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Jill Meagher
“Accordingly, he had no option but to kill her,” Mr Silbert said.
That’s like about 20 cases of rape – I wonder if the Parole Board members have any trouble sleeping at night?C’mon Tony Kevin – where are you?
Rudd campaigning for PM again
Australia’s border protection service has been accused of causing lives to be lost by responding too slowly to the latest asylum seeker boat tragedy off Christmas Island. A former Australian ambassador has called for a coronial inquiry into the response by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. The Greens also want a more thorough inquiry than the standard internal review.Tim Blair nails it:
That report from Fairfax (which campaigned for weaker border protection policies, causing hundreds of lives to be lost) cites the Greens (who campaigned for weaker border protection policies, causing hundreds of lives to be lost) and an ex-ambassador (who campaigned for weaker border protection policies, etc, etc). Now that weaker policies are in place and tens of thousands of asylum seekers are risking death at sea, they’re blaming … the border protection service. These people are incapable of shame.Indeed they are!
ALP tries to deflect blame to Egypt
“There is no evidence that he has committed any offence here in Australia and the circumstances of what happened in Egypt in 1998-1999, they’ll all be examined, as is absolutely appropriate, in the course of examining claims that he is making and deciding what is to be his future,” Mr Dreyfus told Sky News.
“We have the rule of law in our country. We have proper investigative practices in our country.”
Publicly accusing another nation of not having the rule of law nor proper investigating practices is not a good look for an Attorney General of a first world country even if he is a member of a third rate government. Dreyfus is only trying to deflect attention away from the debacle occasioned by the ALP’s open border policy and budget restraints on Customs, ASIO and the AFP. Anyone with skin in the game or an interest in Australia’s security have been warning all and sundry that to let people into the country when they come via boats, having destroyed identity papers en route, is dangerous. These boat people are not all they make themselves out to be. Afganis fleeing military service while Diggers are dying in Afghanistan; Tamils (who invented the suicide bomber) looking for a better life on our social security, and, as is apparent in this case, terrorists escaping justice, are all among the mix. And, do you really think there is only one terrorist among the tens of thousands of illegal arrivals since Rudd opened the borders? Unlikely. There are hundreds of questions to be asked about the ALP’s handling of the illegal entries. With authorities swamped and budgets tightened it must be almost impossible to vet each arrival. With the government overwhelmed by their own incompetence they have folded and have released thousands of unknown people into the community. There isn’t even a semblance of control. Julia Gillard announcement of a probe of the case is tantamount to offering a bandaid to double amputee. It wont help and by the time the results are out we will most probably have another government. Still, considering all she wants to do is get the matter off the front page then it will likely work for her in the winter of her political life. One hundred days to go – what else can go wrong?You need to read more Julia
Waleed thinks war should be fair
War is a kind of contract. Each side confronts the other, with the risk of death and defeat. In short, war should come at a cost. That contract is shredded when you’re attacked by something that cannot itself be killed. It’s not remotely a fair fight.
War is not supposed to be a fair fight and if it is it’s a pain in the arse. As David Hackworth once said “If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn’t plan your mission properly”. As further evidence Waleed is a military illiterate he says;A US drone costs anywhere from $5 million to $10 million. Depending on who you believe, China can build them for less than $1 million. If that’s true, you can forget any idea of an American monopoly on the drone market. Now consider China’s customers: countries who want cheap weapons, and who’d rather not buy them from America or Israel. Really, anyone in the developing world is a candidate. It’s hard to resist the conclusion that we’re staring at the future of warfare.
Waleed, the reason drones are so good at clobbering your mates is that Islamic terrorists generally, Al Quaida and the Taliban have a notable shortage of jet fighters to kill the drones. Do you think for one moment that if a terrorist organization brought a drone from China that the US and/or other western powers wouldn’t have a F18 waiting to meet said drone on it’s inaugeral flight and another to sever the hand on the joystick. Still, if you believe all that stuff then encourage your mates to fork out a million dollars for a 30 second flight – any drain on their budget is a win for the good guys.Another Terrorist welcomed
Good call Tony!
The federal government decided on Thursday not to go ahead with the laws, which would have delivered around $58 million in extra public funding for political parties now preparing for the September poll.
Obviously the Greens weren’t backing it either otherwise it would have been tabled. Personally, I think the ALP brought it up to stave of imminent bankruptcy as their membership and donations plummet as they are redirected to the adults in the game – the Libs. I don’t think his changing his mind casts doubt on other pledges as I doubt these other pledges will stir up so much angst among the voting public. With the country’s economy in intensive care until after the election, now is not the time to tell the voters we are taking more money out of the pile of debt the ALP are about to leave us with. I was disappointed when I read he had agreed to it, now he’s changed his opinion, I think – good call! People will see it as a continuation of trying to curb spending rather than Abbott has reneged. John Birmingham is is beside himself with rage as he writes in the Age;Are you complete idiots? Do you know how much it costs to run an election campaign these days? And they have to be run, you know. There’s no avoiding them unless you want to turn over the keys of the joint to Gillard or Abbott and pronounce them dictator for life. You want democracy? You pay for it.
Elections cost money.
Well, yes John we know Elections coat money and I guess that’s why the Electoral Commission already compensates the parties for their expenses during an election campaign.The amount of election funding payable is calculated by multiplying the number of formal first preference votes received by the rate of payment applicable at the time. This rate is indexed every six months in line with increases in the Consumer Price Index.
The current election funding rate from 1 January 2013 to 30 June 2013 is 247.316 cents per eligible vote.
Which is why, after the 2010 election the ALP received $21 225 869.96 (scroll down) in electoral funding. So what’s the problem. Well, you have to have money before the election as the Electoral Commission pay after the event on votes received. I can see why the ALP are cranky as Abbott, sniffing the wind, has deprived them of upfront money and we all know they won’t get enough votes to make $21 mil this year. If they received all that money just three years ago you’d think they’d have some put aside for the next election – wouldn’t you. Oh, that’s right, it’s the ALP we are talking about.BDS activists want us to pay
…The Coalition policy is most immediately directed at [University of Sydney‘s] Jake Lynch who, along with the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies that he directs, is a vocal supporter of BDS.
Associate Professor Lynch drew the ire of Jewish groups when he rejected a request for help from Israeli academic Dan Avnon, who developed Israel’s only civics curriculum for both Jewish and Arab school students.“It is inappropriate for Associate Professor Lynch to use his role as director of the taxpayer-funded CPACS . . . in support of the anti-Semitic BDS campaign.”…
If you want to subvert Australia’s foreign policy then do it on your own dollar!