Saturday, June 22, 2013

Sat Jun 22nd Todays News

Happy birthday and many happy returns Kaspar Lundsby. It is Teachers' Day in El Salvador. In 1593, Ottoman forces were crushingly defeated by the Habsburgs at Sisak (now in Croatia), triggering the Long War. In 1807, The British warship HMS Leopard pursued and attacked the American frigate USS Chesapeake in the belief that the latter had deserters from the Royal Navy. In 1941, World War II: As over 4.5 million Axis troops began their invasion of the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian Activist Front started an uprising to liberate Lithuania from Soviet occupation and establish a new government. In 2009, Citing declining sales due to the emergence of digital photography, the Eastman Kodak Company announced that it would discontinue sales of the Kodachrome reversal film, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon. Your day teaches much to those who would flog pictures that have died. Those who would run away will be soon under foot. Careful of unleashing your millions unwisely. Enjoy your day. You deserve it.
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WORKERS DIVIDED

Tim Blair – Saturday, June 22, 2013 (3:13am)

The AWU, led by Labor camp survivor Paul Howes, calls on unions to throw extra money at Julia Gillard: 
The national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, Paul Howes, made the proposal at a meeting of the leaders of key unions comprising the Australian Council of Trade Unions on Tuesday.
Mr Howes told the meeting that his union was donating more to the Labor Party than it did at the 2010 election, and urged others to do the same. None supported the proposal. 
Forget trying to save the furniture. Howes is trying to save his house.

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AGE TURNS AGAINST AUSTRALIA’S MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMAN

Tim Blair – Saturday, June 22, 2013 (4:11am)

The Age wants to vote for a man in a blue tie: 
It is time for Julia Gillard to stand aside as leader of the federal parliamentary Labor Party, as Prime Minister of Australia …
Ms Gillard should do so in the interests of the Labor Party, in the interests of the nation and, most importantly, in the interests of democracy. The Age’s overriding concern is that, under Ms Gillard’s leadership, the Labor Party’s message about its future policies and vision for Australia is not getting through to the electorate. 
In fact, the Age – along with other Fairfax titles and the ABC – has been pushing Labor’s message with somedetermination. It’s getting through loud and clear. 
Our fear is that if there is no change in Labor leadership before the September 14 election, voters will be denied a proper contest of ideas and policies – and that would be a travesty for the democratic process. 
Note that line: a sitting Prime Minister running for office “would be a travesty for the democratic process”. Interesting. 
Australians deserve a representative Parliament of diverse ideas. 
The Age wants diversity. How about starting with its opinion pages? 
Time is running out. Labor needs to refresh its public face and present a compelling, united and inspiring voice. It is capable of doing so. Now it must find the will. 
The doomed leads the doomed. For what it’s worth, Labor cheerbunny Mike Carlton also calls for Gillard’s removal. Mike’s decision will be made official when he ritually throws a drink at the PM and calls her a tramp.
UPDATE. “Absolutely disgusting that the media is calling for Gillard to resign,” rails Fairfax columnist Clementine Ford. “The MSM is succumbing to its own hubris. Your job is to report on politics, not corridor gossip you DICKS.”
Clementine seems reluctant to identify the actual newspaper.
UPDATE II. Andrew Bolt: 
If the real problem is the Opposition, not Labor, why must Gillard go? Shouldn’t The Age demand Tony Abbott resign instead?
Or is the male editor of The Age truly a sexist at heart? Here he is, demanding a blameless and perfect woman step down because of the sins of a wicked male. 
UPDATE III. Age editor-in-chief Andrew Holden points out that his paper has previously called for Gough Whitlam and John Howard to step aside. These editorials don’t seem to work:



UPDATE IV. Fairfax’s Alan Stokes responds to Twitter rage: 
It’s a surprising reaction because The Age is a late entry to the “Gillard must go” camp.
The Sydney Morning Herald editorial said the same thing a fortnight back … 
Here’s the editorial to which Stokes refers. It doesn’t demand Gillard’s resignation.
UPDATE V. If Gillard isn’t being heard, how come everybody is wearing blue ties?

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Martin Flanagan should read less Plath and more news

Andrew Bolt June 22 2013 (3:04pm)

Martin Flanagan, Age pseud:
image
Like The Atlantic puts it, Martin?
image
No, no. Flanagan means it in a good way:
I am no great fan of Julia Gillard and the reaction, when it comes, will mask her political deficiencies.
Pardon? Does Flanagan mean that although Gillard has been terrible, the myths will luckily obscure the reality?  A bit like Plath’s demise made her poetry seem better than it was?
Hmm. Not sure if Flanagan quite meant that, either, but at least the analogy starts to make sense. 
And, sure, Flanagan is helping the myth-making along with some reality-obscuring of his own:
The menu at the Liberal Party fund-raiser referring to Julia Gillard was horrible.... People will return to her story again and again, even after she is dead, and, when they do, Howard Sattler and the Liberal fund-raiser menu will return to view...
Doesn’t Flanagan even read his own paper? That “menu at the Liberal fundraiser” was not made by Liberals nor shown at their fundraiser:

In an email to Mr Brough that was then circulated by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s office, the restaurant owner [Joe Richards] said it was a ‘’in-house joke’’ that was never distributed on tables or in the restaurant…
On Thursday, the man who tweeted the menu, David Carter, said that he had no evidence that the menu was passed around at the function in March.
In his email, Mr Richards said he wanted to confirm ‘’what actually happened’’.
‘’I created a mock menu myself as a light-hearted joke, however as I said I never produced them for public distribution. Unfortunately a staff member saw the mock menu, and unbeknownst to myself, posted it on their Facebook. It now appears that a third party for political reasons has distributed it, yet I can reassure you that no such menu was distributed on the night.’’
More myth-making by Flanagan, the Labor apologist:
Where has she manipulated an election to the extent that Howard manipulated one with the Tampa case?
Is Flanagan a fool or a fraud?

In the end, Flanagan anchors his entire defence of Gillard to this solitary curiosity:

Gillard will not be forgotten. She is the first woman prime minister of Australia. Fact. That alone makes her a figure of lasting interest.
Tremendous. First but worst. Never mind the reality, bow to the symbol.
Ah, Plath:
Too late to ask if end was worth the means,
Too late to calculate the toppling stock:
The idiot bird leaps out and drunken leans,
The hour is crowed in lunatic thirteens.
Flanagan’s column, however, appears on page 20. 

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Is The Australian outing Bill Shorten as a bald-faced liar?

Andrew Bolt June 22 2013 (12:17pm)

Peter van Onselen reported Bill Shorten being distanced by Julia Gillard - or, in fact, vice versa:

BILL Shorten has been excluded from Julia Gillard’s inner circle and strategic decision-making team as pressure mounts on him to resolve Labor’s leadership impasse.
But Bill Shorten yesterday denied it:
Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten has rejected reports that he had been shut out by the Prime Minister as ‘’baseless and inaccurate‘’…

Mr Shorten a key backer of the PM when she took over from Mr Rudd, said on Friday morning that he continued to have ‘’a strong working relationship with the Prime Minister’’.
Reader Truthbetold notes van Onselen’s rightly angry response on Contrarians yesterday:

Peter van Onselon, on Contrarians yesterday on Sky, left no doubt that the source if his front-page story in The Australian yesterday concerning the freezing out of Bill Shorten from the PM’s inner circle, was in fact Bill Shorten himself. After dropping several hints early in the show concerning “degrees of separation” of his source from his subject, and the fact that a front-page splash would indicate it was a very close source, he later said words to the effect “I protect my sources even when they don’t protect me.” This viewer was left in no doubt what he was getting at.
Can we really take Bill Shorten as a serious contender for a future PM when he is so duplicitous?
Today The Australian virtually outs Bill Shorten as van Onselen’s source and calls him a liar:
We stand by our reporting of the current leadership imbroglio. Our journalists are bound by their professional ethics, not only to report the truth, but also to respect their confidences. Respecting both these obligations can sometimes see reporters dutifully convey important developments based on information supplied on the condition sources are not revealed, only to see their stories publicly contradicted…
For all the half-truths and sins of omission in conspiratorial backgrounding by politicians, the usual practice has been to avoid outright lies. Journalists have respected the rights of ministers, MPs, advisers and other players to refuse to answer or expand on certain matters. But they do not expect deliberate deception…
Yet now denigration of our reporting comes from - and sometimes is led by - people who had no objections before it went to print…
We stand by our reporting; that crucial support for Ms Gillard from Paul Howes and the AWU has fallen away, that she has frozen out Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten, and pressure for more upheaval is building as this parliament enters its final week.

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Why won’t Labor let women voters speak?

Andrew Bolt June 22 2013 (11:51am)

Liberal pollster Mark Textor:
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Bolt Report tomorrow: Rudd to the rescue?

Andrew Bolt June 22 2013 (11:37am)

On The Bolt Report tomorrow on Network 10 at 10am - and repeated at 4pm: Warren Truss, Michael Costa and Peter Reith.
Labor killed by victim politics. Men aren’t copping the “sexist” rap.
Warren Truss on warming scams and building the north. Warning to Greens voters: don’t watch.
Can Kevin Rudd really save Labor? Will he even try?
More evidence why the Climate Commission should be sacked.
The twitter feed.
The place the videos appear.
Reader Peter:

AB, another conservative-free episode of Insiders this Sunday with Megalogenis, Atkins and Maley on the couch.
Just to recap, the couch compositions of recent times have been:

5 May: Kelly, Farr and Maley
12 May: Toohey, Megalogenis and Taylor
19 May: Tingle, Farr and Atkins
26 May: Seccombe, Probyn and Savva
2 June: Marr, Middleton and Hendo
9 June: Coorey, Kenny (M) and Taylor
16 June: Taylor, Farr and Akerman
23 June: Megalogenis, Atkins and Maley
By my count, of the 24 couch spots available from 5 May to 23 June, 18 have been occupied by leftists, three by conservatives and three by journos who I consider to be of close to the centre (Maley [x 2] and Probyn).
And, of course, you have to add the eight appearances of Cassidy to the leftist column. He doesn’t host: he holds court. So the true count is 26 appearances from the left, three from the conservative side of the spectrum and three from the centre.
Diversity of voices?
It’s worth noting that in percentage terms, the Bolt Report panel has demonstrated greater balance than Insiders during the 5 May to 23 June period, despite not operating under a charter that requires you to do so.

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Conroy attacks Telstra for pointing out copper doesn’t decompose

Andrew Bolt June 22 2013 (11:23am)

image
Stephen Conroy yet again makes personal attacks on people who simply point out uncomfortable truths:
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has accused Telstra of positioning itself for a potential Coalition government and its rival broadband policy by talking up the value of its copper network.

Mr Conroy said Telstra chief executive David Thodey’s claims on Thursday that its copper network was “perfectly OK” was an early sign of a move to lift the potential price at which Telstra could sell its assets to the government, should the Coalition win the next federal election.

“I expect David Thodey to talk up the value of his copper network because he knows he has a mug named Malcolm Turnbull coming to buy it off him,” Mr Conroy said…

Labor has claimed that the copper network is decrepit as part of its sales pitch for the National Broadband Network…

The copper network is more than 100-years-old in some parts, but on Thursday, Mr Thodey denied that parts needed to be removed.

“The copper has been going well for a hundred years,” he said. “There is some copper that is a lot older than others, but copper does not decompose.”

Reader Peter says Conroy isn’t credible:
The Oz editorial of 11 April sums it up best:

 FRESH from bungling the Australia Network tender and making a hash of media regulation, Stephen Conroy might pause to think before he speaks. Yet in criticising the Coalition’s broadband policy, he said he “can’t find a dumber piece of public policy than buying the copper off Telstra”.

Yet that is exactly what the Communications Minister has already done. Under his National Broadband Network, Telstra will be paid $11 billion to dismantle its copper network. So Mr Conroy pays Telstra to scrap existing connections while the Coalition intends to pay the same to use them. You be the judge.

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Eight detectives now probing the AWU scandal - and Gillard’s role

Andrew Bolt June 22 2013 (11:19am)

Eight detectives are at work on a criminal investigation involving the Prime Minister - who insists she did nothing wrong:
It is a scandal with a character list rich in colour and personality - the confessed fraudster, Ralph Blewitt, who now lives overseas, plus a witness list that stretches to perhaps as many as 100 people.
This has created a mountain of work for a full-time team of around eight Victorian fraud squad detectives - who have been working on a case that may yet cast its shadows over the coming election…
The unmistakable fact is that Victorian police have been investigating every aspect of this complex affair, including the role that Ms Gillard played - as a lawyer - in providing legal advice to Wilson and Blewitt…
Last month, Ross Mitchell - the experienced detective in charge of the investigation - flew to Sydney where he spent around 20 minutes with 2GB’s Ben Fordham. The radio and television broadcaster in March had challenged the PM during a particularly feisty interview about her role in witnessing a legal document, known as a “power of attorney”.
While Ms Gillard cannot recall this particular power of attorney, she has strongly asserted that she always witnessed documents properly as a lawyer...
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 

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Couldn’t Gillard find a local who’d divide Australians?

Andrew Bolt June 22 2013 (11:13am)

Julia Gillard refuses to open herself to the same scrutiny she demands of other bosses hiring 457 workers:

JULIA Gillard’s office is flouting Freedom of Information rules and refusing to hand over documents relating to the hiring of her communications director John McTernan, a Scotsman on a 457 visa for foreign workers.
The Office of the Information Commissioner told The Weekend Australian yesterday that it had formally rejected the Office of the Prime Minister’s request for more time to process the documents. Ms Gillard’s office has already been granted two extensions. After Ms Gillard earlier this year raised concerns about alleged widespread “457 visa rorting” and announced a major crackdown, members of her own government and employers denounced the move and accused her of pandering to the trade unions.
They said there was no evidence of widespread rorting to justify the crackdown and criticised Ms Gillard for attacking the 457 visa process in an attempt to appear to be tough on foreigners while unable to stem the increasing flow of asylum-seekers.
The Weekend Australian in early April sought all documents relating to the hiring of Mr McTernan in 2011 as chief spin doctor for the Prime Minister…
Other documents sought related to any efforts taken to identify a suitable person in Australia for the role, such as advertising, the engagement of recruitment agencies or direct contact with media outlets and highly qualified local journalists.

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Divided they fall

Andrew Bolt June 22 2013 (10:51am)

Gillard divides even her own supporters:
SOME of Julia Gillard’s backers have turned on Bill Shorten, accusing him of using “weasel words” and saying his support for the PM has been weak because he has not declared he would refuse to serve as a minister under Kevin Rudd.
But one of Mr Shorten’s allies has fired back, saying: “Bill’s not in the Julia party or the Kevin party, he’s in the Labor Party. He hasn’t invented these problems.”
UPDATE
A shambles, with no one trusting anyone. Peter Hartcher:

Gillard is suffering a crisis of caucus confidence. But it’s entirely possible that she will survive it...
The Rudd partisans have been briefing reporters to write stories designed to put pressure on the Gillard support base. That’s the reason there was a bombardment of pieces declaiming that Bill Shorten “must act” to end the leadership impasse…
But from his public pronouncements, Shorten is failing to get the message… He repeated several times on Friday that he continued to support Gillard and would continue to support her to the election....
Some of Gillard’s last defenders suspect his public comments; some of the Rudd crew put no credence in them at all....
One Rudd sympathiser, challenged to support his confidence that Shorten will turn, replied: “You can’t believe what Bill says publicly”. A Gillard lieutenant, however, says that the Rudd campaign has overplayed its hand: “They’ve put too much pressure on Bill. He can’t change now."…
Rudd’s people believe that there is a small central group in the Gillard cabinet who have a responsibility to the party to break the deadlock, to make Gillard blink. They include Combet, Wong, Stephen Smith, Tanya Plibersek and Jenny Macklin....
But the senior ministers in the Gillard cabinet have discussed their position. They are not prepared to form a delegation to negotiate a Gillard departure… Far from feeling pressured by the unsourced stories naming them, they are reacting angrily...
UPDATE
Do they hate the Coalition like they hate each other? Can they unite a country if they can’t unite their party?
Now Energy Minister Gary Gray lets fly at Kevin Rudd’s sly word games about not challenging:
‘’Their language creates confusion, and it deliberately undermines the political platform the Prime Minister has created… I do believe they should put up or shut up.’’…
In response, Rudd backer Ed Husic upped the ante by slamming Mr Gray for focusing on Mr Rudd and not on the real opponent, Tony Abbott. ‘’I thought those words were pretty provocative and instead of trying to trigger a blue, he should be triggering a turnaround,’’ he said. 
Gray just ups the ante by calling Rudd a coward:
GARY GRAY: He doesn’t have the courage and the strength that’s required to do this job. What he can do is spread confusion. What he can do is get himself into the media. What he can do is create a lot of torment. What he can’t do is govern and what he can’t do is lead the Labor party.
UPDATE

Queensland ALP vice-president David Hanna went public with his concerns yesterday by describing Ms Gillard as “toxic” to voters and declaring she had to be replaced or the party would be wiped out at the election.
UPDATE
Laurie Oakes isn’t sure there will be change:
IF members of Julia Gillard’s inner circle think caucus numbers have shifted and her leadership is in desperate trouble, they conceal it well.
“Same old movie,” one of them said yesterday. “Same ending.”
Gillard will prevail, in other words, and Kevin Rudd will once again be sent packing.
It is a view shared by independent Tony Windsor, who has told friends he believes Rudd is “all piss and wind"…
We’ll see. Given that I wrote Rudd off after the March fiasco, asserting confidently that speculation about bringing him back would never again be taken seriously, I’m hardly in a position to make predictions.
Paul Kelly suggests a lot of obstacles that might make Labor think twice about any switch of leaders:
The “below the radar” message Gillard sends is: if you want the leadership, then fight for it. But Rudd knows this means a blood-dipped expedition into unlicensed hatreds that would weaken, even cripple, his return…
If Rudd does return, the scale of the task is daunting. He must minimise the bitterness; minimise the ministerial resignations; pacify the defeated leader better than Gillard was able to pacify Rudd in 2010; ensure the Governor-General gives him a PM’s commission without damaging delay; and have the wisdom to judge the changes required to signal a “new-look” Labor operation. This is merely the start…
Imagine the embarrassment for the Governor-General and the political furore if Rudd were commissioned and some crossbenchers (maybe Tony Windsor, maybe Andrew Wilkie) said they did not necessarily support the Rudd government! .... Because this is a minority government parliament and the parliament is not dissolved, a prudent Governor-General would want assurances that Rudd had the confidence of the House of Representatives… How long could the Governor-General allow Rudd to govern without any confirmation he had the confidence of the parliament?…
If there is any game plan, it remains the deepest secret. In truth, everything is being done on the run as Labor’s convulsion seems beyond the control of any individual…
Abbott’s response is obvious… Abbott will say the upsurge in boats, the failed mining tax, the carbon problem, the increase in debt and deficits and the incompetent administration typified by pink batts originate with Rudd. 

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No refugee program should import this danger

Andrew Bolt June 22 2013 (10:22am)

Again we must ask. How fair on Australians is a refugee program that imports danger?

An investigation by The Weekend West has found deep concerns in the Perth’s East African community and a prediction that rising aggression in a section of disaffected youths towards authorities could lead to extreme violence.
A group of young men have spoken of their belief that police, who they have described as “the enemy”, could be targeted.
Their prediction came as Suresh Rajan, one of the most respected multicultural voices in the State, warned of the potential for a form of homegrown terrorism against authority figures…
Mr Rajan, former head of the Ethnic Communities Council of WA, said children from refugee backgrounds were coming from an environment where violence was a way of life…
“Unless we work to significantly address their issues appropriately we have a time bomb that is ticking quite loudly,” he said…
A former head of the South Sudan Community Association WA, Simon Yuer Dang, said the community had lost control of a section of its youth because parents were not allowed to discipline their children the way they needed to…
“If this law cannot be reversed and give us a chance to control our children, then most of them will end up in jail.”
Our refugee program seems to pose a danger to Australians. Those who say it’s racist to say so should worry more about the “racist” reaction if these dangers are not tackled fast.
UPDATE
The immigration program generally needs to be re-examined with an eye to the security of Australians:

THE Australian Federal Police is predicting a rise in the use of control orders as it seeks to monitor Australians returning from the battlefields of Syria.
The AFP also says the community must explore ways of managing terrorists due to be released from prison, such as a special register to monitor extremists.
AFP Deputy Commissioner national security Peter Drennan said the community must prepare itself for the next stage in the fight against terrorism, which has evolved from large, sophisticated strikes such as on September 11 to smaller, harder-to-detect attacks, such as in Boston in April.
He said returning foreign fighters, the emergence of home-grown radicals and the looming release of the first generation of extremists convicted under the terror laws, represented a convergence of threats that would confront Australians in the future…
Twenty-one extremists have been convicted here over two plots - operation Pendennis, a conspiracy centred around radical preacher Abdul Nacer Benbrika; and operation Neath, involving a plan to attack Holsworthy army base in Sydney.
We are talking here, of course, of mainly Middle Eastern immigrants and their children. Is this immigration program fair on Australians?
(Thanks to reader George.) 

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Gillard conceded abortion “a matter for state governments”

Andrew Bolt June 22 2013 (9:58am)

Julia Gillard last week warned women against voting in September for men in blue ties who’d take away abortion rights:

“Finally, but very importantly, we don’t want to live in an Australia where abortion again becomes the political plaything of men who think they know better,” Ms Gillard said.
But Latika Bourke says Julia Gillard three years ago conceded abortion was really a state issue and she shouldn’t be running “commentary” on it:
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the case of Tegan Leach in Queensland, I think it’s led for some women to really ask that abortion be decriminalised in those States where it’s illegal once and for all. Anna Bligh has said she won’t take the fight on, I think disappointing many. Do you plan to take or show any leadership for those women who are seeking change, or will you let them down, too?
PM: These are decisions at State Government level…
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister just to clarify your earlier answer to Latika’s question, obviously abortion laws are a matter for the States, but for the record do you take the view that even though it’s not decriminalised in some States, women have no great difficulty finding abortion,therefore let’s not have the debate, let’s let matters lie, or do you believe that the passage of time that it should be decriminalised?
PM: I believe that this is a matter for State governments and State parliaments to work their way through without me offering running commentary on it.
(Thanks to reader Andrew.) 

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The Age tells Julia Gillard to resign because Tony Abbott is awful

Andrew Bolt June 22 2013 (9:46am)

If you needed proof of the blindness of the Leftist media that cheered Labor over the cliff, here it is.
The Age today calls on Julia Gillard to resign, but not because she’s bad. No, she must resign because Labor’s great, the Coalition awful and voters too dumb to notice:
It is time for Julia Gillard to stand aside as leader of the federal parliamentary Labor Party, as Prime Minister of Australia, so that vigorous, policy-driven democratic debate can flourish once again. Ms Gillard should do so in the interests of the Labor Party, in the interests of the nation and, most importantly, in the interests of democracy. The Age’s overriding concern is that, under Ms Gillard’s leadership, the Labor Party’s message about its future policies and vision for Australia is not getting through to the electorate.
Note: The Age simply assumes, along with many in Labor, that Labor’s policies are so good that voters would back them if only they heard “the message”.  It is inconceivable to The Age that voters may indeed have heard “the message” that’s been screamed at them for years now by Labor, The Age and the ABC, but have concluded Labor’s “future policies and vision” are unaffordable, unworkable and divisive.
The Age instead believes, along with the more self-deluding Labor MPs, that Gillard is simply unable to make herself heard when spruiking those magnificent “future policies and vision”:
We are not saying Ms Gillard should stand aside because of Labor’s policies, but because she has been unable to lift the party out of a desperately difficult political position.
The Age does not advocate this lightly. We do so with all respect to Ms Gillard.
Of course! My God, don’t think The Age wants Gillard gone because they are sexists like those other critics. Don’t think they find a single fault in Gillard. Are you kidding?
Don’t dare think The Age disapproves of Gillard’s broken promises, massive deficits, attacks on free speech, union sops or lethally weak border laws. Heavens, no.
The real problem lies not in Gillard but a stupid public ignorant to Labor’s successes and deaf to its “message”:

A big majority of the electorate appears to have stopped listening to Ms Gillard.
Hmm. Now why would that be? The Age never explains what it simply assumes.  It’s like a mystery illness suddenly robbed the voters of their hearing. Or suddenly made them sexists. 
See, to actually explain this mysterious deafness would be to start listing faults in Gillard herself, and only sexists would do that. The Age would never suggest - gosh, no - the reason voters no longer listen to Gillard is that she lied to them about the carbon tax, lied to Andrew Wilkie about gambling reforms, lied about the surplus she’d deliver and promised countless things she never could and would deliver - a Citizen’s Assembly, an East Timor Detention Centre, cash for clunkers, a big mining tax that worked, border laws that stopped the boats, an Epping to Parramatta rail line and so much more. 
Might this record of lies and betrayals not explain why voters have stopped listening? Or would it be too sexist to mention it?
Unfortunately, the government under Ms Gillard has lost its way. And despite her entreaties to Labor’s caucus to stick fast, nothing appears to be changing.
Oh, it’s all the fault of those men in caucus now? Not Gillard herself?

And now we get to The Age’s core argument. Gillard must go not because the Government has failed, but because the Opposition has:
As it stands, the Coalition is being given a free run by a Labor Party which is tormented by its own frailties; too many of the Coalition’s proposed policies, some little more than slogans, are sliding through.
The opposition under Tony Abbott has contentious policies on the carbon tax, the mining tax and schools funding; these are just the start of it. Yet Labor under Ms Gillard has been unable to step up to the contest. Mr Abbott is being allowed to run almost entirely unchallenged with his preposterous claim that a Coalition government would ‘’stop the boats’’...
Amazing. In an editorial on why the Prime Minister should resign, The Age criticises not a single Labor policy, promise or bungle from its six years in government. But when it turns to the Opposition, it can find (allegedly) four - including the Opposition’s promise to fix Labor’s deadliest mistake.
But if the real problem is the Opposition, not Labor, why must Gillard go? Shouldn’t The Age demand Tony Abbott resign instead?
Or is the male editor of The Age truly a sexist at heart? Here he is, demanding a blameless and perfect woman step down because of the sins of a wicked male.
This is a spectacularly deluded and deceitful editorial by a dying paper with a lofty contempt for not just the voters but its readers.
And to top it off, this final idiocy:

To do nothing would implicitly weaken the democratic choice.
Leaving Gillard in charge of Labor weakens democracy? Gives us less choice in September?

In fact, the voters in September will have a perfectly democratic choice - and perfectly democratic opportunity to pass judgement on Labor.
What really is in danger then is not democracy at all, but the Labor party The Age so mindlessly backs, deaf itself to any criticism from voters it dismisses as stupid and uninformed.
The arrogance of the New Class, perfectly captured. An arrogance that is destroying not only Labor but The Age itself.

UPDATE
Tim Blair is similarly astonished:
Note that line: a sitting Prime Minister running for office “would be a travesty for the democratic process”. Interesting.
UPDATE
Professor Sinclair Davidson picks out more hypocrisy:

I reckon the real problem [The Age has] is this: 
Outright control of both houses may be delivered to the Coalition and, more importantly for our democracy, the opportunity for Labor to present a vigorous opposition in Parliament would be diminished.
I don’t recall The Age being concerned when outright control of both houses was delivered to the Gillard government after the last election. But there you have it.

UPDATE
More rats leave a sinking ship. Abbott hater Mike Carlton peddles the same line: a great woman must quit so a bad Opposition can be beaten:
Prime Minister, it’s time. Time for you to quit. As this Parliament draws to its close, it’s time for you to recognise that, for all your achievements, you are leading your government and your party to an electoral defeat of unprecedented disaster.

UPDATE
As I said last week, feminism is the last resort of this scoundrel:

The Gillard government will make a new pitch to female voters by announcing an inquiry into workplace discrimination against women taking parental leave when they are pregnant or caring for a baby.

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The AWU alone props up its puppet with members’ money

Andrew Bolt June 22 2013 (8:11am)

Some unions are more careful with their members’ money than is the AWU, which ran dead on the investigation into how Julia Gillard’s then boyfriend and client ripped off union money:
One of the country’s biggest trade unions has proposed that all major unions donate extra funds to help the beleaguered Gillard government fight for re-election, but has failed to win support.

The national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, Paul Howes, made the proposal at a meeting of the leaders of key unions comprising the Australian Council of Trade Unions on Tuesday.
Mr Howes told the meeting that his union was donating more to the Labor Party than it did at the 2010 election, and urged others to do the same. None supported the proposal.
The AWU is loyal to the end to its puppet, here dangled by the AWU president, Bill Ludwig:

image
In fact, it may be finally dawning on unions that their members actually include Coalition voters who don’t appreciate having their dues frittered on a party they don’t support:
The ACTU’s member unions collected a $2 levy from each of their 2 million members, creating a $4 million war chest for ACTU campaigning. Labor expected that much of this would go towards the Gillard government’s re-election.
But the TV ad campaign launched by the ACTU last month was dedicated to encouraging workers to join unions, and made no reference to the election or political parties.
(Note: Gillard denies knowing of - or profiting from - the rorts her then boyfriend, Bruce Wilson, committed with the slush fund Gillard helped set up.)
UPDATE
Reader John (real name withheld here on request) has sent this resignation letter to the AWU:
To whom it may concern.
Due to the support given to the Gillard Government and the carbon tax which has now cost me my job at the Petrie Paper Mill, I [name withheld] member number QL [number withheld] Officially resign from the AWU.
Another reason for the resignation is the campaign against feral animal control by licensed and qualified shooters.
This campaign shows how uneducated the Union has become with these matters, and how in the past years the Union has become politically motivated rather than act in the best interest of its members.
This is a decision I do not take lightly as I have been a member of the Union for many years.
But support for a bad Government and an attack on sporting shooters is too much for me.
The Union would be best served by supporting its member base rather than political parties.
The Gillard government has destroyed manufacturing in this country, the irony in this, is that less people in Manufacturing means less members for the AWU.
The AWU would be best to change allegiances like most people now are and support a government who supports workers, which the Labor party no longer does.
My only hope is the Liberals under Abbott will be able to restore confidence in the economy after the mess Gillard with AWU support has made of it.
I don’t know when I will be re-employed however if the AWU do not change track I can assure you they will not get my support again.
Regards
UPDATE
Dennis Shanahan says AWU secretary Paul Howes is not just shredding his own reputation but Gillard’s, exposing her as a union puppet:

In the face of the previous Newspoll survey, with Labor’s primary vote at 30 per cent, this week’s Nielsen poll down to 29 per cent and the ACTU’s polling showing safe seats wiped out, Howes went on Sky News this week and said: “Who cares what Newspoll comes out with?
“Let’s talk about the policies that matter to the Australian people and how we can communicate those policies effectively.”
Three years ago, when asked why he was supporting Gillard, Howes told Lateline:
“Well, you can see Newspoll, you can see AC Nielsen, you can see Essential Research, and you can see some internal research and research that the unions have done that clearly says at the moment if we had an election today it’s more likely than not that Tony Abbott would become the next prime minister; and that’s why, you know, it is not with any particular joy, it’s not with any particular happiness, that our union changed our position because we want to ensure that Labor continues to govern in the interests of all Australians and that working people get a fair go and we can only do that if Labor’s re-elected at the next election.”
Every box Howes ticked then has been ticked this week - polling, ACTU polling, lack of communication and Labor facing defeat - yet the AWU leader has continued, under pressure from Gillard’s supporters, to dissemble and appear to support a leader without majority support headed to a hiding.

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I’d want more openness from a Prime Minister Palmer, and an ABC more vigilant

Andrew Bolt June 22 2013 (7:56am)

Clive Palmer is an alleged billionaire who wants to be Prime Minister. Here is how this candidate for high office answers questions about the health of his business and the truth of his claims:

Palmer spent part of Wednesday in Adelaide, where he explicitly linked the reporting [of The Australian of his finances] with phone-hacking and blagging scandals plaguing the British media…
“I just don’t condone a criminal organisation.”
He was even feistier at a news conference in Canberra later in the day, when this newspaper’s national affairs editor David Crowe attempted to take him to task.
Crowe tried to put 33 questions to the magnate on the state of his accounts and financial claims. The ABC asked two....
“There’s been a lot of misreporting, lies told by The Australian ...,” Palmer replied....
His response to Crowe’s second question set the tone for the rest of the event. “I’ve told you everything I’m going to say. We’re suing The Australian and it’s sub judice for me to comment any further and I won’t be doing it.”
Then came lines such as “If you think I’m dishonest, go and make that claim”, “You’ve had your go” and “You’re like a broken record. Why don’t you shut up and let someone else have a go?”
But despite the abuse, Crowe extracted two significant statements from the man who would be prime minister. Asked about royalty payments, Palmer said some were flowing, but not what they were worth. “That’s none of your business,” he said. And asked if he would release his company accounts before the election so voters could know the state of his financial interests, Palmer said he signed statements under corporate law that should answer any voter concerns, adding: “It’s none of their business, really.”
Writer Christian Kerr wonders why the ABC continues to humor its pet billionaire:
On Thursday night the bromance between the magnate and Tony Jones - previously praised by Palmer as “the best journalist in Australia” - was rekindled when he appeared on ABC1’s Lateline…

Jones let Palmer’s allegation that this paper’s reporting of his business affairs was politically motivated go without challenge… Jones also let Palmer dismiss this paper’s reporting on the $500m royalties [that Palmer claims he’s receiving from a Chinese company, which denies it] because it came from “an unnamed spokesman”, and did not pursue him on the matter.
He asked Palmer about candidates, but not how many of these were employees - let alone why watching YouTube videos by his contender for Fremantle, Teresa van Lieshout - which cover topics ranging from “Biblical Eschatology (Apocalyptic)” to “Abolish Psychiatric Practice in WA” - convinced him she was what the nation needs.
Indeed, one of the toughest lines from Jones came when he interrupted Palmer’s farewell - “It’s a pleasure, Tony. You’re the greatest journalist in Australia. God bless you” - with “No, no. You can’t say that.”
UPDATE
Sounds to me like a prattling Prime Minister Palmer would prefer the kind of media controls the Greens and Labor battled to impose:
Palmer’s PR adviser: Mr Palmer, how come no journalists have actually asked you about your policies?
Palmer: Because they’re scared of the policies. And Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard and his boss (that is, Rupert Murdoch) are scared of our policies. The guy that he (indecipherable) a bucket of dirt too. You know, journalism in this country requires the right to know, people have a right to know about public issues; it doesn’t require people trying to rig elections, control the media and not giving people fair time to answer. I’ve never talked to any one of your journalists about any of these things. I am a public figure. I was voted by the people of Australia to be a living national treasure by popular vote. I’ve never been charged with anything, there’s no doubt over my honesty and there’s no allegation of that. All we’ve got is The Australian saying they’re frightened people might lose their jobs. Now, how would The Australian know? Thanks very much. See you later.
Crowe: What about transparency when running for public office?
(Band starts playing Waltzing Matilda.)

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"A line is a dot that went for a walk."
- Paul Klee
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If you were the innkeeper, would you have welcomed Mary and Joseph?
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Heracleion, a much prosperous and a known city had been engulfed underwater 1500 years ago. This grand city had also been mentioned by the Greek writer Herodotus, the 5th-century BC historian. He had told a wonderful tale of Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, who had launched a thousand ships, travelled to Heracleion, then a port of ‘great wealth’, with her glamorous Trojan lover, Paris. 

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LABOR’S CUTS TO AUSTRALIAN CUSTOMS SERVICE

In addition to dismantling Australia’s border protection, the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments have also systematically dismantled the capabilities of Australia’s Customs Department, by cutting funding in every budget since coming to office – a total $125.5 million and 870 staff cut.

Despite a growing workload - and with guns, illegal drugs and contraband flowing into the county, there are now over 15% less Customs personnel than in 2007 when Labor took office.

And under the Howard Government, 60% of air cargo consignments were inspected, but now, following Labor's cuts, less than 9% of air cargo undergoes inspections.

This opens up holes in the net, with the only result that criminals are more likely to be successful in smuggling guns & drugs into Australia.

Further, these drastic cuts to our nations Customs resources have hindered the agency’s ability to effectively do its job and increased their vulnerability to infiltration from organised crime.

Just another reason, why Labor MUST be voted out office at the coming election - no matter whom Labor put up as leader.
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Frozen Soap Bubble!
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4 her
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City Council Wants to Ban NYPD From Using Race, Gender, or Age to ID Suspects
What would you do to describe someone who just robbed you? You may describe the size of the person, the color of their skin, their voice, or any other definitive features.
Ok, now what would you do to describe someone who just robbed you while you were wearing a blindfold? “Uhh. Its voice was deeper than your average person, and it’s skin was not that soft?”
Well, that is exactly what the New York City Council is asking the NYPD to do if the world’s most shortsighted bill in recent memory passes. And rest assured, the NYPD Captains union is pissed about it. Duh.

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Frontier Life in the West

http://independentfilmnewsandmedia.com/frontier-life-west/

Between 1887 and 1892, John C.H. Grabill sent 188 photographs to the Library of Congress for copyright protection. Grabill is known as a western photographer, documenting many aspects of frontier life — hunting, mining, western town landscapes and white settlers’ relationships with Native Americans.
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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
Our Lord Jesus Christ, in this great Sermon on the Mount,Jesus put before His audience the choices which every man must make.He said,Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to, Luke 13:24. And not only the narrow gate,you have to choose between two masters,He said, you will either love one or hate the other.

Again,you have to choose between two spiritual fathers,God and devil.Which one will you serve? He said in John 8:44 that "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Again,He said that you have to choose between two destinies,Heave and hell.God, as a good Father, commanded through Moses that we make the right choice when he said, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deut. 30:19). As far as God is concerned, these are the choices we have to make: we can either choose life or death.Which way are you? Choose life.God. bless.you.

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June 21, 1964~ On this day 49 years ago JOHN WAYNE left aboard the USS Kearsarge forHonolulu, Hawaii for filming ‘In Harm's Way.’
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Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for June 21st. Enjoy!

From the Blog

Uncovering the Camp Bastion cover-up

All it takes is one crack for a stone wall to start crumbling...

The Jay Carney dodge-o-meter: Over 9,400 non-answers and counting

Somebody apparently had the unenviable task of watching all the press conferences Jay Carney has held since becoming President Obama’s media goalie and adding up the hem-haws...

Gaffe stimulus: Obama confuses British finance minister with R & B singer; Hagel asks Indian prof. if he’s in the Taliban

Even steel traps can get rusty...

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Michelle's Top Tweets

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And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

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TGIF, baby!

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June 22: Teachers' Day in El Salvador
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