The Rudd Government is rejecting asylum seeker applications at a higher rate than the Howard government, according to an analysis of new figures.

An Asylum Seeker Research Centre report says the immigration department has knocked back 41 of the 42 cases it has had referred to it since Labor took power after the November 2007 election, a rejection rate of 97.6 per cent.

Time for Phillip Adams to start another reader campaign.

(Via Kae)

Rising food and petrol prices, coupled with recent interest rate rises, were putting extraordinary pressures on families, he said.

"The playback that I get from communities across the country is that families are under real financial pressure,” he said.

May 2008. That pressure will increase, thanks to Kevin Rudd:

An emissions trading scheme is likely to increase petrol prices by about 10 cents a litre ...

Nike tops list of climate-friendly companies

UPDATE. Too much climate friendliness! Global cooling is now a flight-safety hazard.

UPDATE II. Rating the airborne celebrity hypocrites.

UPDATE III. Ground-level cool fuel tales from Mike H.:

As a long haul driver in the US I can remember driving through Montana during the winter about ten years ago in -80° F weather. In order to heat the cab of the truck I would put the heater controls on cab heat and watch the windows frost up. Then I would put the controls on window defrost and start freezing my feet. There wasn’t enough heat in the diesel engine to do both jobs at the same time.

I passed a truck on the side of the road that had his fuel jelled and he had to walk a half of a mile to get some alcohol to melt the wax. Fortunately the truck stop in Billings was a balmy -60° F because all the trucks had their engines running, so I was able to sleep without becoming a carbon popsicle. In temperatures like that diesel engines can become so cool that they’ll stop because the compression temp. is too cool for combustion.

Canada will be probed on suspicion of violating rules for registering greenhouse gases that are the mainstay of a UN-led fight against global warming, official documents show.

Ottawa could be suspended from rights to trade carbon dioxide if found to be in breach of the rules by the enforcement branch of the UN’s Kyoto Protocol. Greece was suspended last month, the first nation to face such a sanction under Kyoto.

Possibly Canada – lately punching out carbon at a level way above its Kyoto target – was simply trying to avoid committing New Zealand-style Kyotocide. Similar woes in the UK:

Labour’s new green targets will cost every family in Britain more than £3,000, a Government dossier has warned. The decision by ministers to sign up to “unachievable” EU pledges on renewable energy will leave taxpayers with a £75billion bill.

UPDATE. Some background to all of this.

… Clinton appeared headed for a more modest 2 point or less victory. There, she won 60-40 among white voters, who made up 80 percent of the turnout, while losing black voters 8-92.

Also it appears that Hillary Clinton may be broke.

Rush Limbaugh’s assistance apparently wasn’t a factor.

UPDATE. According to the Obama campaign, Limbaugh’s work was worth seven per cent in Indiana. NASCAR votes didn’t come through, however.

UPDATE II. The New York Observer:

Tuesday was a decisive night for Barack Obama.

Sure, CBS News called Indiana early for Hillary Clinton (a verdict the network may yet regret, with many precincts still outstanding), and if she does hang on there, she will have won just as many states on the day as Obama did. And she will then soldier on to what should be a landslide win in next week’s West Virginia primary, just as she figures to dominate in Kentucky on May 20.

But tonight made clear one thing: None of that will matter.