from the ABC …..

Andrews brushes off workplace survey 

The Federal Workplace Relations
Minister Kevin Andrews has dismissed a survey that shows that penalty
rates have been removed from more than 60 per cent of agreements under the
new WorkChoices legislation. 

The Office of the Employment
Advocate surveyed 250 employers and found that 63 per cent of new
agreements had no penalty rates, and a similar number had removed leave
loading. 

‘The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC)
bans the development, production, stockpiling, acquisition and retention of
microbial or other biological agents or toxins, in types and in quantities that
have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes.
The Convention also bans weapons, equipment or means of delivery designed to
use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict. 

‘US antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan denounced the
Australian government for its participation in the Iraq war and called for the
release of David Hicks from Guantánamo Bay and the closure of the notorious US
military prison camp at a demonstration in Melbourne last Friday. 

Sheehan rejected US and
Australian government claims that Guantánamo inmates “did not deserve civil
rights” because they were “illegal enemy combatants”. The four-and-a-half-year
incarceration of Hicks, in violation of Geneva Conventions and his basic legal
rights, has been fully endorsed by the Howard government. 

This is the Leunig cartoon that the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald refused to publish.

Editorial "sensitivity" or political censorship? 

‘We have a Congress that jumped on the Executive’s
war-making bandwagon and allowed the Executive to go to war without exercising
its own legislative authority by questioning WMD claims that were bushwa. 

We have a Congress that, as
occurred before with Viet Nam, lacks the brains and guts to exercise its own
power to stop the war. 

We have a Congress that has
itself done nothing effective – zippo – to stop the Executive torture that
violates Congress’ own anti-torture statute, that has done nothing to stop
rendering for the purpose of torture or to force the closure of secret prisons
in awful foreign countries, a Congress that wouldn’t even dream of – and surely
does not want to so much as mention – exercising its power to curb these
illegalities by impeaching and convicting their perpetrators. 

‘President Bush’s new nominee for Treasury
Secretary, Goldman Sachs Chairman Henry M. Paulson Jr., not only endorses the
Kyoto Protocol to limit greenhouse emissions, but argues that the United
States’ failure to enact Kyoto undermines the competitiveness of U.S.
companies. 

Here’s a
statement from the Nature Conservancy, where Paulson serves as chairman of the board: 

 
once a pisspot …. always a
pisspot …..

May Mars lose this
fundamentalist power-drunk disciple and may Bacchus welcome him again...

 
Cole questions AWB's document
compliance ….. 

The oil-for-food Commissioner
Terence Cole says he is not fully satisfied that AWB has handed over all
the documents that his inquiry has demanded. 

Commissioner Cole is heading the
inquiry investigating almost $300 million worth of payments made by wheat
exporter AWB to the former Iraqi regime in contravention of UN sanctions
against Iraq. 

Regime Change on the planet Arrakis... ring any bells?  When the news
about the President Bush's failure to control Iraq after the occupation
came about, any reader of Frank Herbert's novel Dune would not be
suprised.  Herbert explained the ethical nobility implied in the
Islamic approach to battle.  His freedom fighters, the Feydakin,
believed that sacrificing one life to ensure the deaths of many of the
enemy was an extremely sensible and honourable way to fight a war.  The
higher the number of enemy deaths taken in an attack, the greater was
the revererance bestowed on the self-sacrificing soldier

It's of interest that while companies from countries such as China,
Germany and Canada were not allowed to tender for Iraq reconstruction
contracts, our little troubled neighbour, the Solomon Islands was given
permission to bid.

Sweden, Ireland, Austria, and Finland, all neutral countries, were also cut off from the spoils. According to Bloomberg, of the 15 European Union states, only six are approved.
They are the U.K., Italy, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, and
Denmark. All have sent soldiers or police forces to Iraq.

buzzflash “memorial day” editorial ….. 

Alas, the massacre at Haditha -
in which women, children and men - were executed by U.S. Marines will be the My
Lai for Iraq. 

That means war hawks will argue
that the Marines were under intense pressure - which they were - and these
"sort of things" are to be expected in war. They will excuse the
horrific actions as an inevitable outgrowth of a war without rules. 

 
‘People tell me that Saddam Hussein is a very bad man.
Probably he is. Ok, really he is. He is egregiously immoral and ghastly. Should
he be put on trial? Can such a trial be fair? This is where it gets
complicated. 

If all heads of state who commit
violent acts were to be tried as criminals, we would live in a very different
world. It would be a world without governments as we know them. Let's say that
you like that idea. You might argue that lopping off Saddam's head is as good a
place to start as any.’ 

Is the Howard government
cynically supporting a change in government in East Timor to further avoid
Australia’s obligations to the fledgling democracy? 

The little rodent has no right
to be calling for a “more compliant leader / government” in East Timor. 

Like it or not, Prime Minister
Alkatiri was democratically elected, with the Fretilin Party winning more than
80% of the popular vote at late last year. 

 
‘US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister
Tony Blair, whose public support is waning due to the Iraqi War, admitted in a
Washington meeting that they had made some crucial mistakes during the war but
maintained they “did the right thing” in overthrowing Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Bush said his biggest mistake was
the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, and added that he himself learned some
lessons on “tough talk.” 

‘"At a joint White House press conference May 16 with
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, as the two men stood side by side, Bush
slipped in a couple of zingers about Howard’s bald head and supposed
homeliness," recalls Parry by way of illustration. 

"Bush joshed: 'Somebody said
"You and John Howard appear to be so close, don’t you have any
differences?" And I said, "yes, he doesn’t have any hair."'
Getting a round of laughs from reporters, Bush moved on to his next joke: 'That’s
what I like about John Howard,' Bush said. 'He may not be the prettiest person
on the block, but when he tells you something you can take it to the bank.'