from Crikey .....

WA cops get frisky

The Western Warrior writes:

Ah WA, you little police state, you.

New legislation, set to be introduced into state Parliament in next month, means police can now stop and search people and vehicles in designated areas without having to prove reasonable suspicion that a crime has taken place. Yes, that's right, WA Premier Colin Barnett has proposed laws with the express purpose of stopping, searching and interrogating folk for no reason at all.

Pointing an accusing finger at the US, the Palestinians yesterday said Washington's backing for Israeli refusal to halt Jewish settlement expansion had killed any hope of reviving peace negotiations soon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, buoyed by new-found support from the Obama administration, urged the Palestinians to "get a grip" and drop their settlement freeze precondition for restarting talks suspended since December.

from Crikey ....

Drugs expert shown the door for disagreeing with government

Greg Barns writes:

from Crikey .....

Mungo: Tough stance on boat people borders on the ridiculous

Mungo MacCallum writes:

"Border protection" - the very phrase is ominous.

Former Howard government treasurer Peter Costello is to be appointed to the federal government's Future Fund Board of Guardians.

Mr Costello was treasurer from 1996 until the coalition lost the 2007 federal election to Labor.

The announcement of Mr Costello's appointment comes after former opposition leader Brendan Nelson was appointed as an Australian ambassador to the European Union in September.

'To have the experience of someone like Mr Costello on the Future Fund board will be of great benefit,' Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said in a statement.

Next time you see a junkie sprawled at the curb in the downtown of your nearest city, or read about someone who died of a heroin overdose, just imagine a big yellow sign posted next to him or her saying: "Your Federal Tax Dollars at Work."

During the Vietnam War, the CIA, and its Air America airline front-company, were neck deep in the Southeast Asian heroin trade. At the time, it was Southeast Asia, not Afghanistan, that was the leading producer and exporter of opium, mostly to the US, where there was a resulting heroin epidemic.

Today, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which, despite including some important changes to the military commissions at Guantánamo, are still a far cry from restoring U.S. credibility when it comes to due process and international law. In a press release, the ACLU called on the Obama administration to "shut down for good" the commissions, "as they remain a second class system of justice that cannot shed the shameful legacy of Guantánamo and all it stands for."

Yes, I am a survivor, for I have managed to survive all the scary accounts of the Holocaust: the one about the soap (1), the one about the lamp shades, the one about the camps, the mass shooting, the one about the gas (2) and the one about the death march (3). I just managed to survive them all.

"I promise that if I am elected, Iran will not acquire nuclear arms, and this implies everything necessary to carry this out," Benjamin Netanyahu said before the elections. In other speeches Netanyahu described Iran's nuclear program as "an existential threat for Israel," and warned that it risked a second Holocaust.

Benjamin Netanyahu

April, 2009

A day after an effigy of the Grim Reaper stalked his speech in Edmonton, Canada, former President George W. Bush was on the defensive over his personal salvation.

Speaking to a $400-a-seat crowd in Montreal, Bush told the roughly 1,000 attendees that his presidential decision-making was principled and moral.

"I am confident that I made decisions based on principle, that I made calls as best I could, and I did not sell my soul," Bush said.

Tony Blair had to be rescued by bodyguards as he visited a West Bank mosque yesterday when a Palestinian man approached him shouting: 'You are a terrorist!'

The security breach occurred as the former prime minister was visiting an ancient mosque during an official trip to the city of Hebron.

The protester, a local man carrying a bag who was praying when Mr Blair and his entourage entered, was backed into a corner by guards who tried to shut him up.

from Crikey .....

Tax Office won't prosecute Australia's worst tax cheat

Tax consultant and former ATO audit manager Chris Seage writes:

With US and NATO commanders on the battlefield of Afghanistan calling for more troops, how best to defeat the Taliban is being hotly debated by Washington's policy-makers and their media pundits.

Yet, nowhere are the types of questions posed by Arundhati Roy (the acclaimed Indian novelist and social activist) on a recent visit to Pakistan to be heard in the mainstream US discourse. Clarifying the purpose of her trip during an address at the Karachi Press Club, she stated, "I'm here to understand what you mean when you say Taliban...Do you mean a militant? Do you mean an ideology? Exactly what is it that is being fought?"

President Obama promised to usher in a new era of government transparency when he was sworn into office nine months ago.

On January 21, Obama signed an executive order instructing all federal agencies and departments to "adopt a presumption in favour" of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and promised to make the federal government more transparent.