Thursday, July 18, 2013

Thu Jul 18th Todays News


Happy birthday and many happy returns Fiona McBeath, WG Grace (1848), Robert Hooke (1635), Nelson Mandela (1918), John Glenn (1921), Thomas Kuhn (1922), Dennis Lillee (1949) and Kristen Bell (1980). On your day, in 1290, Edward I issued an edict expelling all Jews from England. 1863, American Civil War: Led by Union Army Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first formal African American military unit, spearheaded an assault on Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina. 1969, After a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts, United States Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off a wooden bridge into a tidal channel, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign worker. 1976, At the Olympic Games in Montreal, Nadia Comăneci became the first person to score a perfect 10 in a modern Olympics gymnastics event. 2005, In a joint statement, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President George W. Bush announced the U.S.–India Civil Nuclear Agreement, a bilateral treaty on civil nuclear cooperation between their two respective countries. I read about Kuhn when I read "What is this crazy little thing called Science" which isn't as deliciously saucy as the question "What is this crazy little thing called, love?" You have the right stuff, and so despite big mistakes, you fix them. You find glory. Like Kennedy, we won't talk about Chappaquiddick. But you got a perfect 10 .. the first .. and if you sign here things won't go badly nuclear. Cheers.
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Hypocrisy and lies on boat arrivals

Piers Akerman – Thursday, July 18, 2013 (5:28pm)

HOME Affairs Minister Jason Clare has condemned the politicisation of Labor’s failed border protection policy and its lethal consequences.

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Kevvie’s killer border protection plans

Piers Akerman – Thursday, July 18, 2013 (5:13am)

WANT to hear a joke? Kevvie from Brizzie says a review of Australia’s obligations under the United Nations refugee convention might be needed as part of a new policy aimed at stemming the flow of asylum seeker boats.
That’s how Labor’s hymn sheet, the Fairfax-owned Sydney Morning Herald has today reported the recycled Prime Minister’s latest thought bubble on illegal entrants.

The review would be, get this, part of a three-pronged policy shift to address the refugee issue globally, promote regional co-operation and tighten the refugee assessment process in Australia.
Add that to the current diktat to the Refugee Review Tribunal to consider new assessments of conditions in source countries - such as Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Iran - being prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Then there’s the directive, issued five days before Kevvie knifed Julia Gillard, which said asylum seekers with genuine identity documents must be given priority over those who either have fraudulent documents or do not co-operate.
That order began to strip away the farcical notion that there was no queue of people trying to come to Australia illegally – even though thousands of people are queued in Indonesia and airport lounges stretching back from South East Asia to the Middle East and Africa.
The Fairfax press has also taken aim at the highly effective Opposition spokesman on Immigration, Scott Morrison, for saying migrants should “integrate” and raising the possibility of applying an English language test to those seeking citizenship.
Imagine that – migrants becoming familiar with Australian culture and actually having to speak at least some English before handed their citizenship papers.
How cruel, inhumane, humiliating and discriminatory to apply something like the same tests to new migrants as applied for decades to the new Australians who helped make this nation prosper.
Morrison said integration was no longer a “dark and negative term” suggesting the blurring of cultural identities and that he agreed with the policies of the past 30 years, which included multiculturalism, and their purpose “to get Australians to live together and not be separated by language or religion or culture but to actually find the middle ground where we live together as Australians”.
Hardly novel, but to the dwindling band of Fairfax readers, such a commonsensical idea is a heresy.
As for Kevvie’s new, new review, Morrison said: “Rudd is always talking and raising expectations about what he might do on border protection, but his record shows he does very little.”
Actually, Morrison is wrong. Kevvie has been a lethally destructive force on border protection as the bodies rocking in the depths of the sea and nearly 50,000 unauthorised entrants testify. 

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BEST OF THE LEFT

Tim Blair – Thursday, July 18, 2013 (6:42pm)

Ben Pobjie is Australia’s funniest leftist. Which might not be saying all that much.

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BIG MAN FLIES

Tim Blair – Thursday, July 18, 2013 (3:16am)

Last night’s State of Origin streaker is a repeat offender. The bulky yet elusive fellow is currently stalling the law
“He’s not cooperating with police at all, he’s being very difficult,” Inspector Hill said.
“He’s refusing to identify himself or answer questions so we’re going to have to fingerprint him and go through identity checks before we can work out the charging.
“It’s going to take a good few hours.” 
Only a few hours? Let’s put these cops in charge of border protection.

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YEAR OF THE EAR

Tim Blair – Thursday, July 18, 2013 (3:15am)

Fascinating documentary background to this year’s Ron Howard-directed Rush.

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TO BE NAMED, NAMES ARE NEEDED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 17, 2013 (7:44pm)

Fairfax’s Stephanie Peatling believes unidentified asylum seekers are dehumanised: 
On Wednesday, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare concluded a press conference about the circumstances surrounding the latest boat tragedy.
He barely mentioned the people on board except as a body count …
Their emotional wellbeing is barely considered.
Instead, they will become the latest people to be talked about by politicians, journalists and commentators as “asylum seekers” or “illegal boat arrivals” or another anonymous group reference. 
I agree with Stephanie. All asylum seekers should be named. This process can begin as soon as they present theirpassports.

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Rudd picks on charity workers, police and teachers

Andrew Bolt July 18 2013 (7:33pm)

Kevin Rudd’s changes to the fringe benefit taxes on cars will most hurt charity workers and public servants, who will want compensation for the loss of value of their salary packages:

A survey of 100,000 novated leasing contracts by the Australian Salary Packaging Industry Association found state and Federal Government public servants represent the largest portion of novated leasing business (33 per cent) ahead of those in charities and public health (28 per cent), police and teachers (21 per cent) and the private sector (18 per cent).
Nor many fat cats driving Mercedes in that lot.
UPDATE
What Rudd did to the home insulation industry he now does to salary packagers:
Melbourne-based NLC Car Leasing has announced it will sack 74 of its 143 workers on Friday because of the immediate reduction in demand for lease vehicles as a result of the government’s change… The peak body for salary packaging in Australia warns that 2000 jobs could go in the short-term with 20,000 jobs at risk by Christmas as the industry tries to come to terms with the sweeping changes.
Another company:
Mr Hunter, who owns Automotive Lease Packaging, said 95 per cent of his business was in novated leases built on salary sacrifice for people such as nurses, police and teachers, whom he said would lose a tax benefit worth between $1500 and $5000 a year.
“I feel sick. I’ve got 20 staff here on tenterhooks. People’s jobs are on the line here. I’ll probably have to shut this business down,” he said.
“I’ve spent 12 years of my life building this company and instantly a $1 million company’s worth nothing.”
How Treasurer Chris Bowen describes that job loss:
I know this is controversial...

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Bowen nails Swan’s lie: Labor actually blew a “windfall”

Andrew Bolt July 18 2013 (3:07pm)

Politics - deceits and stuff ups
Just two months after the Budget was handed down, Labor suggests it’s once again got the figures wrong and is going deeper into debt.
From Treasurer Chris Bowen’s speech today:
Today, I want to talk about recent developments, both here and abroad, since the Budget was released in May.
We have seen regular downgrades of forecasts for global economic activity. The IMF has now downgraded its projections five times…
Even on a best case scenario, Europe remains a significant downside risk.
Closer to home, China’s exports to Europe and the US have softened. So, too, have growth prospects…
That being said, any probable scenario for China includes more volatility in prices for our key commodity exports and, therefore, our terms of trade.
For example, a few weeks ago the Treasury Secretary noted that the terms of trade outcome for the March quarter was weaker than Budget forecasts. 
Bowen also blows the whistle on the great lie Labor preached for so long - that the last few years were somehow tough, and it couldn’t be blamed for running massive deficits. In fact, says Bowen, it was raking in a windfall:

During the resources boom – from 2002?03 to 2012-13 – resource investment in Australia increased from a 1.8 per cent share of the economy to an estimated 8.1 per cent. 
Until the recent fall, our terms of trade were as high as they had been at any time since Federation – indeed at their peak, 60 per cent higher than their average across the 20th Century.
This gave us a windfall of roughly 15 per cent of GDP in national income.
Remember former Treasurer Wayne Swan’s deceit, that he somehow was doing it tough?
In my time as Treasurer, I’ve copped $160 billion in revenue downgrades,” Mr Swan told the audience.
“Our expenditure, as a percentage of our economy, over the forward estimates is set to come in at less than the average of the 30 years prior to Labor coming into office in 2007.
“So much for the claim that these challenges are on the expenditure side of the budget. They are not; they’re on the revenue side.”
I’m no economic genius, but even I could see at the time Swan’s con, and called it out often. I warned that a government racking up massive deficits in good times would leave us defenceless when the economy soured - as Bowen now warns it might.
Why didn’t more political commentators hold Swan to account as a spendthrift and deceiver?
Now that Bowen admits Labor in fact ran out of money when it was enjoying a “windfall” rise in growth, political journalists should flay Labor alive for its waste and its lies. They should be furious at having been conned.
So why are many instead falling for the new Labor fraud - that the Rudd Government represents something new? Why aren’t they calling it for what it is: just the latest shabby makeover of an incompetent Labor party that’s been in power for six years of waste, lies and incompetence?
UPDATE
Bowen has just exposed Labor’s surplus strategy as a sham. As incoherent. it’s the strategy he himself outlined on Sunday:

It means ensuring that our strategy of returning to surplus over the economic cycle - balance in 2015/16 - is adhered to...
But when is “the economic cycle”? Labor gave us record deficits during what Bowen calls the “windfall” years. Is Bowen really claiming it will now give us a surplus in the tough times - the bottom of the cycle?
This is bizarre. And not a single journalist at the National Press Club blinked. 

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An appointment too dangerous to debate under our absurd laws

Andrew Bolt July 18 2013 (1:18pm)

Free speech
image
Our draconian laws against free speech make it too dangerous to comment on an important issue of public policy, involving Aboriginal identity and entitlement.
I shall just quote first a news report today:
THE peak Aboriginal body has elected a new leadership team, with editor of the Koori Mail Kirstie Parker becoming the new female co-chair of the organisation.
The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples also re-elected male co-chair Les Malezer...
I will quote Parker herself:
My mother died in 1996 at the age of 54. She was the eldest of 18 kids, ten of whom are now in the grave, nine of them without making it to 50. Mum started her working life aged 11 as a domestic servant (read: slave) before becoming a jillaroo, a cook, a taxi driver, Aboriginal liaison officer, and university arts degree student. Together, she and Dad – a Pom who first came to Australia following a dream of being a ‘cowboy’ – created a pretty good life for me and my sister and brothers. We’ve all had our challenges but thanks to Mum, Dad and Biaime we’re all doing okay.
Our laws against free speech are a disgrace. Aboriginal identity should not be a subject that cannot be discussed freely.
UPDATE
Sorry. no comments. 

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Queensland isn’t buying what the Great Diplomat is selling

Andrew Bolt July 18 2013 (1:13pm)

Those Gonski negotiations aren’t going very well:

LABOR’S hopes of signing Queensland up to a school funding deal have been dealt a blow in a scathing attack on the reforms by the state’s education minister.
John-Paul Langbroek said the commonwealth won’t budge in negotiations despite his federal counterpart, Education Minister Bill Shorten, saying he is open to further talks…
“Bill Shorten can come on to your show with his velvet tones and try to make out that he’s offering us a lot more and that he wants to sit down and talk, while his boss (Prime Minister Kevin Rudd) is out there slagging us in a press conference,” he told ABC Radio.
“It’s not constructive and shows that Kevin Rudd is a charlatan as well.”

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Morrison brings back integration

Andrew Bolt July 18 2013 (8:28am)

A word stupidly demonised for too long makes its political return:

The man who plans to be Australia’s next immigration minister has re-embraced the 1970s term ‘’integration’’, raised the prospect of a series of English-test ‘’barriers’’ to attaining citizenship, and vowed asylum boats would be turned back without seeking Indonesia’s agreement....
[Scott] Morrison was asked about his celebration of the word integration. Is it no longer a ‘’dark and negative term’’ suggesting the blurring of cultural identities? Multiculturalism, celebrating diversity, took over in the mid-1970s, but Mr Morrison said: ‘’It’s not about changing who you are … Whatever name you want to give to the various policies of the past 30 years, I agree with the purpose of them and that is to get Australians to live together and not be separated by language or religion or culture but to actually find the middle ground where we live together as Australians.’’

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The Left cheers as Rudd lurches to the Right

Andrew Bolt July 18 2013 (8:21am)

Is it not bizarre that the Left is cheered that Labor could snatch the election, having promised to slash the carbon tax and get much tougher on boat people?
Once again, more proof that for many moralists of the Left it’s not the principle that counts but the side. 

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Gillard “in a very bad way”

Andrew Bolt July 18 2013 (8:17am)

So far there has been not the slightest sign of Julia Gillard doing to Kevin Rudd what he did to her, and someone close to her tells me she is determined to show more class.
Yet....
Niki Savva:

If Rudd surges ahead in the polls, he would be neglecting his responsibilities as leader - and reneging on his pre-coup undertakings to listen to colleagues - not to call the election immediately. If he doesn’t and he waits, there are grave risks.
The first is that he will struggle to keep a lid on the hatreds inside Labor. Apart from the obvious stuff-up with the naive young diplomat, the withdrawal of candidates to give Gillard’s preferred choice a clear run for her seat of Lalor was described by one insider as an exercise in keeping the peace. Those who have spoken to the former prime minister report she is “in a very bad way”.
UPDATE
Mark Kenny:
As she prepares for the next chapter in an extraordinary life, Julia Gillard is feeling the call of family and home and heading back to Adelaide.
She will shortly move back to the City of Churches to be closer to her ageing mother, Moira, and her sister, Alison.
UPDATE
JULIA Gillard has reportedly signed a tell-all book deal with Penguin Australia
She has told friends her book will not be a Latham Diaries-type book that dishes the dirt on her removal as prime minister.

But she is keen to set the record straight and discuss the policy achievements of her government.

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Some people would kill to be on the cover of the Rolling Stone

Andrew Bolt July 18 2013 (7:47am)

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Utterly grotesque. Rolling Stone rewards a bombers - the murderer of a child, a Chinese student, a young American woman and, later, a police officer - with the coolest trappings of celebrity.
Would the next bomber get added cool if he bombed the home of the Rolling Stone editor?
Here are the people who died from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s bomb:

image
Why are they not on the cover instead?  

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Trashing Australian sport for nothing

Andrew Bolt July 18 2013 (7:43am)

Boat people policy
IT is five months since we were told Australian sport was riddled with illegal drug use, match-fixing and links to organised crime.
“This is the blackest day in Australian sport,” gasped Richard Ings, former Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority head, in a quote that went around the world.
Few reporters dared to doubt him. After all, there was then justice minister Jason Clare announcing he was “shocked” by an Australian Crime Commission report.
There was then sport minister Kate Lundy beside him, warning the wicked, “we will catch you”. Behind them, looking shamefaced, were the heads of five big sporting codes, summoned as representatives of the guilty. And all of this big-noting and organised sliming was done to the cheers of grandstanders used to trading in sanctimony.
“Endemic corruption” had been exposed, insisted the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter FitzSimons.
So five months later, how many athletes have been charged with illegal drug-taking?  

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Solar power burns hole in wallets

Andrew Bolt July 18 2013 (7:34am)

Want proof that solar power is a fast way to burn taxpayers money?
A SOLAR power plant using new technology to produce energy at 500 times the strength of rooftop panels has begun operating in Victoria.
The multi-million dollar Mildura system is the first stage of what operators hope will be a 2000-dish power station that could provide power for about 30,000 homes.
The first stage, which got $10 million from Victorian taxpayers, has 40 dishes to track the sun during the day and could provide enough power for about 500 homes.
The first stage means we are paying $10,000 for every home hooked up to this solar power. Add to that the private investment which will need a commercial return, plus the cost of providing the coal and gas-fired power needed for when the sun doesn’t shine.
And all to make zero difference to the world’s temperature. Insane.
More to come, too:
Plant owners Silex Systems hope to have the final 2000-dish system up and running within about three years, and have received in principal funding of $110 million from taxpayers, including $35 million from the Napthine Government.

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Rudd isn’t telling the truth about his tax

Andrew Bolt July 18 2013 (7:25am)

PEOPLE cheer Kevin Rudd because they cannot believe a prime minister would trick them so brazenly.
But never has Rudd - a genius at seeming, a disaster at doing - been as brazen as he was this week.
No, he did not “terminate” Labor’s carbon tax.
No, his planned emissions trading scheme cannot start next year, or not without spending billions he does not have to buy off the hostile Greens.
No, it won’t save families $380 per year.
No, your electricity bills might in fact soar, not fall.
In fact, Rudd will be the second Labor prime minister to go to an election promising “there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead”.
If re-elected he will be the second Labor prime minister to claim “changed circumstances” made him break his solemn word.
On Tuesday, Rudd made the following false claims or almost certainly undeliverable promises in announcing he’d move to an emissions trading scheme a year earlier than Labor planned: 

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Rudd plans to talk the boats into stopping

Andrew Bolt July 18 2013 (7:12am)

Boat people policy
Kevin Rudd’s answer to the boat sinking is in part - surprise - more talk:

NAOMI WOODLEY: For the first time Kevin Rudd has indicated the Australian Government is raising questions about the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.
KEVIN RUDD: We are looking at this right now globally, in terms of the effectiveness of the refugees’ convention.
We’re looking at it regionally in terms of our co-operation with regional states in South East Asia and the South West Pacific; hence my visit to Indonesia, the discussions I’ve had recently in Papua New Guinea and elsewhere. In order to strengthen our regional co-operation as folk move their way through this region.
I have argued that we should simply quit the convention and declare some countries as well-enough regulated that we will receive no refugees from them. But to renegotiate the Convention would take years, and success is uncertain. There will be lots of talk, and little chance of real action. In the meantime the boats will keep coming, and people will keep drowning.
Yes, there is more to what Rudd is planning:

Thirdly we need to also act on the, on the challenge that we face in the refugee determination processes for our country.
NAOMI WOODLEY: As revealed on AM this morning, the Refugee Review Tribunal has been directed that it must take into account updated country information prepared by the Foreign Affairs Department, countries like Afghanistan, Iran and Vietnam.
The Government says the tribunal can take other information about the countries into account as well.
Maybe this will make some difference to the tribunals’ decisions, and maybe that in turn will make some difference to arrivals. But bear in mind we are talking about tribunals the Rudd Government itself deliberately stacked with people more likely to say yes to asylum seekers:
The 25 RRT members who were reappointed last week have, over the past three years, rejected appeals by asylum seekers in 62 per cent of cases.
In contrast, the 18 RRT members who were sacked rejected 78 per cent of appeals. What’s more, the toughest four RRT members were all sacked.
Here are some of the people who will replace them. There’s Charlie Powles, a Refugee and Immigration Law Centre solicitor, and Anthony Krohn, a Melbourne barrister who has worked for many asylum seekers and the Refugee Advice and Casework Service.
Add to them the director of the Brisbane Catholic Archdiocese’s Centre for Multicultural Pastoral Care; a solicitor for the refugee advocacy group Southern Communities Advocacy Legal Education Service; and a solicitor for Sydney’s Immigration Advice and Rights Centre. Notice a pattern?
In the end, unless we physically stop the boats, I suspect they will keep coming.
UPDATE
One hope Rudd has is of at least doing more to deter the Iranians who now make up a third of arrivals:

The glitch for the government is that ... the Iranian government has refused to accept returnees. Last year there were 2749 Iranian illegal arrivals and only 24 returns.
The number of arrivals has almost doubled in the first half of this year… That is why Australia’s government is looking for a country that will take “economic refugees” who cannot be returned to their state of origin but who are not refugees under the UN Convention…
In the absence of being able to return Iranians, who now comprise a third of illegal boat arrivals, to their home, the government hopes it can turn them off by diverting them to PNG...
Of course, sending boat people to PNG - specifically Manus Island - was scrapped by Rudd in 2008.
UPDATE
The trouble is, the word has spread around the world that Labor has opened our doors:

The overall rate of asylum-seeker arrivals has increased this year, a trend driven mainly by an increase in Iranians, Vietnamese, Africans from Somalia and Sudan and South Asian asylum-seekers from Burma and Bangladesh.
So far this year, there have been 1088 arrivals from Pakistan, 759 from Vietnam, 461 from Bangladesh, 222 from Burma, 368 from Sudan and 219 from Somalia.
Sri Lankan and Afghan arrivals have dropped, with the number of Sri Lankans coming to Australia peaking at 6428 in 2012 and Afghan arrivals peaking at 4256 in the same year.
By contrast, only 2083 Afghans and 1730 Sri Lankans have come to Australia by boat so far this year.

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Labor should stop preaching about boats and start saying sorry

Andrew Bolt July 18 2013 (6:49am)

Labor created this humanitarian, financial and immigration disaster.
Labor failed for five years to fix what it broke.
Labor continues to speak with the voice of moral superiority - like there’s a complete disconnect between what it does and how it seems to itself:

Home Affairs Minister Jason Claire ...  said the issue of boat arrivals has become ‘’poisoned by politics‘’…
‘’When people are dying the government should be given the power that it thinks it needs to stop this happening...”
In fact, the poison is in Labor’s practice:
NAVY insiders say there is “a growing and burning anger” among sailors on the frontline as they struggle to respond to the spiralling number of deaths and sinkings flowing from the government’s failed asylum-seeker policies.
The warning comes as the nation’s border protection system teetered on the edge of dysfunction last night, with detention facilities on Christmas Island overflowing from the recent influx of asylum-seekers and yet another emergency on the high seas as the navy rushed to rescue a sinking asylum-seeker boat with 80 people on board.
The navy’s workload means the 21-person crew of patrol boat HMAS Bathurst, which was involved in last night’s emergency, has rescued six boats in the past 10 days carrying a total of 669 people.
The arrival of between 700 and 800 asylum-seekers a week for more than a month has pushed the number of asylum-seekers on Christmas Island to a record of about 4000…
As survivors of Tuesday night’s boat capsize that killed four people were brought ashore yesterday, the head of detention on Christmas Island, Serco regional director John Harrison, was on the jetty holding babies and mucking in despite not having slept for 24 hours…
A senior source inside the navy’s Armidale-class patrol boat fleet told The Australian yesterday Defence would face a steep spike in the number of post-traumatic stress disorders as young sailors bore witness to desperate people drowning in front of them.
“Just try to picture pulling body parts out of the ocean, because that’s what happens to bodies in the water for a few days, they pull apart at the seams,” said the patrol boat insider…
“There is a growing and burning anger among many of them about the position they have been placed in,” said one insider, who has spoken to crew members involved in recent interceptions of asylum-seeker boats.
“They have seen bodies out there, they have seen women and children in terrible situations… The general public have no idea what our (navy) personnel are being exposed to and there is a lot of frustration with the politics which has led to this situation.”
Remember how the media cheered Kevin Rudd as, with the same moral certainty, he dismantled the tough border laws which had cut boat arrivals to an average of just three a year - and opened the door to this disaster?

The Age celebrated that “yesterday a stain was removed from the soul of this nation”. The Australian’s Mike Steketee declared: “Australia at least has a policy it can justify in terms of basic humanity”.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Adele Horin cried: “a shameful era is over”.
Labor candidate Prof George Williams enthused: “This ... approach is more compassionate.”
And when last December I pointed at the toxic fruit of these compassionate policies, how outraged some were.
I was a “village idiot” and worse than “a worthless bloodclot”, declared Fairfax columnists.
The Age’s Michelle Grattan sniffed at my “distasteful triumphalism about prior warnings”, without explaining why she’d never issued any such warnings herself.
Even now, none will take their share of blame for the policies that encouraged the deaths they now cry over. 

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Only this government could claim a lower carbon tax is actually doing more

Andrew Bolt July 18 2013 (6:39am)

Climate Change Minister and professional alarmist Mark Butler argues for cutting the carbon tax from today’s $24.15 to a (falsely) promised $6 next year:

I want South Australians to be confident that we have done all we can to avoid the extreme weather events such as heat waves that are caused by climate change, letting people live long, healthy lives.
Que?
Doing less is actually doing more?
And reality check. The difference the government’s policies would at most theoretically make to the world’s temperature by 2100: 0.0038 degrees.
Difference made to South Australia’s extreme weather: zero. 

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Procrastinating or temporising vs delay. Doing something at the right time is best. Doing something early is preferable to late. - ed
Wie nennt man das, wenn man zwar erkennt, wo das Problem liegt, aber mit dem Lösen des Problems müsste man zugeben, vor Jahren Weichen falsch gestellt zu haben? - Man entschließt sich daher, lieber mit 1000 resultierenden Problemen umzugehen, und versucht, diese mit immensem Aufwand einigermaßen einzudämmen. Das macht so viel Arbeit, das schweißt alle Beteiligten so zusammen, dass zwar alle leiden müssen, aber man paradoxerweise im Ansehen sogar sozial aufsteigt. Das eigentliche Problem wird dabei zum Tabu und bleibt langfristig bestehen. Was ist das?

(Trans) Whatever you call it, though if you can detect where the problem lies, but with solving the problem would have to admit that he had made ​​incorrectly prior years the course? - The decision was, therefore, prefer to deal with resulting problems in 1000, and attempts to curb at enormous cost to some extent. This is so much work that welds together all stakeholders so that while all have to suffer, but you can even ascend socially paradoxically reputation. The real problem becomes the taboo and remains the long term. What's this?
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This was a few year back when I used to run my clothing store, I caught a guy stealing in my shop, he looked like he was hanging out on drugs, so instead of calling the cops I just said him that I’d prefer he'd never steal again. He saw the compassion in me and asked "why are you so nice, not like other shop owners"I told him to sit over the other side of the counter and shared to him how much Jesus loves him, he started weeping like he wanted to repent, so I led him into confession and so he repeated after me ~ Heavenly Father, you have loved us with an everlasting love, but we have gone our own way, and rejected your will for our lives. We are sorry for our sins and turn away from them. For the sake of your Son who died for us, forgive us, cleanse us, and change us. By your Holy Spirit, enable us to live for you, and to please you in every way through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen ~ After that he left the shop normal as if he wasn't even hanging anymore. Praise the Lord.

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Twisting the Night Away — at Bristlecone Pine Ancient Forest.
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Seems like all I could see was the struggle
Haunted by ghosts that lived in my past
Bound up in shackles of all my failures
Wondering how long is this gonna last
Then You look at this prisoner and say to me, "Son,
Stop fighting a fight it's already been won"

I am redeemed, You set me free
So I'll shake off these heavy chains
Wipe away every stain, now I'm not who I used to be
I am redeemed, I'm redeemed

All my life I have been called unworthy
Named by the voice of my shame and regret
But when I hear You whisper, "Child lift up your head"
I remember, oh God, You're not done with me yet

I am redeemed, You set me free
So I'll shake off these heavy chains
Wipe away every stain, now I'm not who I used to be

Because I don't have to be the old man inside of me
'Cause his day is long dead and gone
Because I've got a new name, a new life, I'm not the same
And a hope that will carry me home

I am redeemed, You set me free
So I'll shake off these heavy chains
Wipe away every stain, 'cause I'm not who I used to be

I am redeemed, You set me free
So I'll shake off these heavy chains
Wipe away every stain, yeah, I'm not who I used to be
Oh, God, I'm not who I used to be
Jesus, I'm not who I used to be
'Cause I am redeemed
Thank God, redeemed

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4 her
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Remembering a trip I made with friends a couple of years back to the Pinnacles Forest. I made the mistake of eating biscuits and gravy at a greasy spoon restaurant that morning and wound up sick for most of the day, and then accidentally drained my friends car battery while I waited for the gang to come back from their hike. This image was taken after I regained my constitution, and decided to hike around a little on my own. The place is a strange wonderland of jutting features and strange desert flora. I must return someday.
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A tremendous sense of confidence that the PLO entertains in assuming the upper-hand and playing the propaganda card; a gambled statement and openly waged, that again, dares to assume a directive, American spurn, and as thus, one that is meant to encourage a certain isolation under a perceived socio-political trend.

This is tiresome and cannot continue.

It is my hope that the US Congress snubs a rising inclination and popularised attempt of continued inroads at delegitimisation agendas.

Playing the 'settlement cards' is merely a ploy, that, as a prominent global Left, Islamists, Arab diversionary tacticians and anti-Semites et al, have quite determined, is a means at furthering a demonisation effort on a broad, socio-economic-political and altogether, comprehensive scale. And, power in wielding these objectives lies foremost, amidst the balance of ignorance.

Judea and Samaria, are as much, the land of Israel.

There should be no question, and so-called 'settlers' are coined as such, due to grotesque and purposed, ingrained lies, flourished amidst decades of permitted revisions of history and indoctrinated, falsifying propaganda. Shortly stated, they are bases rooted with familiar hatred.

The creation of modern Arab state(S) and one modern Jewish state after the Ottoman breakup. It should be that simple, and present day statistics include 22 Arab states and still, only one Jewish state?

What the hell?

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It's back to 'business as usual' for the AMT bag ladies! Less than two weeks ago we were organising the bag pack for IOI 2013 ...
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McDonald’s has partnered with Visa to make a website dedicated to showing its employees how to properly budget their meager peasant salaries. However, what it actually does is illustrate the fact that it is nearly impossible to get by on minimum wage, as shown in this “example” budget chart:
Screen shot 2013 07 15 at 9.29.08 AM McDonalds suggested budget for employees shows just how impossible it is to get by on minimum wage

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Dear God as I come before you tonight I thank you for another day of life. Thank you for your strength, love, favor and protection all throughout this day. Lord now I lift up every broken vessel, hurting heart, tired body or stressed soul right now. Turn around their day and grant them nothing but sweet peace. Renew, restore, refresh and uplift. Let your glory full their space. I ask these things in your precious name. Amen.
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Pastor Rick Warren
Dear friends, I'd appreciate your prayers for my family tomorrow. Matthew would'd been 28 on July 18. It'll be a hard day.

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My article on "True leadership is based on character, not
charisma"

Are you getting my free Ministry Toolbox?

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Racism is stupid. It’s an insult to God, arrogantly implying that God goofed-up when he chose to make us all different.

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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
(Romans 8:31, NIV)
Today, don’t look at the walls in your life; look at the promise of God. He is for you, and if God is for you, nothing can stand against you. Get a vision of victory and don’t let it go. Keep moving forward in faith and obedience knowing that when you do, the Most High God is on your side.God bless you.

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Last week in Austin
Last week was an exciting victory for the pro-life movement!  Despite tremendous pressure both from abortion supporters and the liberal media to defeat this bill, the Texas legislature passed a key piece of legislation that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and require abortion facilities to meet basic health and safety standards.
I was thankful for the opportunity to travel to Austin last Thursday to lend my support to this critical piece of legislation.  Several news sources covered the news conference that I held with pro-life elected officials and grassroots activists.  Please take a read of some of the coverage in the Texas TribuneCNNHouston Chronicle, and on KVUE-TV.
The passage of this bill helps protect women's health and is another milestone in the fight to defend the unborn.  It sends a message that life is precious and must be protected.  Pro-life advocates rallied around this country for the passage of this bill, because we must stand together for the rights of those who cannot speak for themselves.  I am honored to stand with the courageous folks in Texas and elsewhere who fight for the precious unborn.  What we are doing is simple human decency. 
Sincerely,
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Rick Santorum 

UN Disabilities Treaty
We are still watching the Senate closely to see if they bring up the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) this summer.  There was talk that it would come up in June or July, but thankfully it has not.  Karen and I are grateful to all of you who have joined in our fight to defeat this flawed treaty, and we believe that your commitment may be the reason the bill hasn't come up again. 
And in case CRPD is new to you, this treaty would give the U.N. oversight of the healthcare and education choices parents with special needs kids make.  We at Patriot Voices have been fighting CRPD since last year. 
Please help keep the pressure on so that this treaty does not see the light of day in the U.S. Senate.  You can use our new digital tool to quickly and easily email your senators to tell them to VOTE NO on CRPD.  Simply clickHERE and you'll be directed to our online tool which will ask you for your zip code then generate customizable letters that will go directly to your Senators.  It is easy and fast to do.  
ABC News' highlights Patriot Voices and our involvement in the Texas abortion battle:
"Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum seems to be popping up everywhere these days. Today, Santorum is in Austin, Tex. to rally support for legislation banning abortions after 20 weeks, which is making its way through the Texas state legislature during a special session. Santorum will be joined by Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, members of the Texas House and Senate, pastors and representatives from anti-abortion rights groups. It's just the latest in a string of national appearances the former Pennsylvania senator (and potential future presidential contender) has been making this year through his Patriot Voices PAC. Over the last few months, he's inserted himself into debates about the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, the Congressional fight over gun control, the investigation into the Boston bombings and even the United Nations Disabilities Treaty - to name just a few. 'When I look at the Republican Party these days and who the quote 'leaders' are, I'm not particularly comfortable that they're reflecting the values of conservatives,' Santorum said in an interview yesterday with ABC News. 'I try to pick my spots where my voice is needed.'"
Back in Iowa
I'll be back in Iowa on Thursday, August 8 as the keynote speaker at the Lyon County Republican Fundraising Dinner.  If you live nearby or will be in the area, I'd love to see you at this event!  Tickets may be purchased here.  I'm also looking forward to visiting the Iowa State Fair! 
Catch up with Patriot Voices Radio 
If you haven't listened to a Patriot Voices Radio show, it's time to tune in!  You can listen to all of our past broadcasts here www.patriotvoices.com/radio, and please mark your calendar for Tuesday, July 23 at noon ET for our next live show!
Get Connected with Patriot Voices!
Our grassroots network is growing and we need you! Click here to sign up and we'll be in touch!
Help Patriot Voices carry out our mission
Your financial support is critical to ensuring that we can carry out our mission of fighting for faith, family, freedom and opportunity in America. Help us in our efforts by making a contribution of $25, $50, or $100 so we can keep fighting for our conservative values.
  Donate Today button

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Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for July 17th. Enjoy!

From the Blog

Eric Holder’s Stand Your Ground squirrel

Welcome to the Obama administration’s cringe-inducing non sequitur of the week...

Dueling Headlines; ‘Are you gonna believe Jay Carney or your lying eyes’ edition

Getting right to it, here’s headline #1 from The Hill...

Big surprise: White House immigration ‘FACT’ not so factual after all

I know that the cardinal rule is that if somebody from the Obama administration puts the word “fact” in all caps it means you’re supposed to automatically believe whatever is said, but a reader emailed about a White House tweet that begged for further verification...

More From the Right Side of the Web

Michelle's Top Tweets

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And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

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What a crappy poem.

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July 18Constitution Day in Uruguay (1830)
54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry storming Fort Wagner

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