Insiders - 3JUL11

Julia Gillard.

Does she ever say anything when she's interviewed?

She makes no apology.

What, for lying?

When asked questions she reverts back to slagging off at Tony Abbott and the opposition. Bringing up Work Choices.

You know the government  is  running scared when the only policy they spruik is running down the opposition. Abbott's a wrecker, blah, blah, blah.

They are the opposition. We are supposedly two years out from the next federal election and one of the major points  used by the ALP as a defence (clayton's defence!), is that the opposition, Tony Abbott, has no policies.

Truly, why can't people who support Julia and the ALP see that they have nothing but words?

Go there later and read the transcript of the inderview with Julia Gillard. www.abc.net.au/insiders. Hear her talk about there will never be a bedder time to secure the prosperidy of Australia's economy. Country seems  to be the only word with the consonant "t" in it that she can manage to pronounce properly. It grates.

Oh, what a tangled web...

Thing is, they're not even good at lying. So each lie needs (they think) to be qualified or replaced by another lie.

Before they started blabbing they should have got the facts and told the truth, not relied on third hand or fictional fogginess.

Michelle Malkin summarises the skids, swerves and turns of the US Government.

$80B savings? My fat aunt!

Not a question about where this $80B saving was being made... or that the whole thing is cooked as it isn't revenue they already have!

SABRA LANE: The costs of Cyclone Yasi haven't been included in that bill of course and we have got continuing floods in Victoria and the bushfires in Western Australia, how much more money do you think you are going to have to find to pay for damaged infrastructure here?

WAYNE SWAN: Well, we'll have to take our time to get an accurate estimate. I've been in north Queensland and far north Queensland. I've seen the damage in places like Tully and Mission Beach. It is extraordinary so we've got to take our time to have a look at the size of the bill.

That's why we said when we announced the levy, as well as the savings some weeks ago what we had to do was to keep our finances in good shape because we didn't know what would be around the corner and of course we have now seen that even worse can happen.

That's just another reason why we need the levy but we've said then and we say it now, that we'll have to change priorities in the budget, we'll have to find further savings in the budget. In three budgets and two mid-year reviews we have already found and changed priorities in our budgets to the tune of $80 billion over that period of time and we'll have to do more, given the size of the damage that we're seeing in north Queensland and far north Queensland.

Read more of this adenoidal twerp here at AM today.

When Kevin won in 07, Australia got the booby prize

This is a brilliant summation of Kev'n-07.

Some weeks ago, the Prime Minister was passionately in favour of “a big Australia”. You know that when a process driven politician like Rudd declares himself passionately in favour of something, it means he has only just discovered the idea, this is especially true in his case given that this passionate belief like most of his ideas, only lasted a few weeks until he realised his passionate belief was not shared by the voters.

The only link I have to the whole commentary by Michael Kroger is at Andrew Bolt's blog.

Although Kroger has already stated what he thinks of Rudd many times. Here's one...

Australia (ALP) - Leading the World in Spin

I have just heard this and I think it's ridiculous. A woman phoned in and said that the labelling on cigarettes changed so that they didn't need to state the tar and nicotine content of the cigarettes. This is how I gave up smoking in 1990 - July 1990 to be exact. I'd tried from January 1989, and the only way was for me to reduce the tar/nicotine content of the cigarettes, and the number I smoked and the places I'd allow myself to smoke, and then I eventually stopped smoking.

Now they think no-name smoke packets will deter smokers, and think that they will lead the world... hmm, like they led the world in the ETS? CPRS? Yeah. ALP Federal Government of Australia, leading the world in Spin and Stupid. Hurrah!

If they want to stop people smoking why don't they ban it? Make it illegal? Yeah, one of their most profitable income streams would be choked.

How can the government demand this?

There are three items at AM on this plan... here's the link to the main page.

LIV CASBEN: He says it's the most significant attempt to try and dissuade smokers from taking up the habit since tobacco advertising was banned.

SIMON CHAPMAN: This will be a very, very important signal to other governments that this is the way ahead and I would expect many other governments to follow very quickly. It will cause a domino effect around the world within five years so it will be the norm.

More here.

Update:
The tax on cigarettes is going up 25% tonight (ie a pack of smokes will go up $2-3). This should raise about $5B for the government... which is timely as it just so happens that this is the amount which Kevin has promised away with his health reform...

The Big Deal (it's not the real deal) spin spin spin

Rudd's speech to the National Press Club.

In the lead up Malcolm Turnbull managed to get a few good shots in. Click on "Long term economic plan or intergalactic agreement?": Swan v Turnbull this morning.

I did hear a snippet of the speech in which KRudd said, with conviction, that the previous government squandered the mining boom windfall... on things other than infrastructure...

Oh, a bit like this quote from here:

Calling for greater investment on the "supply side" of the economy - infrastructure, skills and workforce participation - the BCA said the Howard government had collected $87 billion in windfall revenues in the past five years but had spent all but $2 billion on tax cuts and other benefits.

As soon as I can I will try to give you the speech. Listen to the Audio here, Lindal Curtis on Rudd Speech (The World Today)
Full speech should be here later.