Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Tue Feb 24th Todays News

On Bolt Report an ongoing policy is that any Islam post can only be on the pinned leader. Normal rules apply in that if it is merely foul and abusive it will be deleted. Otherwise comments are welcome.  
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The ABC2 program Maximum Choppage at 9pm tonight is important. Timothy Ly is a child of Cambodian/Chinese refugees who fled the killing fields, travelling over a minefield and sailing to Australia for a new life. They have worked hard to start a new life and Tim has done a masterful job of answering that hope without being the doctor or lawyer his parents may have anticipated. He is more precious than that. Firstly, at age 18, fresh out of a Sydney suburban high school, he made a short movie with friends on no budget, called Maximum Choppage. It featured the martial arts he had been trained in as a thing to do. Then he gathered together a group of keen film students and, again on no budget, wrote, directed and produced a feature length Maximum Choppage round 2. It was a martial arts romantic comedy and it took years to complete. It unearthed talent which is still filtering through Sydney studios. People such as Maria Tran, Rudge Hollis and others. Maria has been involved with projects like Digital Stories, where ethnically diverse peoples tell their life stories on a cube or wall. Everyone has a story to tell, but to tell it in an Australia context, makes it Australian. The ABC has failed by not telling these stories, but by focusing on a very small aspect of Australian culture. With this new tv series, there is a hope that the ABC can be brought back to the fold of its core duty. Tim's parents risked being among the fifty percent casualties of people drowned coming to Australia, fleeced by pirates. His baby, twelve years in the making, shows the reward garnered from that risk. I salute you, Tim, and wish the show every success. 

 The world is dangerous even when evil, anarchistic ideologues are not murdering innocent peoples on little pretext. The panic stricken new Queensland Premier illustrated how shaky control is when a tropical depression which had been a cyclone wandered through the state, upending some trees and denying power to some towns. A few years earlier another incompetent ALP government had killed people through incompetence. But the storm wasn't that bad. But on this day in 1875, a tropical cyclone which flooded the coastline of Queensland also threatened a 500 ton, 60m steamship with some one hundred and thirty people on board. The Gothenburg was capable of sailing through the swell, but she had been pushed too close to the Barrier Reef and lodged there. She had been on a journey from Darwin to Adelaide. There had been insufficient space on the life boats and they weren't strong enough for the elements as the steamer was. Two of the four boats were lost with four crew each as the Captain tried to use them to help lift the Gothenburg off the reef. The storm was too overwhelming. An attempt was made to dislodge Gothenburg by reversing her on full power. This cut her in half and holed her. In trying to get on one of the two remaining life boats, the life boats were overwhelmed and capsized. Survivors hung on to Gothenburg's rigging until the storm ended. Sharks claimed some bodies. An upended life boat was righted. At first survivors rowed to mainland, but realising they would not make it, diverted to a nearby island. A life boat with four survivors that survived the attempt to dislodge Gothenburg was discovered by another steamer, and so some twenty two men survived. Lost were all officers, a former Premier of South Australia, a french vice consul. One magistrate had missed the journey, but lost his wife and six children. Many other important personages died too. Darwin had lost many who were needed to build the community. 

 The world changes, but it also remains the same. On this day in 1917, a desperate German Empire offered Mexico the three states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona if Mexico went to war against the US on the event of the US going to war with Germany. It was anticipated the US would go to war because of German U-boat activity. In April Germany was proven right. Mexico did not answer favourably to Germany's desperate plea after their telegram was intercepted by British intelligence and leaked to the public as the Zimmerman Telegram. On this day in 1945, the Egyptian PM was assassinated after he had called for new elections and opposed the candidacy of Muslim Brotherhood. The assassin was from a third party, Wafd, which was the party from which the PM had split in '38. 
2014
As a younger teenager I read a book called Grimus. It was edgy and strange and depicted sex in a way that was desirable, readable. The author's first published novel, on this day, 1989, the author had a price placed on his head of $3 million for his death by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It is unclear as to why Khomeini issued the bounty after placing a fatwā ordering Rushdie's death. But, it diminishes the authority of the fatwā. It was a time that moderate Islamic scholars could have stood up and corrected the mistake. Someone, some where could have said that the death proclamation was not part of the 'religion of peace', but, sadly for faithful Islamic people today, no one stood forward, or stood up.

Some people died. A Japanese translator was murdered by fanatics who failed to adhere to the letter of the proclamation. Publishers were threatened. Rushdie was put into protective custody. In the late '80's I was attending church at St Thomas' Moorebank, Anglican. One idiot minister noted bad things happened to people who weren't faithful, and Rushdie had not adhered to his faith. I can criticise the minister without people wanting to kill me. Tehran maintains a shrine to one idiot who blew himself up trying to blow up Rushdie. Every 14th of Feb, Iran sends a valentine's card to Rushdie, reminding him they want him dead. Worth considering who the people are Obama wants to supervise Middle East peace.

But, while it may be viewed as reprehensible that so few within Islam spoke against the outrageous ruling, what of those with a pastoral role? It is not an issue for Christian churches. They give aid to Islamic peoples, too, but not targeted, How dare they have such contempt of Islamic peoples. Iran is not a world leader for Islam. She is a terrorist nation, part of an axis of evil. Her people are far better than their government. It is wrong to promote terror. But that is what many governments and churches have done in their dealings with Iran. Iranian people deserve freedom from such oppression.
Historical perspectives on this day 
In 303, Galerius published his edict that began the persecution of Christians in his portion of the Roman Empire. 484, King Huneric removed the Christian bishops from their offices and banished some to Corsica. A few were martyred, including former proconsul Victorian along with Frumentius and other merchants. They were killed at Hadrumetum after refusing to become Arians. 1303, Battle of Roslin, of the First War of Scottish Independence. 1387, King Charles III of Naples and Hungary was assassinated at Buda. 1525, Spanish-Imperial army defeated French army at Battle of Pavia. 1538, Treaty of Nagyvárad between Ferdinand I and John Zápolya. 1582, with the papal bull Inter gravissimas, Pope Gregory XIII announced the Gregorian calendar. 1607, L'Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, one of the first works recognised as an opera, received its première performance. 1711, the London première of Rinaldo by George Frideric Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage.

 In 1803, in Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court of the United States established the principle of judicial review. 1809, London's Drury Lane Theatre burned to the ground, leaving owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute. 1821, final stage of the Mexican War of Independence from Spain with Plan of Iguala 1822, the first Swaminarayan temple in the world, Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Ahmedabad, was inaugurated. 1826, the signing of the Treaty of Yandabo marked the end of the First Anglo-Burmese War. 1831, the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, was proclaimed. The Choctaws in Mississippi ceded land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West. 1848, King Louis-Philippe of France abdicated the throne. 1863, Arizona was organised as a United States territory. 1868, Andrew Johnson became the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. He was later acquitted in the Senate. 1875, the SS Gothenburg hit the Great Barrier Reef and sank off the Australian east coast, killing approximately 100, including a number of high-profile civil servants and dignitaries. 1881, China and Russia signed the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty. 1895, Revolution broke out in Baire, a town near Santiago de Cuba, beginning the Cuban War of Independence, that ended with the Spanish–American War in 1898.

 In 1916, Governor-General of Korea established clinic called Jahyewon in Sorokdo to segregate Hansen's disease patients. 1917, World War I: The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom was given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledged to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if Mexico declared war on the United States. 1918, Estonian Declaration of Independence. 1920, the Nazi Party was founded.

 In 1942, the Battle of Los Angeles, one of the largest documented UFO sightings in history; the event lasted into the early hours of February 25. Also 1942, an order-in-council passed under the Defence of Canada Regulations of the War Measures Act gave the Canadian federal government the power to intern all "persons of Japanese racial origin". 1944, Merrill's Marauders: The Marauders began their 1,000-mile journey through Japanese occupied Burma. 1945, Egyptian Premier Ahmad Mahir Pasha was killed in Parliament after reading a decree. 1968, Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive was halted; South Vietnam recaptured Hué. 1971, the All India Forward Bloc held an emergency central committee meeting after its chairman, Hemantha Kumar Bose, was killed 3 days earlier. P.K. Mookiah Thevar was appointed as the new chairman. 1976, Cuba: national Constitution was proclaimed.

 In 1980, the United States Olympic Hockey team completed their Miracle on Ice by defeating Finland 4-2 to win the gold medal. 1981, an earthquake registering 6.7 on the Richter scale hit Athens, killing 16 people and destroying buildings in several towns west of the city. 1983, a special commission of the U.S. Congress released a report that condemned the practice of Japanese internment during World War II. 1984, Tyrone Mitchell perpetrated the 49th Street Elementary School shooting in Los Angeles, killing two children and injuring 12 more. 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offered a US$3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie. Also 1989, United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, ripped open during flight, blowing 9 passengers out of the business-class section. 1996, the last occurrence of February 24 as a leap day in the European Union and for the Roman Catholic Church. 1999, the U.S. state of Arizona executed Karl LaGrand, a German national convicted of murder during a botched bank robbery, in spite of Germany's legal action to attempt to save him. 2006, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared Proclamation 1017 placing the country in a state of emergency in attempt to subdue a possible military coup. 2007, Japan launched its fourth spy satellite, stepping up its ability to monitor potential threats such as North Korea. 2008, Fidel Castro retired as the President of Cuba after nearly fifty years. 2011, final Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103).
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This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
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Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August https://www.createspace.com/4124406, September https://www.createspace.com/5106914, October https://www.createspace.com/5106951, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4  The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows the purchase of a kindle version for just $3.99 more. 
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For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball

Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR
Douglas Sutherland-Bruce via David Daniel Ball
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed

Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Tad Kaypek and Thai Luong. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
February 24: Independence Day in Estonia (1918); Flag Day in Mexico; National Artist Day in Thailand
President Juan Peron of Argentina
We left the theatre. We signed the treaty. We have gone over a great barrier. We have a plan. Don't cry for me, Argentina. Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2015
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THE ULTIMATE ECOLOGICAL OBSCENITY

Tim Blair – Tuesday, February 24, 2015 (2:07pm)

It’s a well-known fact that no prediction of ecological catastrophe has ever come true.
Remember Tim Flannery’s claim that Sydney might run out of water by 2007? Our dams are currently 85 per cent full. What about poor poley bears going extinct? The big guys seem to be doing all right. And how many people ended up dead from radiation because of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear meltdown in 2011? Try exactly none.
Going through some old paperwork, I recently found another example of an alleged eco disaster that turned out, as usual, to be nothing worth worrying about.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'THE ULTIMATE ECOLOGICAL OBSCENITY'
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THIS COLUMN IS NOT ABOUT ISLAM

Tim Blair – Tuesday, February 24, 2015 (1:51pm)

The Islamic world is divided into two main groups. You’ve got your Sunnis and you’ve got your Shiites. The more excitable members of these groups have spent the past 1400 years trying to wipe each other out, a process continuing to this very day in Syria and Iraq – and, to a lesser extent, in Auburn and Lakemba.
And now there is a third group, possibly larger than both previous groups combined, because it not only draws from the Islamic population but also from communities with less than direct Islamic connections. This is the group united in the belief – or, at least, the stated belief – that Islamic terrorism has absolutely nothing to do with Islam. 

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'THIS COLUMN IS NOT ABOUT ISLAM'
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Mark Scott shows his ABC how to mock Liberals

Andrew Bolt February 24 2015 (4:05pm)

A fish rots from the head. And the head of the ABC is managing director Mark Scott.
The ABC is blatantly and now shamelessly biased. Collectively, it is campaigning for the downfall of the Abbott Government.
By law and by its charter it is in fact obliged to show balance. Yet Scott not only refuses to do his duty and ensure balance, he actually sets an example of anti-Abbott bias.
The latest example, this gloating tweet, mocking Abbott over the leaks against him:

image
I have no idea why chairman James Spigelman does not take action against his managing director. Yes, he himself is a former Labor staffer, but as a former Chief Justice of NSW he must have some notion not just of fair play but the obligations of the ABC under the ABC Act and charter.
UPDATE
The ABC news and current affairs division gets the message. It goes very hard on the latest leak, a letter of an embittered honorary treasurer of the Liberal Party who slings off at having a married couple - federal Liberal director Brian Loughnane amd Abbott’s chief of staff Peta Credlin - simultaneously hold two such critical positions.
This leak of one little-known man’s opinion about two Liberal functionaries affects not one voter, not one tax, not one public policy, and is intended simply to give an anti-Abbott media an excuse to run another day of witchhunting against Credlin. The ABC is obscenely grateful for the excuse, running the story as a news item and lead story in 7.30. (The second story is an attack on Abbott by Muslim representatives.)
The ABC then further shames itself by reporting on the Gillian Triggs story in both the news and 7.30 without once mentioning exactly why she had so lost the confidence of the Government that it asked her to consider resigning.  This is grotesque. The case against Triggs is actually clear cut and was spelled out by Brandis in Senate hearings today, yet not one word of it was repeated by the ABC TV news and 7.30.
How can ABC journalists possibly justify this? How can they lend themselves so eagerly to a witchhunt to bring down a woman staffer - and one whose crime today is to be married to another Liberal official.
If the ABC is really now so 1950s about this, how about demanding the 7.30’s Chris Uhlmann resign for the crime of being married to a federal Labor MP.
I know the people I am criticising are of the Left and feel their greater cause is just. But are they not ashamed of the means? Of the hypocrisy? Of the abandonment of all pretence of balance, fairness or public interest?
(Thanks to reader John.) 
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Triggs evidence:  inquiry called in part to get around Sovereign Borders. UPDATE: Brandis blasts

Andrew Bolt February 24 2015 (10:33am)

Professor Gillian Triggs, president of the Human Rights Commission, is coming unstuck today in the defending her astonishing decision to not call an inquiry into children in detention until the Abbott Government was in power, actually fixing the problem.
So: no inquiry under Labor, when there were more than 2000 children in detention and dozens more drowning at sea. But then an inquiry when the Abbott Government was stopping the boats and cutting the number of children in detention by - to date - 90 per cent. This, and Triggs’ peddling of wild claims and misrepresentations of evidence, clearly suggest a deep bias and predetermined conclusions.
Until now Triggs has claimed she already had “serious concerns” about the children by August of 2012, the year Labor made her the commission’s president, and by February 2013 had decided to hold her inquiry, yet waited another year before announcing it because it would have been “very dangerous politically” to have held the inquiry during the 2013 election campaign. She also noted that it was a decade since the previous inquiry into children in detention:
The commission had always intended to come back and review what changes had occurred in the 10 years since our landmark 2004 report, A last resort? These worrying developments confirmed that it was appropriate for us to do so come 2014.
But today, called back before a Senate estimates committee to clear up, among other things, her conflicting answers at her previous appearance and address documents requested from her, she now claims she didn’t formally decide hold an inquiry until December 2013.
And among the reasons she and her commissioners decided on the inquiry was that the Abbott Government had put in place Operation Sovereign Borders - the very policy that stopped the boats, stopped the drownings and emptied the detention centres:

As a consequence of operation Sovereign Borders there was a very considerable tightening of restrictions on information… Once Operation Sovereign Borders got under way it was clear that information was not as readily available so it became part of the policy consideration that we might use the inquiry power in order to get access to accurate and up to date information about the condition of the children.
So more self-contradictory evidence. Another partisan note struck.
It is absolutely not surprising, then, that the Government had asked for Triggs’ resignation - a fact that was revealed in Triggs’ evidence today and has got the Labor and the Green on the committee into a tizz about this terrible insult to a noble woman.

UPDATE
Triggs’ reliability as a witness is struck another heavy blow, although journalists of the Left will doubtlessly ignore this in their attempts to join the Greens and Labor in elevating her into a martyr for the truth and a woman wronged.
What Triggs claimed earlier today:
HUMAN Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs was “deeply shocked” by Attorney-General George Brandis’s “disgraceful proposal” that she step down amid political controversy…
Professor Triggs told the hearing she met with the Attorney-General’s Department secretary, Chris Moraitis, in her Sydney office on February 3 where Mr Moraitis conveyed Senator Brandis’s request that she resign…
Professor Triggs said that in her 46-year legal career, it was the first time anyone had requested her resignation or even suggested her work was substandard.
But a clearly furious Moriatis, asked to come give his own account, tells the Senate committee he made no request at all for Triggs’ resignation. Giving extensive detail of his communications with Triggs, he said he only passed on - at her own request - Attorney-General George Brandis’s views of her performance as president.
Moriatis says he did so, and said only that Brandis had lost confidence in Triggs’ as president of the Human Rights Commission, but had a high opinion of her legal skills and would consider her positively for other government positions. There was no request for her resignation.
Brandis tells the committee that Moriatis’s evidence is in line with his own memory.
Brandis says he has always had cordial relations with Triggs, which she herself had told the inquiry, and he had a “high regard” for her as a lawyer. “I like her personally.” But he had lost confidence in her as HRC president, and his summary is damning:
There is no ill will between me and Professor Triggs. But after the November (hearing of the) estimates (committee) when - on any view - Professor Triggs gave inconsistent and evasive evidence of the circumstances in which the decision was taken to hold the inquiry which we have been discussing, and, in particular, when Professor Triggs conceded that she had made a decision to hold the inquiry after the 2013 election and had spoken during the caretaker period, quite inappropriately, to two Labor Ministers, a fact concealed from the then Opposition, I felt that the political impartiality of the commission had been fatally compromised.
Dozens of members of the government had contacted Brandis to express they had lost confidence in Triggs’ impartiality. He notes how critical it is for the HRC to seem impartial, if it were to do its work effectively, but Triggs had “either deliberately” or through a “catastrophic error of judgement” acted in a politically partisan way. Brandis says he’d heard from multiple sources, including serval within the commission, that Triggs had been considering her position, which is why he passed on his own opinion to her.
As Brandis speaks, Labor and Greens members of the Senate committee jeer and heckle, showing all the Left’s contempt for debate and free speech. Sarah Hanson-Young is, not surprisingly, the worst. Penny Wong is little better.
If journalists of the Left supported a principle rather than a side, they could not possibly defend Triggs. She has damaged herself, her cause and the credibility of entire commission. I cannot imagine any of the HRC’s commissioners could be less than disturbed by what she has done.
UPDATE
Very lazy story:
TWITTER has turned on Tony Abbott after he savagely attacked Australia’s human rights chief, saying his government has “no confidence” in her.
The hashtag #istandwithGillianTriggs started trending after Mr Abbott made his comments about Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs, who released a report into children in immigration detention.
Various Leftists, some anonymous, are then quoted.
Wow. Twitter people don’t like Abbott. Stop the presses. Again and again and again and again and again and again. 
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Mark Colvin reads between my lines to find my sinister silence

Andrew Bolt February 24 2015 (9:23am)

A couple of weeks ago I noted:
Two things have happened with me and the Left.
One, I’ve become clickbait… Two, I’ve become The Worst Person You Can Imagine.
That means my function is to represent evil in all its forms, regardless of what I’ve actually done or said. In fact, it’s remarkable how often I’m attacked not for what did say, but what the writer imagines I would say, may have said or probably secretly meant. For instance, legal figures have famously “read between the lines” to find my transgressions.
It doesn’t aid some of these writers to actually read what I actually write, since it so often doesn’t fit their purpose. Indeed, it is more convenient NOT to read me.
At the time I was responding to this astonishingly false claim from Crikey’s Helen Razer:
Bolt had been unusually silent, most particularly on the matter of Abbott’s recent leadership woes.
But today I could apply the same criticism to ABC presenter Mark Colvin after this tweet essentially accusing me of lacking the courage or intregrity to criticise a fellow Murdoch employee:
image
I suspect Colvin is projecting, because he’s certaining not reporting.
Here are just some of the posts in which I’ve criticised Lyons’ bull, including a couple where I’ve called on The Australian to apologise for Lyons’ errors:
Is this trash the best the media has to drag down Abbott? Is this really worthy of the profession?
Newspoll: Liberals 47 to 53
Column - Abbott and the assassins
The Oz can’t run this bull and then not say sorry. UPDATE: Lyons backs off. UPDATE: Backs off again
I’m calling bullshit on Lyons’ Abbott story. The dates don’t fit
Turnbull supporters go nuts: now attack Abbott and Credlin for not doing bad things

If only the ABC collective had the same diversity of views and commitment to debate.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Spare me the outrage

Andrew Bolt February 24 2015 (7:40am)

Tony Abbott yesterday asked Muslim leaders to help more in fighting terrorism:

I’ve often heard Western leaders describe Islam as a ‘religion of peace’. I wish more Muslim leaders would say that more often, and mean it.
The Left is in meltdown at this terrible suggestion that some Muslim leaders might not have entirely pulled their weight. Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek attacked Abbott. Many commentators of the Left also profess outrage.
Last night The Project host Waleed Aly, a former spokesman for the Islamic Council of Victoria, was particularly furious and referred to this condemnation of terrorism:
More than forty Australian Muslim Community groups have condemned the Sydney CBD siege, saying it is “denounced in Islam”.
Australia’s top Muslim cleric Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, the country’s Grand Mufti, released a statement saying the Muslim community was “devastated” by the events in the Lindt chocolate cafe in Martin Place in which three people including the gunman were killed overnight.
Yes, 40 Muslim groups and leaders denounced once of the worst terrorist attacks on our soil.
But, in contrast, 108 Muslim groups, leaders and imams signed a statement damning the Abbott Government’s attempts to crack down on extremists, whitewashed the hate-preaching jihadist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, and claimed the terror threat was just a political plot against Muslims who were legitimately criticising government policies:

We reject the Abbott Government’s predictable use of Muslim affairs and the ‘terror threat’ to attempt to stabilise a fragile leadership and advance its own political agendas…
We deplore and denounce the continued public targeting of Muslims through abominable ‘anti-terror’ laws. The laws passed in late 2014 have been used to justify opportunistic raids on Muslim homes, have created media and community hysteria where in the majority of cases no crime was committed…
We deplore the undefined and politically expedient use of the words ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’ to criminalise legitimate political discourse and critique of the Government’s policies by members of the Muslim community…
We strongly oppose Prime Minster Abbott’s politically convenient threats to ‘tackle’ and ‘crack down’ on Islamic groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir who disavow and have never supported terrorist acts, and whose only ‘crime’ has been to criticise the Abbott Government’s stance towards Muslims domestically and abroad, as they are well within their rights to do. 
Aly’s Islamic Council of Victoria, incidentally, voted back when he was spokesman to make the hate-preaching Sheik Hilali the Mufti of Australia - this man who’d called the September 11 attacks “God’s work against oppressors”. Aly also long shielded Hilaly, almost to the shabby last, much as he shields Muslim leaders today. And then there’s his ”contextualising” of terrorism.
As for the present Mufti, his condemnation of terrorists seems to have limits, as his visit to the terrorist-run Gaza in 2012 suggests:
Last week Dr Mohamed led an Australian delegation of Muslim scholars to the Gaza Strip, where they met Hamas senior political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Mr Haniyeh, who has been pushing for the US and the EU to remove Hamas from its terrorist watchlist, last year described former al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden as “a Muslim and Arabic warrior” while condemning the US for killing the terrorist leader.
Dr Mohamed, who has been styled as a moderate since taking the top Australian Muslim post, last week expressed his happiness at being in Gaza, describing it as the land of pride and martyrdom.
”I am pleased to stand on the land of jihad to learn from its sons...,” he told local news agencies…

“We feel like we are on cloud nine. We feel like we are on top of the world.” Images of the visit were shown on local TV and hailed as a PR coup by Hamas, the fanatical ruling party in Gaza.
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Is this trash the best the media has to drag down Abbott? Is this really worthy of the profession?

Andrew Bolt February 24 2015 (7:05am)

Let’s sum up the astonishing smears and bizarre allegations made against Tony Abbott over the past week:
- Abbott is accused in The Age of having probably cost drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran their last chance of clemency from the Indonesian President. In fact, the President himself denies it.  There was also never a prospect of clemency, as the President has made clear many times.
- Fairfax papers suggest Abbott has caused “many” angry Indonesians to protest against him in Jakarta after he mentioned our history of giving aid and asking Indonesia for similar compassion for Chan and Sukumaran. In fact, pictures suggest just a dozen or so people protested in a city of more than 9 million.
- Abbott is accused in The Australian of having asked “top military planners” for “advice” on a “unilateral invasion of Iraq”. In fact, Abbott and our top military planners deny a plainly ludicrous claim, and even the article’s author, John Lyons, admits this alleged plan for a “unilateral invasion” involved asking Iraq’s permission - thus no “invasion”. Moreover, the US had already doubled its own forces in Iraq to 3000.
- Abbott is accused in The Australian of having a chief of staff, Peta Credlin, who is so out of control that she even chaired a meeting of ministers on the Expenditure Review Committee. In fact, the journalist who wrote this claim later suggests he meant only that when Abbott was in the chair, Credlin by sheer force of personality was asking ministers to give her information.
- Abbott is mocked by journalists - Paul Bongiorno, News.com.au reporters and others - for having six Australian flags in delivering an important announcement on the rising threat we face from terrorism, and his proposed response. In fact, not only is the response astonishingly trivial, a simple flag count shows Abbott did nothing that Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard had done before, with none of the Left’s mockery.
Several of these plainly dodgy stories were repeated on high rotation by many media outlets without any scepticism.
What does it say about Abbott’s Liberal leakers that false claims are peddled to bring him down? What does it say about many in the media that they are so gratefully received, believed and peddled?
UPDATE
Is this the best Labor can do? This cheap Twitter-driven sniggering at a Prime Minister determined to fight for Australians against a malevolent force?
But note Tony Abbott’s splendid response, that so silenced Labor yesterday and so heartened many Liberals:
Ms PLIBERSEK (Sydney—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:17): My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to reports in The Australian newspaper that the Prime Minister suggested unilaterally sending 1000 Australian troops to the eastern Ukraine last year. Did the Prime Minister consider such action?
Mr ABBOTT (Warringah—Prime Minister) (14:18): In the days immediately after the shooting down of MH17 by Russian backed rebels—in the days when those Russian backed rebels were refusing to release the parties to the international community—we did talk to our Dutch friends about what might be done to ensure that those parties came back to their loved ones. We did talk to the Dutch about this, as the Australian people would have expected. We were not going to allow dead Australians to be violated by Russian backed rebels.
Government members: Hear! Hear!
Mr ABBOTT: We were going to stand up for the rights of their families and we will never—
The SPEAKER: The member for Lingiari will desist.
Mr ABBOTT: apologise for standing up for the rights of Australians here and abroad. We did talk to the Dutch about what might have been done in those perilous circumstances—and they certainly were perilous circumstances—to ensure those bodies came back to their loved ones. There was talk with the Dutch about a joint operation. Was the number that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition puts to me suggested by me? No. Was this some kind of frivolous exercise by me? No. This arose out of the most important and the most necessary discussions between the Dutch military and our own to uphold and defend our vital national interests and to do the right thing by the people of our country.
Government members: Hear! Hear!
Enough of being punching bags. Don’t apologise. Fight!
UPDATE
The whiteanting continues:
Seven ministers who voted for Tony Abbott in the failed spill motion are now prepared to help remove the Prime Minister if he cannot revive the government’s fortunes and recover his position in the polls.
The ministers have discussed the timing of any potential move on the Prime Minister, and favour waiting until June – after next month’s NSW state election and the May budget.
The first sentence actually says nothing new or surprising. But the leaking is treacherous and seems designed to prevent Abbott from recovering.
This leaking, to Labor’s preferred media organisation, comes with a claim that may well be true, but I suspect is partly false:
Those discussions revealed that seven ministers, who agreed to speak to Fairfax on the basis that they not be named, ... are in addition to the handful of ministers who voted against Mr Abbott and for a spill two weeks ago.
All seven either publicly or privately expressed support for Mr Abbott in the lead-up to the spill and some are still among Mr Abbott’s vocal public supporters.
UPDATE
Whatever Abbott has got, The Age is against it:
image
The jihad continues. Any issue, any weapons, any trash. 
===

Indonesian President tells anti-Abbott journalists not to “heat this up”

Andrew Bolt February 24 2015 (6:47am)

The Indonesian President has more sense than the journalists and Liberal leakers trying to beat up the story that Tony Abbott may have cost durg smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran their last chance of clemency:
INDONESIA’S President Joko Widodo has asked reporters to take the heat out of their reporting of diplomatic tensions over plans to execute two Australians.
Asked about Prime Minister Tony Abbott drawing a link between tsunami aid to Indonesia and the death sentences of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan on Monday, Mr Joko told a journalist: “There’s already been clarification. Don’t you heat this up”.
Asked if it would affect plans to execute the convicted drug smugglers, Mr Joko said: “ No, that’s our sovereign law,” Indonesian news website detik.com reported.
(Thanks to readers Prophet HUP and WaG311.) 
===

Marcia was no category 5 cyclone, and was no warning of warming doom

Andrew Bolt February 24 2015 (6:03am)

The global warming mania has turned many believers into catastrophists. Winds suddenly become hurricanes. Hot days are sold as as furnaces.
Take Cyclone Marcia. The warmist New Scientist, aided by the Bureau of Meteorology, spruiked an epoch-defining catastrophe - a terrifying harbinger of global warming doom:
It was a shocking double blow. Australia is picking itself back up after being battered simultaneously by two severe tropical cyclones last week, in what meteorologists are saying is a first for the country. One of these appears to be the southern-most cyclone of such a strong intensity to make landfall, giving Australians a taste of what climate change is expected to bring.
Tropical cyclone Marcia was categorised in the highest possible category – category five – when it made landfall in Queensland on Friday and brought wind gusts of up to 285 kilometres per hour…
Climate change is expected to make tropical cyclones less frequent but more severe on average. But global warming is also expected to bring them further south as warmer conditions move tropical weather further from the equator. And cyclone Marcia appears to fit that trend.
“At this stage it’s the southernmost known category five landfall in Queensland,” [Andrew Tupper, head of the National Operations Centre at the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne] says...
This was already suspicious. How does a single cyclone come to be regarded as a trend? Why is the admission from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ignored - that, in fact, “confidence in large scale changes in the intensity of extreme extratropical cyclones since 1900 is low”, and there has been “a statistically significant decrease in Eastern Australia land-falling tropical cyclones since the late 19th century”?
As the Bureau’s own stats confirm, we’ve actually had fewer cyclones, and no increase in severe ones:
image
But it gets worse. It now seems that Marcia at landfall was probably no Category 5 cyclone at all, and the question is why the Bureau hyped it as worse than it was:
A CLIMATE researcher at Central Queensland University ... Jennifer Morahasy said the bureau had used computer modelling rather than early readings from weather stations to determine that Marcia was a category 5 cyclone, not a category 3.
Dr Morahasy, who has previously clashed with the bureau over official temperature records used in arguments over global warming, said the warning should have been revised down to a category 3 given wind speeds recorded at Middle Percy Island were well below a category 5...
The Bureau’s defence? To admit Marcia was indeed weaker than it claimed, albeit perhaps not as weak as Marohasy says:
Bureau chief Rob Webb rejected the allegations, saying to suggest the bureau relied solely on modelling was incorrect. He said the US Joint Typhoon Warning Centre had analysed Marcia as at least a category 4…
Forecasters were aware of the lesser wind speed (208km/hr) recorded at Middle Percy but would not downgrade the forecast because the cyclone’s strongest winds were to the east of the weather station.
There is actually more to this than simply noting a trend to catastrophise. It is actually dangerous to have people in affected areas think they survived the worst kind of cyclones, so need take no more precautions.
Jo Nova:

The facts on Cyclone Marcia: the top sustained wind speed was 156 km and the strongest gust 208 km/hr. These were recorded on Middle Percy Island in the direct path before it hit land and apparently rapidly slowed.  The minimum pressure recorded after landfall was 975Hpa. BOM and the media reported a “Cat-5” cyclone with winds of 295 km/hr. To qualify as a Cat 5, wind speeds need be over 280km/hr. The UN GDACS alerts page estimated the cyclone as a Cat 3.
The damage toll so far is no deaths (the most important thing), but 1,500 houses were damaged and 100 families left homeless. It was a compact storm, meaning wind speeds drop away quickly with every kilometre from the eye, so the maps and locations of the storm and the instruments matter. See the maps below — the eye did pass over some met-sites, but made landfall on an unpopulated beach with no wind instruments. It slowed quickly thereafter. The 295 km/hr wind speed was repeated on media all over the world, but how was it measured? Not with any anemometer apparently — it was modelled. If the BOM is describing a Cat 2 or 3 as a “Cat 5”, that’s a pretty serious allegation.
The International Wind Hazard Damage Assessment Group seems to disagree:

On Friday, February 20, 2015 at 8:00 AM Tropical Cyclone Marcia crossed the Queensland coast NorthEast of Yeppoon as a Category 5 cyclone (sustained wind speeds greater than 200 km/h).
The wind speeds observed in Yeppoon and Rockhampton were lower than expected. The BOM anemometers recorded maximum wind speeds of 120 km/h (10-minute mean = V600) with gusts (3-second peak = V3) up to 156 km/h at Yeppoon, and maximum wind speeds of 82 km/h (V600) with gusts up to 113 km/h (V3) at Rockhampton…
Wind speeds of a Category 5 cyclone are in excess of 280 km/h (V3), and between 225-279 km/h (V3) for a Category 4. Tropical Cyclone Marcia crossed the coast in a relatively unpopulated
section of section. The maximum AWS wind speeds measured at population areas during the event were up to 156 km/h (V3).
(Thanks to readers WaG311 and fulchrum.)
UPDATE
Reader RightWingNuclearArmedDeathRabbit does more fact-checking:
The Global Warmist propagandists are out in force once again… Even Bill Shorten tried to get into the act at the start of Question Time, when he stated that there has been 5 category cyclones that have hit Australia in 200 years including Cyclone Marcia.
So I did some fact checking: 
2015 - CYCLONE MARCIA ( Category 5 )
2011 - CYCLONE YASI (Category 5)
2007 - CYCLONE GEORGE (Category 5)
2005 - CYCLONE INGRID (Category 4/5)
1975 - CYCLONE JOAN (Category 5)
1918 - CYCLONE INNISFAIL (Category 5)
1899 - CYCLONE MAHINA (Category 5)
So that is seven category 5 cyclones recorded in Australia , not in the past 200 years but in the past 116 years. 
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Call them out! Latest example - Peter Dutton vs the ABC’s Leigh Sales

Andrew Bolt February 24 2015 (5:50am)

7.30 host Leigh Sales puts a statement - twice - lightly disguised as a question:
LEIGH SALES: Since 9/11, successive Australian governments have spent billions of dollars on military engagements overseas, costing Australian lives, significantly expanded counterterrorism laws and given relevant agencies greatly-enhanced powers, yet today the Prime Minister noted that, “By any measure, the threat to Australia is worsening”. Why has there been such a failure of public policy in this area?
PETER DUTTON: Well you could ask that question in democracies around the world that are currently under attack by IS, by Daesh and people who would seek to do us ...
LEIGH SALES: You could and why has there been this failure of public policy?
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton calls her out:
PETER DUTTON: Well the fact that they’re rising up and the fact that they would seek to cause significant death and carnage within our society is not a failing of our laws. We have, as the United Kingdom, as countries in the Middle East have, have been under attack for some time and we don’t cower in the face of that attack. We must rise up against it.
LEIGH SALES: But we the public have been told for years that if we put these measures in place, it would make us safer and now we’re being told that we’re less safe.
PETER DUTTON: Well, Leigh, as I say, the fact that these people are arming themselves in Syria to rise up not only against regimes across the Middle East but across the Western world, we have to stare that threat down and we need to do it with adequate laws. I mean, your argument presumably then would be that we should strip back protections that we have within domestic laws at the moment relating to national security. I think that’s an absurd argument. We should all the time provide whatever support we can to our military and intelligence and law enforcement agencies. That’s exactly the agenda of this government and that’s what the Prime Minister spoke about today. 
Sales retreats, now claiming her statements were just questions:
LEIGH SALES: I make no argument, minister; I simply ask the questions. Thank you very much for joining us tonight.
Call them out. 
(Thanks to reader jacktar.) 
===

Newspoll: Liberals 47 to 53

Andrew Bolt February 24 2015 (5:25am)

From catastrophic to bad. Newspoll shows an improvement for the Abbott Government, despite the best work of some plotters and media flag-mockers:
In two-party terms ... the Coalition has risen from a five-year low of 43 per cent to 47 per cent, the largest single fortnightly gain in its 18 months in power… A fortnight ago, Labor enjoyed a 57 to 43 per cent lead.
Note that this Newspoll survey was taken on the weekend of the greatest hatchet job, too, when The Australian’s John Lyons reported false and damaging claims that Tony Abbott proposed a “unilateral invasion of Iraq” and had his chief of staff, allegedly out of control, chair meetings of Ministers on the Expenditure Review Committee. I’m surprised the support for the Government is so high despite that. 
Dennis Shanahan:

According to the latest Newspoll survey ..., voter views of Mr Abbott [on personality traits] have collapsed across the board since he became prime minister. But in policy areas, Mr Abbott has a 20-point lead over Mr Shorten on national security and an eight-point lead on who is better at handling the economy.
Mr Abbott has a 19-point lead over Mr Shorten on the question of handling asylum-seekers. More than half the ALP voters opted for the Prime Minister on economic management and asylum… Mr Abbott’s biggest lead is in handling national security ...  Mr Abbott leads Mr Shorten 51 to 31 per cent, with half of the Labor supporters backing the Liberal leader. Despite the budget problems and savings measures being stalled in the Senate, Mr Abbott leads Mr Shorten on capability to handle the economy by 45 to 37 per cent, about the same lead he had over Julia Gillard when she was prime minister…
But Mr Shorten has a 26-point lead on health, 56 to 30 per cent, a 20-point lead on education, 53 to 33 per cent, and 31 per cent on climate change, 55 to 24 per cent.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

MPs for hire

Andrew Bolt February 24 2015 (12:16am)


 Utterly disgraceful, on the face of it:
Two former [British] foreign secretaries have been suspended from their parliamentary parties after being secretly filmed apparently offering their services to a private company for cash.
Conservative Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Labour’s Jack Straw both say they have broken no rules.
Reporters for the Daily Telegraph and Channel 4’s Dispatches posed as staff of a fake Chinese firm…
It is claimed that Mr Straw was recorded describing how he operated “under the radar” and had used his influence to change EU rules on behalf of a firm which paid him £60,000 a year.
On the subject of payment, Mr Straw is heard saying: “So normally, if I’m doing a speech or something, it’s £5,000 a day, that’s what I charge.”
Sir Malcolm is reported to have claimed he could arrange “useful access” to every British ambassador in the world…
He said his usual fee for half a day’s work was “somewhere in the region of £5,000 to £8,000”.
Both men defended themselves on appearances on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday morning.
Sir Malcolm said… he had never accepted an offer from the fake firm, saying it was a “preliminary” discussion “about what they had mind”. 
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The danger Labor refuses to see - or help avert

Andrew Bolt February 24 2015 (12:03am)

The real problem, and the one Labor pretends isn’t there:
Parliament’s budget watchdog Phil Bowen has warned the government’s bottom line was extremely susceptible to external shocks, with little to no buffer available to fall back on.
Mr Bowen, who serves in the role of Parliamentary Budget Officer, told a Senate committee on Monday that projections contained in last year’s Mid-Year Fiscal and Economic Outlook were based on optimistic projections…
If unlegislated long-term savings such as changes to Medicare and higher education funding are not realised, Mr Bowen added, the deficit would increase further…
“The medium-term outlook provides little or no fiscal buffer. So the government’s ability to make use of acommodative fiscal policy in the case of a significant negative economic shock is therefore quite constrained.
“This would require additional borrowings which would add to net debt, in turn further constraining the government’s expenditure policy options. So we see significant risks to the budget...”
When asked by Liberal Senator Dean Smith whether he was of the opinion that fiscal consolidation was necessary to increase budgetary safeguards, Mr Bowen said “the requirement for fiscal consolidation certainly exists.”
“This is not a situation that we can continue to live with over the longer term.”
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill,) 
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=== Posts from last year ===

Parliament moves to wipe the stain of Thomson

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (4:48pm)

Good:
PARLIAMENT’S privileges committee will investigate whether former Labor MP Craig Thomson misled MPs over fraud allegations… 
An earlier inquiry by the privileges committee lapsed with the dissolution of the House of Representatives for the September election.
Good Labor response:
“As we supported it in the last parliament, we support the reference in this parliament,’’ manager of opposition business Tony Burke said.
Bad Labor response:
A spokesman for Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the case had already been referred, with Labor support, to the privileges committee… 
“This just highlights the pathetic stunts that Christopher Pyne will play,’’ the spokesman said.
===

Another Australian musical export

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (3:55pm)

 
The career of another Australian conductor has taken off.
Just 12 years ago Nicholas Milton was still concertmaster at the Adelaide Symphony - where’s he’d been the youngest ever concertmaster appointed to a major Australian orchestra.
In 2001, he was made Chief Conductor of the humble Willoughby Symphony Orchestra in Sydney. In 2007 he moved up a bit to become Chief Conductor of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra.
Then - whoosh - six seasons as a guest conductor at the Vienna Volksoper (Vienna’s second opera house) and concert engagements with orchestras including Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Dortmund Philharmonic, the China National Symphony Orchestra and even the London Philharmonic.  In March and April he’s conducting  Tales of Hoffmann at the Komische Oper (Berlin).
Even better, he’s just been made music director of Germany’s Saarland State Theatre, and will lead the Saarland State Orchestra. He’s conduct about six operas every season.
Living the dream.
And if you want to congratulate him, he’s conducting a Verdi Gala with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra on Saturday and Sunday. 
===

Morrison warned last Tuesday he had “conflicting reports”. It’s false to say he covered up

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (2:50pm)

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison inadvertently misled journalists at a press conference last Tuesday when he said this about the Manus detention centre riot:
I have no information to confirm how the injuries took place. I do know in the cases of the most serious ones, particularly in the case of the deceased person, their injuries occurred, and the shot being fired, was outside of the centre. But who and when and where, that information is not available to me.
Not true, Morrison has since conceded. Most injuries in fact occurred within the centre, and - as I said - that makes me doubt any other information he received from those in charge of Manus Island.
But those accusing Morrison of misleading us (accidentally) are misleading us themselves - and I believe deliberately. Morally, they are more culpable.
Take Labor’s immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, in Question Time today:
In the minister’s previous answer, he said he first received information on Tuesday questioning the precise location of Mr Barati’s death. So why did the minister not release his correction to the media until Saturday night at 8:44pm?
In fact within hours of that Tuesday press conference Morrison held another - also on Tuesday - where he himself did cast doubt on what he’d just said about where the dead man had been injured:
Secondly, in terms of the man who died, he had a head injury and at this stage it is not possible to give any further detail on that, including now, based on subsequent reports, where this may have taken place… Where physically this took place based on the information I have received this afternoon, that is a matter where there are some conflicting reports. There is no suggestion to my knowledge or what I am advised that the incident involving that individual had anything to do with staff employed by G4S, the RT team or any of those but you know we are still at early phases… 
Journalist: What are the conflicting reports?
Minister Morrison: Well the reports are conflicting on where the individual might have been at the time.
Journalist: Either inside or outside.
Minister Morrison: I am saying that there are conflicting reports and when I have a full picture on where the individual might have been but that could be some time to determine because we anticipate that would be the subject of a police investigation…
Journalist: You ruled out G4S having any involvement in the guy’s death… Minister Morrison: No I didn’t do that. What I said is we have to wait for all the evidence to come in and we have to wait for investigations to be concluded. I am not aware and I have no report or advice to me which suggests that G4S was in that place or in that vicinity where the event took place but it is still very early days...
I think the outrage over Morrison’s initial remarks are wildly exaggerated, and what his sins are alleged to be has been exaggerated, too.
I wish I’d looked into this more carefully before commenting for tonight’s The Project.  Hope the show uses instead the bit I repeated three times about the hypocrisy of Labor attacking the Coalition over a riot involving a detention centre Labor created and employing staff Labor hired under a security arrangement Labor designed to stop boats Labor had lured over. 
===

The tribe farewells Quentin Bryce

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (1:31pm)

The Governor-General says goodbye with parties involving many of her good friends from the Left. (Although does Brendan Nelson count or not?):;
The seating arrangements for lunch had University of Canberra chancellor Tom Calma [the former Race Discrimination Commissioner] and former Treasury secretary Ken Henry [of stimulus infamy] each side of Ms Bryce. 
Guests included Chief Minister Katy Gallagher [Labor], University of Canberra vice-chancellor Stephen Parker, Australian War Memorial director Brendan Nelson, Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt, [Labor] member for Canberra Gai Brodtmann, ABC newsreader Virginia Haussegger and The Canberra Times editor-at-large Jack Waterford [who wants the Coalition’s boat people policies to fail].
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Do the Government’s critics truly want to return to the policies which killed 1100?

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (1:30pm)

Environment Minister Greg Hunt gets an angry email from a voter:
I am so disgusted with your silence on the legal asylum seekers & their shameful treatment by your government ... I am ashamed of my country & Abbott & Morrison to dare to call themselves Christians is beyond belief ..You fall into the same category Greg & I despair of the path my country is taking. 
Greg Hunt responds:
Many thanks and I deeply respect your views. 
I remember in 2009 meeting with a local Human Rights Group and respectfully warning that the change of policy would lead to a catastrophic loss of life at sea over the following years.
There was much scepticism of the claim at the time.
Sadly the human loss of over the coming years was at least 1100 souls and probably much worse.  The good will and intent of the policy change was however not matched by the simply unimaginable human losses which flowed from that very policy change.
It is undoubtedly the greatest peacetime loss of life in Australia’s history following a Government policy change.
This is the reason why both the previous Government, at the end, and our Government have sought to take steps to stop the catastrophic and despicable trade in human lives from the most wicked criminals who sought to make massive profits while blithely sending the asylum seekers to inevitable catastrophe.
In genuine and deep terms, if I could offer you a reversion to the previous policy, intended as it was in good spirit, but with the certainty that another 1100 would perish at sea, would you believe it was worth it and what is the moral judgment you would make of those who chose to allow the 1100 to perish again?  In my case the answer is a categorical no to whether the previous open door policy was justified.
In conclusion, none of us can make deep moral accusations without examining the alternative scenario.
We have just witnessed the alternative scenario over the last few years and it was a deep national stain with 1100 souls lost to a well intentioned but ultimately catastrophic policy. I respect your views, but respectfully ask you to consider the 1100 souls lost and whether saving that many lives over the coming years is a worthy and indeed moral imperative.  In my judgment it is and I would be deeply interested in your views. 
Excellent response (although I do wish Hunt would cut his use of “respectfully” in half). 
===

Missing detail

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (11:46am)

Immigration, Media

Australians are being seriously hurt by a failure in our refugee problem that is too often covered up by the Left.
Here’s yet another example.
The Herald Sun tells the news straight:
A GANG of about 20 teenagers set upon a 14-year-old boy, slashing him four times with a blade, in the latest bout of knife violence to strike Melbourne. 
The group, whom witnesses say were mostly Sudanese or of African descent, had tried to gatecrash a nearby party 10 minutes before they set upon Ben Phillips in the frenzied group attack. Witnesses said the gang was lying in wait for anyone that left the Cranbourne party before attacking Ben as he walked a girl home. After a brief discussion, the gang set on him, landing a flurry of punches and then kicked him as he lay on the ground.The teenager was stabbed four times in the back during the brutal assault, with the blade puncturing both lungs.
But The Age refuses to pass on certain information identifying the attackers, despite police appealing for help to find them:
A teenage boy has suffered serious injuries after he was stabbed by a group of males in Melbourne’s south-east on Saturday night.... Police have not yet made any arrests and have appealed to anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers...
The ABC is suddenly colour-blind, too:
Police say a group of males assaulted the 14-year-old boy in Clarendon Street about 10:00pm.... 
Detective Senior Constable Kane Taylor says the attackers should hand themselves in. “...You’d imagine it’s only a matter of time before the offenders are identified,” he said.
Identified? Not by the ABC, they won’t be.
UPDATE
Police also refused to reveal a telling clue to the identification of the suspects.   From the police media release:
Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding a stabbing which occurred in Cranbourne overnight. Investigators have been told a 14-year-old Narre Warren boy was assaulted in Clarendon Street by a group of males around 10pm…
At this stage there have been no arrests and detectives are appealing for anyone who witnessed the incident to come forward. 
UPDATE
The Age updates its report to include the word “African”.
(Thanks to readers David and Ed. UPDATE:  Links fixed.) 
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Hypocrites and poseurs

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (9:16am)

Did the Left light a single candle for the more than 1100 boat people lured to their deaths by the lax border laws of the Rudd and Gillard Government’s?
Yet:
Thousands of people have held candlelight vigils around Australia for slain asylum seeker Reza Berati, who died in violence at the Manus Island detention centre last Monday.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
UPDATE
Reader Harry:
Yup, how terrible. A person actively involved in a violent riot dies at a facility that was re-opened by Labor, using staff appointed by Labor, using practices approved by Labor, in collaboration with security measures provided by PNG negotiated by Labor which Labor put in place to attempt to solve a mass migration of asylum seekers that was in response to changes made by Labor. 
Gee, I wonder if there is a clue as to where the blame lies???
UPDDATE
Reader C. notes there was candlelight vigil in 2011 for the latest of the boat people lured to their deaths by Labor. Although it wasn’t quite put that way, of course. 
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LNP actually did pretty well in Redcliffe

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (9:12am)

Reader The Realist says the Redcliffe by-election result in Queensland is actually much less bad for the Newman Government than I yesterday suggested:
In 2009 Labor held the seat with a primary vote of 43.02%. 
In 2012 they dropped to 34.03% primary and this time they are at 43.65% primary.
So in reality what has happened is that the protest vote against Bligh in 2012 has returned to the status quo, almost, but with the LNP still above their 2009 30.76% primary having achieved 35.12% this time.
The figures show that despite the stench hanging off Driscoll the LNP have improved their base in Redcliffe and some voters have decided no matter what they will never return to Labor or the minors. Redcliffe is a traditional Labor seat.
Reader Bill makes the same point:
In 2012 the LNP took the seat with a 15.5% swing away from the ALP.

In the following two years the LNP was beset by allegations of poor business dealings (and worse) by the LNP member Scott Driscoll to the point where the LNP dumped him and forced him out of parliament. This forced a by-election and these historically generally go badly for the incumbent government.

With a huge amount going for it the ALP managed a 16% swing or, a net gain of 0.5% on its previously well established Redcliffe vote and this in a historically strong Labor seat.

A gain of 0.5% in a seat only slightly less troubled than Craig Thompsons is a cause for celebration? 
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Pity the police with this generation to deal with

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (8:53am)

 What transport police have to put up with in trying to make public transport safer and more pleasant for commuters.
Note the monstrous sense of entitlement and victimhood.
UPDATE

More of his feral breed:
Up to 100 fans of an Australian “deathcore” band have dangerously stormed the stage at a Brisbane concert, overwhelming security and threatening the safety of music festival staff…
Sydney act Thy Art Is Murder reportedly told fans to “smash” security.
A security guard working at the event said the band had told the crowd “we wanna see someone put in hospital”, News Feeds reports. “There are thousands of you and dozens of security. Smash them. All of you get on the stage,” the lead singer of the band allegedly said.
(Thanks to readers Wade and Barry.) 
===

Is this Flannery’s penguin of death?

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (8:11am)

image
Did this penguin give warming alarmist Tim Flannery nightmares?
You see, Flannery has recently been telling lurid stories of his persecution - wild stories I’ve had to correct in the past. Now there’s this:
“I’ve seen him a little bit fearful,” says [Will] Steffen, referring to 15 May 2012 when, in order to get into the Parramatta RSL in Sydney’s west for a public education forum, they had to push through a wall of people yelling “death to Flannery”. “They were saying, ‘Come over here, c-nt, we’re going to f-cking kill you’,” recalled Flannery. “I had to get escorted out with a security contingent.” 
That first year of the [Climate] Commission was, Flannery tells me, “a terrible time for me”. He was under vicious attack from the sceptics, he needed constant police protection, his marriage fell apart.
Steffen, of course, is the man who once claimed warming scientists had been threatened with death after a sceptic discussing the ACT kangaroo culling program with an environment bureaucrat showed his culling licence. And this story seems to me just as far fetched.
A crowd of people screaming “death to Flannery”? Really? Does that even seem plausible?
Indeed, I’d have thought reporters at the event wouldn’t have hesitated to report such terrible threats and dramatic scenes. Yet none did.
Here’s the Daily Telegraph’s account:
CLIMATE Commissioner Tim Flannery was drowned out by an interjector at a public forum last night after predicting Sydney’s west faced a future of severe heatwaves, violence and death by rising temperatures. 

The protester, dressed in a penguin suit, went into the Parramatta RSL auditorium and called Professor Flannery a “hoax”. The protester drew clapping and booing before he was escorted out by security staff, as another interjector called out: “I can’t believe that you people are listening to this waffle.” 
Here is the Sydney Morning Herald’s, reporting heated debate but no mob chanting “death to Flannery”:
Sceptics and sympathisers sat side by side at last night’s forum, which was punctuated by heated debate. Several protesters who interrupted speakers and decried climate change as a ‘’hoax’’ were removed, and some community activists later claimed they were refused entry to the meeting. 
Others in the crowd reacted angrily when the commission declined to enter into the debate on the federal government’s carbon pricing regime. 
(To be very clear: I am certainly not accusing penguin man of threatening Flannery with anything other than the facts.) 
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Shorten short of sincerity

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (7:43am)

Politics - federal

 BILL Shorten will be finished as Opposition Leader if he doesn’t soon find his courage — and his heart.
I’m presuming he has a brain, but as yet, there’s little sign he’s using it.
I’ve long thought Shorten a mere machine man — another Labor lawyer needing someone better to write his brief. Even as a union secretary, he seemed a functionary.
So I didn’t think Shorten was being just a smart-alec when as a minister he said of then prime minister Julia Gillard: “I haven’t seen what she said but let me say, I support what it is that she said.”
But now the public is on to him, too, and his poll ratings have dropped like an anchor.
The core problem? Shorten is insincere and can’t fake sincerity.
Voters can’t trust a leader who is insincere, yet there’s Shorten trying to flog patently trashy policies like they were gold, and looking as fair dinkum as a pope selling condoms.
(Read full article here.) 
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This horrific abuse of Abbott must end. But where is the Left that cried over Gillard?

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (6:37am)

Once a man in a crowd held up a sign calling Julia Gillard a witch. The Left couldn’t have been more horrified. Thundering speeches were made denouncing such “misogyny”.
Last weekend a thrash metal band decapitated “Tony Abbott” on stage:
It wasn’t quite a “joke”:
Thrash metal overlords Gwar have announced their Soundwave sideshow date, and the show may well include a bloody murder of our nation’s PM. 
At least that’s what Gwar’s Oderus Urungus told us in a recent interview, promising to “win over Australia forever” by cutting a certain high-profile politician down to size… Sure, everyone’s laughing along, but Urungus declares: “You can tell we are for real.”
Foxtel’s Channel V promoted this barbarity on its Facebook page to earn a few more grubby dollars from ferals of the Left:
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The ferals of the Left cheered and asked for Abbott to be killed for real - their semi-literate cries again published on a Foxtel Facebook site:
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I am shocked that Foxtel encourages such depravity. But the Left, I’m afraid, no longer shocks me at all. It is now the natural home of the foul-mouthed savage.
Take Fairfax columnist Clementine Ford, boasting about her F… Abbott T-shirts, which  The Age even promoted:
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There’s the ferals wearing T-shirts with this Fairfax-promoted slogan in our busiest streets:
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Then there’s been the calls - on a Facebook page created from an office at the Geelong Trades Hall - for Abbott to be assassinated:
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There was the banner at the same-sex marriage rally in Brisbane showing Abbott being hanged:
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Much of the abuse of Abbott is brutal, threatening, crude ... and too often licensed by the Leftist media:
Abbott hadn’t even been sworn in before a new Facebook site - “Tony Abbott - Worst PM in Australian History” - savaged him as “a misogynist, sexist, homophobic pr---, a bully, a racist, a liar ...”. It has 170,000 “likes"… 
The ABC’s Q & A website left up a tweet about performing a sexual act on Abbott and The Drum vilified him as a religious bigot who denied evolution and wanted to “score points against the ‘feminazis’ and ‘poofs’ “. Meanwhile, Catherine Deveny, a Guardian writer, boasted on Twitter how her teenage son hated Abbott, and published a photograph of his profanity-strewed poster.
And there’s the inevitable Leftist extremist, hounding Abbott in the streets shouting violent abuse:
 Had these things been done to Julia Gillard, would we have heard the end of it? If media organisations do not rein in this violent hatred, will they inspire deeds they will one dark day claim to bitterly regret?
But if nothing else, let’s just end that self-serving and self-pitying myth of the Left:
Anne Summers was one of many Gillard enthusiasts who claimed no prime minister had suffered such abuse: 
It is ironic that this should be the case, given the initial rapture that greeted Gillard’s elevation to the top job, yet there can be no doubting that Australia’s first woman prime minister has had to endure levels of vitriol never before seen in federal politics. 
John McTernan, Gillard’s communications director, ran with that victim story of unprecedented abuse:
Gillard has faced serial abuse as a woman on a scale I believe is unprecedented in modern politics. I know that the phrase “The Iron Lady” was coined by the Russians as an insult to Margaret Thatcher, but it became a mark of their admiration. That negative, corrosive, anti-woman rhetoric that Gillard endured for so long has damaged Australian politics, and public opinion. 
Nothing, but nothing that Gillard ever faced comes close to the vitriol and abuse now being hurled by the Left at Abbott.
But how silent the media is now that the target is a Liberal.
(Thanks to reader Nick,) 
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Memo to Fin: handsome is as handsome does

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (6:24am)

I am sick of media and entertainment organisations sprinkling glitter on low-lifes. TheMelbourne University Press was bad enough, and now here comes the Financial Review:
The Australian Financial Review’s editor Michael Stutchbury must have been proud of Christopher Joye’s interview with controversial figure John Ibrahim because he promoted it as the blurb on page one. Diary has no idea why. 
Ibrahim managed to charm the journalist into forgetting he was speaking to a man who was interrogated in the Wood royal commission for being “the new lifeblood of the drug industry at Kings Cross”. [Ibrahim denied it.] Here are some of the more cringe-worthy lines from the story: “He’s distinctively handsome, almost mesmerisingly so, with tight coffee-gold coloured skin and dark eyes with the same golden tint.” And this: “The man laughs that he’s too old for his still-popular ‘sexy’ moniker today.” And even worse: “I think to myself that Ibrahim’s frankly better looking than the actor Firass Dirani, who played him in Underbelly.” Finally, after a couple of thousand words comes the line in the feature that the Fin’s journalists should be investigating. Joye writes: “So how does the King of the Cross actually make money? ‘I don’t like to elaborate on my private business, he says easily’.”
Still the piece was good for this:
“Who really shoots other people’s houses in the middle of the night?” he queries. “In my time that was unheard of. 
“These guys are gutless cowards. The class of 2010 onwards has been the shittiest ever. They’re just plastic gangsters. They drive around in their hotted up cars with gold chains and tattoos and then they go home and sleep at mum’s. They’re all ­wannabes. It’s disgusting – it’s all disorganised crime. “Before the [Wood] Royal Commission [into the NSW Police Service], none of this would happen. The police would squash you in the night. It’s not organised crime you have to worry about, it’s disorganised crime – they’re the ding-a-lings.”
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Warmists lose argument in a snowdrift. Dream of stabbing “deniers” instead

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (6:10am)

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Can you imagine the fuss if I “joked” about stabbing warmists - like the New York Times“jokes” about stabbing “deniers”?
Well, we don’t actually have to imagine the outrage of the Left at all, given the hay that warmists made even over one man’s kangaroo culling licence:
ANU Climate Change Institute head Will Steffen warns staff in 2010 of their first real threat:
Written by the head of the Climate Change Institute in 2010, it announced: “Looks like we’ve had our first serious threat of physical violence.
“It has come from a participant in (the) deliberative democracy project last weekend. One of the participants left early after he took exception to my talk about climate science ... (Deleted’s) exact words were:
“Moreover, before he left, he came to the Fri dinner and showed other participants his gun licence and explained to them how good a sniper he is.”
But it was no such thing: 
Curious fact three: that person is retired public servant and economist John Coochey, who denies showing a gun licence, and says he was astonished to find himself being defamed - accused of making “death threats”. 
He’s written: “At the mediocre dinner on the first day I was approached by Dr Maxine Cooper, then the commissioner for the environment, who recognised me as someone involved in the kangaroo culling program in the ACT which occurs each winter. 
“After politely asking if she could sit next to me, she asked me how I had gone in the recent licence test, which is challenging. I told her I had topped it with a perfect score and showed her my current culling licence, not gun licence, to prove it.” 
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Channel Seven rewards Corby, trashes law

Andrew Bolt February 24 2014 (4:40am)

Malcolm Turnbull, Media

CHANNEL 7 is shameless. How dare it try helping Schapelle Corby to break or evade another law — this one against a criminal profiting from their crime?
How dare it pull political strings when there’s a police raid to stop it?
Seven’s commercial director, Bruce McWilliam, last week brazenly admitted Seven indeed wanted to pay “in that ballpark” of $500,000 for convicted drug smuggler Corby to tell about her life and crimes. “Sure, there’s an expectation money might have to be paid,” he said.
Indeed, Seven has already paid Corby’s sister Mercedes $25,000 to arrange the interview — and who can tell how much of that goes to Schapelle, now on parole in Bali?
We actually have a Proceeds of Crime Act to stop this kind of thing.
(Read full article here.) 
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“Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness.” -Proverbs 14:22
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
February 23: Morning
"I will never leave thee." - Hebrews 13:5
No promise is of private interpretation. Whatever God has said to any one saint, he has said to all. When he opens a well for one, it is that all may drink. When he openeth a granary-door to give out food, there may be some one starving man who is the occasion of its being opened, but all hungry saints may come and feed too. Whether he gave the word to Abraham or to Moses, matters not, O believer; he has given it to thee as one of the covenanted seed. There is not a high blessing too lofty for thee, nor a wide mercy too extensive for thee. Lift up now thine eyes to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west, for all this is thine. Climb to Pisgah's top, and view the utmost limit of the divine promise, for the land is all thine own. There is not a brook of living water of which thou mayst not drink. If the land floweth with milk and honey, eat the honey and drink the milk, for both are thine. Be thou bold to believe, for he hath said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."In this promise, God gives to his people everything. "I will never leave thee." Then no attribute of God can cease to be engaged for us. Is he mighty? He will show himself strong on the behalf of them that trust him. Is he love? Then with lovingkindness will he have mercy upon us. Whatever attributes may compose the character of Deity, every one of them to its fullest extent shall be engaged on our side. To put everything in one, there is nothing you can want, there is nothing you can ask for, there is nothing you can need in time or in eternity, there is nothing living, nothing dying, there is nothing in this world, nothing in the next world, there is nothing now, nothing at the resurrection-morning, nothing in heaven which is not contained in this text--"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
Evening
"Take up the cross, and follow me." - Mark 10:21
JYou have not the making of your own cross, although unbelief is a master carpenter at cross-making; neither are you permitted to choose your own cross, although self-will would fain be lord and master; but your cross is prepared and appointed for you by divine love, and you are cheerfully to accept it; you are to take up the cross as your chosen badge and burden, and not to stand cavilling at it. This night Jesus bids you submit your shoulder to his easy yoke. Do not kick at it in petulance, or trample on it in vain-glory, or fall under it in despair, or run away from it in fear, but take it up like a true follower of Jesus. Jesus was a cross-bearer; he leads the way in the path of sorrow. Surely you could not desire a better guide! And if he carried a cross, what nobler burden would you desire? The Via Crucis is the way of safety; fear not to tread its thorny paths.

Beloved, the cross is not made of feathers, or lined with velvet, it is heavy and galling to disobedient shoulders; but it is not an iron cross, though your fears have painted it with iron colours, it is a wooden cross, and a man can carry it, for the Man of sorrows tried the load. Take up your cross, and by the power of the Spirit of God you will soon be so in love with it, that like Moses, you would not exchange the reproach of Christ for all the treasures of Egypt. Remember that Jesus carried it, and it will smell sweetly; remember that it will soon be followed by the crown, and the thought of the coming weight of glory will greatly lighten the present heaviness of trouble. The Lord help you to bow your spirit in submission to the divine will ere you fall asleep this night, that waking with to-morrow's sun, you may go forth to the day's cross with the holy and submissive spirit which becomes a follower of the Crucified.
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Annas 
[Ăn'nas] - grace of jehovah.
A Jewish high priest, the son of Seth, appointed to office in his thirty-seventh year by Quirinus, and who was in office when John the Baptist began his ministry (Luke 3:2; John 18:13-24; Acts 4:6). Annas was an astute and powerful ecclesiastical statesman, who took part not only in the trial of Jesus, but also in those of Peter and John.
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Today's reading: Numbers 5-6, Mark 4:1-20 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Numbers 5-6

Restitution for Wrongs
5 The LORD said to Moses, 6 "Say to the Israelites: 'Any man or woman who wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the LORD is guilty 7and must confess the sin they have committed. They must make full restitution for the wrong they have done, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the person they have wronged....

Today's New Testament reading: Mark 4:1-20

The Parable of the Sower
1 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. 2 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3 "Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow....

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