When I first applied to State Super for access to my superannuation it was with the following understanding. That I would never teach again because of my health. I understood I might be able to get work, possibly something that my health needs allowed me to do, like as a teacher’s aide, but that work will not pay the same as a teacher and the result will be that I will not be able to live as I am accustomed to from teaching. I did not believe my health was, strictly speaking what was keeping me from finding a job. I believe it is government corruption. However, I have to recognize that my health is a grey area and that I must recognize the significant role that it will play in my not finding work, although I am looking. The reports into my health don’t carry that significant factor of government corruption. They highlight the grey area which suggest that my fitness is borderline, but these reports are not designed to detect the corruption aspect. Normally, corruption being what it is, I would not be able to prove my case. It would merely devolve to ‘He said she said’ and nothing would be demonstrated. However, I can prove, publicly, that I have been the victim of ongoing harassment and corruption and so I can explain why I have been pushed out of the grey area and into the not able to work area due to health.
Part of my problem may appear to be psychological. A student I tried to help died through neglect caused by the fact that I had tried to help him while I was being abused. Hamidur Rahman was a student I only met a few times. I highlighted his allergy to peanuts as being something all staff at his school urgently needed to know. I was assured that all staff had been told. I was illegally sacked from the school following my advice. He died a year later when a staff member who did not know of his allergy ordered him to lick peanut butter from a spoon. I was not immediately aware of my connection with the student, as I was working at another school when it happened. The department of education told me that they would not correspond with me over the unfair dismissal .. or any other matter, and they told me, through a legal officer, that it was because of Hamidur’s death. Previously there had been a cover up of a teacher who inappropriately touched female students and invaded their change rooms. The department of education had failed to adequately investigate that issue and had excused themselves saying that the students decided they did not want to pursue the matter after both they and the teacher had left school. At Canley Vale High school I was being harassed. In 2002 I was referred to Health Quest to see if I was fit to teach. Health Quest offered me immediate medical retirement which I declined as I had been assured the harassment would stop. In 2006, an HSC Mathematics (2 unit) class lost marks from their trial exams for no other reason than that I was there teacher. A year 7 girl was verbally assaulted by an abuser of mine for no other reason than that she had been in my class. That girl left the school and entered a private girls school the next year. It was clear to me that my students were being persecuted for being in my class, and I approached the Minister of Education (then Della Bosca, after the 07 election campaign, as I’d hoped the conservatives would win). I asked for my issue to be examined by the Minister to end the harassment. I was called by an investigative unit officer and asked a few yes or no questions about my initial complaint. I was later told that the minister would ignore the complaint. I had promised I would resign and talk to the press if my complaint was ignored. So I resigned on 16th July 07 and gave as my reason that I didn’t want to be harassed any more. I had intended to make my report to the press and align it with a legal challenge. I went to centerlink to report what had happened and intended to sue for unfair dismissal through industrial relations court. However, I had to prove I was not a deportable illegal alien first and that took eight months and timed me out of IR court. Meanwhile, I had given Mr Della Bosca a second opportunity to revue matters. Mr Della Bosca did nothing, but waited until I was timed out of IR court before replying that he would do nothing, threatening me in the process. I believe it was my local state member Tripodi who negotiated with the press to not report on my issue. Tripodi’s office had asked who I was negotiating with and I had told his secretary, thinking that if he interfered the press would crucify him. I attempted to find work while the press were not reporting on my story. I was seeking casual work so as to be independent and not subject to the teacher’s code of conduct that I believe had been written in ’04 by a former friend of mine so as to target me. I founbd block work at Miller HS in ’08 and worked there for half a year. I had intended to rehabilitate my reputation. Instead I got smeared three times at the end of the half year. Although I worked hard, came to work early and was always prepared and helped the staff significantly on various projects, Miller kept telling me I was below par. They hinted at my being unable to control their classes because of my weight although they made no specific allegation and they have not hired me since. I was not getting casual work as I expected. I was aware of others who were being hired. I was aware of a former abuser who was made Principal at Fairvale HS who was stopping me from getting work. A friend who was HT Math at Fairvale managed to get me work for half a year in ’09 as a teacher’s aide. But the Principal made sure I wasn’t paid my entitlements and hired another to do my work in ’10. I am employed a few hours a week in tutoring in ’10. I have applied for over a hundred Math positions, both permanent and block, both public and private and have never made interview. I have applied for all local ( and some distant) schools for casual work and have not had any in ’09 and ’10. At the end of ’08 I got Marie Ficarra to ask the NSW Legislative Council (Senate) some questions of my issue and got the following reply (available on Hansard) Update Item number 2292 Questions by Marie Ficarra MLC of the NSW govt.
1) Does the former Minister for Education Mr John Della Bosca acknowledge that on the 6th of April 2007, he received a letter from a former teacher of Hurlestone Agricultural High School regarding possible negligence in the death of Hamidur Rahman?
2) Can Mr Della Bosca affirm to this house that this allegation was duly investigated given the gravity of the case?
3) What steps has the Department of Education taken in liasing with Mr David Daniel Ball and his concerns for the Rahman family.
In reply, the following
I am advised that the Department of Education and Training has no record of a letter from a former teacher of Hurlstone Agricultural High School to Minister Della Bosca dated 6 April 2007 relating to this matter, but that an unsigned, undated message to Minister Della Bosca from a former teacher of Canley Vale High School, who also worked after school hours as a supervisor or tutor in the boarding school at Hurlstone Agricultural High School in 2001, was received by Minister Della Bosca, apparently some time in April 2007. The Department has assumed that this is the teacher referred to in the Member's question. Two phone calls to the Member's office to verify this assumption were not returned. I am also advised that Minister Della Bosca received a second copy of the letter as one of a number of documents sent by that teacher's local Member, who made representations to the Minister on his behalf. Allegations relating to possible negligence by staff at Hurlstone Agricultural High School were contained in the message, in addition to a range of other matters. The former teacher alleged that the school should have held, but did not hold, information about an unidentified student's allergies. The tragic death by anaphylaxis of a student of Hurlstone Agricultural High School in March 2002 was the subject of a Coronial Inquiry conducted by Senior Deputy State Coroner Milledge. She delivered her findings on 9 September 2005. The recommendations of the Coronial Inquiry have been closely examined by the Department of Education and Training, NSW Health, non-government schools and other organisations as part of a Coronial Taskforce chaired by the Chief Health Officer. As a consequence, many changes to the management of food allergies were introduced from 2006 onwards and have become a standard part of Departmental policy and practice. I am advised that the letter from the former teacher in April 2007 was provided 18 months after the conclusion of the inquest. The information appears not to relate to the boy who died, as it describes an event that occurred in the dining hall of the boarding house in 2001. That is, it appears to relate to a boarding student, while the boy who died was a day student. I am advised that an extensive phone interview was conducted with the former teacher by a Chief Investigator of the Department's Employment Performance and Conduct Directorate on 19 April 2007. On being interviewed about the allegation by the Department, the former teacher indicated he did not know whether it was the same student. The Department's legal advisers have formed the view that the information provided by the former teacher appears to be of little relevance to the matters determined by the Coroner. I am advised that a Chief Investigator of the Department's Employment Performance and Conduct Directorate conducted an extensive phone interview with the former teacher on 19 April 2007, and that Minister Della Bosca later responded to representations by the former teacher's local Member, providing details of a contact officer should the former teacher wish to discuss matters further. I am advised that the knowledge by staff at the school of the former student's allergy to peanuts was a matter extensively examined by the Coronial Inquiry. The findings of the Senior Deputy State Coroner were published on 9 September 2005.
It is important to note that the reply admits the substance of my allegation that the department had been warned about the allergy and had done nothing despite the assurances I had been given. Also the admission of the threat that had been made in referring me to an abuser, passed off as just a departmental officer. The same officer who has been (I believe) illegally keeping me from work.
At the end of ’09 I again appealed to the Department of Education regarding my employment. At this time I was being paid as a casual teacher’s aide when I was working full time. The result was I could not even pay my mortgage while I was working. I was earning less than $30k per annum without work conditions of super, sick leave or holiday pay. My appeal was heard by the director general of Education who replied (through delegation)
I refer to your email correspondence dated 27 November 2009 and 11 December 2009 to the Michael Coutts- Trotter, Director- General for Education and Training regarding your complaint that you have been blacklisted by the School Education Director for Fairfield and the Principal of Fairvale HS which you claim has prevented you from gaining employment as a secondary Mathematics teacher. The Director-General has asked me to reply on his behalf
I have found no evidence that Mr James Coleborne, School Education Director, Fairfield and Ms Kathleen Seto, Principal, Fairvale High School have never made any statements nor taken any actions that have prevented you from gaining employment as a teacher of Mathematics. There is also no evidence that you have been “blacklisted” in this way. It is understood that you have been issued with a casual teacher number and can be employed anywhere as a casual teacher in NSW.
In regard to the matter of you being employed only as a teacher’s aide at Fairvale High School, I understand that this position for a teacher’s aide Numeracy (casual) was advertised in the Sydney Morning Herald in January 2009 and you did not apply for this position when it was advertised. The applicant who was successful in gaining this position worked for a period of time during the first half of the year and then took leave for personal reasons. The Head Teacher Mathematics approached the Principal to fill the position with a casual and he suggested that you may be suitable. I understand that you commenced duties on 1 June 2009 and completed an application for relief employment. Further, you were advised by the Head Teacher that the position was until the end of the term (10 July 2009) and during term 3 you were again engaged as it appeared that the original teacher’s aide would not be returning to the position. This position is not a permanent one within the school as it was created under temporary project funding called ‘Priority Action Schools’, which is a tied fund.
As you would be aware, schools in all regions have opportunities to select teachers for permanent appointment through the Permanent Employment Program. Teachers, such as yourself, who are not currently in a permanent teaching position in a New South Wales public school are eligible to apply for the 300 positions which are advertised each year under this program on the Department’s website at www.jobs.det.nsw.edu.au. In this context, I would encourage you to consider applying for those positions and any other suitable vacancies advertised in the weekend press.
In regard to the range of issues you have raised in your correspondence, I am unable to respond in detail due to privacy requirements. However, I am advised that these matters have been considered previously by the Department’s Employee Performance and Conduct Unit, or referred to the Department’s Legal Services Directorate, or handled as grievances at the school level according to the Department’s Responding to Complaints, Suggestions and Allegations Procedures, and as such are considered to be concluded.
I am unaware of any impediments to you being employed as a teacher of Mathematics. I would encourage you to seek employment widely within the NSW public education system to maximize your opportunities to secure employment.
Yours sincerely
Note the abrogation of responsibility, the claims of ‘no evidence’ and the sidestepping of responsibility on old unexamined issues. The misrepresenting of my complaint regarding conditions.
If you feel you need to know I am happy to provide you with details that allowed me to link these issues with the premier’s office. A few years ago I felt justified in believing that my knowledge of the issues opened me to the threat of murder by my abusers until I approached the police and other public authorities and spoke about what had happened. I can also explain how I have been smeared and how I have dealt with that.
In summary, as the reports show, I am very fat and not very fit. My fatness has meant that it is difficult to maneuver in a classroom. Although, under other circumstances, that might not be sufficient to keep me from working, I have been abused over a substantial part of my career and I have been made aware of students who have been abused for no other reason than for my abusers to target me. I know of at least one student who has died from neglect directly attributable to people who abused me as part of their abuse. I have clean hands and may talk on the issue, but I have not been able to get the issue reported on, and I believe that that is due to political interference. I cannot now walk into a classroom without thinking about protecting myself from abuse when I need to have my attention on teaching. Through no fault of my own, a student has died and I cannot forget that. There will be no easy way of rehabilitating, but I need to access funds somehow for me to be able to do that. I applied for the fund I have applied for by mistake .. I had thought it was the more substantial fund of SASS. That being the case, I find myself locked into this appeal as I have been warned by my home lender that I have a few days to make arrears or vacate my home.
Republican Marco Rubio was on with Neil Cavuto today. The Florida conservative told Neil that the Obama Administration does not support the free market. === The US is not alone in experiencing this kind of corruption. The model has been running in Australia in NSW and later in the Australian government. Tony Blair adopted it for New Labor in the UK. It will run out, but it is usually held together for a long time by partisan press.
James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the fifteenth President of the United States from 1857–1861 and the last to be born in the eighteenth century. To date he is the only president from the state of Pennsylvania and the only president to remain a bachelor. A popular and experienced politician prior to his presidency, Buchanan represented Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives and later the Senate, and served as Secretary of State under President James K. Polk. After turning down an offer for an appointment to the Supreme Court, he served as Minister to the United Kingdom under President Franklin Pierce, in which capacity he helped draft the inflammatory Ostend Manifesto, which suggested the U.S. should declare war if Spain refused to sell Cuba. The Ostend Manifesto was never acted upon and greatly damaged the Pierce administration. Despite unsuccessfully seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1844, 1848, and 1852, Buchanan was nominated in the election of 1856 as a compromise between the two sides of the slavery issue; this occurred while he was away on business. His subsequent election was largely due to the even more divided state of the opposition. As President he was a "doughface", a Northerner with Southern sympathies who battled with Stephen A. Douglas for the control of the Democratic Party. Buchanan's efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South alienated both sides, and as the Southern states declared their secession in the prologue to the American Civil War, Buchanan's opinion was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal; hence, he remained inactive. By the time he left office, popular opinion had turned against him, and the Democratic Party had split in two. Buchanan had once dared to hope that his presidency might rank in history with that of George Washington. However, his handling of the crisis preceding the Civil War has led to his consistent ranking by historians as one of the worst Presidents. In this editorial cartoon from the 1856 presidential election, James Buchanan—in the light suit—helps hold down the head of a "Free Soiler" while Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas and President Franklin Pierce shove an African-American slave down his throat. In 1860, Douglas, who wrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, would carry Pennsylvania, but lose the presidential election to Abraham Lincoln.
=== Bible Quote ===
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”- Joshua 1:9
=== Headlines ===
Two GOP lawmakers call for charges to be dropped against three Navy SEALs who captured Al Qaeda terrorist behind the murder, mutilation of four Blackwater contractors — and allegedly gave him a bloody lip.
Dem Dozen Targets Abortion Lawmaker says a dozen Dems will reject Obama's bill unless it contains language banning fed funds for abortion
Is this the bionic man of NSW? A SEEMINGLY indestructible man has escaped serious injury after a car crash where he ran into traffic and hit more cars before jumping off a 7m bridge.
Stampede kills 37 children, 26 women SIXTY three people, all of them women and children, were crushed to death in a stampede at a temple in northern India.
Burst water main rips homes apart The ruptured main was dug up yesterday and will be sent to metallurgists in Sydney to find out what went wrong.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Impacting elections, supporting candidates and setting agendas! Will we see a tea party takeover? The Pregnancy Pact What became of the 17 high schoolers who got pregnant in Gloucester? The Culture Warriors have the update! === Guest: Ann Coulter The Dems were against the nuclear option when the GOP had the power. Now, they look poised to pull the trigger! Is it liberal hypocrisy? === Drugs, Prostitution, & Polygamy! All are outlawed ... but still widespread! So what's the solution? John says to put an END to government prohibition! Could it cut down on crime?
They will all be receiving an award called "Living Legends," and you can see it as a VIP if you have a hundred bucks.
The spectacle is being driven by Rev. Wright, who is actually giving himself the "Living Legend" award, as well as the other two guys. There's no third party involved.
All the money people pay to see this dog-and-pony show will go to Rev. Wright's charity. Pfleger will get a bit of it, and so will the Haitian singer Wyclef Jean.
Don't you love this?
Rev. Wright is honoring himself, Farrakhan and Pfleger, and is charging money for the exposition. Is America not a great country?
The serious part of the story is Father Pfleger, a radical-left Catholic priest who runs St. Sabina parish on Chicago's South Side. Pardon the pun, but what in God's name is Pfleger doing on the same stage as Farrakhan, a race-baiting anti-Semite? Why is the archdiocese of Chicago permitting that?
We contacted Archbishop Francis George, but the head of Chicago's 2.4 million Catholics has no comment.
Are you kidding me? This is a scandal. You can't have a Catholic priest whose message should be peace on earth, goodwill to men, standing there with a hateful guy like Farrakhan. I mean, Wright is bad, but Farrakhan is nuclear. This is unbelievable.
Just in case you missed "The Factor" Tuesday night, here's a taste of what Farrakhan said just last Sunday:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOUIS FARRAKHAN, NATION OF ISLAM LEADER: The white right is trying to set Barack up to be assassinated. There are Christians…
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, yes, sir.
FARRAKHAN: …praying for God to kill Barack Obama. He wants to write a new page with the Muslim world, but the Zionists won't let him. Now they got him with a mustache like Hitler.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
FARRAKHAN: I thought I was the new black Hitler.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Again, Archbishop of Chicago Francis George will not comment about one of his priests being honored with Farrakhan and Wright.
"Talking Points" has no problem with these three men speaking about anything. They have First Amendment rights. But the whole deal is so bizarre, we thought you should know about it.
"Living Legends" indeed. === Michelle Malkin Reacts to Rangel Scandal This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 3, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right, so after insisting that he would not step down from his position as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Charlie Rangel finally threw in the towel this morning. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLIE RANGEL, D-N.Y.: In order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections, I have this morning sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi, asking her to grant me a leave of absence, until such time as the ethics committee completes its work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Oddly, Rangel has found no shortage of Democrats willing to defend his ethical fiber. Chief among them House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who had this to say about the findings of the House Ethics Committee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: All I saw was the press release where they said that he did not violate the rules of the House. And I think that's an important statement that they made. But they did not take action against him. They just said he did not willfully break the rules.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And joining me now with reaction to the latest Democratic corruption scandal is the author of number one "New York Times" best- seller, "Culture of Corruption." Michelle Malkin is back with us.
What happened to drain the swamp? What happened to the most ethical Congress ever?
MICHELLE MALKIN, "THE CULTURE OF CORRUPTION" AUTHOR: Well, Nancy Pelosi, with her mop and her clean-up attitude, didn't drain the swamp. She over flooded it. And now, as I've said the culture of corruption chickens are coming home to roost.
I think that this is a damning indictment, not just of Charlie Rangel, and the arrogance and the hubris with which he has clung bitterly to his seat and to his gavel, as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, but it is as much a damning indictment of Speaker Pelosi and the hypocrisy with which she has ruled, with her gavel as House speaker.
Downplaying these violations and remember this is just the tip of the iceberg. The issue here that he was so weakly admonished for by the House Ethics Committee which involved corporate sponsorships on a junket in the Caribbean is the tip of the iceberg, as I say.
He's got all of these lapses with his financial disclosure forms. There's a rent controlled apartments in New York City. There's the use of official stationary to try and solicit funds for a public policy school in New York that's named after him. It goes on and on and on.
Those issues still have to be resolved. And yet here we have Nancy Pelosi shrugging it off because technically he didn't violate anything and after all, as she said a couple of days ago, it's not like he endangered national security.
HANNITY: Yes.
MALKIN: She actually said that, Sean.
HANNITY: No, she actually said that and she had a very different take when she had comments about Tom DeLay.
What's — the story gets more interesting now because you've got Rangel's successor, a guy by the name of Congressman Pete Stark, who himself has been investigated for ethics violations.
He's had a number of bizarre outbursts in 2007. He actually said that, you know, Americans are being sent to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement.
He said at another time to a reporter, get the blank out of here or I'll throw you out a window. So this is the next guy in line to take over the powerful House Ways and Means Committee?
MALKIN: Yes, it does tell you something about these bizarro, swamp creatures that this is the only person that Pelosi has to elevate her crony from California. I don't just call him Pete Stark, he's Pete Stark-raving mad.
He is infamous on YouTube for going after his own constituents who dared to question him over the summer over the health care takeover. He has used foul language on the House floor, not just against former President Bush who he accused of being amused over the deaths of Iraqis during war.
But also language that he used against his fellow colleagues. And then of course his own ethics scandal, as you mentioned.
HANNITY: Yes.
MALKIN: Regarding a house that he claimed deductions for, apparently, in Maryland. And then he went and cussed the people who were investigating that as well.
Now this guy will be wielding the gavel? It really is time to drain the swamp and that time is coming soon.
HANNITY: All right, remember how big an issue the Mark Foley case was leading into the 2006 elections? Politico reported earlier today that this guy, one-term congressman, Eric Massa, also from New York.
I don't know what's in the water in New York these days. But according to several House aides on both sides of the aisle, you know, this guy is married with two kids, who's being accused — he's denying it — but being accused of sexually harassing a male staffer.
Now do you remember the outrage then? So how big an issue — I guess is my question — how big an issue is corruption now going to be as we head into these midterms? You think it's going to matter?
MALKIN: I think it's going to be one of the key issues in 2010 and 2012. I think the “culture of corruption” epithet that Pelosi and Dean used against the Republicans in the midterms is coming to boomerang and bite the Democrats right back in their back side.
And the fact that there were 39 Democrats who refused to stand by Charlie Rangel and inviting the wrath of the congressional black caucus, which of course is going to play the race card as they always have done in defending Charlie Rangel over the years.
It tells you something. It tells you that they are scared out of their minds, as they should be. They don't want to taint on them.
HANNITY: All right, last question.
MALKIN: And it's about time.
HANNITY: All right. Last question. Is it going to be the Republicans and the Democrats that get the wrath of voters, or is this mostly about the Democrats and Obama's agenda?
MALKIN: Well, this is the ruling majority. They're responsible. They're accountable, and the people will hold them accountable for it.
HANNITY: All right. Michelle Malkin, always appreciate you being with us. Thank you very much. === NEWS BRIEFLETS Tim Blair • Australia is the world’s drug dealer. Cool.
• “Global warming freaks” denounced.
• Caption of the year: “Coconut munching paradise dweller.”
• And another caption, via CL and Hot Air.
• She’s an expert: “A 45-year-old woman, charged with ending a domestic dispute by killing her 26-year-old husband of five days, is a registered lobbyist for a group fighting domestic violence.”
• It is important to know your pretentious hats. (Via Michael Rittenhouse) === BILL’S BACK Tim Blair It took me a couple of seconds last night to recognise the sturdy chap waving to me from the other end of the bar. It was Bill Leak, looking very healthy and strong following his dreadful accident in 2008. Bill is now Australia’s funniest conversationalist on the subject of cranial surgery. === Iraq, the democracy the Left wouldn’t back Andrew Bolt Professor Fouad Ajami marvels at what has been wrought in Iraq, facing another general election on March 7:
The American project in Iraq has midwifed that rarest of creatures in the Greater Middle East: a government that emerges out of the consent of the governed. We should trust the Iraqis with their own history. That means letting their electoral process play out against the background of the Arab dynasties and autocracies, and of the Iranian theocracy next door that made a mockery out of its own national elections…
Of all that has been said about Iraq since the time that country became an American burden, nothing equals the stark formulation once offered by a diplomat not given to grandstanding and rhetorical flourishes. Said former U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker: “In the end, what we leave behind and how we leave will be more important than how we came.”
We can already see the outline of what our labor has created: a representative government, a binational state of Arabs and Kurds, and a country that does not bend to the will of one man or one ruling clan. === And a Mercedes in every garage Andrew Bolt This is the bit that makes me most doubt Kevin Rudd’s hospitals plan:
The federal government has promised to cut waiting lists down and move public patients into private beds if necessary, under its $90 billion overhaul of the hospitals system.
That is a bold promise that is essentially uncosted, and assumes that surgeons are even available at the lower price the Government will surely be offering. And if public patients can now expect private treatment, why would a mug pay top dollar for the private health insurance that keeps these private hospitals afloat?
I sense one more over-promise that could lead to tears and an ocean of red ink - when Rudd already can’t say how he’ll pay for his massive shakeup. === Now for a glimpse of Prime Minister Abbott Andrew Bolt I agree with Dennis Shanahan that Tony Abbott’s early success means he needs soon to switch to alternative Prime Minister mode:
Abbott must stay ahead of the game and perhaps move sooner than he expected on to positive policy instead of relying only on negative oppositionism.
This will pose not just a political challenge for Abbott, but a psychological one. Being intensely self-reflective and doubting - and honest, too - will he be able to project the self-assurance and gravitas we expect in the leader of this nation?
But I certainly don’t think it’s time to stop pointing out Rudd’s flaws. The insulation fiasco is only a metaphor for so much else, and that big picture needs explaining, too.- in many ways Bolt is still demanding much of Abbott that he never would demand of the ALP. I think Abbott is up to it, but I dislike these sleights of Bolt. -ed. === Hand the installers not our wallets but our country Andrew Bolt W HAT a great country this would be if the insulation bandits now robbing us blind actually ran it instead.
I look at the quotation book and pay sheets left behind at one more house stuffed with Kevin Rudd’s useless free insulation and think, boy, these blokes are sharp.
Certainly sharper than the politicians and bureaucrats who blew $2.5 billion of our money on this colossal spending spree that’s left four installers dead, 90 homes burned, 1000 more electrified, and another 240,000 fitted with insulation, much of it imported, that’s either useless or dangerous.
I mean, how on earth did so many people - including hundreds barely able to speak English - work out so fast that here was a bring-your-own-wheelbarrow mountain of free cash to which they could help themselves, and in most cases legally?
How did they work out dodges and wheezes that seemingly whip-smart politicians such as Rudd and and his top-shelf bureaucrats never thought to even guard against?
I flick through this quotation book, for instance, and see that these guys worked systematically through street after street of the suburbs they’d picked out, quoting each house precisely the same maximum $1200 for installing Rudd’s insulation - no matter whether the installation area was 120sq m or just 80.
It was free to the householder, anyway, so they wouldn’t quibble. And it was gravy to the installer, who on the smaller jobs could get Rudd’s free cash for up to 40sq m of batts he never had to install.
Wait, you still want a quote from a second company? No worries - these same guys could organise that on the spot, too, or so claims the man who found these documents in his home.
Other installers, we now learn, were even sharper, billing the rush-rush-Rudd Government for whole houses they never even touched, but for which they forged invoices they were sure then would never be checked. === Insulate us from the nongs who ran this program Andrew Bolt It gets worse and worse:
GREG Combet has called in the Auditor-General to investigate the bungled $2.45 billion home insulation program.
The move comes amid fresh allegations by the federal opposition of “widespread and systemic” rorting of the suspended scheme, involving installers claiming rebates for ceiling batts never laid.
The allegations emerged as householders received letters from the government asking if they were satisfied with insulation paid for by taxpayers.
Many householders said their homes had not been fitted with batts but they had received letters sent to fake names at their address…
The government could not say yesterday how many had complained that their roofs had not been insulated.
I think “would not say” is more accurate.
UPDATE
And another disaster:
THE $175 million green loans scheme was “hijacked” by opportunists, overseas call centres and companies that specialised in making homes environmentally friendly, leading to a raft of dubious assessments.
As the Auditor-General begins a probe into the debacle, the industry association charged by Environment Minister Peter Garrett to accredit the army of green assessors has slammed the scheme as poorly managed and lacking quality checks.
Association of Building Sustainability Assessors chairman Wayne Floyd said tens of thousands of home owners, eligible for the $10,000 interest-free loans, were now likely to miss out on the Rudd government’s new March 22 deadline on the loans.
UPDATE 3
Reader Arden:
Andrew, this blog seems like a good place to collect evidence about the extent of the rorts. Here’s my contribution:I was cold-called a couple of months ago by someone offering to insulate my roof. I told him we already had very good insulation which the builder had installed. He replied that he’d replace the insulation. I asked him why would he replace, it, it doesn’t wear out, does it? No, he said, if the old insulation was still good he’d instal new stuff over the top. Again, I asked why, would this improve my energy efficiency? No answer. Then I told him that we had a very shallow-pitched roof with no roof-space, so he’d have to take off the colourbond roofing to instal the insulation. He hung up. === Arctic puts Wilkinson’s alarmism on ice Andrew Bolt
You’ll remember alarmist Marian Wilkinson’s scare-mongering report for Four Corners after the big Arctic melt of 2007:
If you want to see climate change happening before your eyes, scientists will tell you: “Go to the end of the earth”, and that’s why we’re here, in the Arctic Circle.
Wilkinson never explained why the end of the earth we had to go to for evidence was the top, and not the bottom, where sea ice was actually increasing. But let’s go back to the Arctic, as the ice reaches its winter peak, to see “climate change happening before your eyes”.
Surprise! Anthony Watts presents the evidence showing the Arctic sea ice cover keeps recovering from its 2007 lows. For instance, the Danish Meteorological Institute shows the ice extent at nearly the highest in its six-year record: You might just see from the National Snow and Ice Data Center that the Baltic has even more ice than the long-tern average: Which may explain this:
AROUND 50 ships, including large ferries reportedly carrying thousands, were stuck in the ice in the Baltic Sea today and many were not likely to be freed for hours, Swedish maritime authorities said.
(Thanks to reader Mike and Merilyn.) === Peta pays to rob poor voters Andrew Bolt POOR Peta Duke. If she hadn’t somehow typed the ABC’s address on the email she’d actually meant for her boss, she’d be a hero.
“You’ve done it again, girl!” Planning Minister Justin Madden would probably have chortled.
“Your plan will do the trick.” With emphasis on the word “trick” - as in one more deceit by those pea-and-thimble shysters you now elect in these spin-spin days.
You know the kind of thing - stacking committees to produce the “right result”, fudging surveys to prompt the longed-for answer, and launching sham inquiries to give your crusading politicians exactly the dodgy conclusion they always wanted.
But, alas. Duke, eyes no doubt whirling from another frantic day of spinning in the Brumby Government’s media unit, last week accidentally emailed her plans for the Government’s latest “trick” to the ABC, and now must pay the price for being caught doing precisely what she’s paid to do.
Denounced by the suddenly moral Premier, John Brumby, and the suddenly outraged Madden, she was “demoted” to doing, er, what she always does.
Paid to spin, and now “punished” as spin, by a minister whose other new title - “Minister for Respect” - is pure spin, too, to trick Indians into thinking this Government is cracking down on racist thugs. It’s a circus, folks.
You’ve no doubt heard about Duke’s precise “crime” - drawing up a document titled “Minister for Planning Justin Madden’s Media Plan” to help her man rig the blocking of a proposed redevelopment of the heritage-listed Windsor Hotel. === Local planning is best left to locals who must live with it Andrew Bolt Is there any proof that the Federal Government and its Canberra mandarins know best how Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the rest should run themselves?
The federal Infrastructure Minister, Anthony Albanese, will today outline the Rudd Government’s push to cut across state and local authorities, as he releases a snapshot into the state of Australian cities that will form the basis of a national cities policy…
The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has signalled the government’s intention to intervene in urban planning.
A very dangerous touch of arrogance and overreach, I fear, although I can understand why the clowns in Sydney might encourage Kevin Rudd to think he could do a better job.
SCHOOLGROUND knife and weapon attacks have doubled in 10 years and are as common as bar-room stabbings and glassings. Police investigated 70 weapon attacks in school, university and college grounds in 2008-09, compared to 73 offences in licensed premises. === Ministers dare doubt what they once just copped Andrew Bolt Cabinet “splits” may be overselling what are just the usual range of views, yet it’s the first time in two years such a thing could even be said:
KEVIN Rudd faces damaging cabinet splits over tax policy, election strategies and political tactics as his response to poor polling erodes the hallmark solidarity of Labor’s first two years in government…
Federal and state Labor MPs are questioning Mr Rudd’s political handling of issues such as the emissions trading scheme, his bungled $2.45 billion home insulation program, threatening a referendum on health at the election and not releasing the Henry tax review. They are also critical of Mr Rudd for months of delays in the release of the health proposal, his frank admissions of broken promises, failure to deliver and his apparent panic in the face of falling polls…
Mr Rudd retains the absolute support of his colleagues, but a series of political problems have slashed Labor’s long-established lead in opinion polls, and MPs concerned at the significant drop in his personal approval are querying his style and judgment.
After weeks of bad publicity over the roofing insulation scheme and government refusals to investigate the scheme under Peter Garrett, the new Minister for Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, yesterday announced an about-face and called in the Auditor-General to investigate fraud.
At the same time, Health Minister Nicola Roxon failed to rule out tax increases to pay for the health changes and Mr Rudd played down the prospect of releasing the Henry tax review, which the government has had for months. He said he had not spoken to Wayne Swan about it because he was preoccupied with the health plan.
Several senior Labor sources have confirmed the cabinet differences over Mr Rudd’s delay in releasing his promised “root-and-branch” examination by a committee led by Treasury secretary Ken Henry. The report was completed late last year but is stalled as the Treasurer tries to ensure it does not prompt a tax-rise scare campaign only months before an election campaign. === Why Gillard is Bolt’s pin-up. For now Andrew Bolt I like her, too:
JULIA Gillard has been anointed as one “smart lady” who should be “running the country” by Sydney radio king Alan Jones, who complained today he could sum up Australia’s problems with two words: “Kevin and Rudd"…
But a grumpy Jones, famously dubbed the Parrot, opened the batting in today’s interview by demanding of Ms Gillard: “Why have you allowed yourself to be dragged into the defence of what is a hastily cobbled together so-called reform package?”
Jones complained of the “Prime Minister telling us about the government, all the government’s shortcomings, all their failures, all their mistakes, all their bungles. Surely in everything that we’ve seen the government has only two problems, Julia; one is Kevin and the other is Rudd.”
“This is, we’ve got the wrong person running the country,” Jones told listeners.
“I will say to my listeners this is a woman who has nothing to do with health care and she is the Minister for Education and Industrial Relations and she’d most probably run rings around anyone in government arguing the case today. ”
I’m not sure just why Gillard appeals so to conservatives. Is it that she seems so pragmatic now, ditching any sign of her old flirtation with the far Left? Is it her earthiness, and obvious intelligence? Is it her reluctance to play along with Labor’s New Class and to damn the battlers and “forgotten Australians”?
In my case, one reason for my respect is that she’s spearheaded the few government programs that a conservative - or any evidence-based Leftist, too- could whole-heartedly endorse: a return to phonics, the publication of school results, a return to more of the basics in education. She seems as passionate as I am that working class and immigrant children be given that ladder of education to climb out of cultural ghettos and join the great conversation of our civilisation.
And there’s that school-marmish insistence on standards:
JULIA Gillard has been the nation’s education minister for a little over two years, but her passion for grammar and punctuation has deep roots. As a solicitor at law firm Slater and Gordon in the 1980s and ‘90s, Ms Gillard would get her staff to chant: ‘’One cat’s hat, two cats’ hats, where do the apostrophes go?’’
She told her biographer, Jacqueline Kent: ‘’If I got a letter with it done wrong I would draw a cat with a hat at the bottom in the hope it would come back right the next time. They all thought I was kind of strange.’’
But three cautions…
One other reason for her popularity is simply that she’s not Kevin Rudd. It’s natural to wish for the successor when the leader seems so catastrophic, and it’s natural, too, to overpraise that longed-for alternative.
Second, Gillard, in the end, comes from the Left and I’m not sure her gut instinct isn’t still isn’t there, leaving her with a bias to big-government solutions (Medicare Gold and workplace “reforms").
Third, while her negotiation skills have been proven, with even few employers prepared to say a bad word about her, it’s not clear at all yet that she can run a big program well. The $16.5 billion Building the Education Revolution has already blown its budget and wasted billions on overpriced, irrelevant and even unwanted school buildings. The workplace “reforms” have actually put many people out of work. The computers in schools program is behind schedule, over budget and largely ineffectual in improving teaching.
It may well be that we love Gillard now. But she’s smart enough to know that we might find Prime Minister Gillard not quite this charming,in the end.
But I’m very, very keen that she prove me wrong.
UPDATE
Speaking of delivery and big government:
ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence has expressed concern that the Rudd government’s award revamp could leave workers worse off, after union leaders vented their frustration that Labor’s policy could disadvantage their members. During debate at the ACTU executive, union leaders told Mr Lawrence they were unconvinced by Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard’s assurance that workers’ take-home pay and conditions would be protected.
(Thanks to reader CA.) === Which pollie is reading a cracker book? Andrew Bolt From the Australian Literary Review’s survey of federal politicians comes this mildly reassuring list:
Table 1: Favourite Authors Listed by Australian Politicians
Non-fiction
1. Nelson Mandela (Bruce Billson LP, James Turnour ALP, Anthony Albanese ALP, Brett Raguse ALP, Pat Farmer LP, Margaret May LP)
2. Robert Caro (Chris Bowen ALP, Mitch Fifield LP, Nicholas Champion ALP, Kirsten Livermore ALP)
3. Les Carlyon (Brendan Nelson LP, Michael Forshaw ALP, Bruce Scott NAT)
4. The Bible (Stuart Robert LP, Hedley Chapman LP, Alex Hawke LP)
Fiction
1. Leo Tolstoy (Lindsay Tanner ALP, Mike Kelly ALP, Nick Minchin LP, Trish Crossin ALP)
2. Harper Lee (Chris Bowen ALP, Brett Mason LP, Bruce Billson LP, Shayne Neumann ALP)
3. J.R.R. Tolkien (Kate Lundy ALP, Darren Cheeseman ALP, Tony Abbott LP)
Non-Fiction and Fiction
1. George Orwell (Cory Bernardi LP, Lindsay Tanner ALP, Brendan O’Connor ALP, Mark Dreyfus ALP, Gary Humphries LP, Mitch Fifield LP)
Do the Labor politicians who nominated Tolstoy and Orwell realise how profoundly conservative their essential message is? I’m looking at you, Lindsay Tanner. John Roskam tells why Caro should be on the list here.
Tony Abbott’s list is great, Sword of Honour being a particularly marvellous book I read only last year myself:
Last non-fiction: Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews
Last fiction: Evelyn Waugh, Sword of Honour (trilogy)
Favourite non-fiction: Robert Rhodes James, Churchill: A Study in Failure
Favourite fiction: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Other politicians I find in my reading room are Mark Bishop, Christopher Pyne, Mitch Fifield, Gary Humphries, Greg Hunt and Tanner. From previous chats, I’m sure George Brandis is, too, but he didn’t join in this survey.
One curious thing; how bare the list is of non-English authors, other than Tolstoy, a Roman, a Nordic crime writer or two, and a couple of others. No Orhan Pamuk, for instance, or Hugo, Flaubert, Stendahl, Ibsen, Montaigne, Goethe, Roth, Virgil, Dante or Dostoevsky. The only person to nominate a book by the great master Conrad couldn’t or didn’t name the author. Sadly, few mentioned Dickens and none Trollope, author of the some of the greatest political fiction.
But let’s see what book Maxine McKew nominates as her favorite non-fiction:
The Battle for Bennelong
Yes, it’s about herself. === Four against one, even discounting Jones Andrew Bolt John Styles examines the very curious notion that the ABC’s Q&A has of “balance”.
Oh, and my own piece that you see flagged above is here.
Peter Coleman also discusses the launch of Keith Windschuttle’s book on the “stolen generations” here. I told you I got a bit heated, although Coleman is kind enough to simply say I spoke “with passion”.
Most people freeze with terror when speaking in public. I don’t, but freeze with regret afterwards.
I was born in New York City when my family didn't live there. They were living in Princeton NJ. My dad worked for Columbia University's Teacher's College as chair of Psychology (not to be confused with the more prestigious Columbia University's Chair of Psychology). He was the original educational evaluator of Sesame Street and the Electric Company (Jim Henson was the talent, my dad was just the hack education expert). He also worked for the UN in developing nations of Africa, Asia and the Pacific. New York was where he was based and his family lived in nearby Princeton. While my mother was visiting my dad in NYC, I was born. Both my parents are Australian. I lived my first eleven years in the US, but have lived the next thirty two years in Australia and see myself as Australian. I went to High School here, and university. I did odd jobs in Sydney before becoming a teacher in Sydney. When I turned eighteen in '85 I was allowed to vote as a permanent resident. I hadn't formalized my citizenship status. Partly I didn't want to give up my US citizenship. I didn't register to vote as I didn't feel it important. But by my mid twenties I cared about political process and wanted to exercise my responsibilities. But the law had changed, and if I hadn't enrolled I wasn't allowed to enroll because I hadn't formally adopted Australian citizenship. I didn't have to do much, just tell the federal government, but I was afraid of losing my US status, so I resisted that. I went to an election both on voting day and asked if I could vote, explaining that if I wasn't enrolled I wasn't entitled to, but if I was enrolled I should. A sympathetic polling booth manager listened to me, and allowed me to vote in absentia for where I felt I might have enrolled. I got word back a month or so later that my vote hadn't counted because I wasn't registered. I thought that would be the end of that. I moved a lot in my early years as an adult. I was sharing a flat with university students when my car was stolen. I found this out as I went to go to work. I reported it to the police and to my insurance company. Then I went to go to the police station to officially report it. I identified myself at the police station and found out there was an outstanding warrant for my arrest. I was supposed to serve one day for failing to vote in an election. The police sergeant kindly offered to not arrest me straight away, but suggested I fix up the matter quickly, as I assured him I could. What had happened was the sympathetic electoral officer had enrolled me, and I had moved after I had been told that I wasn't registered. Because I wasn't aware I'd been enrolled, I didn't tell the electoral office I'd moved. The following election I failed to vote they sent a letter to my old residence .. a fine I failed to pay. I was given my day in court, but I failed to appear. So due process was to place a warrant for my arrest for the unpaid fine. I asked an uncle what I should do and was advised to tell the electoral office what had happened and ask to have the warrant quashed. I did that, but in order to sidestep the next question as to why I might be voting when I wasn't a citizen I also declared my citizenship as Australian. I thought I could explain my actions to the US later. That should have been the end of the matter. I vote each election and I am proud to exercise that right. But then something really sinister happened. I became a witness to an apparent government lead cover up of the death of a school student Hamidur Rahman. I was being harassed and I told my occupational government minister I would resign and contact the press if they failed to fix the situation. They failed, and so I resigned to speak out. I felt I could leverage centerlink to help me launch an unfair dismissal claim in IR court .. I was going to have the state government on toast. But then centerlink told me (after my resignation) that their records did not show I existed or was an Australian and I needed to prove who I was or face possible deportation. I'd been paying tax since I was seventeen years old. My dad had represented Australia government internationally. My mother was also a former government employee. Neither Centerlink nor immigration could locate any record of their existence. I could tell them where they lived, but my family is estranged. It took me eight months before I declare my citizenship and provide proof. In the mean time, I was timed out of IR court and I'd learned the press didn't need to report my story regarding that poor school boy. And I was threatened by a couple of ALP government Ministers. I am a dual citizen, currently, but I understand I will need to surrender my US citizenship so as to contest the next state election as an independent running for the NSW Legislative Council on the issue of Justice for Hamidur Rahman. I am proud to be Australian, and proud to vote. I believe voting should be voluntary, but that conscience should compel. === This blog was written for Zaya Toma's
I feel so bad for them. After all, how often do we wear things just to stay warm? New Vid in a few days Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/natalietran Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/community-channel/6783117830 Hope you're all well and enjoying your weeks! x n === Blue crocs. Blue blouse. Blue ukulele with Nat's picture on it. Goliath on a t shirt. Bottles of spirit on an upright piano next to an electric organ .. I think our Nat is trying out for a role in the sequel to Avatar as a performing monkey with inebriation issues.
This lithograph depicts some of the players in the 1852 presidential race between Winfield Scott and Franklin Pierce as they surround the voter, a figure represented, as he often is, as a bumpkin, a dupe, and somewhat of a grotesque. "Soliciting a Vote," anonymous, 16.8 x 22.1 cm (ca. 1852). Courtesy of the Political Cartoons Collection at the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869) was the 14th President of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857, an American politician and lawyer. To date, he is the only President from New Hampshire. Philip B. Kunhardt and Peter W. Kunhardt reflected the views of many historians when they wrote in The American President that Pierce was "a good man who didn't understand his own shortcomings. He was genuinely religious, loved his wife and reshaped himself so that he could adapt to her ways and show her true affection. He was one of the most popular men in New Hampshire, polite and thoughtful, easy and good at the political game, charming and fine and handsome. However, he has been criticized as timid and unable to cope with a changing America. He was a Democrat.
=== Bible Quote ===
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”- Isaiah 55:8-9
=== Headlines ===
An air traffic controller at New York's Kennedy Airport is suspended, along with his supervisor, for allowing his young son to radio instructions to several pilots.
'Time to Make a Decision' Obama calls for vote on health care reform in 'next few weeks,' saying it's decision time after yearlong debate
Giant Wave Hits Cruise, Kills 2 Two passengers die after an abnormally large 26-foot wave smashes into cruise ship traveling to Italy
Pakistan Army Takes Control of Al Qaeda Cave Network Pakistani forces have taken control of a warren of caves that served until recently as the nerve center of the Taliban and Al Qaeda and sheltered Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command to Usama bin Laden. “It was the main hub of militancy where Al Qaeda operatives had moved freely,” Major-General Tariq Khan, the Pakistan regional commander, said as he gave journalists a tour of Damadola yesterday.
Fans whipped into frenzy over anonymous claims singer was planning her first Australian tour in almost 20 years but high cost of tickets immediately raised suspicions
Blade held to year 7 girl's neck A SCHOOLGIRL had a knife held to her throat in an apparent copycat incident of a recent attack.
'Sex mad' cop Jessica Parfrey loses unfair dismissal claim A POLICE officer who was sacked after begging colleagues for sex has lost her unfair dismissal claim. Within days of being posted Jessica Parfrey propositioned her supervisor to have an affair because "everyone knows you're supposed to fall in love with your buddy".
Man due in court after police shooting A MAN has been charged over a breaking and entering that ended in a 16-year-old boy being shot in the leg with a 'stun gun'.
Teen's assault terror walking to school POLICE are hunting a skinny man with a comb-over hair style who attacked a teenage girl as she walked to school, committing an evil sex assault.
High ranking 'Notorious bikie' arrested A 31-YEAR-OLD man alleged to be a high-ranking bikie gang member will front court today. He was arrested on Wednesday after attending Castle Hill police station, in Sydney's northwest, and charged with a warrant for the revocation of parole and affray.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Mitt and Ann Romney speak on their fight for a health care plan that makes sense for our country! Plus, Senator Jim Bunning on the controversy surrounding the unemployment bill! Guest: Dick Morris Obama's health care strategy 2.0! Morris on the evolution of the president's plan! === Exposing Hamas! A founding leader's son rejected the group's violence & faith! Now, he takes us inside the deadly terrorist group! === Health Care Obama proposes a way forward! Will his plan move both sides closer or could it be back to the drawing board?
=== Comments ===
Is Our Freedom in Danger? By Bill O'Reilly Some Tea Party people, along with commentators like Glenn Beck and some other radio guys, believe the Obama administration and progressives in general want to curtail individual freedom.
And you know what? That might be true.
Right now there is a case before the Supreme Court, McDonald v. Chicago, where the right to bear arms is in play.
As you may know, the Constitution allows Americans to bear arms under Second Amendment protection. The reason the founders put that in was that they feared a tyrant might seize control of the federal government, and they wanted individual citizens to have protections against tyranny.
Now, tyranny comes in many forms. For example, criminal gangs can threaten your well-being. That's tyranny and that's why 76-year-old Otis McDonald wants to keep a handgun in his home.
McDonald lives on Chicago's South Side, a chaotic neighborhood. But the city says McDonald has no right to have a handgun, thus the Supreme Court case.
Incredibly, the very liberal New York Times, which is supposed to champion individual liberty, editorialized it this way: "The Bill of Rights once was largely thought to be a set of limitations on the federal government. Does the right to bear arms apply against city and state governments as well?"
Of course it does. Are you telling me the city of Chicago could restrict freedom of speech in violation of the Constitution? This case isn't even close, and I predict the court will rule 5 to 4 that Otis McDonald can own a handgun.
But the four justices who would violate Mr. McDonald's rights are troubling because they don't like guns. They don't like the Second Amendment, and therefore would restrict it.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is an assault on individual freedom.
It is interesting that in America today, it is the far left that wants the government to call the shots, not the folks. In the past, right-wing extremists like Hitler and Mussolini were in the forefront of state control. But with the exception of Burma, today's totalitarians are primarily on the left. Certainly that is the case in the USA.
"Talking Points" is not ready to say the Obama administration wants to deprive us of rights. That would not be fair. But there is a movement underway in this country, led by so-called progressives, that would restrict individual liberty.
These people want the government to run the economy, to tell you how much you can and can't have, to force you to buy things like health insurance and to take away things they don't approve of, like guns.
This is a serious situation, and the Supreme Court case McDonald v. Chicago will be a big time indicator of which way things are going to go. === END ROBERT MANNE’S SILENCE Tim Blair Elizabeth Farrelly laments the oppression of her kind: The intelligentsia is the last minority that dare not speak its name. === THINGS SCIENTISTS SAY X Tim Blair The tenth in a series of great scientifical clusters found in the peer-reviewed archives of the New York Times:
• 1947: “ATOM-BOMBED CITY CLAIMS CROP GAINS; Nagasaki Yield Reported 50 to 300% Above Normal – U.S. Scientists Voice Surprise.”
Radiation + Japanese things = bigger Japanese things. It’s your basic Godzilla equation.
• 1949: “Recent scientific efforts to control the weather and make rain start or stop at man’s will were subjected to the scrutiny of the United States Weather Bureau in the Astor Hotel yesterday and termed ‘of relatively little economic importance.’”
Tell that to Al Gore.
• 1956: “A Federal judge asserted here today that ‘the younger generation of pure scientists‘ had become a ‘fertile field for Communist propaganda.’”
That judge was on to something.
• 1958: ”Scientists of the world put their heads together here this week and came up with the collective judgment that the age of plentitude from atomic energy was still a hope, not an imminent reality.”
Sadly for Australia, this remains true.
• 1963: ”Scientists Are Often Right.”
That would have been a fine alternative title for An Inconvenient Truth.
• 1963: ”Scientists Do More Than Talk About the Weather.”
They also falsify evidence about it.
• 1966: “The specter of a ‘biologically planned society’ in which scientists control human behavior and decide who shall live and who shall mate was raised yesterday by Mrs. Sargent Shriver.”
Why, it almost sounds as though this liberal lioness was opposed to … death panels!
• 1970: ”Scientists are looking at kelp, a seaweed, as a new energy source.”
That explains all the kelpmills we see nowadays churning away on the ocean floor.
• 1973: “The Federation of American Scientists, warning that an accident at a nuclear power station ‘could mean death to tens of thousands of people,’ urged the Government today to require cutbacks in the reactors’ operating levels.”
Obama is a nuclear denialist.
• 1974: ”Scientists View Global Climate Changes as Threat to World’s Food Output.”
CONMEN are under investigation for allegedly forging signatures to receive the Federal Government’s home insulation rebate without ever undertaking the work…
Rogue installers allegedly chose names at random out of the phone book and forged signatures, to receive the un-capped rebates worth up to $1600, streets at a time.
There are also reports installers went door-to-door to get signatures, by falsely telling homeowners they were needed to allow inspections to take place.
(Thanks to reader John and others.)
UPDATE
James Board explains just why rush-rush-Rudd’s Building the Education Revolution has already blown out by $1.5 billion - and will waste plenty more. === Snowing on warmists’ parade Andrew Bolt I don’t think global warming is working out quite as warmists predicted: === Any other bits of Britain that Obama wants to give away? Andrew Bolt Barack Obama doesn’t really value the British alliance much, does he?
Argentina was celebrating a diplomatic coup yesterday in its attempt to force Britain to accept talks on the future of the Falkland Islands, after a two-hour meeting in Buenos Aires between Hillary Clinton and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Responding to a request from Mrs Kirchner for “friendly mediation” between Britain and Argentina, Mrs Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said she agreed that talks were a sensible way forward and offered “to encourage both countries to sit down”.
Her intervention defied Britain’s longstanding position that there should be no negotiations unless the islands’ 3,000 inhabitants asked for them. It was hailed in Buenos Aires as a major diplomatic victory, but condemned in the Falklands.
UPDATE
Malcom Fraser modestly takes credit for singlehandedly persuading the United States to back Britain in the Falklands War.
At least the pleasure of the boast (however inflated) still outweighs Fraser’s new Leftist itch, which must surely be urging him to repudiate this war.
AUSTRALIA’S top climate scientist has contradicted Federal Government claims the drought in the Murray Darling Basin is due to global warming.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead author, Prof Neville Nicholls, said the claim was not backed by science.
“The current dry period (in the Murray Darling Basin) might still be just a fluke, or natural variability,” Prof Nicholls said.
“We cannot confidently attribute it to global warming.”
Yet Federal Climate Change and Water Minister Penny Wong has repeatedly claimed the basin’s drought is due to climate change.
“Research shows that this severe, extended drought is clearly linked with global warming,” Senator Wong said in November last year.
“There is nowhere that this challenge is more serious than the Murray Darling Basin.”
But while rainfall has dropped to record lows, other scientists say the statistics don’t back Senator Wong’s claim.
Prof Steven Sherwood, of the University of NSW Climate Change Research Centre, said the “sceptics here are (for once) technically correct, in that there is no proven link - yet - between Murray Darling drought and climate change”.
How it hurts Sherwood to concede what he should have trumpeted years ago. Why so silent for so long, Professor?
(Thanks to reader Peter.)
UPDATE
Reader chrisgo wonders just what evidence there is that the recent rainfall in the Murray Darling basin is unusually low, and proof of a heating world: === What’s a piece of paper, anyway? Andrew Bolt Thirteen years? So I guess he can fly all right, then:
A pilot has been arrested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport for flying passenger planes for 13 years with a false licence. === The drum on the sceptics Andrew Bolt Michael Connor claims censorship:
Quadrant Online previously reported that the ABC had invited Bob Carter to contribute to an online debate on The Drum following their publication of a series of five articles by Clive Hamilton.
Left internet newsletters and blog sites were outraged that sceptics were to be allowed to comment on their ABC.
Professor Carter submitted his article, on James Hansen and the Hansenism cult, and the ABC has rejected his article - which Quadrant Online is privileged to publish.
James Hansen is visiting Australia. We can only guess at the pressures which have been exerted on the ABC to close down criticism of Hansen - and the cowardice which saw them conform.
Carter’s article - warning that Hansen’s gospel is more dangerous than Lysenkoism - is here.
This aside, it is true that Drum editor Jonathan Green has now published http://www.abc.net.au/thedrum/” title="some articles by sceptics “>some articles by sceptics to balance the astonishing five-part rant by the conspiracy-minded Clive Hamilton, an amusement to his foes and embarrassment to his friends.
Here is one, JoNova’s uncovering of the great green money trail:
The US government spent $79 billion on climate research and technology since 1989 - to be sure, this funding paid for things like satellites and studies, but it’s 3,500 times as much as anything offered to sceptics. It buys a bandwagon of support, a repetitive rain of press releases, and includes PR departments of institutions like NOAA, NASA, the Climate Change Science Program and the Climate Change Technology Program. The $79 billion figure does not include money from other western governments, private industry, and is not adjusted for inflation. In other words, it could be…a lot bigger.
For direct PR comparisons though, just look at “Think Climate Think Change”: the Australian Government put $13.9 million into just one quick advertising campaign. There is no question that there are vastly more financial rewards for people who promote a carbon-made catastrophe than for those who point out the flaws in the theory.
Ultimately the big problem is that there are no grants for scientists to demonstrate that carbon has little effect. There are no Institutes of Natural Climate Change, but plenty that are devoted to UnNatural Forces. === Tell Manne to shut up, then Andrew Bolt Elizabeth Farrelly:
The intelligentsia is the last minority that dare not speak its name.
Oh, really?
Robert Manne:
Among the group to which I loosely belong - the pro-Labor, left-liberal intelligentsia - the crisis has so far occasioned an uncertain response.
Manne again:
I was an anti-communist at a time when, among the intelligentsia, there was a social cost to pay.
Manne again:
(Kevin Rudd’s) government would, I hoped, restore the tradition of a more independent Australian foreign policy; soften and humanise industrial-relations law; help bring the Culture Wars to an end; strengthen universities; and create a less poisonous atmosphere between the government and the left-liberal intelligentsia… Kevin Rudd’s relations with the left-leaning intelligentsia began famously at the 2020 Summit, where he was treated as hero and national saviour.
Professor Graham Maddox on Manne:
Howard’s performance has come under particular scrutiny in The Howard Years (edited by Robert Manne), which proceeds from the premise that a substantial minority of the community sees his as ‘the most backward and mean-spirited government of Australia’s post-war years’ (p. vii). In fact, the depth of the hostility of much of the intelligentsia toward Howard is staggering.
Who’s Manne? Richard Nile hails the king of the intelligentsia:
In what might reasonably be called the academy’s award or the intellectuals’ intellectuals, I canvassed the views of some 200 scholars who were asked to list 10 important and influential thinkers… Political scientist, historian and commentator, Robert Manne was voted by his peers to be Australia’s most important and influential intellectual.
But now I’m confused. Is Farrelly’s unknowingness and inability to even use Google proof that she’s of the intelligentsia, too, or proof that’s she’s not?
PS
This conceit that our grants-fed “intelligentsia” is actually a much persecuted minority, unable even to speak, goes back years. Remember this from 2007?:
Hunted dissident David Marr somehow smuggles out a report from the Fourth Reich:
Since 1996, Howard has cowed his critics, muffled the press, intimidated the ABC, gagged scientists, silenced non-government organisations, neutered Canberra’s mandarins, curtailed parliamentary scrutiny, censored the arts, banned books, criminalised protest and prosecuted whistleblowers.
The mystery is, how did Marr’s brave protest come to be printed over great slabs of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, and get published in fool full by Black Inc? Surely publishing such sedition is now impossible in the Howardistan of cowed critics, banned books, muffled press and criminalised protest that Marr describes?
=== Live aid for militias Andrew Bolt The evidence goes stronger - but what did you expect from an operatiion bringing cash and food to a land run by warlords?
Fresh controversy over aid to Ethiopia erupted today after an investigation concluded that millions intended for victims of the 1984 famine was diverted to anti-government rebel leaders – including the current Ethiopian Prime Minister.
The allegations, made by former rebel compatriots of Meles Zenawi, are the first to detail how millions raised by Bob Geldof’s Live Aid were siphoned off to arm the rebels against the army of Mengistu Haile Mariam.
Mind you, aid for fighters against a madman like Mengistu can’t be said to be entirely wasted.
(Alarmist of the Year Tim) Flannery warned Brisbane’s ”water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months”.
2010:
Brisbane’s combined dam capacity has broken the 80 per cent mark for the first time in eight years as inflows continue to pour in across the catchments. === Rann’s “sorry if” affair Andrew Bolt The polls must show that voters - women in particular - are very hard indeed on Rann’s romp:
MIKE Rann has apologised to South Australian voters and the family of Michelle Chantelois for any distress and disappointment his “friendship” with the former Parliament House barmaid has caused.
But it’s still just one of those “sorry-if-you’re-upset” non-apologies. === Whacking business with a shovel Andrew Bolt Remember last month’s promise?
Tanner vows new assault on red tape
Federal Finance and Deregulation Minister Lindsay Tanner plans to streamline processes for assessing new regulation as business leaders warn some of the reforms aimed at slashing red tape have stalled.
Robert Gottliebsen on the delivery:
One man has the potential to single handedly make Tony Abbott Prime Minister of Australia – Assistant Treasurer Nick Sherry.
Sherry appears to be concocting one of the biggest attacks ever mounted on the small business community by a government minister in direct violation of solemn promises made by Kevin Rudd’s ALP at the last election…
In a nutshell, what happened was the Board of Taxation came up with a series of outrageous recommendations and Sherry ... gave them his blessing… So here are just a few of the ideas that Sherry now has on his agenda.
Each plumber or computer consultant in Australia will need to differentiate between their income from capital (spanners, shovels and computers) and their income from labour (digging the ditches and writing software).
Under the Sherry-blessed plan, part of the income derived from labour would be attributed to the person who supplied the labour and those people would be treated as employees – not business people. The income earned on capital could be returned to the owner(s) of the capital, which may differ from the person who provided the labour. Have you ever heard of anything more stupid? But the Sherry-blessed plan gets worse. === Labor’s nuclear dump Andrew Bolt Quite true, and it’s good to hear (an always sensible) someone of the Left belatedly say so:
Australia has an international responsibility to set up secure storage for its radioactive waste, a federal minister says.
It was revealed last week that the only nuclear waste dump site currently being considered by the federal government is at Muckaty Station, 120km north of Tennant Creek, in the Northern Territory.
Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson on Wednesday said a site needed to be found for the disposal of medical isotope waste from Sydney’s Lucas Heights reactor.
But if we have such a responsibility, and if a waste facility is now to be built, why not make it one that accepts the waste from the nuclear power plants we supply with uranium, too?
It would help to limit nuclear proliferation, and would earn us a motza, while leaving us with waste that in time may prove to be a useful resource.
(Thanks to readers LH and Incitatus.) === In need of a good home Andrew Bolt Would stealing them be the answer?
A 13-YEAR-OLD Aboriginal boy who savagely raped an elderly woman in her home and tried to indecently assault another is an example of a system failing indigenous youths, a Victorian magistrate says.
In a passionate submission to a national inquiry into the massive over-representation of Aboriginal youths in the criminal justice system, Latrobe Valley magistrate Edwin Batt said boys like the recently sentenced Victorian rapist faced court all too often.
He said that 100 per cent of young people that appeared before him did not go to school.
(Thanks to reader Phil.) === How many more before Rudd says “oops”? Andrew Bolt Last year it was 60 boats, so Kevin Rudd’s on the way to a personal best:
The Federal Government says a boat carrying 47 asylum seekers has been intercepted in Australia’s northern waters.
The boat was found north of the Ashmore Islands late Wednesday afternoon…
It brings the number of boats intercepted by customs and border protection officials this year to 18.
My red dot on this Department of Immigration graph marks the date Rudd revealed that the laws against boat people would be weakened: === How could that friendship be dropped so fast? Andrew Bolt What a disgace that this should be necessary:
THE screening of an Israeli film in Parliament House has been postponed amid heightened tensions between Australia and Israel.
Three Australian passports were fraudulently used in the assassination of a political figure in Dubai last month…
Israel’s ambassador was summoned to Parliament House last week in a rare test of the usually solid bilateral relationship. Now a screening of the Israeli film Noodle, scheduled to be shown in Parliament House on March 15, has been postponed.
The screening was arranged by the Israeli ambassador, Yuval Rotem, and by the Australia Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group.
(Thanks to reader BarbDwyer.) - And if Israel didn't do it but Iran? - ed. === Not what Rudd promised, and not what he’ll deliver Andrew Bolt There are three questions to ask about Kevin Rudd’s new hospital shake up: is it good in theory, will it work in practice and will it fly politically?
The answer, I suspect, is one out of three:
KEVIN Rudd has set up a federal election campaign dominated by health, unveiling plans to strip the states of 30 per cent of their GST receipts to fund a federal takeover of state-run public hospitals.
The Prime Minister also plans to sideline the states on hospital administration, instead doling out tied grants to new local boards which would deliver services in accordance with strict requirements set in Canberra.
And Mr Rudd has created the mechanism to campaign on the issue in this year’s election, threatening a referendum if states do not hand over 30 per cent of their GST revenues to bankroll his plan.
The health blueprint, unveiled in Canberra yesterday, sparked immediate political sparring, with the West Australian Liberal government of Colin Barnett ruling out a handover of GST revenues…
The plan also involves the commonwealth taking full control of all aspects of general practitioner and primary care services conducted outside hospitals. The aim is to deliver better out-of-hospital care to ease demand for hospital beds.
And how big is this change from a man who once threatened to take over 100 per cent of the funding responsibility?
Rudd wants Canberra to assume responsibility for 60 per cent of public hospital budgets - up from about 40 per cent - and 100 per cent of GP services and primary care.
First, is it a good in theory to pay hospitals the “efficient” price for each service, rather than hand over a lump of cash:
An independent umpire would set the price that networks would be paid for each operation, along with performance benchmarks on surgery waiting lists, emergency department waiting times and error rates.
The states would still own the hospital buildings, employ the staff and be responsible for fixing performance problems - including having to pay the bills for any costs above the “efficient” price set for each service.
Mr Rudd said that with a concurrent federal takeover of all primary care services, there would be a stronger incentive to treat more patients out of hospitals and to end “the blame game” and cost-shifting between the states and Canberra.
The answer is yes - in most cases. In fact, Victoria does essentially that right now, and has worked out where it doesn’t work, too:
Victorian Health Minister Daniel Andrews ... said the plan raised huge questions for Victoria’s highly evolved health system, including the future of 44 small rural services that are paid in block grants because casemix funding had not worked in the past for their mix of services
Which suggests that the answer to the second question - will this work in practice? - could be a qualified “no”.
First, Victoria’s experiences shows that flexibility and close-to-the-ground monitoring are needed to avoid the turning the funding arrangements into a one-size-fits-all bureaucratic straightjacket, with a distant bureaucrat in Canberra effectively ruling over the service delivery of a hospital in Bordertown. Is Canberra, which gave you the insulation fiasco, really equipped to do all that? Are you, as a consumer, better able to influence your state government or the federal government to change what may need fixing?
And how much will the changes improve services in those states that have already made the reforms, and are running lean? Again, Victoria is the example, being the most efficient state on a spend-per-patient basis, which explains why it’s jacking up: === How many ways were we ripped off? Andrew Bolt Gavin Atkins warns of yet another possible rort in the $2.45 billion insulation fiasco:
Some established insulation businesses in Australia have scammed thousands of dollars from Australian taxpayers by claiming to have insulated homes as part of the Rudd Government scheme – but the jobs were completed anything up to two or three years ago.
A Sydney builder - who wished to remain anonymous - told Asian Correspondent that he knew of existing insulation businesses that have filled out the paperwork to claim $1,200 for each job under the Rudd Government’s Energy Efficient Homes Package, despite the fact that they performed the work at the houses well before the disastrous scheme was implemented.
UPDATE
Jack the Insider says Peter Garrett tried to warn Rudd:
It is a matter of record that Minister Garrett alerted his cabinet colleagues to the inherent problems of the home insulation scheme on at least one occasion and we can only presume did so to deafening silence by way of response or if any verbal response was made it seems to be of the “don’t tell me your problems” variety.
Senator Bunning came to an agreement tonight with democrats. He blocked spending on a senate bill because democrats broke their pay-go legislation from 2 weeks ago. Bunning released this statement after an agreement was made. "I hope senate Democrats tonight vote for their own pay-fors and show Americans they are committed to fiscal discipline.... I'll be watching them closely and checking off the hypocrites one by one."
