I have an interesting update from Tom Minchin on surprise events in Australia, but first a more urgent warning on a vote in the House today on the DISCLOSE Act, a new attack on the freedom of political speech, which is being rammed through by Democrats specifically to put their political opponents at a disadvantage in this year's election.
As one commentator wryly puts it, "It might as well stand for 'Democratic Incumbents Seeking to Contain Losses by Outlawing Speech in Elections.'"
See what I wrote about the DISCLOSE Act here. Here is the takeaway quote: "The left is vilifying the right as violent and seditious, because they are working up the nerve to suspend the freedom of political speech and forcibly suppress political opposition."
(By the way, the free versions of TIA Daily that are going out to our big mailing list are also going up on our website. To read them there, link to them, or recommend them to friends, go to TIADaily.com.)
Call your congressman today to demand that he vote against this bill. Tea Party Patriots sent out this list of congressmen who are considered to be on the fence. The first three are leaders of the allegedly conservative "blue dog" Democrats. The second number listed for each congressman is a fax line.
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD), 202-225-2801 202-225-5823
Rep. Baron Hill (IN-09), 202-225-5315 202-226-6866
Rep. Jim Matheson (UT-02), 202-225-3011 (202) 225-5638
Altmire, Jason (PA-04) 202-225-2565 202-226-2274
Baca, Joe (CA-43) 202-225-6161 202-225-8671
Barrow, John (GA-12) 202-225-2823 202-225-3377
Berry, Marion (AR-01) 202-225-4076 202-225-5602
Bishop, Sanford (GA-02) 202-225-3631 202-225-2203
Boren, Dan (OK-02) 202-225-2701 202-225-3038
Boyd, Allen (FL-02) 202-225-5235 202-225-5615
Bright, Bobby (AL-02) 202-225-2901 202-225-8913
Cardoza, Dennis (CA-18) 202-225-6131
Carney, Christopher (PA-10) 202-225-3731
Childers, Travis (MS-01) 202-225-4306 202-225-3549
Cooper, Jim (TN-05) 202-225-4311 202-226-1035
Costa, Jim (CA-20) 202-225-3341 202-225-9308
Cuellar, Henry (TX-28) 202-225-1640 202-225-1641
Dahlkemper, Kathy (PA-03) 202-225-5406 202-225-3103
Davis, Lincoln (TN-04) 202-225-6831 202-226-5172
Donnelly, Joe (IN-02) 202-225-3915 202-225-6798
Gordon, Bart (TN-06) 202-225-4231
Holden, Tim (PA-17) 202-225-5546 202-226-0996
Kratovil, Jr., Frank (MD-01) 202-225-5311 202-225-0254
McIntyre, Mike (NC-07) 202-225-2731 202-225-5773
Markey, Betsy (CO-04) 202-225-4676 202-225-5870
Marshall, Jim (GA-08) 202-225-6531 202-225-3013
Matheson, Jim (UT-02) 202-225-3011 202-225-5638
Melancon, Charlie (LA-03) 202-225-4031 202-226-3944
Michaud, Mike (ME-02) 202-225-6306 202-225-2943
Minnick, Walt (ID-01) 202-225-6611 202-225-3029
Mitchell, Harry (AZ-05) 202-225-2190
Moore, Dennis (KS-03) 202-225-2865 202-225-2807
Murphy, Scott (NY-20) 202-225-5614 202-225-1168
Nye, Glenn (VA-02) 202-225-4215 202-225-4218
Peterson, Collin (MN-07) 202-225-2165 202-225-1593
Salazar, John (CO-03) 202-225-4761 202-226-9669
Scott, David (GA-13) 202-225-2939 202-225-4628
Space, Zack (OH-18) 202-225-6265 202-225-3394
Tanner, John (TN-08) 202-225-4714 202-225-1765
Taylor, Gene (MS-04) 202-225-5772 202-225-7074
Go ahead and call. I'll wait 'til you get back.
All right, now on to the blockbuster news from Australia.
I recently posted two items from our Antipodean correspondent Tom Minchin. One of them was a re-post of a devastating interview by Australian journalist Andrew Bolt unmasking Australia's equivalent to Al Gore. The interview has since been picked up from TIA and posted at RealClearPolitics. My favorite exchange from the interview is this one, in the middle of a segment where Bolt is confronting Tim Flannery with evidence of his failed predictions about global warming and rainfall:
Bolt: Have you seen the water catchment levels here, see, they're tracking above the five year level. I'm showing you now.
Flannery: You know what I came in here to talk about, Andrew, here? It's our farm day we're doing with our Deakin lecture series in Bendigo, at the Bendigo town hall today. And it's a really exciting event...
Andrew: All that's lovely, Tim. But I think you need to be held to account for the alarmism that is in part your stock in trade, your shtick, and is responsible for what you now see-the retreat from global warming policies.
Gone are the days when the warmists could treat the entire media as obedient lapdogs who will pump out uncritical press releases about farm day in Bendigo.
The other piece from Tom was about the political decline of Australia's equivalent to Obama. Tom just sent me a surprising update on that story.
"As suggested might happen in TIA Daily, Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been toppled from power. He was removed by his own party. As the Australian prime minister holds office as a result of the party he leads winning government—and not by direct personal election—he can be removed at the pleasure of his party. That just happened, but in a way unprecedented in Australian history. No previous Prime Minister has been removed by his party in the first term of his government. Why?
"The immediate cause was that his government's mining Super Profits tax met such resistance that the government's own polling showed it was about to lose the next election in a landslide. Rudd refused to listen. His Deputy, Julia Gillard, acted and called for a leadership challenge. Rudd, seeing he was about to lose that challenge catastrophically, withdrew his candidacy. Gillard was elected unopposed and sworn in within hours.
"More deeply, Rudd lost because he was a hollow man whose only objective was power and it had gone to his head. He had alienated most Australians and, even more fatally, his own supporters by one policy disaster after another. As noted in TIA Daily, he had even disappointed his most ardent followers on what he claimed to have most faith in: cap-and-trade. The irony was that he couldn't pass it because he didn't have popular support. But true believers don't care about facts, if they have been taught to disregard them. What is global warming but a giant evasion of facts?
"The good news is that the mining Super Profits tax will go back to the drawing board. It cannot go forward in its present form. The bad news is that Julia Gillard may conclude she must do more to 'help the environment' to appease her left wing. Australia enters a new period of challenge.
"But one point is indisputable: Obama's equivalent in unreality has been removed. The apparently invincible leftist can fall. And for that, there is cause for celebration."
Agreed. Australia may be on the opposite side of the world, but culturally it is not very far away from America, and what happens there has generally provent to be a good omen for what happens here.—RWT
