If you are reading this, thank a Teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a Soldier
Cpl Keighran VC pictured with the Governor General in Canberra this morning
“Training took over,” Corporal Keighran said. “There was a situation and that’s the way I reacted.”The VC citation says Corporal Keighran’s actions were instrumental in ensuring Australian and Afghan troops involved were able to withdraw without further casualties. “Corporal Keighran, with complete disregard for his own safety, broke cover on multiple occasions to draw intense and accurate enemy fire to identify enemy locations and direct return fire from Australian and Afghan fire support elements.
“During one of these occasions, when his patrol sustained a casualty, he again, on his own initiative and in an act of exceptional courage moved from his position of cover to deliberately draw fire away from the team who were treating the casualty. “Corporal Keighran remained exposed and under heavy fire in order to direct suppressing fire and then assist in the clearance of the landing zone to enable evacuation of the casualty. “These deliberate acts of exceptional courage to repeatedly expose himself to accurate and intense enemy fire, thereby placing himself in grave danger, ultimately enabled the identification and suppression of enemy firing positions.”Well done that man. More…
The white paper, unveiled in Sydney by the Prime Minister yesterday, sets a series of ambitious goals, including elevating the nation’s schools system into the world’s top five, having 10 universities in the world’s top 100 by 2025, and giving every school student the chance for continuous study of an Asian language.Well yes, no one would argue that these aren’t worthwhile pusuits. The trouble is, the ALP are full of lofty aspirations but very short in the funding department. Emmerson underlines this saying;
… the states would have to supply the teachers needed to embark on the Asian languages blitz. Those that refused would be denied education funding.Like Rudd’s 2009 Defence White Paper this plan will be buried in the “when we win Lotto’ filing cabinet along with a lot of ALP plans It won’t be funded, it can’t be funded and within two weeks ABC24 will be lining up to tell us about the next ‘New Gillard Initiative’ and the rest of us will have moved on. Productivity is listed as one of the key planks but productivity is doomed while the the Fair Work Act favours the unionists and not the entrepeneur. Every kid learning an Asian language from grades 1 thru 12 is another, but once again the Government says; Here’s a good idea we just thought of but we can’t finance it so the states are going to have to find the money. Gillard forgets that the Eastern seaboard states are flat out trying to pay off previous ALP government’s huge debts and have no spare cash to fund her ‘If I won Lotto” shopping list. I was once a linguist myself in the days when we were having a little war with Indonesia and I’ve often bemoaned the fact that Asian languages don’t get the priority I think they deserve. My contacts in education tell me that the kids choose not to take them because of the weighting given languages for Uni entrance makes a language a second rate ambition Meanwhile Gillard closes down an Asian language initiative
THE federal government will let a $62 million Asian language program expire in December despite saying it wants four priority languages to be taught from primary school to high school.
The good news from the ACT elections is that the Greens have suffered a swing against them of 4.6% with some dissaffected Labor voters going back to the fold but most of this loss going to the Libs who enjoyed a 6.4% positive swing.
Labor will govern with the help of the Greens giving us another ALP/Greens coalition. All the better to remind people what a disaster ALP/Green governments are.
The more the Greens are in the news, the more people become aware of their attacks against our economy and their loopy policies. I look forward to a similar, or even better swing in next years federal poll.
The ABC are all over Gillard being the preferred PM over Abbott and this morning it took an entire news broadcast before they reluctantly mentioned, as an aside, that Neilsen still had the Oppostion in a winning lead. The prefferred PM poll is more a reflection of better ALP spin than substance so it is of little importance in the scheme of things and definitely doesn't win or lose government.
Up here in Brisbane The Australian reports Labor would win under Rudd. The Rudd cheer squad include Sid Maher, the journalist who wrote the puff piece, a Gallop Poll commissioned by a union, and, obviously a Rudd should be PM committee chaired by Rudd himself.
Mobbed by dozens of people wanting to have their photographs taken with him at the Chong Yeung festival, Mr Rudd refused to rule out interest in another tilt at the party leadership.He also received a rapturous welcome at a Chinese festival in Sydney, with dancers chanting "Kev-in, Kev-in"
The plot thickens, the body sickens. Interestingly, the piece wasn't carried by the Courier Mail and I'm surprised it made the news anywhere other than a union newsheet.
I don't care if Rudd gets back in the chair. I figure it would take about one to two months for the voters to remember why they didn't like him last time round. Either way, one of them will have to face the music at election day where, for once, their spin machine will not be able to present the anticipated flogging as 'good news'.
They will, of course, be able to blame it on Abbott and that would represent the first occassion where their blame sheet would be accurate.
Back to Gillard – Micheller Grattan at The Age reports;
Not surprisingly, Gillard's biggest gain on a range of attributes was in the area of foreign affairs, where the percentage saying she had a firm grasp on policy jumped from 39 per cent in August 2010 to 56 per cent – a perception that will be reinforced by Australia securing a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Michelle may not be surprised but I am astounded. If you are a troubled rusted on ALP supporter go read the piece – it will give you heart but don't take it to the bank just yet.
I can imagine a host of other countries waiting for us to let them down…to reneg on signed deals for ideology alone. They’ll be looking up all their agreements with us – vetting them to ensure they meet the ideological standards of the ALP loonies and looking to count their losses and resolving to never deal with us again.Now she’s back to fix the original stuff-up. The Left and the Greens are screaming and next month’s ALP conference promises to be interesting. Abbott goes to Indonesia with some ministers and has a one-on-one with SBY. A bit embarrassing for the ALP as it would indicate the Indons see Abbott as the next PM and that they need to talk to him. Emmerson and the rest of the ALP, including the ABC, are all over the fact that Abbott didn’t mention turning the boats back but I guess they have to find something wrong with the visit as it may turn peoples attention away from the debacle that is their own open-slather border policy. Thompson, the whore monger, is being defended by the ALP as was Slipper the sexist. Craig Emerson said the Coalition had already acted as “judge and jury” on the allegations against the former Labor MP. I guess he means just like Roxon acted as judge and jury in the Ashby vs Slipper case. So long as the case put together by FWA is current during the lead up to the election and it appears it will be, then the ALP will be suffering all kinds of nightmares. A bonus would be the police charging him – surely that’s on the cards. A good day for an old conservative – and then there is this; Of more importance to me is this notice I found at http://trove.nla.gov.au/ while searching for details on my family in West Australia. Trove is a great source for info as it has digitized most Australian newspapers from the 19th century through to now. Quiet a shock really
The paper was dated 1946. It’s amazing that I would get this far considering my life style and career choices. 
“I think there is obviously some sexism and misogyny that goes on in the parliament, as it does in a lot of workplaces, tragically,” Ms Burke told ABC radio. “And I think that one of the disappointing parts about having the first female prime minister is that unfortunately that has brought out the worst in some people in the parliament and some people in the public.The ALP are obliged to hammer the fact that all the questions on Gillard’s performance are all based on her being a woman. They aren’t – they are based on her incompetence and socialist agenda. The impartial Speaker continues;
Instead of rising and saying `isn’t this a fantastic thing’, it’s brought this tone and tenor of underlying sexism in our country. “And I think we need to be rising above it, and I think the Prime Minister’s speech this week was pretty spot on.”While Ms Burke is a Labor MP, the speaker’s role is traditionally an impartial one. Yes, well the ALP don’t do tradition well. The ABC carry the same story but chose a different emphasis. New Speaker Burke says time to ‘move on’ and I must agree but not in the sense that she uses. Buried in the article is the ‘impartial’ comment describing Gillard’s rant as ‘spot on’ So there you have it. Any future condemnation of Gillard’s competency will be labelled sexist or misogynist.
The ALP are in a panic. A 'comedian' at a CFMEU dinner attended by a bevy of Labor Ministers cracked an anti Abbott joke just days after Gillard's anti Abbott rant. Labor are in damage control;
JULIA Gillard contacted the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union as Labor went into damage control after a comedian at the union's dinner told an off-colour joke about Tony Abbott and his chief of staff, Peta Credlin.
I find it interesting that we are still to hear the joke. In previous times the media would be all over an anti Abbott jibe but on this occasion we hear nothing. Everyone in Australia knew about Alan Jones and his comments on Gillard but we aren't allowed to hear the content when it's the other way around.
A spokesman for the union said the joke was facile and absurd and there had been audible groans.
I'll call bullshit on that line. If it put down on Abbott they would have laughed like drains.
Obviously, the joke is that off-colour that the ALP have applied a 'D' notice to keep it out of the press. Wouldn't look good after Julia's meltdown in the house just days ago.
Everyone is in denial – the entertainment agency has unreservedly apologised saying they didn't run it past the union leaders before delivering 'the joke' – presumably in response to a telephone call
The report says Gillard is embarrassed. I doubt she is embarrassed by the crudity of the joke rather that it's release will make a mockery of her anti Abbott rant and 'silence Alan Jones' campaign
I look forward to someone leaking 'the joke'
The Prime Minister’s 15-minute speech condemning misogyny and attacking Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s history of comments about abortion, women’s roles in the home and their ability to wield authority has impressed political pundits in the US and Britain.Stephanie quotes Jezebel.com who starts their piece with “Australia’s prime minister Julia Gillard is one badass motherfucker”. A class opening line and reading through the website they obviously have the hots for Julia. Feminism…not married…no religion – a perfect role model for their website. Salon.com isn’t as radical as Jezebel but they are clearly a pro Democrat site. Alex Massie at the Spectator says Julia is more than a man’s bitch but the enlightment is in the comments. It makes sense that McTernan had people ready to go online and support Julia. Tim Andrews at Menzies House says;
No-one, it seemed, bothered to check Fairfax’s sources – or just who these great “political pundits” were. Indeed, it would seem that Ms Gardiner was careful to not name names. And for good reason – if she had named exactly who some of these “political pundits” were, she would have been laughed right out of a story.He goes on to question the bulk of quotes I can almost sympathise with the rusted on ALP supporters starved of any positives from their party to be all over this “speech gone viral” construct but really guys it hasn’t gone viral where it matters.
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