US President George W Bush found himself almost wistful, conjuring a rocking-chair moment at his Texas ranch when he will reconcile his unpopularity with the knowledge that he honoured his own personal principles about the war.

In a notable departure from his typical approach, during a White House news conference beamed out to the world, the president acknowledged the personal toll of sticking with his beliefs when they were so profoundly in opposition to those of the American people.

from the Centre for American Progress …..

from Crikey …..

Global warming, big oil and silicone breasts: the links

Ben Oquist, political consultant and former Greens staffer, writes:

‘The ABC's screening and treatment of The Great Global Warming Swindle documentary would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.

’Nowhere in the world, has one print media played such a dominant role in people’s lives than the Murdoch Press in Australia. Supported by the Government’s policies of serving big business and hunger for power, Australia’s print media has become the most monopolistic in the ‘Western World’. Print media monopoly constitutes great danger to free thought and democracy, a frightening reminder of fascist dictatorships in Europe.

‘If the global policing, base-building, corporate capitalists cry that if we leave now, even more innocent people will die, just remember that "more" is an awful big number. Americans have already killed a million Iraqis and Afghanis, and displaced nearly three million. And this doesn’t count the 500,000 dead Iraqi children our government justified as "worth" a decade of economic sanctions.

‘Pope Benedict XVI reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches and Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation.

The statement brought swift criticism from Protestant leaders. "It makes us question whether we are indeed praying together for Christian unity," said the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, a fellowship of 75 million Protestants in more than 100 countries.

‘The commonly accepted knowledge in the administration and in the Pentagon is that this is a religious war, that these men blow themselves up for God. Not at all, says Brzezinski: "These are political questions. They may seen religious, but in reality they are directly related to our policies. Look at who they are against: the U.S., the Brits, the Israelis. We are seen as the new British colonialists, just as in Vietnam we were seen as the continuation of French colonialism."

Fifteen American soldiers watched over a man, shackled to a seat in the cargo bay of a C-17 Globemaster - the Air Force workhorse that usually moves Abrams tanks, Chinook helicopters or infantry vehicles. Wearing goggles that shut out all light, a soundproof headset and a mask that covered his mouth so he could not speak, spit or bite, the prisoner arrived at Ramstein Air Force Base in Kaiserslautern, Germany, under the tightest security. The plane had burned through 36,000 gallons of jet fuel and had refueled in flight. During the seventeen-hour ride, the prisoner was provided with neither food nor water. Nor was he allowed to stretch his legs or relieve himself.

‘It could be a scene from Kafka or Brazil. Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked "top secret." And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls.

You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means. Then, two months later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and orders you to forget you ever saw it.

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming

‘The Bushies, it seems, like starting fights, but they don’t believe in paying any of the cost of those fights or bearing any of the risks. Above all, they don’t believe that they or their friends should face any personal or professional penalties for trivial sins like distorting intelligence to get America into an unnecessary war, or totally botching that war’s execution.

Today is bushit’s birthday

The Houston Chronicle's Julie Mason writes that Bush's 61 years old physique is showing the demands of the office. "For Bush, his cumulative burden, with perhaps the Iraq war being most prominent - takes a heavy toll that is showing on his face & also in his demeanour, which is less jokey and more testy than previously.

from the centre for american progress …..

The prime rattus, on the brink of Australia's commitment of forces to Iraq, in conversation with 3AW host Neil Mitchell.

MITCHELL: Prime Minister, has oil got anything to do with this conflict?

PRIME MINISTER: No I don’t believe for a moment it has.

07.02.2003

This today from the online pages of The Australian:

Securing oil a factor for war in Iraq, says Nelson