‘A ship said to be the world's largest container vessel has arrived in a Suffolk port to unload 45,000 tonnes of Christmas goods from China. Hundreds of spectators lined the shore to watch the Emma Maersk as it was guided into Felixstowe by three tugs.

read more at the BBC

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Gus: this is ugly consumerism that may make the Chinese headquarters laugh a bit...

from the New York Times .....

Where Plan A Left Ahmad Chalabi 

By Dexter Filkins

November 5, 2006

‘Many miles away in a more dangerous place the dream is ending badly. The bodies pile up. Good people stream to the borders. Leaders pile money onto planes. The center is giving way.

No matter how "badly" our water is managed, water HAS TO BE and stay a public utility... Any fool can privatise anything, but water HAS TO STAY in the hands of the public. It does not matter if the Poms have decided to sell their waters to some AUSSIE banks here and there, the crux of the matter is that water SHOULD BE FREE and regulated against pollution like the air we breathe... and protected for over-usage... OTHERWISE some some clever bastard will come and sell you your life... YOU already buy it in many forms from education to heath, but WATER? No way!...
Save our democracy... Protest at the privatisation of water... even if private enterprise can deliver it "better"...It is a public democratic and animalistic right.

from The Guardian ….. 

Iraq a 'work of art in progress' says US general after 49 die

Julian Borger in Washington
Friday November 3, 2006

'An American general in Baghdad called Iraq a "work of art" in progress yesterday in one of the most extraordinary attempts by the US military leadership to put a positive spin on the worsening violence.

 
from the ABC ….

PM to announce $60m for clean energy projects

Prime Minister John Howard will announce more Government funding for clean energy projects, valued at $60 million.

The Federal Government has been facing a barrage of questions this week about climate change, amid the dire prediction about global warming in a British report by economist Sir Nicholas Stern.

‘While everyone is being distracted by the war in Iraq, Tom Cruise's impending wedding and George Clooney's deep concern for the people in the Darfur region of Sudan, the knuckleheads in Washington are laying the groundwork for a sure-enough war – a war we won't win.

The latest step was Little Emperor George's proclamation that nothing will be allowed to keep us from the militarization of space. The emperor and his crazy neo-conservative advisers apparently want to conquer not only the world, but outer space, too.

from our lovely Auntie …..

Developing countries must do more to reduce emissions: Costello

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello says there is no point in Australia reducing its greenhouse gas emissions when China and India are such major global polluters.

Mr Costello is reacting to the UK's Stern report on global warming.

from Auntie ABC …..

School chaplain call a 'cheap political stunt'

The Federal Government's plan to fund chaplains in public and private schools has been described as a "cheap political stunt".

Prime Minister John Howard says the new system will be voluntary, and not restricted to any one religion. But even so, the Greens Senator Kerry Nettle has attacked the idea.

from our ABC …..

Bush dissatisfied with 'Iraq situation', urges patience

By Washington correspondent Kim Landers

‘The US President George W Bush has expressed concern about the increased bloodshed in Iraq which has left 93 American soldiers dead so far this month.

His latest comments come with his party facing a struggle to retain control over Congress amid widespread voter dissatisfaction at his handling of the Iraq war.

‘With a flip of the wrist, Bush signed into law the anti-Habeas Corpus, pro-torture law (cleverly repackaged as the Military Commissions Act of 2006), signaling with it the end of American democracy.

For the Bush family it was simply another day - like any other day - for the entitled nobility, who take from others that which does not belong to them.

 
20 October 2006

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
ROYAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB, SYDNEY

JOURNALIST:

Mr Howard, General Cosgrove says there's been an energising of the jihadist movement through the protracted war in Iraq, that's a direct quote.  Do you agree with that?

from the SMH ...

Alan Ramsey

A few weeks ago, when John Howard and Kim Beazley, like schoolboys, were trying to outdo each other on "Australian values", a friend asked if I knew of the "must display" poster Brendan Nelson had been responsible for as John Howard's education tsar before Howard moved him, nine months ago, into Defence, to make life as miserable for the military as he had done for the nation's education industry. I didn't, so my friend mailed me one.

 
from the sydney morning herald ……

‘Richard Woolcott, a retired foreign affairs chief who advised seven prime ministers, launched a sweeping attack on the federal government, saying that Australian democracy was not functioning as it should.

"In 2006 our established ideals of decency, fairness, tolerance, justice and truth in government are under challenge," he said.

 
from the ABC …..

Howard urges calm as drought takes hold

Prime Minister John Howard says Australians need to keep a sense of perspective amid growing concerns about the drought.

The Federal Government today released the first stage of a national assessment of Australia's water resources, which found there is considerable room for improvement.

‘Here is the great discovery of the little man who doesn’t read. America is not the land of the free, nor of the brave, nor of the politically sentient. Nor is it a country of laws or of principles. It is a country of those who just do as they want. A president can do anything he chooses. Who will tell him no? Nobody has.

Today there is speculation as to whether he will make war, perhaps nuclear war, on Iran. The universal assumption seems to be that if he wants to, he will just do it. The legislature, already having given up its authority to declare war, seems to regard the military as the private guard of the president. Is it not interesting that one dim, pugnacious, ignorant little man can bring on nuclear war all by himself?