Thursday, March 29, 2007
QUESTIONABLE CLAIM UNQUESTIONED
Sir Nicholas Stern repeated his absurd Chinese automotive standards claim during a speech Wednesday at the National Press Club (no transcript available).
The room was filled with journalists. Not one of them challenged Stern on this.
(Although, to be fair, they didn’t have much chance. An attendee emails: “Unfortunately the entire freaking Press Club address was hijacked by left-wing wankers pandering to Stern and I missed out on asking a question.”)
Meanwhile, Lee at RightThinking emails: “As someone who has actually lived in China I know firsthand how completely full of shit the lefties quoted in your article are, and I’ve got the photos to prove it.”
IRELAND NOW ICELAND
An Irish reader emails:
Al Gore was in Dublin today to address the annual conference of Mercer Investment Consulting, where he talked about linking investment to environmental concerns.
As of 2.30pm local time, Dublin airport was reporting snow showers.
“HE DOES NOT KNOW”
Mr GARRETT: My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. Does the minister recall when he was a backbencher supporting a doubling of the solar power rebate? Is the minister aware that Labor has today announced a doubling of the solar power rebate, Labor’s solar home power plan? Does the minister agree with Labor? Does the minister still agree with himself?
Mr TURNBULL: The member in his question is referring of course to the House of Representatives environment committee report on sustainable cities. It is a very good report and I commend it to the honourable members on both sides. My understanding of the Labor Party’s announcement today is that it is not to double the rebate at all but rather to extend it. I believe it is still a maximum of $4,000 per household. If that is the case then they have not doubled it at all. It is exactly the same rebate. The rebate is currently ...
(Mr Garrett interjecting)
Mr TURNBULL: There he is. The member for Kingsford Smith does not even know what his policy is. The rebate is $4 a watt up to a maximum of $4,000.
(Mr Garrett interjecting)
Mr TURNBULL: Is the maximum $4,000 or not?
Mr GARRETT: It’s pretty straightforward.
Mr TURNBULL: It is. He does not know. Mr Speaker, I cannot help the member for Kingsford Smith. He does not know what his policy is. If he cannot tell us what it is then I am afraid I cannot enlighten him.
See comments for more from Turnbull. Readers were quickly alert to Garrett’s goofiness; so was the ABC’s Michael Brissenden:
All reports are, they are working pretty hard in the Rudd office these days. Perhaps, though, they need to do a bit more work on the script. As one Labor insider said the other day, “It’s like an episode of the ‘West Wing’ down there, only we talk a lot slower and we’re not nearly as funny.”
Oh, I beg to differ. Long-time Garrett watchers have been giggling at his antics for years. From the same Parliamentary session, here’s some more comedy from Labor’s Jennie George:
Can you believe that a senior minister of this government dismissed the Al Gore movie An Inconvenient Truth as ‘just entertainment’?
UPDATE. On Nine’s late news, Garrett pronounced “reforestation” as “reaforestation”. I wonder how he pronounces “nuclear”.
UPDATE II. Consider me beclowned; Garrett’s pronunciation is correct.
MMM ... GITMO
The Talitubbification of Gitmo gourmand David Hicks explained.
(via Raffi)
CHIPS BURNED
Australian Greens senator Bob Brown:
Our prime minister still thinks burning more coal, producing V12 cars and the burning of forests for woodchips is economic sense.
It should be obvious that burning forests isn’t a very effective means of producing woodchips; they’d tend to end up, well, burned. And Australian automakers build no V12 cars. Never have, sadly. Why do leftoid greendreamers struggle so on matters automotive? (Be aware, too, that Brown’s giddy mistakes came not during a hurried live interview but in a prepared statement.)
DELICATE PROCESSES
“David Hicks has left Labor with a problem,” writes Matt Price:
Yesterday Swan, Gillard and others froze like popsicles when quizzed about Hicks. “Go ask Kevin,” became the evasion du jour.
Yet when Kevin was asked, his reply was more dense than a body builders convention ...
“On the question of the detail of what Mr Hicks has pled and what response will be delivered to that in terms of the next stage of the legal process on the settlement of the facts and on the determination of any sentence and on the application of any appeal process, let alone the application of the International Prisoner Transfer Agreement which might flow from that, these are all delicate processes still to be worked through.”
It’s enough to make you nostalgic for the clarity and brevity of Kim Beazley ...
Further on Fat Dave from Miranda Devine.
OVERPOPULATION SOLVED
Trouble at my former place of employ:
The Bulletin has suffered a severe, if not fatal, blow with the resignation of its national affairs editor Tony Wright. Wright has accepted a similar position with The Age and will replace Michael Gordon, who is moving on to edit the Saturday paper.
Also quitting the 126-year-old ACP magazine is picture editor Roxy Holder, which takes the number of departures since the arrival of editor-in-chief John Lehmann to upwards of a dozen.
Actually, I think it might be upwards of 15. The place ain’t happy, for lots of reasons. Still, at least they’ve picked up Rob Hirst.
WE’VE WON
SMH architecture writer Elizabeth Farrelly:
So now, as we stand victorious astride Gaia’s limp and bloodied form, feeling for a pulse, now is the moment to ask; is there another way?
Another way to feel for a pulse? I guess there is. Also via Andrew Bolt, here’s Terry McCrann: “Kevin Rudd has recommitted a Rudd Labor government to damaging the economy in the short-term and destroying it in the longer-term.”
WIN/WIN
Mary Katharine Ham saves the planet. And loses a cat.
THINK ABOUT IT
A Martian at Melbourne’s Moreland City Council supports the Sydney Morning Herald’s Earth Hour (this Saturday, 7.30pm-8.30pm):
Letter From Mars
Attention Earthlings - this is a warming. Climate change is not going to be nice ...
Don’t like the idea! Well do something Earthlings!
For starters take part in Earth Hour which is an initiative for residents to turn off all the unnecessary lights.
Unplug all unnecessary appliances - mobile phone charger, TV, microwave, MP3 players - that are not being used and are on standby. Appliances left on standby account for up to 10 per cent of the average household’s electricity use.
Get together with your family and talk about this ...
Think about it Earthlings!
Via ilibcc, who observes: “Directly above is an ad for the Pascoe Vale festival on the same day, which features the City of Moreland’s very own electricity-sucking Saturday rock concert - until 8pm!”
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
AL WEIGHDA
Labor leader Kevin Rudd was complaining only the other day that Australian Talitubby David Hicks could not expect a fair trial. Pixie’s mentioned Hicksy quite often in recent months; but after Hicks pleaded guilty yesterday, Rudd issued one of the wordiest no-comments you’ll ever read:
Mr Rudd said there were at least three or four stages of the legal process to go before the sentence was handed down.
“One is the stipulation of the facts. The second, the determination of any sentence and if it’s any custodial sentence,” Mr Rudd told ABC Radio.
“Third, the question of appeal rights which exist under the relevant US statute and before the US Supreme Court, and finally the whole question of if a custodial sentence is imposed and the operation of the International Prisoner Transfer Act as it operates under Australian domestic law.
“We are, therefore, now in the midst of this quite complex legal process and for those sorts of reasons we ourselves are reluctant to comment,” he said.
Chicken Kevin – it’s our version of Chicken Kiev. Other Hicks advocates indicated their sadness:
Anti-war protesters in orange jump suits marching in Brisbane’s city centre Tuesday were stunned by the news of David Hicks’ guilty plea … There was a palpable air of disappointment among those who had campaigned to bring Hicks home.
Foreign minister Alexander Downer seems to have been checking out lefty blogs, judging by this observation:
Downer has told 2GB’s Alan Jones the guilty plea has silenced misguided supporters of Hicks …
They’re possibly still trying to cope with the fact their little al-Qaeda pal has evidently been feasting on al-Quarter Pounders:
He’s small and overweight. Chubby to some observers, “puffy” to his father, Terry.
Descriptions of hollowed cheeks, sunken eyes, despair and suicidal thoughts have been floated out by his legal team in recent months, but Hicks looked nothing of the sort.
Alan Grey predicted this in February: “If other [Gitmo] prisoners are used as an example, then he has probably gained weight.” Spot on, Al. If he keeps piling it on at his next home, Hicks’ll soon have company even when he’s in solitary:
The U.S. military will seek a jail sentence of less than 20 years for Australian David Hicks … “Other similar cases have been a sentence of 20 years and we will take into account the five years he has been in custody and his early guilty plea,” Air Force Colonel Morris Davis told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio today.
Following Dave’s relocation, Canada’s Omar Khadr is the only Westerner left at Gitmo. More burgers for him, eh! Naturally, the Age’s Ron Tanderg suspects a Howard plot; more rational takes are available from the Australian, Luke McIlveen, and Jules Crittenden, who deals with the Koslings:
Daily Kos observes that “pleading guilty is the best option when the deck is completely stacked against you.” Could be. And dying is the best option when a bomb goes off in your nightclub! What was that guy doing scoping out embassies, learning kidnapping and assassination techniques, anyway? Just curious.
Not much warmth in Dave’s old home town from this young Adelaide woman:
my blog for today is kill david hicks and his bloody dad too! Thnku
Whoa! Better balance that with a pro-Dave view:
As an active protester in the streets of Sydney to bring David Hicks home, I can tell you that the matter of his innocence or guilt was never my reason for marching. If he is guilty, I believe that he should be punished to the full extent of Australian law and he should serve his time. But his guilt must be proved through a fair trial, in Australia, where I have faith that the premise of innocent until guilty rings true. This, I believe, is not the case in the USA ...
Hmmm … do we detect the loamy scent of a Truther? Indeed we do:
Bush has enough against him to be impeached and charged with war crimes. Howard lies through his teeth at every possible opportunity and is the number one spin doctor. Exhibit A- weapons of mass destruction. And then delve a little deeper and do your research. Heard of WTC #7? That was the 3rd building to come down on Sept 11. Have a look …
Let me guess; did fatso Hicks sit on it?
NOT ENOUGH ICE
ABC science goblin Robyn Williams believes it is possible for the seas to rise by 100 metres over the next century.
Glaciologist Nikolai Osokin disagrees.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
GORE EFFECT GOES WAY BACK
“Algor” is Latin for “coldness”.
SIR NICK’S FACTS CHECKED
Super expert global warming researcher Sir Nicholas Stern claims:
“You can’t export an American car to China: it does not satisfy the emissions standards.”
Really? That’ll be news to DaimlerChrysler and Cadillac, both of which maintain outlets in China. This idea that Chinese automotive standards are higher than those in the US turns out to be another leftist item of faith; here’s Seattle’s Joel Connelly:
We can’t sell American cars in China because they don’t meet the Middle Kingdom’s fuel efficiency standards.
And the HuffyPost’s Laurie David:
You can’t even sell many American cars in China because they don’t meet that country’s higher fuel standards. That’s right, China demands better mileage from its cars than we do!
For sure, Laurie and Joel and Sir Nick! When not banning US vehicles entirely, China apparently limits its intake of American road metal to fuel-sipping Caddy econopods:
During a ceremony at Beijing’s Imperial Ancestors’ Temple, a symbol of ancient China, General Motors officially launched Cadillac, its premium luxury brand for modern China.
Three new Cadillac models that will be sold in China - the CTS, SRX and XLR - were unveiled at the ceremony. All three products embody Cadillac’s distinctive bold design, purposeful innovation and balanced performance ...
All three models will start as imports from GM’s North American Operations. They will be built at the company’s Grand River manufacturing facility in Lansing, Michigan, and at its facility in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
That report is dated 2004, at which point Cadillac apparently first met China’s rigorous emission and mileage standards. Here’s a report on Ford and GM’s export plans from one year prior:
The top two US automakers announced plans to export thousands of vehicles to China as that country moves to open up its market to foreign competition.
By 2006, that export plan was paying off:
Ford Motor Company took another important step forward today in its commitment to grow in China by pledging to export more vehicles from the United States to China ...
In 2005, Chinese customers purchased 2,787 Ford Mavericks, an increase of nearly 50 percent over 2004 and enough to place Maverick among the best-sellers in the Chinese imported SUV segment. And the sales growth continues: Maverick sales in the first quarter of 2006 were up over 30 percent year-over-year. With 423 sales in calendar year 2005, Lincoln Navigator helped define the market for “President Class,” full-size SUVs.
The commitment to continue the export program was marked in a ceremony in Los Angeles attended by a Chinese delegation led by Madam Wu Yi, China’s Vice Premier and Minister of Health, and included a number of senior officials from China’s Ministry of Commerce.
If, according to Stern, Chinese cars are cleaner than US cars, shouldn’t they be easily exported to America? Not so:
Reached by phone in China, an employee of [Chinese carmaker] Brilliance’s export trade department said the automaker wants to export the Zhonghua.
“But right now the emissions criteria doesn’t meet US and European levels,” the worker said. “Getting those certifications is very expensive. Therefore, we don’t have a plan to develop these aspects right now.”
What’s that? Chinese vehicle emissions don’t meet US standards? We’ll need a second opinion:
Chinese carmakers are throttling back plans to export their cars into major overseas markets such as Western Europe and North America, according to research undertaken for a just-auto members’ management briefing.
The study found that Chinese carmakers’ attentions are instead currently focussed on the need to supply a growing domestic market.
Ambitious export plans have been revised in the light of the need to meet relatively stringent crash-testing and emissions regulations in developed markets.
If Stern can be so wrong on elementary matters such as these, how wrong might he be about climate change (which, according to him, will cause gender inequalities and forced marriage)?
(Via Contrail and Dave Surls; earlier post on this here)
HOLDOUT FOLDS
The SMH’s David Marr last year:
Hicks’s condition appears to be deteriorating. He won’t speak to Australian consular officials who come to check on him. This year he refused to take his father’s Christmas telephone call. He seems still to be talking to his lawyers. A guilty plea would offer the Howard Government a neat exit from this mess in time for the elections. So far, Hicks is holding out.
Not any more he ain’t. Maybe Howard bribed him with a pie or something, since Dave seems to have put on some weight during his time in One Ton or More Bay … despite his lawyers’ repeated claims:
According to his American military lawyer, Major Michael Mori, David Hicks is depressed and losing weight.
Natasha Stott Despoja repeated Mori’s line in Parliament, although it now appears an unnamed consular official may have been more accurate:
The Minister for Foreign Affairs has said that an Australian consular official has recently visited David Hicks and said that he is fit and well, although he has complained about a persistent back problem. I am afraid that this is at odds with evidence from Major Michael Mori, who, as we know, is David’s US military attorney. He says that David is suffering from poor health, depression and weight loss.
Hicks’ Australian lawyer Stephen Kenny also told of a shrinking Dave:
He said Hicks had lost weight, was not eating well and was depressed.
That was in 2003. Terry Hicks met his son in Gitmo the following year, and found him not to be as usually described:
He said his son was finding it hard to cope with his detention, although he had “gained a bit of weight”.
Denied the gift of a skeletal Hicks, the Age laments that their not-so-little-buddy is all heavy and puffy. Add another word: guilty.
UPDATE. Another of Dave’s lawyers, in January:
David McLeod says Mr Hicks was chained to the floor of his interview room and has not seen sunlight for months … “His visage was an extremely sorrowful one,” he said. “His eyes are sunken and his cheeks are sallow. He looks like an old man.”
That was before Dave’s miracle cure:
Hicks’s lawyers had described him as having dark, sunken eyes, but he did not appear like that today.
Rather than being pale from long stints locked inside the maximum security prison, Hicks’s skin looked as tanned as that of his American military lawyer Major Michael Mori, sitting beside him in court …
Prison food had added about 10kg to Hicks’s small, 167cm-tall frame.