once a pisspot …. always a
pisspot …..

May Mars lose this
fundamentalist power-drunk disciple and may Bacchus welcome him again...

 
Cole questions AWB's document
compliance ….. 

The oil-for-food Commissioner
Terence Cole says he is not fully satisfied that AWB has handed over all
the documents that his inquiry has demanded. 

Commissioner Cole is heading the
inquiry investigating almost $300 million worth of payments made by wheat
exporter AWB to the former Iraqi regime in contravention of UN sanctions
against Iraq. 

Extract from the speech of our
providores grocer in Ottawa ..........

”And I would have for those around the world who would want to see
a reduced American role in the affairs of our globe, I have some
quiet advice and that is be careful in what you wish for because
a retreating America will leave a more vulnerable world. It will
leave a world more exposed to terrorism and it will leave a more
fragile and indeed dangerous world.”

.......

Gus is furious: No Sir. I have some not so quiet advice .... What makes a
more dangerous world is the extraordinary lies that have been concocted
by you and the US and the Poms, to go to war. A war that HAS made
the world more dangerous. A war that hopefully will see a solution but it will
be NO THANKS TO YOU and your two other little porkyists. We are not
opposed to the US having an important role in managing the affairs of the
world but w do not want them to do so like a schoolyard bully with no brains
and two fists. You and your acolytes should resign in shame for having brought
the good reputation of OUR countries (note: not "yours" as when you
claimed ownership of Australia in that other porkies about uranium) ... 

Those avid readers of this site would already know that we are on top of these figures... A few months ago, we alerted the world — this little YD world at least — on the World Prison Population List coming from the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London... These figures exposed the hypocrisy of the US on their pointing the finger at other countries human rights failures... Here Chris Floyd picks up the same pieces and elaborates.. Read more at the Moscow Times...

Global Eye
Gates of Eden

By Chris Floyd
Published: May 19, 2006

Beneath the thunder of the mighty cataclysms unleashed by the Bush administration -- the war crime in Iraq, the global torture gulag, the epic corruption, the gutting of the U.S. Constitution, the open embrace of presidential tyranny -- a quieter degradation of American society has continued apace. And this slow descent into barbarism didn't begin with President George W. Bush, although his illicit regime certainly represents the apotheosis of the dark forces driving the decay.

With the world's attention diverted by the latest scandals and shameless posturings of the Bush faction -- domestic spying, bribes and hookers at the CIA, military units roaring down to the border to scare unarmed poor people looking for work -- few noticed a small story that cast a harsh, penetrating light on the corrosion of the national character.

Earlier this month, the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London released its annual World Prison Population List. And there, standing proudly at the head of the line, towering far above all others, is that shining city on the hill, the United States of America. But strangely enough, the Bush gang and its media sycophants failed to celebrate -- or even note -- yet another instance where a triumphant America leads the world. Where are the cheering hordes shouting "U.S.A! U.S.A!" at the news that the land of the free imprisons more people than any other country in the world, both in raw numbers and as a percentage of its population?

Yes, the world's greatest democracy now has more than 2 million of its citizens locked up in iron cages, an incarceration rate of 714 per 100,000 of the national population. The only countries within shouting distance are such bastions of penological enlightenment as China (1.55 million prisoners, plus some unsorted "administrative detainees"), Russia (a wimpy 763,000) and Brazil (330,000), whose exemplary prison management has been on such prominent display this week

read more overthere...

from the ABC …..

Costello urges banks to lower fees. 

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello is urging banks to reduce
the fees they charge when customers open or close accounts. 

Mr Costello says he has met with the major banks to ask
them to lower entry and exit fees they charge on accounts. 

He says uncompetitive fees are hurting consumers. 

INDEPTH:

CANADA'S MILITARY
Requiem for the Sea King
CBC News Online | Updated Feb. 3,
2006 

They are known as the
"ancient" Sea Kings, the "geriatric" Sea Kings, the
"venerable" Sea Kings. They have been called "flying
coffins." Purchased with considerable fanfare by the federal
government in 1963, when they turned heads with their impressive exploits,
the Sea Kings are now a sick, ageing fleet, with pieces literally falling
out of the skies. Canada bought 41 of the single-rotor Sea Kings,
technically known as the Sikorsky CH-124 Sea King. Twenty-eight of them
remain in service, and those still flying are often hit by flameouts,
engine stalls, generator failures and gearbox problems. Pilots have died
flying them, falling into oceans, crashing into muskeg – more so the older
they get. After the federal government renewed the bidding process in 1999
to replace the fleet, builders around the world jockeyed for position to
win the contract. 

adapted from the ABC …..

PM predicts relationship with US will grow closer

By US correspondent Kim Landers

Prime Minister John Howard arrived in Washington at the weekend but he is
only just now catching up with his good friend and ally, US President
George W Bush.

The President and his wife are about to join Mr and Mrs Howard in planting
saplings, taken from 200-year-old trees at the White House at the home of
the Australian Ambassador in Washington.

Read the whole tree planting at the ABC