Tuesday, October 21, 2008
John Markoff: Why newspapers still matter
http://www.ted.com At the EG conference, John Markoff talks about why newspapers still matter -- even in the days of RSS. He gives an inside look at editorial process at the New York Times, and talks about some of his tech stories that should have been front-page news.
Headlines Tuesday 21st October
Law not to be taken literally
Piers Akerman
MOST NSW traffic offenders who dutifully mail off their cheques to the Infringement Processing Bureau do so in the belief that the bureau is an arm of the law enforcement administration, a special traffic court, perhaps.
But, as last Tuesday’s decision by the Appeal Court to throw out five charges against former Federal Court judge Marcus Einfeld shows, the judiciary takes a rather more narrow view.
Justice as understood by punters in the street, and those who sit on the Bench, are two different animals.
In the street, the speed camera, the red light camera, the parking inspector, all have the power to issue penalties for infringements but according to the court ruling, the Infringement Bureau, which handles those penalties, lacks the status of a court.
That is the nub of the argument made by Justices Virginia Bell, Robert Hulme and Megan Latham in support of their decision on more than half of the charges Einfeld faced.
Last year Einfeld, 69, was committed for trial on nine charges, six relating to perverting the course of justice.
The first alleged that he made a false declaration to the Infringement Processing Bureau after a camera recorded an offence on September 4 1999 by the driver of a car allotted to him as a Federal Court judge. Einfeld said the driver was a US professor, N.D. Levick, who was not in Australia at the time.
The next two related to two allegedly false statutory declarations he made following an offence on February 4 2003 by the driver of a car he owned. He said the driver was Professor Theresa Brennan, of Florida. Professor Brennan died on February 3 2003.
Counts four and five were brought after the driver of a car owned by Einfeld was detected by a traffic camera committing an offence on November 29 2003. In two allegedly false statutory declarations he swore that the driver was Dr Tim Oliver of he UK. Dr Oliver was not in Australia at the time.
The Crown argued that making the alleged false declarations amounted to perversion of justice, which also encompassed obstructing, preventing, perverting or defeating the course of justice of the administration of the law.
However the Court of Appeals found that the statutory declarations did not come within its view of what constituted the administration of the law.
“In our opinion, the words ‘the administration of the law’ in s 312 (of the NSW Crimes Act) are not to be accorded their literal meaning, which, like James J, we take to include the exercise by a government body of its functions in applying and enforcing the law,” they wrote in their decision. - It was never going to be easy for an ALP administration to allow a living legend to be prosecuted. As with justice Shaw, there seems to be one rule for them, and another for the others. A recent election in Cabramatta and a good restaurant was fined a small amount for some transgression .. which was printed in the local papers. One isn't sure that the transgression wasn't related to a sign out the front wishing the local liberal candidate well. - ed.
===
Nature disobeys warming models
Andrew Bolt
Renown climate scientist Roy Spencer compares the alarming predictions of the warming models to the warming we’re actually seeing:
The discrepancy between the models and observations seen in Fig. 1 is stark. If the sensitivity of the climate system is as low as some of these observational results suggest, then the IPCC models are grossly in error, and we have little to fear from manmade global warming…
===
JOE JILLED
Tim Blair
The Herald Sun‘s Jill Singer – she of the flexible artistic standards – turns her mighty brain towards Joe the plumber:
As polls show McCain falling further behind, he’s called in back-up from another loopy loose cannon, Joe Wurzelbacher, a loud-mouthed plumber from Ohio who wants to be well-off and not pay tax. Joe could be the “greed is good” poster boy.
Wurzelbacher speaks up just once. Journalist Singer has been hectoring people for 24 years. Who’s the loud mouth?
He was raised in poverty but now he’s on his way up in the plumbing business he thinks society needs rich people so other people can work for them.
Singer works for Rupert Murdoch (as do I). He isn’t short of a dollar. Perhaps, though, she’d be better off working for someone with no money to pay her salary.
===
DIG IT
Tim Blair
Pro-mining country rock from Tim Montana:
Buy it here.
===
WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, JOE AND OBAMA?
Tim Blair
Andrew Sullivan has been wailing for weeks about Sarah Palin’s media unavailability. This should calm him down:
The candidate who has been criticized for having a bunker mentality when it came to the national media can now lay legitimate claim to being more accessible than either Joe Biden or Barack Obama.
In the past two days alone, Palin has answered questions from her national press corps on three separate occasions. On Saturday, she held another plane availability, and on Sunday, she offered an impromptu press conference on the tarmac upon landing in Colorado Springs. A few minutes later, she answered even more questions from reporters during an off-the-record stop at a local ice cream shop.
By contrast, Biden hasn’t held a press conference in more than a month, and Obama hasn’t taken questions from his full traveling press corps since the end of September.
===
JUST THE CURIOUS FACTS
Tim Blair
James Lileks lists the curious facts of modern politics as they apply to Bill Ayers and King Barack the Wealth-Spreader:
1. Ayers was dedicated to killing American soldiers to ensure that Vietnam was ruled by Communists.
2. Ayers is unrepentant, and proudly posed for a photo standing on an American flag.
3. This is irrelevant. It is irrelevant to then, because the cause was just, if the execution was irrationally exuberant; it is irrelevant to today, because Ayers is now an educator, and a respected member of the intelligentsia.
4. This says nothing about education or the intellegentsia, except to attest to their broad-mindedness.
5. There is nothing wrong with Ayers, but nevertheless his associations with Sen. Obama – the fund-raising at his house, the Woods Foundation, the Annenberg Challenge, the book blurb – are circumstantial, tenuous, and meaningless, because A) Obama was 8 when the crimes occurred, and thus unable to give the full-throated condemnation he later felt, but managed to suppress while coming up the ranks of Chicago politics; B) one could not avoid Ayers in Chicago, which is a very small city; C) if Obama did feel deep distaste, there was never really a good time to bring it up, and D) many other respectable people had no problem associating with the fellow, and E) Ayers is not advising him now, any more than, say, Louis Farrakhan is.
===
JOE THE DUMBER
Tim Blair
Joseph Robinette Biden – the wise old train-ridin’ plughead meant to add heft and experience to Obama’s ticket – predicts a first-term crisis:
“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”
Politics of fear, anyone?
===
AT LEAST HIS SECOND NAME ISN’T “ROBINETTE”
Tim Blair
Of all the Plumber Joe takedowns, USA Today‘s must be the most devastating:
It turns out “Joe the Plumber,” the unexpected focus of Wednesday night’s presidential debate, has a different first name …
Piers Akerman
MOST NSW traffic offenders who dutifully mail off their cheques to the Infringement Processing Bureau do so in the belief that the bureau is an arm of the law enforcement administration, a special traffic court, perhaps.
But, as last Tuesday’s decision by the Appeal Court to throw out five charges against former Federal Court judge Marcus Einfeld shows, the judiciary takes a rather more narrow view.
Justice as understood by punters in the street, and those who sit on the Bench, are two different animals.
In the street, the speed camera, the red light camera, the parking inspector, all have the power to issue penalties for infringements but according to the court ruling, the Infringement Bureau, which handles those penalties, lacks the status of a court.
That is the nub of the argument made by Justices Virginia Bell, Robert Hulme and Megan Latham in support of their decision on more than half of the charges Einfeld faced.
Last year Einfeld, 69, was committed for trial on nine charges, six relating to perverting the course of justice.
The first alleged that he made a false declaration to the Infringement Processing Bureau after a camera recorded an offence on September 4 1999 by the driver of a car allotted to him as a Federal Court judge. Einfeld said the driver was a US professor, N.D. Levick, who was not in Australia at the time.
The next two related to two allegedly false statutory declarations he made following an offence on February 4 2003 by the driver of a car he owned. He said the driver was Professor Theresa Brennan, of Florida. Professor Brennan died on February 3 2003.
Counts four and five were brought after the driver of a car owned by Einfeld was detected by a traffic camera committing an offence on November 29 2003. In two allegedly false statutory declarations he swore that the driver was Dr Tim Oliver of he UK. Dr Oliver was not in Australia at the time.
The Crown argued that making the alleged false declarations amounted to perversion of justice, which also encompassed obstructing, preventing, perverting or defeating the course of justice of the administration of the law.
However the Court of Appeals found that the statutory declarations did not come within its view of what constituted the administration of the law.
“In our opinion, the words ‘the administration of the law’ in s 312 (of the NSW Crimes Act) are not to be accorded their literal meaning, which, like James J, we take to include the exercise by a government body of its functions in applying and enforcing the law,” they wrote in their decision. - It was never going to be easy for an ALP administration to allow a living legend to be prosecuted. As with justice Shaw, there seems to be one rule for them, and another for the others. A recent election in Cabramatta and a good restaurant was fined a small amount for some transgression .. which was printed in the local papers. One isn't sure that the transgression wasn't related to a sign out the front wishing the local liberal candidate well. - ed.
===
Nature disobeys warming models
Andrew Bolt
Renown climate scientist Roy Spencer compares the alarming predictions of the warming models to the warming we’re actually seeing:
The discrepancy between the models and observations seen in Fig. 1 is stark. If the sensitivity of the climate system is as low as some of these observational results suggest, then the IPCC models are grossly in error, and we have little to fear from manmade global warming…
===
JOE JILLED
Tim Blair
The Herald Sun‘s Jill Singer – she of the flexible artistic standards – turns her mighty brain towards Joe the plumber:
As polls show McCain falling further behind, he’s called in back-up from another loopy loose cannon, Joe Wurzelbacher, a loud-mouthed plumber from Ohio who wants to be well-off and not pay tax. Joe could be the “greed is good” poster boy.
Wurzelbacher speaks up just once. Journalist Singer has been hectoring people for 24 years. Who’s the loud mouth?
He was raised in poverty but now he’s on his way up in the plumbing business he thinks society needs rich people so other people can work for them.
Singer works for Rupert Murdoch (as do I). He isn’t short of a dollar. Perhaps, though, she’d be better off working for someone with no money to pay her salary.
===
DIG IT
Tim Blair
Pro-mining country rock from Tim Montana:
Buy it here.
===
WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, JOE AND OBAMA?
Tim Blair
Andrew Sullivan has been wailing for weeks about Sarah Palin’s media unavailability. This should calm him down:
The candidate who has been criticized for having a bunker mentality when it came to the national media can now lay legitimate claim to being more accessible than either Joe Biden or Barack Obama.
In the past two days alone, Palin has answered questions from her national press corps on three separate occasions. On Saturday, she held another plane availability, and on Sunday, she offered an impromptu press conference on the tarmac upon landing in Colorado Springs. A few minutes later, she answered even more questions from reporters during an off-the-record stop at a local ice cream shop.
By contrast, Biden hasn’t held a press conference in more than a month, and Obama hasn’t taken questions from his full traveling press corps since the end of September.
===
JUST THE CURIOUS FACTS
Tim Blair
James Lileks lists the curious facts of modern politics as they apply to Bill Ayers and King Barack the Wealth-Spreader:
1. Ayers was dedicated to killing American soldiers to ensure that Vietnam was ruled by Communists.
2. Ayers is unrepentant, and proudly posed for a photo standing on an American flag.
3. This is irrelevant. It is irrelevant to then, because the cause was just, if the execution was irrationally exuberant; it is irrelevant to today, because Ayers is now an educator, and a respected member of the intelligentsia.
4. This says nothing about education or the intellegentsia, except to attest to their broad-mindedness.
5. There is nothing wrong with Ayers, but nevertheless his associations with Sen. Obama – the fund-raising at his house, the Woods Foundation, the Annenberg Challenge, the book blurb – are circumstantial, tenuous, and meaningless, because A) Obama was 8 when the crimes occurred, and thus unable to give the full-throated condemnation he later felt, but managed to suppress while coming up the ranks of Chicago politics; B) one could not avoid Ayers in Chicago, which is a very small city; C) if Obama did feel deep distaste, there was never really a good time to bring it up, and D) many other respectable people had no problem associating with the fellow, and E) Ayers is not advising him now, any more than, say, Louis Farrakhan is.
===
JOE THE DUMBER
Tim Blair
Joseph Robinette Biden – the wise old train-ridin’ plughead meant to add heft and experience to Obama’s ticket – predicts a first-term crisis:
“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”
Politics of fear, anyone?
===
AT LEAST HIS SECOND NAME ISN’T “ROBINETTE”
Tim Blair
Of all the Plumber Joe takedowns, USA Today‘s must be the most devastating:
It turns out “Joe the Plumber,” the unexpected focus of Wednesday night’s presidential debate, has a different first name …
Monday, October 20, 2008
Steven Johnson: The Web and the city
http://www.ted.com Outside.in's Steven Johnson says the Web is like a city: built by many people, completely controlled by no one, intricately interconnected and yet functioning as many independent parts. While disaster strikes in one place, elsewhere, life goes on.
Headlines Monday 20th October
Voters agree: media blows Obama’s tyres
Andrew Bolt
Most voters polled rightly believe that never has the US media been so biased - and that Barack Obama is the media’s candidate:
Fifty-five percent (55%) of U.S. voters say the media coverage of this year’s presidential campaign is more biased than in previous election years, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey…
===
BEYOND PARODY
Tim Blair
For the second time in five days, the same bunch of leftoid geniuses have fallen for a left-wing parody of right-wing views. Here’s the piece in question:
With just three weeks to go until Election Day, the McCain campaign has launched a nationwide talent search to find angry audience members for their increasingly hate-filled rallies, McCain aides confirmed today.
===
UNLICENSED OPINION
Tim Blair
Iowahawk on Joe the Plumber:
Politicians—Sarah Palin, Bill Clinton, et al.— obviously have to put up with some rude, nasty shit, but it’s right there in the jobs description. Joe the Plumber is different. He was a guy tossing a football with his kid in the front yard of his $125,000 house when a politician picked him out as a prop for a 30 second newsbite for the cable news cameras. Joe simply had the temerity to speak truth (or, if you prefer, an uninformed opinion) to power, for which the politico-media axis apparently determined that he must be humiliated, harassed, smashed, destroyed. The viciousness and glee with which they set about the task ought to concern anyone who still cares about citizen participation, and freedom of speech, and all that old crap they taught in Civics class before politics turned into Narrative Deathrace 3000, and Web 2.0 turned into Berlin 1932.0.
Godwin’s Law! you say? if the jackboot fits, wear it.
===
HEADLINE FIGHTS STORY
Tim Blair
“The large print giveth and the small print taketh away,” according to Tom Waits. Perhaps he was talking about Melbourne’s Age, which recently ran this headline:
New Yorkers take Henson photo controversy in their stride
===
Rudd profits from his war
Andrew Bolt
Governments love a good crisis that’s not their fault:
This slump is the green dream
Andrew Bolt
The Australian reports the good news about people losing their homes and jobs:
THE slowing world economy could help to cut back global emissions as factories close and car fleets stall, in a rare piece of good news amid the financial doom and gloom.
A global warming zealot makes explicit the connection, without troubling to note that it works both ways:
Tim Hanlin, managing director of the Australian Climate Exchange, which operates a joint-venture trading platform for carbon offsets and abatement credits, said economic cycles were linked to emission trajectories.
“Generally speaking if you have less economic activity, you’re going to have lower emissions,” Mr Hanlin said.
And vice versa.
===
The price of pandering
Andrew Bolt
Labor faces its own Hanson moment: does it keep pandering to dangerous, simple-minded extremism, or start fighting it?
LABOR is struggling in a rising Green tide around the nation, with the minor party now laying claim to being a mainstream player after ousting the ALP from majority government in the ACT.
===
Green tourism: First, cull the tourists
Andrew Bolt
Baz Luhrmann was given $40 million by Tourism Australia to promote the bits of Australia that few tourists actually want to see. As I said, his is the new green approach:
This time we’re flogging places where few tourist buses go and no trains reach - outback places where jaded urbanites fancy they can commune with the Nature gods of tribal peoples, far from modern man and his buildings. ...(an Australia that’s) at its best without a local to be seen or endured.
===
Leftist academics complain about the light
Andrew Bolt
Names are named:
ACADEMICS named as militant left-wing ideologues in a black list tabled in federal parliament claim they are victims of a Young Liberals “witch-hunt"…
The list of more than 30 academics who are described as “unashamed activists for political and ideological causes such as radical feminism, animal rights and gay rights” has been published on the Young Liberals’ website.
“Black list”? I think the reporter is wildly overegging. It’s just a list, after all, and no one on it is banned or suffering the slightest professional harm. The only issue is whether it’s accurate
===
Rifleman shot
Andrew Bolt
Maybe it’s all getting a bit too incestuous at the Sydney Theatre Company to avoid disasters like this:
A STAR-STUDDED opening night audience, the Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman directing, and the Midas touch of Cate Blanchett were not enough. The Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Riflemind will end its London season after barely a month.
===
A model green
Andrew Bolt
The Times interviews model Helena Christensen, another celebrity with planet-saving tips for the masses:
Independent, beautiful, committed to saving the planet: this is one super-model who has finally found her voice…
The former Vogue cover girl ... has taken a series of “celebrity” photographs for a British Gas campaign to encourage people to switch to energy-efficient lighting… Christensen’s big thing is making small, personal changes in lifestyle to help save the planet.
But those changes really do have to be small ones, mind, at least when they affect her:
How does a woman who has admitted that she flies up to 15 times in three weeks reconcile her green values with what must be a supersized carbon footprint? “I take a plane to work like others take their bicycles, or the bus,” she says matter-of-factly.
===
Old comrades institutionalised
Andrew Bolt
Graham Worrall, former communist, writes to The Age:
I am proud to report that members of the Melbourne University branch of the Communist Party in the 1940s went on to become university professors, academics, senior public servants and in one case - my first wife - a Victorian senator.
Andrew Bolt
Most voters polled rightly believe that never has the US media been so biased - and that Barack Obama is the media’s candidate:
Fifty-five percent (55%) of U.S. voters say the media coverage of this year’s presidential campaign is more biased than in previous election years, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey…
===
BEYOND PARODY
Tim Blair
For the second time in five days, the same bunch of leftoid geniuses have fallen for a left-wing parody of right-wing views. Here’s the piece in question:
With just three weeks to go until Election Day, the McCain campaign has launched a nationwide talent search to find angry audience members for their increasingly hate-filled rallies, McCain aides confirmed today.
===
UNLICENSED OPINION
Tim Blair
Iowahawk on Joe the Plumber:
Politicians—Sarah Palin, Bill Clinton, et al.— obviously have to put up with some rude, nasty shit, but it’s right there in the jobs description. Joe the Plumber is different. He was a guy tossing a football with his kid in the front yard of his $125,000 house when a politician picked him out as a prop for a 30 second newsbite for the cable news cameras. Joe simply had the temerity to speak truth (or, if you prefer, an uninformed opinion) to power, for which the politico-media axis apparently determined that he must be humiliated, harassed, smashed, destroyed. The viciousness and glee with which they set about the task ought to concern anyone who still cares about citizen participation, and freedom of speech, and all that old crap they taught in Civics class before politics turned into Narrative Deathrace 3000, and Web 2.0 turned into Berlin 1932.0.
Godwin’s Law! you say? if the jackboot fits, wear it.
===
HEADLINE FIGHTS STORY
Tim Blair
“The large print giveth and the small print taketh away,” according to Tom Waits. Perhaps he was talking about Melbourne’s Age, which recently ran this headline:
New Yorkers take Henson photo controversy in their stride
===
Rudd profits from his war
Andrew Bolt
Governments love a good crisis that’s not their fault:
Labor’s two-party vote has risen four points to 56%, with the Coalition down four to 44% in the Age/Nielsen poll taken from Thursday to Saturday - the Government’s best two-party position since June.But how dare anyone suggest that:
The Government yesterday jumped onto a claim by Mr Turnbull that Mr Rudd had “hyped up” the crisis “by saying it’s a rolling national security crisis”. “He has tried to present himself as a wartime prime minister with his tin hat and bayonet fixed,” Mr Turnbull told the ABC.===
Treasurer Wayne Swan said this “gaffe” showed how out of touch the Opposition Leader was...
This slump is the green dream
Andrew Bolt
The Australian reports the good news about people losing their homes and jobs:
THE slowing world economy could help to cut back global emissions as factories close and car fleets stall, in a rare piece of good news amid the financial doom and gloom.
A global warming zealot makes explicit the connection, without troubling to note that it works both ways:
Tim Hanlin, managing director of the Australian Climate Exchange, which operates a joint-venture trading platform for carbon offsets and abatement credits, said economic cycles were linked to emission trajectories.
“Generally speaking if you have less economic activity, you’re going to have lower emissions,” Mr Hanlin said.
And vice versa.
===
The price of pandering
Andrew Bolt
Labor faces its own Hanson moment: does it keep pandering to dangerous, simple-minded extremism, or start fighting it?
LABOR is struggling in a rising Green tide around the nation, with the minor party now laying claim to being a mainstream player after ousting the ALP from majority government in the ACT.
===
Green tourism: First, cull the tourists
Andrew Bolt
Baz Luhrmann was given $40 million by Tourism Australia to promote the bits of Australia that few tourists actually want to see. As I said, his is the new green approach:
This time we’re flogging places where few tourist buses go and no trains reach - outback places where jaded urbanites fancy they can commune with the Nature gods of tribal peoples, far from modern man and his buildings. ...(an Australia that’s) at its best without a local to be seen or endured.
===
Leftist academics complain about the light
Andrew Bolt
Names are named:
ACADEMICS named as militant left-wing ideologues in a black list tabled in federal parliament claim they are victims of a Young Liberals “witch-hunt"…
The list of more than 30 academics who are described as “unashamed activists for political and ideological causes such as radical feminism, animal rights and gay rights” has been published on the Young Liberals’ website.
“Black list”? I think the reporter is wildly overegging. It’s just a list, after all, and no one on it is banned or suffering the slightest professional harm. The only issue is whether it’s accurate
===
Rifleman shot
Andrew Bolt
Maybe it’s all getting a bit too incestuous at the Sydney Theatre Company to avoid disasters like this:
A STAR-STUDDED opening night audience, the Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman directing, and the Midas touch of Cate Blanchett were not enough. The Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Riflemind will end its London season after barely a month.
===
A model green
Andrew Bolt
The Times interviews model Helena Christensen, another celebrity with planet-saving tips for the masses:
Independent, beautiful, committed to saving the planet: this is one super-model who has finally found her voice…
The former Vogue cover girl ... has taken a series of “celebrity” photographs for a British Gas campaign to encourage people to switch to energy-efficient lighting… Christensen’s big thing is making small, personal changes in lifestyle to help save the planet.
But those changes really do have to be small ones, mind, at least when they affect her:
How does a woman who has admitted that she flies up to 15 times in three weeks reconcile her green values with what must be a supersized carbon footprint? “I take a plane to work like others take their bicycles, or the bus,” she says matter-of-factly.
===
Old comrades institutionalised
Andrew Bolt
Graham Worrall, former communist, writes to The Age:
I am proud to report that members of the Melbourne University branch of the Communist Party in the 1940s went on to become university professors, academics, senior public servants and in one case - my first wife - a Victorian senator.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Doris Kearns Goodwin: What we can learn from past presidents
http://www.ted.com Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talks about what we can learn from American presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson. Then she shares a moving memory of her own father, and of their shared love of baseball.
NSW Lib Updates
NSW Families Want Action In NSW, Not Labor’s Do-Nothing Delaying Tactics
Written by Pru Goward MP
The State Labor Government refuses to take a leadership position on positive environmental issues, sitting back and waiting for the Federal Government to do it’s job for it, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Environment Pru Goward said today.
“During Budget Estimates hearings today, Carmel Tebbutt said she wants national action on almost every environmental issue of importance to NSW - but none is occurring and NSW's environment is the loser,” Ms Goward said.
After 13 Years In Government Della Says: "We Need To Fix The System"
Written by Jillian Skinner MP
Despite the State Labor Government being in office for 13 years, Labor Health Minister John Della Bosca says ‘systemic failure’ is to blame for the financial woes at Dubbo Hospital, Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner said today.
Reports have revealed Dubbo Hospital medical staff have had to pay for medical supplies out of their own pocket, have had to visit the local vet to get bandages, that pathology reports have been put on hold due to equipment stock shortages, staff have been unpaid for periods of time and local suppliers have also not had their bills paid.
'Quite Irresponsible': Carr Blows Whistle On Labor's $42B Debt Bomb
Written by Barry O'Farrell MP
Former Premier Bob Carr has blown the whistle on Labor’s $42 billion debt bomb while trying to blame his successors for the State Government’s failure to invest in crucial infrastructure upgrades, NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell said today.
“The NSW Labor Government has wasted this state’s economic prosperity,” Mr O’Farrell said.
David Campbell’s Massive Budget Estimates Blunder
Written by Gladys Berejiklian MP
Transport Minister David Campbell’s statement today in a Budget Estimates hearing that integrated ticketing would be introduced by 2010 demonstrates he is incompetent and out of his depth, Shadow Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian said today.
“Mr Campbell’s statement today demonstrates he has not been briefed on this important issue and is totally incapable of managing the growing crisis in public transport,” Ms Berejiklian said.
Rees-Cycled Spin: Premier Caught Out Spinning On Spin Doctors
Written by Jillian Skinner MP
Nathan Rees has been exposed as being loose with the truth after revelations his claims of sacking five spin doctors in his office have been exaggerated, or ‘spun’, Deputy NSW Opposition Leader Jillian Skinner said today.
Nathan Rees claims he reduced media staff in his office from 11 positions to 6 positions. It was revealed in Budget Estimates that two of the spin doctors were not sacked at all, and simply moved into other Ministerial offices.
NSW Treasurer Unsure How Federal Bank Guarantees Will Impact State Finances
Written by Mike Baird MP
The Federal Government’s decision to guarantee all debt issuance of Australia's banks may have an unintended impact on State Government finances according to NSW Treasury, however NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal is unable to clarify, Shadow Minister for Finance Mike Baird said today.
"At a time when governments across the world are determining appropriate steps to combat the financial crisis, the NSW Treasurer is delegating all the heavy lifting,” Mr Baird said.
All We Want For Women: Straight Answers
Written by Pru Goward MP
At today’s Budget Estimates the Minister for Women Verity Firth came well prepared not to answer any questions about domestic violence related homicides in NSW, Shadow Minister for Women Pru Goward said today.
“The State Labor Government might talk big about domestic violence but it is never able to answer basic questions - like how many homicides in NSW were related to domestic violence last year,” Ms Goward said.
Della Bosca Must Help Dubbo: Hospital Staff Visiting Local Vet For Supplies
Written by Jillian Skinner MP
Revelations Dubbo Hospital staff have been forced to visit the local vet to access basic hospital supplies like bandages show just how bad the health crisis is in NSW, Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner said today.
Reports have revealed medical staff have had to pay for medical supplies out of their own pocket, have had to visit the local vet to get bandages, that pathology reports have been put on hold due to equipment stock shortages, staff have been unpaid for periods of time and local suppliers have also not had their bills paid.
Accident On The F3? Della's Solution - Catch The Train
Written by Chris Hartcher MP
In March 2008, the NSW Labor Government committed to spending $28 million to create 19 new cross over points on the F3 to prevent traffic gridlock in the event of major disruptions, yet when Minister for the Central Coast, John Della Bosca, was questioned on Monday about the promised alternative arrangements, he could not provide any alternative but to catch a train.
“Mr Della Bosca’s solution to the F3 traffic gridlock – to make a contingency plan to catch the train – is no solution, it’s an arrogant insult,” Shadow Minister for the Central Coast Chris Hartcher said today.
More...
State Super Uncertain As Tripodi Struggles To Explain
‘Loose With The Truth’ Rees Hires A Spin Doctor Every Second Day
Spin Doctor Salaries Obscene Given Frontline Workers Wages Cap
So...Tripodi Doesn't Talk To Scimone...Or The Coordinator General
NSW Fails And The Premier Is Hunting Panthers
Written by Pru Goward MP
The State Labor Government refuses to take a leadership position on positive environmental issues, sitting back and waiting for the Federal Government to do it’s job for it, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Environment Pru Goward said today.
“During Budget Estimates hearings today, Carmel Tebbutt said she wants national action on almost every environmental issue of importance to NSW - but none is occurring and NSW's environment is the loser,” Ms Goward said.
After 13 Years In Government Della Says: "We Need To Fix The System"
Written by Jillian Skinner MP
Despite the State Labor Government being in office for 13 years, Labor Health Minister John Della Bosca says ‘systemic failure’ is to blame for the financial woes at Dubbo Hospital, Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner said today.
Reports have revealed Dubbo Hospital medical staff have had to pay for medical supplies out of their own pocket, have had to visit the local vet to get bandages, that pathology reports have been put on hold due to equipment stock shortages, staff have been unpaid for periods of time and local suppliers have also not had their bills paid.
'Quite Irresponsible': Carr Blows Whistle On Labor's $42B Debt Bomb
Written by Barry O'Farrell MP
Former Premier Bob Carr has blown the whistle on Labor’s $42 billion debt bomb while trying to blame his successors for the State Government’s failure to invest in crucial infrastructure upgrades, NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell said today.
“The NSW Labor Government has wasted this state’s economic prosperity,” Mr O’Farrell said.
David Campbell’s Massive Budget Estimates Blunder
Written by Gladys Berejiklian MP
Transport Minister David Campbell’s statement today in a Budget Estimates hearing that integrated ticketing would be introduced by 2010 demonstrates he is incompetent and out of his depth, Shadow Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian said today.
“Mr Campbell’s statement today demonstrates he has not been briefed on this important issue and is totally incapable of managing the growing crisis in public transport,” Ms Berejiklian said.
Rees-Cycled Spin: Premier Caught Out Spinning On Spin Doctors
Written by Jillian Skinner MP
Nathan Rees has been exposed as being loose with the truth after revelations his claims of sacking five spin doctors in his office have been exaggerated, or ‘spun’, Deputy NSW Opposition Leader Jillian Skinner said today.
Nathan Rees claims he reduced media staff in his office from 11 positions to 6 positions. It was revealed in Budget Estimates that two of the spin doctors were not sacked at all, and simply moved into other Ministerial offices.
NSW Treasurer Unsure How Federal Bank Guarantees Will Impact State Finances
Written by Mike Baird MP
The Federal Government’s decision to guarantee all debt issuance of Australia's banks may have an unintended impact on State Government finances according to NSW Treasury, however NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal is unable to clarify, Shadow Minister for Finance Mike Baird said today.
"At a time when governments across the world are determining appropriate steps to combat the financial crisis, the NSW Treasurer is delegating all the heavy lifting,” Mr Baird said.
All We Want For Women: Straight Answers
Written by Pru Goward MP
At today’s Budget Estimates the Minister for Women Verity Firth came well prepared not to answer any questions about domestic violence related homicides in NSW, Shadow Minister for Women Pru Goward said today.
“The State Labor Government might talk big about domestic violence but it is never able to answer basic questions - like how many homicides in NSW were related to domestic violence last year,” Ms Goward said.
Della Bosca Must Help Dubbo: Hospital Staff Visiting Local Vet For Supplies
Written by Jillian Skinner MP
Revelations Dubbo Hospital staff have been forced to visit the local vet to access basic hospital supplies like bandages show just how bad the health crisis is in NSW, Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner said today.
Reports have revealed medical staff have had to pay for medical supplies out of their own pocket, have had to visit the local vet to get bandages, that pathology reports have been put on hold due to equipment stock shortages, staff have been unpaid for periods of time and local suppliers have also not had their bills paid.
Accident On The F3? Della's Solution - Catch The Train
Written by Chris Hartcher MP
In March 2008, the NSW Labor Government committed to spending $28 million to create 19 new cross over points on the F3 to prevent traffic gridlock in the event of major disruptions, yet when Minister for the Central Coast, John Della Bosca, was questioned on Monday about the promised alternative arrangements, he could not provide any alternative but to catch a train.
“Mr Della Bosca’s solution to the F3 traffic gridlock – to make a contingency plan to catch the train – is no solution, it’s an arrogant insult,” Shadow Minister for the Central Coast Chris Hartcher said today.
More...
State Super Uncertain As Tripodi Struggles To Explain
‘Loose With The Truth’ Rees Hires A Spin Doctor Every Second Day
Spin Doctor Salaries Obscene Given Frontline Workers Wages Cap
So...Tripodi Doesn't Talk To Scimone...Or The Coordinator General
NSW Fails And The Premier Is Hunting Panthers
Space.com News
Impact Crater Exhumed from Mars Ice
An ice mound imaged in the north polar region of Mars indicates a crater underneath.
MISSIONS/LAUNCHES
Phoenix Lander Survives Martian Dust Storm
NASA to Begin Hubble Space Telescope Fix
SCIENCE/ASTRONOMY
A Major Moon Dust-Up
'Alien' Water Bears Amaze Scientists
RECENT HEADLINES
Europe Aims For Re-entry Spacecraft
Infant Stars Caught Feeding
New Crew, Space Tourist Arrive at Space Station
Von Braun Sketches to Be Auctioned
COOL STUFF
Image of the Day: To Dig the Impossible Trench
New Video: ESA's eXperimental Vehicle
Europe hopes to launch an re-entry prototype in 2013. Credit: ESA
An ice mound imaged in the north polar region of Mars indicates a crater underneath.
MISSIONS/LAUNCHES
Phoenix Lander Survives Martian Dust Storm
NASA to Begin Hubble Space Telescope Fix
SCIENCE/ASTRONOMY
A Major Moon Dust-Up
'Alien' Water Bears Amaze Scientists
RECENT HEADLINES
Europe Aims For Re-entry Spacecraft
Infant Stars Caught Feeding
New Crew, Space Tourist Arrive at Space Station
Von Braun Sketches to Be Auctioned
COOL STUFF
Image of the Day: To Dig the Impossible Trench
New Video: ESA's eXperimental Vehicle
Europe hopes to launch an re-entry prototype in 2013. Credit: ESA
Headlines Sunday 19th October
PM’s greed-is-bad credo
Piers Akerman
IT’S hard to take Kevin Rudd’s studied look of concern over the global financial meltdown seriously, even given the severity of events. The problem is that the prime ministerial call to arms is undermined by Labor’s grossly inconsistent approach to fiscal matters. - under Rudd's Rhetoric, the Australian banking execs are in line with a substantial pay rise because they sidestepped the sub prime crisis. - ed.
===
Dear Jonh
Andrew Bolt
Something wrong about this Sydney Morning Herald headline:
Kim Jonh-Il feared ill
===
The price of Canberra’s green faith
Andrew Bolt
Canberrans suffer the price of their green delusions - and greener government. Take the price of the Labor Government’s policy to build no new dams, and drain the one it has for “environmental flows”:
One Canberra economist, Terry Dwyer, a visiting fellow at the Australian National University, ... calculates the total cost of water restrictions thus: 16,000 trees have been lost due to lack of water. The replacement cost of a mature tree is estimated as $8000 to $16,000, so the cost of dead trees alone could be $300 million to $400 million.
===
NSW Labor told it’s terminal
Andrew Bolt
Labor loses only one of the four NSW byelections today, but the results are nevertheless disastrous:
Labor has suffered dramatic swings in today’s four New South Wales by-elections, losing its first state Sydney seat to the Liberals in 20 years. - It is appalling that a good candidate like Dai Le lose to the second rater Nick Lalich. - ed
===
Grabbing the excuse for grabbing the super
Andrew Bolt
In last year’s election campaign, Treasurer Peter Costello warned of Labor’s threat to your super:
Everybody’s super [will] be directed to pet projects.
Wayne Swan, now the Labor Government’s Treasurer, said then this was ”absurd” and “untruthful”, adding:
Mr Costello made the absurd claim knowing full well superannuation law requires funds and trustees to decide independently where they invest superannuation funds based on the interests of their members and on delivering the best returns.
Economist Professor Sinclair Davidson pointed out in the Australian Financial Review (no link - his letter in full below) that Swan was being evasive, and Labor’s National Platform and Constitution already committed a Rudd Government to doing much as Costello warned
===
Another lecture on sacrifice from business class
Andrew Bolt
Ross Garnaut, climate change alarmist, demands we make huge sacrifices to slash our emissions and save the planet. But he himself won’t sacrifice the pride of seeing his sermons printed on the nicest, gassiest paper:
A GOVERNMENT department advocating environmentally-friendly practices used $18,000 worth of paper shipped from Italy to print a report.
===
Two democrats on an escalator. It is an image of how our states have messed up infrastructure, and how they handle it.
===
Cold facts on warming Arctic hype
Andrew Bolt
A big Arctic melt last year was hailed around the world as proof of global warming.
So what does a big Arctic freeze this autumn prove?:
Ice Reality Check: Artic ice now 31.3% over last year
===
NYT’s latest tack: Make McCain’s wife cry
Andrew Bolt
The New York Times will stop at nothing in its campaign to elect Barack Obama. Printing a long, mocking vilification of John McCain’s wife is the depths to which it has now sunk.
How hard did the reporters trawl for dirt?
===
Sarah Palin appears on Saturday Night Live
VICE-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has appeared in a skit with her lookalike, comedian Tina Fey.
Piers Akerman
IT’S hard to take Kevin Rudd’s studied look of concern over the global financial meltdown seriously, even given the severity of events. The problem is that the prime ministerial call to arms is undermined by Labor’s grossly inconsistent approach to fiscal matters. - under Rudd's Rhetoric, the Australian banking execs are in line with a substantial pay rise because they sidestepped the sub prime crisis. - ed.
===
Dear Jonh
Andrew Bolt
Something wrong about this Sydney Morning Herald headline:
Kim Jonh-Il feared ill
===
The price of Canberra’s green faith
Andrew Bolt
Canberrans suffer the price of their green delusions - and greener government. Take the price of the Labor Government’s policy to build no new dams, and drain the one it has for “environmental flows”:
One Canberra economist, Terry Dwyer, a visiting fellow at the Australian National University, ... calculates the total cost of water restrictions thus: 16,000 trees have been lost due to lack of water. The replacement cost of a mature tree is estimated as $8000 to $16,000, so the cost of dead trees alone could be $300 million to $400 million.
===
NSW Labor told it’s terminal
Andrew Bolt
Labor loses only one of the four NSW byelections today, but the results are nevertheless disastrous:
Labor has suffered dramatic swings in today’s four New South Wales by-elections, losing its first state Sydney seat to the Liberals in 20 years. - It is appalling that a good candidate like Dai Le lose to the second rater Nick Lalich. - ed
===
Grabbing the excuse for grabbing the super
Andrew Bolt
In last year’s election campaign, Treasurer Peter Costello warned of Labor’s threat to your super:
Everybody’s super [will] be directed to pet projects.
Wayne Swan, now the Labor Government’s Treasurer, said then this was ”absurd” and “untruthful”, adding:
Mr Costello made the absurd claim knowing full well superannuation law requires funds and trustees to decide independently where they invest superannuation funds based on the interests of their members and on delivering the best returns.
Economist Professor Sinclair Davidson pointed out in the Australian Financial Review (no link - his letter in full below) that Swan was being evasive, and Labor’s National Platform and Constitution already committed a Rudd Government to doing much as Costello warned
===
Another lecture on sacrifice from business class
Andrew Bolt
Ross Garnaut, climate change alarmist, demands we make huge sacrifices to slash our emissions and save the planet. But he himself won’t sacrifice the pride of seeing his sermons printed on the nicest, gassiest paper:
A GOVERNMENT department advocating environmentally-friendly practices used $18,000 worth of paper shipped from Italy to print a report.
===
Two democrats on an escalator. It is an image of how our states have messed up infrastructure, and how they handle it.
===
Cold facts on warming Arctic hype
Andrew Bolt
A big Arctic melt last year was hailed around the world as proof of global warming.
So what does a big Arctic freeze this autumn prove?:
Ice Reality Check: Artic ice now 31.3% over last year
===
NYT’s latest tack: Make McCain’s wife cry
Andrew Bolt
The New York Times will stop at nothing in its campaign to elect Barack Obama. Printing a long, mocking vilification of John McCain’s wife is the depths to which it has now sunk.
How hard did the reporters trawl for dirt?
===
Sarah Palin appears on Saturday Night Live
VICE-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has appeared in a skit with her lookalike, comedian Tina Fey.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Live Science News Headlines
Church Pastors Dismiss Mental Illness
The problem was solely spiritual in nature, people were told. - an outrageous slur on religious people, this article is a cheap headline, but it provides an insight into those who are attracted to minority religion. - ed
Americans Flunk Simple 3-Question Political Survey
Bizarre Dinosaur Headgear Used For Shouting
Amazing Power of Music Revealed
How the Financial Debacle Might Power the Future
Top Features
Internet Searching May Boost Brain
The Financial Fiasco: Emotional, Irrational, Inevitable
Kansas Gym Ghost Mystery Solved
Why Women Have Bad Teeth
Video - On Dancing Air: The Story of Wind Power
Video: Change in the Wind - Power From Thin Air?
Trivia & Quizzes
Body Quiz: The Parts List
You may know that the typical human body contains about 200 bones, two gallons of blood, and some 100 billion brain cells. But what the heck is a zygomatic, exactly? In the first of three quizzes, we test your knowledge of a few of the body's more obscure bits and pieces.
--Heather Whipps
Body Quiz Part 2: How the Parts Fit
Everyone knows the ankle bone is connected to the leg bone. That's easy. But what�s connected to the gall bladder? In this second of our three-quiz series, we test your knowledge of how some of your parts fit together ...
--Heather Whipps
The problem was solely spiritual in nature, people were told. - an outrageous slur on religious people, this article is a cheap headline, but it provides an insight into those who are attracted to minority religion. - ed
Americans Flunk Simple 3-Question Political Survey
Bizarre Dinosaur Headgear Used For Shouting
Amazing Power of Music Revealed
How the Financial Debacle Might Power the Future
Top Features
Internet Searching May Boost Brain
The Financial Fiasco: Emotional, Irrational, Inevitable
Kansas Gym Ghost Mystery Solved
Why Women Have Bad Teeth
Video - On Dancing Air: The Story of Wind Power
Video: Change in the Wind - Power From Thin Air?
Trivia & Quizzes
Body Quiz: The Parts List
You may know that the typical human body contains about 200 bones, two gallons of blood, and some 100 billion brain cells. But what the heck is a zygomatic, exactly? In the first of three quizzes, we test your knowledge of a few of the body's more obscure bits and pieces.
--Heather Whipps
Body Quiz Part 2: How the Parts Fit
Everyone knows the ankle bone is connected to the leg bone. That's easy. But what�s connected to the gall bladder? In this second of our three-quiz series, we test your knowledge of how some of your parts fit together ...
--Heather Whipps
Liberal Messages Saturday 18th October
Turnbull interview with David Speers (Sky News) - Financial crisis, economic stimulus package, executive salaries...
We know for example that the recent cut in interest rates, the one per cent cut in official rates, has not been passed on to most business borrowers. We checked around with the banks today and as far as we can tell only one of them has passed it on to their small business borrowers. Now that means that the stimulus from the interest rate cut, and that is a stimulus, is not finding its way yet into small business – the sector of the economy that employs most Australians.
Labor's broken promise to defence families
Labor has failed to deliver a key election promise on health services with another slap in the face for Defence families, Shadow Minister for Defence Science, Personnel and Assisting Shadow Minister for Defence Bob Baldwin said today.
Turnbull Doorstop with Hockey - Small business interest rates, economy, economic stimulus package...
Joe and I are here at Crows Nest, full of small businesses. These small businesses are the engine room of the Australian economy. And they’re anxious, they’re looking for leadership, they’re looking for greater confidence to be shown by leaders. They’re concerned that interest rate cuts from the Reserve Bank are not finding their way through to small business and indeed we looked into it today and we could only find one of the big banks has passed on to its small business customers the recent Reserve Bank interest rate cut.
Two cheers' for back-to-basics curriculum
The Federal Opposition has welcomed the focus on getting 'back-to-basics' in literacy and grammar as outlined in the National English Curriculum framing document. However, they will reserve judgement until the final curriculum is presented.
Turnbull interview with Tony Squires, Rebecca Wilson and Mikey Robins (Vega 95.3) - international financial crisis...
I think one area that we’re trying to explore and really assist him with, is making sure that the measures that he has taken to deal with the financial crisis do not, for example, result in losses from banks being transferred to the account of the taxpayer. Now we’ve asked a lot of questions about that and I think he frankly, well he hasn’t answered any of them, in the parliament anyway.
Auditor-General called to investigate third Rudd staffer
The revelation that Maxine McKew's ministerial advisor, Kathleen Forrester, was an owner of Allen Consulting Group whilst her department awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of contracts to her company should be investigated by the Auditor General.
Roxon forces 500,000 people out of private health into the public system
An estimated 500,000 Australians will drop private health insurance as a result of the Senate passing the Medicare Levy Surcharge Bill today, putting massive additional pressure on an already overburdened public system.
Turnbull Doorstop - Executive salaries, economic stimulus package, Medicare levy surcharge changes...
The issue there has been that often executives, and not just chief executives, people at all levels have been rewarded for writing business, making sales you know, accumulating loans. And they have been paid for that without account being taken of the consequences of those loans going bad in the future. And this really is the core of the issue.
Hidden agenda in schools bill
Christopher Pyne, the Shadow Minister for Education today introduced key amendments to the $28 billion Schools Assistance Bill 2008, the funding instrument for non-government schools.
Ford job cuts: time for Labor to act, not talk
Today's announcement of a further 450 job cuts at Ford Australia is yet another devastating blow for Australia's car manufacturing industry, its workers and their families.
Labor running scared on FuelWatch
The Rudd Government is running scared on its FuelWatch scheme after withdrawing the legislation from debate in the Senate today (Thursday), the Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs, Luke Hartsuyker, said.
Rudd and his Defence Minister now openly at odds over Afghanistan
It is not particularly helpful for the Minister of Defence to say that a military victory in Afghanistan is 'neither feasible nor supportable.' Such inflammatory comments by the Minister show that the Prime Minister and his Defence Minister are now openly at odds with each other on whether the war in Afghanistan is winnable.
Rudd must clarify where Labor stands on executive salaries
Chris Pearce, Shadow Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, called on Kevin Rudd to clarify Labor’s position on executive salaries after Labor voted down two motions in the last five weeks to restrict executive salaries.
The future of aged care under Labor? Crisis!
The viability of the aged care sector is under serious threat as the Rudd Labor Government continues to suppress incentives to invest in modern aged care facilities.
Leader of the Opposition Address to the Nation - Economic Security Strategy
We recognise that our economy is slowing and we have given support to the Government’s $10 billion stimulus package.
Turnbull interview with Charles Wooley (Heart 107.3) - Economic stimulus package, pension...
The fact is that Australia is in a relatively strong position compared to other countries because during the Coalition years $96 billion of Labor debt was paid off, because future obligations or liabilities to Commonwealth Government pension plans and defence force personnel were covered in the Future Fund, and because we ran for most of that time very solid surpluses and built up a war chest that enables the Government to make payments of this kind.
Veterans' bonus welcomed
Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Louise Markus MP, welcomed the one-off bonus payment to Veterans groups announced by the Government yesterday.
Culture of greed flourishes in Rudd Government
The revelation tonight that Maxine McKew's ministerial advisor, Katherine Forrester, was an owner of Allen Consulting Group whilst her department awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of contracts to her company is evidence that the culture of greed is alive and well in Kevin Rudd's own government.
Conroy refuses to deny that the National Broadband Network could take 13 years
Senator Minchin had asked the Minister to reply to recent comments by Telstra CFO John Stanhope that building the Government’s proposed NBN could take 13 years to complete.
Don't ask me, I'm only the Prime Minister
The failure of the Prime Minister today to answer any questions in Parliament about the state of the Australian economy - at a time of great global upheaval - is highly concerning, said the Leader of The Nationals, Warren Truss.
We know for example that the recent cut in interest rates, the one per cent cut in official rates, has not been passed on to most business borrowers. We checked around with the banks today and as far as we can tell only one of them has passed it on to their small business borrowers. Now that means that the stimulus from the interest rate cut, and that is a stimulus, is not finding its way yet into small business – the sector of the economy that employs most Australians.
Labor's broken promise to defence families
Labor has failed to deliver a key election promise on health services with another slap in the face for Defence families, Shadow Minister for Defence Science, Personnel and Assisting Shadow Minister for Defence Bob Baldwin said today.
Turnbull Doorstop with Hockey - Small business interest rates, economy, economic stimulus package...
Joe and I are here at Crows Nest, full of small businesses. These small businesses are the engine room of the Australian economy. And they’re anxious, they’re looking for leadership, they’re looking for greater confidence to be shown by leaders. They’re concerned that interest rate cuts from the Reserve Bank are not finding their way through to small business and indeed we looked into it today and we could only find one of the big banks has passed on to its small business customers the recent Reserve Bank interest rate cut.
Two cheers' for back-to-basics curriculum
The Federal Opposition has welcomed the focus on getting 'back-to-basics' in literacy and grammar as outlined in the National English Curriculum framing document. However, they will reserve judgement until the final curriculum is presented.
Turnbull interview with Tony Squires, Rebecca Wilson and Mikey Robins (Vega 95.3) - international financial crisis...
I think one area that we’re trying to explore and really assist him with, is making sure that the measures that he has taken to deal with the financial crisis do not, for example, result in losses from banks being transferred to the account of the taxpayer. Now we’ve asked a lot of questions about that and I think he frankly, well he hasn’t answered any of them, in the parliament anyway.
Auditor-General called to investigate third Rudd staffer
The revelation that Maxine McKew's ministerial advisor, Kathleen Forrester, was an owner of Allen Consulting Group whilst her department awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of contracts to her company should be investigated by the Auditor General.
Roxon forces 500,000 people out of private health into the public system
An estimated 500,000 Australians will drop private health insurance as a result of the Senate passing the Medicare Levy Surcharge Bill today, putting massive additional pressure on an already overburdened public system.
Turnbull Doorstop - Executive salaries, economic stimulus package, Medicare levy surcharge changes...
The issue there has been that often executives, and not just chief executives, people at all levels have been rewarded for writing business, making sales you know, accumulating loans. And they have been paid for that without account being taken of the consequences of those loans going bad in the future. And this really is the core of the issue.
Hidden agenda in schools bill
Christopher Pyne, the Shadow Minister for Education today introduced key amendments to the $28 billion Schools Assistance Bill 2008, the funding instrument for non-government schools.
Ford job cuts: time for Labor to act, not talk
Today's announcement of a further 450 job cuts at Ford Australia is yet another devastating blow for Australia's car manufacturing industry, its workers and their families.
Labor running scared on FuelWatch
The Rudd Government is running scared on its FuelWatch scheme after withdrawing the legislation from debate in the Senate today (Thursday), the Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs, Luke Hartsuyker, said.
Rudd and his Defence Minister now openly at odds over Afghanistan
It is not particularly helpful for the Minister of Defence to say that a military victory in Afghanistan is 'neither feasible nor supportable.' Such inflammatory comments by the Minister show that the Prime Minister and his Defence Minister are now openly at odds with each other on whether the war in Afghanistan is winnable.
Rudd must clarify where Labor stands on executive salaries
Chris Pearce, Shadow Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, called on Kevin Rudd to clarify Labor’s position on executive salaries after Labor voted down two motions in the last five weeks to restrict executive salaries.
The future of aged care under Labor? Crisis!
The viability of the aged care sector is under serious threat as the Rudd Labor Government continues to suppress incentives to invest in modern aged care facilities.
Leader of the Opposition Address to the Nation - Economic Security Strategy
We recognise that our economy is slowing and we have given support to the Government’s $10 billion stimulus package.
Turnbull interview with Charles Wooley (Heart 107.3) - Economic stimulus package, pension...
The fact is that Australia is in a relatively strong position compared to other countries because during the Coalition years $96 billion of Labor debt was paid off, because future obligations or liabilities to Commonwealth Government pension plans and defence force personnel were covered in the Future Fund, and because we ran for most of that time very solid surpluses and built up a war chest that enables the Government to make payments of this kind.
Veterans' bonus welcomed
Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Louise Markus MP, welcomed the one-off bonus payment to Veterans groups announced by the Government yesterday.
Culture of greed flourishes in Rudd Government
The revelation tonight that Maxine McKew's ministerial advisor, Katherine Forrester, was an owner of Allen Consulting Group whilst her department awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of contracts to her company is evidence that the culture of greed is alive and well in Kevin Rudd's own government.
Conroy refuses to deny that the National Broadband Network could take 13 years
Senator Minchin had asked the Minister to reply to recent comments by Telstra CFO John Stanhope that building the Government’s proposed NBN could take 13 years to complete.
Don't ask me, I'm only the Prime Minister
The failure of the Prime Minister today to answer any questions in Parliament about the state of the Australian economy - at a time of great global upheaval - is highly concerning, said the Leader of The Nationals, Warren Truss.
David Perry: Will videogames become better than life?
http://www.ted.com Game designer David Perry says tomorrow's videogames will be more than mere fun to the next generation of gamers. They'll be lush, complex, emotional experiences -- more involving and meaningful to some than real life.
Headlines Saturday 18th October
Orta be a law against it
Andrew Bolt
Yet another oped in The Age, gloating over the crisis - and demonstrating all the insight for which which the Left is famous:
N 1949, a number of famous writers, among them Arthur Koestler, Andre Gide, Richard Wright, Stephen Spender and Ignazio Silone, wrote essays explaining why they were no longer communists. The essays were collected in a volume titled The God That Failed.
Today, conservative intellectuals might want to consider writing a tome on the failure of their own beloved deity, unregulated capitalism.
===
If Hutchison and I agree…
Andrew Bolt
Even Tracee Hutchison can’t understand why Tourism Australia has handed Baz Lurhmann $40 million to make ads meant to promote Australia the tourism destination, but which in fact promote Australia, the next Baz Luhrmann movie:
It’s a spectacular coup. For Baz.
===
In need of something else
Andrew Bolt
Such a bizarre demand raises the one question no one seems to have asked:
A 33-YEAR-OLD man living as a woman has made a court bid for his parents to pay for sexual reassignment surgery as part of a claim for “adult child maintenance”.
===
The new Rudd revealed
Andrew Bolt
Paul Kelly says the crisis has been wonderful for Kevin Rudd, now reinventing himself:
Rudd has never felt more in command as Prime Minister. He is torching the image of him as a cautious, review-addicted policy wonk. - no, he is only being sold as such. - ed.
===
Never mind the audience
Andrew Bolt
Ray Martin bites the hand of Channel 9, while demonstrating how he forgot his real audience:
Saddest of all, the Sunday program was ingloriously dumped, despite picking up five Walkley Award nominations last year.
===
Obama at his best, still lacking grace.
McCain ever the gentleman.
===
God mocked
Andrew Bolt
Last week Barack Obama asked Joe, a plumber, for his vote. Joe in turn asked Obama for an explanation. And then all hell broke loose:
With 15 minutes of fame comes 15 hours of “gotcha” scrutiny — especially if you’re a voter who has dared to criticize Barack Obama, the liberal media’s Chosen One for president.
Ohio plumber Joe Wurzelbacher has had his 15 minutes of fame, capping it off with an unplanned appearance as the poster boy of populist tax policy in last night’s presidential debate. So now it’s time for the press to turn its sights on him not as a human-interest story but as an investigative subject.
Jonathan Martin of The Politico was among the first out of the gate, with blog posts noting that Wurzelbacher, affectionately known by most of America as “Joe The Plumber,” has a tax lien against him and doesn’t have a plumber’s license. (Martin conveniently forgot to mention that the law doesn’t require one.) Bloomberg also has a story on the tax lien, and AP and The Washington Post did their part to make a story out of the “unlicensed” non-story.
===
Sick smear of the settlers
Andrew Bolt
First Australians, Rachel Perkins’ ”documentary” on SBS, trots out the familar genocidal-whitey canards:
The history is certainly unsettling, with accounts of war, the abduction of charismatic Aborigine Bennelong to serve as Governor Arthur Phillip’s translator, and a small pox epidemic that wipes out most of the population indigenous to the Sydney area and that is only episode one. The stories to be shown over the next six weeks tell of genocide in Tasmania, the forced removal of babies, the attempt to breed the Aborigines out of existence, and massacres.
Andrew Bolt
Yet another oped in The Age, gloating over the crisis - and demonstrating all the insight for which which the Left is famous:
N 1949, a number of famous writers, among them Arthur Koestler, Andre Gide, Richard Wright, Stephen Spender and Ignazio Silone, wrote essays explaining why they were no longer communists. The essays were collected in a volume titled The God That Failed.
Today, conservative intellectuals might want to consider writing a tome on the failure of their own beloved deity, unregulated capitalism.
===
If Hutchison and I agree…
Andrew Bolt
Even Tracee Hutchison can’t understand why Tourism Australia has handed Baz Lurhmann $40 million to make ads meant to promote Australia the tourism destination, but which in fact promote Australia, the next Baz Luhrmann movie:
It’s a spectacular coup. For Baz.
===
In need of something else
Andrew Bolt
Such a bizarre demand raises the one question no one seems to have asked:
A 33-YEAR-OLD man living as a woman has made a court bid for his parents to pay for sexual reassignment surgery as part of a claim for “adult child maintenance”.
===
The new Rudd revealed
Andrew Bolt
Paul Kelly says the crisis has been wonderful for Kevin Rudd, now reinventing himself:
Rudd has never felt more in command as Prime Minister. He is torching the image of him as a cautious, review-addicted policy wonk. - no, he is only being sold as such. - ed.
===
Never mind the audience
Andrew Bolt
Ray Martin bites the hand of Channel 9, while demonstrating how he forgot his real audience:
Saddest of all, the Sunday program was ingloriously dumped, despite picking up five Walkley Award nominations last year.
===
Obama at his best, still lacking grace.
McCain ever the gentleman.
===
God mocked
Andrew Bolt
Last week Barack Obama asked Joe, a plumber, for his vote. Joe in turn asked Obama for an explanation. And then all hell broke loose:
With 15 minutes of fame comes 15 hours of “gotcha” scrutiny — especially if you’re a voter who has dared to criticize Barack Obama, the liberal media’s Chosen One for president.
Ohio plumber Joe Wurzelbacher has had his 15 minutes of fame, capping it off with an unplanned appearance as the poster boy of populist tax policy in last night’s presidential debate. So now it’s time for the press to turn its sights on him not as a human-interest story but as an investigative subject.
Jonathan Martin of The Politico was among the first out of the gate, with blog posts noting that Wurzelbacher, affectionately known by most of America as “Joe The Plumber,” has a tax lien against him and doesn’t have a plumber’s license. (Martin conveniently forgot to mention that the law doesn’t require one.) Bloomberg also has a story on the tax lien, and AP and The Washington Post did their part to make a story out of the “unlicensed” non-story.
===
Sick smear of the settlers
Andrew Bolt
First Australians, Rachel Perkins’ ”documentary” on SBS, trots out the familar genocidal-whitey canards:
The history is certainly unsettling, with accounts of war, the abduction of charismatic Aborigine Bennelong to serve as Governor Arthur Phillip’s translator, and a small pox epidemic that wipes out most of the population indigenous to the Sydney area and that is only episode one. The stories to be shown over the next six weeks tell of genocide in Tasmania, the forced removal of babies, the attempt to breed the Aborigines out of existence, and massacres.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Liz Diller: Architecture is a special effects machine
http://www.ted.com In this engrossing EG talk, architect Liz Diller shares her firm DS+R's more unusual work, including the Blur Building, whose walls are made of fog, and the revamped Alice Tully Hall, which is wrapped in glowing wooden skin.
Attacking McCain for Being a Gentleman
Letterman has savaged him, because it is funny.
Letterman has savaged President Bush for the same reason. Not as much humor in attacking Clinton.
===
McCain, gracious as ever, when queried on Letterman why he hadn't gone on the show earlier, said "I screwed up."
Also, Palin might show on her tormentor program, Saturday Night Live.
===
Meanwhile, leftwing activists are putting up straw dogs of Obama abuse and using them to denounce McCain. Yet the legitimate target of Obama, who has made some racist, bigoted statements, and who has supported the US's enemies gets a free pass by the press.
Something to think on in Australia, tonight, as Rudd meets with industry leaders and asks for support after publicly denouncing banks for doing their job.
Letterman has savaged President Bush for the same reason. Not as much humor in attacking Clinton.
===
McCain, gracious as ever, when queried on Letterman why he hadn't gone on the show earlier, said "I screwed up."
Also, Palin might show on her tormentor program, Saturday Night Live.
===
Meanwhile, leftwing activists are putting up straw dogs of Obama abuse and using them to denounce McCain. Yet the legitimate target of Obama, who has made some racist, bigoted statements, and who has supported the US's enemies gets a free pass by the press.
Something to think on in Australia, tonight, as Rudd meets with industry leaders and asks for support after publicly denouncing banks for doing their job.
Space.com News
Space Tourist, Astronauts to Dock at Station
An American space tourist and two professional astronauts are closing in on the International Space Station.
MISSIONS/LAUNCHES
Former Astronaut's Son Blasts Off Toward Space Station
The 100th Crewed Soyuz Flight That (Maybe) Isn't
SCIENCE/ASTRONOMY
Distant Spacecraft Scans Earth for Signs of Life
Juno Spacecraft to Study Jupiter
RECENT HEADLINES
OHB Uses Galileo Bid to Send a Message to Competitors
SpaceDev Founder Jim Benson Dies at 63
Mission Extended for NASA's Oldest Mars Spycraft
NASA Draws Plan to Revive Hubble Space Telescope
COOL STUFF
Image of the Day: Make Me a Star
New Video - The Garriotts: An American Space Legacy - Part 1
Private space adventurer Richard Garriott and his NASA-astronaut father, Owen, discuss their dedication to space science.
An American space tourist and two professional astronauts are closing in on the International Space Station.
MISSIONS/LAUNCHES
Former Astronaut's Son Blasts Off Toward Space Station
The 100th Crewed Soyuz Flight That (Maybe) Isn't
SCIENCE/ASTRONOMY
Distant Spacecraft Scans Earth for Signs of Life
Juno Spacecraft to Study Jupiter
RECENT HEADLINES
OHB Uses Galileo Bid to Send a Message to Competitors
SpaceDev Founder Jim Benson Dies at 63
Mission Extended for NASA's Oldest Mars Spycraft
NASA Draws Plan to Revive Hubble Space Telescope
COOL STUFF
Image of the Day: Make Me a Star
New Video - The Garriotts: An American Space Legacy - Part 1
Private space adventurer Richard Garriott and his NASA-astronaut father, Owen, discuss their dedication to space science.
Headlines Friday 17th October
Rudd rules, OK?
Andrew Bolt
How Kevin Rudd’s ministers can work with him beats me:
STEPHEN SMITH’S office is being bypassed by foreign embassies in Canberra - and the role of his department diminished - and there is a widespread perception that Kevin Rudd, the nation’s first diplomat prime minister, is the real foreign minister.
Mr Rudd has kept firm control over foreign affairs and launched far-reaching policies with minimal consultation in a move that has demoralised a chronically underfunded diplomatic service and downgraded the role of his Foreign Minister, Mr Smith.
===
Palin framed again
Andrew Bolt
The media all agree so it must true: that Sarah Palin so whipped up hate against Barack Obama that a supporter shouted: “Kill him!”
Why, even Obama himself has repeated the damaging claim:
OBAMA: I mean, look, if we want to talk about Congressman Lewis, who is an American hero, he, unprompted by my campaign, without my campaign’s awareness, made a statement that he was troubled with what he was hearing at some of the rallies that your running mate was holding, in which all the Republican reports indicated were shouting, when my name came up, things like “terrorist” and “kill him,” and that you’re running mate didn’t mention, didn’t stop, didn’t say “Hold on a second, that’s kind of out of line.”
Terrific smear. But the fact is there seems to be no truth to it:
===
Luhrmann sells Australia short
Andrew Bolt
ITS no-spin name spells it out: Tourism Australia is meant to sell Australia to tourists. Lots of them.
But now check Tourism Australia’s new Come Walkabout ads: it’s decided instead to sell spiritual therapy to urban salvation-seekers.
These two commercials, released this week and destined for screening in 22 countries, are invitations to a church, not a holiday. And to a very exclusive, family-unfriendly church, with not even the hint this time of Lara Bingle’s famous bouncing breasts.
Sigh. Loosen up, guys.
Once again, the taxpayer-funded Tourism Australia has fallen to the modern temptation to preach, rather than please. Forgetting its last disaster, it’s spending $40 million to advertise not Australia, but its own chic, green-tinged sensibilities.
===
The crucifixion of the bankers
Andrew Bolt
THIS week is the closest some of our bankers will ever come to Jesus.
Now they know what it’s like to be crucified for the sins of others.
Of course, I shouldn’t be so quick to defend bank bosses from the Prime Minister, who is now vowing to “rein in any executive greed”.
Greed and “extreme capitalism” had caused this financial collapse, Kevin Rudd stormed, with talkback callers shrieking in approval, and we needed new capital adequacy rules to rein in banks that paid their executives too much to take big risks.
In fact, Rudd would sick the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority on to them right now.
Naturally, I should be cheering with the mob. I mean, look at all the newspaper stories yesterday that picked up on Rudd’s call, and ran salivating stories about the obscene fortunes paid to our top bankers.
===
Liberals can’t be carbon copies
Andrew Bolt
Tom Switzer, who was senior advisor to then Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson, gives the Liberals very useful advice:
(C)onservatives won’t be able to attack effectively the government’s global warming scheme if they remain carbon copies of Labor. When all is said and done, Turnbull and his shadow environment minister Greg Hunt agree with virtually everything that Rudd and his climate change minister Penny Wong say about taxing industry and redistributing the proceeds at potentially huge cost to the economy.
===
Bash the greedy scapegoat
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd goes for a crowd favorite - greedy bankers:
KEVIN Rudd stands accused of bank-bashing after vowing to penalise financial institutions that lavish executives with multi-million-dollar pay packages without requiring them to follow responsible investment practices…
Mr Rudd has asked the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority to prepare rules penalising banks that reward risky behaviour by requiring them to have greater capital reserves than those with more responsible investment practices.
===
Eating the host out of house and home
Andrew Bolt
News from France’s undeclared civil war:
Any football match in France before which the country’s national anthem is booed will now be “immediately stopped”, French Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot said Wednesday after meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
===
Change you can bank on
Andrew Bolt
But he’s a Democrat, so it’s fine:
Democratic vice-presidential candidate Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. has paid more than $2 million in campaign cash to his family members, their businesses and employers over the years, a practice that watchdogs criticize as rife with potential conflicts of interest.
===
Too smart for an activist
Andrew Bolt
Good to see the police actually taking the threat of Leftist violence and law-breaking seriously in Victoria, after so many police have been hurt:
VICTORIA Police’s secret intelligence unit has infiltrated Melbourne’s activist and community groups for two years to gather information on protests against the Iraq War, Japanese whaling and a weapons exhibition.
===
Canadians cool on warming politicians
Andrew Bolt
Canada, at least, sticks to the conservatives:
CANADIAN Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the first major world leader to face voters since the global financial meltdown, led his Conservative Party to victory in a general election yesterday…
And a big factor in the win:
Opinion polls indicated Mr Harper had shored up support in the past week as he argued he was the best candidate to manage the economy and that a proposed carbon tax from Mr Dion would hurt the economy.
===
INCONVENIENT DECLINE
Tim Blair
The Gore Effect writ large:
Globally averaged temperatures have gone down approximately .38° F. since Al Gore released An Inconvenient Truth at the Sundance Film Festival on January, 24, 2006.
Andrew Bolt
How Kevin Rudd’s ministers can work with him beats me:
STEPHEN SMITH’S office is being bypassed by foreign embassies in Canberra - and the role of his department diminished - and there is a widespread perception that Kevin Rudd, the nation’s first diplomat prime minister, is the real foreign minister.
Mr Rudd has kept firm control over foreign affairs and launched far-reaching policies with minimal consultation in a move that has demoralised a chronically underfunded diplomatic service and downgraded the role of his Foreign Minister, Mr Smith.
===
Palin framed again
Andrew Bolt
The media all agree so it must true: that Sarah Palin so whipped up hate against Barack Obama that a supporter shouted: “Kill him!”
Why, even Obama himself has repeated the damaging claim:
OBAMA: I mean, look, if we want to talk about Congressman Lewis, who is an American hero, he, unprompted by my campaign, without my campaign’s awareness, made a statement that he was troubled with what he was hearing at some of the rallies that your running mate was holding, in which all the Republican reports indicated were shouting, when my name came up, things like “terrorist” and “kill him,” and that you’re running mate didn’t mention, didn’t stop, didn’t say “Hold on a second, that’s kind of out of line.”
Terrific smear. But the fact is there seems to be no truth to it:
===
Luhrmann sells Australia short
Andrew Bolt
ITS no-spin name spells it out: Tourism Australia is meant to sell Australia to tourists. Lots of them.
But now check Tourism Australia’s new Come Walkabout ads: it’s decided instead to sell spiritual therapy to urban salvation-seekers.
These two commercials, released this week and destined for screening in 22 countries, are invitations to a church, not a holiday. And to a very exclusive, family-unfriendly church, with not even the hint this time of Lara Bingle’s famous bouncing breasts.
Sigh. Loosen up, guys.
Once again, the taxpayer-funded Tourism Australia has fallen to the modern temptation to preach, rather than please. Forgetting its last disaster, it’s spending $40 million to advertise not Australia, but its own chic, green-tinged sensibilities.
===
The crucifixion of the bankers
Andrew Bolt
THIS week is the closest some of our bankers will ever come to Jesus.
Now they know what it’s like to be crucified for the sins of others.
Of course, I shouldn’t be so quick to defend bank bosses from the Prime Minister, who is now vowing to “rein in any executive greed”.
Greed and “extreme capitalism” had caused this financial collapse, Kevin Rudd stormed, with talkback callers shrieking in approval, and we needed new capital adequacy rules to rein in banks that paid their executives too much to take big risks.
In fact, Rudd would sick the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority on to them right now.
Naturally, I should be cheering with the mob. I mean, look at all the newspaper stories yesterday that picked up on Rudd’s call, and ran salivating stories about the obscene fortunes paid to our top bankers.
===
Liberals can’t be carbon copies
Andrew Bolt
Tom Switzer, who was senior advisor to then Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson, gives the Liberals very useful advice:
(C)onservatives won’t be able to attack effectively the government’s global warming scheme if they remain carbon copies of Labor. When all is said and done, Turnbull and his shadow environment minister Greg Hunt agree with virtually everything that Rudd and his climate change minister Penny Wong say about taxing industry and redistributing the proceeds at potentially huge cost to the economy.
===
Bash the greedy scapegoat
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd goes for a crowd favorite - greedy bankers:
KEVIN Rudd stands accused of bank-bashing after vowing to penalise financial institutions that lavish executives with multi-million-dollar pay packages without requiring them to follow responsible investment practices…
Mr Rudd has asked the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority to prepare rules penalising banks that reward risky behaviour by requiring them to have greater capital reserves than those with more responsible investment practices.
===
Eating the host out of house and home
Andrew Bolt
News from France’s undeclared civil war:
Any football match in France before which the country’s national anthem is booed will now be “immediately stopped”, French Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot said Wednesday after meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
===
Change you can bank on
Andrew Bolt
But he’s a Democrat, so it’s fine:
Democratic vice-presidential candidate Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. has paid more than $2 million in campaign cash to his family members, their businesses and employers over the years, a practice that watchdogs criticize as rife with potential conflicts of interest.
===
Too smart for an activist
Andrew Bolt
Good to see the police actually taking the threat of Leftist violence and law-breaking seriously in Victoria, after so many police have been hurt:
VICTORIA Police’s secret intelligence unit has infiltrated Melbourne’s activist and community groups for two years to gather information on protests against the Iraq War, Japanese whaling and a weapons exhibition.
===
Canadians cool on warming politicians
Andrew Bolt
Canada, at least, sticks to the conservatives:
CANADIAN Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the first major world leader to face voters since the global financial meltdown, led his Conservative Party to victory in a general election yesterday…
And a big factor in the win:
Opinion polls indicated Mr Harper had shored up support in the past week as he argued he was the best candidate to manage the economy and that a proposed carbon tax from Mr Dion would hurt the economy.
===
INCONVENIENT DECLINE
Tim Blair
The Gore Effect writ large:
Globally averaged temperatures have gone down approximately .38° F. since Al Gore released An Inconvenient Truth at the Sundance Film Festival on January, 24, 2006.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Noah Feldman: Politics and religion are technologies
http://www.ted.com Noah Feldman makes a searing case that both politics and religion -- whatever their differences -- are similar technologies, designed to efficiently connect and manage any group of people.
The Last US Presidential Debate
Candidates Hit Hard at Final Presidential Debate
John McCain and Barack Obama have at it during their final presidential debate.
John McCain, sitting just a few feet from Barack Obama at the final presidential debate Wednesday, tried to recharge his campaign with a volley of allegations directed at Obama's honesty, judgment and empathy for tax-burdened Americans.
Obama calmly attempted to deflect every charge, accusing McCain of going negative in the final weeks of the campaign and distorting the facts about Obama's past associations and record.
The debate was far more combative than the previous two -- likely a reflection of the fact it was a key opportunity for McCain to halt Obama's growing momentum in the polls.
But although the recent economic turmoil seems to have hurt McCain's standing, the Republican nominee used the intimate format Wednesday to challenge Obama's economic ideas directly and rebut the Democratic campaign's central argument, that McCain stands for four more years of Bush administration policies.
"Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you want to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago," McCain said.
You decide who won the debate, at FOX
- Once again Obama has been challenged to answer some straight forward questions about his associations. They may have been former associations, we don’t really know. He didn’t answer the questions, but instead went on about negative campaigns and the like. There is a reason why Obama has not answered those questions, and it isn’t because he has a glass jaw. Obama won’t admit he has made a mistake. Obama doesn’t have any policy of substance, and so having made a mistake would be a cardinal sin.
Australia elected a policy free Prime Minister last year by name of Kevin Rudd. Mr Rudd has made some mistakes over the economy, and is compounding them with rhetoric inappropriate to the times. The result has been the Asurtalian reserve bank has lifted interest rates a few times this year, before dropping them last month, when none of the changes were required, except maybe, the drop.
The US will come to tears if, as is expected, Obama is elected president without a policy platform that has been vetted by voters.
Obama has made mistakes .. but are they in the past? - ed.
John McCain and Barack Obama have at it during their final presidential debate.
John McCain, sitting just a few feet from Barack Obama at the final presidential debate Wednesday, tried to recharge his campaign with a volley of allegations directed at Obama's honesty, judgment and empathy for tax-burdened Americans.
Obama calmly attempted to deflect every charge, accusing McCain of going negative in the final weeks of the campaign and distorting the facts about Obama's past associations and record.
The debate was far more combative than the previous two -- likely a reflection of the fact it was a key opportunity for McCain to halt Obama's growing momentum in the polls.
But although the recent economic turmoil seems to have hurt McCain's standing, the Republican nominee used the intimate format Wednesday to challenge Obama's economic ideas directly and rebut the Democratic campaign's central argument, that McCain stands for four more years of Bush administration policies.
"Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you want to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago," McCain said.
You decide who won the debate, at FOX
- Once again Obama has been challenged to answer some straight forward questions about his associations. They may have been former associations, we don’t really know. He didn’t answer the questions, but instead went on about negative campaigns and the like. There is a reason why Obama has not answered those questions, and it isn’t because he has a glass jaw. Obama won’t admit he has made a mistake. Obama doesn’t have any policy of substance, and so having made a mistake would be a cardinal sin.
Australia elected a policy free Prime Minister last year by name of Kevin Rudd. Mr Rudd has made some mistakes over the economy, and is compounding them with rhetoric inappropriate to the times. The result has been the Asurtalian reserve bank has lifted interest rates a few times this year, before dropping them last month, when none of the changes were required, except maybe, the drop.
The US will come to tears if, as is expected, Obama is elected president without a policy platform that has been vetted by voters.
Obama has made mistakes .. but are they in the past? - ed.
Live Science News Headlines
Shark Pregnant, No Males Required
Biologists confirm a female shark got pregnant without mating with a male.
What it Takes to Be President
Animals Have Personalities, Too
Stress and Suicide in Hard Times: How People Really React
Flying Cars Near Takeoff
Top Features
Financial Fears Outweigh Terrorist Threat
Plus and Minus: Disposable vs. Rechargeable Batteries
Home Lighting Could Be Wireless Network
Xenophobia Founded on Faulty Assumptions
Video: Change in the Wind - Power From Thin Air?
Video - On Dancing Air: The Story of Wind Power
Biologists confirm a female shark got pregnant without mating with a male.
What it Takes to Be President
Animals Have Personalities, Too
Stress and Suicide in Hard Times: How People Really React
Flying Cars Near Takeoff
Top Features
Financial Fears Outweigh Terrorist Threat
Plus and Minus: Disposable vs. Rechargeable Batteries
Home Lighting Could Be Wireless Network
Xenophobia Founded on Faulty Assumptions
Video: Change in the Wind - Power From Thin Air?
Video - On Dancing Air: The Story of Wind Power
Headlines Thursday 16th October
Not much behind Kevin Rudd’s shock and awe
Piers Akerman
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd used his first state-of-the-nation address to warn Australians of the “worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression”, striking fear into the hearts and minds of those who have not been following the meltdown.
Treasurer Wayne Swan echoed his leader’s message, warning that the “global crisis has entered a dangerous new phase’’ - no ambiguity there, either - and a claque of Labor MPs parroted the same message yesterday whenever a microphone appeared.
No one here, or abroad, could possibly now doubt the severity of the fiscal collapse and, as an economic stimulus, the Rudd Labor Government’s $10.4 billion package offers a quick solution which even Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull rapidly blessed, though with some understandable concerns.
The principle problem for Rudd, Swan and the third member of their economic team, Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, is that the big plan has come up with little, if anything, in the way of supporting argument or forecast documents.
While the beneficiaries of the Rudd Government’s unexpected pinata are not ungrateful for the largesse they will be showered with, Australians are justified in asking what economic data the troika used last weekend when considering what action was needed.
When the last Labor prime minister Paul Keating released his first economic program, Working Nation, at the end of February 1992, the ambitious program was accompanied by enough tables and charts and graphs to gladden any bureaucratic heart.
That plan, like Rudd’s Economic Security Strategy, was designed to resolve a crisis - in Keating’s case, soaring unemployment.
The aim was to create 800,000 jobs by 1996 but by the end of 1992 unemployment had reached 11.4 per cent, the highest level since the Depression in the 1930s. -ALP governments have always been good at spending our money. In recent times, it hasn’t merely been spending, but much more focused. Money is given to industrialists who favor the ALP. Sometimes they porkbarrel funds in swinging electorates, other times they favor projects which only benefit them .. as with desalinating water.
here is how one punter describes things .. in reply to the accurate statement that the Howard government was Australia’s most effective.
===
How we must fight in Afghanistan
Andrew Bolt
Major General (Rtd) Jim Molan was chief of staff of the joint forces in Iraq, and has just written a terrific book on the lessons learned there. But while Iraq now seems won, Molan has sent me an article he written to warn that the war in Afghanistan is going much worse than it should, both there and in the battle of the headlines here:
The last government did not sell its commitment to Iraq to the Australian population because (I suspect) of a lack of real commitment and a fear of the consequence if it all went really bad. This bunker mentality left the field open to a generally uninformed media reinforced by self fulfilling polls, then exploited by the opposition for short term political gain.
I can see no real effort to sell (explain) the Afghanistan commitment. If the Rudd Government is not careful, the current opposition will start to attack the current government over Afghanistan in exactly the same opportunistic way that the last opposition attacked the last government over Iraq. - of course it is also important we fight effectively, and not just send troops to die so that our government can keep elected - ed.
===
North Pole too icy now to mention
Andrew Bolt
Remember all those dire warnings in the media of an ice-free North Pole this (northern) summer? Remember the British eco-explorer, Lewis Gordon Pugh, announcing he’d paddle to the Pole to draw attention to the frightening lack of ice?
But....
Has anyone in the main-stream media since told you that Pugh had to call off his plan, still 600 miles from the North Pole, when his kayak ran into too much ice?
===
Had to happen
Andrew Bolt
Sooner than predicted:
WAYNE Swan is today refusing to speculate that the era of budget surpluses is over as economists predict a deficit next year.
===
Sack the parents
Andrew Bolt
What you get from an Attorney-General who still has a problem with authority:
TEENS will be judges, prosecutors and jurors in cases of other kids accused of minor crimes under a radical Victorian Government plan.
Piers Akerman
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd used his first state-of-the-nation address to warn Australians of the “worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression”, striking fear into the hearts and minds of those who have not been following the meltdown.
Treasurer Wayne Swan echoed his leader’s message, warning that the “global crisis has entered a dangerous new phase’’ - no ambiguity there, either - and a claque of Labor MPs parroted the same message yesterday whenever a microphone appeared.
No one here, or abroad, could possibly now doubt the severity of the fiscal collapse and, as an economic stimulus, the Rudd Labor Government’s $10.4 billion package offers a quick solution which even Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull rapidly blessed, though with some understandable concerns.
The principle problem for Rudd, Swan and the third member of their economic team, Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, is that the big plan has come up with little, if anything, in the way of supporting argument or forecast documents.
While the beneficiaries of the Rudd Government’s unexpected pinata are not ungrateful for the largesse they will be showered with, Australians are justified in asking what economic data the troika used last weekend when considering what action was needed.
When the last Labor prime minister Paul Keating released his first economic program, Working Nation, at the end of February 1992, the ambitious program was accompanied by enough tables and charts and graphs to gladden any bureaucratic heart.
That plan, like Rudd’s Economic Security Strategy, was designed to resolve a crisis - in Keating’s case, soaring unemployment.
The aim was to create 800,000 jobs by 1996 but by the end of 1992 unemployment had reached 11.4 per cent, the highest level since the Depression in the 1930s. -ALP governments have always been good at spending our money. In recent times, it hasn’t merely been spending, but much more focused. Money is given to industrialists who favor the ALP. Sometimes they porkbarrel funds in swinging electorates, other times they favor projects which only benefit them .. as with desalinating water.
here is how one punter describes things .. in reply to the accurate statement that the Howard government was Australia’s most effective.
effective Austr Govt ever?The lies told so as to make others forget how bad they have been.- ed.
policy ?
They rode off keatings work added a gst that was not their idea it was ripped off .
Fiddled with superannuation that keating put in but never raised it.
China was the reason for our mining growing like it did not the liberal party.
Keatings work during the 80 got us through the asian crisis and stoped us going into recession .
Recession would have hit australia in howards first two years in office.
Howard is on the record of saying keating set us up.
===
How we must fight in Afghanistan
Andrew Bolt
Major General (Rtd) Jim Molan was chief of staff of the joint forces in Iraq, and has just written a terrific book on the lessons learned there. But while Iraq now seems won, Molan has sent me an article he written to warn that the war in Afghanistan is going much worse than it should, both there and in the battle of the headlines here:
The last government did not sell its commitment to Iraq to the Australian population because (I suspect) of a lack of real commitment and a fear of the consequence if it all went really bad. This bunker mentality left the field open to a generally uninformed media reinforced by self fulfilling polls, then exploited by the opposition for short term political gain.
I can see no real effort to sell (explain) the Afghanistan commitment. If the Rudd Government is not careful, the current opposition will start to attack the current government over Afghanistan in exactly the same opportunistic way that the last opposition attacked the last government over Iraq. - of course it is also important we fight effectively, and not just send troops to die so that our government can keep elected - ed.
===
North Pole too icy now to mention
Andrew Bolt
Remember all those dire warnings in the media of an ice-free North Pole this (northern) summer? Remember the British eco-explorer, Lewis Gordon Pugh, announcing he’d paddle to the Pole to draw attention to the frightening lack of ice?
But....
Has anyone in the main-stream media since told you that Pugh had to call off his plan, still 600 miles from the North Pole, when his kayak ran into too much ice?
===
Had to happen
Andrew Bolt
Sooner than predicted:
WAYNE Swan is today refusing to speculate that the era of budget surpluses is over as economists predict a deficit next year.
===
Sack the parents
Andrew Bolt
What you get from an Attorney-General who still has a problem with authority:
TEENS will be judges, prosecutors and jurors in cases of other kids accused of minor crimes under a radical Victorian Government plan.
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