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Blogsthe road to guantanamo .....
from the Sydney Morning Herald ….. ‘Concern is growing among the
Coalition back bench over the future of David Hicks, who has been held at
Guantanamo Bay for more than five years. The Liberal senator Russell Trood said yesterday there was concern about how long it had taken Mr Hicks, yet to be charged under the new US military commission process, to receive justice.’
the big thieves hang the little ones .....
‘He might have lied his country into one of the most foolhardy wars ever schemed into existence. He might have thrown away billions of dollars of other people’s money, and thousands of lives and limbs belonging to other people’s children. He might have played a central role in bringing death to hundreds of thousands and disruption and destruction to millions in order to indulge a personal fantasy about taking out Doctor Evil. He might have declared the "right" to wage pre-emptive war and endorsed the "right" to torture out of one side of his mouth while This Country Does Not Torture was coming out the other. He might have resurrected the spectre of a nuclear arms race. He might have bullied his public into a state of political paralysis, while alienating an astonishing share of the rest of the world. He might have stained an already be-spattered election process and spat on an already be-spittled Constitution. He might have treated one of the most traumatic events in the history of his nation as an occasion to advance a crass political agenda. But Ted Haggard did none of these things – beside the clay-footed calamities of the Bush Administration, his dabbling in drugs and prostitution looks like community service. At least the pastor’s mistakes led to an immediate dismissal, and a frank apology. "I am a deceiver and a liar," Haggard said. In contrast, presidential mistakes seem to bring consequences down on everyone save their perpetrator.
trousered .....
from The new York Times ….. Rumsfeld Resigns and President
Bush Pledges to Work With Democrats By Sheryl Gay Stolberg & Jim Rutenberg President Bush portrayed the
election results as a cumulative "thumping" of
Umbrellas Up! PM Howard On Adelaide Radio TodayThe Prime Minister was busy on Adelaide this morning puttting up an umbrella to shield his electoral hopes from the downfall of the Republicans. Speaking on ABC-891 today MrHoward explained that Republicans, given their financially conservative nature, stayed at home in protest of the Bush Administration's fiscal deficit, and that this was a big difference between the two countries. "What has happened at the ballot box in America has not changed the situation on the ground in Iraq" Mr Howard said Detaching himself from Bush's recent comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam, the Prime Minister explained that Irraq couldn't be compared to Vietnam as "The judgement in history in relation to Vietnam is that it was a civil war."
necks please .....
The Editor, Donald Rumsfeld will certainly do better justice to an orange jumpsuit, than George Bush did to a flight suit (‘Rumsfeld resigns in poll fallout’, Herald, November 9).
defending our way of life .....
But the UK, working with the US, China and Russia, has
spent the past week trying to prevent negotiations from being opened. Perhaps
this is unsurprising. Most of the cluster bombs dropped during the past 40
years have been delivered by Britain's two principal allies - the US and Israel
- in the "war on terror". And the UK used hundreds of thousands of
them during the two Gulf wars.
the price of aspirational prosperity .....
shameless .....
8 November 2006 TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER JOURNALIST: Do you think there is a case though for lifting the level of foreign aid? PRIME MINISTER: I think there is a case for increasing it, which we have done. We have increased it a lot and the increases have yet to be paid, so let's just, at this stage, leave it on that basis.
a small but certain step .....
hidden malevolence .....
‘During national crises, the United States government often reacts overzealously. It takes actions that curtail the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the people. These laws, executive orders and government measures have been in reaction to public fears and public demands for a swift response. Yet the flames of fear have also been fanned for political advantage. Federal agencies have acted to intimidate, harass, alienate, deport, and silence organizations and individuals. Historically, dissenting voices included advocates as diverse as labor and peace activists, immigrant-rights groups, political opponents, and civil-rights leaders.
something heroic .....
John
Howard
saving the jellyfish .....
‘Every single commercial
fishery in the world will be wiped before 2050 and the oceans may never recover
if over-fishing continues at its current rate, a four-year scientific
investigation has found. "By the time my
nine-year-old son is my age, there would be no wild seafood left," said
Emmett Duffy, a scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences in the
United States.
a chinese christmas .....from the BBC ….. Giant Christmas goods ship docks ‘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 Gus: this is ugly consumerism that may make the Chinese headquarters laugh a bit...
move over saddam .....
‘On November 14 a group of
lawyers and other experts will come before the German federal prosecutor and
ask him to open a criminal investigation targeting Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto
Gonzales and other key Bush Administration figures for war crimes. The recent
passage of the Military Commissions Act provides a central argument for the
legal action, under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction: It demonstrates the
intent of the Bush Administration to immunize itself legally from prosecution
in the United States, even for the most serious crimes.
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