Right Pulse

Been away but now I am back. Nothing gets the blood boiling more than blatant media bias based on ‘Rudd spin facts.’

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd and wife Therese Rein will fly out of the US today and are due back in Australia tomorrow, triumphant after cementing the nation’s place in the G20 group.

The reason we are in the G20 has nothing to do with Rudd. It is due to the size of our economy, the 12th to  13th biggest in the world. That of course has more to do with Howard than Rudd. Fairfax of course have just re-spun one of Rudd’s PR media releases.

Eastley should stick to radio, where the format is determined by producers, instead of trying his hand at blogging. According to ABC journalist Tony Eastley, critics of Obama are just racist.

The euphoria which existed in the United States when the bright, young, eloquent former lawyer, Barack Obama from Chicago was elected was remarkable; but it was by no means unanimous…

Wink, wink, everyone else is racist for opposing such a ‘bright, young, eleoquent’ person. And who are the critics: ‘hardline conservatives, zealots and oddballs.’ So given that Obama’s approval rating is currently at 48 per cent, the other 52 per cent that oppose him must be a bunch of ‘hardline conservatives, zealots and oddballs.’ Talk about impugning a nation.

…Widely read American columnist Maureen Dowd wrote in the New York Times that she was now convinced that some of her fellow Americans could not accept that their leader was a black man. Maureen Dowd’s comments could be set aside if it weren’t for the thoughts of a well-regarded US statesman and former US President, Jimmy Carter.

They certainly were not sought by the White House.

Well-regarded only be the loopy left. Carter’s comments were rejected by the White House, which accepts that just because someone disagrees with the administration does not make them a racist; something lost on Eastley. It also begs the question why tax-payers are having to pay for this overtly left-wing blog?

So looks like Rudd is going to break-up a publicly listed company, hurting hundreds of thousands of investors to clear the way for a government monopoly. Back to square and back to the future.

The government today warned Telstra to voluntarily separate its wholesale and retail arms, or be prevented from acquiring an expanded wireless broadband spectrum.

If the telco did not agree to structural separation, the government would use proposed new laws to break up Telstra and force it to sell off its cable network and 50 per cent stake in Foxtel.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced the dramatic reforms today as the government prepares to roll out its $43 billion broadband network.

Unbelievable. If the government can do this to a public company, where does that leave property rights?

A damning article of ‘New’ Labour’s socialism in the UK from the Spectator. A small window into Australia’s future if Rudd and his cronies stay in office for just as long as Blair and Brown have:

The bleak truth for UK plc is that after 12 years of stupefying Labour incompetence, the worst is yet to come. Britain is once again on the slide towards the margins of economic influence and military clout. We have the worst public finances of any comparable western economy. The British Chambers of Commerce warned this week that the UK faces a ‘grim’ economic future, with a high risk of a relapse. Unemployment is not just spreading but setting like concrete for years to come. And our shabbily treated troops, once a match for the world’s best, will soon be driven humiliatingly out of Afghanistan.

This is not the slow, managed decline of an empire looking for a role. It is a sudden, embarrassing discovery that we don’t count on the world stage any more. Thanks to our lumbering Prime Minister, we have been given the unwelcome gift to see ourselves as others see us. And it ain’t pretty.

Worse than 1979 argues Kavanagh. Then this interesting comment:

If Britain is just another victim of a worldwide crisis, why are our high-street banks effectively bust, with liabilities running into trillions? If we’re all in the same boat, how is it that Australia, for instance, can boast that all four of its major banks still have double-A credit rating, and have not needed a dollar of taxpayer support?

So socialist Britain is broke, but Howard’s ’neo-liberal’ and ‘extreme’ capitalist Australia isn’t. Gee, which side is history on? Certainly not Rudd’s

Rudd’s recent accusation that the other side of politics dropped the ball on reform, and of being ‘indolent’, has been rebutted from Howard ‘Stirred from his sick bed’:

His analysis of the economic reform process in Australia since 1980 was partisan, inaccurate and lacked any semblance of objectivity.

Which is to be expected from Rudd, a PM that seems to have been asleep over the last 30 years.

Rudd is building a reputation for authoritative intervention. Criticise him and he’ll call his mates in the AFP to go heavy on you. First we had the Greich affair, now this:

According to an article in The Sydney Morning Herald, the Rudd Government has long known of problems with the Maritime Security Identity Card program but still hasn’t addressed the issue of preventing criminals convicted of terrorism-related crimes holding sensitive jobs in the nation’s ports.

According to the report, the MSIC scheme does not detect a “range of offences and behaviours that are known to have linkages with terrorist activity and the unlawful interferences with maritime transport and offshore facilities”.

The report comes as the union representing airport workers has gone in to bat for former Sydney Airport customs officer Allan Kessing, convicted of leaking a confidential report on airport security in 2005. Union officials say Kessing should not be penalised for taking responsibility for safeguarding people’s lives.

So go after the people that care about real security and ignore the criminals attempting to kill people. The government is avoiding an inquiry though, gee I wonder why:

The Rudd government has no plans to hold an inquiry into new claims by whistleblower Allan Kessing that implicate Cabinet minister Anthony Albanese.

And the government is distancing itself from suggestions the Australian Labor Party (ALP) recommended lawyers for Mr Kessing, who was charged after the information he tried to give Mr Albanese was leaked to a newspaper.

Mr Kessing has now revealed that he approached Mr Albanese’s office in early 2005 with a suppressed report that the former Customs officer had written two years earlier outlining security shortcomings at Sydney airport.

Mr Albanese, now transport minister, was an opposition frontbencher at the time. He took no further action following the approach.

So make veiled threats through the media to set the AFP on the official, but don’t call an inquiry for fear of being exposed.

Off Air is the blog site where ABC reporters drop any pretence to objectivity they might have and are allowed to run free with left-wing dogma, unabashed and without subtlety. Good for them, a bit of honesty from ABC is welcome, except of course that it is all paid for by tax-payers. It seems like a desperate attempt to counter the growing popularity of conservative blog sites. Leigh Sales, probably the most dim-witted reporter the ABC has, has gotten in on the act with these comments:

….The New Yorker published an article earlier this year on lesbian separatists in the 1970s. It was one of the most bizarre and entertaining things I’ve read this year. I laughed out loud, although I’m still not sure if it was meant to be funny or not…

You’ll figure it out one day Leigh.

…I found this quiz in The Philosophers’ Magazine rather interesting. It assesses whether your religious views are rationally consistent…

And guess what the answer is.

The latest Quarterly Essay by Annabel Crabb, Stop at Nothing: The Life and Adventures of Malcolm Turnbull, is a marvellous piece of writing. If you’re interested in Australian politics, I highly recommend it.

I can just hear the sniggering now.

The blog, F**k You Penguin, tells cute animals what’s what and it’s a daily source of laughs. 

Which probably explains how Leigh spends her time, because it is certainly is not on show prep for Lateline.

The AFP is probably too busy basket-weaving with middle eastern ‘youths’ or acting like glorified tax collectors – using entrapment methods on territory motorists to raise revenue:

Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan has told Parliament he received a death threat last week.

Senator Heffernan made the revelation while talking about his decision to reject a million dollar bribe offered to him by a Sydney developer last year.

…”There is a cost to not having a price. Last Thursday I got a death threat, I rang the AFP,” he said.

“They actually didn’t have enough people to put anyone on the case

Further evidence that Rudd is the most unintelligent ill-prepared PM in living memory. Parents at an inner-city Sydney school want to hand back Rudd’s education ‘revolution’ money because they don’t think spending $2.5m in tearing down 4 perfectly good classrooms and rebuilding them – as demanded by the NSW government –  is value for money:

The school’s initial application was to build two covered outdoor learning areas, returf the oval to remove asbestos and refurbish an existing block of four classrooms.

The NSW Education Department knocked back the request, saying the BER timetable was too rigid to make changes. The school was told it had to demolish the building of four classrooms and would have enough money only to build another block of four.

…the department’s solution for rising student enrolments was to take over the music room or the Italian room, which would be unpopular in an area with a large Italian community.

Like something out of Little Britain – ‘Computer says no’. Parents are learning what Rudd’s education revolution is all about: window dressing problems with lots of money and telling local people – via Big Government – to shut up. Tony Abbott’s idea of having local boards run local schools and hospitals makes more and more sense. Rudd sees government as the solution to problems not the problem in and of itself.

This is the latest line Rudd is running, via the ABC:

The Opposition says the spending package is badly managed, will push up interest rates and leave the country with too much debt.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has used the Opposition’s stance to again attack Mr Turnbull’s political judgement, accusing him of being at odds with the consensus from the recent G20 finance ministers meeting that spending should continue.

Firstly, Rudd’s package has gone well beyond the G20 consensus in both its size and in the level of waste being incurred. Secondly, the Australian economy is performing completely differently from the rest of the G20 due to international trade. So unless Rudd thinks he is presiding over the socialist mess that is the British economy, then he should wind back the spending.

UPDATE

Michael Stutchbury on the unthinkable and why Rudd is totally wrong:

Even the Greens are worried that the government is spending too much….First, Australia does not rely heavily on manufacturing, which globally collapsed in the wake of the financial crisis. Second, Australia’s pre-crisis resources boom retained substantial momentum, which has been quickly rekindled by China’s recovery…third, the front-loaded fiscal and monetary stimulus delivered by the government and the Reserve Bank has gained more “traction” than in most other economies.

…Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors…agreed to G20 countries having different “exit strategies” for unwinding their “extraordinary fiscal, monetary and financial sector support”.

We are the first to come out of the downturn so we should be the first to wind back our ’stimulus’ package. Simple stuff, but there is a growing suspicion in the MSM that the cash-o-rama is becoming more about Rudd’s personal glorification than helping the economy – with school plaques all across the country honouring his generosity in spending other people’s hard earned money. So kind…

The UK Telegraph has written an article outlining how modern governments are repeating the mistakes of depression era governments in exacerbating the economic downturn through the massive expansion of the public sector:

Barack Obama is committing the same mistakes made by policymakers during the Great Depression, according to a new study endorsed by Nobel laureate James Buchanan.

One could easily substitute Obama with Rudd. For instance Julia Gillard during here trip to the USA likened the ALP government with Obama’s ‘progressive’ administration.

…economists Charles Rowley of George Mason University and Nathanael Smith of the Locke Institute, claim that the White House’s plans to pour hundreds of billions of dollars of cash into the economy will undermine it in the long run. They say that by employing deficit spending and increased state intervention President Obama will ultimately hamper the long-term growth potential of the US economy and may risk delaying full economic recovery by several years.

The study represents a challenge to the widely held view that Keynesian fiscal policies helped the US recover from the Depression which started in the early 1930s. The authors say: “[Franklin D Roosevelt's] interventionist policies and draconian tax increases delayed full economic recovery by several years by exacerbating a climate of pessimistic expectations that drove down private capital formation and household consumption to unprecedented lows.”

Compare the success of Australia’s fiscally conservative ‘Premiers’ Plan’ during the depression against the fiscal expansionism of FDR and his ‘New Deal’.