It begins: Freedom of the press under threat in Australia

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has floated a government-funded media regulator from the Australian.

Make no mistake.

This government in coalition with the Greens cannot handle any criticism whatsoever, and even though most of the media here has a demonstrably left-wing bias this isn’t enough for them.

The Greens are a Marxist/Totalitarian party, who support BDS in Australia - even though some deny it.


The Labor Party is showing its true totalitarian/Fabian Socialist roots.

Not only are they introducing a National Broadband Network that will be obsolete by the time it is completed - read 'censorship', but now they want to censor our media.

Of course it goes without saying that this is an attempt to censor any conservative-leaning writers and bloggers.

Their disregard for democracy knows no bounds.

I have often wondered if I will ever see another election in this country, and the USA as well.

These people must know they will be thrown out of government and yet it doesn't bother them one bit!

Voters' opinions are not important to them at all.

Both have very low approval figures.

Maybe they know something they don't want to let us in on.

Note as mentioned in the article below, this also gives them an excuse to go after the Murdoch press Downunder.

NEWSPAPERS could face scrutiny from a government-funded regulator as a result of a new media probe, but they would not fall under government control, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said today.

Senator Conroy confirmed a single media regulator overseeing all print, online and broadcast media could be one of the changes to flow from the government's independent media inquiry launched yesterday.

He agreed the days of the Australian Press Council, which he called a "toothless tiger", could be numbered

But he rejected the suggestion a single regulator would hand the government control of newspapers.

"That's absurd. The government doesn't have any more control or reach about how Channel Nine or Channel Ten or Channel Seven or even the ABC under the existing laws today," he told the ABC.

"To suggest that because the Press Council might become a more professional organisation of part of a merged entity that suddenly the government has got more control is just wrong."

Senator Conroy said the inquiry covered a specific area not covered by a separate review looking at the convergence of media types.

He said Labor had set the terms of reference, staring down Greens Leader Bob Brown who wanted to use the inquiry to further his campaign against News Limited, publisher of The Australian.

Senator Brown continued his attack News Limited today, accusing it of mixing news with opinion and of conducting "witch hunts".

"This (inquiry) is in the public interest," he said.

"It's the public that absorbs the information and that depends upon the media for information in a healthy and functioning democracy and we need the media and it's a very important part of our lives.

"The Murdoch empire is relentless about wanting inquiries into politics and politicians, and that's how it should be, but they don't like it when it's the other way around."

And furthermore it seems that bloggers and tweeters could also be at risk.

From the press conference yesterday of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy:

Journalist:

But you’d also have to define who could be complained about and what the penalities would be once they were complained about? A tweeter, a blogger, a…

Conroy:

Well, as you said. Now you’re canvassing areas that I think will be richly canvassed in the inquiry, and these are the sort of… these are, the questions is… you’re asking all the legitimate questions.

Further reading: Andrew Bolt’s take.

Obama to visit his Aussie counterpart PM Julia Gillard

Obama's golf visit out of bounds - From the Age

I wonder if he knows that there is a comedy series on the tax-payer funded ABC about Gillard's life in The Lodge - the Aussie equivalent of the White House?

Here’s a taste!

Then there’s this piece of garbage from Bloomberg: Obama’s soul-mate Gillard.

This contains a sentence that is totally untrue:

"Yet Gillard inherited a long to-do list because Rudd (2007 to 2010) and John Howard (1996 to 2007) had largely left the economy on autopilot."

John Howard’s government paid down the debt he was left from previous Labor governments and Kevin Rudd, who called himself a ‘fiscal conservative’, spent tax-payers’ money like a drunken sailor.

Still, we are all getting so good at predicting how the left-leaning media reports things.

I guess we will have to wait and see if he has a round of golf or not.

I am pretty sure he will be able to borrow some clubs if he needs them.

THE United States President, Barack Obama, has been advised to leave his golf clubs at home when he visits Australia in November.

Although the trip will coincide with the Presidents Cup tournament in Melbourne, a side trip to visit the US team is being advised against because it would be a bad look at home.

The White House and Gillard government confirmed yesterday that after two aborted attempts the President will visit on November 16 and 17.

The visit, to mark the 60th anniversary of the ANZUS treaty, will be sandwiched between the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Hawaii and the East Asia Summit in Bali.

In the same week Mr Obama is in Australia, the best US golfers will be playing their non-European counterparts at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, which last hosted the event in 1998. Australia is the first country outside the US to host the biennial tournament twice.

Mr Obama is a keen golfer and was the honorary chairman of the 2009 tournament. Julia Gillard is the chairwoman of this year's event.

But diplomatic sources said as well as visiting Hawaii and Bali, his trip would include the G20 in Cannes. Under domestic pressure over the economy, the spectre of the President at a golf tournament on top of three holiday destinations would not go down well.

Mr Obama cancelled a trip in in March last year due to a crisis over healthcare reform in the US. He was then due to visit in June 2010 but cancelled because of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The same week, Kevin Rudd was rolled for the leadership.

The Sydney Morning Herald understands the US government has been putting out feelers to ascertain how stable Julia Gillard's job is.

As Ms Gillard informed Parliament of the visit yesterday, she was taunted by Coalition MPs who claimed she needed the visit to boost her own flagging fortunes.

After question time, Tony Abbott clarified that the Coalition meant no disrespect and Mr Obama was welcome.

Further reading: The ANZUS Treaty

The UN's Durban 111 Conference: An Arab's point of view

Khaled Abu Toameh: The UN's Durban III Conference: An Arab View

From HNY

Arab dictatorships and Muslim fundamentalists will get a morale boost next week when the United Nations hosts its "Anti-Racism" Durban III conference in New York. But it is not only Israelis and Jews who eventually pay the price for this type of incitement -- it is also the few remaining moderate Arabs and Muslims.

As in the past, the conference will serve as platform for all those who hate Israel and Jews and seek to destroy the Jewish state.

The UN conference's anti-Israel and anti-Semitic messages and rhetoric will once again be used by the enemies of peace and compromise in the Middle East to justify their violence against Israel and Jews.

The mob that attacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo last weekend will undoubtedly use the messages coming out of the conference to justify their crime. Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Hamas and Hizbullah proxies will say that the conference proves that their right when they for the elimination of Israel.

By hosting speakers like Ahmadinejad, the UN is helping spread his message of hatred and anti-Semitism.

Ahmadinejad and his allies are always happy to exploit such gatherings to promote their denial of the Holocaust and desire to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

This year's UN conference is being held at a time when anti-Israel sentiments, especially throughout the Arab and Islamic world, are on the rise. It also coincides with a "diplomatic intifada" that the Palestinian Authority is waging against Israel in the international arena.

This is an "intifada" that is primarily designed to isolate Israel in the international arena by depicting the Jewish state as a source of instability because of its refusal to comply with the Palestinian Authority's demand for a full withdrawal from all the 1967 territories.

The Palestinian Authority is hoping that membership in the UN would give its representatives access to many UN organizations, where they say they want to prosecute Israelis as war criminals and have Israel expelled from these bodies.

The "Durban III" conference is being held almost on the same day the Palestinian Authority is planning to ask the UN for recognition of a Palestinian state –- a move that is likely to end the peace process and plunge the region into a dangerous period of uncertainty and tensions.

In the region, there is already much talk of a possible violent confrontation between Palestinians and Israelis as a result of the UN statehood bid.

The anti-Israel messages emerging from the conference will only increase tensions and accelerate the eruption of another "cycle of violence."

The conference is taking place at a time when Hamas and Hizbullah have tens of thousands of missiles directed toward Israel and ready to be used at any time. Those who are chanting "Death to Israel" on the streets of Cairo and Amman will be happy to see that their messages are being echoed in the corridors of the UN next week.

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad will also benefit from the "Durban III" conference as it will distract attention from the daily massacres that his security forces are perpetrating against the Syrian people.

It would have been better if this year's UN conference had been dedicated to discussing human rights conditions in Syria and the rest of the Arab world. But by singling out Israel, the UN conference is playing into the hands of the radicals and dictators in the region by providing then with the legitimacy they need to pursue their dream of destroying the Jewish state.

What the Middle East needs is conferences that promote peace and coexistence, not hatred and violence.

Mark Steyn on Free Speech in the West - September 2011

Using rights to gag free speech

TO be honest, I didn't really think much about "freedom of speech" until I found myself the subject of three "hate speech" complaints in Canada in 2007.

I mean I was philosophically in favour of it, and I'd been consistently opposed to the Dominion's ghastly "human rights" commissions and their equivalents elsewhere my entire adult life, and from time to time when an especially choice example of politically correct enforcement came up I'd whack it around for a column or two.

But I don't think I really understood how advanced the Left's assault on this core Western liberty actually was.

In 2008, shortly before my writing was put on trial for "flagrant Islamophobia" in British Columbia, several National Review readers e-mailed from the US to query what the big deal was. C'mon, lighten up, what could some "human rights" pseudo-court do? And I replied that the statutory penalty under the British Columbia "Human Rights" Code was that Maclean's, Canada's biggest-selling news weekly, and by extension any other publication, would be forbidden henceforth to publish anything by me about Islam, Europe, terrorism, demography, welfare, multiculturalism, and various related subjects.

And that this prohibition would last forever, and was deemed to have the force of a supreme-court decision. I would in effect be rendered unpublishable in the land of my birth. In theory, if a job opened up for dance critic or gardening correspondent, I could apply for it, although if the Royal Winnipeg Ballet decided to offer Jihad: The Ballet for its Christmas season I'd probably have to recuse myself.

And what I found odd about this was that very few other people found it odd at all.

Indeed, the Canadian establishment seems to think it entirely natural that the Canadian state should be in the business of lifetime publication bans, just as the Dutch establishment thinks it entirely natural that the Dutch state should put elected leaders of parliamentary opposition parties on trial for their political platforms, and the French establishment thinks it appropriate for the French state to put novelists on trial for sentiments expressed by fictional characters.

Across almost all the Western world apart from America, the state grows ever more comfortable with micro-regulating public discourse-and, in fact, not-so-public discourse: Lars Hedegaard, head of the Danish Free Press Society, has been tried, been acquitted, had his acquittal overruled, and been convicted of "racism" for some remarks about Islam's treatment of women made (so he thought) in private but taped and released to the world.

The Rev. Stephen Boissoin was convicted of the heinous crime of writing a homophobic letter to his local newspaper and was sentenced by Lori Andreachuk, Alberta's "human rights" commissar, to a lifetime prohibition on uttering anything "disparaging" about homosexuality ever again in sermons, in newspapers, on radio-or in private emails. Note that legal concept: not "illegal" or "hateful," but merely "disparaging."

Dale McAlpine, a practicing (wait for it) Christian, was handing out leaflets in the English town of Workington and chit-chatting with shoppers when he was arrested on a "public order" charge by Constable Adams, a gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community-outreach officer. Mr. McAlpine had been overheard by the officer to observe that homosexuality is a sin. "I'm gay," said Constable Adams. Well, it's still a sin, Mr McAlpine said. So Constable Adams arrested him for causing distress to Constable Adams.

In fairness, I should add that Mr McAlpine was also arrested for causing distress to members of the public more generally, and not just to the aggrieved gay copper. No member of the public actually complained, but, as Constable Adams pointed out, Mr McAlpine was talking "in a loud voice" that might theoretically have been "overheard by others." And we can't have that, can we? So he was fingerprinted, DNA-sampled, and tossed in the cells for seven hours.

In such a climate, time-honored national characteristics are easily extinguished.

A generation ago, even Britain's polytechnic Trots and Marxists were sufficiently residually English to feel the industrial-scale snitching by family and friends that went on in Communist Eastern Europe was not quite cricket, old boy.

Now England is Little Stasi-on-Avon, a land where, even if you're well out of earshot of the gay-outreach officer, an infelicitous remark in the presence of a co-worker or even co-playmate is more than sufficient....

Read it all in The Australian

Christopher Hitchens on 9/11: Simply Evil

Simply evil: A decade after 9/11, it remains the best description and most essential fact about al-Qaida

The proper task of the "public intellectual" might be conceived as the responsibility to introduce complexity into the argument: the reminder that things are very infrequently as simple as they can be made to seem.

But what I learned in a highly indelible manner from the events and arguments of September 2001 was this: Never, ever ignore the obvious either.

To the government and most of the people of the United States, it seemed that the country on 9/11 had been attacked in a particularly odious way (air piracy used to maximize civilian casualties) by a particularly odious group (a secretive and homicidal gang: part multinational corporation, part crime family) that was sworn to a medieval cult of death, a racist hatred of Jews, a religious frenzy against Hindus, Christians, Shia Muslims, and "unbelievers," and the restoration of a long-vanished and despotic empire.

To me, this remains the main point about al-Qaida and its surrogates.

I do not believe, by stipulating it as the main point, that I try to oversimplify matters. I feel no need to show off or to think of something novel to say.

Moreover, many of the attempts to introduce "complexity" into the picture strike me as half-baked obfuscations or distractions.

These range from the irredeemably paranoid and contemptible efforts to pin responsibility for the attacks onto the Bush administration or the Jews, to the sometimes wearisome but not necessarily untrue insistence that Islamic peoples have suffered oppression.

(Even when formally true, the latter must simply not be used as nonsequitur special pleading for the use of random violence by self-appointed Muslims.)

[....]

Read it all here.

Amil Imani: The Mullahs Ruling Iran Are Not Iranians

I always enjoy reading pieces by Amil Imani.

He is an Iranian-American who excels at cutting to the chase as far as Islam is concerned.

He is a great believer in democracy and freedom and his contempt for the Iranian regime is palpable.

The Mullahs Ruling Iran Are Not Iranians

Being Iranian is defined by a state of mind, not by a place of residence. The barbaric Islamist mullahs and their mercenaries presently ruling Iran are not Iranians.

They are Islamofascists who have betrayed their magnificent heritage and have enlisted themselves in the service of a most oppressive, discriminating, and demeaning ideology.

Iranians are proud spiritual descendants of King Cyrus the Great, the author of the first charter of human rights. Some of Cyrus’ children live in the patch of land called Iran. The overwhelming majority—free humans with human beliefs—live in every country, city, and village of the earth.

These world-wide people, one and all, irrespective of nationality, color, or creed are Iranians because they all adhere to the Cyrus Charter; they practice and defend its lofty tenets; and, transfer this precious humanity’s treasure to the next generation.
Unequivocal genetic findings have clearly established that biologically there is only one human race; that the genetic variation within a single troop of chimpanzees, for instance, is greater than that of any two human groupings, no matter how different they may appear physically.

What makes people different is not their biology, but the “software” that runs them.

There is ample proof to support the above assertion.

A case in point is the present menace posed by the people whose life is programmed by the software of Islam: an ideology anathema to the Cyrus Charter. And the results are self-evident. Hate, superstition, violence, and a raft of other inhuman beliefs drives these religious fascists.

These captive followers of the primitive Islamic Charter are both the perpetrators and the victims of much suffering. The result is backward Islamic societies that are intent at dragging the rest of the world into the same sorry state. Misery likes company, it is said.

We recognize that the dysfunctional Islamic software is deeply engrained in the minds of many Muslims who opt to remain in mental bondage rather than purge their minds of the Islamic software and join the rest of the human family with a new emancipating program for life—liberty.

Islamic clergy, the parasitic prime beneficiaries of Islam, are master practitioners of the carrot-and stick-strategy. By drawing heavily from the Quran and the Hadith, the conniving mullahs and imams have assembled a potent arsenal of threats and promises to keep the faithful in line.

They had little trouble in so doing, since Islamic scripture is replete with graphic horrific punishment awaiting the wayward and the unbelievers, while the rewards for the obedient docile, if he is male, are described as endless variety of sensual pleasures.

Anyone daring to leave the corral of Islam is apostate and automatically condemned to death. And that’s just for starters. The punishment awaiting the ungrateful deserter of the one and only true path, Islam threatens, is a raft of horrific eternal torment in Allah’s hell.

And for the true faithful—the mindless robot—the promised rewards, all physical pleasures, are infinite and eternal.

In spite of these horrid threats and empty promises, more and more people are beginning to recognize Islam for what it is.

It is difficult, but not impossible to leave the fraudulent Islam’s captivity. Hundreds of thousands have done so successfully and have enjoyed the blessings of liberty.

[....]

Read it all at CFP

Hasan Mahmud: A Muslim for Liberty - Some important points about Sharia Law

Hasan Mahmud is a member of the advisory board of the World Muslims Congress.

A Muslim for Liberty from FPM

In his recent speech in Scotland, Imam Rauf claimed that no Muslim wants stoning or amputation in America. But if that is true, why have Muslims already brought female genital mutilation, “Islamic” finance and the “disciplining” of wives to America? If they have brought these aspects of Sharia, why would they not bring stoning or amputation as well?

Have these laws suddenly somehow lost the approval of Allah?

Many of us Western Muslims are alarmed by this kind of deception by some of our leaders.

We know well that Sharia law legitimizes violence in the name of divinity. We are sad to see countless open and secret Sharia courts across the West — now they are trying to do it in America. TAM (The American Muslims) created the first blueprint of a USA-Sharia court system back in 1993 in the model of Native American courts. Sharia law is more than stoning and amputation.

It sanctions other unjust laws even more devastating. Sharia law destroys family peace by setting brothers against sisters with its codification of half-inheritance. It does the same by setting husbands against wives by establishing the husband’s absolute control over his wife’s person and sexuality.

That is why there is no such thing as the rape of a wife in Sharia law. Sharia law allows child-marriage without caring what the husbands do to the unfortunate little “brides.” Sharia law is a threat to world peace because it thrives on hating others.

By dehumanizing others, it blocks us from sharing this planet joyfully with our fellow human beings. It gives us a false sense of superiority and provokes us to govern the world, whereas in the last thousand years our countries have invented almost nothing.

Many Sharia supporters wouldn’t live a day without the gifts of the West. Still, they come here to enjoy the freedom of the liberal democratic system — while they seek to destroy the same freedom and democratic system.

We must realize that Sharia constantly victimizes every Muslim woman. Whether a husband “disciplines” his wife or not, whether he marries other women or not, his right to do so is an insult to her.

These laws were created based on several fake Hadiths and by violating, abusing or ossifying contextual Quranic verses. Changing the meaning of the Quranic word “Sharia/Shara’a” from “moral guidance” to “state law” was a major conspiracy against Islam. We Muslims have paid heavily for this crime.

Sharia is more than stoning and amputation; it is also an attitude.

This Trojan horse of the West is not a benign legal system; but a malignant provocation to establish global Mullahcracy. It gives the informal ownership of Islam to a certain group of people who use sweet talk to hide violent laws.

Much of the reason for Muslims’ sorry state today is a matter of commonsense that the Prophet warned us about: “What I fear most respecting my people are their misleading Imams” – Sahi Ibn Majah Vol 5 Hadis 3952.

---

Disclaimer by 1389AD:

Here is my problem with this article. I believe that this article promotes the author's incorrect belief that it is worth making the effort to reform Islam, when I am convinced that all such efforts are futile, counterproductive, and dangerous.

I sympathize with the dilemma of Muslims who are looking for a way out of all the evil that Islam stands for, without actually becoming an apostate. However, I am convinced that there is no possibility of reform and no way out, short of abandoning Islam entirely and accepting the very real risks that this involves.

Many centuries ago, Islam insulated itself against reform. All the schools of Islamic jurisprudence declared that the rules and the theology (such as it was) were frozen at that point, and that no further changes would be permitted. Indeed, Islam has had its "reform" - the Wahhabi movement, which has made everything worse by seeking to "purify" Islam.

I see absolutely nothing whatsoever in Islam that is worth keeping or saving. Islam IS shari'a. And shari'a law is bad even if it is interpreted merely as advice rather than as a requirement.

The only thing that I can say to Hasan Mahmud is this: Be brave. Leave Islam. It is not up to you to save an ideology that is inherently and irredeemably evil. Just get out any way you can, and never look back.

Arab Spring: "Freedom and Democracy" in Egypt - hardly.

Well, well, well,,,another wrong call by Barack Hussein Obama.

Can he get anything right?

Muslim Brotherhood: Islamists plan to cooperate in upcoming elections

Egyptian press reports on further evidence of Muslim Brotherhood’s intentions to co-operate with extreme Islamist groups in upcoming elections.

New evidence of the Muslim Brotherhood’s cooperation with extreme Islamist groups has come to light as parties draw up candidate lists for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Egypt.

The Egyptian outlet Al Masry Al Youm reports on coordination plans between Jama’a al-Islamiya’s ‘Construction and Development’ Party and the Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘Freedom and Justice’ Party.

‘Islamists make preparations for parliamentary elections’ cites Nasr Abdel Salam, chairman of the Construction and Development Party:

‘The Construction and Development Party seeks to develop a vision for coordinating with other Islamic political parties, he said, stressing that his organization has close contact with Nour Party, a Salafi group, and the Freedom and Justice Party so that they can agree on the districts where they should each push their own candidates.’

The article also notes the party’s objective to ‘coordinate with Salafis and Brotherhood members in Alexandria, Cairo and Giza.’

Furthermore, the Salafist Front is reported to have announced that it would not be contesting the elections itself, but would instead support ‘Salafi and Brotherhood candidates’, once again highlighting the ideological closeness of the two groups.

Although Jama’a al-Islamiya has publicly renounced violence, the group was responsible for a number of terrorist acts in the 1990s including the 1997 Luxor Massacre, in which 62 people were killed.

In May Just Journalism quoted Osama Hafez, a spokesman for the organisation, referring to the uniting of Islamist groups in Egypt;

‘God’s words must rule and Islam must be in the hearts of the citizens’.

[...]

More at Just Journalism

Geert Wilders coming to Australia

Although I never watch the tax-payer-funded ABC I was alerted to a show they ran tonight.

It seems that Geert Wilders is coming to Australia after being invited by Liberal Party Senator Cory Bernardi.

(Please note that in Australia the Liberal Party is the Conservative Party.)

This text from the ABC site:

A controversial Dutch politician who's been prosecuted for hate speech says he's coming to Australia.

Geert Wilders, who controls the balance of power in the Netherlands' parliament, has outraged Dutch Muslims by comparing the Koran to Hitler's Mein Kampf and calling the Prophet Muhammad a paedophile.

But Wilders has his supporters, among them Liberal Senator, Cory Bernardi.
(pictured above).

by Eric Campbell

H/T: SheikYerMami

Audio here.

Further reading - Senator Cory Bernardi:

Australia: No Place for Sharia Law

1389AD's Latest Non-Sequitur

There are two kinds of food in the world: the kind you can get, and the other kind.

They're both good!

Construction of the Empire State Building

Photos on Blogmocracy.

PM Gillard: Remaking Australia using the European Model

Julia Gillard is taking Australia down the European road. And I think in more ways than this one!

She has no mandate for this tax. Her immigration and multiculturalism policies will make us more like Eurabia.

Easy to understand this considering she is a "remould the world" Fabian Socialist.

(see picture of Fabian Society's window inscription above.)

AUSTRALIAN and European Union officials will discuss how to link their emissions trading schemes in the future, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says. From the Australian

Ms Gillard met European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso in Canberra today and discussed climate change and a raft of other issues.

The prime minister said Europe was a pioneer in reducing carbon emissions having established an ETS six years ago.

"Both Australia and the EU recognise that carbon markets are the most cost-effective way of reducing greenhouse gases and creating clean energy jobs," Ms Gillard told reporters.

"The president and I have agreed today to establish senior officials talks to discuss economy-to-economy measures we can jointly undertake to link our emissions trading schemes at the appropriate time in the future."

The leaders also discussed global economic challenges, trade liberalisation, and establishing a treaty-level agreement between Australia and the EU.


Mr Barroso praised Ms Gillard's plan to price carbon.

"Australia's decision to put a price on carbon emissions in our view is an important step," he said.

The European Commission president said a price on carbon was the "most cost effective way" to attack climate change and was a "great green business opportunity."

Mr Barroso also said the European Commission had sought a mandate from its 27 member states to negotiate a cooperation framework treaty with Australia.

He said the mandate could be signed next month.

"It will serve as an umbrella for the many areas of our thriving cooperation."

Further reading: Latest on Multiculturalism to “teach” our young.

Watch Fabian Society Exposed

Australia: Jesus Christ gone from text books - no more BC or AD

Australia to Remove Christ From Textbooks from Fox Nation.

Another attempt by the left to institutionalize secularism and re-write history. They excell at it!

I am going to assume that no religious bodies were consulted: the Gillard Government doesn't operate on the basis of consultation other than with groups that totally endorse its agenda.

I am willing to bet that no clergymen from Judaism or Christianity would endorse this.

Christians in Australia are accusing national education officials of “Christian cleansing” in response to pending changes in school books that would remove references to the birth of Jesus Christ.

The government would replace the terms BC, Before Christ, and AD, Anno Domini, with non-religious language. The new terms will be BCE (Before Common Era), BP (Before Present) and CE (Common Era).

A spokesman for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority told The Herald Sun that the new terms were an increasingly common standard for the representation of dates.

Peter Jensen, the Archbishop of Sydney, told The Daily Telegraph that taking references to the birth of Jesus Christ out of school books was an “intellectually absurd attempt to write Christ out of human history.”

The Obama Administration Takes on ‘Islamophobia’

The Obama Administration Takes on ‘Islamophobia’


Gutless or suicidal? Free speech still under attack and with some seriously bad "unintended consequences" looming.

An unprecedented collaboration between the Obama administration and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC, formerly called the Organization of the Islamic Conference) to combat “Islamophobia” may soon result in the delegitimization of freedom of expression as a human right.

The administration is taking the lead in an international effort to “implement” a U.N. resolution against religious “stereotyping,” specifically as applied to Islam.

To be sure, it argues that the effort should not result in free-speech curbs.

However, its partners in the collaboration, the 56 member states of the OIC, have no such qualms.

Many of them police private speech through Islamic blasphemy laws and the OIC has long worked to see such codes applied universally.

Under Muslim pressure, Western Europe now has laws against religious hate speech that serve as proxies for Islamic blasphemy codes.

Read it all at NRO

HOME-grown extremists are actively considering launching terrorist attacks in Australia.

The Jihadists never sleep!

HOME-grown extremists are actively considering launching terrorist attacks in Australia.

From the Herald Sun

by Keith Moore

The latest intelligence also suggests sporting venues, transport hubs and other places of mass gatherings have become the favoured targets of terrorist planners.

"Clearly there are extremists now on our shores," Australian Federal Police counter-terrorism chief Steve Lancaster said.

"There are people out there who genuinely think about doing bad things, or support terrorist acts overseas."

In an interview with the Herald Sun to mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Assistant Commissioner Lancaster also revealed:

POLICE have secretly foiled several potential terrorist threats in Australia by disrupting them at an early stage.

RELIGIOUS extremists who follow a distorted and militant interpretation of Islam are still the biggest threat to Australians.

IT is incredibly difficult for any agency to stop a lone terrorist who decides to walk into a crowded place with a gun or bomb.

TERRORIST groups al-Qa'ida and Jemaah Islamiyah remain powerful threats to Australia.

A Federal Government counter-terrorism White Paper warned last year that some Australians were known by authorities to subscribe to the violent jihadist message sprouted by Muslim extremists.

"Many of these individuals were born in Australia," it said.

"The emergence and activity of terrorist cells in Australia, inspired by the narrative espoused by al-Qaida, is likely to continue.

"Prior to the rise of self-styled jihadist terrorism fostered by al-Qaida, Australia itself was not a specific target. We now are."

Mr Lancaster said while he would rather do both, stopping a terrorist attack was more important than a successful prosecution.

"If even one person is injured or killed in a terrorist attack because you delayed too long, that would be inexcusable," he said.

"You have to make that decision of going in and disrupting. You make it absolutely clear to them that you are aware that something is going on, that you are not comfortable with it and that you want it to stop."

Mr Lancaster admitted the AFP had made mistakes in some aspects of the probe into falsely accused terrorism suspect Dr Mohamed Haneef in 2007, but it had learned valuable lessons from the Clarke inquiry that followed and had become a better force as a result.

"I can tell you the Haneef affair hurt the organisation. It had an enormous impact on morale within the organisation," he said.

"Our response to terrorism continues to evolve since September 11.

"It's a tricky balancing act between respecting the rights of individuals and taking appropriate action to prevent a terrorist act.

"We continue to err on the side of caution in our efforts to protect the community

What Has Israel Ever Done For Peace?

From Honest Reporting

Video here.

Who came out on top in Libya?

None other than the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an internationally designated terrorist organization, the so-called “rebels,”with a peppering of Al Qaeda no doubt!

Further funding for the Jihad with the help of Italy and Spain.

Italy unblocks $680 million for Libya – The Australian

ITALY has unblocked $680 million in Libyan assets for the North African country's new leadership, Italian news agency ANSA quoted Foreign Minister Franco Frattini as saying during a visit to Hungary.

"Today a final decision was taken to unblock 500 million euros to give further support to our Libyan friends," Frattini said.

Billions of euros in investments by Muammar Gaddafi's regime have been frozen in Italian banks as part of successive sanctions.

The government last week said it would release 350 million euros from these funds for the National Transitional Council (NTC) but Frattini said the sum had been increased.

Before the start of the conflict, the regime had major investments in Italy including substantial shares in Italy's top bank, UniCredit, and aerospace giant, Finmeccanica.

Libya's colonial ruler from 1911 until World War II, Italy was a close ally and economic partner of the regime until the start of a wave of protests in February.

It has since joined with international efforts against Gaddafi's regime.

Meanwhile, the Spanish government has given Libyan rebels access to $21.8 million in funds in Spain and is ready to unfreeze more, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said today.

Further reading from World Threats: Former Libyan Terrorist Now Commander of NATO-Backed Tripoli Military Council

More here.

Wikileaks: Some Useful Information About Jihad in Australia

I have always thought Wikileaks was a bit of a double-edged sword.

Here is a piece on possible Australian links to Al Qaeda. I have no idea what our intelligence organization, ASIO, is going to do with this information.

Wikileaks publishes list of Australians possibly linked to Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi – from The Australian

By Adam Gartrell

WIKILEAKS has published details of 23 Australians believed to have links to a radical Yemeni cleric with ties to an offshoot of terrorist group al-Qaeda.

The latest tranche of Wikileaks diplomatic cables released this week contains one from the US embassy in Canberra that recommends 11 Australians be placed on a no-fly list and a further 12 on another "selectee" watch list.

The cable - dated January 21, 2010 and labelled "secret" - says the names were provided to the embassy by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, (ASIO), the nation's security intelligence agency.

"The 23 individuals are Australian citizens, or are Australia-based, and are of security interest because they have either an historical or current association with Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, or are based in Yemen or the surrounding region and may come into contact with al-Aulaqi," the cable reads.

Aulaqi is is an American citizen at large in Yemen with links to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

An unapologetic advocate of violence against the West, Aulaqi has been linked to the attempted bombing of a US airliner on December 2009 - less than a month before the embassy cable was written.

He narrowly escaped a US drone attack three days after American commandos killed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May.

Among the 23 names is Rabiah Hutchinson, a grandmother born in the NSW wine-growing town of Mudgee.

Ms Hutchinson has been described as the "matriarch" of Australian-based Islamist militants and has travelled extensively through strongholds of al-Qaeda including Afghanistan.

It is understood she has been monitored by ASIO for years but has never faced terrorism charges. She denies any links to terrorism.

"They've got it wrong. I am not important. I'm just a 54-year-old granny with diabetes and arthritis. What are they so worried about?" she told Australian media in 2008.

But the embassy cable recommended Hutchinson be placed on the no-fly list "due to her demonstrated connections with al-Qaeda" and AQAP's wishes to recruit females for future attacks.

"While we have every confidence Australian authorities can and will monitor her activities and work to prevent her from departing Australia, her past history and association with al-Aulaqi merits her being on a NO FLY status," the cable reads.

The cable carries the name of current US ambassador Jeffrey Bleich.

Max Brenner Chocolate and BDS in Australia

Logo of the evil, anti-Semitic BDS movement:



Over the weekend the BDS Movement in Australia, supported by the Greens, attempted another demonstration against the Max Brenner stores - this time in Brisbane.

Danielle Keys reports on the counter-protest against the Socialist Alliance anti-Semites

On Saturday the 27th of August at 1pm, the Socialist Alliance and "Justice for Palestine" met at Merivale Street, Brisbane to march down to Southbank to bully and intimidate the customers and staff of popular chocolatier 'Max Brenner'.

I, Danielle Keys, organised the counter-protest movement a month ago after seeing the Socialist Alternative at UQ handing out flyers about their protest. The flyers said to boycott Max Brenner as an agent of apartheid Israel. I thought it was so disgusting that I organised a facebook event just to see if some friends were interested in counter-protesting.

Little did I know that in a matter of weeks I would have many different groups approaching me to help support the cause, over 90 facebook friends attending and be in contact with the corporate management of Max Brenner. Little did I truly foresee that I would be speaking to almost every single newspaper I can think of as well as television and radio opportunities. I would have been happy to stand alone but I am really glad I didn't have to! The reason that people stand behind counter-protest movements I think is because as just individual people we get bullied by the disgraceful agendas of the loudest most empty vessels of humanity - the Socialist Alliance. They are the unwashed aggressors who exist off the fringes of society prepared to violently demonise anyone who disagrees with them. I really had enough of it and I'm glad to see I was not the only one!

I guess the only way to properly describe the events of yesterday is like this...

THE COUNTER-PROTEST WAS AWESOME!!!

Read it all here at Menzies House
Further reading: Chocolate war gets messy

Glenn Beck in Israel - Visits the site of the Fogel Family Massacre in Itamar

I am most curious to see how Glenn Beck's "Restoring Courage" Event works out.

I cannot recall anything quite like it in my life.

I think Glenn is to be congratulated for putting on this event, considering the current events in the Middle East, let alone the obvious hostility shown to Israel by Barack Hussein Obama.

Glenn arrives in Jerusalem, visits Fogel home

Glenn arrived in Israel over the weekend, and he’ll be broadcasting from Jerusalem all week! He started off radio this morning by giving a rundown of all that’s going to be happening, and then described one of his first stops – Itamar and the Fogel household.

“I went to Itamar in Judea and Samaria, and I… our cameras were the first to be allowed into the home. It is empty now and they are ‑‑ they couldn’t get all of the blood off the walls. I will tell you, this was one of the most horrific, bloodiest massacres I could imagine. It was horrifying, horrifying. And yet in that community, profound hope.”

“If you stand in their backyard, you can see the two mountains: The Mountain of Blessing and the Mountain of Curse. It is the ‑‑ it is scriptural. Which do you choose? The mountain of blessing or curse. And this community has both. I can’t believe what people go through here in Israel, and the world stays silent. The media is distorting and lying, lying to you. Lying to you. And it is important that you know it.”

“We will bring you many, many things in the next 14 days that you will not see anywhere else.

When you see what we were doing on GBTV, you will ‑‑ you will know why I left cable news.

Because no one, no one who runs a business that cares about political correctness or sponsors or anything else would do it. Nobody be would do it. My relationship is with you. We’ll tell you the truth. To hell with the consequences. You don’t like it, cancel your subscription. You do like it, tell a friend. Tell a friend.

The truth shall set you free.”

Has PM Gillard kick-started The Australian Tea Party?

Before the last election PM Julia Gillard promised "there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead". She barely scraped into power but managed to get in by forming a coalition with the Greens aka Marxists, and a few Independents who went against the wishes of their constituents.

Who knows what she promised them.

Now she has done a complete backflip and is determined to introduce a "carbon" tax to please her Green masters, and no doubt to raise some revenue to make up for the shortfall in funds that the left Labor government has created by spending money like there was no tomorrow.

The last Right-leaning government had had Australia with a surplus.

Andrew Bolt explains:

The cheat is worse than the tax

THE tut-tutting started even before the first protester outside Parliament House yesterday unfurled the first banner.

This was the crowd that last March was so “offensive” and even “sexist”, frowned one ABC radio presenter.

And the thousands of protesters who again gathered in Canberra yesterday to rage against the Gillard Government’s carbon dioxide tax turned out to be just as angry and rude as last time.

“Dump the Frump,” read one sign. “Ditch the Witch,” read another.

There was a lot of shouting and a coffin was paraded to symbolise the death of democracy.

Meanwhile, workers inside the building sorted through thousands of government propaganda packs explaining the tax, which outraged householders had sent back, some with obscenities scrawled on them.

Yes, there’s an anger out there probably not seen since the dismissal of the Whitlam government, and journalists are in full reprimand at such rudeness to another Labor Government.

“Today’s carbon tax rally was a freak show,” sneered one News Ltd reporter. And the protesters’ calls for a new election were “sooky”.

The protesters were “vilifying” Prime Minister Julia Gillard, declared a Sky newsreader.

But what worries me far more than this raucous anger is that the Gillard Government so recklessly unleashed it, eroding the bonds of trust that still keep us together. Unlike what we saw in Britain last week.

Understand that anger yesterday, which we’ll see even more of next Monday, when the truckies’ “Convoy of No Confidence” reaches Canberra.

Read it all here...

Further reading: Walk Like a Lemming. With thanks to Menzies House