Slattsnews

Added this to the “must see” list.
“God Bless America” also takes aim – if you will – at the escalating sue-happy mentality of our world.
“We have become such a litigious society. Back in my day, you are going to meet me after class and I am going to punch you in the throat and put you down and we won’t have this argument again. Now you have to worry if they will take you to court, it is a different world than when we would fight in the yard,” Murray lamented.

Journalists generally don’t enjoy a good press with the public, deservedly in many cases. But in this case they’ve acted with fairness and caution, despite an avalanche-like campaign of character assassination. On almost a daily basis for the past month I’ve received claims of various intensity about a federal minister. I sounded out colleagues, who had been told the same damaging tales. But none broke ranks despite the parties’ reluctance initially to comment on the claims that were circulated without evidence, let alone proof. Unfortunately, the scuttlebut swelled to unbearable proportions, so this weekend the victims went public to set the record straight.
Let this be the end of the matter; there is no place for such despicable rumour-mongering in a liberal democracy.
Importantly, such abuse of digital media merely plays into the hands of latter-day fascists who would censor such carriers of information.

Lefty media again caught reporting the news not as it is, but as they’d like it to be.

AFTER triggering a global news event with reports about death threats against climate scientists, the ABC and Fairfax Media are under investigation by Media Watch after a central plank supporting their reports was found to be non-existent.
Before the flaws in their reports were revealed, their versions of the truth had been picked up by Britain’s The Guardian and the scientific journal Nature.
The critical error in their reports, which has been revealed by The Australian, is that emails held by the Australian National University that were supposed to outline death threats against climate scientists have been independently assessed as containing no death threats.

There’s a strong chance that Julia Gillard was telling the truth after all when she said there’d be no carbon tax under a government she led.
The carbon tax isn’t due to take effect until July 1.
The latest opinion poll suggest that despite her declaration of class war and handouts of borrowed billions, Gillard remains on the nose with voters.

The Nielsen poll in Fairfax newspapers show Mr Abbott’s approval rating climbed five points from the last poll to 44 per cent.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s approval rating fell 1 per cent to 35 per cent, which is within the poll’s margin of error.
The Coalition leads Labor 58 to 42 percent on a two-party preferred basis.
Labor’s primary vote has risen one point to 28 per cent, while the Coalition is up two points to 49 per cent, with the Greens on 12 per cent.
Mr Abbott is the preferred prime minister on 50 per cent, compared to Ms Gillard on 42 per cent.
The poll also found that more than four in 10 voters believe the budget will leave them worse off.

It would not surprise in the least if the faceless assassins were now circling. Kevin Rudd or Simon Crean?

Is there anything that Julia Gillard can get right? Here she is yesterday bagging Tony Abbott:

“Mr Abbott’s got to get off Sydney’s north shore and go and talk to some real families and get himself in the real world,” she said.

Now, the North Shore on the northern side of Sydney Harbour, is where Sydney’s rich and powerful reside, in suburbs such as Cremorne, Neutral Bay and Mosman.
Tony Abbott lives in the far less silvertail Warringah in Sydney’s Northern BEACHES area around Manly.
And “real families”?!! Jeez, I wouldn’t go there, PM.

This quote is popping up all over the net in response to growing political extremism and the international disaster it will bring:

The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living

David Penberthy gets it. Pity too many of his colleagues don’t.

It’s time to stop sneering, hipsters. Something remarkable has happened. The bogans have won. They are officially and seriously cashed-up.
The rise of the affluent blue-collar sector has been a nation-changing transformation. Not the least, it has turned politics on its head. People who were once uniformly loyal to the Australian Labor Party are now anything but. They are more likely to be individualists who dislike taxation and welfare, believe in reward for effort, have an in-principle problem with punishing people for getting ahead, and want government to limit itself largely to keeping the budget in the black and interest rates down.
Just in case you missed the data I’m basing this on, I’ll recap. Figures released last week showed blue-collar workers have overtaken white-collar workers as the highest-paid people in Australia. Not just in mining but across the board.

Remove any doubts the US is heading down the gurgler at world record speed. Hasn’t that idiot Obama seen what cradle to grave socialism has done to Europe? Or is it a case that he has and doesn’t care? Or worse, he cares and that’s exactly what he wants – the destruction of great nations to be replaced by a worldwide state-dependant proletariat. Frightening!
UPDATE:
The inimitable Iowahawk serves up the idiot in chief the derision he deserves.
UPDATE 2:
This latest round of US political idiocy was never going to escape the attention of Mark Steyn:

But being yourself is never going to be enough in the new composite America. Last week, in an election campaign ad, Barack revealed his latest composite girlfriend — “Julia.” She’s worse than the old New York girlfriend. She can’t even be herself. In fact, she can’t be anything without massive assistance from Barack every step of the way, from his “Head Start” program at the age of three through to his Social Security benefits at the age of 67. Everything good in her life she owes to him. When she writes her memoir, it will be thanks to a subvention from the Federal Publishing Assistance Program for Chronically Dependent Women but you’ll love it: Sweet Dreams from My Sugar Daddy.

Outrageous scandal of the day linked to the Gillard government? This qualifies.

If the unions were merely exploiting government environmental legislation to milk the taxpayer it would be bad enough: but what makes the wind farm scam so scandalous are the public health issues. Why aren’t we more aware of these? Because there have been cover-ups on an epic scale. The owners on whose land the turbines are built are subject to rigorous gagging orders (from law firms such as Julia Gillard’s ex-company, Slater & Gordon); tame experts are paid huge sums to testify that there are no health implications; inquiries are rigged; victims are rehoused and silenced with million-dollar payoffs. The global wind farm industry — a cash cow for everyone from Labor’s unions to the mafia — is so massive it can afford it.

James Delingpole is not wasting time during his visit to Australia.

Climate alarmists wonder why they are so widely doubted.

CLAIMS that some of Australia’s leading climate change scientists were subjected to death threats as part of a vicious and unrelenting email campaign have been debunked by the Privacy Commissioner.

Picked this up from the Coyote Blog which in turn credited it to Jerry Pournelle:

- Fifty years ago, if you wanted to be color-blind and treat everyone the same, you were considered a hopeless liberal.
- Today, if you want to be color-blind and treat everyone the same, you are considered a right-wing racist.

It’s looking increasingly like Julia Gillard was NOT lying when she said there’d be no carbon tax under her prime ministership.
With the party sharks circling, it has to be remembered that the carbon tax doesn’t come in until July 1.

A problem that would be, er, hard to live with:

Henry Wolf of California is suing BMW America and aftermarket seatmaker Corbin-Pacific claiming his issue began after a four-hour ride on his 1993 BMW motorcycle, with a ridge like seat. Wolf is seeking compensation for lost wages, medical expenses, emotional distress and what he calls “general damage.”
He said he’s had the erection non-stop for 20 months. And it comes with another side effect: The lawsuit says Wolf is “now is unable to engage in sexual activity, which is causing him substantial emotional and mental anguish.”

Politically interesting days ahead, I reckon.

VOTERS are demanding an early federal election to blast out a government they believe is desperate to cling to power and a prime minister who has poor political judgment.
The findings of the exclusive Herald Sun/Galaxy Poll come as Prime Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday she no longer wanted Craig Thomson in her partyroom – but would still rely on his vote to stay in power.

Heh, heh. This must qualify for the ever-growing list of unintended environmental consequences:

But on huge wind farms the motion of the turbines mixes the air higher in the atmosphere that is warmer, pushing up the overall temperature.
Satellite data over a large area in Texas, that is now covered by four of the world’s largest wind farms, found that over a decade the local temperature went up by almost 1C as more turbines are built.

This poll should end any doubts that the Greens’ influence is on the wan.

CONCERN for the environment has dwindled into a ”middling” issue that many people do not have strong feelings about, a major study into Australian attitudes towards society, politics and the economy has found.
Food, health, local crime, safety and rights to basic public services – the tangible things that people confront on a daily basis – are dominant national concerns. ”Australians are effectively indifferent to global and societal issues, rating these significantly lower,” according to the report What Matters to Australians, produced by the Melbourne Business School and the University of Technology in Sydney, with the support of the Australian Research Council.

Swiped this from a Bolt commenter. Pretty much sums it up:

If a Conservative doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one. If a Labor/Greenie doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.If a Conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat. If a Labor/Greenie is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone. If a Conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life. If a Labor/Greenie is homosexual, he demands legislated respect. If a Conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. If a Labor/Greenie is down and out, he wonders who is going to take care of him. If a Conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels. If a Labor/Greenie doesn’t lake a talk show host, he demands that those he doesn’t like be shut down. If a Conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church. If a Labor/Greenie is a non-believer, he wants any mention of God and religion silenced. If a Conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it,or may choose a job that provides it.If a Labor/Greenie decides he needs health care, he demands that the rest of us pay for his. If a Conservative reads this, he’ll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh. If a Labor/Greenie reads this, he will delete it because he’s “offended”.

This is huge, the equivalent of a cardinal embracing atheism and should lead bulletins all over the world.
But don’t hold those front pages. Widespread coverage would mean the media having to admit they failed dismally at their most basic task: to present news objectively.

It will also reflect his new opinion that global warming has not occurred as he had expected.
“The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn’t happened,” Lovelock said.
“The climate is doing its usual tricks. There’s nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now,” he said.
“The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time… it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising — carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that,” he added.
He pointed to Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and Tim Flannery’s “The Weather Makers” as other examples of “alarmist” forecasts of the future.

The strife-stricken Australian Labor Party hardly needs this from former leader Mark Latham:

People regularly ask me about the humiliation I must feel for having once led a corrupted rabble like the ALP.

Mark Steyn on the scandal enveloping the White House. Hilarious.

What we know so far is this: All 11 Secret Service men and all 10 U.S. military personnel staying at the Hotel Caribe are alleged to have had “escorts” in their rooms that night. All of them. The entire team.
Twenty-one U.S. public servants. Twenty-one Colombian whores. Unless a couple of the senior guys splashed out for the two-girl special. “Some of them were saying they didn’t know they were prostitutes,” explained Congressman Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
“Some are saying they were women at the bar.”
Amazing to hear government agents channeling Dudley Moore in Arthur:
“You’re a hooker …? I thought I was doing so well.” It turns out U.S. Secret Service agents are the only men who can walk into a Colombian nightclub and not spot the professionals. Are they really the guys you want protecting the president?