Guardian types contact Americans during the 2004 US election campaign, to turn them away from Bush.
Unbelievably, the Guardian took the idea seriously and set about putting readers in touch with voters in Clark County, Ohio – an area that had narrowly voted Democrat in 2000. Katz seemedunprepared for hostile online reaction, which led to global media interest:
I realised just how much momentum our project to match concerned non-Americans with voters in a marginal US county had acquired when I arrived in Shanghai on Sunday to be handed a message from a local reporter … “Is it possible to make interview about Operation Clark County?” …When I rang a colleague in London the next morning to tell him about the strangely surreal encounter, he reported that he had just said goodbye to a crew from Japanese TV. CNN were on their way.It’s been like that for the best part of a week: Canadian newspapers, Irish radio, US TV networks. Fox has been frothing. Rush Limbaugh has been raving. A quick Google search as I write this produces the Washington Post wondering, “Can the Brits swing Ohio?”, and the New York Times reporting, in unusually demotic voice, “British Two Cents Draws, in Sum, a Two-Word Reply: Butt Out”. Elsewhere, detailing the robust response to our campaign, the Arab News in Saudi Arabia asks gravely: “Can the ‘special’ US-UK relationship survive?”.
An unnamed ringleader found himself blamed for coordinating an “eye-wateringly unpleasant”counter-campaign against the Guardian, which quickly abandoned its anti-Bush quest. Final outcome: Democrat candidate John Kerry lost Clark County by more than 1500 votes, Ohio voted Republican, and Bush was returned to the Presidency. The BBC wondered: “Could the Guardianand its Operation Clark County be responsible for a second Bush term?” Katz wasn’t keen to acceptfault:
Mr Katz denies the experiment backfired.“The only thing that’s completely clear is that we didn’t get Kerry elected and nobody’s going to be hiring me as a political strategist,” he said.
In a way, we did hire Katz as a strategist – for no pay, and for the other side. He performed brilliantly. Slate‘s Andy Bowers summarised:
Kerry won every Gore county in Ohio except Clark. He even increased Gore’s winning margin in 12 of the 16. Nowhere among the Gore counties did more votes move from the blue to the red column than in Clark. The Guardian’s Katz was quoted as saying it would be “self-aggrandizing” to claim Operation Clark County affected the election. Don’t be so modest, Ian.
And now strategic mastermind Katz is in charge of one of the BBC’s most influential programs. Fun times ahead.
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MO SAYS NO
Tim Blair – Monday, May 20, 2013 (1:29pm)
Alleged Islamic rioter Mohammed Issai Issaka takes a stand – or, more accurately, doesn’t:
A man accused of rioting during last year’s violent Muslim protests has been berated for his “disrespect” after refusing to stand before a magistrate at his court hearing.Mohammed Issai Issaka, who was charged with riot, assaulting police and resisting arrest over the September incident, this morning said his religious beliefs stopped him from rising for the court ...
Mohammed can’t stand it
Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge repeatedly demanded Issaka stand for her, telling the accused man she didn’t accept his refusal.“You can tell me where it is in his religion that it says he cannot stand,” she said to Issaka’s lawyer.“I was a magistrate at Bankstown Court for four years and I have never had to deal with such disrespect.”
The hearing eventually continued with Issaka allowed to wait outside the courtroom while everyone else stood.
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OVER TO YOU, POLITIFACT
Tim Blair – Monday, May 20, 2013 (1:21pm)
Labor Senator Helen Polley:
Several months ago I spoke in this chamber about the opposition’s slide towards Tea Party style tactics… In America, this sort of shrill, fear-driven campaigning led to the tragic shooting of United States congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. How much further will the Opposition Leader go until his tactics lead to a similar disaster occurring in Australia?
Helen wears magical truth-shifting goggles.
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JOURNALISM vs AUSTRALIA
Tim Blair – Monday, May 20, 2013 (1:05pm)
Intriguing, but not entirely surprising, research from the University of the Sunshine Coast:
[The university’s] survey of 605 journalists around Australia found that more than half (51.0%) describe themselves as holding left-of-centre political views, compared with only 12.9% who consider themselves right-of-centre …When asked about their voting intentions, less than two-thirds of the journalists we surveyed revealed their voting intention. Of those 372 people, 43.0% said they would give their first preference vote to Labor; 30.2% would vote for the Coalition; and 19.4% said they would choose the Greens – about twice the Australian average.
Senior media folk seem close to current polling:
Among the 83 senior editors who took part in the survey, the Coalition was the party of choice on 43.2%, followed by Labor (34.1%) and the Greens (11.4%).This suggests that Australia’s media bosses are more in line with the broader electorate, at least according to recent Newspoll results.
And then there’s the ABC:
41.2% of the 34 ABC journalists who declared a voting intention said they would vote for the Greens, followed by 32.4% for Labor and 14.7% for the Coalition.In contrast, 46.5% of 86 News Limited journalists who answered this question said they would vote for Labor, 26.7% for the Coalition, and only 19.8% for the Greens.
The Greens enjoy similar support at Fairfax:
Among the 86 Fairfax Media journalists who responded, Labor was by far the most popular party at 54.7% support, followed by the Coalition and the Greens, both on 19.8%.
(Via James J.)
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UNDERCARD OVERACHIEVERS
Tim Blair – Monday, May 20, 2013 (5:08am)
If you’ve ever been to an Anthony Mundine fight, you’ll know that the best entertainment comes from unknowns in the support bouts. Those scrappy combatants always put on a far better show than Anthony and whatever handpicked homeless pensioner cripple he’s usually slapping around.
The same is true in federal politics, where this September’s heavyweight title bout currently looks like a complete mismatch. One fighter is unmarked while the other somehow keeps wearing hits even when resting between rounds. She’s cut to the bone, you might say.
Check out the minor players, however. They’re brawling amongst themselves like absolute champions. It’s fantastic. Let’s run through the card:
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THANKS FOR NOTHING, BIG OIL
Tim Blair – Monday, May 20, 2013 (4:41am)
Maybe if they’d given some of it to our government, we might not be $20 billion in deficit:
Major international oil companies are buying off governments, according to the world’s most prominent climate scientist, Prof James Hansen …“The thing we are facing overall is that the fossil fuel industry has so much money that they are buying off governments,” Hansen said. “Our democracies are seriously handicapped by the money that is driving decisions in Washington and other capitals.”
Whatever, warmy. As Iowahawk says: “If you want to get money out of politics, get politics out of money.”
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FROM TAMPA BAY TO NESCAFE
Tim Blair – Monday, May 20, 2013 (4:35am)
Six years ago, Florida’s Tampa Bay Times began an experiment in political coverage. The paper established a website called Politifact to examine the accuracy of claims made by politicians and those involved in politics.
Results to this point are mixed, but apparently successful enough to justify the launch of a local sister site. Australia’s Politifact is headed by ex-SMH editor Peter Fray, whose crack fact-checking team last week probed a statement from Liberal Jamie Briggs: “Labor can’t claim to be reining in government spending when they are buying gold-plated coffee machines for their growing public service workforce.”
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ALSO, THEY DON’T DRESS LIKE PIRATES
Tim Blair – Monday, May 20, 2013 (4:08am)
A moment of clarity for bandana-wearing SMH pulp producer Peter FitzSimons:
Since Fairfax has encouraged readers to submit comments at the end of columns, I notice many of you express things better than I can.
Readers might have put it more concisely.
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JUST ADD MORE RED
Tim Blair – Monday, May 20, 2013 (3:48am)
“Funnily enough,” writes doom clown artist and cover satirist Brett, “it didn’t take much work at all to make her look like Ronald McDonald ...”
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HOUSEHOLD HOLDUP HELPLINE
Tim Blair – Monday, May 20, 2013 (3:44am)
When robbing a man’s home, it isn’t a good idea to shut him inside the closet where he keeps his guns.
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HOCKEY ONE
Tim Blair – Monday, May 20, 2013 (2:36am)
Latest Newspoll, same as the old poll. Well, except for one small change:
Following the budget, voters were asked who would make the better treasurer. The coalition’s Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey trumped Wayne Swan for the first time by 39 per cent to 35 per cent.
Ouch. Cut to the bone, Wayne. Another poll finds:
Australians have declared Wayne Swan a dud treasurer with almost twice as many people trusting his Coalition counterpart Joe Hockey to deliver a budget surplus.Even Labor voters appear to have lost confidence in Mr Swan – almost half believed Mr Hockey was more likely to get the budget back into the black than the Treasurer.
The other half need hooking up to a polygraph.
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WAYNE’S REIGN
Tim Blair – Monday, May 20, 2013 (12:13am)
Last year I mentioned a remarkable meeting with former world motorcycle champion Wayne Gardner. Here’s an excellent documentary featuring Gardner and his fellow riders from the ferocious two-stroke era of the late 80s and early 90s.
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Oklahoma tornado strikes, climate vultures gather
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (2:29pm)
Rescuers are still digging children out of a collapsed school, but
warmists are already trying to turn the Oklohama disaster into a poster
for the cause, with all the usual compassion:
If there was really someone to blame for this hideous tragedy, the anger would be justified. But what we are seeing is the deliberate exploitation of grief and fear to perpetrate a lie:
UPDATE
Further verification from the Storm Prediction Centre, from last month::
Oh, sorry, are we “politicizing” the report that up to 75 kids are trapped under debris in their Moore, Oklahoma, elementary school right now? Eat us. Oh, is the science not totally sure yet about tornadoes and climate change? Well we will just wait until 97 percent of scientists agree, then surely the GOP will get reasonable and stop blaming hurricanes on gay marriage, and we can all save the planet! Also, go f*** yourself.Tim Blair tracks down more examples of the warmist vultures, come to feed on the dead.
If there was really someone to blame for this hideous tragedy, the anger would be justified. But what we are seeing is the deliberate exploitation of grief and fear to perpetrate a lie:
And despite the increasing population density of the US:
The warmists exploiting this tragedy are utterly disgusting.
UPDATE
Further verification from the Storm Prediction Centre, from last month::
With a preliminary count of 87 EF1 and stronger U.S. tornadoes through April 2013, the year is off to a slow start with about half the average number of tornadoes for this period of the year (153 JFMA tornadoes over the past 60 years). If the preliminary count stands, 2013 will rank 49 out of 60 in tornado activity level (through April) since 1954..(Graphic via Watts Up With That, which flays a shameless US Senator. Thanks to reader Mark.)
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Abbott rises, publishers weep
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (2:21pm)
Tony Abbott has remade himself and rebuilt his shattered party, taking it to the brink of victory in September.
But the publishing class, as always, would rather read about its own party - and will receive plenty of insights into how Labor would have done better had it only listened more to Rudd/voters/Bowen/the Left/polls/Ferguson:
But the publishing class, as always, would rather read about its own party - and will receive plenty of insights into how Labor would have done better had it only listened more to Rudd/voters/Bowen/the Left/polls/Ferguson:
TWO books penned by Kevin Rudd backers are set for release or re-release around the election as the legacy battle over Labor’s leadership wars ramp up in print.
Former Labor MP Maxine McKew is writing a new chapter about the final year of the parliamentary term for her controversial book from last year - including “frank” interviews with key Labor figures about the recent aborted leadership spill.
And Labor figure Bruce Hawker, who helped plot Mr Rudd’s 2012 leadership challenge, is writing a book about campaigns and elections - though publishers won’t comment on whether it will canvas the recent ALP turmoil…
Two former Labor ministers and Rudd backers, Chris Bowen and Kim Carr, have announced pre-election books while Treasurer Wayne Swan’s former chief-of-staff, Jim Chalmers, will also release a book on the handling of the GFC.
Former Rudd speech writer James Button is updating his “Speechless” book which criticised Mr Rudd last year while former Fairfax journalist Kerry-Anne Walsh will release “Stalking Julia” on Mr Rudd and the media’s alleged role in trying to bring down Ms Gillard.
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Mamamia, what a failure to disclose
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (12:44pm)
How to disclose when you’re not disclosing:
This should clear it up:
Need you ask? The Rudd and Gillard governments’, of course.
Jamila Rizvi @JamilaRizvi“Editor at @mamamia” should already be enough to tell you her political leanings, given those of her boss.
Editor at @Mamamia, columnist at @CosmopolitanAU, optimistic realist, feminist + former political staffer. Opinions expressed are mine + I’m not sharing. Hmph.
This should clear it up:
So, back to the non-disclosure disclosure. Whose political staffer was Rizvi?
Need you ask? The Rudd and Gillard governments’, of course.
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Labor stays, business goes
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (12:28pm)
New Bureau of
Statistics figures show only half the businesses which started in the
first full financial year of the Rudd Government are still going today:
Reader K, a chartered accountant, warns:
- Of the 299,123 new business entries during 2008–09, 75.8% were still operating in June 2010, 60.5% were still operating in June 2011 and 51.0% were still operating in June 2012.UPDATE
Reader K, a chartered accountant, warns:
Traditionally these stats have a major flaw being Bill Bloggs starts up a little business as a sole trader and gets an ABN. The business starts to go well so he shuts down the sole trader ABN and starts a partnership with his wife running the same business. So the business in fact continues, indeed it is doing well but the ABS count the shutting down of his old ABN as a business exit.(Thanks to reader Trevor.)
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BBC admits: a “standstill” in global warming. Bad luck for fish
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (12:02pm)
The BBC concedes what The Age still can’t:
More unexpected news. Global warming could actually mean fish breed better, says a new paper in Global Change Biology:
A competition in which sceptics profit from warmists:
The facts may change, but the panic MUST remain. Observe:
Since 1998, there has been an unexplained “standstill” in the heating of the Earth’s atmosphere.UPDATE
More unexpected news. Global warming could actually mean fish breed better, says a new paper in Global Change Biology:
Increased CO2 stimulates reproduction in a coral reef fishUPDATE
Gabrielle M. Miller et al
Abstract: Ocean acidification is predicted to negatively impact the reproduction of many marine species, either by reducing fertilization success or diverting energy from reproductive effort… We investigated the effects of near-future levels of pCO2 on the reproductive performance of the cinnamon anemonefish, Amphiprion melanopus, from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Breeding pairs were held under three CO2 treatments (Current-day Control (430?atm), Moderate (584?atm) and High (1032?atm)) for a 9-month period that included the summer breeding season. Unexpectedly, increased CO2 dramatically stimulated breeding activity in this species of fish. Over twice as many pairs bred in the Moderate (67% of pairs) and High (55%) compared to the Control (27%) CO2 treatment. Pairs in the High CO2 group produced double the number of clutches per pair and 67% more eggs per clutch compared to the Moderate and Control groups. As a result, reproductive output in the High group was 82% higher than the Control group and 50% higher than the Moderate group… This study provides the first evidence of the potential effects of ocean acidification on key reproductive attributes of marine fishes and, contrary to expectations, demonstrates an initially stimulatory (hormetic) effect in response to increased pCO2. However, any long-term consequences of increased reproductive effort on individuals or populations remains to be determined.
A competition in which sceptics profit from warmists:
A husband and wife from Kenai were the sole winners of the $318,500 Nenana Ice Classic jackpot on Monday… It was the latest breakup in the 97-year history of the Ice Classic, a contest in which thousands of Alaskans pay $2.50 a chance to guess the exact time and date the Tanana River ice goes out at Nenana. The previous late breakup record was 11:41 a.m. AST on May 20, 1964…UPDATE
The wooden tripod was sitting on an ice sheet at the edge of an open channel when the ice broke off and floated down the river, triggering a siren in town to notify residents the tripod was moving.
The facts may change, but the panic MUST remain. Observe:
The BBC’s Roger Harrabin reports:(Thanks to readers Peter, Steve, watty, Jaki and Gavin Atkins.)
So it is possible that the climate would warm less than predicted, but the effects of the warming at a low level might be greater than predicted.The clip begins at about 1:39:40 into the program.
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Why won’t the ABC admit its staff lean Left?
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (10:21am)
Why is the ABC so determined to deny that truth - that the vast majority of its journalists lean to the Left? Is it embarrassed that they do? Ashamed of the tag?
Point out that every host of Media Watch in its 24 years has been of the Left, and you get - well, not an outright denial, exactly - a claim that one of the seven actually believes in free speech and free markets, so might not be of the Left, after all.
Point out that every host of every one of the ABC’s main current affairs shows is hosted by someone of the Left, and you get managing director Mark Scott spluttering that this is a “simplistic” view and he does not know his staff’s personal views or how they vote.
Point out the clear cultural bias of so many ABC presenters, and you get ABC presenters past and present insist that only conservatives would call them biased, and, besides, conservatives are too biased to be good. (That’s also the view of the presenter who celebrated the fall of John Howard with a party at which guests could whack a Howard pinata.)
And now more denials:
MORE than 40 per cent of ABC journalists who answered a survey question about their political attitudes are Greens supporters, four times the support the minor party enjoys in the wider population. ...Does Colvin seriously argue that the ABC journalists who didn’t disclose their voting intentions were all the ABC’s secret Liberal voters?
An ABC spokeswoman said the number of the broadcaster’s journalists who responded to the survey was too small to draw any firm conclusions.
ABC radio presenter Mark Colvin described the result as “absolutely meaningless”.
“Only a tiny proportion of ABC journalists were prepared to reveal their voting intentions,” he said. “You don’t know anything about the much larger percentage of ABC journalists who weren’t prepared to reveal their voting intentions . . . it’s absolutely ridiculous to draw conclusions from this survey on that subject.”
Why this absurd pretence? I say openly I’m a conservative humanist, agnostic and rationalist. What’s the big secret about the Leftism of ABC staff?
Is it that the ABC, if it were honest, would be forced to open what’s actually a closed shop? It is trying to hide and protect what is an ideological monoculture?
UPDATE
Nick Cater says the need to make a dollar connects a journalist more firmly to their audience and keeps bias in check:
There are no surprises there, nor in the fact 41 per cent of ABC journalists who declared their intention said they would be voting Greens.Given what Fairfax journalists produce, however. I’d say a greater corrective is firm management by owners with skin in the game - and strong editors.
It is easy, but unfair, to single out the ABC for special mention. The cohort employed in commercial media is hardly representative of the general population either. At News Limited, the publisher of this newspaper, 46.5 per cent of journalists who responded to the researchers’ question said they would vote for Labor, 26.7 per cent for the Coalition, and 19.8 per cent for the Greens.
The main difference between journalists at the ABC and in the commercial media is that the latter are mindful of the imperative to make a dollar. Far from corrupting journalism as some have suggested, market forces keep journalists on the straight and narrow and less dismissive of the national mood.
Cater will discuss his new book, The Lucky Culture, on Thursday and Saturday at the Sydney Writers Festival. Book here.
(Thanks to reader Bill for the graphic.)
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From the streets of Muslim Sweden
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (9:25am)
Muslim immigration isn’t quite working out in Sweden. The latest example:
The real racists are the abusive police, claims a youth “leader”, and riots will continue:
UPDATE
From 2010:
Gangs of youth angered by the police shooting death of an elderly man in a mainly immigrant neighborhood hurled rocks at police and set cars and buildings on fire in a Stockholm suburb early Monday, forcing the evacuation of an apartment block.Note the refusal to describe the “immigrants”.
Around 50 youths were involved in the riots in the suburb of Husby, police spokesman Lars Bystrom said.
The youths set light to a parking garage, compelling police to evacuate residents from an adjacent apartment block, Bystrom said…
Around 80 percent of the roughly 11,000 people living in Husby – a drab, low-income neighborhood of apartment blocks west of Stockholm – are first or second generation immigrants…
One policeman was attacked by youths kicking him and two others were injured by rocks, local police officer Jorgen Karlsson said. He added around 10 cars were set ablaze, and windows were smashed at two schools and several local businesses…
Karlsson said the dead man was “European,” but couldn’t specify his nationality.
The real racists are the abusive police, claims a youth “leader”, and riots will continue:
Rami al-Khamisi, law student and founder of youth organization Megafonen, ... a community-based organization in the area that aims to organize residents of Stockholm’s northern suburbs to fight for social justice. Al-Khamisi, the founder of the organization, said the riots were a “reaction to police brutality against citizens, our neighbours”....Were Swedes told this was the deal with Third World immigration? That they would have to agree not to send in more police when the newcomers got “tired” and torched buildings and cars?
Al-Khamisi said that the crowd was reacting to a “growing marginalization and segregation in Sweden over the past ten, 20 years” from both a class and a race perspective.
“Out in the suburbs the majority of people aren’t white, and from a political perspective we’re seen as a problem that politicians want to solve by sending more police. This is not a solution we agree with,” he said…
“This kind of thing isn’t only happening in Husby, it’s happening all over Sweden. People are tired of politics not working in our favour, they’re tired of the current situation,” he told The Local.
UPDATE
From 2010:
Rioters in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, have burned down a school building and thrown stones at police in a second night of disturbances.
The trouble began on Monday after a group of youths in a suburb with a mainly immigrant population were refused entry to a school dance. Police said the rioters threw stones at the fire engines, preventing them from reaching the school building before it burned to the ground. The youths also attacked a police station.
Rinkeby is home to a large number of first- and second-generation immigrants. Many of them are from Somalia, so the area is sometimes nicknamed Little Mogadishu.
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Aren’t they, though?
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (9:21am)
Don’t defend. Attack:
(Thanks to reader John.)
The Conservative Party board has rejected a call for an investigation into whether Tory co-chairman Lord Feldman described grassroots activists as “swivel-eyed loons”…Challenge the activists made to sound many by their media megaphones.
The Conservative leadership has rallied around Lord Feldman in the row over reports in The Daily Telegraph and The Times that an ally of the Prime Minister described local party associations as “mad, swivel-eyed loons” who forced MPs to adopt hardline stances.
(Thanks to reader John.)
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Bias checking
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (8:14am)
Politifact, allegedly a neutral fact-checking outfit started by a former Sydney Morning Herald editor, forgives a verbal slip
of Labor’s flailing Treasurer (millions instead of a billions) but not a
metaphor of the Liberals’ Jamie Briggs ("gold-plated"). Ludicrous.
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Who was that leadfoot in the car we bought the PM?
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (7:44am)
Reader Gavin is curious:
Press focused on Tony Abbot’s Chief of staff [allegedly] drink driving.The letter from the Finance Department suggests there was more than one driver.
Press quiet on why the Department of Finance refuses to name driver who broke the law 8 times in 12 weeks while driving the PM’s car.
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Tim enjoys the perks while they last
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (7:30am)
Tim Mathieson sure knows how to make his surprising new status work for him. There’s all the freebies here, and now this:
JULIA Gillard said her partner Tim Mathieson travelled to the US in an unofficial capacity despite being spotted at a Texan car race wearing accreditation tagged “Office of the Prime Minister”.When was the last time Mathieson was by Gillard’s side, helping her at this most difficult time in her political career? Not sure funning it up is a great look, when your partner is left to walk the dog alone.
The First Bloke was spotted enjoying VIP treatment at the V8 Supercar races held in Austin over the weekend…
But the Prime Minister yesterday insisted there was “no public spending being spent there” as she fielded questions in Canberra…
The former hairdresser was filmed by the Seven Network in the VIP enclosure during the V8 race in Texas, wearing an official tag: “Tim Mathieson - Office of the Prime Minister”.
But the PM’s office said the pass was issued by the organisers of the event and was “not an official Government pass”.
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Rudd backs gay marriage, saying it’s not about Gillard
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (7:10am)
It is a sad measure of
the bastardry we’ve seen in Labor - and the cynicism it’s inevitably
produced - that first reaction to this announcement is to ask: what’s
Rudd’s real game here? And that Rudd, knowing this, declares even before
the question is asked that he won’t take a “leadership” role on it. And
that still we wonder…
KEVIN Rudd has thrown his support behind same-sex marriage placing him at odds with Prime Minister Julia Gillard…
“I have come to the conclusion that church and state can have different positions and practices on the question of same sex marriage,’’ he wrote…
Rudd said his decision was based on a conversation with a former political staffer, who he did not name, on Saturday morning recently in Canberra…
“My opponents both within and beyond the Labor Party, will read all sorts of political significance into this. That’s a matter for them. There is no such thing as perfect timing to go public on issues such as this…
“I will not be taking any leadership role on this issue nationally...”
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Government with black hole invents one for the Opposition
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (7:04am)
Surely this government wouldn’t tell lies to run a scare campaign, would it?
THE Education Department has been accused of providing misleading budget estimates designed to serve the Gillard government’s “political agenda”, amid a furore over Labor’s central claim that schools will lose $16.2 billion if the Coalition wins the election...
As the Prime Minister wrote to the premiers yesterday to urge them to accept her funding plan by June 30, she warned that government and independent schools would lose $16.2bn funding over the next six years if the states did not sign up…
“You will have seen that on 19 May I announced that if the current funding model is maintained, school funding nationally will go backwards by $16.2bn over the next six years,” she wrote.
The letters base their forecasts on a scenario included in last week’s federal budget, under which the rate of growth in school funding - the Average Government School Recurrent Costs index - was 3 per cent.
Both last year’s budget and October’s mid-year economic and fiscal outlook used a school spending growth forecast of about 6 per cent…
Last week’s budget said the recurrent funding levels “could have fallen below” the guaranteed growth rate of 4.7 per cent. It added that, had they fallen to 3 per cent a year, the extra investment under Gonski would amount to about $16.2bn over six years.
The budget document did not say why it assumed an alternative scenario of 3 per cent growth.
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We must stand up for our rule of law
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (6:46am)
The rule of law - and respect for it - is what makes ours the kind of society which attracts refugees and offers safety:
A MUSLIM man standing trial over his role in last year’s violent protests in central Sydney has been scolded for his “disrespect” after refusing to stand before a magistrate.(No comments.)
Mohammed Issai Issaka, 44, has pleaded not guilty to rioting, resisting arrest and assaulting police during the protests last September, organised in response to an internet video defaming the Islamic prophet Mohammed.
As the hearing commenced in Sydney’s Downing Centre yesterday, Mr Issaka refused to rise from his chair as a show of respect to magistrate Jacqueline Milledge as she entered the room.
Ms Milledge then repeatedly demanded the defendant stand, refusing to accept his excuse.
“You can tell me where it is in his religion that it says he cannot stand,” Ms Milledge told Mr Issaka’s lawyer. “I was a magistrate at Bankstown court (in southwest Sydney) for four years and I have never had to deal with such disrespect.”
After a delay of almost half an hour, the case resumed with Mr Issaka waiting outside the courtroom until the magistrate was seated.
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The beautiful suffer, too
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (6:08am)
Scientist Dr Laura Fernee says she had to quit her job two years ago because she was too beautiful, and hasn’t worked since:
They assumed because I was pretty, I was stupid, so didn’t take me seriously at first and, because of their own insecurities, were jealous of my looks…Really?
Then when they realised I was very good at my job, possibly better than them, they hated me even more…
I was rarely invited to lunch with them or for after-work drinks. Once when I was, they told me to sit facing a different direction because men were staring at me, not them.
We’re all victims. now. Even the fortunate.
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Gary Johns: end the New Racism
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (5:55am)
I’ve written how the “stolen generations” myth - a product of the New Racism - is killing Aboriginal children.
Former Labor Minister Gary Johns has more:
Former Labor Minister Gary Johns has more:
THREE cheers for Adam Giles, the Northern Territory Chief Minister, who last week vowed that, if necessary, he would remove neglected Aboriginal children from their parents and place them in adoptive homes.(Thanks to reader Peter.)
Of course there will be a chorus keen to do the Whiteman in the eye over the so-called Stolen Generations. But they can’t do Giles in the eye. He is Aboriginal…
But there are serious consequences if he wants to keep to the path of saving children from their own. An entire industry built on collective identity and collective solutions will feel as if their time is up. And so it is.
When Labor is flung from office, the Liberals will have to step in. Not with a polite marketing difference but with a bold statement of what is right and what is wrong.
The first place they need to look is racist legislation. The Northern Territory Adoption of Children Act, section 11, states: “Where an order for the adoption of an Aboriginal child is to be made, the court shall satisfy itself that every effort has been made to arrange appropriate custody within the child’s extended family, or with Aboriginal people who have the correct relationship with the child in accordance with Aboriginal customary law.”
Where it is not possible the court “shall give preference to the adoption of the child by applicants one or both of whom are Aboriginal persons” or “facilitate the maintenance of contact between the child and its own kin and with its own culture.”
This act, and a whole load of attitude behind it, is racist. It is the reason only one child has been adopted. There should be one single measure of good: “the best interests of the child"…
Australia is dealing with a failed experiment where people have been excluded from the healthy part of society, initially through prejudice and then through ideology. The result is entire regions and families are destroying each other.
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Kiwis save like Swan can’t
Andrew Bolt May 21 2013 (5:10am)
Luke Malpass of the New Zealand Initiative compares New Zealand’s Budget last week with Wayne Swan’s:
In 2008, Australia had a mining boom, rising wages and no debt. Its government had delivered consistent surpluses, tax cuts and targeted cash payments to targeted voter groups. Growth was assumed and household wealth doubled during the Howard years. It even avoided recession.(Thanks to reader Bryce.)
In contrast, New Zealand was lurching into debt, had a collapsed non- bank finance sector, a tradeables sector that had been squeezed for several years, a real recession in advance of the global recession, and a structural deficit.
So when Finance Minister Bill English announced last Thursday that New Zealand is on track to record a budget surplus (albeit tiny) in 2014-15, it stood in stark contrast to Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan announcing his sixth budget deficit…
Since Mr Swan has taken over as treasurer, tax revenue has increased by roughly the equivalent of New Zealand’s entire budget. Unfortunately, he and prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard spent all of the increase plus some, and are miffed because revenue did not increase at an even higher rate...
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Nielsen says Labor boosted by Budget, Newspoll no. UPDATE: Essential no.
Andrew Bolt May 20 2013 (3:32pm)
I am surprised. A Budget like that gives Julia Gillard a boost - or was it her tears?
UPDATE
Essential Media records no change: Labor 45 per cent to the Coalition 55. So on one poll of three, a narrative is built of a Labor comeback. Yet again.
UPDATE
Roy Morgan poll shows slight closing - but to Labor 45, Coalition 55.
On the other hand, Newspoll notes no real change:
The latest Age/Nielsen poll, taken after Treasurer Wayne Swan’s unorthodox no-handouts pre-election budget, has found voters drifting back to Labor, with two-thirds approving of what was supposed to be the most politically risky aspect of the budget, the decision to scrap the generous Howard government baby bonus…
On a two-party-preferred basis, the Coalition has a strong lead with 54 per cent of the total vote (down 3 points) compared with the government on 46 per cent (up 3 points).
While voters were evenly split overall on whether the Treasurer’s sixth budget was good or bad for the economy, or would make individuals financially better or worse off, it was high-income earners who gave it the tick and low-income earners who were turned off…Both polls show Gillard closing the preferred PM gap.
There was also the strongest indication yet of a growing belief in the Coalition’s economic management, with the highest support in 20 years for the suggestion that the alternative government would have brought down a better budget…
Based on preference flows at the last election, the Coalition continues to hold an easy election-winning lead of 56 to 44 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis.
UPDATE
Essential Media records no change: Labor 45 per cent to the Coalition 55. So on one poll of three, a narrative is built of a Labor comeback. Yet again.
UPDATE
Roy Morgan poll shows slight closing - but to Labor 45, Coalition 55.
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Anything But Conservative: survey confirms all you suspected about the ABC
Andrew Bolt May 20 2013 (10:03am)
Folker Hanusch, senior lecturer in journalism at University of the Sunshine Coast, on new polling confirming the Leftist bias of the overwhelming majority of journalists:
As for those who teach them…
(Thanks to reader Steve and many completely unsurprised others. )
UPDATE
I am suspicious that three figures in the story are exactly the same, down to the same decimal. The fact that so many journalists refused nominate their voting preference doesn’t, I believe, alter the overall finding. It demonstrates how secretive journalists are about their own leanings, but I suspect the ABC journalists would have been more reluctant to admit they conformed to the ABC stereotype. The overall findings are also in conformity with the survey done by Professor John Henningham and also one by the RMIT school of journalism.
Our survey was conducted by telephone with carefully selected journalists from newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, online news sites and news agency AAP, as a sample of the 8000 to 10,000 journalists in Australia today.No bunch of journalists skews more violently left than the ABC:
When asked about their voting intentions, less than two-thirds of the journalists we surveyed revealed their voting intention. Of those 372 people, 43.0% said they would give their first preference vote to Labor; 30.2% would vote for the Coalition; and 19.4% said they would choose the Greens – about twice the Australian average.
However, 41.2% of the 34 ABC journalists who declared a voting intention said they would vote for the Greens, followed by 32.4% for Labor and 14.7% for the Coalition.Newspoll today shows the voters - the journalists’ audience and the funders of the ABC - have a very different political leaning:
The survey is the third in Australia to confirm the Leftist bias of Australian journalism. But none makes clearer the self-deception (to put it mildly) of ABC managing director Mark Scott, who this month claimed to detect no political skew to his journalists.
As for those who teach them…
(Thanks to reader Steve and many completely unsurprised others. )
UPDATE
I am suspicious that three figures in the story are exactly the same, down to the same decimal. The fact that so many journalists refused nominate their voting preference doesn’t, I believe, alter the overall finding. It demonstrates how secretive journalists are about their own leanings, but I suspect the ABC journalists would have been more reluctant to admit they conformed to the ABC stereotype. The overall findings are also in conformity with the survey done by Professor John Henningham and also one by the RMIT school of journalism.
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They were wrong, Age admits. But keep believing those warmists
Andrew Bolt May 20 2013 (9:37am)
Sure, warmists exaggerated the temperature rise so far, The Age finally admits. But we still have to believe they’ll be right about the apocalypse to come:
Note also the story suggests there has been a “rate of global warming” over the past decade, without actually telling you what it is. If the reporter did, he’d have to admit there’s been no warming at all:
The rate of global warming caused by rising greenhouse gas levels could be slower than previously thought, but will still result in the same eventual higher temperatures as earlier forecast, new research has found.
Note also the story suggests there has been a “rate of global warming” over the past decade, without actually telling you what it is. If the reporter did, he’d have to admit there’s been no warming at all:
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The very model of a modern climatologist
Andrew Bolt May 20 2013 (8:55am)
Via Digging in the Clay, Gilbert and Sullivan brilliantly updated:
(Thanks to reader Another Ian.)
I am the very model of a modern climatologist,Full lyrics at the link. The original version:
I’m smart and brash and canny, and not a whit apologist.
I know my greenhouse science from Keeling and Arrhenius,
My hero is Pachauri, a prognosticating genius.
My arguments are fashioned from proxies picked and polished,
So hockey-sticks of various hues see history demolished.
Concerning greenhouse warming, I’m up there with the best,
My graphical analysis survives the chi-square test.
Radiation science is meat and drink to me -
The facts are at my fingertips, it’s plain for all to see…
I’m smart and brash and canny, and not a whit apologist,
I am the very model of a modern climatologist.
I’m very good at bluster, hype, and statements categorical,
Don’t fence with me, for as you’ll see, my logic is canonical.
Obfuscation is my stock-in-trade, and devious my tactics,
Debating not, I write a lot, so routing all the sceptics.
(Thanks to reader Another Ian.)
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Another AWU slush fund Gillard helped
Andrew Bolt May 20 2013 (8:34am)
What is it with Julia Gillard and AWU slush funds?
Now the focus is on a slush fund in the name of Cesar Melham, another former AWU official who is now in the Victorian parliament. It has raised $500,000, some with Gillard’s active help:
Now the focus is on a slush fund in the name of Cesar Melham, another former AWU official who is now in the Victorian parliament. It has raised $500,000, some with Gillard’s active help:
As workplace relations minister in August 2008, Prime Minister Julia Gillard was a guest speaker at the inaugural fund-raising lunch for the Industry 2020 fund at Flemington racecourse, which generated about $250,000 with nearly half that profit.
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Black conservatives against the New Racism
Andrew Bolt May 20 2013 (8:31am)
SIGNING up former Labor president Warren Mundine helps Tony Abbott show he’s ending the Gillard Government’s politics of division.
But it does not yet show that Abbott - if elected prime minister in September - would end the politics of race.
For that, he needs not the support of Mundine, the Aboriginal who this year left Labor and now says he would “seriously consider” and “possibly take” a job from the Opposition Leader to help fight Aboriginal disadvantage.
Abbott needs, instead, to listen to bold new politicians and writers from his own side - conservatives of Aboriginal descent.
These are black conservatives whom we all badly need to hear - Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles, politician Bess Price, writer and artist Dallas Scott and academic Anthony Dillon.
I know, winning Mundine’s support on the weekend is gold for Abbott.
Abbott knows voters are desperate to end Labor’s tactic of pitting rich against poor, women against men, everybody against miners.
How better to show he’ll end this than by getting a former Labor president to say he’ll work with the Liberal leader?
But don’t be misled by Mundine’s Aboriginality. Mundine’s support does not show Abbott is ending the New Racism that most threatens to turn us into a nation of tribes.
In fact, Abbott has given into it by promising a referendum to change the Constitution to include “acknowledgment of Aboriginal people as the first Australians”.
Dividing Australians by law on the basis of the “race” of some of their ancestors is not our future.
But for me, a white man, to say this won’t change many minds. In fact, it’s the kind of thing that got me sued and censored.
So, hear it instead from, say, Bess Price, a Country Liberal Party politician from the NT, who, in a blazing speech to the Legislative Assembly last week pleaded for an end to the New Racism killing her relatives.
(Read full article here.)
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The vicious ignorance of Helen Polley
Andrew Bolt May 20 2013 (8:13am)
Labor Senator Helen Polley is as hysterical and vicious as she is ignorant:
Senator Polley is also a hypocrite. Having denounced the rhetoric of hate and division she claims to detected in Abbott, she then gives a great gob-full of her own:
Oh, and does this surprise you?
Several months ago I spoke in this chamber about the opposition’s slide towards Tea Party style tactics… In America, this sort of shrill, fear-driven campaigning led to the tragic shooting of United States congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. How much further will the Opposition Leader go until his tactics lead to a similar disaster occurring in Australia?Yes, hate-mongers of the Left - like Polley herself - did pretend Jared Loughner, the man who shot Giffords, was a Right-winger driven to violence by the political rhetoric of the Right, especially Sarah Palin. The truth is he was a nutter of the Left, if anything, who hated Giffords long before Palin made news:
ON his MySpace and YouTube pages [Loughner] never mentions Palin or health care, the issue on which she attacked Giffords.
Both sites suggest he’s simply deranged, raving about bad grammar, thought control, “conscience dreaming” and a “third currency”.
A typical post on MySpace - on December 30 - gives the temperature of his mind: “With every day on torture, the hours are my painful isolation; these dreams, which are realistic, vehemence feelings of greatness—finally!"…
Still, if you think it worth trying to detect a political orientation in Loughner’s shattered thoughts, you’d have to conclude it’s sure not Palin’s.
He was not a Christian, and his favourite film clip is of an American flag being burned. He denounced the US Constitution as full of “treasonous laws”.
Simon Mann, of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, led his report yesterday by implying Loughner was a neo-Nazi, noting his victim was Jewish and he’d listed Mein Kampf on his YouTube page as one of his “favourite books”.
What Mann failed to add is that Loughner also loved A Communist Manifesto.
Another problem for the blame-Palin brigade is that Loughner’s hatred of Giffords seems to pre-date Palin’s rise to fame.
Caitie Parker went to school with Loughner, and played in the same band with this “loner” she describes as “Left-wing, quite liberal”.
She claims: “He was a political radical and met Giffords once before in ‘07, asked her a question and he told me she was ‘stupid and unintelligent’.”
Senator Polley is also a hypocrite. Having denounced the rhetoric of hate and division she claims to detected in Abbott, she then gives a great gob-full of her own:
Already the political narrative, relentlessly pursued by the Opposition Leader and shadow treasurer, has unleashed responses in some sections of the public that are honestly quite frightening . . . This is, of course, part of a wider trend . . . as senior Coalition leaders try to sound like everyday people. If I hear Tony Abbott say the words “fair dinkum”. . .Ignorant, vicious, hypocritical, snobbish. Can Labor really do no better?
The President: Order! You need to refer to someone in the other place by their correct title.
Senator Polley: If I hear Mr Abbott say the words “fair dinkum” one more time, I will vomit.
Oh, and does this surprise you?
Helen is a passionate member of the Australian Workers Union.What’s her opinion of AWU officials who rip off their members, using, say, a slush fund set up by their lover?
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Labor now swears it will cut spending like it never has before
Andrew Bolt May 20 2013 (7:53am)
Henry Ergas says Labor’s promise to return the Budget to surplus is three years is based on unbelievable claims it will restrain its spending like it’s never done before:
For example, comparing Labor’s record with the budget’s estimates for the period ahead, the average annual growth rate of real health spending is projected to collapse from 6.3 per cent to 2.4 per cent; that of education plummets from 9.5 per cent to barely 2 per cent; while the growth rate of welfare spending halves.Ergas says it takes more brains than Swan has to be a swindler.
Since the 1980s, there is no five-year period in which growth rates of those outlays have been so low…
As for the revenue side, it too makes Walter Mitty seem positively unimaginative. Take the carbon price. Only days ago, Greg Combet ... was forced to concede that with European permits trading for about $5, Australian prices would not reach the $29 level he had stubbornly clung to.
Apparently, in Combet’s world, what goes down, must come up, so the budget predicts a 2015-16 price of $12.10 - which on current European futures prices, is more than 50 per cent too high.
That initial canter in carbon prices then becomes a gallop, with the budget projecting a 50 per cent increase in 2015-16 and a sustained rise thereafter.
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Swan never was going to give us a surplus
Andrew Bolt May 20 2013 (7:37am)
From my interview yesterday with Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese, the only Labor minister with the courage to ever come on my show:
ANDREW BOLT: The Budget - just one month ago, the Prime Minister said the Government’s revenue was down $12 billion, right? On what you would expect when she lasted promised a surplus six months ago. But then she gave us a deficit of not $12 billion but $19 billion. So in just one month, some $7 billion went walkies. What happened?I believe Albanese has been spun by Wayne Swan. Samuel J of Catallaxy explains:
ANTHONY ALBANESE: No. It’s a difference between the time frames. So it’s the difference between from MYEFO, and the difference from the last Budget.
ANDREW BOLT: No, that’s - MYEFO. After MYEFO she said she was going to deliver a surplus. So it’s from that time. Six months ago. Where did the $7 billion go?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: But it’s a time frame of where she’s picking. There’s a reduction in the anticipated revenue from MYEFO to the Budget, but obviously there was a greater reduction in revenue from last year’s Budget to this year’s Budget. I think that’s the difference between the things.
ANDREW BOLT: I’m just saying, $12 billion gone in a month. She said - she’s $12 billion down a month ago. But you have delivered a sur- a deficit of $19 billion. That’s $7 billion more. You were going to always deliver a deficit, regardless of the reduction in revenue, on what you expected. That’s true, isn’t it?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: No. That’s not right, Andrew. We were determined to deliver a surplus. What occurred was that there was an impact on Government revenue. A massive write-down, as a result of - as a result of essentially the high Australian dollar…
ANDREW BOLT: Your revenue actually went up. Now, you say, “Oh, well look, the dollar was - was too high.” But this is a point - when Julia Gillard delivered her promise six months ago of a surplus, she already had the MYEFO figures. Now, Goldman Sachs said the excuse you have just offered that the dollar was a problem, the terms of trade went bad. That isn’t reasonable. You knew all this back in October and you still promised a surplus, and you still now have delivered a deficit.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, that’s not right, Andrew. And common sense tells you - common sense tells you…
ANDREW BOLT: It is! The predictions are there.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Common sense tells you, Andrew, that as soon as we knew that we weren’t going to be able to hit a surplus we would make that public. There is no rational reason why you would hold on to that commitment once it became untenable.
On the Bolt Report today, in responding to questions about the budget deficit, Anthony Albanese (who at least should receive credit for turning up) said at least two things that are false.
First, that the difference in the write down of $12 billion claimed by the Prime Minister before the budget and the close to $20 billion at budget is due to timing differences (ie: the former is from MYEFO and the latter from budget).
Second, that the revenue writedown (misforecasting) was due to the ‘high Australian dollar’.
Let’s examine these claims. The reconciliation table for last week’s budget shows a parameter variation of negative $19.936 billion. This comprises $13.7 billion in overestimated revenue and $5.6 billion in underestimated expenditure. Importantly this is the variation since last year’s MYEFO, not last year’s budget…
On the second issue, the writedown due to the ‘high Australian dollar’ we only need to look at the exchange rate assumption used at last year’s budget, MYEFO and this year’s budget. In last year’s budget, the assumption used was for a USD exchange rate of 103 cents. For MYEFO it was 102 cents. For this year’s budget it is 103 cents.
Therefore it cannot be the ‘high Australian dollar’ causing the revenue writedown – the same exchange rate assumption was used in last budget as this budget.
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Er, no, Tim. We do really believe in more than ourselves
Andrew Bolt May 20 2013 (7:04am)
I am astonished - well,
not really - that a “political philosopher at the University of Sydney”
could seriously hold such a crudely Manichean view of conservatives
such as Tony Abbott:
A mere second of reflection exposes this as nonsense. Abbott has for many years been a community volunteer. He recently held his annual bike ride for charity. He has pledged a Coalition Government to a great effort to raise the living standards of Aborigines. He spoke on the common good in his speech last month at the IPA anniversary dinner, which surely cannot have escaped Soutphommasane’s attention:
I blame vanity. And the Left’s tell-tale preference for the seeming over the achieving.
UPDATE
More of that pantomime moral world of hiss-boo conservative villains and clap-and-cheer Leftist heroes. Troy Bramston describes the new Gough Whitlam documentary to be screened - where else - on the ABC:
In the face of a radical, mutated conservatism, social democracy may ironically be the most traditionally conservative force left. Who, after all, will stand to preserve the political culture of the common good, and defend it against the all-conquering market?Does Tim Soutphommasane, who also doubles as an Age columnist and has been a Labor speechwriter, really think Abbott - or conservatives generally - have no sense of the common good and no desire to protect it?
A mere second of reflection exposes this as nonsense. Abbott has for many years been a community volunteer. He recently held his annual bike ride for charity. He has pledged a Coalition Government to a great effort to raise the living standards of Aborigines. He spoke on the common good in his speech last month at the IPA anniversary dinner, which surely cannot have escaped Soutphommasane’s attention:
In celebrating the IPA, we celebrate its calling which is to support and sustain the public culture which has shaped our country and influenced so well the wider world.Great conservative writers have not championed liberty in opposition to the common good - as Soutphommasane seems to believe. Rather, they have defended liberty from autocracy, insisting the common good is the responsibility of all and not merely the licence of the closet totalitarian. Few expressed this better than did Edmund Burke when warning the French Revolution, far from promoting the common good, would usher in tyranny:
In the Garden of Eden that Adam and Eve could do almost as they pleased but freedom turned out to have its limits and its abuses, as this foundational story makes only too clear. Yet without freedom we can hardly be human; hardly be worthy of creation in the image of God. From the Garden of Eden, to the Exodus, Athenian democracy, the Roman Senate, Magna Carta, the glorious revolution and American independence, the story of our civilisation has been the story of freedom and our struggles to achieve it.
Freedom, ladies and gentlemen, is what we yearn for but it can only exist within a framework of law so that every person’s freedom is consistent with the same freedom for everyone else. This is what the poet Tennyson meant when he described England as “a land of just and old renown, a land of settled government where freedom broadens slowly down from precedent to precedent”. At least in the English speaking tradition, liberalism and conservatism, love of freedom and respect for due process, have been easy allies.
The IPA, I want to say, has been freedom’s discerning friend. It has supported capitalism, but capitalism with a conscience. Not for the IPA, a single-minded dogmatism or opposition to all restraint; rather a sophisticated appreciation that freedom requires a social context and that much is expected from those to whom so much has been given. You’ve understood that freedom is both an end and a means; a good in itself, as well as necessary for full human flourishing…
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is the foundation of our justice. “Love your neighbour as you love yourself” is the foundation of our mercy.
Turbulent, discontented men of quality, in proportion as they are puffed up with personal pride and arrogance, generally despise their own order. One of the first symptoms they discover of a selfish and mischievous ambition, is a profligate disregard of a dignity which they partake with others. To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country, and to mankind. The interest of that portion of social arrangement is a trust in the hands of all those who compose it; and as none but bad men would justify it in abuse, none but traitors would barter it away for their own personal advantage.What on earth could make Soutphommasane believe conservatives are just greedy individualists who, unlike those on the Left like himself, have no concern for the common good?
I blame vanity. And the Left’s tell-tale preference for the seeming over the achieving.
UPDATE
More of that pantomime moral world of hiss-boo conservative villains and clap-and-cheer Leftist heroes. Troy Bramston describes the new Gough Whitlam documentary to be screened - where else - on the ABC:
Whitlam is labelled “an Orpheus in a bogan underworld”. The 60s are described as “an era so oppressive, it made your eyes water”. In these times, “Whitlam rode the wave of anger”. When Labor won, “the hippies were suddenly the government”. This hyperbole detracts from the documentary.
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He claimed he was busy, but he just lacked numeracy skills
Andrew Bolt May 20 2013 (6:51am)
Is “numeracy skills” a
euphemism? As in: “The used car salesman said the car had been driven
only by a widow in slippers on Sundays, but I reckon he lacks numeracy
skills.”
FEARS are running high in the nation’s capital over the numeracy skills of ACT Greens Senate candidate Simon Sheikh. Sheikh, the former madam of left-wing cause bordello GetUp!, has already been befuddled by questions on how many years he spent as a Labor Party member, insisting it was first only one, then two, when the records say four.Another euphemism:
WE dips our lid to Anthony Albanese, who boldly ventured on to The Bolt Report for the third time yesterday. “Why don’t more Labor ministers do what you do and reach out to people who might not be natural Labor voters?” Andrew Bolt wanted to know. “That’s a decision for them,” Albo replied. “I take a view that even though you and I would disagree pretty fundamentally on a range of issues, you’re someone who puts your name to things, you argue your case. And I am prepared to argue the case with you.” That wasn’t good enough for the Bolta, but Albo manfully pressed on. “I think it’s probably just a matter of there’s a range of demands on people’s time.” The Spectator coined the term “tired and emotional” after being successfully sued in the 1960s by a bibulous minister it accused of being drunk. ”Demands on people’s time” could become a euphemism for political cowardice.
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Pants on fire alert
Andrew Bolt May 20 2013 (6:47am)
A lack of irony, humor and a sense of proportion is a dangerous thing. Also, boring:
Australia’s Politifact is headed by ex-SMH editor Peter Fray, whose crack fact-checking team last week probed a statement from Liberal Jamie Briggs: “Labor can’t claim to be reining in government spending when they are buying gold-plated coffee machines for their growing public service workforce.”
Most people would have instantly recognised the phrase “gold-plated” as a way of illustrating Labor excess in purchasing several $15,000 coffee machines for two government departments.
Politifact, however, took the phrase literally. The site “checked a tender for this essential equipment. No mention of gold-plating. We telephoned Cosmorex, the supplier to the Department of Industry. They’ve never heard of ‘gold plated coffee machines’.”
Forensic investigation over, Politifact concluded: “We think there should be some form of modifier, a marker, when referring to gold-plating to ensure everyone knows it is not real gold.” Everybody besides Politfact already knew that, but this didn’t stop the site awarding Briggs a “pants on fire” dishonesty rating.
Wait a minute … “pants on fire”? Should there not be some form of modifier, a marker if you will, when referring to blazing trousers to ensure everyone knows they aren’t really on fire?
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- 1403 – King Henry III of Castile sent an embassy to the court of Timur (Tamerlane) to discuss the possibility of an alliance between Timur and Castile against theOttoman Empire.
- 1863 – The Seventh-day Adventist Church, a Protestantdenomination distinguished by its emphasis on the imminentsecond coming (Advent) of Jesus, was founded in Battle Creek, Michigan, US.
- 1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal, linking Greater Manchester in North West England to the Irish Sea, officially opened, becoming the largest navigation canal in the world at the time.
- 1979 – Riots erupted in San Francisco (rioters pictured) after former Supervisor Dan White was only sentenced for voluntary manslaughter for the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and openly gay Supervisor Harvey Milk.
- 1991 – Former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi wasassassinated by a suicide bomber in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.
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Events [edit]
- 293 – Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy.
- 878 – Syracuse, Italy, is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily.
- 879 – Pope John VIII gives blessings to Branimir of Croatia and to the Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state.
- 996 – Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1085 – The Swedish town of Helsingborg is founded.
- 1349 – Dušan's Code, the constitution of the Serbian Empire, is enacted by Dušan the Mighty.
- 1403 – Henry III of Castile sends Ruy González de Clavijo as ambassador to Timur to discuss the possibility of an alliance between Timur and Castile against the Ottoman Empire.
- 1502 – The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese explorer João da Nova.
- 1554 – Queen Mary I grants a royal Charter to Derby School, as a grammar school for boys in Derby, England.
- 1674 – The nobility elect John Sobieski King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
- 1725 – The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by Empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
- 1758 – Ten-year-old Mary Campbell is abducted in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War. She is returned some six and a half years later.
- 1809 – The first day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling between the Austrian army led by Archduke Charles and the French army led by Napoleon I of France sees the French attack across the Danube held.
- 1851 – Slavery is abolished in Colombia, South America.
- 1856 – Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
- 1863 – American Civil War: The Union Army succeeds in closing off the last escape route from Port Hudson, Louisiana, in preparation for the comingsiege.
- 1863 – Organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Michigan.
- 1864 – Russia declares an end to the Russian-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning.
- 1871 – French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week", some 20,000 communardshave been killed and 38,000 arrested.
- 1871 – Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi-Bahnen on Mount Rigi.
- 1879 – War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.
- 1881 – The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Washington, D.C..
- 1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal in England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who later knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
- 1904 – The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris.
- 1911 – Mexican President Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to put an end to the fighting between the forces of both men, and thus concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.
- 1917 – The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is established through Royal Charter to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military forces.
- 1917 – The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people but leading to only one fatality (due to heart attack).
- 1924 – University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing".
- 1927 – Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1932 – Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1934 – Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.
- 1936 – Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
- 1937 – A Soviet station, North Pole-1, becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
- 1939 – The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa.
- 1946 – Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
- 1951 – The opening of the Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition – a gathering of a number of notable artists, and the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.
- 1961 – American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riotsbreak out.
- 1966 – The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
- 1969 – Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.
- 1972 – Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.
- 1976 – The Yuba City bus disaster occurs in Martinez, California. 29 are killed making it the deadliest road accident in U.S. history.
- 1979 – White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
- 1981 – Irish Republican hunger strikers Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara die on hunger strike in Maze prison.
- 1981 – The Italian government releases the membership list of Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries.
- 1982 – Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.
- 1990 – The Democratic Republic of Yemen and North Yemen agree to merge into the Republic of Yemen.
- 1991 – Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
- 1991 – Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.
- 1992 – After 30 seasons Johnny Carson hosted his penultimate episode and last featuring guests (Robin Williams and Bette Midler) of The Tonight Show.
- 1994 – The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessful attempts to secede from the Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out.
- 1996 – The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000.
- 1996 – The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas, kidnapped during the Algerian Civil War and held for two months, are found dead.
- 1998 – In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
- 1998 – President Soeharto of Indonesia resigns following the killing of students from Tri Sakti University earlier that week by security forces and growing mass protests in Jakarta against his ongoing corrupt rule.
- 2001 – French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
- 2003 – An earthquake hits northern Algeria, killing more than 2,000 people.
- 2005 – The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.
- 2006 – The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The Montenegrin people choose independence with a majority of 55%.
- 2010 – JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, launches the solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS aboard an H-IIA rocket. The vessel would make a Venus flyby late in the year.
- 2012 – In Qafa e Vishës bus tragedy near Himara, Albania 13 students of Aleksandër Xhuvani University killed in bus crash.
- 2012 – A suicide bombing kills more than 120 people in Sana'a, Yemen.
Births [edit]
- 120 BC – Aurelia Cotta, mother of Julius Caesar (d. 54 BC)
- 1471 – Albrecht Dürer, German painter (d. 1528)
- 1527 – Philip II of Spain (d. 1598)
- 1653 – Eleanor of Austria, Queen of Poland (d. 1697)
- 1664 – Giulio Alberoni, Italian cardinal and statesman (d. 1754)
- 1688 – Alexander Pope, English poet (d. 1744)
- 1755 – Alfred Moore, American judge (d. 1810)
- 1763 – Joseph Fouché, French statesman (d. 1820)
- 1775 – Lucien Bonaparte, French politician, soldier, and academic (d. 1840)
- 1780 – Elizabeth Fry, English philanthropist and reformer (d. 1845)
- 1790 – William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, English politician (d. 1858)
- 1792 – Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, French scientist (d. 1843)
- 1799 – Mary Anning, English paleontologist (d. 1847)
- 1827 – William P. Sprague, American politician (d. 1899)
- 1832 – Elizabeth Storrs Mead, American academic (d. 1917)
- 1835 – František Chvostek, Moravian physician (d. 1884)
- 1843 – Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss politician (d. 1914)
- 1844 – Henri Rousseau, French painter (d. 1910)
- 1850 – Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian vulcanologist (d. 1914)
- 1851 – Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1925)
- 1853 – Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac, French politician (d. 1905)
- 1856 – José Batlle y Ordóñez, Uruguayan politician (d. 1929)
- 1860 – Willem Einthoven, Dutch physiologist; Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1927)
- 1863 – Archduke Eugen of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1954)
- 1864 – Princess Stéphanie of Belgium (d. 1945)
- 1873 – Hans Berger, German neuroscientist (d. 1941)
- 1878 – Glenn Curtiss, American aviation engineer (d. 1930)
- 1880 – Tudor Arghezi, Romanian writer (d. 1967)
- 1884 – Manuel Pérez y Curis, Uruguayan poet (d. 1920)
- 1885 – Princess Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg (d. 1936)
- 1898 – Armand Hammer, American businessman and physician (d. 1990)
- 1898 – Charles Léon Hammes, Luxembourgian lawyer and jurist (d. 1967)
- 1901 – Manfred Aschner, German-Israeli microbiologist (d. 1989)
- 1901 – Horace Heidt, American pianist, bandleader, and radio host (d. 1986)
- 1901 – Sam Jaffe, American film producer and agent (d. 2000)
- 1901 – Suzanne Lilar, Belgian essayist and playwright (d. 1992)
- 1902 – Earl Averill, American baseball player (d. 1983)
- 1902 – Marcel Lajos Breuer, Hungarian architect and designer, designed the Ameritrust Tower (d. 1981)
- 1903 – Manly Wade Wellman, American writer (d. 1986)
- 1904 – Robert Montgomery, American actor (d. 1981)
- 1904 – Fats Waller, American singer, pianist, and composer (d. 1943)
- 1907 – John C. Allen, American roller coaster designer (d. 1979)
- 1909 – François-Albert Angers, Canadian economist (d. 2003)
- 1912 – John Curtis Gowan, American psychologist (d. 1986)
- 1912 – Monty Stratton, American baseball player (d. 1982)
- 1912 – Akiva Vroman, Dutch-Israeli geologist (d. 1989)
- 1913 – Gina Bachauer, Greek pianist and educator (d. 1976)
- 1916 – Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (d. 2002)
- 1916 – Harold Robbins, American novelist (d. 1997)
- 1917 – Raymond Burr, Canadian actor (d. 1993)
- 1918 – Dennis Day, American singer, actor, and comedian (d. 1988)
- 1920 – Anthony Steel, English actor (d. 2001)
- 1920 – Forrest White, American businessman, co-founder of the Music Man Company (d. 1994)
- 1920 – Bill Barber, American tuba player and educator (d. 2007)
- 1921 – Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist (d. 1989)
- 1921 – A.S. Douglas, English computer scientist and educator (d. 2010)
- 1923 – Vernon Biever, American photographer (d. 2010)
- 1923 – Armand Borel, Swiss mathematician (d. 2003)
- 1923 – Ara Parseghian, American football coach
- 1923 – Evelyn Ward, American actress (d. 2012)
- 1924 – Peggy Cass, American actress (d. 1999)
- 1926 – Robert Creeley, American poet (d. 2005)
- 1927 – Péter Zwack, Hungarian businessman and diplomat (d, 2012)
- 1928 – Tom Donahue, American disc jockey, producer, and promoter (d. 1975)
- 1929 – Alice Drummond, American actress
- 1929 – Larance Marable, American drummer
- 1930 – Tommy Bryant, American bassist (d. 1982)
- 1930 – Malcolm Fraser, Australian politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia
- 1932 – Billy Wright, American singer and fiddler (d. 1991)
- 1933 – Maurice André, French trumpeter (d. 2012)
- 1933 – Yevgeni Minaev, Soviet weightlifter (d. 1993)
- 1934 – Jocasta Innes, Chinese-English journalist and author (d. 2013)
- 1934 – Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1935 – Terry Lightfoot, English clarinettist and bandleader
- 1936 – Günter Blobel, German biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1938 – Lee "Shot" Williams, American singer (d. 2011)
- 1939 – Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist, composer, and conductor
- 1941 – Martin Carthy, English singer-songwriter, musician, producer, and actor (Steeleye Span, The Watersons, Waterson:Carthy, Brass Monkey, andBlue Murder)
- 1941 – Ronald Isley, American singer-songwriter, musician, producer, and actor (The Isley Brothers)
- 1941 – Bobby Cox, American baseball player and manager
- 1942 – Danny Ongais, American race car driver
- 1943 – Hilton Valentine, English guitarist and songwriter (The Animals)
- 1944 – Marcie Blane, American singer
- 1944 – Janet Dailey, American author
- 1944 – Mary Robinson, Irish politician, 7th President of Ireland
- 1945 – Ernst Messerschmid, German astronaut
- 1947 – Bill Champlin, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer (Chicago and Sons of Champlin)
- 1947 – Jonathan Hyde, Australian actor
- 1948 – Elizabeth Buchan, English writer
- 1948 – Denis MacShane, Scottish politician
- 1948 – Leo Sayer, English singer-songwriter and musician
- 1951 – Al Franken, American actor and politician
- 1952 – Mr. T, American actor
- 1954 – Marc Ribot, American singer, musician, and composer (Bar Kokhba Sextet)
- 1954 – Janice Karman, American voice actress, singer, and producer, co-owner of Bagdasarian Productions
- 1954 – Stephen Betts, Scottish keyboardist, songwriter, and producer (Associates)
- 1955 – Paul Barber, English field hockey player
- 1955 – Stan Lynch, American drummer, songwriter, and producer (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
- 1957 – James Bailey, American basketball player
- 1957 – Bruce Buffer, American sportscaster
- 1957 – Nadine Dorries, English politician
- 1957 – Judge Reinhold, American actor
- 1957 – Renée Soutendijk, Dutch actress
- 1958 – Naeem Khan, Indian fashion designer
- 1958 – Jefery Levy, American director
- 1959 – Nick Cassavetes, American actor and director
- 1960 – Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (d. 1994)
- 1960 – Kent Hrbek, American baseball player
- 1960 – Mohanlal, Indian actor
- 1960 – Jeffrey Toobin, American writer and analyst
- 1960 – Vladimir Salnikov, Russian swimmer
- 1962 – Richard Caputo, American author
- 1962 – David Crumb, American composer
- 1963 – Richard Appel, American writer
- 1963 – Kevin Shields, American-Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (My Bloody Valentine)
- 1963 – Dave Specter, American guitarist
- 1964 – Danny Bailey, English footballer
- 1964 – Danny Lee Clark, American football player
- 1964 – Nancy Benoit, American wrestler and agent (d. 2007)
- 1964 – Carolyn Lawrence, American actress
- 1966 – Darla Crane, American porn actress
- 1966 – Lisa Edelstein, American actress
- 1967 – Chris Benoit, Canadian wrestler (d. 2007)
- 1967 – Blake Schwarzenbach, American singer and musician (Jawbreaker, Jets to Brazil, The Thorns of Life, and forgetters)
- 1968 – Lauren Hays, American exotic film actress
- 1968 – Ilmar Raag, Estonian film director
- 1968 – Julie Vega, Filipino actress, model, and singer (d. 1985)
- 1968 – Matthias Ungemach, German rower
- 1969 – Pierluigi Brivio, Italian footballer
- 1969 – Georgiy R. Gongadze, Ukrainian-Georgian journalist
- 1969 – Masayo Kurata, Japanese voice actress
- 1969 – George LeMieux, American politician
- 1970 – Dorsey Levens, American football player
- 1970 – Carl Veart, Australian footballer
- 1972 – Adriano Cintra, Brazilian musician and producer (CSS)
- 1972 – The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (Junior M.A.F.I.A. and The Commission) (d. 1997)
- 1972 – Alesha Oreskovich, American model
- 1972 – Brett Tucker, Australian actor
- 1973 – Noel Fielding, English actor, writer, and musician
- 1973 – Stewart Cink, American golfer
- 1974 – Fairuza Balk, American actress
- 1974 – Havoc, American rapper, musician, and producer (Mobb Deep)
- 1975 – Lee Gaze, Welsh guitarist (Lostprophets)
- 1976 – Abderrahim Goumri, Moroccan runner (d. 2013)
- 1976 – Aditi Gowitrikar, Indian model, actress, and physician
- 1976 – Deron Miller, American singer-songwriter and musician (CKY, World Under Blood, and Foreign Objects)
- 1977 – Quinton Fortune, South African footballer
- 1977 – Michael Fuß, German footballer
- 1977 – Ricky Williams, American football player
- 1978 – Adam Gontier, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Three Days Grace and Big Dirty Band)
- 1978 – Jamaal Magloire, Canadian basketball player
- 1979 – Damián Ariel Álvarez, Argentinian footballer
- 1979 – Gaspard Augé, French DJ (Justice)
- 1979 – Briana Banks, German-American porn actress and model
- 1979 – Jamie Hepburn, Scottish politician
- 1979 – James Clancy Phelan, Australian novelist
- 1979 – Scott Smith, American mixed martial artist
- 1980 – Gotye, Australian singer-songwriter and musician (The Basics)
- 1980 – Morgan Benoit, American actor and martial artist
- 1980 – Chris Raab, American actor and stuntman
- 1981 – Craig Anderson, American ice hockey player
- 1981 – Edson Buddle, American footballer
- 1981 – Josh Hamilton, American baseball player
- 1981 – Maximilian Mutzke, German singer-songwriter and drummer
- 1982 – Brian Klemm, American singer and guitarist (Suburban Legends and Big D and the Kids Table)
- 1983 – Līga Dekmeijere, Latvian tennis player
- 1983 – Veloso, Brazilian footballer
- 1984 – Lorena Ayala, Dutch-Spanish model
- 1984 – Brandon Fields, American football player
- 1984 – Sara Goller, German volleyball player
- 1985 – Kano, English rapper, songwriter, producer, and actor
- 1985 – Mutya Buena, English singer-songwriter (Sugababes)
- 1985 – Marco Carta, Italian singer
- 1985 – Mark Cavendish, Manx cyclist
- 1985 – Isa Guha, English cricketer
- 1985 – Lucie Hradecká, Czech tennis player
- 1985 – Marie McCray, American porn actress and model
- 1985 – Andrew Miller, American baseball player
- 1985 – Alexander Dale Oen, Norwegian swimmer (d. 2012)
- 1986 – Mario Mandžukić, Croatian footballer
- 1986 – Myra, American singer and dancer
- 1986 – Alexander Noyes, American drummer (Honor Society)
- 1986 – Greg Stewart, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1988 – Park Gyuri, South Korean singer, pianist, and actress (Kara)
- 1988 – Jonathan Howson, English footballer
- 1989 – Emily Robins, New Zealand actress and singer
- 1989 – Hal Robson-Kanu, Welsh footballer
- 1991 – Sarah Ramos, American actress
- 1992 – Hutch Dano, American actor
- 1992 – Philipp Grüneberg, German footballer
- 1992 – Olivia Olson, American actress and singer
- 1994 – Tom Daley, English diver
- 1996 – Indy de Vroome, Dutch tennis player
- 1997 – Victoria Petryk, Ukrainian singer
Deaths [edit]
- 987 – Louis V of France (b. 967)
- 1237 – Olaf the Black, King of Mann and the Isles
- 1254 – Conrad IV of Germany (b. 1228)
- 1471 – Henry VI of England (b. 1421)
- 1481 – Christian I of Denmark (b. 1426)
- 1512 – Pandolfo Petrucci, Italian ruler (b. 1452)
- 1524 – Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier (b. 1443)
- 1542 – Hernando de Soto, Spanish explorer, first person to cross the Mississippi River (b. 1496 or 1497)
- 1607 – John Rainolds, English scholar (b. 1549)
- 1639 – Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian (b. 1568)
- 1647 – Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch poet (b. 1581)
- 1650 – James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish nobleman and soldier (b. 1612)
- 1664 – Elizabeth Poole, English-American settler and founder of Taunton, Massachusetts (b. 1588)
- 1670 – Niccolò Zucchi, Italian astronomer (b. 1586)
- 1686 – Otto von Guericke, German scientist (b. 1602)
- 1690 – John Eliot, English missionary (b. 1604)
- 1719 – Pierre Poiret, French mystic (b. 1646)
- 1724 – Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, English statesman (b. 1661)
- 1742 – Lars Roberg, Swedish physician (b. 1664)
- 1771 – Christopher Smart, English poet (b. 1722)
- 1786 – Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (b. 1742)
- 1790 – Thomas Warton, English poet (b. 1728)
- 1844 – Giuseppe Baini, Italian composer (b. 1775)
- 1862 – John Drew, Irish-American actor (b. 1827)
- 1879 – Arturo Prat, Chilean naval officer (b. 1848)
- 1894 – Émile Henry, French anarchist (b. 1872)
- 1894 – August Kundt, German physicist (b. 1839)
- 1895 – Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (b. 1819)
- 1901 – Joseph Olivier, French rugby player (b. 1874)
- 1911 – Williamina Fleming, Scottish astronomer (b. 1857)
- 1915 – Leonid Gobyato, Russian general (b. 1875)
- 1919 – Yevgraf Fyodorov, Russian mathematician (b. 1853)
- 1920 – Venustiano Carranza, Mexican politician, 54th President of Mexico (b. 1859)
- 1925 – Hidesaburō Ueno, Japanese scientist, guardian of Hachikō (b. 1871)
- 1926 – Ronald Firbank, British author (b. 1886)
- 1929 – Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, English statesman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1847)
- 1932 – Marcel Jacques Boulenger, French author and fencer (b. 1873)
- 1935 – Jane Addams, American social worker, activist, and author, co-founder of Hull House, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (b. 1860)
- 1949 – Klaus Mann, German writer (b. 1906)
- 1952 – John Garfield, American actor (b. 1913)
- 1956 – Harry Bensley, English businessman and adventurer (b. 1877)
- 1957 – Alexander Vertinsky, Russian actor, singer, composer, and poet (b. 1889)
- 1964 – James Franck, German physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1882)
- 1965 – Geoffrey de Havilland, English aircraft designer and engineer, designed the de Havilland Mosquito (b. 1882)
- 1970 – E. L. Grant Watson, English biologist and writer (b. 1885)
- 1973 – Vaughn Monroe, American baritone singer, trumpeter, bandleader, and actor (b. 1911)
- 1981 – Raymond McCreesh, Irish activist (b. 1957)
- 1981 – Patsy O'Hara, Irish activist (b. 1957)
- 1983 – Kenneth Clark, English historian (b. 1903)
- 1984 – Ann Little, American actress (b. 1891)
- 1988 – Sammy Davis, Sr., American dancer (b. 1900)
- 1991 – Lino Brocka, Filipino director (b. 1939)
- 1991 – Rajiv Gandhi, Indian politician, 6th Prime Minister of India (b. 1944)
- 1995 – Les Aspin, American politician (b. 1938)
- 1996 – Paul Delph, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer (Zahara) (b. 1957)
- 1996 – Lash LaRue, American actor (b. 1917)
- 1998 – Robert Gist, American actor and film and television director (b. 1917)
- 1999 – Bugz, American rapper (D12) (b. 1979)
- 2000 – Barbara Cartland, English author (b. 1901)
- 2000 – John Gielgud, English actor (b. 1904)
- 2000 – Mark R. Hughes, American businessman, founder of Herbalife (b. 1956)
- 2002 – Niki de Saint Phalle, French artist and filmmaker (b. 1930)
- 2003 – Alejandro de Tomaso, Argentine-Italian race car driver and industrialist (b. 1928)
- 2003 – Frank D. White, American politician (b. 1933)
- 2005 – Howard Morris, American actor and director (b. 1919)
- 2006 – Spencer Clark, American race car driver (b. 1987)
- 2006 – Katherine Dunham, American dancer, director, educator, and author (b. 1909)
- 2006 – Cherd Songsri, Thai director (b. 1931)
- 2006 – Billy Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1929)
- 2012 – Constantine of Irinoupolis, American-Ukrainian bishop (b. 1936)
- 2012 – Eddie Blazonczyk, American singer-songwriter and musician (b. 1941)
- 2012 – Otis Clark, American butler and preacher, survivor of the Tulsa race riot (b. 1903)
- 2012 – Roman Dumbadze, Georgian military commander (b. 1964)
- 2012 – Ezell Lee, American politician (b. 1938)
- 2012 – Juan Manuel Montero Vázquez, Spanish military surgeon (b. 1947)
- 2012 – Douglas Rodríguez, Cuban boxer (b. 1950)
- 2012 – Bill Stewart, American football coach (b. 1952)
- 2012 – Rodolfo Félix Valdés, Mexican politician, Governor of Sonora (b. 1926)
Holidays and observances [edit]
- Afro-Colombian Day (Colombia)
- Christian Feast Day:
- Charles-Joseph-Eugene de Mazenod
- Emperor Constantine I
- Earliest day on which Corpus Christi can fall, while June 24 is the latest; held on Thursday after Trinity Sunday. (Roman Catholic Church)
- Helena of Constantinople, also known as "Feast of the Holy Great Sovereigns Constantine and Helen, Equal-to-the-Apostles." (Eastern Orthodox Church)
- May 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Circassian Day of Mourning (Circassians)
- Day of Patriots and Military (Hungary)
- Navy Day (Chile)
- Saint Helena Day, celebrates the discovery of Saint Helena in 1502.
- World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (International)
- One of the festivals of Vejovis (Roman Empire)
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Life can change in an instant. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and first responders of the Oklahoma tragedy. Dr Phil
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GILLARD COVER UP ABOUT TO EXPLODE Paul Zanetti
Terrier investigative reporter, Michael Smith, reports on his website (michaelsmithnews.com) a story is about to break later this week that will clarify to the Australian public just what is happening in regard into the Victorian Fraud and Extortion Squad investigation into Prime Minister Gillard and her role in the AWU Slush Fund.
Smith has publicly provided much of the forensic detail in the fraud and is the complainant to the Victorian police.
Smith says, "This week there...have been...some very significant developments...in the investigation into the AWU matter. I was contacted over the weekend by a journalist who appraised me of some new ones and that journalist is working on a story, and it involves things I had no idea about. The police communicate with me on broad terms about the progress of my complaint to them...they're tight as a drum as far as procedural information is concerned. I have many sources in journalism...and I was told over the weekend of a story one guy's working on...my god....when he publishes later this week, as is his intent, it will give you, the broader Australian public, a very clear insight into the depth of the police investigation, the breadth of it and some of the progress it has made. Treat this as you will, a journalist in the press gallery in Canberra told me about a discernible change in demeanour in the Prime Minister over the last....fortnight during that time, and that journalist put it down to a reaction to the unfolding disclosure of more and more detail about the inconsistencies in the record, the cover up, for example the recording of this money that came in from her client Ralph Blewitt, the way that was recorded at Slater & Gordon as coming from him personally when we know it came from the slush fund that she set up. If I was her I would have cause for immense concern. I wouldn't let it get to this. I'd be down making statements. Gee whiz, just imagine if she'd come clean at the time. Wouldn't have this drama. As they say, seldom is it the original crime, nearly always it's the cover up that gets them in the end."
I was a long time listener to Michael Smith, radio broadcaster, since his daily afternoon program on Brisbane's 4BC. I've been impressed by his dogged and relentless nature, digging where no others would scrap and scrape. It was on Smith's program where I first heard an anonymous email from a whistleblower in regard to Qld Health's payroll IT debacle where some health workers had not been paid in months while others were grossly overpaid. A debacle that cost billions of dollars and still a mess, a scandal that contributed largely to the downfall of Premier Anna Bligh's government.
Smith's tenacity and skills were brought to the attention of Fairfax radio's Sydney sister station, 2UE, to where he was transferred. He wasted little time airing the Bob Kernohan affidavit (assisted and drafted by John Pasquarelli), which was shopped around the media. Alan Jones and others refused to touch it. Smith had the guts to read it and was about to interview Bob Kernohan live on air when higher interference prevented Smith doing his job, an indictment on the Fairfax station management.
Smith has been unemployed since. But you can't keep a good man down.
My mate Larry Pickering was incensed at Smith's employment termination directly attributed to Prime Ministerial interference (along with other threats and demands by the PM to suffocate the AWU scandal) and said to me, "You don't go to this much trouble to cover something up if you have nothing to hide."
Larry's crow-barring of the story open again into the public domain via facebook and his Pickering Post website had Smith contact Pickering for a lengthy conversation. While Pickering got the public through the broader details via his storytelling, there's no doubt the later establishment of Smith's forensic website has got the investigation to where it is today.
It's a sad and poor reflection on our mainstream media that the very heavy lifting in this matter has been left to two very credible bloggers, who should be held up as leading lights of media investigative reporting, but often vilified by the weaker members of the pack such as Peter Van whatsisname.
Pickering is already a five times winner of the press Walkley Award. Smith deserves the Gold Walkley when this is all washed up.
Michael, you have my vote.
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Stop wanting what others have and appreciate everything you have in your life now.
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Father, I thank you for being there, and encouraging me to persevere. - ed
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Worst video ever -- ed
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That writer clearly believes what they write .. because they don't care at people drowning, desperate poverty from bad policy, corruption and incompetent governance. Their list of what is good doesn't stand to inspection .. - ed
For anyone who's wondering what Labor has ever done for this country.. here's a little list (i'm saying they're perfect, but it might help for a little perspective):
· NBN (the real one) – total cost $37.4b (Government contribution: $30.4b)
· BER 7,920 schools: 10,475 projects. (completed at less than 3% dissatisfaction rate)
· Gonski – Education funding reform
· NDIS/DisabilityCare
· MRRT & aligned PRRT
· Won seat at the UN
· Signed Kyoto
· Signatory to Bali Process & Regional Framework
· Eradicated WorkChoices
· Established Fair Work Australia
· Established Carbon Pricing/ETS (7% reduction in emissions since July last year)
· Established National Network of Reserves and Parks
· Created world’s largest Marine Park Network
· Introduced Reef Rescue Program
· National Apology
· Sorry to the Stolen Generation
· Increased Superannuation from 9 to 12%
· Changed 85 laws to remove discrimination against same sex couples
· Introduced National Plan to reduce violence against women and children
· Improvements to Sex Discrimination Act
· Introduced Plain packaging of cigarettes
· Legislated Equal pay (social & community workers up to 45% pay increases)
· Legislated Australia’s first Paid Parental Leave scheme
· Established $10b Renewable energy fund
· Legislated Murray/Darling Basin plan (the first in a hundred years of trying.)
· Increased Education funding by 50%
· Established direct electoral enrollment
· Created 190,000 more University places
· Achieved 1:1 ratio, computers for year 9-12 students
· Established My School (Meh, not so keen on this one)
· Established National Curriculum
· Established NAPLAN (or this one)
· Increased Health funding by 50%
· Legislated Aged care package
· Legislated Mental health package
· Legislated Dental Care package
· Created 90 Headspace sites
· Created Medicare Locals Program
· Created Aussie Jobs package
· Created Kick-Start Initiative (apprentices)
· Funded New Car plan (industry support)
· Created Infrastructure Australia
· Established Nation Building Program (350 major projects)
· Doubled Federal Roads budget ($36b) (7,000kms of roads)
· Rebuilding 1/3 of interstate rail freight network
· Committed more to urban passenger rail than any government since Federation
· Developed National Ports Strategy
· Developed National Land Freight Strategy
· Created the nations first ever Aviation White Paper
· Revitalized Australian Shipping
· Reduced transport regulators from 23 to 3 (saving $30b over 20years)
· Introduced NICS – infrastructure schedule
· Australia has moved from 20th in 2007 to 2nd on OECD infrastructure ranking
· Awarded International Infrastructure Minister of the Year (2012 Albanese)
· Awarded International Treasurer of the Year (2011 Swan)
· Introduced Anti-dumping and countervailing system reforms
· Legislated Household Assistance Package
· Introduced School Kids Bonus
· Increased Childcare rebate (to 50%)
· Allocated $6b to Social Housing (20,000 homes)
· Provided $5b to Support for Homelessness
· Established National Rental Affordability Scheme ($4.5b)
· Introduced Closing the Gap
· Supports Act of Recognition for constitutional change
· Provided the highest pension increase in 100 years
· Created 900,000 new jobs
· Established National Jobs Board
· Allocated $9b for skills and training over 5 years
· Established Enterprise Connect (small business)
· Appointed Australia’s first Small Business Commissioner
· Introduced immediate write-off of assets costing less than $6,500 for Sm/Bus
· Introduced $5,000 immediate write-off for Small Business vehicles over $6,500
· Introduced Small business $1m loss carryback for tax rebate from previous year
· Legislated Australian Consumer law
· Introduced a national levy to assist Queensland with reconstruction
· Standardized national definition of flood for Insurance purposes.
· Created Tourism 2020
· Completed Australia’s first feasibility study on high speed rail
· Established ESCAS (traceability and accountability in live animal exports)
· Established Royal Commission into Institutional Sexual Abuse
· Established National Crime Prevention Fund
· Lowered personal income taxes (Ave family now pays $3,500 less p.a. than 2007)
· Raised the tax-free threshold from $6,000 to $18,200
· Australia now the richest per capita nation on earth
· First time ever Australia has three triple A credit ratings from all three credit agencies
· Low inflation
· Lowest interest rates in 60 years (Ave mortgagee paying $5,000 less p.a. than 2007)
· Low unemployment
· Lowest debt to GDP in OECD
· Australian dollar is now fifth most traded in the world and IMF Reserve Currency
· One of the world’s best performing economies during and since the GFC
· Australia now highest ranked for low Sovereign Risk
· Overseen the largest fiscal tightening in nations history (4.4%)
· 21 years of continuous economic growth (trend running at around 3%pa)
· 11 years of continuous wages growth exceeding CPI
· Increasing Productivity
· Increasing Consumer Confidence
· Record foreign investment
· Historic levels of Chinese/Australian bilateral relations
· First female Prime Minister
· First female Governor General
· First female Attorney General
A fiscal strategy to return to budget surpluses over the economic cycle without damaging its economy with austerity measures already proven to fail. A future linked to the National Broadband Network, renewable energy and greater productivity through higher education and infrastructure investment. Improved social equality and has a larger voice on the world stage.
All this (and more) despite a hung parliament, a recalcitrant press and the most negative and asinine Opposition since Federation.
Not bad (now if they could just stop fucking with the refugees I'd be pretty happy)
Their list of what is good doesn't stand to inspection .. NBN's cost is higher, but it is listed as an asset, not a cost, so it isn't part of the deficit which is more substantial .. or the BER which promised more money than it delivered through wastage .. how would voters feel if they were told that the government diverted $10 billion from schools to line the pockets of mates? - ed
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CARERS’ TEARS ARE REAL, JULIA Larry Pickering
This is a letter I received today from a lady at the disability coal face. She expressed the cruel political spin of Gillard and her NDIS.
I have her permission to reprint, as is.
I have forwarded the letter to Ms Gillard.
Hi Larry,
I just wanted to send you a note to say how much I appreciate you bringing to the attention of the public the joke that is the NDIS. I am the mother of a 22-year old profoundly disabled daughter.
I had to give up my career to care for her once she left 'school' as we were granted only 15 hours a week respite. My husband (not the father of my daughter) will be paying the increased levy for SIX-SEVEN years before we can even hope to benefit from this scheme. He also, apparently, earns too much (we struggle week to week) for me to be eligible for the Carer's Pension so we have simply had to suck it up for four years now minus my $70,000 salary. I wept when "she who shall not be named" did in parliament when making the announcement - not because she was crying - but because I could not believe the gall of the woman to do so when she knows the truth of it all ... it was beyond CRUEL. She wouldn't last a week in my shoes ... perhaps she would then cry and the tears would be real and not of the crocodile variety.
This is a cut and paste from the last "update" I got about the NDIS;
"National Disability Insurance Scheme Update 43
Dear Friends,
Welcome, Queensland!
DisabilityCare Australia, the national disability insurance scheme, will roll out – in full – across Queensland by July 2019.
Today’s historic agreement with the Queensland Government will see DisabilityCare Australia become a reality for around 97,000 Queenslanders with disability.
We have now secured full agreements with most state and territory governments meaning almost 90 per cent of Australians will be covered by DisabilityCare Australia.
People with disability will have choice and control over the supports they receive, and their families and carers can be sure they’ll get a helping hand.
All Queenslanders will have the peace of mind that in the event of significant and permanent disability, or if they have a child with disability, that leaves them needing daily care and support, they’ll get the care and support they need.
To cover all people in Queensland, in 2019-20 the Queensland Government will provide $2.03 billion and the Australian Government will contribute around $2.14 billion to the scheme for Queenslanders.
Today’s agreement builds on those with the governments of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory and the agreement to launch the scheme in the Barkly region of the Northern Territory.
The countdown to launch in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania is on – it’s just over seven weeks away. Stay tuned to progress towards launch by checking in on the website –www.ndis.gov.au – and we’ll continue to keep you updated through NDIS Updates.
Jenny Macklin & Amanda Rishworth."
SHAME ON HER.
Thanks so much if you have made it this far into my rant but I really did want to tell you how much I appreciate you using your platform to educate as many as possible on the sheer untruths these bottom feeders are spreading/buying votes with.
Take care,
Mia
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New Riverwood Project (stage 1) near Hurstville.
1 bedroom from $290,000
7 minutes walk to Riverwood train station and shopping plaza
30 minutes by train to Sydney CBD
To be released to the public on the 15th of June.
If you want to be the 1st to secure an apartment or have first preference on choices before the release date please contact me on 0424 169 969 or by email: andrew.mo@championproperty
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Each day, I may get 100 requests asking "When will you speak out about..?" (Their concern) But pastors aren't pundits.
Pastor Rick Warren
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So JG says she is sending new figures to the States on Gonski funding. Is that number different to the Budget? Is it diff. to 6 weeks ago ??
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The Goodies upon their return from Australia, where they captured a Rolf Harris in the wild for their Star Safari Park (from the episode "Scatty Safari"). We suspect Bill won't be doing any Rolf Harris hunting when he visits Australia in late June 2013 for a series of five appearances (in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, & Sydney). The tour organizer hopes to have all the details about venues, dates, and how to buy tickets for us in about a month. Be sure to watch for updates on the fan club's website (www.goodiesruleok.com) and here on www.facebook.com/
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"Freedom is alone the unoriginated birthright of man; it belongs to him by force of his humanity." Immanuel Kant
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Faith is like petrol to your car. If your petrol is on empty, your car won't move anywhere. It will just be a stationary object. Faith is so important. Faith keeps us continually moving with God. Never let your faith get to empty or even half way. Always have your faith FULL.
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If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.- EMILE ZOLA
"Truth crushed to the ground will rise again." - MLK
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Our Plan will deliver a strong, prosperous economy and a safe, secure Australia. You can read more here: http://lbr.al/hro
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Larry Pickering
THE BEST-LAID PLANS OF MICE AND WOMEN...
The Poms may be dumb, but John McTernan is finding out that conservative Aussies are way smarter than Mr 457 gives them credit for... and it’s the conservatives he needs to convince.
He has taught the Gillard front bench how to ignore any question and revert straight to message which this week is, “cut to the bone”. The “Abbott’s relentless negativity” phrase was wearing thin.
Doesn’t McTernan understand that the same ALP puppets popping up on different channels, blurting exactly the same phrase every five minutes, reeks of insincerity?
Seriously, the only people who don’t see through this pantomime of posturing marionettes are the brain dead who intend to vote for Gillard anyway.
But he doesn’t need to convince Labor rank and file, and conservatives don’t need polls to show them he is doing very poorly.
Every sneaky stunt known has been pulled in an attempt to give Gillard one legitimate term in Office and the games played are far too politically complicated for Abbott to complain about.
Abbott needs to convert ALP votes to LNP votes and ALP voters have a lower IQ. So the message must remain simple.
One of the more devious of Gillard’s tricks involves the illegal boat invasion.
The cost of Labor’s broken borders policy is massive and increases by the minute. It amounted to $7 billion last year and $10 billion this year including many millions in legal aid to allow arrivals to appeal adverse security rulings.
All except a few of those adverse rulings have been duly overturned. Mmm, you need to wonder who walks among us.
This appeal process has been a windfall for Labor law firms who in turn donate millions back to the ALP.
In an effort to keep the 2012/13 budget blowout below $20 billion Gillard repeated the scam of the previous year and transferred the illegal immigrant costs to the foreign aid budget. Wow!
Then, without a shade of embarrassment, Labor suspended foreign aid increases for yet another year.
[Senator Carr confirmed that the government delayed its UN-agreed goal of increasing the foreign aid budget to 0.5 per cent of GNI by another year, to 2017-18.]
Not only has this move effectively taken these increases “off budget” but has landed the future budgetary cost fair and square in Abbott’s lap.
Last week, in her weeping session, Gillard explained that the NDIS will begin in July this year. That is an outright lie. The NDIS “cruel hoax” will not begin until 2019/20 at the earliest, if at all.
What Gillard was referring to were cheap “trials” of the scheme which are needed to determine the insoluble problem of eligibility.
Gillard claimed the kudos for a scheme Abbott will have to implement and find the money for.
Let’s be generous and say the NDIS will cost Abbott and the States $16 billion. Add Gonski to that, $14 billion (both a per annum cost) and throw in the off-budget NBN farce of $96 billion.
Then, don’t forget the deferred “foreign aid” budget which includes the $17 billion illegal immigrant cost and an ugly picture starts to emerge.
It gets uglier when Wayne Swan has his wont of extending the nation’s credit card by a further $50 billion which will be added to the $350 billion he is already in deficit for and you begin to understand the extent of the financial mess Abbott will be faced with.
Then there’s the borrowed $463 million Gillard has just stashed away for marginal electorates. Abbott will have to repay that too.
And there is much, much more fiscal chicanery than that.
You can add it up, I’m not going to... it makes me feel sick!
The media won’t explain this because they don’t wish to.
Abbott won’t explain this because the Labor voters he needs to convince simply won’t understand it.
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Pavlof volcano, in the Aleutian Islands about 625 miles (1,000 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, jetted lava into the air and spewed an ash cloud 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) high and was caught in action on May 14 by scientists from the Alaska Volcano Observatory. http://bit.ly/Z1SUO0
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Patience, then, believer, eternity will right the wrongs of time. Charles Spurgeon
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Shining Brilliance just outside of Dallas Texas today.
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Israel’s spectacular, beach-lined coastal strip is not just a popular attraction for tourists and locals alike – it is home to 70% of the country's population. Day after day, soldiers from the Israel Navy watch the waters, on guard against every kind of threat. For some of those soldiers ruling the waves is not just a duty – it’s life.
Read on: http://goo.gl/oPIbI
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"So glad you could make it..." – join us as we take an exclusive look behind the scenes of 'The Name of the Doctor'. Watch the video here:http://bit.ly/16wsWVZ
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Prayer and Praise for Deliverance from Enemies.
Psalm 7:1 (NKJV) O Lord my God, in You I put my trust,Save me from all those who persecute me;And deliver me.
Cry out. You strong man of the darkness,that says my story will not change,enough is enough,die in the name of Jesus...
Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
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Ladies and gentlemen in the Australia, this is your 20 minute warning for the start of the series 7 finale of Doctor Who! A secret will be revealed - starting at 7.30pm on ABC TV.
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