Whoops, another contract for Tenix... onya Reefeee...wonder how his second job out frm the Defence Ministry is going.  Maybe It's Time for Labor and the Democrats to match the current rounds of contracts to those of a couple of years back  (why didn't you mention the Kinaird Report Robert,? it was in your notes!).

‘Nobody but Americans celebrate Thanksgiving.  

It is reserved by history and the intent of “the founders

Published in today's Adelaide Advertiser, written in response to the front page story yesterday. 

[excerpt] 

Premier Mike Rann wants Parliament's Upper House abolished and will ask South Australians to bring about the greatest electoral system change in the state's history in a 2010 referendum.

Labor, frustrated by legislative delays and the watering down of new laws in the Legislative Council, will begin moves to get rid of it after the March 18 election that polls suggest it is likely to win. Mr Rann said yesterday there would then be four years for the issue to be debated.

On Monday of this week, Lateline’s Tony Jones hosted a report by journalist Tom Iggulden called Homegrown Terror Attack Likely: Expert. 

The “expert

As Sydney Airport announces a trial of equipment by U.K. company Qinetiq, a financial traill is revealed that runs from the most famous plane crash in history to the runways of New South Wales.

Qinetiq, the privatised arm of the UK Ministry of Defence, have, in a financial arrangement considered as ethically questionable, the international investment firm Carlyle.  Qinetiq's wholly owned-US subsidiary build the Talon War Robot being used by the US Army in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The firm has been engaged in South Australian trials of its Zephyr 3 Unmanned Air Vehicle.  It also has a 25 year evaluation contract with the UK's MoD worth approximately $A13 billion. (read at the end of here)
 

While Rumsfeld, Zoelleck, Hill and Downer were "doing lunch" in Adelaide last week, a friend of mine, just to see if he could, came out from the cafe in the adjoining building to the town hall into a laneway that he estimates would have been about fifteen feet from the hall's main dining room. 

Eventually one of the three hundred police parked out the back came and asked him what he was doing, laughed when told it all looked like "a policeman's picnic.

My friend had simply carried out the exercise to prove a point.  He was not searched or even asked for his details.

’In a previous article in "The Independent Australian", Issue 5, 2005, I compared the Eureka Stockade of 1854 and showed how the death of many of the miners at the Stockade at least led in the long run to democratic reforms. I also showed that now, in this year of 2005, the democratic gains of the Stockade, including such rights, which the Eurekans and their democratic heirs, expected would remain in place, such as trial by jury, innocent until proven guilty, the duty of the State to prove guilt, freedom for arbitrary arrest, and the accountability of government to the citizen, to mention but some of these rights, had now been destroyed. In a mood of Doublethink politicians still use the word "democratic", but it has become an empty, hypocritical symbol used to lull the sheeple into capitulation to the rise of globalism and the extinction of personal freedom. That move towards personal slavery, of which David Hicks, is only one symbol, is continuing to mount, and shows little sign of stopping. As a proponent of civil liberty, naturally I am concerned, as all citizens should be, unless they have been hypnotized into a mood of apathy. 

‘Surely the most telling indictment of the lack of fair trial inherent in the proposed military commission process is that no US citizen can be subject to it because of the US constitutional guarantee of a right to a fair trial. John Walker Lindh was whisked out of Cuba to face trial before US civilian courts, as was his right. The Bush Administration consistently rails against the International Criminal Court because it allegedly fails to meet the necessary standards of fair trial guaranteed to all US citizens.  

I found this on Utterly Boring today.  Some days I know the feeling.  Click here and enjoy.

 Thanks to ABC-891 Adelaide's David Bevan for mentioning this pic on air.. made my day!

‘President Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a "Top Secret" No 10 memo reveals.  

But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash.  

A source said: "There's no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it." Al-Jazeera is accused by the US of fuelling the Iraqi insurgency. The attack would have led to a massacre of innocents on the territory of a key ally, enraged the Middle East and almost certainly have sparked bloody retaliation.’  

Thanks to Rove MacManus (as President Bush) for the title.

Trevor isn't with us. Trevor is against us-
From out of his playground, Trevor has fenced us !
First thing in the morning is
when Trevor looks more scarier.
We will Win The War On Trevor,
and his faithful dog, his terrier.

Where is Trevor hiding?
No-one knows for certain.
Is he under the bed? Is he in the fridge?
Look- he's hiding behind the curtain !
Curse the day that Trevor's mother
let his father marry 'er!
We will Win the War on Trevor,
and his faithful dog, his terrier

‘Among the fundamental conceits of the architects of the Bush administration's war on terrorism is that heavy-handed interrogation is useful, even necessary, to get any information that will protect the American people, and that such interrogation techniques are devoid of negative consequences in dealing with real or suspected terrorists.  

One way this notion has played out in practice is the CIA's use of "extraordinary rendition," in which terror suspects overseas are kidnapped and delivered to third-party countries for interrogation - which, not uncharacteristically, includes some measure of torture, and sometimes fatal torture. 

Adelaide, the Australian home of Star Wars, Halliburton, Global Hawk and the Joint Strike Fighter Project, has begun building a global-standard data transfer system that will allow local activities to be co-ordinated internationally.

Today's Adelaide Advertiser announces the commencement and construction of a major fibreoptic network, connencting defence, science and educational facilities at speeds enabling synchronisation with global projects.

[excerpt] 

SABRENet will cut the time to transfer a terabyte of data to just 17 minutes, compared with about three months using business broadband.

‘Last week's events give further proof of what the Right do best.  

They divert and distract our attention from what they are up to with wars, and rumours of wars. 

Last week should have seen an assessment of Whitlam's policies and his legacy. Free university education, a rich robust ABC, an empowered, resurgent Aboriginal minority, an empowered union movement, an artistic renaissance, a new film industry and so on should have been discussed and praised and criticised.